SOAR Library

Fear Of High Places

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Fear of high places also has to do with something called proprioception. Proprioception refers to the brain’s unconscious sense of body-in-space... More

The Cortex And The Amygdala

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

To deal with fear and anxiety, it helps to understand what the amygdala does and how it triggers alarms in the mind, and in the body...
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Anticipatory anxiety is not the same as flight anxiety

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

In anticipatory anxiety, you imagine the future. You experience an imaginary airplane. In flight anxiety, you perceive the present. You experience a real plane.. More

Arousal and Fear Are Different

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Arousal is an automatic response. Fear is an interpretation of that response. More

Is It Safe Not To Worry

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Why do we always expect the worst? Does worry keep awful things from happening? It’s time we looked at the magical thinking we set up as children. More

Anxiety And An Arthurian Tale About Sir Gawain

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

A tale from the Middle Ages suggests that how we experience reality is best embraced rather than resisted or dreaded. More

Junk Psychology

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Courses sponsored by major airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic promote the same inadequate “tools” used in 1975 by Captain Truman “Slim” Cummings in the first fear of flying program at Pan Am. The situation is no better at your therapist's office. What's an anxious flier to do? In fact, what's an anxious flier who is a therapist to do? More

Anticipatory Anxiety

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

We broke the code of flight anxiety years ago. For years now, we have been able to help anyone and everyone fly without high anxiety or panic. When a person has learned and practiced the Strengthening Exercise, he or she will be able to fly without difficulty. Feelings will be automatically controlled. But anticipatory anxiety and flight anxiety are different. Anticipatory anxiety can still be troublesome. Why? More

Accepting That Safety Is Relative

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

One of the safest things you could be doing right now is flying. Driving just three miles puts you at the same risk of fatality as flying coast-to-coast. If flying is this safe, why doesn’t it feel safe? More

Memory, Trauma and Emotional Regulation

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Memory can be rewritten or partially erased. Research shows that when we bring a memory to mind, we inadvertently alter the memory. And, we don’t even know we have altered . More

Abstract Point Of No Return

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

When the door of an airliner closes, passengers may feel trapped. They are past “the point of no return.” There is a way to deal with this. It’s not for everyone. See if the "Abstract Point Of No Return" fits you. More

About Airport Security

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Before 9/11 airport security in the U.S. was not taken seriously. 9/11 changed everything. More

A Bit of Anticipatory Anxiety And How It Resolved

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

Anxiety about an event is usually worse than the event itself. It is because our imagination is so free. We can imagine - and fear - things that have never happened and never will happen. Yes, if we think something awful might happen, it matters very little how improbable it is. Images of it happening cause anxiety. What can we do about it? Here is a person story about how one bit of anticipatory anxiety worked out. More

A Hole In The Soul

Article by Captain Tom Bunn

“I was born with what I like to call a hole in my soul.. . . A pain that came from the reality that I just wasn’t good enough. That I wasn’t deserving enough. That you weren’t paying attention to me all the time. That maybe you didn’t like me enough.” So wrote William C. Moyers, the son of the journalist Bill Moyers. More