In the days and weeks since hearing you speak, I continue to reflect on your wise, deep perceptions. They have helped me see my experiences in a new way. I am recommending Deep Survival to those newly diagnosed with cancer, and telling my network of doctors about your important book. I believe that people facing challenges that seem, at times, insurmountable need to hear your words. Thank you for marking the path we travel in the struggle for survival–sometimes against the odds.

Shellie K. Nixon

    I just finished Deep Survival and it has changed my life. I had been missing something important, and after reading your book, I realized it was a centered or grounded way of facing life. My attitude toward life has changed overnight and I now have much less fear of stressful situations popping up.

    In your book, you talked about a rhythm people sometimes develop to help them survive. I noticed that the book had a sort of smooth rhythm that I couldn’t put my finger on, and it carried me quickly and effortlessly through to the end (well not totally effortlessly - I did lose some sleep when I just couldn’t put the book down). I also, like one of the reviewers, felt as if I had been waiting most of my life for the information you wrote about.

    Even though I’ve done some mindfulness and Zen meditation, I still didn’t understand about overall attitudes toward the world until I read your book, and am now much more open to anything happening.

Thanks for a great book.

K. Damus

    Just a quick note to say thanks for your incredible book, Deep Survival. I picked it up while browsing in the science section at Barnes & Noble in Emeryville, CA, then sat in the aisle and read 30 pages, then bought it.

    I teach a course called Leading with Emotional Intelligence to executives and, even before I finished your book, I could not stop quoting it. I am recommending it to all my students, my colleagues, my friends, even my mother, who has a lived a life of adventure riding horses at the championship level. I'm sending it now as a gift to my amazing ex-husband who is a software engineer and paraglider.

    Your book is at the top of my list for people wanting to learn about emotional intelligence. You are a gifted writer, purposeful, smart, witty, with a flair for storytelling and turning difficult subjects into page-turning prose.

    I just finished it tonight. The last chapter was perfect.

    Thank you for risking the big adventure of writing, and living to tell the tale.

Jen Lindsay

    I was fascinated by your book. Several aspects had very interesting parallels to surgery. I am a general and trauma surgeon in Springfield, Missouri. In order to be successful in the operating room, a surgeon has to have a curious mix of confidence (bordering on arrogance) and humility. Most of what we do is completely routine, as it should be in any highly trained profession. In moments of crisis, however, things get very interesting. Some of the errors you describe in persons who are lost or in desperate circumstances can also happen to surgeons in the operating room. Sometimes errors in terms of what the brain perceives, rather than what the eyes are actually seeing can lead the surgeon down the wrong path.

Thanks

Chapman Olive, MD

    I read and reread your book! It struck a chord with me several times as I read it!

    I work for Space Systems Loral in Palo Alto, Ca. where we build communications satellites. I have been going around to various managers with your book recommending that they read it. I think you are very perceptive when you talk about guys dying on the descent. The same concept applies here where we make satellites.

    We recently had a tragedy where a satellite was dropped in the course of loading it into a shipping container after it had undergone hundreds of hours of testing prior to launch. Perhaps guys reading this book will be able to apply some of the same survivalist ideas/thinking to their work process.

    They "summited", got all the testing done, they were getting ready to head back down the mountain (loading the satellite back into the container, getting it ready to be shipped to launch base) and somebody didn’t "self arrest" and drug his team down.

You done good by writing this book.

Roy W. Patterson
P.S. The story about your dad is just outrageous!! wow!

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Patty Wagstaff
Former U.S. Aerobatics Champion

    Thank you for your book, Deep Survival. This book is about life. I don't know how anyone will be able to read it and not have it affect the way they view themselves in the world. I am truly and deeply touched by your writing.

    I will congratulate you now, in advance, for making the "Best Sellers" list. And I'm going to help. This book is going to help me get a bunch of Christmas shopping done!

Thank you again!

Robert Stroupe, Jr.
Argyle, Texas

    Brilliant book! The concepts therein are more than survival in extremes... they work for everyday life too...I read the book at a time when I have been asking many of those questions... and finding the same kinds of answers from a host of other sources... I shall be buying a few more copies and giving them to friends with certain passages underlined for them... there are many people who should read this book... Many people who are landing on runways filled with proverbial jetliners that they refuse to see.

    As an artist it has reaffirmed many things I have learned from long and often hard experience. Your writing and thought in this book made it compelling reading as well as profound food for thought. This book contains a lot more than the title gives credit for.

Many thanks...

Johann Wessels
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

    Deep Survival arrived yesterday and it was nearly 2 a.m. when I forced myself to stop flipping pages and turn out the lights! What a marvelous blend of science and personal narrative. It is clarifying and confirming much valuable information about perception that also applies to art making and just getting through the day...
I feel honored to be included in the collection.

Lauren Elder

    I’m writing to you to tell you how slackjawed I am at your book, Deep Survival. As I read each page, I kept saying, "That’s it! He nailed it!" It’s just so amazing, and I can’t thank you enough for writing it.

    Anyone who deals with chronic illness would feel compelled to read it (I know I did!). They might also be the ones who will appreciate it the most. In our own way, we know what it feels like to be hanging from a cliff with broken bones and no hope in sight. I can’t remember the last time I bought a hardcover book. But man, was it worth every penny.

    I suppose I’ve been looking for answers lately as to why I’ve survived three separate life-threatening complications of a blood disorder, while others have perished, and everything you say about what makes a person endure is absolutely true: That to survive something, you must surrender to it, basically fall into it, with all its pain and suffering, if you’re ever going to get out of it.

    Like you say, it’s all a paradox. We must relinquish control in order to achieve it. The type of control we master is of the truer sort--the realization that no matter what happens, even death, it’s all really okay if we've been able to see just how precious and astounding life really is, and if we know, in our hearts, that we’ve lived our dreams. In that sense, illness--or anything catastrophic--ends up being a gift.

    I never would have been able to say any of this, of course, had I not read your book and this was made conscious to me. It’s truly one of the most profound reading experiences I've ever had, and I’m marveling at how it found its way into my hands.

With great appreciation,

Mary Ann Farley

    Deep Survival is absolutely riveting! the kind of book that makes you neglect family, friends, work, etc. I know I'm reading too quickly to absorb all of the scientific material (fascinating as it is), but will go back to it again, I know. Meanwhile, even before finishing, I'm thinking of other people I want to send it to.

    It truly is one of the most original, compelling, fascinating books I've read in my 54 years. I have become a disciple and want to spread the good news; I even carried it with me to a 7:30 breakfast meeting to tell my colleague about it, and I've got a mental list of friends/family who are going to get an earful at the earliest opportunity.

    I loved your artful interplay of science/storytelling, your great sense of humor, and your wonderful analogies. You really are a terrific writer.

    I also admired the way you wove real-life accidents and adventures into the book not merely as ends unto themselves but rather to illustrate the important ideas about mental models, secondary emotions, etc., that you were trying to get across. You succeeded--in spades!

Kathy Masulis
New York City