Gray Man Survival
Skills and knowledge for going unnoticed to stay safe
How to become a Gray Man for survival:
What's a gray man? It's military and prepper jargon for not
drawing attention to yourself. It's a kind of survival psychology
and urban camouflage technique to go under the radar. Becoming
a "gray man" is reducing awareness of your presence, so that
others may dismiss you or not even notice you. That could be a
good thing in a survival situation!
Going unnoticed can enable you to slip away and avoid dangerous
conflicts. In short, the gray man concept can keep you out of
harm's way.
Are you ready to be an urban ninja? Learn how to avoid conflict
using the five gray man survival skills below...
Develop "Gray Man" Survival Skills!
Everything you want to know about gray man tactics ~ how to
blend in, disappear, avoid harm, detect lies and much more is
available in a new book called
Gray Man Tactics, right. It's a
highly detailed book on how to be use the gray man theory. What
follows is an overview about gray man survival skills.
Knowledge weighs nothing as they say, and having the right
knowledge and skills to become a gray man could save your life.
Below are the strategies of being the unseen and unknown.
Here's how to be a gray man:
Step #1: Establish a baseline.
You can become a "grayman" in a survival situation by first
observing others and then developing a set of skills and
mannerisms to camouflage yourself under those terms. The key is
establishing a baseline for how people are acting, how they're
dressing for the occasion, how they are moving and talking in the
situation. Establishing a baseline is an observation you make
about what's going on...
Watch and observe:
Establishing a baseline is a part of situational awareness
(another whole discussion). Your goal in being a gray man is to
appear, talk, move and behave as others do. It's a way to go
undetected, unnoticed, unchecked and unharmed! Establishing a
baseline is about knowing the norm. The baseline norm will be
different depending on whether you're at the beach, in a
neighborhood, in a crowd during civil unrest, or during
Martial Law.
Step #2: Learn to be invisible in appearance.
Be "invisible" to others in part by wearing non-descript clothing
for the situation and on your person. This goes back to your
baseline observation. Ultimately, your goal as a grayman is to
avoid creating a stimulus. A stimulus is something memorable
and that creates an impression.
Some ways to be invisible:
Step #3: Integrate (have a baseline movement).
Immerse yourself in the environment so that it looks like you
belong. This means knowing the social norms and following them,
and using intuition and having a baseline movement.
Here's how to move about to avoid conflict.
Step #4: Maintain a situational awareness.
You can eliminate the chance for danger when you know how to
maintain a situational awareness. It's about having a threshold of
information about a situation so you can respond. If something
happens then you can follow through with a plan of action.
Above, Special Forces Operator and author Roy Shepard discloses how to
think like the gray man. This could be the single-most important part of the
gray man.
Step #5: Ensure Advanced Preparation.
Being prepared to take a split-second decision could save your
life if you have the know how of advanced preparation. In the
important video above Roy Shepard, a prepper who is formerly
from the Israeli Defense Forces, shares the mindset of someone
ready to be the gray man. As he explains it, there are four colors
representing levels of events to give you the advanced
preparation you need as a gray man...
Anyone can be a gray man for a day and this is a good survival
skill to practice. In the book,
Anti-tracking, pictured right, the
goal is in maintaining a low profile and evading capture. It's an
intuitive and revealing resource that demystifies the art of
creating the illusion of invisibility. It's also a good lead-in to our
other article on
how to disappear.
Happy endings...
Being a gray man is about being boring and avoiding stimulus.
Aim for average! If you're interesting or memorable, you're not
succeeding on the gray man concept. Get out your jeans and T-
shirt and get ready to be a gray man or woman, but go beyond
the gray man concept and have a clear decision making process
in place, so that you're ready to put the grayman strategies and
tactics into play when you need them.