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> I've been unfortunate to witness some nightmare situations in life and it 
> seems that some poeple almost automatically go into the action mode while 
> others freak or become paralyzed. My guess is that the latter two groups 
> won't be posting too much about their close calls ?
> 

Panic is a strange animal. Even those who don't normally panic are susceptible 
to it and may have more problems when it hits because they ar unprepared for 
it. Everyone can panic. Each individual's threshold is different, though.

Many people who survive situations cite the training they had. They went into 
an "automatic" mode and were able to concentrate on procedures.

In the military I had a grenade go off pretty close by. No one got hurt, but 
two guys immediately jumped up and ran. I started laughing because it struck me 
as funny that they ran AFTER the explosion, as if that would do any good. Those 
guys thought I was nuts. Not that I thought having a grenade go off was funny, 
but panic makes you do weird, usually counterproductive things.

Like Richard Prior, the comic, said: "Snakes make you run into trees".

Rick

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