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you tell the police you were only trying to get the hell out of there and he got in the way...it was an accident...

But... As a smart statistician who worked for me once stated "We're always preparing for yesterday's disaster." So what principles will we carry forward to the next event which - in all likelihood - will be an unforeseen scenario? What are the generalizable principles? And will you be able to pull it off in the heat of the moment?

Having been a CHL instructor and hanging around like-minded people, the great majority of the discussions center on what will happen if you need to defend yourself with lethal force and very little of the nuts and bolts of the actual act of defense comes up.

Could our seeming obsession with what police officers, lawyers and society will do to us after a successful defense be dangerous? When I need to stop, inhibit and control a lethal threat, am I going to be thinking about being sued by the attacker's family?

About being tossed in the back of a police car? About spending the night in jail? About how expensive a defense will be? Will I hesitate and die?

I am pretty much of the 'win the fight, survive and all that follows pales in comparison' mind set, but in the back of my mind is all of the, 'geez, they're going to crucify me' thoughts.

Do we pay too much attention to it and might it get us killed?

I absolutely agree that fear of the aftermath can cause fatal hesitation. I think the best way to deal with it is by training the practitioner in what to expect in that aftermath, and how to handle it.

The person who is confident in their ability to cope with what follows, will be more confident in following their training and making the right decision, and acting immediately, when force does have to be used.

Best,
Mas

This review is from: The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

The Invisible Gorilla is an unusual name for an unusual book. The authors Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons have assembled a evidence of six illusions that impact our lives in significant ways.

Chapter One deals with the illusion of attention, that is, the illusion that we see or observe far more than we think.

Several experiments have proven that even obvious things are easily missed by people. Up to fifty percent of testers failed to see a fake gorilla enter a basketball game where the testers were counting the number of ball passes rather than looking for gorillas. It is from this experiment that the book gets its name.

Most think that such a gorilla would be easily noticed; however, various experiments have shown this is not the case.

This lack of ability to see objects that are not expected may explain why cars pull out in front of motorcycles, as it is theorized that people driving cars do not expect to see motorcycles and thus they do not.

Cell phone users also miss obvious objects while they are driving. It seems cell phone users that are driving suffer from a reduction in awareness, but they are not aware of it.

Thus the illusion that they are as fully aware while talking on the phone as they are when the phone is not in use. The Invisible Gorilla points out how this attention illusion can have real and sometimes harsh results in the real world.

Then the book goes on to describe five other illusions: the illusion of memory, the illusion of knowledge and confidence, the illusion that in a series of events, event one causes event two, and the illusion that certain mythical processes - such as hypnotism - can help one reach their full potential.

Another illusion is we can do many things well all at once (multi-tasking); however, experiments have shown this is a false assumption.

The book's key message is that we think our mental abilities and capacities are greater than they really are. Perhaps the largest impact is in court, where witnesses think they can accurately remember an event that occurred some time ago.

I loved this book. It explains so many problems faced in a modern world where information as well as objects are hurled into our lives at breathtaking speed.

What is most important is that we stop assuming our minds can process all this whirl without problems. More experiments are necessary to evaluate how our minds work. Understanding our limitations is important to achieving our full potential.

I think the goal is to first keep you out of the hands of the six pallbearers, and THEN keep you out of the hands of the twelve jurors. Surviving the fight to spend the rest of your life in prison seems like an awfully hollow victory...

That was too watered down. Here it is. Don't friggin' train your people TO go to prison. Please.