Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why FROM THE PUBLISHER
In Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales pulls readers to the boundary region between life and death, where they peer into the hearts, minds, and souls of those who have survived seemingly impossible situations and those who have given in to death. Through careful dissection of case studies, he illuminates the essence of the true survivor - the internal battles that are waged between fear and hope, reason and emotion, despair and correct action.
He shows how all survivors go through the same psychological transformation and make the same spiritual journey, and he explains the mysterious events and surprising outcomes that occur when humans are pushed into a territory that, until now, only survivors could comprehend.
This narrative is the first book to describe the science of survival, revealing through new psychological and neurological research the workings of the brain that motivate our actions. Unconscious responses to everything from events in daily life to dire emergencies are driven by primal regions of the brain: those that support the survival of the species, but not always the individual.
Applying the science of chaos theory and self-organizing systems, Gonzales shows how accidents are not random acts of God but highly organized outcomes of complex systems, repeated with inevitable frequency. You can't stop them from happening, but this book can help prevent them from happening to you.
Deep Survival is not going to teach you how to build a fire or find water, but you will be far better prepared to survive any challenge you face. The principles Gonzales uncovers are universal, applying not only to survival in the wild but also to survival in relationships, in the death ofa loved one, in running a business during uncertain times, even in war.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
When confronted with a life-threatening situation, 90% of people freeze or panic, says Gonzales in this exploration of what makes the remaining 10% stay cool, focused and alive. Gonzales (The Hero's Apprentice; The Still Point), who has covered survival stories for National Geographic Explorer, Outside and Men's Journal, uncovers the biological and psychological reasons people risk their lives and why some are better at it than others. In the first part of the book, the author talks to dozens of thrill-seekers-mountain climbers, sailors, jet pilots-and they all say the same thing: danger is a great rush. "Fear can be fun," Gonzales writes. "It can make you feel more alive, because it is an integral part of saving your own life." Pinpointing why and how those 10% survive is another story. "They are the ones who can perceive their situation clearly; they can plan and take correct action," Gonzales explains. Survivors, whether they're jet pilots landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier or boatbuilders adrift on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, share certain traits: training, experience, stoicism and a capacity for their logical neocortex (the brain's thinking part) to override the primitive amygdala portion of their brains. Although there's no surefire way to become a survivor, Gonzales does share some rules for adventure gleaned from the survivors themselves: stay calm, be decisive and don't give up. Remembering these rules when crisis strikes may be tough, but Gonzales's vivid descriptions of life in the balance will stay with readers. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Humans have a way of courting accidents. What separates survivors from victims is preparation and spirit—but also sheer dumb luck. "To survive," writes novelist/journalist Gonzales (One Zero Charlie, 1993, etc.), "you must first be annealed in the fires of peril." Well, yes: and peril, though sometimes in the eye of the beholder, is a constant companion of many folks, whether they court it or not—one reason, Gonzales observes, that inner-city kids tend to do better in outdoor survival training than do suburbanites, who have far less experience with predators. Thrill-seekers who put themselves in harmﾽs way for the sake of the adrenaline rush may have all the right gear and even a little know-how, but most of them are just ordinary Joes who, "when put under stress, are unable to think clearly or solve simple problems. They get rattled. They panic. They freeze." Cataloguing, often by way of personal anecdote, the dazzling array of possibilities by which gnarly outdoor experiences can become annihilating ones—a body surfer hits the wrong tide and gets dashed against the rocks, a snowmobiler gets chewed up in an avalanche, a hang glider augers into a mountain or a parachutist into the waiting earth—Gonzales ponders just what traits, and just what training, can increase such an ordinary personﾽs odds of survival in tight situations, short of simply staying home. (But even then, he reckons, we get snuffed. Given that one person dies in this country every minute in a transportation accident, the death of only a dozen-odd climbers every year makes mountaineering seem a safe bet by comparison.) This work, oddly delightful for all its gruesome moments, closes with a compendiumof tips for staying alive in the wild, among them the necessity of staying calm when danger rises, waiting for the fear to pass, planning what to do next, and believing that the odds are with you against all evidence to the contrary. A superb, entertaining addition to a nature buffﾽs library—or for anyone not tucked safely away in a bunker. Agent: Gail Hochman/Brandt & Hochman
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