Books |
Deep Survival
Laurence Gonzales
By
Published: Jan 01, 2007
Category:
Non Fiction
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
Laurence Gonzales
Pay attention: Today we may just save your life.
You may never spend eleven days fighting your way out of a Peruvian jungle after a plane crash. Or need to find a way down a frozen mountain with a climbing partner who’s broken his leg. Or survive 67 days at sea with only a half pint of water to drink a day.
But as Laurence Gonzales notes, “This book is not meant to tell people what to do [in a life-or-death situation] but rather to be a deeper understanding that will allow them to know what to do when the time comes — and it always comes, in some form, for all of us.”
It could be sickness. Loss of job. Death of a loved one. One way or another, you will come face to face with the ultimate question: Will I live? Or will I die?
Gonzales became interested — make that: obsessed — with this question when he was just a kid. With good reason: In World War II, his father was piloting a B-17 over Dusseldorf when anti-aircraft guns shot off his wing. The plane went into a fatal spin. Men began tumbling out of the plane. Federico Gonzales fell 27,000 feet — without a parachute — and didn’t die on impact. Broken and bloody, Gonzales woke to find a German peasant standing over him. He had a gun pointed at the pilot’s head…..
But you get the point: Federico Gonzales survived the peasant, a German prison and more. He came home, got educated, married, fathered a baseball team’s worth of kids, had a great career. How did that happen? Training? Experience? Luck? Intelligence? Or — take that, Western rationalism — heart?
“Deep Survival” is five books in one: a collection of amazing will-they-or-won’t-they-live stories, a report on brain chemistry, an anthology of Greek and Buddhist wisdom, a memoir and a how-to-survive manual. You’ll want to read it with a pen in hand so you can mark the essential ideas. You’ll also want to skim much of the book, skipping the hard science in order to spend quality time with the survival stories and the core wisdom.
I understand that your time is tight. Why, you might be on your way out the door right now to go hiking or biking in the mountains. Or off to Hawaii, where you might swim in the ocean or visit a national park. [Warning: Watch out if you are a white male — 90% of Hawaii’s drowning victims are white men in their 40s.]
The fact that you haven’t read this book shouldn’t condemn you to death if things go wrong. So although I am occupationally opposed to summarizing books that I really hope you’ll read, I’m going to give you a cheat sheet to “Deep Survival.” [Bonus points: If there’s ever a Butler that you might usefully forward to friends and family, this is it.]
Ready?
Only 10-20% of people stay calm enough to think in the midst of a life-or-death emergency. Most people — estimates run as high as 90% — freeze under stress.
Rambo is the first to go. You don’t want to be a hero — heroes die. You want to be a survivor.
Face reality. As quickly as you can. It’s okay to be afraid — you have every reason to be terrified — but you need to look death in the face and then use your fear. Get angry. Get focused. And then discard all hope of rescue — get about the business of saving yourself.
You have a set of emotional/intellectual bookmarks from the past. They suggest a set of reactions to your predicament. They are often the reason you got into this pickle. Watch out for what you think you know. Pay attention to the actual situation — to your new reality.
Make a plan. But a plan is, Gonzales notes, “a memory of the future.” You need to compare it constantly to reality and adjust as necessary. Or, to quote Federico Gonzales: “Plan the flight. Fly the plan, but don’t fall in love with the plan.”
Experience doesn’t matter. “’Experienced’ often refers to someone who’s gotten away with doing the wrong thing more often than you have.”
Apathy is a killer. So is fatigue. When you’re in a crisis, pace yourself — operate at 60% of your normal level of activity. And rest. And hydrate.
Don’t think about the large task ahead of you. Pick a small goal and achieve it. Then another. And another.
Want to increase the chance you’ll survive? Help someone else.
Trust your gut. Your may hear a “voice” that tells you what to do — listen to it.
Struggle. Always. “It’s the struggle that keeps us alive…. when the struggle ceases, we die.” Your goal: to believe that “anything is possible.” You want to be “so alive you simply cannot die.”
There may be setbacks. Don’t be discouraged. “There is always one more thing that you can do.”
Bottom line: Stuff happens. Sometimes you’re toast, and there’s nothing to do but mourn. But when survival is possible, you’re looking at your ultimate test.
“Deep Survival” can help you pass that test. It’s more than thrilling reading. For me, it’s the standard textbook on survival — all kinds of survival.
To buy “Deep Survival” from Amazon.com, click here.
