I've got a few. This one fits de Becker's theme quite well; I've changed name because I've told the story before. It happened in another country. I was walking home at night and did not hear the man behind me at all. He put a knife to my throat. I stood very still and quiet, then thought I should try to gauge his state of mind (this all happened in a second).
I leaned back into him a little so I could feel his heart, which was beating very fast. This could mean he was either excited or scared but it did tell me he was emotional, which was useful information. In hopes of helping to calm him, I asked, as nicely as I could, what he wanted. He said "Shut up or I'll hurt you." I took it as a good sign that he hadn't said "kill you" and his heart slowed a bit, so I added that I wanted to know if I could help in some way.
I didn't speak the language very well, and he was surprised by my accent. This led to him asking a bit about me, which I reckoned was great because he'd set out to attack a woman he didn't know. The script had to change if he felt he knew me. We'd already been talking for a couple of minutes when I asked him to take the knife off my throat - and he apologised!
Crisis averted but he was young and fit, with a large knife and issues, so I felt it would be prudent to keep building the friendly relationship. I got him to move us into a place with shops and people, bought us both a Coke and some cigarettes, and spent about an hour talking to him. It felt much, much longer.
That night was the single most intensive language learning experience I've had! He eventually let me go of his own accord, so wasn't going to follow me home.
In a long-ago self defence lesson, I'd learned that you should try to do something your attacker does NOT expect. My options were limited because of the knife, but I reckoned he'd have imagined crying or fighting so I made friendly conversation instead. Everything else - every word I said, every move I made, every change of expression - was coming from 'instinct' and I followed it precisely.
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One of things that really jumped out at me from The Gift Of Fear was about odd things people say - often as a joke - which show their subconscious mind has figured something out and is trying to make itself heard. One of de Becker's examples was a mail-room worker, who said "I'm not opening that parcel, it's a bomb, haha." It was.
This happens more often than we think - one gruesome example is the station staff nicknaming Wayne Couzens "the rapist". I now try to pay more attention to all mind-blurts, mine and other people's.