Walking Strong

If my profession had working papers, I would write one just on movement through crowds.

I normally avoid people and walk a bit too fast. It makes it reasonable for me to not recognize people, that I am in a rush, but the truth is I don't recognize people because of some slight neurological deficit. I looked it up once, it affects about 4% of the population of the UK (not sure if of the world) according to the BBC, but anyhow...

I just dodge people. It isn't actually faster to do so in most cases. I would travel just as fast, or even faster, but walking slower but in straight lines at a more even pace.

I would also sweat less, in the case of hot daytime or a sticky (highly humid) night. It's more the high humidity that makes me sweat, than the non-adjusted/dry bulb/actual temperature.

Whenever I walk slow, though, strangers are more friendly. A lot of the men say things like "yes, sir" or "good afternoon". So do school-children of any gender. Women, though, then to just ignore me.

Must need more Axe.

Ah, but I typed all that before I read the rest of your post. I've created space by using energy before, usually when walking with a companion. I thought it was more a side effect of creating comfortable space and decoupling between myself and the companion, however. I noticed people dispersing unconsciously but didn't really have an intention to make them do so most of the time.

I don't tend to walk much at night but sometimes during the predawn (3a.m.-5a.m., sunrise is about 5:30 a.m. here) I would take a break and go for a walk. Return soon after dawn.

There's basically nobody on the roads at that time, nor have I had any problems... also much cooler and less humid regardless of how humid or hot the day before had been.

The rare times that I had any problems, it was my fault for being much too distracted internally. I mean, to the point that I really should have just taken some time in deep thinking for a few hours or days, not any momentary distraction by outside forces or temporary glitch.

In those cases, I suppose some people function around that level continually but to me it is part of intelligence to gather your whilst and avoid the public whilst thinking on a higher plane, or at least set a stable persona in place as you travel, so when accounting for that, I'd say crowds have never been a problem for me.

But, still, I might need more Axe or to walk a lot more slowly in general. Perhaps stop wearing my underwear on the inside.

Yeah, faceblindness... I couldn't remember the Latin-sounding medical term for it so I just left it out... I have to use mannerisms and such to recognize people, and it can thus take a while especially with people who just stare at you and expect you to remember them because they are remembering you.

On the up-shoot, I'm good at remembering conversations, since what people say is what usually allows me to look up their identity in my formation (or mental database or whatever).

That added attention to deeper detail likely also helped me to recognize sincere from insincere, and turn more into the energy and intentions of a person than their superficial appearance. So, by accident, I never got into a lot of prejudices which are based on those details.

I don't think it is as bad now as it used to be, before, so I might be able to eventually train my brain to practically eliminate it, but I haven't actually tried to do so as yet.

Yeah, faceblindness... I couldn't remember the Latin-sounding medical term for it so I just left it out...

Prosopagnosia.

That's Jessie, from Ireland.. she's 9 but close enough. This is her in the semi-finals, which in my opinion was the high point. [she made the finals, but that wasn't as good].

Personally, I'm now imagining Dr Infanta as a sort of mini Christian Bale in Equilibrium...