“Not all divers succumb to panic as Drozd did. A great diver learns to stand down his emotions. A the moment he becomes lost or blinded or tangled or trapped, that instant when millions of years of evolution demand fight or flight and narcosis carves order from his brain, he dials down his fear and contracts into the moment until his breathing slows and his narcosis lightens and his reason returns. In this way he overcomes his humanness and becomes something else. In this way, liberated from instincts, he becomes a freak of nature

To arrive at such a state, the diver must know the creases and folds of dread, so that when it leaps on him inside a wreck he is dealing with an old friend. The process can take years. It often requires study, discussion, practice, mentoring, contemplation, and hard experience. At work, he nods when the boss reveals the latest sale figures, but he is thinking, 'Whatever else is wrong inside a shipwreck, if you are breathing you are okay.' Paying bills or setting the VCR at home, he tells himself, 'If you find trouble inside a wreck, slow down. Fall back. Talk yourself through it.' As he gains more experience, he will meditate upon what every great diver advises him: 'Fix the first problem fully and calmly before you ever think about the second problem.'”