How to hide in plain sight wearing gray man clothes

There might be a difficult time in your life when you need to move through a crowd absolutely unnoticed in order to protect yourself and avoid serious dangers. Such difficult times could anything ranging from short-term natural disasters such as hurricanes to long-term problems, including an economic crisis in a country leading to public unrest and even civil war.

One of the best strategies for becoming unnoticed to be safe is to blend into a crowd by becoming a grey man.  The grey man concept means the way of blending into a crowd and not standing out at the time of threats and dangers. Thus, a grey man is a person, who can become anyone and has a unique capacity to step in and out of compromising situations without being threatened or noticed.

For an ordinary people being a grey man means not becoming a target for predators, who surround us in difficult times.The grey man concept means the way of blending into a crowd, and not standing out at the time of threats and dangers. Thus, a grey man is a person, who can become anyone and has a unique capacity to step in and out of compromising situations without being threatened or noticed. For an ordinary people being a grey man means not becoming a target for predators, who surround us in difficult times.

If you have already assessed the environment around you and come to a conclusion that you need to learn how to become a grey man, the following recommendations might be helpful for you.

Determination the baseline

In the context of blending into a crowd and the grey man, the baseline means a set of norms and behavior for a particular environment. For example, normal appearance at the beach includes bathing suits, shorts, and T-shirts, while behavior is calm and relaxing.

As opposite, such event as a formal dinner would be based on such appearance as suites and a very professional behavior in a business-like manner. So how to determine the baseline of the given environment?

The answer is simple: just to watch and observe. Thus, before heading into a new and unfamiliar environment it is recommended to look around and determine what is the people’s appearance, behavior and acting there in order to try to do the same. Your main purpose should be to follow the rules and norms in this environment in order not to look like a stranger.

So how to determine the baseline of the given environment? The answer is simple: just to watch and observe. Thus, before heading into a new and unfamiliar environment it is recommended to look around and determine what is the people’s appearance, behavior and acting there in order to try to do the same. Your main purpose should be to follow the rules and norms in this environment in order not to look like a stranger.

This is easier if you are in a quite familiar place, but it could get a bit more challenging if you are at the foreign country, and for example, don’t speak or understand the local language. However, all situations are manageable, and you should train yourself becoming the grey man. It could be fun, and this survival skill could really save you from the trouble in certain situations.

Avoidance of creating stimulus

A stimulus is defined as anything that might trigger a response when other people see you that may create an impression with them.  For example, if you are doing something in a crowd that causes others to take notice, you are creating a stimulus.

This means that your behavior has stimulated the mind of other people to draw attention to you. On a biological level, it can be described as a very simple principle. Out mind remembers only those things and events that stimulate it. Thus, if there is no stimulus, there will be no notice. The part of the brain that is responsible for it is called Reticular Activating System (RAS).

RAS can be defined as a portal or gates that filter all the information trying to enter our brain. Every single day we are attacked by a lot of stimuli and without the mechanism of RAS that filters out unimportant information, our mind and brain would suffer from information overload.

Let us give you an example that will allow you to understand better the RAS functioning. Imagine yourself at a party or any other social event, where you are engaged in a conversation and are surrounded by many people. If someone across the room suddenly mentions your name, the RAS of your brain will make you draw attention to this person immediately.  This happens because by filtering out all the noise in the room around you, the RAS considered exactly this information as important and triggered a response.

On a biological level, it can be described as a very simple principle. Out mind remembers only those things and events that stimulate it. Thus, if there is no stimulus, there will be no notice, you are Mr. / Ms. nobody!

The part of the brain that is responsible for it is called Reticular Activating System (RAS). RAS can be defined as a portal or gates that filter all the information trying to enter our brain. Every single day we are attacked by a lot of stimuli and without the mechanism of RAS that filters out unimportant information, our mind and brain would suffer from information overload.

Let us give you an example that will allow you to understand better the RAS functioning. Imagine yourself at a party or any other social event, where you are engaged in a conversation and are surrounded by many people. If someone across the room suddenly mentions your name, the RAS of your brain will make you draw attention to this person immediately. This happens because by filtering out all the noise in the room around you, the RAS considered exactly this information as important and triggered a response.

Going back to the discussion of blending into a crowd in the time of danger, it is definitely not a good idea to have the appearance that will create a stimulus in the brain of other people because once the stimulus is created, the attention of people is fully focused on you. In dangerous times it is very important to look normal like you belong to the given environment.

The process of blending

How exactly blending and becoming a grey man is accomplished? Even though it seems to be complicated, in fact, the process is quite simple and it will be described below in more detail.

Forms of dress

The first thing that you should consider by trying to become a grey man is your clothing. Fortunately, the dress is the element of blending that is within our control. In order to blend effectively, make sure that you choose the clothing that is normal in a given baseline.

In most societies and environments neutral and natural colors are the best choice, including greys and browns. Give priority to a conservative style of clothing without showing too much skin. This means that clothing should not be too fashionable, as well as too old-fashioned.  The key word when choosing clothing is ordinary. You also should not choose the clothing with any logos or provocative images, since they easily trigger stimulus in people’s mind.

Furthermore, it might not be the best idea to wear camouflage or other kinds of army/survival type of clothes. Those could get you noticed. I arrived in Thailand wearing light brown army cargo shorts and t-shirt. The only problem was that I arrived with a group of people coming to the holiday and guess who stood out of the crowd.

Discreet mannerisms

Since the main goal and mission of the grey man is to attract as little attention as possible, his mannerisms should be very discreet and small. This means that there should be no sweeping gestures, cursory glance or too energetic movements.

Avoid eye contact at all costs

Eye contact should be always avoided because it might trigger a stimulus in the person’s brain. You might have probably been in the situation when someone in the shopping mall is trying to sell you something by establishing eye contact with you. The best method to avoid eye contact is to keep your eyes focused forward, which will help not to make undesirable eye contact.

However, it is also important to avoid eye contact natural way. I mean that you should not look like you are trying to avoid it, doing it the wrong way is one of the best ways to attract unwanted attention. Just look around naturally and normally, but don’t stop your movement, jump to the next thing, look through people.

Of course there are situations, when you should establish natural eye contact. Those are when you are grossing borders and there are custom officers or for example if police talks to you. In those situations avoiding eye contact brings alarm bells.

Match your movements with others

One of the key elements of blending is to make your movements matching to the given environment. In order to do this you need to observe the speed people move, the gestures they use, and the speed and the volume they speak. To notice and learn all this is not difficult: all you need to do is just sit and watch.

Choose your routes carefully

If you do not want to get into troubles, you should choose your route very carefully and know the environment like a native. In order to avoid problems and not to appear in a dangerous situation, you should know what neighborhoods are safe and what is not. You should know such places and locations in the city as gas stations, clinics, police and fire stations, and convenience stores.

Do not do public proclamations

If you want to emulate a grey man, you should avoid making any public proclamations, especially in social media and among strangers. This means that neutrality should be the main priority, even if you feel the urge to express your opinion concerning any situation. Such neutral attitude can be compared to the behavior of duck that appears very calm on the surface of the lake while paddling very hard under the water.

Maintain awareness at all times

Despite general neutrality and autonomy, a true grey man is always aware of what is happening around and clearly understands that other people can harm him at any time. He knows that bad things might happen to good people and he is not surprised if such things happen in his life. Therefore, even though we all live in a connected world, the grey man is always on the lookout.

Avoid noticeable features

As it has been mentioned already, to be the grey man you should remain as ordinary as possible, which means that you should not have any features that allow to identify you easily. Such features include any tattoos, piercing, or hair of unusual, bright or extraordinary colors, no dog tags or camouflaged army clothes. They do not only create stimulus about you but make it easier to identify you if necessary.

In summary, it is possible to say that the grey man is a person with a capacity to blend into society without creating any stimulus in other people’s mind in order not to attract any attention. This helps a person to become invisible and keep himself safe. Such strategy allows the grey man to survive in difficult and turbulent time.

As preppers and survivalists, we have our own life style. It is good to remember, that in general, it might be good idea to hide that life style as much as you can. You might not want to become know as a man or woman who have all the resources when the disaster strikes or conflict starts. Keep your stockpiles and skills secret.

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