Training a New Breed of Agents

By Cristina C. Giancchini

There is a new way of breeding Agents: instead of training them in closed camps or farms in relative comfort, they are given basic tools and then thrown onto the field directly where their survival instinct kicks in and, thus, they become creative, streetwise, patient, observant, quick to adjust and sharp. 

The New Way

Spending 4 months in the streets, living as a homeless person, gives the new Agent most of the tools he/she will need to thrive in the Intelligence world: 

• Ability to be invisible - no one notices homeless people, granting them a high level of stealthiness. Because they are considered “nobody” people tend to give out a lot of intelligence near such individuals. 

• Ability to listen - as a homeless one is void of ego, therefore the focus goes to one’s surroundings thus heightening the senses. 

• Ability to survive - one seeks systems to support its basic needs (public bathrooms for personal hygiene and bodily relief; protected public space to sleep; places to eat; networking for self-protection or minimum comfort)

• Ability to manage resources - money is scarce and one must calculate how to best spend it and learn how to prioritise. 

• Ability to implement the Art of Deception - one knows what he/she is but has to operate as if not and make others believe his/her story (this can only be achieved through a high form of self-discipline). This ability is particularly important if one is to penetrate government systems of Social Welfare - for research purposes. 

• Ability to manage the truth - never lie but never tell the truth either. Protect your cover at all costs. 

• Ability to ingratiate yourself near people - induce “common citizens” to act in your favour (this implies keeping an absolute high level of hygiene in spite of the homelessness context). 

• Ability to endure hardship - this skill grants the warrior the ability to transcend the body and focus on the mind itself. 

The Bushido

The New Way described above seems to echo the Path of the Warrior: 

Occasional deprivation of food and exposure to cold, was considered a highly efficacious test to inuring (a Samurai’s sons) to endurance - Inazo Nitobe in Bushido

“Children of tender age were sent (in small groups) among utter strangers with some message to deliver, were made to rise before the sun, (..) walking to their teacher with bare feet in the cold of winter…” - idem

Endurance is the root of valour, fortitude, and of fearlessness; therefore the new breed of warriors are exposed to extreme hardship in order to develop such virtues. Another reason to expose them to hardship is to obliterate their ego: ego is a hurdle to any reprogramming endeavour. To shape his/her new state of mind and demeanour it’s imperative to do away with his/her ego - the root of desire, negativity, victimisation and ultimately depression. By departing from the ever-present I, one also comes to accept Life as it comes, and What Is, becoming thus like Water till he/she attains the state of Mushin No Shin (Mind without Mind): a mind free of anger, fear and negative thoughts in everyday life or in combat. 

How do we know when the new agent is ripe? When he/she: 

1. Accepts everything just the way it is

2. Does not, under any circumstance, depend on a partial feeling

3. Thinks lightly of oneself and deeply of the world

4. Is indifferent to where he/she lives

5. Never yields to jealousy. (source: Miyamoto Musashi)

Conclusion

As some seek new ways of training the Warriors of the future, others continue to train agents the same old way - which no longer works, as we can see by the stagnant state of affairs in our societies (rooted in a complete disconnect from the realities of common citizens). Notwithstanding, the new paradigm is not without risk: the younger segments who volunteer to serve come with the vice of self-entitlement and, thus, it has been observed that they tend to lose their mind during training, especially if they go through the process alone. This is why it is strongly recommended to send out trainees in pairs - to give each other support and encouragement when times get rough.

This new method of training is broader than what was mentioned in this introductory article: not only do new agents attain certain values, imperative to their future operations, but they also gain interesting skills like communication, profiling, reading body language and a certain degree of extra-sensorial perception. Moreover, they acquire a special ability to detach of their own selves and become the other without leaving their own body - this gives them a powerful tool to empathise with people while leading them to do exactly what they need them to do. 

If there was such a time where creativity is needed, we are living it now. Bring in the new, do away with the old to avoid loops in the Machine: constant repetition of events is becoming boring - for example, the present US Political scenario (a sheer example of how corrupt weak Intelligence Services can affect a society and the ability to steer a country in a proper direction). 

New paradigms are welcome. 

(Image: Eduardo VII Park in Lisbon - Dissecting Society)

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