The Color Code of Mental Awareness, Part II: From Front Sight

Condition Orange is the next level of mental awareness. Condition Orange is best described as a specific, potential threat. Let’s say you are in Condition Yellow and you’re aware of what’s going on around you and you see something out of the ordinary—you immediately ramp up to Condition Orange.

In Condition Orange, you need to do Two Things: First, you must make some evasive maneuver which forces your opponent to show his hand. Second, you must start formulating that tactical plan in the event that this is a real threat. The evasive maneuver forces your opponent to show whether his actions are just a coincidence OR he’s actually after you!

Here’s an example: You’re driving down the road, a late model Ford pickup truck with two 20-year-old males to the right of you. It slows down and pulls in behind you. Nothing out of the ordinary there, but you look in the rear view mirror and you see those two guys in the truck and they’re messing around underneath the dashboard and pointing at you. You think, “Condition Orange. Evasive maneuvers. Formulate a tactical plan in case this is in fact, a real threat.” So you make a right-hand turn at the next light. That’s your evasive maneuver—a very simple evasive maneuver. They make a right hand turn too! You make another right hand turn. They also make a right hand turn. How many of you would say, “It’s getting a little brighter Orange here?” You make another right hand turn and they’re still behind you.

How many of you would say, “Hey I think they’re following me.” You make another right hand turn and you’re on the same street you were on when they pulled in behind you. They are following you!Condition Orange is the second safety valve that helps prevent you from ever having to use the deadly skills we teach at Front Sight. Why? Because criminals are not the smartest people in the world but usually they can figure out when you know that they are on to you.

So after the third turn one says to the other, “You know that’s the third right hand turn this guy has done and he keeps looking in his mirrors at us. I think he knows we’re following him. Let’s find somebody else.” And off they go. Only the most dedicated criminal will continue his attack if he knows You Know it is coming.Well let’s say they’re still behind you after the 4th right turn. Does anybody have any doubt that this is a real threat? No. You forced your opponent to show his hand. What’s your tactical plan? Well we would submit to you that sometimes the best tactical plan is more evasion, more escape.

So your plan is, “I’m going to start driving over to the sheriff’s station or the police station. I’m going to keep plenty of following distance between me and the car in front. I’m not going to let these guys box me in. If they get out of their vehicles or they bump me, I’ll drive up onto the curb and I’ll get out of here.” Sure enough you’re driving, make a couple of turns, you’re heading toward the police station. You come to a stoplight. The car in front of you stops at the light. You leave a little space and these guys bump you. You look in the rear view mirror and what do you see? They’re getting out of the vehicles with weapons in their hands. You immediately drive up onto the right hand side of the road, up over the curb and you drive out of there. They are left standing in the street, weapons drawn, and looking around. As they retreat back to their truck they are wondering, “How did that happen?” Color Code of

Mental Awareness is how that happened!
That’s Condition Orange versus someone in Condition White who’s driving along, enjoying the radio, thinking about what they’re going to buy at the shopping center or what they have to do at the office. And BOOM they get hit from behind. First they grab their neck from the pain of the sudden jolt and the next thing they hear this “tap, tap, tap” on the glass. When they look out their window they’re shocked because what do they see? They see a .25 caliber pocket pistol that looks like a .45 caliber handgun pointing in the window and some guy yelling and screaming, “Get out of the car! Get out of the car!” They want to get out of the car, but they can’t move.(Many times these people get shot, not because they’re resisting, but because they’re not capable of getting out of the car. They are frozen in fear like a deer caught in your headlights.)

That’s the difference between getting caught in Condition White and being in Condition Yellow, then seeing something out of the ordinary, then ramping up mentally to Condition Orange, making that evasive maneuver as your formulate your tactical plan.

Condition Red is that level of mental awareness you reach when you know the threat is real. There’s no doubt they’re after you. In Condition Red you must set a mental trigger. You must draw a line in the sand. If you don’t set a mental trigger or draw a line in the sand, at that moment of truth when you should be active, when you should be shooting, when you should be running, whatever it is you should be doing — you may just be talking to yourself. And talking to yourself when you should be shooting will get you killed.Sequentially it works like this: You say to yourself, “I’m going to do X. If my opponent does Y, I’m doing Z.” End of story. Decision is made. You draw the mental line in the sand, if your opponent steps over it, you know what to do and You Do It!

Much like the carjacking scenario we just gave you. After four right turns, you know it’s a real threat. You formulate your tactical plan. You say to yourself, “I’m going to keep good following distance. That’s what I’m going to do. If they bump me or if they get out of their car, I’m going to drive upon the side of the road and get out of here.” You see? I’m doing X. If they do Y, I’m doing Z.

Remember the scenario we told you about yesterday? The police officers who’d received a call that the man was waving a gun at the Shopping Mall? A witness flagged him over and said, “Hey he’s around the corner. Be careful, he’s got a gun.” So the two officers approached the suspect. What mental condition should they have been in? Red. The officers should have said to themselves, “I’m going to tell him to turn around and show his hands. If he shows us empty hands, he doesn’t get shot and we will take him into custody. If he threatens me with a gun, I’m shooting him.” The decision is made either way.

One of the officers was in Condition Red and when presented with an armed threat, he shot the suspect. His partner, who after the shooting said, “I could not believe the guy pulled a gun.” was no where near Condition Red. He certainly wasn’t in Condition White, but he didn’t understand the Color Code of Mental Awareness. No one ever taught him how to mentally ramp up in order to make the split-second decision to shoot another human— even to save your own life. He got caught flat-footed when the gun came out. All he could muster at the moment of truth was, “I can’t believe he’s drawing a gun.”Understand, this can happen to you even after taking this class. You need to adopt this Color Code of Mental Awareness as your own. You need to live the Color Code of Mental Awareness. If you do not, you too could be caught talking to yourself, when you should be moving or shooting to save your life.

Condition Black is that point when your opponent trips your mental trigger and he crosses your mental line in the sand.At the point your opponent trips that mental trigger, at the point where he crosses the line in the sand, you ramp into Condition Black and this is where the Combat Mindset comes into play… End of Transcript

I hope you have enjoyed reading the transcript of my Color Code of Mental Awareness Lecture. I also hope you adopt it as your own so criminals will see that you are aware of your environment and will leave you alone.

Only the most dedicated, hardened criminal will attack you, knowing that you are aware and prepared. If that were to happen and you have already attended a four day course with us at Front Sight you will come out on top, standing tall with your life and dignity intact. I am sure of it. In fact, Front Sight will more than satisfy your expectations or I will pay for your training. You have my personal guarantee.

But again, don’t take my word for it. To see five students who could train anywhere in the world, tell you why they regularly travel across the country to train at Front Sight click on: There is No Place Like Front Sight.