Surviving a Earth Quake - Practical tips

Dear Readers,

I received this in my in-box yesterday. It makes very interesting reading as it seems to offer completely opposite advice to that which I had thought to be true. I know some of you do not live in high risk earthquake zones, but you never know –this could save your life if one strikes when you are on holiday or travelling. I believe it is well worth 5 minutes of anybody’s time to read. Though it is not the forum to post this, i could not stop doing this after having seen 2 tsunamis now.

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE: "TRIANGLE OF LIFE"

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI),the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams
from many countries... I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years.. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something. Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the
weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the "triangle of life".

The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void,the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the "triangles" you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Most everyone who simply "ducks and covers" WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake... It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a
void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake.  If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created.. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight.
Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on The back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the
floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different "moment of frequency" (they swing separately from the main part of the building).  The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be
blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway... The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles.
They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for
the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact.  Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone's life... The Entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

"We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly".

N.B.
In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside.
Ten mannequins did "duck and cover," and ten mannequins I used in my "triangle of life" survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.  There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the "triangle of life."  This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV. 

Spirituality and Religion

Recently a friend of mine asked me , Can i be spiritual but not religious? Should they co-exist or can someone be spiritual without being exposed any concepts of spirituality? Here are my thoughts.....

Spirituality is the science of self realisation which helps us to attain a higher level of awareness. Awareness of your mind, body and thought process. It helps you to increase the power of discrimination and helps you to choose the dharmic path. Let us not confuse spirituality with our belief system. Hence I would define spirituality as the one which gives you a means to know your true self and if we go by this definition of spirituality, then means like yoga, meditation, prayer and even what he did [self contemplation] qualify as effective spiritual practices. Each one is effective in its own way.

The next question would be, if I have to accept means like yoga, prayer and meditation as ways to becoming spiritual, is there a common ground between them? Or in simple terms how do they really help me? The answer is also simple. It helps us to create a centre of awareness within our mind which helps us to isolate us from our affliction to material and mortal things. A spiritually conscious person is always in quest for the ultimate truth. [The cause of my birth and the purpose of my birth and reasons behind why I am born and how I can prevent a re-birth]. The moment we are attached to material things it is the very nature of human mind to think about those needs again and again which leads to desire and the cycle repeats itself. Hence any technique that helps us to attain absolute control over our mind and help us realise our true needs can be spiritual. Means like Yoga, prayer and meditation are time tested techniques which when taught properly helps us to attain mastery over our mind.

In India and particularly speaking of Hinduism spiritual experiences and religious experiences co-exist naturally. In fact yoga and meditation is offshoot of Vedas. Due to the impact of western ideas and modern thinking ideas like secular spiritualism have come into existence, which is why he asked am I religious or am I being spiritual? Now let’s try to understand these two broad concepts. Principles of any religion are based on faith in existence of God. [I am not referring to idol worship here]. Hence a religious person by default accepts the existence of God and strives to reach him. Thus by default your goal gets defined if you are a religious person and the means to attain the highest goal are these spiritual practices. Hence consciously or by choice a religious person has a spiritual personality within him but the converse may not be true.  Within a spiritual person there exists more awareness [both body and mind] and it is two dimensional where as faith in God helps you to attain self realisation. [Mind, Body and Spirit / soul]. Religion in addition provides us with more methods to reach liberation. When we talk about spirituality we talk about awareness but when talking about religion we talk about liberation / mukthi / surrender.

So when can we call ourselves as spiritual? It is when we have a greater level of awareness. Awareness does not mean knowledge about your physical surroundings. God has given us the ability to think and the incredible power to discriminate. Now using this power of discrimination you should be aware of what is right and what is wrong? It is not about are you thinking about good things rather it is about are you thinking right? Hence any technique anything that helps you attain a heightened level of awareness is Spiritual. But in any religion all the concepts are based on existence of a supreme soul. The difference between the two can only be felt through experience. I can confidently say that religious practices when practised with a clear awareness about its true meaning and purpose can lead to faster progression.

Coming to his question of, can a person who is completely normal and unaware of these concepts be spiritual? Yes, he will be but only that it will take more time for him to reach desired level of awareness / knowledge. As time passes by everyman or woman’s priorities keeps changing. But true realisation comes only when we reach the twilight of our life….that is when any body be it a theist or an atheist will ask what was the purpose of my birth? Did I achieve it? Mind will reflect on the material accomplishments but the question is what next? Spirituality and religious experiences helps you to prepare yourself for this ultimate question.

We may ask…..why I should I know the answer for this question in the first place? We should know because it creates a balanced outlook about life. When this awareness sets in we start treating both good and bad with equanimity. That is when we start to see the real beauty in creation. That is when we start pouring love out of our hearts which is true nectar. That is when we differentiate the real from surreal. And maharishis who have undergone these experiences have for the larger benefit of mankind has put this into a literary form which is what we call philosophy.

Hence Spirituality creates awareness. You need not be a religious person to be spiritual.

Religion helps you to have accelerated growth in the path of performance, which helps us to understand the very cause of your birth. This is a level higher than having just awareness. It is like knowledge when combined with love becoming bhakti.

Can an atheist be spiritual – Yes he is spiritual because he follows the path of contemplation by contradiction. Knowingly or unknowingly he attains a higher state of awareness but in most cases it is our ego which will prevent us from accepting this truth.

Hope I have made some sense with my words above.

-Ashok G