eBook - The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood

I did earlier borrow 1 eBook from the Sabah State Library (SSL). It was "The Survivors Club" by Ben Sherwood (Published Nov 2009). The details also showed that the borrowed eBook will expire on 13 Feb 2011. I saw the book at Times Bookstore a few months earlier but decided not to buy it, so I was very glad to see it available at the library.

The author wrote the book in 2 sections; the first part dealt with "What It Takes To Survive" while the second part dealt with "Are You A Survivor?"

The books tried to answer such questions as "Why do some people live and others die? How do certain people make it through the most difficult trials whiles others don't? Why do a few stay calm and collected under extreme pressure while others panic and unravel? How do some bounce back from adversity while others collapse and surrender?"

The book had real-life examples to back-up what the author tried to convey. The book conveyed that there are certain attitudes (mainly learned and trained) that can reduce the chances of "accidents and disasters" happening to us; and those that can increase our chances of survival should these catastrophes happen to us.

There are emergencies where survival is impossible, but there are also those where survival is possible. Whatever the possible percentage chance of survival (whether 5% or 95%), the strategies and attitudes in the book enable us to get the most of the possible survival percentage (ie we can get 4.9% where the maximum is 5%).

After finishing the book, I was struck by the many interesting and useful points, including:

• All of us are (or will be) survivors (a survivor is defined as anyone who faces and overcomes adversity, hardship, illness, physical or emotional trauma).
• It is NOT relative (eg the survival from a plane crash is the SAME as surviving an illness).
• You are stronger than you know (in crises, you will discover more strengths than you knew you had).
• The heaviest lift by a weightlifter (5ft 9in weighing 313 lbs) was 586.4 lbs, but a little grandmother managed to lift the end of a car weighing 3,450 lbs a few inches and HELD it while her son crawled out after being pinned down by the car.
• Your body temperature is 98.6°F; at 91°F you begin to hallucinate, at 90°F your heart rhythm goes off, at 86°F you lose consciousness, and at 80°F you die.
• You should face reality and remain hopeful, but NOT be Mr Positive (eg in the lifeboat; Mr Positive kept saying "they will find us today, it won't be long", but each day the rescue didn't happen, he felt disappointed, he found it harder to say for the next day and he soon gave up and died).
• The Theory of 10-80-10; 10% will handle the crisis calmly and most likely survive, 80% will be stunned and bewildered (brain-locked statues), the other 10% will panic and freak out and mostly die in the crisis.
• Using the data in the US for aircraft accidents from 1983 to 2000, the survival percentage was 95.7% (ie 0nly 4.3% in all the planes that crashed, died).
• In a plane crash, you basically have 90 seconds to save yourself. Listening to the safety briefing, knowing exactly how to get to the nearest exit (in the dark or smoke), having the seat belt tight against your hips, and being braced against your thighs will increase the percentage that you are least hurt and most ready for escape after the crash.
• If you arrived at the Emergency Room (ER) with a knife wound to your heart and no vital signs, there's a 40% chance of survival. With a bullet, the chance of survival drops to 4%. While a car crash against a brick wall will reduce the chances to less than 1%.
• In the US, the BEST place to have a heart attack is in a casino in Las Vegas. Due to the high number of older people visiting and gambling, over-eating, over-drinking, under-sleeping, over-excited at the slot machines; there were many many heart attacks. The casinos basically agreed to install defibrillators (like having fire extinguishers) around the gambling halls and trained their staff to use these to restart the hearts. Getting the first jolt within 1 minute will give you a 90% chance of surviving the heart attack. The overall survival rate in Las Vegas is 53%; very much higher than in a normal city!
• The Rule of 3; You cannot survive 3 seconds with out hope, 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, and 3 months without companionship.
• The power of prayer, faith and miracles.
• The "Lucky" People are those whose state of mind (attitude and behaviour) more often put them in "The Right Place At The Right Time". They also persevere (sometimes seen as optimism) and furthermore, after any misfortune, they tend to try to look for a way to turn it around rather than accepting the defeat.
• The "Silver" medal is the worst of the three. The Bronze medalist see it as lucky since fourth place would have got him/her nothing (no podium placing). The Silver medalist is just disappointed!
• A study (US I presumed) showed among ten-year olds; 15% were left-handed (lefties), but among fifty year-olds; its was only 5%, then among eighty year-olds; it was less than 1%. Lefties die earlier!
• Sound entering your brain takes 2 routes. The shorter and faster one reaches your amygdala twice as fast, which triggers the fear alarm and readies you for "fight or flight". The longer route goes through your cortex and only passes the analysed and refined thought to your amygdala. If the "sound of a snake" triggers an immediate response, its better that a squirrel was treated as a snake than for a snake to be treated as a squirrel.
• There is a SMELL of fear.
• You can be FRIGHTENED to death (also the other extreme emotions of excitedness or happiness).
• The importance of The Will To Live in increasing the chances of survival.
• Those with bad Initials (eg ASS, BAD, BUG, DIE, ILL, MAD, RAT, SIC etc.. ) die earlier!
• Lastly the majority of those who survived grew stronger.
  

Part 2 of the book had the Survivor Personality Profiler; where you can visit their website and take a 15-minutes test that will give your main profile and your top three strengths. There are NO best answers. The scores indicate what are your main characteristics and your expected attitudes.

UNFORTUNATELY, this part of the book showed the PROBLEM with eBooks!

In order to access the website, you need a keycode to register. The keycode is printed at the back of the dust jacket to the book!

I have "returned" this eBook today (via the Aldiko Reader), so you can borrow it.