What happened to me the other night

I had an interesting experience the other night. I was walking home from work with a workmate at about 11pm. There was a group of 4 chavs walking towards us. All of them were drinking beer and acting up. When they were about 15 yards away from me, I said in my head "if any of you twats try anything, I will fucking kill you". When they were about 10 feet from me, one of them raised both hands up, palms facing me and shook his head with a wide eyed expression on his face. I flicked my eyes over him as I passed, said nothing and ignored them.

I didn't change my body language and my facial expression remained bland and non threatening/non engaging (as usual) and I didn't make eye contact with any of them. Outwardly I was as normal as before I had seen any of them. Yet inwardly there was nothing but an unemotional readiness to respond.

It seemed that the one that responded non-verbally to me, did so because of what he felt and not what he saw. I found it interesting that he responded to my intention and not my action (as there was no action)

Interesting...

(I must point out that I would never kill anybody! I am merely interested in how my thoughts affect the outside world!!!)

...cool. i'd be interested in knowing how that thought you had affected your body language.
i'm not saying it wasn't the thought alone. i'm just intrigued with the unspoken stuff. i used
to play alot with the idea that my mind alone could get me out of stuff. i used to come home at all hours in areas with alot of chavs (well not really...the D.C. equivalent that don't live in council houses/estates, whatever...more like our brand of rough necks, red necks, punks, skins, bike courier-drugies, etc...they'd all hang out in this one area that was a clash of cultures--affluent and destitute being the most potentially volatile. town and gown in other places). going home late you found alot of wannabees playing bohemian, wanting to 'act' like they needed change, but looking for fights (probably from the burbs--more affluent areas). you had gay bashers--since it was a predominantly gay area that had many businesses, bars, and restaurants. in short, many folks coming home at all hours, either from drinking or from doing drugs--but always the partying late crowd--and the preditorial morons who wanted to mess with them.
when i was younger, and saw these dynamics in areas i had to pass through, i'd play with the script so it translated illogical to what my response was supposed to be. if it looked like i should be trying to cross a street--for example, i'd act like i wanted to be in the middle of them (in situations where eye contact and baiting words, etc were already in their beginning stages--testing). my thought was, "i don't really think i'd be able to handle these guys, and it looks like i really can't avoid them, but if i act like prey they will all fall into their rolls--so let me just see what happens if i act like a predator...at this point i don't really think i have anything to lose from trying it"

what i got (to my great relief) was people doubting themselves a great deal. one group of three in particular (which reminded me of your story) were looking at each other, confused at my reaction, seemingly looking for leadership in this change in the script. it came from one of them...he thought he knew something about what i was prepared to do, he loudly pretended to know me, "hey man...i know you...how's it going? i'll see you 'round." kind of dialogue. i always remember one of the others looking hopping mad that he created this out for the lot of them. he must have been undecided but didn't want a retreat.

i guess i suspect that most cases the thoughts guide the body language--even if it's only a cold and relaxed kind of translation. confidence can be jarring. but as i say, i'm not beyond wondering what a thought will do alone. thoughts are a kind of energy after all. they probably move in waves like any other kind of energy. maybe the telephones in their heads answered your call and said, "yikes" within. who knows? it's the stuff yogis presume to be right. i wouldn't want to bet money on it at this stage--personally, but i'm not closed to the idea.

i'm a bit thick, so i go with more tangible stuff as a safeguard. but i'd like to believe in a jedi mind trick once in a while. hmmm...

anyway, i'm glad it worked out for you.
i will say that i used to dream stuff that i wasn't supposed to know. so this is where my open mind comes into the equation. knew my brother broke up with someone and asked. the answer was yes--all based on a dream. knew my ex wife was cheating. with my ex wife i may have been picking up on things subconsciously--linda blair that she was (ha). with the dreams about my sister and brother, i hadn't seen them in ages and knew odd things like my sister had gone back to her art (painting/etc) and my brother had split with his girl. things that i wouldn't know/care or been around to pick up any information over.

the dream bit about your post Russel is pretty interesting i never thought about that. On the topic of the body language thing since i was 12 or 13 I've either been lucky or just doing something right, for example when i was 13, there's two buildings in my school and my year had to cross to the other building and on the way the older lads all charged at our whole year and threw everyone about and they got everyone and most run and in a couple minutes everyone was on the other side of the field and i was just there on my own. When i was 9 i ran away from a dog and it chased me and my mum said something like, it wouldn't have chased you if you hadn't ran away. I used that same logic then

People react surprisingly well to your intention and what is inside your mind at the time..

It would have subtly changed your behaviour and presence and energy and people automatically react to it.. he probably wasn't even thinking much when he put his hands up..

An experiment I did with this is not related to rbsd.. but it really intrugued me..

Approach a few girls.. but each with different things in your head..

1. Picture yourself and her really happy and excited and her reacting well and loving it.
2. Her reacting badly.. like "fuck off"..
3. You doing all kinds of pleasurable things to her..

I did this, each was alot different.

1. The girls were happy to talk.
2. They were scared off by my energy.. bad conversation.
3. They seemed to get turned on.

Especially if people have trained themselves to notice, for example at work.. most times when I pick out a guy and have the intuition he will be trouble, by the end of the night 90% of the time I am right.. ask anyone in security the same thing.. you can read the vibe.

-Ben

Thanks for the interesting replies. Although I was unaware of changes to my body language at the conscious level, I am sure that there were probably lots of micro-expressions and subtleties that he picked up on.

Another trick I like to use when passing trouble, is to act like I'm not there. ie total blandness. Being totally unresponsive to an aggressors jibes/verbal hooks. When they realise you aint gonna take their bait, it more often leaves them with nothing to respond with, as I have gone off their songsheet.