Chapter 2:
Your Bodyguard: The Mind

DURING MY TIME AS A BODYGUARD I experienced attacks on several occasions and in some of the most hostile environments. That I am still here to write this book is evidence that I survived because of the skills I had learned, but also because I was beginning to understand events on a deeper level. I have been shot at, and so have those I protected. I have experienced direct assaults, and my intuition and rapid response have protected me and my clients, my family and others close to me.

It goes without saying that overall fitness helps in self-protection. If you look after your body, and do not let your fitness deteriorate, your chance of survival increases. However, physical fitness is not as important as having a fit mind. Your mind is your best weapon but we are generally too fearful to use it well. If you are strong in mind, body and spirit, then you will feel safer. That feeling is the key to remaining safe. Do not fear, feel safe and safety will surround you.

In this era that is governed by political trends and environmental pressures, we seem to be tied down by all kinds of fears and most of them are not physical in nature:

• Will I have enough money or finance?
• Will I be attacked?
• Will I die?
• Will I find love?
• Can I live on my own?
• Can I really say what I feel?
• Can I take that risk?

You may say these worries make you take necessary precautions to protect yourself or your family, but at what price? You become a prisoner of your own fear, and the enjoyment that you should have in your life is restricted by fear of what may happen. You may decide not to go on a holiday or trip, even though you have up-to-date security and state-of-the art equipment. Fear stops us doing what we really want to do. Our lives are too fearful. Fear feeds on our energy, and we attract negativity. If we can understand the fear and welcome the necessary precautions we should take, then we can put up an invisible firewall of protection.

Fight or Flight
Fear is not always bad; when a crisis approaches, it shows itself in the surge of adrenalin. Fight or flight? In dangerous situations, we experience a process called 'the adrenalin dump', which makes us fight or run, depending on the individual. As such, fear is a valuable tool. If an animal is attacked, it instinctively knows what to do - its survival depends on it. As human beings, we lose this ability all too easily. We become too comfortable or complacent and often don't see what is right in front of us.

During an attack, several processes happen. It all starts with fear. Fear communicates itself to those around you. It shows in your posture, how you walk and hold yourself, how you approach the world. When you are faced with something you fear, your body responds internally with a faster heart rate and increased breathing rate, and externally with physical signs such as tremors in your hands. We manifest our thoughts so that the fear is shown in body language.

I once had to meet several members of a paramilitary organization. They were visiting Scotland for a large money raising event to support their cause, and I was the lucky or unlucky individual charged with gaining information and identifying other members of the group. The meet was set and I had to travel to a sports hall where their hired musical band was appearing that night. The closer I got to the venue - the more my mind began to initiate the feeling of fear. Walking down the corridor to meet my contact, I could feel my heart pounding. A huge man with tattoos all over him met me at the entrance. His demeanor felt menacing and the energy from him was very negative - further enhancing my fear.

As he escorted me down towards the meeting room, all I could hear was hands pounding on tables rhythmically and then feet stamping to the beat of a drum. It was almost pitch black and I could barely see in front of me. As quick as the banging started - it stopped and lights flashed on the stage lighting the area like fire and brimstone. There before my eyes was the most terrifying sight. A band on stage that resembled a military unit, with full combat clothing, brandishing AK 47 assault rifles. My fear exploded and I began to exude the energy from every pore of my body. My hands began to sweat and I began to tremble, yet inside of me I knew exactly what was happening. I took a moment, controlled my breath and went within - I began to settle and my fear diminished slowly.

As an unpleasant, strong emotion, fear often causes terror and immobilization. All this is because of thought processes, which scientists see as prompting the manufacture of adrenalin. A negative thought feeds the fear, which then expresses itself physically. Fear can also be felt inside your spiritual body and the negative energy is exuded like radio waves. Other people notice it without realizing and some people can see it psychically. Those waves of fear will be downloaded to another with a similar vibration that feeds on the fear. The aggressor feeds on this energy of fear and this drives him even further. Therefore, the stronger-willed person who appears more powerful will be able to defeat his adversary. To feel power stimulates the attacker.

However, this adrenalin can also be used as a tool to overcome an attempted assault. When the brain senses danger, it triggers adrenalin to aid fight or flight. Adrenalin is a like fuel injection or turbo-drive in a fighter plane - when it ignites, there is no stopping the jet unless the pilot gains control. You are the pilot of your own jet. The trick is to realize at what point the energy begins to feed the fear, and then to re-channel this energy to give you an advantage over any enemy.

Fright
Fear is a kind of language. To understand that language on different levels, you need to be able to interpret it. If a man speaks Spanish, you need to know that language to understand him; the same principle operates in any attack or intelligence scenario. If you can understand what a person or an organization is saying, you will gain an intelligent advantage in business or defense. If an assailant can understand your language, he gains prior knowledge of methods or points at which he can launch his attack. It is a language of the body and of the mind and spirit.

An example of understanding language is when a martial artist teaches you to look into the eyes of your opponent. This supposedly allows you to feel the intent behind his attack. By the time the emotion is manifested as a physical sign, it can already be too late. You must decipher a code that is understood only by your subconscious mind, and therefore you need to interpret a much deeper form of language and communication by learning to attune yourself psychically to the individual's vibration and energy. You learn to read at a deeper level and recognize the intent and fear within the attacker, so your understanding of his energy becomes your weapon.

We fear what we do not understand or cannot comprehend. In essence, fear is an illusion of the mind, representing fear of the unknown and what may lie ahead. It is an element of our own consciousness based on our own insecurities.

Children are susceptible to information either positive or negative. Their imagination creates other realities. Suppose a young child begins to have nightmares after seeing films that are not suitable, and becomes afraid of the dark. While the child is experiencing the fear, the thoughts are created in their mind and they believe they are in danger, so their mind becomes conditioned to fear the dark. As this fear grows, physical signs begin to show. Afraid of the dark, the child cannot sleep well, and becomes over-tired so its health begins to suffer. Occasionally the child is so scared they are afraid to sleep in the bedroom alone. They might believe that something bad will come and take them. Their fear has grown from a simple moment of overhearing a ghost story or seeing a film not suitable for their age.

I would like to describe my own story of how a fear can manifest years later - even after believing that I was healed from the event. When I was bullied in the army, I was given a severe beating while asleep, and on waking I was faced by several masked men. They beat me and assaulted me in many ways. This act of violence upset my sleep patterns for many years after the event. I had a deep-rooted fear of suffering an attack of such magnitude again. I would often find myself reading or studying into the early hours of the morning, surviving on two or three hours of sleep. That was one of the main reasons for working through the night. I had a fear of what the dark may bring. When I could see around me, I felt safer.

I needed to find something to occupy my wakeful hours in the middle of the night and decided to put my experience in martial arts to the test. I took up an offer to become the head of security for a nightclub in the north of Scotland. I finished my shift at five or six in the morning and it was easier to sleep for a few hours in the morning than to spend all night worrying.

Eventually the noise levels of the nightclub became too much for me. My spiritual life was taking over and I was becoming more sensitive. I gave up the security work to concentrate on my life's path with my future wife. Jo helped to heal me from that great trauma, and slowly but surely my sleep patterns began to become normal. My prize was a full night's sleep. Even now, I cannot sleep in complete darkness; I need a little light to shine through - reminding me that in the dark is always light.

One evening, something happened that threw me right back to the bottom of the hill I had climbed. My mother was nursing my grandfather, who was dying. In the house we could feel spirit all around us and going into his room was like entering a waiting room for the deceased. We retired to bed and soon I drifted off into a deep sleep. I awoke to a terrible scream from my mother bursting into our room, crying for help. It was terrifying reminder of the nighttime attack in my past. I awoke with a terrible fear and froze on the spot. My grandfather was on the brink of passing but my mother's upset, anguish and fear had brought him back from that gateway; her screams brought him back from the dead. She also managed to regress my sleeping patterns back to where they had been before. Just like a child afraid of the dark, I had become conditioned to fear it. It only took one small event to throw me right back to the beginning of that ladder. I had allowed the fear to grip me both in conscious and subconscious thought. My wife Jo helped me to understand this and through understanding my fear, I released it. I can now sleep through the night.

Overcoming fear under certain conditions when our minds are pushed into overdrive can be quite debilitating. The energy we exude from our consciousness draws the negative experience like a moth to a flame and attracts individuals, negative entities or organizations that want to harm us.

This outcome is a consequence of the spiritual law of attraction. The spiritual law of attraction is a universal law, what you emit you attract. Like attracts like; If your vibratory field emits a negative frequency, then you will attract others of the same frequency. If you give out a positive frequency, you will attract those of a positive disposition. Learning to control your thoughts and feelings enables you to develop a secure method of protection - it is invisible to the human eye but it acts like an impenetrable wall. Only others of the same vibration can access that firewall.

Overcoming Fear Is a State Of Mind
The first lesson to learn is that security is a state of mind. Depending on your personal or corporate circumstances, the condition and the situation of your home location, your office and surrounding environments, you may need extensive security or basic precautions. However, whatever you are likely to face, your personal fears are the main factors you should address. Understand your fears and allow them to manifest as positive energy - your fears cannot harm you unless you allow it to happen. If you feel afraid, even though you have no grounds for fear, you must do what is necessary to feel safe. Begin by understanding the emotional nature of fear - face it, feel it, then transmute it.

It is not wrong to fear, but it is wrong to allow fear to take root in your soul.
- J Brocas 2005

The most important facet to realize is that you already have the answers. You have the ability to be your own bodyguard, you already know what to do and your attitude to life will change when you see what is unseen.

By breathing slowly intently and rhythmically, you will manage to remain calm in the face of adversity. It is no coincidence that martial artists put great emphasis on the breath. When you are nervous and fearful your breathing becomes tight, irregular and shallow, you cannot think positively and clearly and are feeding negative energy.

If you find yourself in a serious confrontational situation, you might panic as your fears are instantaneously released and your conscious mind begins to feed your fear. Your breathing gets faster, adrenalin is released, and you freeze. When you use breath as the control, you interrupt the feeding of the negative energy in that thought process, and the heart rate slows as you become calmer. You are then able to defend yourself with a true heart and reverse any situation to your advantage.

Everything exists and lives on the breath. The secret to controlling life in a more productive way is through meditation and breath, prana or hara as it is understood in other cultures. The ancient Samurai, Ninja and Buddhist monks used the breath as the form of gaining enlightenment. In Budo, the Way of the Warrior, the breath exists as the catalyst that strengthens the power and understanding of the universal force that is energy, and you can manipulate this energy through breathing. You can change it from its normal, low vibration to a higher one. This vibration allows the communion between mind and spirit, and allows the physical body to react in a way that is out of the norm, displaying acts of supernormal ability. The development of psychic abilities is within this dimension and it is by this method of breath work that we learn the secrets to the universe.

Walk tall. Keep your head held high, look as if you have a purpose and know where you are and where you are going.

© 2008, Jock Brocas, All Rights Reserved

Excerpted from the book, Powers Of the Sixth Sense: How To Remain Safe In a Hostile World © 2008 by Jock Brocas. Printed with permission from O Books, Winchester, UK. Click on the thumbnail below to learn more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jock Brocas is a professional psychic medium, and an expert in security and martial arts. He has worked as an undercover agent, bodyguard and instructor to law enforcement personnel throughout the world. His intuitive Sixth Sense has warned him of imminent danger and saved his life on many occasions. He currently lives in Scotland.