Sight
Sound
Smell
Feel
Taste
The five senses.
Most people have all them to varying degrees and in a SHTF scenario, they will become more important to survival. We have all heard stories of people who were either born without one of the senses or lost them at some point and how they then experienced a heightening of the remaining ones.
The brain is not a static organ. It is adaptive. It is capable (more so in children and young people) of rewiring itself to give us the needed sensory input for survival.
Why is this important in preps?
I could smell the difference between my baby and another woman’s (not the soap, the skin), I can smell the bathing soap you use from across a large room…don’t get me started on when you forget deodorant on a hot day! I can smell it raining 10 miles away. I can smell someone smoking meat or burning a brush fire all the way in town AND locate it with smell. Even a small amount of fuel on someone’s hands from pumping makes me gag. I have been told it is because I have always spent so much time outdoors.
Remember “Radar” O’Reilly from MASH? Other people in my group are very sound oriented. They can tell what kind of weapon is being used and track down the shooter. They can hear an engine approaching five minutes before it arrives and know where it is on the back roads. They can hear a whisper between people in the woods from scary long distances. They amaze me. I am comparatively clueless as I have spent a lot of time around machinery and my hearing isn’t up to snuff.
In the visual category, I can pick out little details that others miss and am very sensitive to any kind of visual effects from movement or change. Disruptions of unnatural patterns of size, color or direction in nature draw my attention immediately. It was what made me an excellent tracker and gained me the name "Eagle Eyes" with my Native American side of the family. There are others like that in my group as well. I remember reading somewhere that women are particularly sensitive to visual movement…something to do with being vulnerable while gathering food in forests, often head down, with young children in tow…IDK but, sounded logical.
I could read two languages at age three…my grandson is reading chapter books at age three 1/2. Neither one of us was ever taught the alphabet before we learned to read whole words (sight reading).
The point of all of the above is, that just because you cannot do it or have not done it as of yet, you cannot afford to assume that there are not many who can and WILL develop those skills once the SHTF.
Therefore, sensory discipline should enter into your prepping goals, especially if people start evacuating the cities on foot.
Smells: as any hunter knows, humans are a smelly species. I know in horseback riding, it is said that horses can smell that you are a predator who eats creatures like them; it comes out of our pores. I once had a horse sniff his own hoof prints through a field, to get us “Unlost” and back home safely that same horse can smell solid ground while crossing creeks. I know some hunters who stop eating meat entirely months before opening day.
Humans are not nearly as sensitive but, once we are no longer spending most of our day inside with all the chemicals present on fabrics and carpets to overwhelm us, we may find our true potential becomes evident.
Do you, or anyone in your group, smoke or vape? Does your deodorant have a smell? What is your SHTF laundry detergent/bleach? Freshly washed bedding hanging on a line and carried on the breeze, clothing, could be an indication of nearby human presence. You cut down a tree…or split fresh firewood. Cut grass, corn stalks or disturbed leaves or dirt (think gardening), fresh blood, exhaust from cooking, excrement (human or animal)…
Sights: reflective surfaces (windows, vehicles, solar panels, eye wear, even polished wood, some gun stocks/barrels, shiny metal knives and cookware), a structure out in the open, a lit cigarette, lanterns, candles, electric lights, a windmill, foot prints, freshly broken branches above waist height, circling buzzards and crows where you field dressed a deer a day ago…even filled in potty holes.
Sounds : any kind of motor, running water, doors opening or closing, children playing, people talking, music, an axe or hammer, the sounds of animals (dogs, livestock, chickens, ducks and other groups of domestic fowl).
Yes, these are tiny minuet details that right now, may seem like overkill, however, they might be worth taking into consideration if your SHTF plan is to keep the lowest profile possible.
What are some precautions that you or your group have put into place to maintain sensory discipline?
Sound
Smell
Feel
Taste
The five senses.
Most people have all them to varying degrees and in a SHTF scenario, they will become more important to survival. We have all heard stories of people who were either born without one of the senses or lost them at some point and how they then experienced a heightening of the remaining ones.
The brain is not a static organ. It is adaptive. It is capable (more so in children and young people) of rewiring itself to give us the needed sensory input for survival.
Why is this important in preps?
I could smell the difference between my baby and another woman’s (not the soap, the skin), I can smell the bathing soap you use from across a large room…don’t get me started on when you forget deodorant on a hot day! I can smell it raining 10 miles away. I can smell someone smoking meat or burning a brush fire all the way in town AND locate it with smell. Even a small amount of fuel on someone’s hands from pumping makes me gag. I have been told it is because I have always spent so much time outdoors.
Remember “Radar” O’Reilly from MASH? Other people in my group are very sound oriented. They can tell what kind of weapon is being used and track down the shooter. They can hear an engine approaching five minutes before it arrives and know where it is on the back roads. They can hear a whisper between people in the woods from scary long distances. They amaze me. I am comparatively clueless as I have spent a lot of time around machinery and my hearing isn’t up to snuff.
In the visual category, I can pick out little details that others miss and am very sensitive to any kind of visual effects from movement or change. Disruptions of unnatural patterns of size, color or direction in nature draw my attention immediately. It was what made me an excellent tracker and gained me the name "Eagle Eyes" with my Native American side of the family. There are others like that in my group as well. I remember reading somewhere that women are particularly sensitive to visual movement…something to do with being vulnerable while gathering food in forests, often head down, with young children in tow…IDK but, sounded logical.
I could read two languages at age three…my grandson is reading chapter books at age three 1/2. Neither one of us was ever taught the alphabet before we learned to read whole words (sight reading).
The point of all of the above is, that just because you cannot do it or have not done it as of yet, you cannot afford to assume that there are not many who can and WILL develop those skills once the SHTF.
Therefore, sensory discipline should enter into your prepping goals, especially if people start evacuating the cities on foot.
Smells: as any hunter knows, humans are a smelly species. I know in horseback riding, it is said that horses can smell that you are a predator who eats creatures like them; it comes out of our pores. I once had a horse sniff his own hoof prints through a field, to get us “Unlost” and back home safely that same horse can smell solid ground while crossing creeks. I know some hunters who stop eating meat entirely months before opening day.
Humans are not nearly as sensitive but, once we are no longer spending most of our day inside with all the chemicals present on fabrics and carpets to overwhelm us, we may find our true potential becomes evident.
Do you, or anyone in your group, smoke or vape? Does your deodorant have a smell? What is your SHTF laundry detergent/bleach? Freshly washed bedding hanging on a line and carried on the breeze, clothing, could be an indication of nearby human presence. You cut down a tree…or split fresh firewood. Cut grass, corn stalks or disturbed leaves or dirt (think gardening), fresh blood, exhaust from cooking, excrement (human or animal)…
Sights: reflective surfaces (windows, vehicles, solar panels, eye wear, even polished wood, some gun stocks/barrels, shiny metal knives and cookware), a structure out in the open, a lit cigarette, lanterns, candles, electric lights, a windmill, foot prints, freshly broken branches above waist height, circling buzzards and crows where you field dressed a deer a day ago…even filled in potty holes.
Sounds : any kind of motor, running water, doors opening or closing, children playing, people talking, music, an axe or hammer, the sounds of animals (dogs, livestock, chickens, ducks and other groups of domestic fowl).
Yes, these are tiny minuet details that right now, may seem like overkill, however, they might be worth taking into consideration if your SHTF plan is to keep the lowest profile possible.
What are some precautions that you or your group have put into place to maintain sensory discipline?
Last edited:
