Fear ??

[Smok]

Fear: Is how most die out in the wilds of the back yard . Fear and panic so how do we stop the fear.. By practice, by drill . But if you can just stop and think , that is the hard part. So two of the items that I have added to my kit is a good LED light and a book . It can be any book , But the night WELL BE LONG and any noise WELL BE BIGGER then it really is . A LED can last up 250 Hrs. and can drive back the night the book can keep your mind off of the night and your problems.. I know ,I know you need to think about the problem your in but you need to sleep too . You also need to calm drown .The right book will help there too... SO back to FEAR and PANIC how would you stop the fear???? How will you ??

[Jay]

Hi,
In the jungles I roam around in, there are many things to fear. Wild elephants, sloth bear, wild buffalo, snakes, scorpions, malaria, trap guns, anti-personnel mines, and sometimes terrorists.

To my way of thinking you cannot totally eliminate fear, but you can control it. one way to do that is to learn as much as you can about the things you fear most. Then you really know what you are up against. This knowledge will help you to make better decisions about putting your self in situations that you fear. (Is it really worth it?)

If you have an absolute horror of poisonous snakes and you know that there are many in an area you are about to visit, is it really worth going there?
Is it worth walking every step of the way with your eyes on the ground, in absolute terror of being bitten? Will you enjoy your self? Will you be able to take in and appreciate the beauty of your surroundings and the vibrant life forms around you? Will you sleep in peace on the jungle floor? If the answer is “No” maybe you should go someplace else.

But knowledge about the things you fear will do much to control that fear.

If you know the habits and habitat of the snakes in that area, you can avoid such places or be extra careful. If they are noctournal,,, don’t wander around barefoot at night!!

If you know that the snake’s habits..if you know it spends time in leaf litter or inside holes in tree trunks you know not to put you hand in such places without checking first.

If you think there may be trap guns..you will hold a long thin stick in front of you, it's tip about an inch above the ground and about 6-7 feet away as you walk. If you move slowly the stick will encounter the tripwire long before your legs come into contact with it. If you are alert and the grip on the stick is sensitive you will feel it touch the wire before it triggers the gun.

So you see..to my way of thinking..knowledge can help you control fear. In fact knowledge and natural fear are your greatest resources for keeping you alive.

Fear in it self is not a bad thing as it makes you more alert, heightens all your senses, and makes you much more aware of your surroundings. Your whole body and all your senses will work overtime to inform you of any lurking
danger to your self. It will make you feel alive!

But don’t let fear control you!
So that’s my two cents worth...hope it makes sense.
jk

[Rick]

First, Jay, I have to ask why are there trip guns out there?

It has been my observation that there are vast differences between individuals in their reaction to fear. Some are cool, calm and collected no matter what the situation is while others fall apart at the seams over the slightest challenge. My opinion is that there are physiological differences between those individuals. Probably something genetic in the whole flight or fight thing. If you are one of the former, which I consider myself to be, then Smok's book scenario is important because it allows you to focus on something you can control rather than something you can not and keeps your mind focused on something other than conjuring up creative forest creatures that only the human imagination can think up. Big Foot anyone?

If, on the other hand, you are someone that has trouble dealing with fear then education is hugely important, I think. Try to understand what mental and physical changes occur under times of duress and what counter measures can be employed (deep breathing, refocus, a new hair style. Whatever works for you).

As Jay suggests, fear can be controlled but it is something that needs to be learned and practiced just like every other skill. Visualizing an event and what you would do in an event is an important tool. Ball players, golfers, gymnasts and other do it all the time. They visualize their routine and mentally walk through what they are going to do. Survivalists can use the same tool.

Personally, I need Smok's book for the longer haul. I don't seem to have a melt down when things go south. I prefer to think the reason is vastly superior genetics but fear I may just be too stupid to recognize the danger. Can you say DoDo Bird?

[Jay]

Rick, Trap guns are set by poachers for deer, wild boar and such. A relatively new menace is the TG set for elephants. It is tied off about 4-5 feet off the ground and angled slightly upwards to hit the animal in the face. The gun itself is nothing more than a steel or iron pipe with a crude mechanism. Blasting powder stolen from quarries or bought on the black market is the usual propellant. Instead of regular pellets or slugs the barrel is crammed with old rusty nut, bolts, nails and odd bits of iron.

In 2005 an elephant we had put a GPS collar on had disappeared from its usual range and the collar had stopped transmitting. About 5 months later a couple of villages crossing that area of jungle reported seeing the animal alive and well. One of my friends set out the next morning at about 4 am to try to verify this story. He stepped on a trip wire set across a deer trail. It took off about 5 inches of his thigh bone, and muscle. He now has a steel plate holding the two pieces together. The leg is about 3 inches shorter. He will never run or even walk again. Sometimes one wonders if its all worth it.

I agree that fear affects people differently. As you say visualizing the worst, and trying to map out your reaction to it can indeed help. That’s why we have training and drills.
On the other hand having something like a book can keep your mind occupied.
This topic promises to be an interesting one. I hope many people join in.

[Rick]

You have offered an entirely different scope to survival. Something that the majority of us in North America and the UK will, fortunately, never stumble upon. While some drug dealers will booby trap the approach to their "fields" it is not something most of us will encounter.

[Jay]

I guess sometimes survival becomes more than a few skills put together.
It can mean a whole lifestyle. You have to be constantly alert. but constant alertness is impossible to sustain. So you gamble. with life itself at stake.
Ps
hope Im not heading off in the wrong direction here. after all this was supposed to be about fear.!

[Sarge47]

Zig Ziglar uses fear as an Ancronym and shows it this way:

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

I think that that is the point. Who was it that said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"? Fear solves nothing an is the prelude to panic. Read the story I posted from J. Wayne Fears book; then Cody Lundin's answer to Rick. Fear robs one of reason and logical thought, both of which are needed to survive. I conquer fear by telling myself: "Well, it could be worse, I could be living in Sri Lanka with Jay." Seriously though, fear solves nothing and stands in the way of rational thought. It is not needed. Smok is 100% correct. If you can find a way to deal with it, control it, you can survive just about anything.

[Rick]

Trust me, Jay, being in that environment would instill a healthy fear in me.

EDIT: Good stuff, Sarge.

[Rick]

Remy, you gotta start sendin' a decoder ring along with your posts or at least share some of whatever it is you're smokin'.

[Sarge47]

Looks like our German Auto has crept back in under a new name to save face from buggin' out before. Same long posts that say nothing and just take up space.

[Gray Wolf]

Fear in the mineral world:
From the moment that rules and laws arrive, comes about a promise for the individual to be safer, and to see his reproduction assured. Hence more fear when alone...and also our constant preoccupation to belong to...a group, a forum, a country...

"Belonging to", or "not belonging to" is the fuel of fear.
That is what your mind questions at night in the woods...

Sorry, but as someone who (but once) treks alone, I completely disagree. In over 30 years of trekking by myself I was only afraid three times (actually 4 but that was when I made the bad mistake of trekking with someone else who got hurt, badly),
1. Being chased by a bear.
2. Being in a fight with a gator.
3. After being bit by a poisonous snake.
Learning about your surroundings (where your going to trek) before time, and learning them well, and having a good survival pack, what's to fear... I could fall out of bed or down the stairs and kill myself. Don't they tell drivers that most accidents have 1 mile from your house! (even in 4x4's lol)

[Rick]

Gray Wolf, if you understood any of that malarckey then I'm worried about you. You gotta share the why's of those three stories. Could be some good lessons there about encounters and fear.

How did you get into the situations? How did you get out of them? And what part did fear play? What lessons did you learn?

[wareagle69]

Fu#k
Everything
And
Run

[Gray Wolf]

Gray Wolf, if you understood any of that malarckey then I'm worried about you. You gotta share the why's of those three stories. Could be some good lessons there about encounters and fear.

How did you get into the situations? How did you get out of them? And what part did fear play? What lessons did you learn?

No malarkey, when we meet and you see my hand and arm (from the gator) you'll see it's no BS, but I will post about them if you want. Actually I should for the newbie trekers.

[corndog-44]

remy, personally I like your backwoods philosophy. No decoder needed here. Some people are good at tracking critters in the woods but I'll be dang if they can track your words . Big tracks with little words. Just my 2 cents that wasn't ask for .

We are our own greatest enemies. We create most of the ills from which we suffer! Most people suffer from fear than any other form of depressing emotion. In most cases these fears are baseless. If we reflect for a moment, we would find that the terrible things that we feared very rarely came to us?! Majority of the experiences that we actually go through is of such a nature that we needn’t fear them at all.

Fear is not only useless but it actually is harmful. It helps to induce the condition that we are fearing and it has a destructive and a depressing effect on our body. It depletes the vitality and lowers respiration. It also incapaciates you from performing any kind of serious, rational work or to carry on a rational common-sense train of thought. Fear is therefore certainly to be avoided, for it helps nobody and harms everybody.

Many cannot control fear easily as it pursues and overtakes an individual. There are two kinds of fear, the unreasoning instinctive fear and the conscious, reflective fear. The former is a relic of our lowly ancestry and is shared by all the higher animals. We cannot help that but such a fear as a rule is only momentory and it fades off in a few instants. This instinctive fear may be overcome by mind. Our reason tells us on relecting that we actually have no cause to fear. This is not the fear which we have to combat, since it is bodily rather than mental and is only of a short duration.

The conscious mental fear is what bothers us. We all must learn to cure it. We must therefore school the mind to reflection and by due exercise of reason and the will not be afraid of happenings in our lives but rather accept them and be thankful for them as an event of great significance and help in our life’s learning experience.

[Smok]

Yes this was about there I had hoped it would go , I not real sure were remy is going and I know that if I sat here long enough and reread his work I will get it but why ? It takes a great falsifier to be able to talk to the common man and that is too bad about remy as I am sure he has some good things to add . Too mush work way too mush remy sorry.

[Rick]

Gray Wolf, it wasn't your malarkey I was talkin' about. It was Remy's. I really am interested in your stories both for the newbies and the oldies. I think there are some great lesson there. You obviously survived so there have to be some lessons learned.

[Gray Wolf]

1. Being chased by a bear:
I was trekking up in Vermont, about 15 miles from the Canadian border. I had made camp about 2 days before and found a wild apple tree. I tried one and it was really sweet, so I decided to make some sliced up and hot. While I was cutting them up a young, small brown bear came into the clearing, so I started to throw some slices to it. No problem, until I heard and felt -thud thud, thud thud..... and it was momma, she got up on two and roared while she twisted her head. She was pissed and charged. As I had set up camp next to a lake, I made a run for it and dove in. She wasn't far behind, but stopped at the edge of the water, stood up again and roared. The fear was not dying, not the pain, it was the thought of her ripping out my intestines and eating them while I was watching!!!

2. Being in a fight with a gator:
I was trekking down in the Everglades, I was hungry so I stopped made a fire got the stick ready to roast a fish, made a quick spear, nothin fancy, but long and good point. After about 45 min I got one, looked around (always watch for gators there, and poachers too) started filleting the fish, it was a Garr, long snout (very bony). I threw the long head into the water, then the tail, I heard the water move, saw ripples, but that was it. So I thought! Wosh right out of the brush! Gators can run fast, I mean really fast. It went for my hand with the knife in it, with the fish still on the blade. I knew it had me so I twisted my wrist as the jaws came down, and the knife (a GH Pro w/guthook-big and thick piece of steel) went into the roof of his mouth, the gator wasn't a big one, about 5'-6', he kept trying to roll, I held onto the knife handle because some of his teeth had gone into my hand and the lower part of my arm, and if I let go he would have tore me up. So I locked my legs around him, we we actually wrestled for a few minutes (seemed longer than that). He finally opened his mouth and I pulled out letting the guthook slice the roof of his mouth. He shot to the water and was gone. Again I was not afraid of dying, nor the pain, just of something eating me while I'm watching!!! Had I been using a thin fillet knife, you wouldn't be reading this...

3. After being bit by a poisonous snake:
I was in New Mexico saw a cave on the side of the mountain I was on, and it looked like it was covered up through time by growth and some rocks. I'm thinking wow cool, maybe some old Native American drawings or pottery, maybe even some other artifacts. Now I know better than to repel down this cliff and not being able to see if the cave is safe to enter..... But COME ON, old artifacts or wall drawings, where's your balls, duh, so I did it. I got down there, put my hand on one of the rocks to start opening the entrance and whack. I yanked back my hand hard and I saw the snake go flying thru the air, and disappear down the mountain side. I looked at my hand and there was still one of the fangs sticking in. I yanked it out and saw that it was starting to swell around the punctures. I took my knife and sliced the back of my hand open and then sucked as hard as I could. I knew I had to climb back up and then find a town or a house, road anything. When I reached the top I made a tourniquet. I finally found a dirt road, but I was real sick by that time and I just crawled to the middle of the road. I fell unconscious and a rancher had found me and had taken me to a clinic that gave me some anti-venom. I was then transfered to a hospital for about a week. Again it wasn't the pain or even dying, this won was (as I remember) nobody ever finding me... Actually after writing and remembering this, and how I felt, this one wasn't fear based. It was more of "oh, what a way to go, laying in the middle of a dirt road... See I forgot what I knew, it's just finding caves on the sides of mountains ring my bell!

[Rick]

Amazing stuff. I'll bet you had an adrenalin rush on for some time after the first two. Lessons? 1 & 2: Be aware of surroundings? 3: Don't ignore what you know is right?

As I said elsewhere, no encounters with bears, don't want any. Out with a friend in Florida when about a six footer started swimming toward us and just submerged. My friend was standing next to the bank and I was back about 30 feet or so. I told him to move back cause the gator was going to come out of there like a rocket. He backed up a couple of giant steps and those eyeballs floated to the surface right at the bank. Had he continued to stand there....I would probably have inherited some nice gear.

They CAN run. 35 miles per hour for a short distance so I understand. If you've never seen a 12 or 14 alligator in real life, you have no concept of what a top predator really looks like. They've remained unchanged for thousands of years for a reason.

[Gray Wolf]

I was hired to take 2 guys deep into the Everglades last year during the gator hunt. They buy licenses to hunt them. Their allowed to take 2 or 3 each during the week. They paid me to take them in and set up camp. They hired a gator hunter and his boat to take them out each day and help them kill their limit. Where I took them, I knew there were a lot of big gators, having trekked quite often in to the heart of the Glades. After they got 3 gators they had enough, they were like fish out of water (with money). When we got back to a bate shop, there were a lot of people standing around this pickup truck. I went over to see what was going on, this guy had a 16.5 footer. To see one like that is breathtaking.