Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

by Laurence Gonzales

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

The first rule is: Face reality. Good survivors aren’t immune to fear. They know what’s happening, and it does “scare the living shit out of” them. It’s all a question of what you do next.

In a true survival situation, you are by definition looking death in the face, and if you can’t find something droll and even something wondrous and inspiring in it, you are already in a world of hurt.

Those who can control that impulse to survive, live. Those who can’t, die.

the most successful are open to the changing nature of their environment. They are curious to know what’s up.

In an environment that has high objective hazards, the longer it takes to dislodge the imagined world in favor of the real one, the greater the risk. 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.

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

This mountain is just not taken seriously. Fat people go up there.”

Experience can help us or betray us. Bill

Be here now.

Everything takes eight times as long as it’s supposed to