When time stops

In reading combat recollections, a frequent theme of describing a life or death / do or die moment, is how it felt that time stoped or slowed down.

One of the interesting stories I remember reading was a H2H struggle for a single pistol. In the struggle, the weapon was throw 20 feet away to the side of both men. Instead of continuing the H2H battle, one fighter launched toward the weopon and the other tackled him so hard, it stunned him for enough time for the tackler to gain control of the weopon and fire.

during the moment of both fighter's 1 second hesitation, it was described as timeless.

In that 1 second, the survivor explains, what ran thru his mind was anticipating his opponent's move (which felt like forever). {would he go for the gun...or would he first try to knock me down to gain advantage?}

The split-second choice (in that particular situation) made the difference: go for the gun first vs. go for the enemy first.

what do you think is at work during that time of 'timelessness'...the time right before action: Is it 'mushin' (no thought). Is it gut instinct? Is it warrior spirit? Subconscience survival instinct action/reaction. fear? or fearlessness? or all of the above?

describe what you think is going on 'when time stops'.

I think it's,"Subconscience survival instinct action/reaction. fear?" definately. I've been in a situation where there is no time to think and you just do,I think it was survival instinct action.

i think its alil help from GOD.

Not that it matters, but the two men fighting were a Japanese Buddhist/Shintoist and a Chinese Daoist. ...so I suppose it could have been their Gods of War 'helping' as you say. Since they have similar results (one survivor, one defeated), we can assume their god didn't help the defeated enough? but then one could imagine why don't the gods themselves just do the battle and leave men out of it. etc..etc...lets not get into that.

If someone does draw fighting spirit from their beliefs (people do- and ironicaly, in history, these differences of beliefs is the reason they were fighting in the first place), do they likely do it right at the critical moment, or do they do that part of preparing themselves prior to battle?

The common theme is: pray/meditate before going into battle; combat; prey/meditate after battle happy to be alive. It seems to always be before and after the critical time.

I think a more primal part of the brain is used, higher function gets a direct pathway to the survivor instinct and the person goes into automatic pilot. time is not perceived and therefore 'seems' like it is standing still.

There is actualy a physiological explanation that has something to do with adrenaline dump affecting the eye to brain interpretation of information and the amount of light processed creating this 'slow motion' effect. I cant remember the exact physiological chain involved, but it is a survival tool inherent to the human body. Sorry to de-mistify it. BuDoc may be able to explain it better than I, I just remember watching a TV show on how we react to extreme situations and they had a big segment on it.

I'm sure we have all heard/read of altered states of consciousness, especially associated with high stress situations. I prefer to skip the mystical and lyrical descriptions of such states (from the past), and view it through a modern biological/psychological lens. I'll bet the LEO crowd has a very developed perspective on this.

http://www.alexisartwohl.com/publications/fbibulletin.html

An old e-budo thread touching on this containing references/terminology that might be useful for searching:

http://www.e-budo.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-12124.html

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There is actualy a physiological explanation that has something to do with adrenaline dump affecting the eye to brain interpretation of information and the amount of light processed creating this 'slow motion' effect. I cant remember the exact physiological chain involved, but it is a survival tool inherent to the human body. Sorry to de-mistify it. BuDoc may be able to explain it better than I, I just remember watching a TV show on how we react to extreme situations and they had a big segment on it.

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I have seen some similar info.