Skip to main content

Flehmen & Your Possible 6th Sense by Mark Hatmaker


[The below is a brief sample from the The Suakhet'u Program —Our Indigenous Based Warrior Awareness Program.

The Program provides in-depth description of the practices, their use in cultural context, and how it was originally trained.

We demonstrate each practice/exercise with a step-by-step series that enables you to bring a bit of this lost wisdom into your own lives. 

Some practices border on the edges of “just beyond.” That is, when originally encountered by Western minds or confronted with little information the skills have been chalked up to something supernatural.

Some things are not so much supernatural as outside current context or simply misunderstood. To de-bunk the “supernatural” factor each practice will also provide the current state of research regarding how such “beyond” practices may in fact be not so much supernatural as highly trainable.

The below offering is a highly condensed version of the approach.

Where the “Training Hack” at the end of the offering is a mere two-sentences in the program itself it falls into a syncretic series where each drill/practice that precedes aids and bolsters the next and so on for reach step in the series.

Take nothing on hearsay.

I have been endlessly fascinated with this aspect of the Warrior tradition, there is something viscerally satisfying about working with some bit of old tradition and then one day realize that you can effortlessly determine direction by a simple glance at a rain puddle.

I look forward to sharing the material with other like-minded Warrior-Explorers.]

·        Flehmen-The word is the specific name for the odd sneer or grimace we sometimes see cats make when they stop, open their mouths, sniff the air and the eyes seem to go vacant or even close. What is occurring is they have been caught by a scent that they find particularly succulent—usually the urine marker of a cat of interest. Flehmen does not occur with unpleasant scents [in cat tastes, that is] despite to our human reference the facial expression reading as a “sneer.”

·        While in flehmen mode the cat’s tongue often arches to the roof of its mouth and may be even seen to lick the roof of the mouth to better “take in” what they are experiencing. The reason for the lick is the vomero-nasal or Jacobsen’s organ. It is about an inch-long tubal opening in the roof of the mouth just behind the front teeth—it allows for a more intense combination of taste-smell.

·        It is so significantly different in use it is called a 6th sensory organ in the species that possess it. Humans have trace Jacobsen’s organs but as we moved more heavily into visual mode in our evolutionary history its activation atrophied. It is surmised some of the tracking/identification ability of some indigenous peoples are uses of the remnant Jacobsen’s organ that have not been ignored or stultified by disuse, ignorance of presence, or indifference.

·        Jacobsen’s Organ Hack-One can attempt to “awaken” their own Jacobsen’s Organ by sniffing the air, then tasting the air but in the tasting take an inhalation that uses the tongue to direct the air flow slowly over the roof of the mouth just behind the front teeth. Use of strong-tasting foods or beverages [garlic, coffee, minted chewing gums, for example] and smoking will mask the efficacy of these re-awakening attempts. For complete details on how to awaken this response see here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apache Running by Mark Hatmaker

Of the many Native American tribes of the southwest United States and Mexico the various bands of Apache carry a reputation for fierceness, resourcefulness, and an almost superhuman stamina. The name “Apache” is perhaps a misnomer as it refers to several different tribes that are loosely and collectively referred to as Apache, which is actually a variant of a Zuni word Apachu that this pueblo tribe applied to the collective bands. Apachu in Zuni translates roughly to “enemy” which is a telling detail that shines a light on the warrior nature of these collective tribes.             Among the various Apache tribes you will find the Kiowa, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Chiricahua (or “Cherry-Cows” as early Texas settlers called them), and the Lipan. These bands sustained themselves by conducting raids on the various settled pueblo tribes, Mexican villages, and the encroaching American settlers. These American settlers were often immigrants of all nationalities with a strong contingent of

Resistance is Never Futile by Mark Hatmaker

Should you always fight back? Yes. “ But what if …”           Over the course of many years teaching survival-based strategies and tactics the above-exchange has taken place more than a few times. The “ but what if …” question is usually posed by well-meaning individuals who haven’t quite grasped the seriousness of physical violence. These are people whose own humanity, whose sense of civility is so strong that they are caught vacillating between fight or flight decisions. It is a shame that these good qualities can sometimes stand in the way of grasping the essential facts of just how dire the threat can be.           The “ but what if …” is usually followed by any number of justifications or pie-in-the-sky hopeful mitigations. These “ but what if …” objections are based on unfounded trust and an incorrect grasp of probability. The first objection, unfounded trust, is usually based on the following scenario. Predator : Do what I say and I won’t hurt you. Or

Awareness Drill: The Top-Down Scan by Mark Hatmaker

American Indians, scouts, and indigenous trackers the world over have been observed to survey terrain/territory in the following manner. A scan of the sky overhead, then towards the horizon, and then finally moving slowly towards the ground. The reason being that outdoors, what is overhead-the clouds, flying birds, monkeys in trees, the perched jaguar—these overhead conditions change more rapidly than what is at ground level. It has been observed by sociologists that Western man whether on a hike outdoors or in an urban environment seldom looks up from the ground or above eye-level. [I would wager that today, he seldom looks up from his phone.] For the next week I suggest, whether indoors or out, we adopt this native tracker habit. As you step into each new environment [or familiar ones for that matter] scan from the top down. I find that this grounds me in the awareness mindset. For example, I step into my local Wal-Mart [or an unfamiliar box store while travelli