You might see me, but can you perceive me?
The art of invisibility has always been a popular topic, especially in the media. But who are these masters of the very hard to see? Warriors in the woods, Ninja in black or even the special forces - black, green and aquamarine? I guess it is safe to say that in today’s world, we have many students of the art.
This popularity was brought on by books, magazines and the ever growing Ninja films - not to mention the fact that it often serves as a realistic tool. Of course other forms of media and entertainment attention does its share to bring awareness to this art. For example, the villain in the Blair Witch Project,€¯David Copperfield, Rambo, all the good presidential candidates, and perhaps even OJ Simpson. All of which either were masters of stealth, invisibility, survival, hiding, and/or verbal claims such as, I wasn’t there.
Let me start by saying, there are no deep dark secrets about the art of invisibility, (unless of course we really are talking about the above media sources) even though it may create an awe of mysticism in the eye of your adversary. Invisibility is the art of employing a simple technique (or techniques) and skills utilized in the most effective manner to make one hard to perceive or hear.
None of what you learn here will teach you to just disappear. If an instructor boasts about his skills to turn invisible - simply bring him back down to earth by asking them for a visual demonstration. The problem with most schools on eclectic warrior arts is that they make claims that can never be proven. This and all articles on NinjaGym are based on realistic approaches towards training. We will not (and I hope you don‘t either) concern ourselves with black magic or concepts based on ancient history and story telling.
If you truly want to master the art of invisibility, I would suggest you throw away your ninja books and text guides to wearing black. Instead, turn to the real masters of the art - illusionists and magicians. These masters of perception will offer far more in the art of disappearance.
Please note, we are talking about the art of illusion and the way a person perceives reality. I highly doubt a magician will be able to teach you the physical side of invisibility: such as footwork, climbing, moving quietly etc.
So, until you manage to track down David Copperfield - here are a few tips to improve skills in the physical realm.
To be invisible, you must not be seen or heard in a way that would distinguish you as YOU.
Remember that famous forest with that famous tree that falls with no one to hear? You know, the one that ends with this question: If there is no one there to hear, does it make a sound? Once and for all yes, the tree does make a sound. Why , because if you were there - you would hear it and you would say, “wow that was loud.”
Regardless of your presence or your perception of reality, the tree will always make the sound. The real question is simply confusing how we define the word sound and associating that to our hearing. When in fact the falling of the tree creates a noise as a fact regardless of the way we perceive definitions. This is another concept of invisibility. Both the theory and the tree remain elusive and thus invisible.
Okay, let me take you out of the woods before we all get lost. The concept of invisibility means that you can make sounds and even cross within your opponents visual sight, but you must not be perceived.
So, you can be within your enemies eye sight, in fact he may even see you. However, because you have blended into the surroundings, you are not perceived. Another example is Where‘s Waldo? You may be looking for Waldo, who is well within your sight, but unless you perceive him, he remains invisible.
Invisibility is the art of blending in, becoming an insignificant part of our environment and disappearing within it. Hey, this reminds me of high school.
So, in order for us to remain invisible - we have to master the art masking any and all indicators. An indicator is something that would basically say, ”hey, it‘s me and I‘m hiding behind this rock.” We mask indicators by developing our skills in one area - Camouflage
Camouflage
Obviously you want to remain quite when traversing through the woods or a dark alley. The key to concealment is learning and practicing a few techniques. Camouflage is usually seen as green patterned clothing for use in a forest. Camouflage (whether artificial or natural) is actually any and all skills you use to remain unseen. This includes - sight, sound, smell and sense.
Sight
The human eye sees movement first. So, this is your number one priority, in order to stay out of sight, you need to know what you can do and what your opponent is trying to do. This goes for all your invisibility training. Here are the basics:
Don‘t be a jerk
You need to lean to move with patience and fluidity. Jerky movements are easy to see. Also, don‘t go disturbing the peace in a natural environment. A flock of birds taking off is a sign that something is in the area.
Better to make a loud sound than to quietly come into view. If you are heard - it does not mean that you will be perceived. Even if it is obvious that you are there. However, if you are seen - not only is it obvious that you are there, but your exact position is now revealed.
Form - an opinion
Do not be a big black head?
Your visual goal is to remove the distinct shape of the human form. You will also need to pay attention to shape and lighting. Think of what might create a silhouette and know when you should hide, crawl, walk, stealth or run. What kind of uniform or outfit do you have on? Do you stand out or blend in? Are you carrying a big sword or a what looks like a tree branch?
The eye recognizes the human shape. So, as part of our stealth training, we want to work on concepts that help us to break up this form. If you can imagine looking above the waist at a silhouette of a person in the shadows, you can begin to get my meaning. The head really stands out.
When you are in a cat stance, your hands and arms are crossed. When you are using this stance for stealth, they come up in front of the face to break up
the form of the head and thus help you to disguise any characteristics of being human - by breaking up the obvious shape of the shoulder and head.
Your hands can also be holding sticks and branches to aid in this tactic - especially when you are in a wooded area. You also can have dirt or blinding powder in your hands.
If you were walking along a path at night but an opponent was headed in your direction (maybe looking, but they did not see you yet), you could Cat
stance pivot to the side just off the trail and use your hands to break up the shape of your head while you bent your knees either to crouch or into a cat stance (ready to kick up dirt or apply a front kick attack).
Imagine that your opponent did stop to peer into the bushes and see you - it would take a second for their eyes to adjust and determine if you were indeed an adversary. When an opponent PEERS like this, their eyes will be open and so you have an opportunity to use the branches, sticks, or blinding powder in your hands to attack the eyes and disappear once again.
Naturally, this would give your position away and should be used as a last resort and dependent on other factors (for example, if there are a few other
people nearby - your opponent could scream and alarm others - so your initial attack would be used as a break up while you followed up with a silencing finish).
Practical Clothing
Depending on your situation, jogging clothes often make a much better outfit for urban invisibility. Why? Well, what if you happened to be revealed? A jogging suit is much more believable than the embarrassment of having your tabi out in plain sight. For photographs and Ninja films the uniform portrayed looks great, but it is more effective to look like a fallen tree branch than a model for Ninja magazine.
Colors for concealment
In order to be invisible, it is crucial that you wear clothing or material that blends in with your surrounding environment. Colors should have the same intensity, brightness and contrast in order to remain consistent.
Night: Dark blue, black, gray or other dark color
Country: Green and browns
City: Gray sometimes blue
Just because it is night, does not mean a black uniform from head to toe will make you invisible. That outfit will make you stick out and be easy to spot when moving. Unless you remain deep in the shadows, a dark black outfit is not realistic. Remember, black isn‘t a very natural color - the sky is dark blue not black and trees, leaves and grass are usually made up of greens or browns. Also, a black uniform is limited to night work while a green and brown uniform can adapt when the sun comes out.
Remember, the goal is to remove the distinct shape of the human form. Color choices can help to do this.
Movement
Always move from shadow to shadow, rock to rock, obstacle to obstacle. Other strategies and body control are used in combination with your movements. The more you look like part of the surroundings and the less you look like a human hiding behind a bush, the more likely you will remain invisible.
You will usually use your environment in one of two ways: either to hide behind or blend beside. If the area you are hiding behind does not fully conceal your figure or form, then it is important that you shape your body to look like that of your cover. For example: laying down in a field, crouching amongst rocks and extending your arms and legs along tree limbs and branches.
Night vision
It can take a person up to thirty minutes for their eyes to adapt to the darkness so that they can see. Anyone without this timed night sight, will have greatly reduced vision when looking out into a darkened area. A flash of light is all that is necessary to ruin a persons night vision for another twenty to thirty minutes. What‘s the tip? Don‘t lose your night vision and if you can, keep your opponent from developing his. This will allow the shadow warrior to observe his enemy yet still remain invisible and camouflaged in the night.
Note:when watching for things in low light, you will have a better chance of seeing them if your eyes remain unfocussed. You can do this by looking in a circular motion around the object, for example a circular or figure eight pattern.
Most of this is about awareness - your next step will be to develop skills to improve your ability to stay quiet and unseen.
Sound
Another major ingredient to the art of staying invisible is your ability to move quietly through various terrain. Following are some practical techniques for stealth, it is up to you to actually make them work. After time and training, you will begin to develop your own style of stealth. Some will be slight variations of what you learned here and some will be completely new and unique to your individual style.
These techniques alone will not make you move through the night as quiet as the wind. This information is only a principle to aid in your practice and is of little use by itself. You must practice until you become very good at moving silently, in turn - staying quiet.
In order to move in silence, we must pay attention (but not focus on) what it is that makes noise in the first place. The next step would be to reduce these ”here I am” as much as possible. In training, you can practice on various terrain‘s to get a feel of the different techniques you can use.
Making choices
Okay, you come to a point where you must choose one of two paths. One path is open and laid with sand while the other is narrow and laid with trees. Which path would you take? The sand path will be quieter to move across unlike the tree path which has leaves and branches strewn about. However, the tree path offers cover and camouflage and as we learned earlier, it is better to be heard than to be seen. These type of questions only help to explain the variety of choices you will have to deal with. If you prepare - you can handle the situation appropriately.
On page two of Stealth and Invisibility we will go over the basic guide to stealth walking.
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