For whatever reason, we have been watching shows about haunting and ghost hunting. Like my previous post about surviving potential horrors I have given some thoughts about conducting and surviving a ghost hunting mission.
1. Plan for horror and mayhem. Assume there is a potential for a bad outcome and make plans accordingly. Thus know the rules for surviving potential horrors. This is not to say you cannot remain a skeptic, just that you have to be prepared for the worse. The worse could come as hostile supernaturals, hostile humans and animals, as well as hostile environment conditions.
2. Have the right mission composition. Mission size should be 6-9 members. If this is an "in and out" mission, six is sufficient as this will permit 2 active teams of 3 members each, the minimum size to be on guard and survive. If this is a "camp out" mission, bring 9 to allow for shifts with two active teams while the third sleeps. Each team of three should have at least one man and one woman. This allows for a broader empathic reception as well as targets for contacts. Each team should contain at least one if not all to be capable of deadly force. Each team should contain one member scientifically oriented, one member spiritually tuned, and one member psychologically aware.Scientifically trained provides for skepticism and critical analysis or interpretation. Spiritually tuned so as to remain open to what cannot be explained. Psychologically aware so to maintain team function and guard against potential subversion of team members. Preferably all members should have undergone some sort of background and psychological screening.
3. Maintain communication. All members of the mission must be in constant live communication with each other team members and mission members. All communications must be recorded for future reviews. The mission must also have communication with the outside before, during, and after. Before means someone else not on mission must be aware of the plans for the mission, including personnel, place, time of start and expected time the mission is to end. During the mission at least one member of each team is capable of independent communication with the outside world. In this day and age of cell phone, all team members should be capable of independent communication. After the mission is to end, there should be an automatic plan for a rescue should there is no communication to cancel rescue.
4. Establish a sanctuary. The sanctuary will serve as both the base of operation as well as a point of safety to retreat to. It must be defensive against material hostile as well as potential aggression against spiritual hostile. The sanctuary must also be independently powered and supplied. Do not rely solely on the existing power grid for energy and backup power generators must be brought. Supply should be sufficient to survive at least one of not two through three days longer than planned. The sanctuary should be large enough for one team to remain active in monitoring activities, one team to sleep, and one team to defend. For an "in and out" mission, the sanctuary should be just outside the structures to be investigated, preferable also guarding the primary entry and exit path. For a "camp out" mission the sanctuary should be just inside the structures to be investigated, preferable also guarding the primary entry and exit way. The ability to at least maintaining awareness if not control of the in and out cannot be understated.
5. Have the right equipment. Beyond the essentials for any mission, such as weapons,religious icons, communication equipment, survival gears, there will be additional equipment necessary for the mission. All members should be equipped with night vision goggles, helmet video cameras for normal spectrum as well as infrared. All video feed should be actively reviewed live back at the sanctuary by the base team. Otherwise the team members should have both hands free. The rest of the "ghost hunting' equipment should be deployed. These include video cameras (both night vision and infrared), audio recording devices, and any other monitors (electromagnetic, temperature, etc). Each location should be recorded from at least two vantages: one from the main entry way and one of the main entry way. Additional vantages could be acquired as needed. Camera views should be wide angle rather than through camera sweeps to reduce the chance of a miss as well as minimize energy consumption. They should be battery powered or powered by direct cable and wire to the sanctuary power source.
6. Consider dogs. Seriously, dogs would complement human abilities with their heighten senses in what they can see, hear, and smell. The dogs would have to be trained to obey obviously, and be large enough for aggressive actions. Each team of three humans should then be reinforced by a dog.
7.Have a back up plan. By back up I mean either plans for rescue and or reinforcement. The mission rescue teams must also be similarly composed as the primary mission team with the following difference. The mission rescue composition should be composed of 3 teams of 3 each. Two of the teams will enter and search, working in tandem rather than splitting up; the third remains outside to coordinate with the outside world. The two active teams must remain in close proximity as there is strength in numbers. This cannot be disregarded given that the primary mission teams have been incapacitated in some way, potentially due to hostile action or environment. Numbers are also necessary to assist in rescue and recovery of any survivors of the primary mission teams. The rescue team mission is not to investigate or to collect data but seek, rescue, and potentially destroy any and all threats. Thus everyone on the team must be capable and inclined for deadly force application. One member of each team must be medically capable to render aid.
Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, January 12, 2009
Surviving Horror
This is not meant as a serious post but it does not mean the contents are without application to real life. . In my household we have been on a horror movie bent of late. The perpetrators have been monsters and humans, supernatural and too natural. I have thus decided (like the book on preparing for the Zombie apocalypse) have decided to generate a survival directive for surviving horror (movies).
1. Do not deviate from the original travel plan. This is typically how you are placed within a horror situation to begin with. As a corollary to this directive is that you must travel well armed. No, bullets may not slow spirits, but there are plenty of flesh causing horrors out there that will indeed bleed.
2. Once in horror situations, be prepared to use deadly force. I am not advocating first strike/pre-emption. But if you find the body (or blood stained suggestions of one) of a travel buddy, then all restraint against the use of deadly force should be suspended immediately. Naturally, if you are armed and are at risk of becoming the first victim of the group, by all means pre-empt.
3. Stick together. United you stand, divided you will die. Stragglers will be picked off. Do not investigate anything or anywhere on your own. Do not even go to the bathroom on your own. I recommend a minimum of 3 persons per activity. Say you are going to the bathroom. One person does the business, one keep an eye out in the room, one in the doorway (leave it open) and keep an eye out in the hall/outside. You should also keep 3 for each watch sleep. Teamwork is essential for survival. This would suggest that the size of your over all team should be six, grouped into threes.
4. Believe your friends. When your friend reports seeing something too crazy to be true, take it on face value as being true. No potential threat should be dismissed, every potential intel should be considered. Your enemy cannot be underestimated. Never assume your enemy follows the same code of behaviour as you do, adhere to the same moral code as most might. A corollary of this is that if you yourself saw something too crazy to believe you must tell others of it without fear of dismissal or ridicule. Distrust breaks down the team effectiveness and cohesiveness.
5. Have a plan for actions. Do not wait to be victims. Your plan of actions should be firstly security and ensure survival of the team. Your plan of actions should be secondly about escaping from the current horror situation. This has to be the order rather than the reverse. You will die without the team, there can be no escape alone. Note that all good plans require knowing what the sequence of actions will be (stepwise progression works best) as well as alternative options. No plans, regardless of how good, will be effective without buy-ins from the team. And the combination of action plans + team require defined role for each team members.
6. Have faith. Believing in a higher power/purpose may not save you from a lunatic, but it may against un-natural forces. Even against the mundane, having faith that you will survive provides a positive goal to enact and accomplish your plan of actions. Faith cannot be under-estimated. If you don't already believe, consider starting to believe (there are no atheist in foxholes). A corollary to this is that if you do not already believe, while others do, do not dismiss their faith, instead trust them, trust their faith (see #4 above).
7. Do not believe there is a traitor among you. Doing so will tear the team apart and doom you. If there is a traitor among you then you are doomed already, but no point speeding things up by breaking up your most important resource, your fellow team members. If the evidence become incontroversial that a person is a traitor, and some team members have already died from betrayal, eliminate the traitor. Use deadly force if necessary. Under no circumstances should you continue travel with the traitor as a captive. He/she will certainly seek to escape bondage while with you and cause harm to your team. While not the best of options, leaving the traitor behind bound and silenced may be an alternative. Know though that if found by your enemy, the traitor will certainly act against you. Why is having a traitor means you are likely doomed? Because the team has already been weakened and fractured by the traitor as well as the process of rooting out the traitor. However, you can at least take solace in the fact that nobody likes a traitor, and that in all likelihood the enemy will eliminate the traitor themselves once his/her usefulness has expired.
1. Do not deviate from the original travel plan. This is typically how you are placed within a horror situation to begin with. As a corollary to this directive is that you must travel well armed. No, bullets may not slow spirits, but there are plenty of flesh causing horrors out there that will indeed bleed.
2. Once in horror situations, be prepared to use deadly force. I am not advocating first strike/pre-emption. But if you find the body (or blood stained suggestions of one) of a travel buddy, then all restraint against the use of deadly force should be suspended immediately. Naturally, if you are armed and are at risk of becoming the first victim of the group, by all means pre-empt.
3. Stick together. United you stand, divided you will die. Stragglers will be picked off. Do not investigate anything or anywhere on your own. Do not even go to the bathroom on your own. I recommend a minimum of 3 persons per activity. Say you are going to the bathroom. One person does the business, one keep an eye out in the room, one in the doorway (leave it open) and keep an eye out in the hall/outside. You should also keep 3 for each watch sleep. Teamwork is essential for survival. This would suggest that the size of your over all team should be six, grouped into threes.
4. Believe your friends. When your friend reports seeing something too crazy to be true, take it on face value as being true. No potential threat should be dismissed, every potential intel should be considered. Your enemy cannot be underestimated. Never assume your enemy follows the same code of behaviour as you do, adhere to the same moral code as most might. A corollary of this is that if you yourself saw something too crazy to believe you must tell others of it without fear of dismissal or ridicule. Distrust breaks down the team effectiveness and cohesiveness.
5. Have a plan for actions. Do not wait to be victims. Your plan of actions should be firstly security and ensure survival of the team. Your plan of actions should be secondly about escaping from the current horror situation. This has to be the order rather than the reverse. You will die without the team, there can be no escape alone. Note that all good plans require knowing what the sequence of actions will be (stepwise progression works best) as well as alternative options. No plans, regardless of how good, will be effective without buy-ins from the team. And the combination of action plans + team require defined role for each team members.
6. Have faith. Believing in a higher power/purpose may not save you from a lunatic, but it may against un-natural forces. Even against the mundane, having faith that you will survive provides a positive goal to enact and accomplish your plan of actions. Faith cannot be under-estimated. If you don't already believe, consider starting to believe (there are no atheist in foxholes). A corollary to this is that if you do not already believe, while others do, do not dismiss their faith, instead trust them, trust their faith (see #4 above).
7. Do not believe there is a traitor among you. Doing so will tear the team apart and doom you. If there is a traitor among you then you are doomed already, but no point speeding things up by breaking up your most important resource, your fellow team members. If the evidence become incontroversial that a person is a traitor, and some team members have already died from betrayal, eliminate the traitor. Use deadly force if necessary. Under no circumstances should you continue travel with the traitor as a captive. He/she will certainly seek to escape bondage while with you and cause harm to your team. While not the best of options, leaving the traitor behind bound and silenced may be an alternative. Know though that if found by your enemy, the traitor will certainly act against you. Why is having a traitor means you are likely doomed? Because the team has already been weakened and fractured by the traitor as well as the process of rooting out the traitor. However, you can at least take solace in the fact that nobody likes a traitor, and that in all likelihood the enemy will eliminate the traitor themselves once his/her usefulness has expired.
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