Learning about self defense, martial arts in the "end of the world"

[Wandering Star]

Session 7 November 1994

Q: (L) In a general sense, is there some negative karma involved in committing suicide?

A: There can be negative karma involved with many things.

Q: (L) What about the death penalty?

A: Specify.

Q: (L) Is putting a criminal to death the equivalent of reducing society to the level of the criminal?

A: You are all put to death.

Q: (L) What do you mean?

A: In one way or another.

Q: (L) Well, is there any negative karma on society, the judge, the jury, the executioner, if a criminal is brought to trial, found guilty of a heinous crime and then put to death?

A: What about war? What is better? This is open because all are murderers and suicides. It is the supreme lesson you all must learn before you can graduate to ethereal existence. Your thinking is too simplified.

 

[Ursus Minor]

I have thought about self defense quite a lot lately.

I think the Buddhist stance on (killing in) in self defense is preventing others from doing unwholesome deeds.
In fighting back against attackers we might actually do a service to others...

On the practical side of things I may accidentally take someone's life or health by overreacting in shock.
By surviving I may have the chance to do more service to others though.

So tamed was I that I used to think that doing no harm to others was more important than free will!
Defending myself is exercising my free will by stopping others to exercise their free will to break mine.

 

[loreta]

Be strong, alert, try to be in a mental equilibrium, have 8 eyes instead of 2, don't be scare, and have with you a pepper spray.

Ah, and be curious, the receipt to enjoy these very interesting times.

 

[Seppo Ilmarinen]

Martial arts can be useful, but in a way how others here said; gaining more body-awareness, better coordination and understanding of your surroundings. It wouldn't be good approach to have kind of mind set where "others are out to get you" (by preparing to "kill the aggressor"), even if things would have gone way worse from current situation. In that scenario, you would want to focus finding the most trustworthy, decent people, and build the community again together.

You can go through in your mind how you would react, in such very unprobable situation, where someone attacks you physically. Best self-defence is always to flee, and normally there's a lot of room to de-escalate aggressive situation through your own behavior (by being calm but firm, not doing anything provoking etc.). Often aggressive person is under influence of alcohol or some other substance, yet still needs some justification (however irrational) for his violence, e.g similar response for his own verbal provocation, so taking into consideration these factors goes long way, imo.

 

[biala84]

Me i was also many times skirt, before i heard about a wave . Why do You want to kill other to protect Yourself or others, i imagine that this is not possible :) Even if You have around ten angry people who want to kill You, If you start to be like them You imagine one of You for example will die, so always calm down no matter what, that\s what i'm learning now, because i feel will be very useful B-) If anyone here is having problems to take decisions also my only advice can be You need go to go where the light is. What does it mean? Does it mean that if You are talking with someone and is coming a moment that You need to take a decision, many times i didn't know what to do and in the end i get wrong decision so i was wondering how to get there to take a good decisions? I think very usefull can be seeing aura :) So now wherever i go i see the people who talk they are like shinning when they are talking so i know i can take good decision :) I know will come time when there will be no time to think which decision to take so that's why i get a help and i'm sharing with You :)

 

[Ursus Minor]

[H]owever, personally, I just think why even bother to fight. I mean, it all ends in the complete destruction of our society anyway, one way or another. Neither me nor my family will gain any kind of real protection from the madness or even extend our life for that long. The only way to escape the chaos or get some sort of peace is by dying. In a situation where there is a complete breakdown of society, you kill today, but you will have to kill tomorrow and the day after. And really, you're only earning a few more days or perhaps weeks of survival. If you're really lucky, perhaps months, but for what exactly? To survive even more misery or suffering? There won't be any safe place, anywhere in the world. And it isn't like WWI or WWII where eventually the war stopped. From the way, I look at it, I'm already dead. So why prolong, what is already done? I know a true STO is supposed to do the right things even if there's no reward, but oh well...

Being a bit of a pessimist myself I can relate to your train of thought.

Yes, the future looks bleak. A possible breakdown of society might actually bring out the good in many people, though. Emergency situations might bring people together rather than go for each others' throats.
You might be coming into contact with neighbors you had never talked to before.

The C's advice is: "Anticipate not!"

There might be a chance that we're drawing the kind of future toward us that we're anticipating.
Anticipating means limiting the creativity of the Universe, or so I think.

Don't work yourself into a major depression...

 

[Matthew]

Have the C's not said that it is best to do something if one feels a strong inclination to do so? So if one has a strong desire or intuition to do something the individual would be would well served to do that? I did Aikido and Tai Chi when I was younger but have no desire to return to them or any other martial arts so I shan't be doing so. However, if someone else is strongly drawn to learning self-defence/martial arts then it may well be right for them to do so. I am not sure we should generalise about these matters. Everyone's path is unique if only subtly so.

osit

 

[Josi]

For me a martial art is very good for exercise, balance, coordination, discipline, perseverance. Not only are you learning self-defense, but it may be in defense of another. Along with the training comes self control, and only in an extreme situation would you use full force. There are many techniques that can be used to subdue someone to keep them from hurting you, someone else, and even themselves, so killing does not have to be the focus.
m2c

 

[Pecha]

Probably not. Certainly no more than the usual skills you might want to acquire in normal times. Awareness is the most important defense in any situation. So I'd focus on improving that, assuming there are some areas of weakness.

I remember the Cs talking about when surrounded by wolves in the forest they said something along the likes of being calm and having no fear. If someone can find that part of the transcripts, it would be greatly appreciated. When madness sets in, people may behave like animals but hopefully it doesn't have to come to that. This also reminds me of this scene (warning there is some violence) from the most recent Alien movie. The neomorph didn't attack David probably because he didn't mirror any bad vibes.

These are just my 2 cents, so take with a grain of salt.

 

[Nienna]

I remember the Cs talking about when surrounded by wolves in the forest they said something along the likes of being calm and having no fear. If someone can find that part of the transcripts, it would be greatly appreciated.

From Session 971007:

A: As you, yourself, know, especially with
one of elevated psychic abilities such as
yourself, intuition plays a role in forming the
foundation of answers to questions; answers
sought. Ability, as is often stated, to get "to
the bottom" of an issue, is very greatly
dependent upon, first and foremost, one's
intuition. You have very strong intuition.
Q: I have TWO intuitions, in regard to this,
and I am torn between the two.
A: We will address that momentarily, but
first we must get over one hurdle before
attempting to get over the next. Your intuition
is very strong, yes?
Q: Yes.
A: Okay, now picture yourself in a forest
clearing. In that clearing you are surrounded
by a pack of wolves. These wolves, in your
mind, represent a blockage. The blockage is
emotion. Emotion is a necessary component
of life in 3rd density. It can be of great
assistance, and it can also be a hindrance.
Normally, in critical situations closest to the
3rd density individual's existence, these
emotions serve temporarily as hindrances.
So, we ask you to picture these wolves
surrounding you. And, as wolves will do
when addressed in a calm voice, when one
takes a deep breath internally and externally,
and asks the wolves in a calming, reassuring
voice, to simply go back into the forest, that
all is well, then the wolves turn and retreat,
as wolves will do. This removes the
hindering aspect of emotion, which allows
intuition to become stronger. Then, in turn,
one's intuitions are not "torn." Do you see
this effect?
Q: Yes.

 

[Dirgni]

These are my 2 cents.

In 'normal' times you do not want to be appear to be a victim as attackers are looking out for victims. Attackers prefer to attack someone, who is likely to lose when being attacked by an attacker. When an attacker assumes that you will fight back and will hurt the attacker, he may go and look for someone else.

When the attacker wants to attack you specifically he may look out for a situation where he can overcome you. In this situation the attacker has the surprise on his side. In this situation you have to fight the surprise and switch to fighting mode but the attacker is prepared and was chosing the time of his attack. Before you are ready the attacker could have hit you already a couple of time. So on top of everything you have to stomach that you are really hit. Martial arts may or may not help you in these kind of situations.

Martial arts may help you to appear / to be more self-confident. Martial arts will not help you when you are one against many - like a gang - who decided to attack you. The Martial arts, I came in contact with, teach more not to hurt your training partner (because you may want to train with him next time again).

At the very few critical incidents, which could have escalated, it helped me more to be calm but be prepared to defend myself than to be aggressive. Me being calm 'convinced' my potential attackers to calm down themselves.

For myself I would prefer not to have a death on my conscience.

You do not know how you will react when experiencing extreme situations.

It may be wise be aware of critical situations when they happen and decide not to go where they will happen but to be somewhere else. The easiest way to win an fight is not have one IMO.

But when you cannot avoid being attacked physically try to fight back as this may convince your attacker that you are not a good victim. Yo may or may not shoo the attacker away this way but it helps you to overcome this kind of experience more easily afterwards. Even if you are in an situation, where you cannot strike back due to some reason or other, imagining to strike back may help you to process it.

Guerilla tactics seem to be the most effective way to handle the bad guys during very bad times. But the bad guys often had a way to revenge themselves and killing the inhabitants of your village, your neighbors, your friends, your family or your dearly loved ones.

You also have to keep in mind that it may years to have a good repertoire in your chosen Martial arts and you have to keep practicing it.

When looking back what I know about certain periods of history it is good to have a group, who is helping each other, watching each other's back, taking care.

It is good to be aware when there could be potential serious situations, see them coming and be able to choose to avoid them or to handle them. Knowledge protects.

 

[Ursus Minor]

When looking back what I know about certain periods of history it is good to have a group, who is helping each other, watching each other's back, taking care.

It is good to be aware when there could be potential serious situations, see them coming and be able to choose to avoid them or to handle them. Knowledge protects.

I think everybody has to come up with solutions tailored for him/or herself.

General advice being proffered like "do this or that to him and run away as fast as you can" might be very appealing to a certain age bracket but imagine a middle-aged guy running away from a twenty-year-old knife attacker.
Nothing doing.

Between dusk and dawn a very intense tactical flashlight in conjunction with pepper spray might be indicated.
(And probably some nasty kicks with your boots)

City dwellers should be aware that most attacks do not occur in dark and lonely streets.
Muggings can take place right in the middle of a large crowd downtown.

A relatively new development are extremely violent underage girl groups "collecting" expensive cell phones from other minors or senior citizens.

I think it really boils down to "always expect attack".

Activate central locking when you drive downtown. A red light can invite certain specimens to haul you out of your car and speed away.

With more and more people becoming triggered and irritated it can be reckless to look people in the eye, especially with so many foreign cultures on hand. But looking away may also be considered unfriendly.

So you've got to act as casual as possible.

 

[Ursus Minor]

The Pocket Shot

Sling shots are sports equipment and much too inconvenient to pull out of your jacket pocket.

These "Pocket Shots" however, while they may be low on accuracy, should be easy to handle in an emergency.
I wonder if they are even recognizable as a weapon.

At short distance they will be accurate enough.
Contrary to the sling shot they can at least hold five or six bullets.

If operated quickly enough this thing might be the answer to knife attacks.

 

[monotonic]

I would think the first thing to do would be to get rid of misconceptions about what real combat situations are really like. You can train to fight, but most likely your teachers have little or no actual experience outside of the ring. If you don't have good judgement you may overreact.

Trying to use a slingshot in a knife attack seems silly to me. At best you may get them to leave the area. But aiming fast enough requires them to be quite far away and high skill with the slingshot.

It strikes me that it is just not feasible to expect many of us to become proficient in self-defense at the level being discussed here. Perhaps instead of focusing on the last resort, maybe it would be better to develop a more realistic worldview by continuous input of information, so that for the most part we can head off dangers before it gets to that point?

 

[Woodsman]

Jordan Peterson mentions martial arts here, (in regard to integrating your shadow):

In a different interview, he states in a manner I found more clear, that the most effective people are also dangerous people, who choose not to act on their ability to inflict damage.

But in terms of straight up learning how to fight in order to survive some kind of alien zombie apocalypse? I think that's an over-simple concept. The world doesn't run on video game rules. I suspect if you find a good martial arts teacher and apply yourself in earnest, you will wind up learning how to not fight to great effect.