Surviving In The Wilderness

There is only 1 book that I’ve had that I can say I’ve bought 3 times. The first time, I found it so interesting that after reading it, gave it to a friend.

Then bought another.

Then gave that to a relative who at the time, was an Army Ranger.

I just bought it again.

It is a book that has been used as a training aid in such groups as the US Navy SEALS to the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

It’s really the first book that explains survival scientifically using  neuroscience.

Gonzalez brings up numerous actual case histories of those who have survived harrowing ordeals – and those who didn’t.

As an example, a team of snowmobiliers was sent to rescue some people in Alberta, Canada. They found the stranded people, and before they returned home, 3 decided to play on a nearby mountain, despite being warned that day of an extreme danger of avalanches on that mountain.

An avalanche ensued and buried them.

Why did these experienced people do this in spite of the warnings?

Hint: The answer is more involved than simply “they thought that they would be OK”. 

He gives a dozen other examples, including a most improbable survivor – a young girl who was the sole survivor of an airplane crash in the Amazon Peruvian forest.

“we construct an expected world because we can’t handle the complexity of the present one, and then process the information that fits the expected world, and find reasons to exclude the information that might contradict it…“. 

As a test, take this selective attention test.

All this is not to say that human beings are automatons, and with the right formula survival is guaranteed. But with an increased awareness, the odds are improved.

“…they say focus but what we really mean is a wider field of view.” 

Highly recommended.