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AFRAID TO FLY, SOME TOOK A BIGGER RISK

In an article in the Wall Street Journal on March 23rd, Sharon Begley reported that after 9/11, Americans afraid to fly took to the nation's highways, a decision that experts on risk say is a dangerous error: driving 1,000 miles poses a greater risk of deadly accidents than flying the same distance.

Begley says statistics following 9/11 prove the risk experts are right. Department of Transportation data showed a significant increase in the number of fatal automobile crashes in the first three months of 2002 as compared with the same period in 2001 prior to 9/11.

Gerd Gigerenzer studies why people avoid flying because of the high probability of death in an aircraft accident even though there is an extremely low probability of an accident in the first place. According to his analysis, 353 people died in traffic accidents in that three month period who would not have died if they had chosen to fly rather than drive.

Similarly, according to Peter Sandman of Princeton, N.J., after two big railway accidents in Britain killed a total of 11 people, "the public responded by switching from trains to cars" resulting in more auto deaths than in the railway fatalities.

"The train crash killed more people by scaring them into their cars than it did directly," said Sandman. "Certainly, people are not maximizing their life expectancy when they switch from trains to cars after a railway crash, or from planes to cars after 9/11."

Newsletter received from America - www.fearofflying.com (17th August 2005)

WHY DO YOU AVOID THE SAFE WAY BECAUSE OF FEAR

Ask yourself what you are trying to be safe FROM. Are you trying to be safe from instant death? Or are you trying to avoid feelings? Many people cloud the issue by saying they are trying to avoid minutes of absolute terror followed by instant death; that is how they regard the risk of flying. They see it almost inevitable that if they board the plane, it will crash, and prior to the crash, they will be forced to endure unimaginable terror.

The first error is being sure that if you board the plane you will die. But there is a reason for this erroneous thinking. It has to do with right-brain, left-brain thinking. Though the left brain with its sequential logic analyzes the situation calmly and recognizes that flying presents a far lower risk of fatality, the right brain "pictures" that one-in-several-million happening, and the imagination of this situation completely fills the right brain. It is the right brain where the emotional control centers are located, and thus when a vivid "picture" of disaster occupies the right brain, the emotional control center responds as if that even IS taking place, and releases hormones into the body and brain. The resulting feelings are unknowingly accepted as PROOF that what is IMAGINED is real. This is because we test reality by comparing what we perceive from one sensory mode (seeing, hearing, touch, smell, taste) with another sensory mode. If one sensory mode seems to confirm the other sensory mode, we satisfy reality testing and assume that what is experienced is real. But the problem here is, when you picture something VISUALLY, it is that picture itself that CAUSES the PHYSICAL FEELING, and that physical feeling is mistakenly taken as proof that what is visualized is true.

You get a false positive reality test. Since you picture the crash, and "feel" the crash, you "know" it is going to happen. WRONG!

The second error is assuming that in facing death, there is terror. Remember the cell phone calls from the doomed planes on 9/11; the conversations were CALM even though those calling from the planes were sure they were going to die in the next few moments.

We humans are not the fastest nor the strongest mammals. We survive not due to speed, nor strength, but because of our brains. If our ancestors became overwhelmed by feelings when faced with mortal danger, they would not have been able to use their brain. Thus, it was our ancestors who (on a scale of zero to ten) went to between a 2.0 and a 3.5 when facing the most extreme risk who were able to best deal with emergency, and survive, and thus to reproduce and pass on to the next generation their biologically based response to risk. Those who "maxed out" when facing risk were not able to use their minds to find a strategy to save themselves, and thus they were eliminated from the gene pool.

So, when you avoid flying because you want to avoid the ever so slight possibility of crashing because you think it would mean terror, think again. Terror is not what happens when facing what appears to be certain death; instead, we humans go to between 2.0 and 3.5 on the zero to ten scale.

But since you, yourself, HAVE gone to extremely high levels, what is going on? It is not ONE single thing facing you that causes you to max out emotionally, but rather one thought (with a small emotional response due to a small amount of hormone release) that leads to a second thought (with another small emotional response), followed by yet another, and another, and another. It is the SUM of this SEQUENCE of thoughts that causes high levels of anxiety.

After you allow such an anxiety sequence to run several times, the sequence binds together in a way that causes you - instead of going on a zero to ten scale, 2, to 4, to 6, to 8 - instantly to 10, without any ability to identify or be aware of this being caused by separate thoughts. Why? Because the aren't separate anymore; they have merged into one awful constellation that causes you to go instantly to max when you even think of flying.

MESSAGE BOARD ON FEAR OF FLYING Go to: http://www.fearofflying.com and click on "chat."

TO GET STARTED ON BEATING FEAR OF FLYING To order any part of the SOAR Course or the Full Guaranteed SOAR Program, go to http://www.fearofflying.com/store.htm

Or call Lisa at (800) 332-7359 or 914 763-9603 if outside the toll free area (US and Canada).

THE WEB SITE FOR SOAR http://www.fearofflying.com/

It is amazing what governments do through outright lies to smoke screen the facts from public view.SOAR Newsletter 4th May 2006

On July 1, 2002, the captain of a Russian airliner ignored the warnings from the on-board anti-collision device and collided with a DHL cargo plane over the German-Swiss border. The Russian government put out information that the captain acted correctly.

On October 31, 1999, an EgyptAir copilot deliberately crashed near Nantucket. Though the flight recorder showed the plane was operating perfectly, the Egyptian government hired heavyweights in the U.S. to obscure the facts by claiming there was a plot to keep the public from knowing about a hidden problem with the 767. The hidden problem was between the copilot's ears.

Now the Russians are at this Pravda-style crap again, saying it was "Mother Nature" that caused the crash of the Armenian airline crash on Tuesday.. A news release from Novosti, the Russian News & Information Agency, released a statement as follows: "Crew commander Grigory Surenovich Grigoryan was one of the [airline's] most experienced pilots and had flown Airbus airliners for years. Experts believe the crash was apparently caused not by human error but by bad weather conditions". Click here to see the news release

Aside from an attempt to keep the public from recognizing the pitiful state of Russian aviation, which is still operating in many locations with navigation facilities that were outdated fifty years ago, this kind of B.S.. misleads anxious fliers to fear "bad weather."

What Should You Really Learn From This?

1. If you travel in parts of the world where aviation is still in the "dark ages", it is OK to fly. At the same time, you need to understand that safety standards are simply not the same. Over 90% of crashes worldwide have been in areas where navigation facilities and airport facilities are grossly out of date, or involve airlines which do not have the resources to meet the standards we in the U.S. expect.

I would add, however, that there are also a few airlines in the U.S. which do not meet the standards we expect - and perhaps believe - airlines adhere to. I again and again caution readers to choose airlines based on certain criteria. You can find detailed information on that by looking on the message board and reading my post "Choosing An Airline Wisely.

2. When there is a crash during the Indy 500, that doesn't lead you to stop driving your car. Why? Because you recognize that there is a vast difference between highway driving and driving during a race.

The same amount of difference exists between flight operations in the U.S.. and flight operations in some countries such as the former Soviet Union, some countries in Central and South America, most of Africa, and much of Asia.

3. This doesn't mean you should not travel to such places. You need to consider your interests and desires and balance them with the fact that safety standards are different.

If you are traveling to such places, there is no reason for great anxiety, but there is good reason to understand that standards are not the same. Don't take it for granted that, just because aviation is modern in the U..S., the same is true elsewhere.

A Few Words About Travel In The U.S.

Every time you drive 5.4 miles in an urban situation, you have just taken the same fatality risk as flying from New York to Tokyo. You do that all the time. This is not to terrify you about driving. Not at all. It is to point out that you have driving 5.4 miles thousands and thousands of times and nothing happened. The same is true about flying. You can flying - as I have as a crewmember - thousands upon thousands of times - and nothing will happen.

I - and I hope you do - look for the best safety standards when I select a car. I drive a SAAB with air bags front and side, and I always wear my seat belt.

I - and I hope you do - also look for the best safety standards when you fly. So, don't take it granted that just because you see some flight operation call itself an airline that it guarantees the standards you take for granted in the U.S.

Do not necessarily take standards for granted in the U.S. Things are not what they were before the extreme measures taken by some "airlines" to cut costs since the airline's financial crisis after 9/11.

Read "Choosing An Airline Wisely" and make an informed choice which will give you good reason for confidence.

If you need still further help to deal with anxiety - because rational thought is not always enough to quiet emotional distress - please consider some of the advanced help we offer. Most people need only "The Control of Anxiety" which is available at http://www.fearofflying.com/store.shtml on DVD, and much less expensively in MP3. Click here to learn more about this new course!

Yours truly,

Tom

MESSAGE BOARD ON FEAR OF FLYING Go to: http://www.fearofflying.com and click on "chat."

TO GET STARTED ON BEATING FEAR OF FLYING To order any part of the SOAR Course or the Full Guaranteed SOAR Program, go to http://www.fearofflying.com/store.htm

Or call Lisa at (800) 332-7359 or 914 763-9603 if outside the toll free area (US and Canada).

THE WEB SITE FOR SOAR http://www.fearofflying.com/

Current threat to UK Airports - follow this link for more news from the Home Office .......www.homeoffice.gov.uk - and the Department for Transport .......www.dft.gov.uk

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