Meditation as a survival skill

     This may sound funny to many but meditation is a very useful survival skill.


     I know of a man who was on a very long hike, when about twenty miles into the wilds he began to have a heart attack. He was an accomplished meditator and was able to slow his heart rate and control his blood pressure enough to hike back to civilization and seek medical attention. Most people would have just died. Different meditation techniques can provide you with subtle abilities that may prove invaluable. 

    Admittedly, his example is rather uncommon, the ability to clearly focus in a stressful situation is paramount to survival. The first rule of survival according to many including Douglas Adams is "DON'T PANIC." In fact, this simple rule in all its synonyms is the first rule of all survival lessons. Meditation is a means to not panic. but it is also a means to many other ends.  


     It has been demonstrated and proven that some people can withstand severe and traumatic pain through meditation alone. Some people have even had major surgeries with no anesthetics using only meditation. Personally I believe an ability to wait calmly and alertly without moving for very long periods has survival benefits that have not been mentioned in any of the popular survival shows, websites, and magazines. Basically, when sitting still in a focused state of mind one breathes slower, the heart rate slows and all metabolic functions are dampened, and when sitting, as opposed to walking, hiking, working, hunting, ect... one uses much less energy and water, effectively extending rations.

 When one regularly meditates and develops the practice sufficiently, sleep becomes slightly less important. The reason changes in sleep occur are still mostly unknown, but the current theory on sleep says, we need a long period of down time to process new stimuli and 'delete' redundant information and enhance memory of newer stimuli. But when one spends more time in meditation there is much less 'new' information to process and 'delete'. Having less information to process means less sleep is required. This is something that all experienced meditators will confirm, the more they meditate, the less sleep they need. But this effect does seem to plateau so one will still require some sleep.

    Meditation as a survival skill is something that should be included in all survival training. A basic principle of survival is the decision to sit and wait. For example, if your car breaks down on a long desert highway. It's probably more wise to wait for another traveler than to walk for miles in the sun. Depending on the time of year one may have to wait for hours or maybe a day or two. Regardless of the actual time, waiting is almost always the best decision. But you may break down far from any road and traveling on food becomes necessary. Here the wisdom of traveling at night and resting during the day will save you. Waiting in any possible shade, meditation could help stave off a sense of desperation, fear and hopelessness, and conserve water and energy.  

   The basic ability to sit calmly and wait for long periods of time is something that our culture takes no value in, that is, until we have to baby sit or teach a class full of children, or sit in a car for hours on end. Here it becomes paramount to the survival of an annoying child and a less than patient parent. Teaching children to meditate has been shown to correlate to successes later in life and gives them skills to handle frustration and difficult tasks. And by keeping them calm may save them from a parent pulling the car over for a bit of "physical education."

In combination, the effects of meditation allow for better chances of survival. Water, ration and energy conservation, alertness and (negligible) less time sleeping, pain management, and simply remaining calm can enhance ones chances of getting out alive and unscathed by trauma.