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Armed Robbery Continued
I had to use both hands to open the door and get into the backroom. If I made it that far I could slam and lock the door shut. But to do that I’d have to release my grip on the Gopher! The shotgun man had moved very close at the moment I reached the closed door to the back room, so I shoved the Gopher into him with everything I had, almost knocking both of them down. By the time the shotgun man recovered a fraction of a second later, I had spun into the backroom. Most likely the armed robbers had no interest in going into the back room to find me as they probably suspected that I had another gun back there. Knowing how adrenal stress can distort one’s sense of time, as I waited in the backroom for the robbers to leave I counted off the seconds—"One thousand and one, one thousand and two…" I wanted to wait 45 seconds before I kicked the door back open. I wanted to give the crooks just enough time to leave be fore I got to the only phone in the store, the one behind the counter island. When I hit 45 seconds I kicked open the door and used the wall and doorframe as cover. This action drew no gunfire but I still could not be sure that they were gone. After all, they had behaved like real pros to this point. I searched for movement in the reflection of the glass whiskey bottles on the shelf outside the backroom. There was none. I threw out a bottle of Schnapps, and it crashed to the floor. There was no response. I took a deep breath, barreled out from the backroom, and ducked behind the counter. They were gone. I dialed 911 and said to the dispatcher, "Armed robbery, Curve Liquors in Lafayette, two black men one armed with sawed-off shotgun, the other with a .45 auto pistol, likely headed north on 287…"The police arrive When the cops arrived some five minutes later, they asked me for a description of the two men. I told them that one was over 6 feet tall, 220 pounds or so with a scar on his right wrist. The other was 5’8" and about 145 pounds. The smaller man was armed with a Mossberg Model 500 pump action shotgun cut down to about 24 inches overall. The bluing on the gun was very worn on the bottom of the slide tube. He had a spider tattoo in the outside webbing of his right hand. As I continued my description, I noticed that the two police officers were looking at me in amazement. I said, "What?" They told me that most times when they ask these questions, such as what did the weapon look like, the storeowners say, "It was the biggest gun I ever saw!" This is due to their tunneling into the weapon under the adrenal rush such that it fills their entire field of vision and appears much larger than it really is. Let me point out that the armed robber predators apparently counted on these adrenal effects to prevent their victims from giving a description of them. I make this conclusion because it was later discovered that the robbers that night were on their 18th liquor store robbery, and they had never worn disguises in any of those robberies! But this time the police had a good description and a quick 911 call. The local sheriff, the state police and the city police were all involved in the chase and capture. As one detective told me later, "The world caught up with them." Do you see how the predator knows human psychology and some of the subjects we are discussing in this book? The predator uses that knowledge for criminal purposes. You can use this knowledge too, but I hope for the higher purpose of your self-actualization and perhaps the actualization of others. The criminal predator feels adrenal-based fear too during the commission of his crime. I have interviewed a good number of armed robbers, murderers and violent drug dealers over the years. Most of these interviews were done on videotape in and outside of prison. The liquor store robbery I have just related brings one of those interviews to mind and illustrates how even the armed robber with shotgun in his hands is experiencing fear. I will quote directly from the interview of this armed robber and methamphetamine addict who specialized in robbing large grocery stores in the late sixties and early seventies: "Well, when you get to robbing and cowboying like that and you got everybody on the floor and your shotgun on um’ and some of um’ are yelling ‘please don’t shoot me’ or whatever, well it scares the Jesus out of them, or into them. (He laughs.) But if you got that guy whose lying there calm, maybe with his head peeking around a bit, well he’s the one you are worried about. You see, he’s thinking". (He laughs again.).It is clear that this armed robber is well aware of both his internal environment (how he is responding) and the external environment (how his victims are responding). He is especially aware of how the adrenaline complex hijacks the victim’s rationality, allowing the robber to completely control the victim by fear of being shot. The people on the floor have likely never imagined that this might happen to them. If the predator fails to instill fear into one of his victims, even though the predator is holding the shotgun, then that is the guy the predator is most worried about. The predator is concerned about those he cannot fully intimidate and control. Once again, not every predator out there is the criminal holding a scattergun on you. Some predators will be sitting behind a large oak desk and wearing a three-piece suit when you have to negotiate with them. The same rules apply, though. Even the three-piece-suited predator will be concerned with the person that he or she cannot fully intimidate to their satisfaction, and that can mean that they will really have to negotiate with you. Freedom from Fear
by Peyton Quinn
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Freedom from Fear
Table of Contents 11 The Frog Brain and the Self-Image Living in the 21st century with the body and brain wiring that evolved over thousands of centuries 12 The adrenal mind operates at the frog "brain level," not at the self-aware level of our conscious mind. 13 Adrenal stress reactions and behaviors become automatic, knee-jerk responses that bypass the fully self-aware mind. 13 Things learned under adrenal stress are stored in the brain differently from non-adrenal events and become more persistent and vivid, pre-conscious memories. 14 The nature of adrenal memories is at the root of understanding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 15 An example of an adrenal event in the office 17 Our goal is to dissolve irrational fears and to take more control of our lives. 18 Why are half of all Americans overweight? 19 Socialization estranges us from a part of our being that we must rediscover. 22 My first "laboratory" for the observation of the ways of human predation and the adrenal stress reaction: a biker bar 24 Understand how predators and bullies think. 26 What three young men needed and what they really feared. 26 The most dangerous predators 27 Why would a convict feel he had to kill another inmate over a cigarette? 27 The normal mind asks, "Why kill over a cigarette?" 28 The patterns of thinking of predators and bullies is similar in whatever environment they might be found. 28 Having a non-reactive, non-fearful mind in the office setting 29 How predators chooses victims 30 An example of the barroom predator’s "interview" modus operandi 30 The passive response 30 The aggressive response 31 Understanding and recognizing the bully’s "interview" 31 Dealing with the predator’s interview 32 The difference between being assertive and being either aggressive or passive 33 Being assertive 38 In an important sense, we are all in the business of sales. 39 What is self-defense? 39 Self-defense is a subset of the larger goal of self-improvement. 40 Choose your goals carefully, and make sure they are really your goals and not someone else’s. You just might achieve them! 42 Sales is the job of successfully educating the customer to his needs. 42 Sales is primarily the job of overcoming objections. 44 Our character is our fate. 45 The critical importance of developing an authentically strong personal self-image 46 Racial and ethnic bigotry is motivated by fear and a weak self-image. 47 An example of dealing correctly with the physical bully 49 The non-reactive mind 51 The basis of our self-image should be inner, not outer. 52 Our emotions do not depend only on our experiences but also on how we process those experiences. 56 Mind Controls Body 57 An example of training for failure in the martial arts world 59 Our brains can be taught at a near subconscious level to do remarkable things. 60 Cascade failure of the self-image: an extreme case 60 The excessive need for approval from others 62 Cults: the institutionalized enablers of human weakness and fear 63 Habits can be hard to break 64 Discover the automatic responses or you have developed to personal conflicts. 65 Amplification, rigid self-rules, and self-fulfilling prophecies 66 Amplification of the anxiety-producing situation 67 Overly rigid rules for life 68 Resigning oneself to self-fulfilling prophecies 69 Many times the lack of approval from others has nothing to do with us, but with their own state of mind. 70 Why we need to recognize dysfunctional personality types and negative self-dialogues 70 People who try to detract from your personal self-image do not serve you. 71 There is no true "killer instinct" in us. It is only survival instinct, and we need to get in touch with it to reclaim our mental wholeness. 72 Physiological effects of adrenal stress 73 When I was robbed at gunpoint 76 The police arrive 77 The criminal predator feels adrenal-based fear too during the commission of his crime. 78 Auditory exclusion 78 Loss of fine motor control 79 Seeing things moving in slow motion 80 Even serious martial arts training can fail under the high adrenal stress of an actual attack. 81 How assertiveness applies to the workplace 81 The survival instinct is most fully actualized in women as the maternal instinct.
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Freedom from Fear Table of contents continued 83 The areas of the brain that deal with fear are located in the phylogenetically old structures of the brain, sometimes called the frog brain or reptilian brain. 84 The frog brain concept has been with us for centuries. 85 But we are not samurai living in feudal Japan, but we deal with constant background stress. 85 If we do not learn to manage and reduce stress, it can kill us. 90 The Power of Mind Over Health 91 Stress can be chronic or the result of an "incident." Our bodies and minds respond differently to those two types of stress. 91 Incident stress 93 Chronic stress 94 Chronic stress in the office 95 How stress damages the heart and circulatory system 97 We do not always recognize the level of stress we are under—even high levels of stress. 97 A personal experience with stress 99 Examine the incident and chronic stress you might be under. 100 Dealing with the biggest fear of all: aging and death 100 Some people are dying to retire; don’t be one of them. 101 "Going postal" 102 How much stress are you under? It can be measured. 104 Some people are brain-wired for a high adrenal response to stress. 105 The best and perhaps the only way to overcome fear is to face it. 106 The hyper responders to the adrenal rush 107 An experiment to identify hyper responders 108 Wasn’t the act of driving a little scary when you first got your driver’s license? 110 Responding rationally to difficult drivers 111 Hypoglycemia 112 Do you feel uncomfortable around crowds? 112 We naturally avoid what we fear. Sometimes this is rational. 114 Whose decision is it—yours, or your fear’s? 114 What excess baggage are you bringing to the party? 116 Our personal "worldview" 116 Reaction formation and cognitive dissonance 117 How your worldview can amplify a stressful situation 118 When worlds collide: debating religion and politics 119 "I Can’t" thinking 120 Focus on what you can do rather than on what you can’t. 120 Dealing with resentment toward those that you feel have abused or betrayed you 121 Holding onto past injustices, transgressions and the spiritual toxin of hate 122 Dealing rationally and productively with perceived betrayal or abuse in the office environment 123 Dealing with problem co-workers is still selling, and all the fundamental rules of sales apply. 125 The futility and counter-productive nature of personal emotional "arguments" in office negotiations 126 The essential value and the necessity of forgiveness 127 Anger comes from fear or pain. 127 The role of anger in physical self-defense 128 The value of meeting aggression without irrational fear 135 Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Addiction 136 It is not the drug alone that causes the disintegration of a person’s life. 137 Functional alcoholics 137 How addicts have successfully freed themselves from addictions 138 Our personality and genetic make-up interact in complex ways. 141 How SSRI drugs came into being 141 Do we really understand how SSRI’s work? 142 My personal experience with Paxil 145 Negative side effects of SSRI’s 146 The Hawthorne Effect: the importance of attitude in productivity 149 A night I will always remember "Think great thoughts, as you will never be greater than you think"
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Buy the Book now! Freedom From Fear! By:Peyton Quinn More excerpts from the book: Chronic stress in the office An office worker such as a secretary who is constantly "putting out fires" in the office and who seems to be responsible by default for anything that no one else is responsible for likely feels that their life is out of control.The chronic stress of their workplace has pre-empted and distorted their lives. They begin to experience their job as being their life, and they can’t leave it at the office when they get home. It permeates all aspects of their lives. It can actually poison their lives in a very important sense. One might think that those with the highest levels of responsibility such as key executives or CEOs might have the greatest stress levels. Perhaps some do, but apparently these CEO types handle stress better than the secretary we mentioned.Why? It is partly because the person with the greater responsibility is the upper-level manager. He has more power and control over his working environment than does the lower-level employee like the secretary. Again, we see that the feeling of not being in control is at the root of fear and anxiety. We might also speculate that those who become upper-level mangers have a stronger and more confident self-image. Thus they naturally handle stress better. Perhaps the more damaging and most common stress is that which results in a person feeling no control over their work environment. If they identify their lives as their work, then they feel that they have lost control over their lives, too. Again, let’s listen to the voice of a man who has been there and lived it—a corrections officer in a large state prison: "One incident, in particular, was the deciding factor in my decision to go on medication. A coworker of mine went on a murder/suicide rampage. That was it. This incident drove home just how serious stress can be. Of course, I wasn’t nearly to the point of picking up a firearm and killing with it, but it made an impression on me, nonetheless. I felt hopeless from being in a constant state of anxiety and panic attacks, and I felt I just had to do something. So medication it was." Freedom from Fear
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