Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone. Today we're going to be talking about
Speaker 1: Aaron Ralston. Make sure whichever episode welcome and whichever show
Speaker 1: this episode is placed on. Today we examine one of
Speaker 1: the most harrowing survival stories in modern history, not merely
Speaker 1: for its drama before it teaches us about the human
Speaker 1: mind under conditions of absolute desperation. In May two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, twenty seven year old Aaron Ralston set out
Speaker 1: for a solo climbing in Blue John Canyon, Utah, but
Speaker 1: should have been a routined adventure became a five day
Speaker 1: ordeal that would force him to confront the ultimate question,
Speaker 1: how far would a mind go to survive? On April
Speaker 1: twenty six, two thousand and three, Aaron was descending his
Speaker 1: narrow Slot canyon when an enormous bold had shifted, boulders shifted,
Speaker 1: crushed his right hand and forearm against the wall. He
Speaker 1: was completely alone, more than one hundred feet below the rim,
Speaker 1: with no cell signal and no one expecting back for days.
Speaker 1: For the first twenty four hours, he tried everything, prying, lifting,
Speaker 1: chipping at the rock with his multi tool. Nothing worked.
Speaker 1: By tay two, now we had dehydration setting in. Think
Speaker 1: about it. He couldn't eat, couldn't do anything, he couldn't drink.
Speaker 1: By day three, he began rationing his remaining camelback.
Speaker 2: Water and two burritos.
Speaker 1: He carved his name, birthdate, and presumed death date into
Speaker 1: the canyon wall. Psychologically, Aaron entered with the researchers called
Speaker 1: disassociated detachment, a protective mental state with a mind distanced
Speaker 1: itself from unbearable reality.
Speaker 2: He later described.
Speaker 1: Moments of calm, lucidity mixed with hallucinatory conversations with family members.
Speaker 2: Who were not there.
Speaker 1: By day five, Aaron faced clinical certainty he would die
Speaker 1: of dehydration or septic shock within hours. In that moment,
Speaker 1: he made a calculation, and most of us cannot imagine.
Speaker 1: Using only a pocket knife, he first broke the bones
Speaker 1: in his forearm against the boulder that methodically cut the
Speaker 1: muscle and tendon and artery. This was not impulsive. It
Speaker 1: was a deliberate, multi active, instrumental problem solving under extreme sense,
Speaker 1: Aaron Letter explained the waiting I mean Erin later explained
Speaker 1: he weighed every option with cold clarity, continue waiting or
Speaker 1: die and die, or enduring him unimaginable pain for the
Speaker 1: chance to live. This represents the pinnacle of executive functioning,
Speaker 1: the prefunnel cortex under threat, normally responsible for things like planning,
Speaker 1: impulse control, empathy, emotional regulation, but also anticipating consequences. He
Speaker 1: threw upon years of mountaineering discipline in a deep internal
Speaker 1: locus of control with visualization techniques. After freeing himself, Aaron
Speaker 1: repelled down the canyon with one armikes several miles was
Speaker 1: eventually rescued by helicopter. He lost forty pounds and nearly
Speaker 1: his life, but he survived in the years it followed, ever,
Speaker 1: and experience profound post traumatic growth, as they call it,
Speaker 1: and he wrote the best selling book Between a Rock
Speaker 1: and a Hard Place, became a motivational speaker, started a family,
Speaker 1: continue pursuing extreme adventures.
Speaker 2: This time for greater preparation and respect for risk.
Speaker 1: His story that became the basis for the film One
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven Hours. What does his story teach
Speaker 1: clinical psychology in us? First is the power of cognitive
Speaker 1: reappraisal under duress. Rather than spiraling into panic. He reframed
Speaker 1: the boulder not as an enemy, but as a problem
Speaker 1: to be solved. Second, the limits and strengths of human pain.
Speaker 1: Tolerance and dissociation. A mind can compartmentalize agony when survival
Speaker 1: is at stake, a mechanism we all see in soldiers,
Speaker 1: elite athletes, and trauma survivors.
Speaker 2: Third, the long term integration of.
Speaker 1: Trauma, Erin did not repress the experience, He transformed it
Speaker 1: into purpose. This aligns with research on post traumatic growth.
Speaker 1: Many survivors report deeper relationships, new priorities, and increased personal
Speaker 1: strength after confronting mortality. His story stands as one of
Speaker 1: the clearest modern examples of the minds.
Speaker 2: Capacity to choose life.
Speaker 1: When every external indicator says death is inevitable, it challenges
Speaker 1: our assumptions about where we are capable of when pushed
Speaker 1: at the absolute limit. If you ever find yourself facing
Speaker 1: a situation that feels impossible, remember the same mind that
Speaker 1: carried Erin.
Speaker 2: Through that canyon is inside each of us.
Speaker 1: The question is not whether we have the strength, but
Speaker 1: whether we can access it when it matters. Most thank
Speaker 1: you for joining me on this examination of Really you
Speaker 1: can call it survival psychology. If this episode moved you,
Speaker 1: share it with someone who needs a reminder of human
Speaker 1: resistant resilience.
Speaker 2: Human resilient.
Speaker 1: Until next time, stay observant, stay prepared to remember sometimes
Speaker 1: the only way out is through