GAVSD & Influence Principles

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

In a recent email from Mr. Alain Burrese he stated:

“Nearly every physical attack is preceded by a mental assessment (him sizing you up), and then a verbal exchange. This stage of Violent Crime is called ‘The Interview’, where your attacker will decide if you are safe to attack. This is a crucial phase, and most trainers barely even acknowledge its existence, instead focusing solely on physical techniques.” - Alain Burrese

and that immediately got me to thinking of a set of books I first discovered as reference material to one of Rory Miller’s books, the “Gentle Art of Verbal Self-defense,” By Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin. Her books are:

• Elgin, Suzette. "The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense" Barnes & Noble. 1993.
• Elgin, Suzette Haden, Ph.D. "More on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense." Prentice Hall. New Jersey. 1983.
• Elgin, Suzette. "The Last Word on the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense" Barnes & Noble. 1995
• Elgin, Suzette. "The Gentle Art of Written Self-Defense" MJF Books. 1997
• Elgin, Suzette. "The Gentle Art of Self-Defense at Work." New York. Prentice Hall Press. 2000.
• Elgin, Suzette. "Staying Well with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense." MJF Books. 1990.

Alain Burrese is helping another professional, Scott Bolan, promote a set of training video’s, etc., on what he is terming as, “Verbal Warfare.” I have not, as yet, purchased and downloaded these training modules but if they are even close to what I have gleamed from Dr. Elgin’s books then it is going to be awesome (I will add them to my library and comment once I get a copy later). 

Now, in recent months I came across another author who presents two books that speak to the hidden influencial principles that affect us in every facet of life and will simply amaze you and trigger that “Oh Crap” paradigm mental shift when you learn how easily “Compliance Professionals” use these traits to manipulate you into complying with their requests, efforts and sales crap. Know this, although it speaks to how we are manipulated by them through “Mad Men” you will begin to make the connections as to how this also connects to the GAVSD program of Dr. Elgin. It will help you understand the how and why Rory Miller used these same teachings to do what he does as a professional. 

• Cialdini, Robert B. PhD. “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” Harper. New York. 2006.
• Cialdini, Robert B. PhD. “Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.” Simon & Schuster. New York, 2016. 

I am still going through and studying these two books simply because knowledge is power and this kind of information leads us to one of the most ignored yet effective self-defense models, the art of avoidance. Alain Burrese also stated and rightly so, “This is a crucial phase, and most trainers barely even acknowledge it's existence, instead focusing solely on physical techniques.” I can attest to this because it never occurred to me in my early years of karate and self-fense until I read the book by Marc MacYoung, “In the Name of Self-Defense.” 

You can see my list of reading materials for karate, martial arts and Self-Fense here! 

It’s the efforts of such professionals today that bring about such warranted, necessary and critical changes to the martial arts, karate and Self-defense communities, information and change necessary to make it all realistic, accurate and effective. 

Also, don’t be surprised when a little light bulb goes off in your head and you find yourself saying, “Oh crap, why didn’t that occur to me?”

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)

p.s. just learning and understanding such things lets you recognize them when they are used and allows you the opportunity to STOP your monkey brain and emotional responses so you can logically make the decision to avoid and deescalate over using those awesome karate defense/offense teachniques :-) !