Dual Survival's Cody and Joe Explain How to Survive Real Apocalypse Scenarios

12/21/2012

Want to know how YOU can prepare for and survive in a real doomsday scenario? We sat down with Dual Survival’s Cody Lundin and Joseph Teti to get their takes on how to survive end-of-the-world scenarios that could all too easily become reality.

Though the world is still standing today, as the Mayan calendar comes to an end, Cody and Joe’s advice is useful on any day, at any time, when the going gets tough and you find yourself in a scenario where you’re fighting for your life.

Is there any way to prepare for what you envision as an apocalyptic scenario?

Cody’s Take: Survival situations happen typically because something happened that went wrong. So, if you’re looking at a shift in a global nation, about getting an entire nation into a survival situation, that doesn’t happen overnight. That happens over decades of policies that don’t support self-reliance.

You’ve got to think about what makes a human being tick. We need fresh air, we need water, we need food, we need to thermoregulate our environment, so you don’t have to go live in the woods in a passive solar earth home and catch rain and compost your own crap like I do. You can make little baby steps and just try and grow some of your own vegetables to start with. Or maybe try to gutter the rain from your roof to collect that rain to water a fruit tree you might plant in the backyard. All these little steps go toward 1) making a healthier family and 2) creating a greater sustainability and self-respect and confidence that a family has – that they can do stuff on their own.

Joe’s Take: Sure, let’s be clear. We are talking about taking control of your own destiny: whether you live or die. Right now most of us live with the false belief that someone – specifically the government – will always be there to provide our food, water and shelter. That’s just not the case.

You have got to take control of your own destiny.

With that, there are several steps:

1) You’ve got to start thinking like a survivor. A lot of people don’t have a survivor mindset. You’ve got to break down your needs into three main things: food, water and shelter. Think about this: in an extended survival scenario, say six months to a year, how would you provide for each of those things? Y’know? How would you do that? So that goes to step two…

2) You’ve got to train your mind. You’ve got to train your body. You’ve got to train your family. You don’t want to read and study and gain knowledge about how to survive on your own and not try any of those things out before when the ship is sinking. You need to know how to do this stuff prior to, which takes a little bit of practice. The fact is, we aren’t training for a standard survival scenario. What do you do when your boat is sinking? Well, you can practice very specific steps and actions for that. We don’t know what will be in short supply, what will happen, what we won’t be able to get. Will you be able to get water? Will you be able to get gas? Will you have electricity? Those are things you really won’t know until it happens. Will it be bad enough that looters go around? Will you be able to protect your family? That may sound like a far-fetched thing, but just go back and review what happened during Katrina – ALL of those things happened. And that was a natural disaster. Imagine if a terrorist attack hit a major city, whether it be a dirty bomb or a weapon of mass destruction. You’re going to have wide-spread panic. A lot of people just simple are not going to survive that.

3) Have a plan. HAVE A PLAN. If you don’t have one when the crap hits the fan, it’s too late to make one. You’re already behind the power curve.

We know Cody is self-reliant, but is Dual Survival’s new guy Joe prepared for a disaster scenario? He told me he’s been prepared for years. Here’s an example he gave:

Joe: In my truck, I have a very simple CB radio. Why do I have that? Because truckers will know what roads and highways are open or closed. And why is that important? Because if you’re trying to get out of an area that’s just been irradiated or had some kind of disaster, you want to get out of that area as fast as you can. So, you can talk to truckers and say, “Hey, is highway 77 open man?” – “No, there’s bumper to bumper traffic. Get on highway 36” – and you’re gone. You see what I mean? Just something as simple as a CB radio can save your life.

But how can people who aren’t trained survivalists keep their calm under pressure? What can they do to ensure their survival?

Cody’s Take: Start small. Figure out what your family needs, what they like, where their weak points are, what their desires are. Maybe it’s living off on a farm somewhere or maybe it’s just being part of an intentional community in a city location where they have farmers markets and little gardens. If you look back to tribal cultures, they have it dialed in. It’s not rocket science. How do I heat and cool this home? Where can I take a sh*t? Where’s my water coming from? What do I have to eat? Communication? Transportation? Et cetera. I did give a lot of detail to this in a sort of disaster format in my second book, When All Hell Breaks Loose.

But really, start small, because it would seem so daunting for the average American that they would just freeze up and they wouldn’t do anything. So, better to start small based on whatever family like or need is at the present moment – because it will be a little different for each family. You start recycling. You ride a bike to work part of the time. Whatever the hell that is, you get in shape – because survival is very physical. Whatever that is for an individual and families is their respective choice, but there are a lot of common sense things to follow.

What I mean by that is, let’s say we’re in a house and we take a weekend where we take our own breakers onto the power supply and we turn them off. Then you find out what really hurts and what the family likes or “needs” and can go and realize “we were really hurt without this, that or the other.” And they can improvise, get backup plans or learn material based on that skill that’s necessary or learn how to do without, or whatever it is.

Joe’s Take: I will tell you this: Knowledge is power. There’s a ton of information online. Cody has written a book on preparedness. I think if people just educate themselves and read a little bit, that would help a lot of people get through it, because with knowledge, that gives you confidence, and confidence will give you the ability to negotiate through the stress. If you know what you’re getting into before you get into it, you’ll have the confidence to negotiate that problem.

I think that people just need to wake up and see what’s going on out there, and don’t live in a bubble. Read and see and educate yourself about what’s going on. The threat of terrorism is as real as it gets. Sadly, I believe that someday our worst fears are going to come to fruition. If you’re not prepared to survive something like that, you’re going to become a casualty. Nature has a very unique way of removing people out of the life cycle that aren’t able to survive. Survival of the fittest, as the saying goes.

Is this generation prepared?

Cody’s Take: The scariest thing for me is, according to Red Cross statistics when they asked Americans, “Are you prepared for any sort of disaster?” – 93% or so said NO. That’s scary. How could that possibly have a positive outcome in the short term? But hopefully we learn from our experiences.

Joe’s Take: To be honest with you, it doesn’t really matter if the world is going to end or not. Even if things stayed the same for the next hundred years, we should still be cultivating an America where the people are strong, self-reliant, and capable of handling anything. And sadly, a lot of people, because of the computer, and everything is two feet away from people, we’ve kind of lived in a bubble for a long time. I think that can be a fatal mistake.

What is the takeaway message on surviving any scenario?

Learn to be self-reliant. Think like a survivor. Practice and train to hone your survival skills. Be prepared. Become confident in your ability to survive.

Don’t forget to tune in to the all-new season of Dual Survival with Cody Lundin and Joseph Teti, premiering January 1^st at 9/8c!