Sensory Exclusion

This is a subject some may deny possible and others will guarantee it happens. I believe it is very plausible. Sensory exclusion occurs during a time of either traumatic events or during mortal combat whether your in the military , a cop , emt. Times of crisis. Most often than not sensory exclusion protects your body. Your sight , hearing , smell , speech. The human response is flight or fight. To make this possible our bodies respond with sensory exclusion. Sometimes during traumatic events our memory seems to shut down. When the body receives a crushing blow or so much pain it takes us beyond our threshold the memory is known to shut down. To protect us. We do see this in children in very unfortunate events. But it is still sensory exclusion.

I recall one of my own experiences with sensory exclusion when I was in active duty for the marines and we were repelling out of a CH-53 ( Sea Stallion ). I remember going down the fast rope and focusing on our mission at hand. And I did not hear the helicopter at all. I did not have ear plugs to drown out the sound. Now the rotor wash from this helicopter is usually stronger than other helicopters. So this should have been much louder. But due to the adrenaline and the stress of the operation my auditory abilities were shut down during my descent.

In a martial arts scope of sensory exclusion my example will be a one on one fight. A fight that may be fueled by emotions and conflicting personalities. Each person gets so mad they start becoming mid-brain controlled. Not only due to the switch of what portion of the brain is being used , senses become limited. Depending on what the environment has to contribute will depend what senses are lost. Loud bangs or booms could effect the auditory senses. Fighting in the dark and bright flashes blind either person and their sight may be lost.

Sensory Exclusion is a good subject for practitioners within the martial arts community. Its a human event and response that all of us experience. We are warriors and must understand and learn how to harness this so it benefits us.

Master Todd Hezlitt