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Another experience I had abroad was certainly something that showed the amygdala in fear and panic! Fire is something that terrifies us, no less now than all those millions of years ago.
My boss in Rhodesia owned the one ranch, the Homeplace of 3000 acres, about which we discussed, and rented two more, each of 10,000 acres.
We were contacted one afternoon by one of the lads, to say that there was a fire on one of the ranches, about 20 miles away. We piled into the truck and arrived, to find that it was in an area where there were no cattle, thank goodness, but very hilly, broken country.
The front of the fire was working its way down a hill, and we and the lads proceeded to back-burn, at the same time clearing a ten foot wide fire path of all leaves, branches.. anything that would burn.
The back-burning was going very well, because the wind was on our side. It was blowing against the fire, and the back-burning was going up nicely to meet it. We really thought we had the whole situation under control.
Out there, the trees generally are very small, the landscape dotted with bushes, but mainly various types of grass. They aren't those awful fires that burn thick forest and catch the tops of trees. I've never been in anything like that, but I'm sure that's really frightening.
Anyway, there we were, like idiots, feeling very pleased with ourselves and standing slap at the bottom of a valley. We'd been in enough fires to know a lot better than that. We should have made our way up the hill facing us and then felt pleased with ourselves!
Well, the inevitable happened. The wind changed with a vengeance. It swung right round and brought the fire rushing down to us. The fire path we'd cleared may just as well not have been there. The fire simply jumped it.
By then, we were running very fast up the hill.
Now, fire has a habit of ambling down a hill, but it climbs a hill like a rocket. We were running desperately now. The fire was catching up. Then, we noticed it changed direction by about thirty degrees to our left and was threatening to encircle us. We changed direction accordingly and ran perpendicular to its line.
Finally, we made the top of the hill. By God's good grace, the top was flat and void of vegetation. We both collapsed, totally exhausted, but safe. This was certainly a case of the amygdala in fear and panic!
Looking back on the whole episode, it's fascinating to see how the fight and flight system unfolded. There wasn't any conscious thought. It was a little like being led by the hand. When we saw the fire swinging around to our left, our own change of direction was completely automatic.
In this particular case, thank God for Panic Attacks!
About this Author
Mike Bond, and I just thought I'd show how invaluable the Panic Attack can be... in the right circumstance! How the amygdala in fear and panic really can lead you out of trouble. But this, I know, doesn't help the poor people who suffer from these attacks. There's a lot of helpful information on my Website, as well as a free demo. Just click on http://www.panattack.com
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