Forgive me if this has been answered.

[MantisStyle21]

But I am in school right now and I've finished my work, so I thought I'd get on here and ask real quick...

What are the levels of awareness?

I've heard white/yellow/red and all that but i forget what they are.

So if anyone knows what they are, would you mind explaining and listing them to me? Thanks!

 

[still learning]

Hello, This is Home land security colors for most of the Nations airport.

Red: Severe = Risk of attack by terrorist

Orange: High = Risk of attack by terrorist

Yellow: significant = Risk of attack by terrorist

Blue: General = Risk of attack by terrorist

Green: Low = Risk of attack by terrorist

The above was from Home land Securty colors use at most Airports.
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Other organzitions may have differ colors for different meanings.
Hope this may help you with colors most of us see now days at airports!

Aloha ( Waters in Hawaii is blue, trees and plants green, the sun looks yellow, and lots of us are turning red by the sun! (sun burn)... Orange you glad we have COLORS in our lives?)

 

[theletch1]

What exactly do you mean by "awareness"? Is it, as SL posted the terrorist alert level? Is it the levels of awareness as viewed by a specific style of martial arts?

 

[Andy Moynihan]

If you're referring to the Cooper Color Code as it relates to individual situational awareness it is as follows:

White--Totally unaware of one's surroundings. Walking around daydreaming, or your mind is otherwise not in the present. There is no excuse for being in Condition White except when asleep.

Yellow--This is the place to be. Relaxed but conscious awareness of surroundings at all times. You become aware of who/what could become a potential problem but there is no actual problem yet.

Orange--Ready to go. There is obvious cause for alarm such as someone yelling verbal abuse at you or approaching you in a hostile or suspicious way, shots ringing out but not identified, someone drawing a weapon and moving toward you.

Red--You're in it. You have positive ID on one or more threats and it's now actively time to escape or take them out.

 

[stone_dragone]

From a reality based martial arts perspective, I've seen the Red/Yellow/White continuum wher eRed is hyper-vigilant of your surroundings, Yellow is on guard but relaxed and white is blissfully unaware (Red would be downtown Baghdad or in a dark alley, yellow is in a rear-eschelon still in iraq or in a familiar place with unfamiliar people and white is home in bed).

Kenpo talks about white dot and black dot focus as well...

"We visualize a black dot on a white background representing total awareness. Our concern is not only to maximize power, but protection as well...Where one visualizes a white dot on a black background, which represents unawareness. The focus is on maximizing power, not protection." - http://www.bakerfamily4.net/kenpo/terms.htm

 

[tellner]

When all else fails, go to the source. This is what Colonel Cooper had to say about his Color Code. It has nothing to do with states of awareness:

I have been teaching the Color Code for about 30 years now, but I have not been teaching it well. I keep seeing something handed back to me which purports to be what I have taught, but which is not. Clearly I am not as much of a teacher as I would like to be.

I believe I can speak freely of the Color Code because as it applies to defensive pistolcraft I invented it. I cannot, of course, say that what I think is right, but only that what I have preached is just that - what I have preached. It works, and it satisfies me, but not all the time. I have scores of cases now from men I have taught and who have reported back to me that their understanding of a Color Code saved their lives. This, of course, is very satisfying, but I do wish the matter were more clearly understood.

The Color Code refers not to a condition of peril, but rather to a condition of readiness to take life. Fortunately most people are very reluctant to take lethal action against another human being. Most people are reluctant to shoot for blood on a harmless game animal, until they become used to it. To press the trigger on a human adversary calls for a wrenching effort of will which is always difficult to achieve and sometimes apparently impossible. Thus we live our days in Condition White, which may or may not have anything to do with our danger, since quite frequently we are in deadly danger and do not realize it. Any time you cross directions out on a two-lane highway you are at the mercy of that character coming towards you in the opposite direction. Usually he is okay, but when he is under some sort of chemical influence, or is psychologically upset, he may only twitch his wheel to produce a multiple fatal accident. Most of us would prefer to live in Condition White permanently, and many do, but those who are more aware of the nature of things are often in Yellow, which is a condition in which we are aware that the world is full of hazards which are human, and some of which may be obviated by our own defensive action. When one is in Condition Yellow he is aware that today may be the day. He is not in a combat mood, nor is he aware of any specific situation which may call for action on his part. There is a vital difference between White and Yellow, and it has to do not with any specific enemy or a set of circumstances, but rather with your awareness that you individually may have to take decisive action on this very day. If you are attacked in Condition White, you will probably die, or at least need a stretcher. If you are attacked in Condition Yellow, you will probably win, assuming that you are armed, awake and aware. The difference does not lie in the deadliness of the hazard facing you, but rather in your willingness to take a very unusual action.

If in the course of events you become aware of the possible existence in your presence of a lethal adversary, you switch from Yellow to Orange. The difference lies in the specific nature of your presumed antagonist, not in his evident competence or attitude. In Yellow you say to yourself, "I may have to shoot today." I may actually have to press my trigger on a human adversary, but I don't know who or where.

When you detect the presence of a target who may be the one you will have to engage, you shift from Yellow to Orange. In Yellow your mind-set is "I may have to shoot today." In Orange it is "I may have to shoot him today." At this point your normal reluctance becomes easier to overcome. Legal and moral aspects of the conflict are lowered and have been dismissed from your mind. Your attitude is dictated by the presence of that enemy standing there. You may have to shoot him, now, today. What is needed is a trigger. The trigger is the act establishing that the situation is indeed a matter of lethal conflict. This is Condition Red, and in Red you have solved the psychological problem and have no further concerns beyond the technical. In Red you are go, and your mind is concerned only with front-sight and surprise.

Moving from the various Conditions into each other is easy to accomplish once it is understood. If you are attacked in White you will lose the fight. In Yellow you will have the advantage of initiative response over your antagonist. In Orange you are pretty safe, provided you are armed, alert and aware. In Red you win. Simple, isn't it? Clearly you cannot go any further than Red because in Red you have already made the lethal decision. Complications are unproductive.

further illuminated here

Considering the principles of personal defense, we have long since come up with the Color Code. This has met with surprising success in debriefings throughout the world. The Color Code, as we preach it, runs white, yellow, orange, and red, and is a means of setting one's mind into the proper condition when exercising lethal violence, and is not as easy as I had thought at first. There is a problem in that some students insist upon confusing the appropriate color with the amount of danger evident in the situation. As I have long taught, you are not in any color state because of the specific amount of danger you may be in, but rather in a mental state which enables you to take a difficult psychological step.

Now, however, the government has gone into this and is handing out color codes nationwide based upon the apparent nature of a peril. It has always been difficult to teach the Gunsite Color Code, and now it is more so. We cannot say that the government's ideas about colors are wrong, but that they are different from what we have long taught here.

The problem is this: your combat mind-set is not dictated by the amount of danger to which you are exposed at the time. Your combat mind-set is properly dictated by the state of mind you think appropriate to the situation. You may be in deadly danger at all times, regardless of what the Defense Department tells you. The color code which influences you does depend upon the willingness you have to jump a psychological barrier against taking irrevocable action. That decision is less hard to make since the jihadis have already made it.

 

[MantisStyle21]

Thanks for all the help guys! I appreciate it.

I was meaning it in the simple martial artist sense of your surroundings, but the Home Land security helped out too ^_^;

 

[still learning]

Hello, Using colors to tell you what condition or phase you are in? NOT sure about this?

Lets say you are facing a possible situtions which leads to RED?

In our minds will we vision colors of changes? We can use colors to describe the incident later.

"I went from white to the red zone", and that's how I escape.
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In the fear mode/adrenline mode: our thoughts become limited by what we are facing....many times.."O'"O" I think this guy wants to fight or harm me?

One will not get time to think "UM is this white code?....this guy is moving into the yellow code? .....should I be ready for the Red code?

Most of us will be looking at the attacker and wondering what we should do and what the attacker will do?

I am not going to stand there and tell myself? White, Yellow, Red, this takes a step out of my thinking/movements?

Colors are good for descriptions.....I rather use READY...SET...GO (to run or fight back).

In situtions would you like to hear? ....RED, RED, or GO, GO? Which one will make you react faster in the mind?

Just my thoughts on this.................Aloha (color blind)

 

[SKB]

The color code works. Been using the idea of where your threat level is for a long time now! When it is time to "go" you do not think about the color. When you are in red your in the **** and the colors keep your thinking about your surroundings

 

[tellner]

...as illustrated by this:

Back in the Age of Sail there was a bold, bloody pirate captain. One day the first mate came to him and said "Captain, Captain! There's a Spanish Man O'War three points off the port bow closing quickly!"

"First Mate, go to my sea chest and bring me my red shirt."

"Aye Captain, why the red shirt?"

"Because when we fight the men won't see the blood if I get wounded, and they'll take heart."

After a fierce battle the Spanish ship was taken and a prize crew put aboard.

A few days later the Mate ran up to the Captain again.

"Captain, Captain! There are two French Men O'War off the stern. They're in full sail and running out their colors!"

"First Mate, bring me my red shirt!"

It was a hard, brutal fight, but at last they sunk one of the French ships and drove the other off.

The next week the First Mate rushed to the Captain saying

"Captain, Captain! We're surrounded by ten British Men O'War. They're closing fast and have run out their guns!"

"First Mate, bring me my brown pants!"

 

[still learning]

Hello, The pirate Captain : "Great story"

Kind of remind me of the old days amoung kids.....underware, yellow is front and brown is back.....learning how to to use your underware...colors in training.

Aloha