Are they talking about you?

If you haven't seen this story yet, you need to.

Sometimes science is a bit slow to catch on to things that the "primitives" have known for generations!

New Home

Tracking & Awareness has a new home!

Check it out--www.tracking-and-awareness.com

I will be cross-posting with this blog for awhile until the bugs get worked out.

Awareness Meditation

In my quest for developing enhanced awareness skills, I read a very eclectic range of books. Last week I tripped over a unique title in the library--Discovering Jewish Meditation by Nan Fink Gefen. Most meditation models are similar, but this one looked unique, so I checked the book out, and am browsing through it today while I wait for Technical Support to answer a question.

Gefen divides meditation into three categories: Focus Meditations, Awareness Meditations, and Emptiness Meditations. Obviously, we're interested in the awareness stuff.

I want to quote several paragraphs from the book because they illustrate the point I tried to make in my gun story below:

"Within our minds we have an "observer self." The observer self notices what is going on and names thoughts and feelings. This is the internal voice that says, "Oh, I am worrying about my father," or "Oh, I am obsessing about the pain in my belly," or "Oh, I feel joyous at the moment." The observer self does not analyze these observations. It only identifies them.

In our everyday lives the observer self is usually "asleep," and our thoughts jump from subject to subject without awareness. This is what happens during most of our waking hours. But in awareness meditation the observer self is called into action. At first it can hardly keep up with the powerful stream of thought. But like a body that is exercised over time, it becomes more adept, and we learn to notice the barely visible shifts of thought and mood without analyzing them.

One of the great benefits of awareness meditation is that the observer self becomes strengthened. As we become increasingly aware of our thoughts, we know ourselves better, and our mental processes become more familiar to us." [p. 44, Discovering Jewish Meditation by Nan Fink Gefen]

What's happening in our awareness exercises is that we're learning to identify those signals being sent by the enhanced awareness. After identifying, the trick will be to learn how to interpret them correctly!

What is possible with expanded awareness?

It was one of those assignments that every man learns to dread--shopping with the wife and kids.

(Sounds like the beginning to one of those vintage detective stories, I know. Bear with me....)

I had been working with Eric for 6 or 7 months, and our common interest in tracking and expanded awareness led to some pretty wild discussions. But running energy was getting boring--I was ready to try some "real stuff."

One of the applications we had talked about was discerning the intent of others around us. Because of my law enforcement work, I'm really interested in this type of skill. So as we walked into the store, I started trying to "feel" whatever I could from the people in the store.

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

Of course, I had forgotten that I should "connect" first. So I started to "breathe and sweep." Breathe and sweep. Breathe and sweep. I had also forgotten that it's a good idea to practice these things while moving around. Breathing and sweeping was a bit more complicated while pushing a loaded cart through Wally World--definitely a lot different from sitting in a chair or lying in bed.

In the confusion of trying to walk and run energy at the same time, my original intent was lost. For nearly 10 minutes, I was trying to hold it all together--walking, pushing the cart, avoiding other shoppers, running energy, pretending to listen to my wife, etc.

After the divided attention became less annoying, a thought popped into my mind--that this might be a good way to identify someone who was carrying a firearm. Arizona law allows citizens to carry sidearms openly, so it's not too unusual to see someone strolling through WalMart with a .45 on their belt. I wondered if being connected to this life force thingy that Eric kept talking about would help me locate someone in the store who was carrying a firearm.

Keep in mind that I had no idea how this would happen. For all I knew, the gun-toter would be encased in a blue light. Maybe my skin would tingle. But I set my intent to locate someone carrying a gun, and tried to detach from any expectations of success.

The very first person I looked at had a 9mm pistol on his belt! I hadn't seen him before--he just "happened" to walk around the corner as I started my visual sweep of the area.

I'm no expert at this, but I suspect that while running energy, because of my law enforcement experience I had already located the pistol as something worthy of my attention. Instead of seeing blue lights or getting an itch, I got a signal that was misinterpreted as an "impulse" or impression to see if I could locate someone carrying a gun.

The information we're looking for doesn't always show up in the way we expect it to. As my skills increase, I expect that I'll learn recognize the subtle signals, and instead of a casual thought, maybe I'll hear my inner voice scream "Gun!"

For now, "gut feelings" and indigestion feel pretty close to the same thing....

While You Are Waiting......

....for a post that has some activities in it, go read Gavin de Becker's book The Gift of Fear.

Studies have shown that victims of violent behavior usually get a signal before anything happens--a sense of fear.

Learn to recognize and act on those signals.

The Extended Mind

Just finished reading The Sense of Being Stared At, and Other Aspects of the Extended Mind by Rupert Sheldrake.

He has some fascinating thoughts about how our minds work, and how animals are able to read our intentions.

In a later post, I'll excerpt some key thoughts that show a model for how our awareness might work. In the meantime, go read it for yourself.

Busy, busy, busy....

I'm neck-deep in alligators this week, but I'm hoping to get started with some serious exercises, activities and posts for this blog in the next day or two.

Stay tuned.

The Fluctuating Nature of the Universe

Ok, so things change faster than I can keep up with!

The Wandering Lighthouse is evolving, and the main site is now Living the Wizard's Life.

Check 'em out.

Related Stuff

One of the many applications of tracking & awareness is surveillance. You might want to check out a brand new site that's dedicated to surveillance--what it is, how it's done, social issues, news from around the world, equipment reviews, etc.

Check out The Surveillance Center.

Woo-Woo

Tracking is pretty straightforward.

You ID the track. Age it. Read the pressure releases. Track the landscape, etc.

Awareness, however, isn't so easy. It goes beyond mere observation, and often dips into the "just plain weird" category....

Here's a resource that will help a bit--especially if he ever gets off his butt and finishes posting about that acronym.

Check out The Wandering Lighthouse Blog, and his home page The Wandering Lighthouse.

Topics to be covered

Just some of the topics I'll be covering (in no particular order):

• learning wilderness skills in a non-wilderness setting
• how to age tracks
• reading pressure releases
• nature observation
• stalking and camouflage
• nature journaling
• the "web of life"
• identification
• awareness skills and their development
• whatever else grabs my fancy at any given time

Finally!

Well, I'm finally getting my act together on this blogging thing. Of course, I had to choose the hottest time of the year to start an outdoor project! We're expecting 100 degrees plus over the next few days, and it's only going to get hotter--so expect a lot of stationary stuff to begin with.

In this blog, I will be documenting my efforts to develop tracking and awareness skills. You will see a variety of activities drawn from many sources, and I'll try to acknowledge those sources where appropriate.

One of the real challenges will be to maintain the Beginner's Mind. As one gains proficiency, it's easy for the Ego to hijack the process. Every so often, I have to get a stick out and whack the little bugger back into its place. Perhaps letting the whole world watch the process will keep things under control.