Shin Gan - the special vision

(Yigal) Amir returned towards the gray transport vehicle and secretly released the safety-catch. He went back to sit on the concrete flower pot and noticed two guards by these service vehicles, as well as many police officers, attendants and drivers. No-one noticed his presence, since he was blended into the background and appeared as authorized personnel. He continued looking towards the stairs and noticed several ministers walk down.

(4) As he was sitting on the flower pot a citizen noticed him who was not a part of the security force – named Benyamin Avershomi. He approached one of the police officers, pointed in the direction of Amir and asked that he be removed from the area. The officer approached another man by mistake, who was on his way out of the parking lot in any case. The officer then returned to Avershomi who pointed him again in the direction of the assassin. This time the officer walked straight to Amir, didn't ask him what he was doing there, but asked that he go westwards towards his car. Amir got up and walked a few steps to the west, but two minutes later went back to sit on the flower pot undisturbed and no-one remarked

From the statement of the inquiry committee on the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, page 27 paragraphs (3) (4) Jerusalem 1996

Reading the passage above always makes me shiver. I remember the evening when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and the intense feelings I had for many days following the event. When I read about key events such as these, junctions in history, I find it hard not to think what could have been if only…

On November 4^th 1995, there was at least one man who felt, and did not keep it to himself, but rather acted on his feeling: he asked a police officer to check Yigal Amir. I believe he did this because he really knew. This is not a common every day act. Avershomi insisted that something was not right with Yigal Amir. Tens of people were standing or sitting in the fenced piazza behind Rabin Square, and Avershomi, who was standing outside, sees only the assassin. Police officers who walked by Amir mistook him for an undercover officer (page 27 paragraph (3)), but Avershomi, as if receiving personal information, sees only him.

Of the principal traits in my view, the main one is this: the ability to identify danger in advance, and its derivative, seeing beyond the personality displayed by people into their essence. In Japanese this is referred to as Shin Gan.

Shin Gan, in Japanese: super-human eye (or insight).

I don't think that it's possible to practice for something of this sort, on the contrary, I think it shouldn't be practiced. However, I think that in the background one should always be very sensitive, balanced and attentive; one should believe everything that is going on. Things happen to us all too often, much more tangible than a premonition regarding a suspicious man, and we don’t believe they are happening. Many times people who are involved in a serious car accident do not believe it is really happening. I have seen this occur twice. In this state of severance and distance from the immediate experiences of life, there is no sense in speaking of Shin Gan.