Surviving Disaster teaches viewers that the notion of fight or flight is outdated and that the human body instead has a natural reaction of slowing down and perceiving time freeze during intense situations.  At this point, we enter the three stages of survival: Denial, Deliberation, and the Decisive Moment.  It's not until we reach the Decisive Moment stage that we either take adequate action or fail to take action entirely.  An airline safety company that trains flight attendants for disasters estimates that during said disasters 15% of people remain calm/collected, another 15% act exactly the opposite, and the rest are initially stunned but come around to their senses.  All of the evidence suggests that we should spend more time actually training for disasters instead of just talking about it; muscle memory is key whether it be finding the exit on a crashed aircraft or navigating through the building where you work during an earthquake.

 

Throughout the program survivors share their own stories from the 9/11 attacks, the 2004 tsunami, the Oklahoma City bombing, and house fires among other disasters.  A woman talks about being frozen with shock during 9/11 even though she was also a survivor of the World Trade Center bombing almost a decade earlier.  Another survivor talks about working on the 3rd floor of the Federal building in Oklahoma City and after the blast being found lodged in a wall at the basement of the building.  The most interesting personal story is that of Dr. Arthur Toga who survived the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985 along with his pregnant wife.  Being a neuroscientist who also happened to experience such a terrible situation makes it fascinating to hear Dr. Toga talk about his emotions in such detail.

 

Having been a psychology major I found the documentary stimulating and at the same time challenging considering the "fight or flight" concept which I had previously learned. This DVD should become a staple of our educational system particularly with appropriate psychology classes at the collegiate level.  Although unadvertised on the back of the DVD case, I was delighted to discover special features which include a number of extended stories from survivors featured in the documentary.  Dr. Toga's extended ten minute segment is definitely the highlight here.  People uninterested in matters of the brain or PSB documentaries in general should stay away, but for anyone else remotely interested in psychology and numerous other related fields Surviving Disaster is a must see.