Product Description

"Unique among survival books...stunning...enthralling. Deep Survival makes compelling, and chilling, reading."—Penelope Purdy, Denver Post

After her plane crashes, a seventeen-year-old girl spends eleven days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better-equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?

Examining such stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death—how people get into trouble and how they get out again (or not)—Deep Survival takes us from the tops of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans to the workings of the brain that control our behavior. Through close analysis of case studies, Laurence Gonzales describes the "stages of survival" and reveals the essence of a survivor—truths that apply not only to surviving in the wild but also to surviving life-threatening illness, relationships, the death of a loved one, running a business during uncertain times, even war.

Fascinating for any reader, and absolutely essential for anyone who takes a hike in the woods, this book will change the way we understand ourselves and the great outdoors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #962 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 318 pages

From 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.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Laurence Gonzales's father, a WWII pilot, was the only one to escape a wartime crash. A 17-year-old girl was the sole survivor of a Peruvian plane crash. What makes one person a victim and another a survivor? Gonzales suggests that in life-and-death situations, unconventional thought patterns and managing fear through dark humor, play, and laughter help ensure survival by tempering negative emotions. Stefan Rudnicki's reading makes these harrowing anecdotes unfold like fiction. By underplaying the gruesome moments, Rudnicki highlights Gonzales's excellent research on the neurological, physiological, and psychological strengths needed when people find their lives threatened. This is an exciting listen, filled with amazing stories and helpful tips for everyone. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
What impels people to risk their lives by climbing mountains or deep-sea diving? What confluence of forces leads to drastic accidents? Why do some people survive disasters while others perish? A renowned journalist intrigued with risk, Gonzales conducts an in-depth and engrossing inquiry into the dynamics of survival. Relating one hair-raising true story after another about wilderness adventures gone catastrophically wrong and other calamities, Gonzales draws on sources as diverse and compelling as the Stoic philosophers and neuroscience to elucidate the psychological, physiological, and spiritual strengths that enable certain individuals to avoid fatal panic and make that crucial "transition from victim to survivor." People who survive being lost or adrift at sea, for instance, pay close attention to their surroundings and respect the wild. Gonzales also notes that survivors think of others, either helping a fellow sufferer or rallying to outsmart death in order to spare loved ones anguish. The study of survival offers an illuminating portal into the human psyche, and Gonzales, knowledgeable and passionate, is a compelling and trustworthy guide. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A Great Book
There are clearly two ways to approach this book - one for the great stories, the other for the mindset of the people in the stories.

Personally, I found the conversation about how our minds work to be the most compelling . The idea of a plan as a "memory of the future" is a line that sticks with me.

In my work as an NLP practitioner I know that we create pictures and stories in our minds that determine what our experience of the world will be. After a dramatic experience, we decide (unconsciously) what that experience means to us. We translate each decision into behavior, without even realizing it. And our behavior determines our final outcome. In our regular lives, it may be whether we get the new job, or whether we succeed or fail in a relationship. Taken to the edge, it means do we live or do we die?

This book offers outstanding, compelling and edge-of-the-seat (or the glacier) suspenseful accounts of how our lifetime accumulation of unconscious decisions make that determination.

Current neuroscience and quantum physics give us tools to identify and then change our internal, unconscious decisions, specifically and rapidly. This book is a very important piece of personal leverage - it is a doorway into understanding the ultimate consequences of whether we choose to bring our decisions to the conscious level and set ourselves up for DEEP Survival.

Could get though the first chapter.
Maybe I'm pretentious but this author can't seem to tell a story. This book would be fine if it were science, and great if it were story, but it tries to find some middle ground and winds up with not enough of either.

Excellent!
I've listened to this audio book twice and read it once. The topic is fascinating. Normally I get more from reading a book than from listening to it read. This is an exception...the audio book is well read and easier to follow than the book. I highly recommend it.