SAFETY DISTANCE

SAFETY DISTANCE

When a stranger comes to us or the syndrome of the elevator

THE ELEVATOR
One day we go into an elevator with other people who we do not know. The limited space
forces us to tolerate the physical contact and we are uncomfortable. A person turns
to avoid a face to face, another does not want to expose the strange his lower body,
a third apparently felt a sudden curiosity to the roof of the little drawer and that
was in the middle in a “I stay, I’m leaving”. Nobody looks directly anyone ... All have
the unpleasant sensation of feeling violated our security space.

A WILD RABBIT
When I write this I'm spending a few days in the field, in a bungalow. Under the bungalow a rabbit
has dug its network of burrows, with several inputs / outputs. I know him, he knows me. Sometimes
when I return, he lies there basking Fall and, of course, is always watching.
He sees me from afar and tolerates me to a certain distance, but when he sees that
I have exceeded its safe distance, he is introduced into the burrows and disappear.
I never could be near him. In fact, all the forest animals do something similar:
all have established the safe distance.

FROM OUR PAST
Elevator syndrome shows us that we like to maintain our safe distance
respect to other humans, but sometimes the simple pleasure becomes necessary.
In times not so distant evolutionary, this distance was kept strictly
because outsiders sometimes came to do much damage, for example, to kill the men,
to steal goods and enslave women and children ...
In historic times, any organized group of people watched the environment and protected settlements,
looking for the natural protection of rivers, lakes, islands, rocks and if it was not possible, in open field,
raised their protective fences and walls.
This part of our past where other humans were the greatest danger to us, made us develop
the sense of safe distance and moreover the to stranger fears, the fears to other men.
The safety distance, which we still have memories in our species, is another argument
for our links with the animal world, which we had separated by successive
conceptions of the universe of anthropocentric type, concepts that now are quickly
leaving. However, the sure habitat that the civilization offers us
it is making we leave these reminders of days past.

NIGHT
The safety falls at night and is when we most claim
our safe space. Our behavior at night is similar to
that of any animal. If we are alone or feel vulnerable, if we perceive a sound suspicious,
try to go unnoticed; if the possible danger comes, we will move away.
The night is unsafe for us, among other reasons, because we do not know if someone
is invading our space. In our culture the color black, the color of the night, is the color of mourning
and the color of fear.

THE STRESS OF SUPPORT THE PREDATOR TO HARASSMENT
The mechanism of any animal is ready to meet the challenge of harassment:
is activated the alert system to respond as
effectively to the threat. Saved danger, everything returns to normal. If the animal is subjected
to continuous stress, he will not support and will unbalance.
Our body has similar responses: is activated our alert system to any danger, after which
everything returns to normal. Our body is not designed to withstand stress indefinitely
and if is forced to do, also will unbalance.
This is the beginning of many diseases and disorders of nervous origin: we can not live
endlessly harassed, our area of security must remain habitually clear.

"I FEEL INVADED"
The Pathology describes that when some individuals approaches and especially in
sexual advances, claim that "they feel invaded," clear reference to the violation of the security space.
This feeling, though not common but exceptional, however again leads us to our past
before civilization, when our survival depended on the maintenance
of our security space.

Mikel Martinez,Ph G
www.schizoids.info