Hiding in Plain Sight

As you and the rest of my devoted followers have (hopefully) noticed, last week’s post topic was not about what I had said it would be about. This was, of course, completely my intention, as I had hoped that the ensuing confusing would result in more comments on my blog. Unfortunately, my plan did not exactly transpire in the way in which I would have liked it to.

For those of you just tuning in, I am referring specifically to the time that I promised to explain how to “hide in plain sight.” If you are just now tuning in however, fret not! This post will be entirely devoted to the subject.

Now, there are many different variations on the meaning of “hiding in plain sight,” so to make it clear, when I say “to hide in plain sight,” I mean to literally hide while also simultaneously remain completely visible by anyone. Anyone, that is, who knows how to look for you.

Staying invisible isn’t a difficult task. In fact, it’s quite useful for those days when you can’t bear the thought of having to speak to anyone. But what does it entail? And why is it such a big deal?

Back in the day (and I mean way back when), there seemed to be an abundance of times when conventional methods of warfare were ineffective in winning battles. So, In order to adapt to these situations, groups of people formed secret communities which were devoted to honing skills that enabled guerrilla warfare. One of these skills was the ability to instantly “vanish” whenever the situation called for it.

The idea behind the ability to vanish is actually quite simple. As long as you can remain out of a person’s line of sight, then that person won’t know that you’re there until you decide to make it evident to them.

This might seem completely intuitive (and maybe even somewhat obvious), but being able to implement this information is much more difficult than one might suspect.

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The problem that usually arises is the same problem which most of us frequently experience. That is, once somebody has seen you, it becomes excessively difficult to become unseen. 

So today I wish to reassure you by confiding a very useful limitation of humans; a limitation that we have also come to accept as a cornerstone of our survival. It is our ability to focus; an ability which psychology has affectionately entitled “selective attention.”

Selective attention is what enables us to focus on tasks at hand and accomplish our goals. It allows us to notice and think of things related to our personal goals, all while filtering out irrelevant information. Without it, for example, it would probably take us hours just to tie our own shoes at the beginning of the day (just ask anyone with ADHD!). But, although our capacity to focus on what we perceive is a remarkable human trait, it is still markedly human, and it does have it’s limitations.

The thing about our ability to control our attention is that we are also quite likely to “over-focus,” causing us to miss things that might otherwise seem obvious. For example, if you’re sitting at your computer reading this post, there’s a good chance that you aren’t devoting much attention to what’s going on behind you. There’d be no reason to either, unless of course, there’s an invisible busy-body watching you…

Though, in all likelihood, there probably isn’t. Or, at least, you might think that there isn’t. And what people (back in the day) understood, was that people are more apt to think that they are alone when they can’t see people.

You literally only need to stay out of a person's line of sight to be invisible. There's also a good chance that they won't notice you even if you do pass their line of sight, as long as they are visibly focused on something else.
You only need to stay out of a person’s line of sight to be invisible. There’s also a good chance that they won’t notice you even if you do pass their line of sight, as long as they are visibly focused on something else.

There’s not too much more to that concept besides what I’ve presented. And to me, the simplicity of the whole thing is really what makes it interesting enough to write about.

So, this is where I conclude things for today. I do have a surprise for next week though, so please, don’t hesitate to read if you’re interested!

2 thoughts on “Hiding in Plain Sight

  1. Reminds me of the short story, “The Purloined Letter.” Hidden in plain sight, indeed!

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