Chapter 60 Scout Class - part 7 - Invisibility - from my book Changes

Primitive Camp at Trackerschool

Chapter 60

Scout Class - part 7 - Invisibility

According to my teacher, Tom Brown Jr, the Apache scout is known for their ability to come and go without being seen.  The scout learns to move in the unnoticed places, in the gaps between.

There is also a spiritual element to invisibility that Tom spoke about.

Trackerschool was a school of doing, not a school of theory. Tom taught us during lectures and sent us out to experience what he lectured about.  But if a student paid close attention, Tom would demonstrate things that were not announced.  Things like invisibility.

We students often compared notes on what we saw or experienced Tom do.  Here are a couple of my experiences.

I was walking through the main camp at the primitive camp in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, where many if not most of the Trackerschool classes were held.  There was no one in camp.  It was mid day.  I was heading toward the Bobs (the outhouses).  I looked all around me to see if Tom was there anywhere, which was a normal thing I did whenever I walked through camp.  The trees and the bushes there are not very thick and it is easy to see someone off the road on either side.  I saw that te place was deserted and Tom was not anywhere.

After looking around, I started walking up the road.  Instantly, Tom was walking right behind my right shoulder talking to me about my shoes.  We exchanged a few words while walking, before he peeled off to to right, to walk toward Grandfather’s camp.  I knew he just showed me how he could be invisible and then instantly be there.  I loved it!

Another time I was sitting in the lecture hall at one of the alternate camps that Trackerschool used in the wintertime. Everyone was there waiting for Tom to show up to teach.  People were milling around, some standing, some sitting.  I was sitting, just waiting, looking around to see when Tom would walk in.  One moment I see he is not at the desk in front, I look around again, and the next moment he is sitting at his desk looking over his notes.  I was watching for him, and he just appeared the moment I looked away.

Another one, a little bit different:  I was in the lecture hall in Florida where one of the winter classes was being held.  There were maybe 3 or 4 people in the large screened room between lectures.  I was sitting in a chair against the back wall with a couple people.  Tom was sitting in the corner to my right, one leg cocked up on his knee, in a little cubby area set up for nature identification books, reading a small paperback.

Tom gets up, takes some large strides out in front of us, yawns loudly, stretches his arms out wide, and walks out, swinging his arms exaggeratedly.  I watch him walk out.  Then I look back over to where he had been sitting and he is still there, in the same position, reading that book.

Cool!

So, … not really invisibility, but maybe projecting himself?

It’s crazy stuff like that that keeps us tracker students salivating for more!

So, since this chapter is still about Scout Class, here is what happened to me.

My team and I were on our way back to camp after one of the nightly raids.  We were tired.  It was about 2 am.  We were continuing to walk along the side of the road by the trees and not directly on the sand road.  It was stop and go as the point person led us along.  I was in the middle of the group, waiting, close to the trees, doing nothing until our point person to start walking again, when I noticed an odd feeling.

It felt like there was a person standing close to me on the left, like really close, where the trees were.  I looked carefully but no one was there; just a little evergreen tree.  But it seriously felt like a person was standing very close to me!  I looked again, trying to see a person, but there was only a tree.  I could see the trunk of the tree between the branches so I reached out with my pointer finger to touch the trunk of the tree, just to double check.  As I reached out, a hand grabbed my finger!  Someone was there and I still couldn’t see them!

I imagine my jaw dropped and whoever was there, being invisible and projecting the image of a tree, was having to stifle a laugh!

I just loved stuff like that.  Of course, I also knew I was safe at Trackerschool, and there were shadow scouts all over the place, showing us things like that, so it didn’t scare me.  It only showed me what was possible.