Survival > Wilderness Survival
Psychology
adi:
A great trick for the contractor's trash bag is to fill it up with dry dead leaves found on the forest floor and tie shut. Light a long fire and curl up on your leaf mattresses and fall into a piecefull sleep only to wake to put more fuel on the fire, unless of course you know how to make a fire that will last all night. Use a survival blanket as a lean-to behind as a reflector and you can have a comfortable nights sleep down to -30°C.
Lost Soul:
--- Quote from: adi on September 02, 2012, 03:11:01 PM ---
--- Quote from: Lost Soul on September 02, 2012, 01:55:38 PM ---
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Was it Dr John Leach? He is one of the leading experts on the subject. He gave a lecture when I was doing one of my survival instructor courses, A really interesting information filled 4 hours that pricked my interest somewhat.
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Yes it was, in about ' 97 and he pricked my interest too. Straight afterwards I bought his book on the subject and read it avidly. Interestingly, there were a couple of Medical Doctors in the audience who were being somewhat dismissive of his ideas. People don’t just give up die you know there are clear medical reasons why people die. For me Dr Leach had hit the nail on the head.
Also about that time I found myself in a situation interviewing some of the survivors of a helicopter that crashed in the North Sea at night in absolutely appalling weather conditions. Basically said helicopter flew into a rising wave. Of the 20 odd souls on board (oil rig workers plus 2 pilots) 6 or 7 were trapped inside and went down with the wreck. The rest escaped and were left bobbing about in the sea for the most part.
They were rescued in about 45 minutes but by that time half of them were dead, primarily brought on by defective survival equipment. However, the point of this story is the survivors all said that their training had contributed significantly to their survival. Oil Rig workers and flight crews have to undergo compulsory escape training from a submerged helicopter. The other significant factor was that the survivors (well the ones we spoke to) were good swimmers and were totally unfazed by finding themselves in the water. Basically it was not a hostile environment to them, so their state of mind was ok I’m here it ain’t going to kill me.
This basically reinforces the previous posts. Training helps – enormously and so too does a lack of fear of the predicament that you find yours self in. Trained, cool, calm, collected and focused is the way to be.
Skills4Survival:
Yes, John Leach, connected to university of Lancaster, and he also followed several survival courses. Very good book, really an eye-opener. Also consider the Biology of human survival (piantadosi) and, older book, the psysiology of human survival (edholm, bacharach). Also take a ook at The Psychologist Vol 24 No 1 January 2011 where Leach writes an article. You can buy the magazine for 3,60 at BPSHOP in the UK.
It shows that the will to live is an outdated concept. BTW, in that issue there is more interesting stuff.
www.thesurvivorsclub.org
Leach, J. (1994). Survival psychology.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Skills4Survival:
--- Quote from: adi on September 02, 2012, 02:38:30 PM ---LOL STOP rule has been around for 40 years and is regurgitated in most survival books.
The first public survival manual was the US Army Survival Manual and it had no copy right so it have been copied to death including the stuff that is wrong. Manual survival manuals same the same stuff there are very few that are upto date and written from modern up to date knowledge and equipment.
I am not sure I want to buy another survival book to be honest, it is probably only a re titled copy of The Outdoor Survival Bible which is a rewrite of 'The Pocket Book of Survival' by the same author.
The state of mind of survival is the most important thing. I have studied this quite in depth, not only in wilderness survival but urban survival and disasters. I have been fortunate enough have talked to many survivors from around the world, survivors of many different situations from wilderness survival to terrorist bombs. I have taken that knowledge and used it in my courses.
I spoke to a professional Yachts woman some years ago who whilst ferrying a yacht across the Atlantic the yacht sank. Her and 3 others ended up in a lift raft and for respect of all involved I will not go into the details because I am not sure how public the details are but one girl just gave up and died in the boat but the first to die was a male who lost his nerve among some other very disturbing things shouted we are all going to die and jumped into the sea and swam away. His body was never recovered. The Yachts woman was the only survivor it is everyone's belief that she should not have lived she defied medical knowledge by a mile. The reason she lived was because she was an around the world yachts woman that had experienced many hardships during her sailing carer and had the determination to keep going.
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Outside of the Field Manual 21-76, The US Army Field Manual I always look at Airforce fieldmanual 64-4, which is more complete. In addition I really like the book of the brothers Craighead (How to survive on land and sea, 4th edition). Also the "psychology of wilderness survival" by Ferri (although it is not all about that at all), which has some really practical things in it. I also like the old version of J. Wayne Fears. Ray Mears has a few nice books, also because it is illlustrated nice (which is in general not that nice for survival books). Although Hugh Mcmanners does a reasonable job at it (commando survival book). Same goes for Colin Towell (Handboek survival, in dutch). National Geographic also has a nice illustrated guide. And ofcourse the good old lofte one. Although good, never understand why the illustration is not more realistic (has to be fun to read as well). In addition, essentials of sea survival by golden /tipton. Bushcraft from Kochanski really adds some value to the others, lots of detail on a few topics, but again, illustration not that nice, although the book is really good I believe.
Even new books, like Hawke's green beret survival manual, packed with info, but so poorly executed in publishing, it is not even funny. Guess it costs a lot of money extra to have nice and illustrated pages, no idea, not my cup of tea. (just to get back to the tea thing :-)
Lost Soul:
--- Quote from: Skills4Survival on September 02, 2012, 07:16:56 PM ---
It shows that the will to live is an outdated concept.
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So what is the current concept?
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