The Most Independent Man on Earth:

If you ask a true survival expert what the essential pillar of the craft entails, most will say that our mind is the best tool that we have, followed by hours of training. Few survival experts are as adamant about proper training as Cody Lundin, best-selling author also known for his role in Discovery Channel’s hit TV show, Dual Survival. Known specifically for his in-depth knowledge of bushcraft skills and famous bare-foot approach to living, Cody Lundin calls Arizona his home which is also the base for his own survival school, the Aboriginal Living Skills School (ALSS). I first learned of Cody by reading his best-selling survival books, 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive and When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes., leading me to reach out to him for a sit-down phone interview:

DISASTER INITIATIVES: What is your overall view of survival in the 21st century?

CODY LUNDIN: That's a big question. I think today we approach preparedness differently, especially survival. We've labeled it, we've packaged it and now we've called it entertainment for a lot of people. When I teach survival skills to my clients, I really hone in on a different skillset of self-reliance that is a modern aperture of survival skills. A metaphor for that would be that you're out in the woods and your Jeep breaks down and you're getting rescued by a third party. That's typically what's going to happen because we live in the 21st century.  Maybe a hiker goes out and screws up in the back country and has to survive on their own, which is more primitive and exotic living skills. Those are more indigenous living skills, such as knowing more about the flora and fauna, which is a very deep view of the bioregion that you're in, whether it's Indiana or Arizona. It’s about knowing and being comfortable in your environment. That is not always necessary, because permanent living skills really have very little to do with modern outdoor survival skills in the context of a lost hiker.

The other thing I teach is open preparedness, which is a grid down scenario for whatever reason, whether it's a lightning storm that takes out a transformer, whether it's a hurricane or tornado. These scenarios are where we have usually a natural event that disrupts an urban situation where it's a town or a city, and how to deal with that. Maybe the toilet doesn't work. Maybe the heat doesn't work for the house, or the air conditioner doesn't work. Then we start talking about homesteading which is basically living off the grid as much as possible which considers more self-reliant design.

So those are different self-reliant skills, and they have very different context to them. Although the context is different, the content is still there, and there’s a scale of overlap, and that's the beauty of self-reliance.  Knowing primitive self-reliance skills doesn't cancel out survival skills and vice versa. What gets confusing, though, is all the TV shows, magazines, podcasts and social media “teachers” who claim to be teaching survival skills but they don't understand that these are very different forms of self-reliance.  A lot of self-proclaimed instructors don’t understand that our fine complex motor skills go out the window because people are scared. In other words, to truly teach survival skills, they should teach some gross motor skills that students can rely on when things hit the fan.  The fact is we're completely out of touch as a society in America and other developed nations because we lack the competence to be reliant on ourselves…especially in a disaster. It could happen to anyone because we've taken a backseat to our own personal safety and accountability, whether that's out in the woods or in a downtown Chicago neighborhood.

You might have someone in a magazine or tv show that seems damn sure of themselves in an interview, but a lot of other instructors don’t always teach their students these variables of the relationship between human and mother nature because they don’t have a lot of field experience. The lessons learned teach you that you're trying to dance with her (mother nature), not against her. And if I didn't teach that core lesson, cocky people essentially die in this field. There are no cutting corners on this thing. You can't Google field experience. The beauty of the profession is you'll never know it all. There's just too much to know. 

"Disaster situations are mostly psychological because our psychology can influence the physiology of human beings."

DISASTER INITIATIVES: What methodology do you instill in your instruction techniques and how can that be incorporated in various levels of preparedness?

CODY LUNDIN: Survival skills don't usually fall into the fold of what we try to instruct or instill in people. When we look at communities or government organizations, you ask yourself what kind of philosophy do you think that we’ve gained from their experiences or insights?  I've been hired by FEMA to train disaster responders at the FEMA headquarters in Emmitsburg, Maryland where the people in charge had the humility and the sense to realize that our preparedness responders don't know everything about disaster preparedness. The government puts people that have book knowledge of disaster management in the field of a real crisis, then they became aware that there are people who weren't sure of themselves in an emergency.  What I see a lot in disaster management is more management than disaster training. We do need management systems and those who work in that field are damn good at what they do, but it would be helpful if these same people knew hands-on skills about staying alive, about sanitation and hygiene, and helping to keep each other alive in the field. That’s not so say that not that all of them don't, but I would say most of the ones I've met are missing the hands-on skills to survive in a disaster. They're good at delegating, but as far as knowing the pain and adversity from field experience, they're a lot like the victims who have suffered from a national disaster.  

DISASTER INITIATIVES: Amanda Ripley wrote the book "The Unthinkable: Who Survives in a Disaster and Why." It explores our mindset during times of disaster, and what individual traits may potentially rise that may determine if we live or die during disaster scenarios. What is the importance of disaster psychology during times of crisis? 

CODY LUNDIN: It's huge. Disaster situations are mostly psychological because our psychology can influence the physiology of human beings. There's the example of the dry rattlesnake bite in the Southwest where people have died being bit by a rattlesnake that was dry. In other words, there was no venom injected within the person. However, they literally psyche themselves out and died from their own head trauma, so to speak, instead of the physical trauma. So psychology in a disaster is a huge component to staying alive. It means staying calm and staying in control. It goes all the way down the line into being prepared, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Even rescuers need to go through a debrief session and deal with the traumatic events with professional mental healthcare responders because trauma can affect the psyche on a foundational and functional level. 

"We have a lot of people in the Nation who either are afraid of disasters or will be when they find out they are not prepared to handle a disaster when it comes to their front door. "

That means you have hundreds of millions of people who don’t know what to do in a disaster situation. Fear usually spawns from the unknown and is a central factor in emergency preparedness. We have a lot of people in the Nation who either are afraid of disasters or will be when they find out they are not prepared to handle a disaster when it comes to their front door.  

DISASTER INITIATIVES: That’s a good segue to my next question which concerns situational awareness. What role does situational awareness play in everyday life to prepare for unthinkable disaster scenarios? 

CODY LUNDIN: Situational awareness is when someone is aware of their surroundings and what’s going on around them. A lot of people in America don't have a whole lot of sense about what's going on around them today. In terms of everyday life, situational awareness helps mitigate getting into a tough situation when we may not need to in the first place. There's a friend of mine that does a combat training and utilizes a system of conditions based on the colors. As an example, Condition White means that your head is in the clouds and you’re not paying attention.  You’re completely unaware of where you're going or what your surroundings are. Condition Yellow means that you’re paying attention to what’s going on around you. You’re in a constant state of awareness. Condition Orange means that there is a potential threat that you may encounter, whereas Condition Red means that you’re under attack from someone or a circumstance. 

It’s good common sense to be in Condition Yellow because you are actively participating in your surroundings. It’s really a lost art form for many in America, especially younger people and I understand that. That's the role of the parent or a mentor to help younger people understand that they need to pay attention to what’s going on around them. It’s a hard experience because when something happens to wake someone up, they’ll never go back to condition white again. Once you learn those things, you can hold Condition Yellow with virtually no effort because with repetition, it becomes ingrained behavior which develops a habit and not paranoia.

The 4-11

Few well-known survival experts live in the world that they teach. Cody Lundin is one such expert. From building his self-sufficient home in Arizona to teaching the skills he lives by, Cody can be trusted in his knowledge of how to survive in times of disaster. While many of us may not live the same self-sufficient lifestyle that Cody Lundin does, it is evident that many of us have lost the connection to the most important aspect of our lives…ourselves. Teaching survival skills isn’t just about learning to survive in the wilderness, but about connecting ourselves with nature, family, and life itself.  It’s this no-nonsense approach that Cody Lundin has perfected in his teaching, getting his clients back to the basics of life and humanity. Regardless of the disaster, our basic humanity is something that can both terrify us…but also ground us in our attempt to survive calamity.  

About Cody Lundin