Please take a look at Articles on self-defense/conflict/violence for introductions to the references found in the bibliography page.

Please take a look at my bibliography if you do not see a proper reference to a post.

Please take a look at my Notable Quotes

Hey, Attention on Deck!

Hey, NOTHING here is PERSONAL, get over it - Teach Me and I will Learn!


When you begin to feel like you are a tough guy, a warrior, a master of the martial arts or that you have lived a tough life, just take a moment and get some perspective with the following:


I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me

I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me

I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull

I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death

I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed

I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes

I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn


Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.



“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated. - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources (this applies to this and other blogs by me as well; if you follow the idea's, advice or information you are on your own, don't come crying to me, it is all on you do do the work to make sure it works for you!)



“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames (note: you are on your own, make sure you get expert hands-on guidance in all things martial and self-defense)



“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne


I am not a leading authority on any one discipline that I write about and teach, it is my hope and wish that with all the subjects I have studied it provides me an advantage point that I offer in as clear and cohesive writings as possible in introducing the matters in my materials. I hope to serve as one who inspires direction in the practitioner so they can go on to discover greater teachers and professionals that will build on this fundamental foundation. Find the authorities and synthesize a wholehearted and holistic concept, perception and belief that will not drive your practices but rather inspire them to evolve, grow and prosper. My efforts are born of those who are more experienced and knowledgable than I. I hope you find that path! See the bibliography I provide for an initial list of experts, professionals and masters of the subjects.

Our Brains on Self-Defense

Our brains are some kind of complex system aren’t they? In order to simplify things in understanding how our brains work regarding self-defense some very knowledgable, intelligent and gifted persons have described the parts involved in SD as the “Thinking brain,” the “Monkey brain,” and the “Lizard brain.” 

Please note this is my post and those intelligent, knowledgable and gifted professionals I mentioned have nothing to do with this except their work was used for “MY PERSONAL” interpretations as follows. So, the onus is on me for this one.

Ok, back to the discussion. I use two of the descriptions and one of my own. Why? Because I am more comfortable with mine in place of the “Thinking brain.” My symbolic naming is “Vulcan brain.” Vulcan because that is depicted easy enough as the most logical non-emotional brain that would attempt to control both the monkey brain and the lizard brain from stupid and ignorant stuff we humans tend to do when either or both get involved. 

The Vulcan mind is one that uses our ability to “think” logically and with out allowing the intrusion of either/or the monkey brain or lizard brain we both know tend to muck things up. 

We want to use our Vulcan mind to train our monkey’s to remain caged and out of the way except when certain controlled emotions will benefit the situation at any given moment. The Lizard is also necessary for survival but what it knows and will use regardless of the Vulcan and Monkey can also take over so it is important to train our Vulcan and Monkey to change slightly what the lizard will use in SD situations. Hopefully long before the need to step into the SD circle became imminent. 

The Vulcan mind has already been influenced by our modern society through the media be it television or movies. Most of this stuff is just plain wrong. Nothing actually happens in the real world according to what the entertainment industry decides will draw the greatest crowd willing to spend money to be “entertained :-)” So, we have to retrain the Vulcan mind so that it can train and retrain our monkey and lizard. Remember, in many potentially violent conflicts your thinking mind doesn’t have the time to “think” so do that “thinking” in the time “BEFORE” you need it, it is called training and practice.

One excellent step is to seek out that knowledge necessary to navigate the complexities of the world that is “Self-Defense.” Where I recommend one start is to expose themselves to the material that will set the stage to finding a true SD model that will work, if ever needed or if ever inadvertently exposed to such types of conflict (note: some of those professional, knowledgable and gifted folks will tell you that in all likelihood you will mostly never “inadvertently” be exposed to such conflicts and the reasons why will come with my recommendation to follow.) and that material can now be found in one expert source, Marc MacYoung’s book, “In The Name of Self-Defense.” 

If you want your Vulcan mind to have the tools necessary to find and achieve true SD then start there. It is not a book about the actual physical techniques you would use but you will find these tools to be superior to any technique or common SD course you could take. You want to know this stuff before you seek out SD and you should know this as well, you will possibly find that you really don’t need SD training because what you learn from Mr. MacYoung’s efforts is - how to avoid it. 

Back to the three minds of our brains. The key point to understand with our Vulcan, Monkey and Lizard brains is they are not separate and exclusive to one another. They are intertwined and inter-connected to where you cannot find clear and distinctive separations when they are triggered. Our minds tend to work all three as one at every moment of every day. The degree of one over the others depends greatly on the stimuli you are exposed to every single moment of every single day of your entire lives. 

The stronger two of the three can be the monkey and lizard. The goal here is to allow the Vulcan mind to learn and train the entire mind to control how the other two are implemented when stimuli hits our senses influencing our perceptions along with our beliefs, etc.

There is a reason why our brains work they way they do and it is too bad that knowledge is limited because our brains are a wonderful, interesting and complex organ that still mystifies our learned experts and will continue to do so until time ends. 

In closing there are other great reads that will help in the world of SD understanding and knowledge but this one has, in my opinion, the primer to all the others. If noting else it means you become an informed person. It means you become someone who understands how the complex world of self-defense works and that will go a long way to help you avoid and other such things before getting caught in the web that is SD. 


Go get the book. Read it, read it again. Then, seek out training and practice as necessary for you!

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