Article submission for Shinobi no Mono Magazine.
By Andrew Pearce
New Light on the possible scientific basis for Chi or Key energy phenomenon.
Tachypsychia is a neurological condition that alters the perception of time, usually induced by physical exertion, drug use, or a traumatic event. THEORY: Time and Gravity have a specific juxtaposed relationship. Specifically one in which Gravity is found as the constant, and time being a function of Gravity.
Time dilation is a phenomenon (or two phenomena, as mentioned below) described by the theory of relativity. It can be illustrated by supposing that two observers are in motion relative to each other, and/or differently situated with regard to nearby gravitational masses. They each carry a clock of identical construction and function. Then, the point of view of each observer will generally be that the other observer's clock is in error (has changed its rate).
Both causes (distance to gravitational mass and relative speed) can operate together. All matter vibrates at the same rate. I.E. You cannot put the molecules of the hand thru the molecules of the table in front of you. Speed overcomes mass. Think of bullet mass experiments conducted on Gelatin; bullets overcome the mass of ballistic gelatin if it is traveling fast enough. A slow moving bullet transfers it's mass/force into the ballistic gelatin. The bullet represents matter, where the gelatin represents this current vibration rate being equal to what we perceive as reality.
Tachypsychia is a neurological condition that alters the perception of time, usually induced by physical exertion, drug use, or a traumatic event. Martial arts instructors and self-defense experts sometimes incorrectly refer it to as the Tachy Psyche effect. For someone affected by tachypsychia, time perceived by the individual either lengthens, making events appear to slow down, or contracts, objects appearing as moving in a speeding blur. It is believed that tachypsychia is induced by a combination of high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, usually during periods of great physical stress and/or in violent confrontation.
Adrenaline response
Upon being stimulated by fear or anger, the adrenal medulla may automatically produce the hormone epinephrine (aka adrenaline) directly into the blood stream. This can have various effects on various bodily systems, including:
Increased heart rate and blood pressure. It is common for a tachypsychia subject's pulse to rise to between 200 and 300 beats per minute (bpm). Increased heart rate (above 250 bpm) can cause fainting, and the body may adduct all limbs, adopting fetal position, in preparation for a coma.
Dilation of the bronchial passages, permitting higher absorption of oxygen.
Dilated pupils to allow more light to enter, and visual exclusion—tunnel vision—occurs, allowing greater focus but resulting in the loss of peripheral vision.
Release of glucose into the bloodstream, generating extra energy by raising the blood sugar level.
It is common for an individual to experience auditory exclusion or sensitivity. It is also common for individuals to experience an increased pain tolerance, loss of color vision, short term memory loss, decreased fine motor skills, decreased communication skills, or decreased coordination.
Psychological response
The most common experience during tachypsychia is the feeling that time has either increased or slowed down, brought on by the increased brain activity cause by epinephrine, or the severe decrease in brain activity caused by the "catecholamine washout" occurring after the event.
It is common for an individual experiencing tachypsychia to have serious misinterpretations of their surroundings during the events, through a combination of their altered perception of time, as well as transient partial color blindness and tunnel vision. After the irregularly high levels of adrenaline consumed during sympathetic nervous system activation, an individual may display signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is common for the person to display extreme emotional change and fatigue, regardless of their actual physical exertion.
It is possible to manage the "adrenaline dump" still occurring after the event, and it is common for soldiers and martial artists to use tachypsychia in order to increase their performance during stressful situations.
Tachypsychia (literally: the speed of the mind) -- the distortion of perceived time. In a life-or-death situation, the mind kicks into overdrive, perceiving orders of magnitude more information than is customary. This causes the perception that things are happening in slow motion, even though you -- and your opponent -- are probably moving faster than you ever have. Tachypsychia can also work in reverse ("it all happened so fast"). Ayoob's experiences lead him to observe that the more experienced and highly trained a person is, the more likely that person is to experience tachypsychia. That is, a person who knows that "trouble happens" is less likely to be surprised by it, and more likely to respond with super-heightened awareness. A concrete upshot of tachypsychia is that one should not speak with responding officers on the question of how long an encounter took.
Tunnel Vision -- the mind focuses on the deadly threat to the exclusion of much of one's ordinary peripheral vision. It appears as if one is looking at the threat through a tube (or tunnel, precisely), and it requires conscious effort to see more than a few degrees to the right or left, or up or down. This can be a problem if you're dealing with multiple opponents.
Auditory Exclusion -- could also be called "tunnel hearing." Like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion is largely a function of the brain's cortex. That is, the brain has kicked into fight or flight reflex, focusing on the threat and screening out everything extraneous to immediate survival. One is still -- physically -- seeing and hearing as usual, but the brain is screening lots of things out. Tunnel vision and auditory exclusion appears larger, therefore closer, often by as much as a 3-to-1 ratio. A man with a knife five yards away appears to be five feet away; .22s look like .44 magnums. You may not hear the officer behind you yelling: "don't shoot;" you may not even hear your own shots (rest assured however that 'clickers' will the loudest sounds you've ever heard). If you experience such physio-psychological aspects in a violent encounter -- and don't recognize them for what they are -- and recount your (distorted) perceptions to police, you can be in world of trouble when your case goes to court.
Precognition -- commonly called a "sixth sense" (a good phrase to avoid). Precognition has to do with having seen something so many times that you "see it coming" before the unthreatened observer -- such as a witness -- does. The connection with fight or flight reflex is that, in a deadly threat situation, the mind draws on memory resources that are not typically used. Precognition is a response to a subconsciously perceived queue, and has successfully been used in criminal defense (Miami policeman Luis Alvarez, 1982).
Denial Response -- On an otherwise normal day, you get a call out of the blue telling you that your mother has died. Your first response? "No! Mother can't be dead!" Another common example is people yelling "no" at a car that's about to hit them, or hit someone else.
Psychological Splitting -- the more highly trained a person is, the apt more he or she is to experience this. When you have trained in something to the point that you can do it by reflex -- coupled with stimulus which triggers fight or flight -- the body moves so fast that the prefrontal cortex can't keep up. This can result in the perception of watching oneself do something.
Excorporation -- out of body experience, the highest manifestation of psychological splitting. This is most commonly seen on operating tables after clinical death, and is often combined with a white tunnel of light (see items 2 and 6 above). It is also seen in gunfights with persons who think they are about to die. Its cause is that survival instinct is taking all the senses into overdrive, into hyper-perception one might say. In this state, the mind can generate 3-D images from sounds and recollected sights. Even when the body is unconscious, the ears still hear and -- if they are open -- the eyes can still see. Even at clinical death, the brain lives for another 8-10 minutes (ask any EMT).
State of Fugue -- somnambulant, zombie-like state. Seen occasionally.
Cognitive Dissonance -- or confusion, is more common. Common manifestations include remembering things out of sequence, trivial things looming large in the mind immediately after the incident, and important things being lost to short-term memory immediately after the incident.
If trained properly by repetition, a person can learn to function for an extended period in this state. There is an increase in Tachypsychia (literally: the speed of the mind): the distortion of perceived time. In a life-or-death situation, the mind kicks into overdrive and transfers into the sub-conscious (which operates much faster than the conscious) so your perception of time becomes altered. This causes the observation that things are happening in slow motion (a.k.a "Bullet Time"), even though you (and your opponent) are probably moving faster than you ever have. Tachypsychia can also work in reverse ("It all happened so fast"). Observations have been made that the more experienced and highly trained a person is, the more likely that person is to experience tachypsychia. That is, a person who knows that "trouble happens" is less likely to be surprised by it, and more likely to respond with super-heightened awareness.
Time perceived by the individual either lengthens, making events appear to slow down, or contracts, objects appearing as moving in a speeding blur. It is believed that tachypsychia is induced by a combination of high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, usually during periods of great physical stress and/or in violent confrontation. They are not the same. No one can tell you what causes tachypsychia to occur. They can only tell you when it is likely to occur. They don't know if it is caused by chemicals and if so, which. It could totally be a perception or state of mind/level of consciousness issue. The only thing anyone can say for certain is that it occurs and that you can train to reach a state where it is likely to occur. Yes, athletes do experience it fully. From my own experience, I have had it occur in armed confrontations, an automobile accident and in competition. Every time I have experienced it, it occurred absent of fear or any other noticeable effect of fear. Events happened with crystal clarity, but without conscious thought. It happens in an area of the brain that is still not understood. That is why no one can say "if we inject you with "X", you will experience it. So far, the only success has been through hypnosis and visualization (sports psychology). That's why you are starting to see a slow shift in LE training to incorporate some of the proven sports psychology techniques.
While Laur's articles are good, Dr. Lewinski at the Force Science Institute has done studies that show elevated pulse rates (by themselves) have no effect on fine motor skills. *"Chemical Cocktail" released by the body:
-Adrenaline
-Cortisol
-Dopamine
*Blood diverts from extremities to large muscles.
-Loss of Dexterity and fine Motor Skills
*Tachypsychia
(Distortion in the perception of the passage of time)
*Other Physical Changes:
-Eyes Dilate
-Tunnel Vision
-Auditory Exclusion
--Blood Vessels in Ears dilate
*Nausea
*Time/Space Distortion
-Things Slow Down
*Heart Rate:
-60/80 BPM is Normal
-300 BPM has been recorded
-200 BPM has been recorded sustained
-115-145 BPM is Optimum Combat Performance
-At 145 BPM Complex Motor Skills Go Down
-At 175 BPM Gross Motor Skills Go Down
*Heart Rate of 175 BPM
-Fore Brain Shuts Down and Mid Brain Takes Over
-Mid Brain does only four things: Fight/Flight/Eat/Sex
-Mid Brain sends signal works (NSR)
-All senses but vision shuts down
--(Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, ESP??)
Some athletes are born with a big advantage: their hormonal and concentration systems are set up differently, says cardiologist Arnold Fox. They are allowed to take in greater detail, and perhaps are offered more room in time, because their visual and hormonal systems are different, and/or are better developed. It’s been said that Ted Williams could see the seams on a 100-mph fastball, although part of that was his intense concentration of pitchers’ habits while he was sitting in the on-deck circle.
"We know that people who are able to ’flow’ have a greater ability than others to screen out irrelevant information," says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. "It could be the way their brain is put together, but I think it’s something that people can learn through technique." Like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, inability to focus concentration, etc. Tachypsychia occurs separately from all of those. In fact, it is the antithesis of some. When you experience it, you typically will not necessarily have any of the other phenomena (athletes for example). During tachypsychia you have crystal clarity and focus without tunnel vision (some describe it as "hyper-awareness"), auditory exclusion or shaking. Most will tell you that they felt calm and focused, no shaking, no inability to focus.
Briefly, the brain uses about 20 different chemicals/compounds in its normal function. Right know, doctors recognize changes and alterations in two of them.
As a patient is treated with meds from these two groups, dramatic changes occur in the levels of the other 18, and they don't know why--or how to effectively modulate them to treat certain conditions. One med elevates of diminishes levels, another med does just the reverse, or a mixed response.
So, a psychiatrist might experiment on several meds, even a cocktail. And since a "ramp up" requires about six weeks to effectively observe a positive therapeutic level, the patient goes through a rollercoaster of emotions.
It is not surprising that during the instantaneous chemical dump of an attack a combatant endures numerous changes in perceptions as well as dexterity.
My advice is to learn and investigate stress as it relates to defense just like you would do research on any other aspect of safety and security.
Sayoc Kali Transition Drills Distortion of Time Perception during Tactical Encounters By Stephen Chrusciel
The third phase in the OODA Loop is Decision-making. This is where the efficiency of process is critical because of the role time plays in the interaction. Tactical training expert Ken Good of the Sure-Fire Institute refers to tactical situations as taking place in a “compressed time frame”, because a correct response to a situation delivered at the wrong time (typically late due to an overextended decision-making process) will now be ineffective because the situation has changed while the initial decision was being reached. A simple analogy is a distance shooter continually missing a moving target because he is aiming right at it without allowing for its motion by leading it. The question becomes “How do we install the decision-making process on the subconscious level to take advantage of the resulting increase in processing speed?” The answer is again in the training. Regular, rigorous exposure to the decision-making process under the stress of realistic training, where there are immediate ramifications for bad choices, gives the student a consistent progression by which he is able to internalize this process. Too much time spent training “in the fire” can be just as ineffective as no time at all; it is the application of the correct ratio of technical and tactical training on a subjective basis that produces the best practitioners.
In summary there is ample evidence to show that Key or chi force exists and can allow a martial artist to function at "higher than normal" levels.
How Not to Defend Yourself as a Jew at Yale
