Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

by Laurence Gonzales

Of each particular thing, ask: “What is it in itself, in its own construction?” —Marcus Aurelius

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Only 10 to 20 percent of untrained people can stay calm and think in the midst of a survival emergency.

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Plato understood that emotions could trump reason and that to succeed we have to use the reins of reason on the horse of emotion. That turns out to be remarkably close to what modern research has begun to show us, and it works both ways: The intellect without the emotions is like the jockey without the horse.

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Reason is tentative, slow, and fallible, while emotion is sure, quick, and unhesitating.

Stress causes most people to focus narrowly on the thing that they consider most important, and it may be the wrong thing.

play puts a person in touch with his environment, while laughter makes the feeling of being threatened manageable.

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The most remarkable discovery of modern neuroscience is that the body controls the brain as much as the brain controls the body.

People are named after it: Homo sapiens (from the Latin sapere, to taste, as in “to taste the world”).

We think we believe what we know, but we only truly believe what we feel.

In nature, adaptation is important; the plan is not. It’s a Zen thing. We must plan. But we must be able to let go of the plan, too.

The rigid person is a disciple of death; The soft, supple, and delicate are lovers of life.

Most people operate in an environment of such low risk that action, inaction, or the vicissitudes of brains have few consequences. The energy levels, the objective risks, are low. Mistakes spend themselves harmlessly and die out unnoticed instead of growing out of control.

The word “experienced” often refers to someone who’s gotten away with doing the wrong thing more frequently than you have.

Put another way, drowning is normal. Of the many drowning victims he’d studied, 75 percent were visitors and 90 percent were white males in their forties or fifties. Dr. Blay said,

Does anything happen to me? I take what comes… —Marcus Aurelius On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use. —Epictetus

SYROTUCK ANALYZED 229 search and rescue cases (11 percent of them fatal) and concluded that almost three quarters of those who died perished within the first forty-eight hours of becoming lost.

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The stages of getting lost resemble the five stages of dying described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the psychologist who wrote On Death and Dying: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

I couldn’t help thinking, then, of the Zen concept of the beginner’s mind, the mind that remains open and ready despite years of training. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities,” said Zen master Shunryu Suzuki. “In the expert’s mind there are few.”

But, as Louis Pasteur said, “Luck favors the prepared mind.”

At least 75 percent of people caught in a catastrophe either freeze or simply wander in a daze, according to some psychologists.

The concept is ancient. The Tao Te Ching says: He who is brave in daring will be killed, He who is brave in not daring will survive.

Epictetus said, “And let silence be the general rule, or let only what is necessary be said, and in few words. And rarely and when the occasion calls shall we say something.” Tom Wolfe wrote in The Right Stuff, “One of the greatest sins was ‘chattering’ or ‘jabbering’ on the radio…. A Navy pilot (in legend, at any rate) began shouting, ‘I’ve got a MIG at zero! A MIG at zero!’…. An irritated voice cut in and said, ‘Shut up and die like an aviator.’”

One who is good at preserving life does not avoid tigers and rhinoceroses when he walks in the hills; nor does he put on armor and take up weapons when he enters battle. The rhinoceros has no place to jab its horn, The tiger has no place to fasten its claws, Weapons have no place to admit their blades. Now, What is the reason for this? Because on him there are no mortal spots.