RECENTLY DE-CLASSIFIED INTEL FROM CHALLENGER H.Q.-

We have Agent Meyerhold to thank for the bulk of our work on Reflex Excitability.  Direct texts and translations were heavily redacted by his home country, which was a damn shame, but we black bagged an early attributed quote, and we have built off that for the last twenty years.

“…Excitability is the ability to realize in feeling, movements, and words a task which is prescribed externally… The coordinated manifestations of excitability together constitute the actor’s performance…”

VSEVOLOD MEYERHOLD

Not much to go on, but combined with numerous other texts and the stories Supreme Mission Commander Johnson heard directly from a source close to Agent Meyerhold across enemy lines, we have created the Challenger version of Reflex Excitability.

Reflex Excitability is a form of Hyper “Readiness” where every fiber of an Agent’s being is Practically vibrating with anticipation for whatever might be offered.  This Readiness is expressed in an Agent’s face (Feelings), Body (Movements), and Voice (Words). This is playing Shortstop as opposed to Right Field. An Agent simply cannot properly Accept any Offers unless they are EXCITED to field them!

DEEP COVER, ASSET CONDITIONING and FIELD SITREP –

Reflex Excitability is our primary Conditioning.  We must create an environment where Excitement happens BEFORE anything else, not just as a response to offers.  So, we need to hit this training at the very start of every session.  The ritual quality of crossing the threshold is key… make it meaningful to the Cadets, and they will remember to cross with the intent to leave their heavy burdened self behind, and enter as lighter and freer. Cadets and Agents should EAGER at all times. 

BASIC TRAINING FOR ALL FIELD OPERATIVES –

Warm up exercises should be designed to strip away any lingering ego sludge of filters and expectations, and allow for instant reactions and pure spontaneity.

• Poppy Warm-Ups. Circle up… These games should be played rapid-fire.  Look for active stances and excitement in face, body, and voices.  Everything should have a vocalization and ENERGY. Shuriken tosses.  “YES” across the room.  Passing gestures.  Yee Haa (or any of the zillions of variations).  Zip Zap Zop or Zip Zap Zoop (Actually different games).  Any quick game where you pass “Something” intangible (a FORCE) around the room and have some variety on how or where that force is passed.

• Word games. Story Story Die requires a reflexive response to pointing.  Gauntlet requires reflexive “Next word” in a sequence responses, as does Dictionary.

• Any Calling-Out games like Liar and Backwards and Forwards, etc. can be used as training exercises if you add the intent of Speed.

BLACK BAG ACQUISITIONS FOR DOG AND PONY SHOWS –

Reflex Excitability is at the core of ALL performances.  The presence of a civilian audience should only serve to increase an Agents inner Excitement, not in the hopes of “Getting” something from them, but in the anticipation of “Giving” to their community in the way they have been trained to do.  Warm-Ups should always be done before any Dog and Pony show to put all Agents in a frame of near frenzied Excitability.

• ALL GAMES.  Every single one of them!

Anyone who has ever been on an athletic team, or even watched a major sporting event on TV has seen that one guy on every team, whether they are the captain or just the team cheerleader, in the center of a circled mass of players… Firing Everyone Up!  They jump around, yell and scream things about house ownership and varying degrees of physical superiority, but invariably they will ask a simple question in some very loud, boisterous manner… “Are you Ready?”  Reflex Excitability is simply being ready.  Many of us would like to think that… yes… we’re… ready… for stuff.  But is that just for the big game?  The big presentation?  Your big Anniversary or the kid’s birthday?  What do you actively do to get yourself “READY?”  (And, in the case of Anniversaries and Children’s Birthday parties, drinking heavily is NOT the best path to READINESS… ya lush)  What if you were always EAGER at WORK?  What if you were always EAGER at LIFE?  It starts with the want to, and for that, just think of the very best days of your life… What state do you remember being in?  Slow and thoughtful?  Or bright eyed and eager… like a kid on Flag Day Morning (June 14th… Flag day?  Just my family? Presents?  Big Flag Day feast?  No?).  The state of Reflex Excitability is a magnet for really good days, so that should be your “Want to” right there.  The next step is always “How.”  Maybe you could be the team captain or cheerleader… for you, or for your family or workplace.  Fire yourself and your community up every day.  Through some sort of ritual (use your ART to CREATE your own ritual), Cross a threshold every day from the drudgery of your fears and ego and expectations which weigh on you like a vest of Jacob Marley’s chains (Wait… was it “Bob” Marley?  No), into a state of mind where you are light and empty and READY.  Ready to ACCEPT any OFFER your day throws at you.  What you CAN NOT do is just go about your days the way you always do and EXPECT that good things will come your way.  You must put yourself in a state of READINESS and EXCITABILITY or you WILL MISS the good stuff.  As almost always, FEAR will be your biggest obstacle.  Identify your fears.  Face them.  Slowly TRAIN yourself to overcome them…