One of my career goals is to work with people who suffer with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One of my personal goals it to evolve my personal understanding of human combat, so that I can share it with the right people for their greater good. Alright, let’s go.
New research is starting to show that learning how our brain stores memories may help those suffering with PTSD cope with and understand their memories. Believe or it or not, some experts are now saying that we cannot trust our memories, as they are deceptively jaded. As clear and detailed as these memories feel, psychologists find they are surprisingly inaccurate. Some now believe the medium, or the way the memory was stored actually effects what the memory is. There is an exercise that you do with teens and children, which could be called the memory train. One person is verbally told a story, and then they are instructed to whisper as much of the story as they remember to the next person in the room. We then ask the last person who heard the story to recite it to the entire group. The story often changes or is schematically shortened, with some different elements accentuated or focused upon. Those suffering from PTSD also replay a story of what had happened to them at the particular time. It continues to be rehashed in a unique form of anxiety, and different elements of the memory are often exaggerated. Unfortunately, the reactive elements of the memory eventually expand and snowball to create a stronger physical reaction over time.
So in every situational learning experience, with different environments and stimuli, our memories could all be entirely different or even recalled in a completely different way. Where do our memories come from? We have a reptilian reactive or instinctual brain, grey matter for processing, and then other areas not fully understand that may also store certain types of memory. What is a memory? Stored feedback from a learning experience? How does our brain decide what details to remember, what gives us a better percentage of accurate memories, and what determines if we have a thinking error? In previous blog posts we have discussed different learning styles, and choosing what medium we use to funnel information in an instructional environment, and what could happen if we were forced to learn in one of our weaker learning styles.
Let’s break into one of these theories. For better or for worse, different stimuli attached to an experience will change the memory or perceived experience from which we learn. We respond when it is thematically appropriate with our variable subject matter or experiences with a specific reaction or behavior. Let’s also remember that different memories may be stored in different areas, accessed at different times, for different reasons, at different speeds. A processing memory of a learned behavior we now replicate may be slower to output in comparison to jumping out of the way of a moving car. Why is the car dangerous? Did you think about why it was dangerous before you moved out of the way? A math problem you know how to solve, however simple, will take far longer.
There are many different areas of the brain, but for this example we will be simply using two theoretical areas of the brain identified by brain waves. Grey area for processing (women have more than men), and the “Reptilian” brain. Which do you use during your craft? That is the question. The answer is that you use both, and we may also assume that both are developed in different ways because they are not the same. Are memories stored or simply expressed within the primitive Reptilian processing area of our brain? Are processes stored or expressed within the grey matter of the brain? Are the memories and expressions conducted through various areas the brain like electricity, almost with a variable resistance that can be measured like the current through an electrical wire? Whether these areas of the brain are the source of a given response, or simply an electrical bridge used to facilitate output is an interesting question.
I would like to think we can train these areas to improve different types of reactions during combat. Creatively adding different stimuli may in fact produce different results, but probably indirectly to where we are starting in the process for the sake of discussion. “Lie detection” is a skill developed by increasing various types of sensitivity, as the biofeedback is subtle, and the reactions and interpretation must be fast and instinctual. If you attempt to mentally process offensive feedback during combat, you will be late far too often to be effective. A light flow of various signals would help us develop that type of sensitivity. When someone is pressing us up against a wall or cage, they must change and shift the weight used to keep you isolated, and the adjustment is to avoid stagnation and redirection. You must feel their weight and position without visual feedback in order to determine if they are going to strike your upper or lower body, grab your legs, or isolate your upper body.
Anything learned is almost a memory or ghost of your experience, and you express this memory physically or otherwise when you perform or recall the information or action. There are many different types of exercise, so we may theorize that certain mental exercises and modifications of training may allow us to develop our mental physical connection. We are talking about improving the areas of reaction timing, gross reactions, and processing of information at an accelerated pace. Our goal is to use this training and self education will help us in our specific craft. The end result will be an improved combat rhythm that effectively out competes our adversary. I learned long ago that it is not a Strong B reaction verses a strong A action. It doesn’t work at the highest level; you are a wall against a wave. If one gives, there will be no acceleration, and as previous discussed perpetual redirection = acceleration.
A sensory learning stage involves visual and touch training, where you are providing and receiving auditory feedback while scanning and interpreting your environment. This is excellent, but often teachers remove or do not include several of these pieces, limiting their subject. When we create experiences we must remove distractions, and increase the perceptive qualities in order to fully engage our client. It takes your subject through a vivid experience at an accelerated rate, where they are able to take in nearly everything available at the given time. I’ve used this training method on dates, and over 90% of the time you end up blowing them away. This is a rich experience, stimulating the grey matter and processing components of the brain, it’s an adventure. The only encumbrance is personally imposed limitations and black and white thinking patterns, which are selectively preventable. (Don’t place eggs in a basket full of holes, find a new basket) This is the learning stage that we should stay in until we are able to move on towards a more sensory movement and reactionary stage. It’s simply ideal, like a private lesson with an expert who truly has the ability to bring something to you at every level.
In the sensory stage, you should have already answered all of the old questions, and during this type of training or skill development there will be very few new questions. You are simply increasing the sensitivity and timing of movements within a given position or conceptual situation. This is developing your reptilian instinctual response. Smooth is fast, fast independently is not smooth, and improved timing allows for a planned (instinctive reactive/or cognitively processed) response. We all have great potential, and taking the next step in our ability level often involves shifting our approach. As you develop your full potential, everything will fall into place.
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