I have my own survival stories, and maybe this is part of the reason why all these other stories interest me so much.

Everyone loves to learn about survival stories because it confirms the importance of the human spirit to live through trying and deadly situations.

I’ve included 33 true-life stories in this book. The criteria was that the persons in these events had to make a conscious decision to live. They decided not to give up, and some did truly incredible things to survive.

We need to ask ourselves: Could we do some of the things they did to survive? For example, how many of us could cut off a hand to live if we were trapped in the wilderness?

How many of us could survive a raft at sea for a month to then be put into a POW prison and survive harsh treatment and torture there?

These people have all illustrated the power of the human spirit to live through these experiences. And these experiences made them more confident people and better able to live through difficult situations in the future.

These stories are divided up into six categories:

• Survival in war

• Survival in the wilderness and mountains

• Survival in the ocean

• Survival in the Arctic and Antarctic

• Surviving the desert

• More survival stories for ones that don’t fit a category