Was cruising the psychology books (always interesting to me) when I came across this one:

"The Gift of Fear; Survival Signs That Protect Us from Violence", by Gavin De Becker.  

Costs $7.50

"Filled with unique and surprising insights into human behavior, The Gift of Fear will help you separate real from imagined danger, give you confidence in a sometimes threatening world, and make your life measurably safer".

"This book may well save much grief and pain, and some - perhaps many - lives.  It speaks directly to targets and potential targets - in a way that may make them stronger and safer - without blaming them".

"The book teaches how to identify the warning signals of a potential attacker and recommends strategies for dealing with the problem before it becomes life threatening".


I myself think there is far too much imagined fear in general in this world, but providers can undeniably be in potentially real physical danger.  Good to know how to separate real from imagined danger, and to be able to respond effectively.

Awesome book, he also wrote "protecting the gift" about keepimg your children safe in an unsafe world and also "Fearless" which is a must read for all you anxious peolpe who were effected by 09/11/01

I know, I work for the company.
www.gdbinc.com

I recommended it years ago to other providers on my local board. For those of you who don't have time or don't want to read The Gift of Fear, this is the most important lesson to be learned from that book. ALWAYS trust your intuition. ALWAYS trust your intuition. ALWAYS trust your intuition. Get it?

predators by having a "sixth sense" (or intuition, or whatever you want to call it) that told them that something didn't seem quite right about a physical situation they moved into (perhaps a predator lurking and waiting to get them).  Those who were best at doing this were most likely to survive and produce offspring.

Another related fact is that human eyes can detect movement better when it is at one of the sides of our field of view than when it is directly in front of us, even though we obviously can't recognize exactly what it is as well - it's just the fact that it is moving that we see better from the side.  The movement was that of a predator making its move to attack us from the side, or closing in from the rear and just becoming visible from the side.  Again, those whose eyes did this best won the evolutionary competition.

Of course, much intuition in the provider context is not so much about visual cues (except of course body language), but about verbal cues.

So ladies, develop your intuition further and stay safe!

Once again, the new science of evolutionary psychology shows itself.  While I do not personally subscribe to all of the theories, the one about fear and intuition is certainly acceptable as having a genetic basis.  Our ancestors who did not have it were most likely killed at a young age and were never able to pass on their genes for intuitive fear to future generations.

see "Ontogeny & Phylogeny" ... by Stephen Jay Gould

intuition is an "emergent" byproduct of cortical complexity or "intelligence"

peripheral motion acuity is, on the other hand, the kind of ocular trait that would be genetically controlled and propagated

am i on TER?  

-- Modified on 6/3/2003 1:04:12 PM

Ontogeny recapitulates Phylogeny. And yes, you are on TER!

"Stephen Jay Gould has writen some other books of interest, no? That name is very familiar to me, just not sure why." --NOSC

a great thinker indeed. he passed away last May. perhaps most well known (in pop-science circles) for his theory of "punctuated equilibrium"

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2002/05.16/99-gould.html


he even had a guest spot on "The Simpsons" ... the episode where Lisa unearths an "Angel" fossil which is sparks a Creationist revisionist mass hysteria ... and who says Fox doesn't have high-brow programming!









-- Modified on 6/4/2003 8:04:59 AM

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0440226198/all/ref=dp_pb_a/103-9571379-0912627

It's a portable lie detector.  The manufacturer claims an accuracy of 84%.  My results haven't been THAT good -- more like about 75%.  But, that's better than the 50% that can be had by pure chance.

It's not sure fire, but for less than $50, it's one more edge during that all-important screening, when all you have to go on is what you hear.

Phallus-Yoni (uncovered, of course!) propagates progeny!!

The phenomenon that jackvance is referring to (i.e., seeing movement to the sides, but not necessarily seeing clear objects) is called "blindsight". There are actually two distinct visual pathways. The first is the conscious one that has developed recently (in evolutionary terms) that sees objects clearly, and the other, more primitive one that is keyed to movements. The latter is well-developed in lizards and does not involve conscious thought and permits extraordinarily fast response, while the former engages the primary visual cortex and is much slower. Through brain injury, it is possible to disable one form of sight, but not the other.

Check out the PBS "Nova" website on the program highlighting V. Ramachandran's neuroimaging work on these topics. Your government tax dollars at work, supporting medical research.