Looking for an honest answer

[JPenny]

I confess, I never ordered the course at the other website. Money, time, not quite trusting it would really help . . .
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Anway, for those of you who went through it, to what degree did it help??? What parts of it really helped? And why did it work?
:dunno
No, I'm not trying to get the benefits without paying . . . I just want to know honestly if I should make the investment.
:bateyes
Thanks, all! And have a great week, okay???

Jean :wave

[Debbie]

Jean

I HAVE to respond re the "other board", as I did take the course 4 years ago.

I did the whole thing: the tapes and a half hour session with Tom.

History: I hadn't flown for 18 years after a horrific flight. It totally grounded me. During those 18 years, my husband took our children to Disney, Grand Canyon, California and all over Arizona. We made up excuses for me. When I look back now on missing my children seeing these things for the first time it makes me sick. Just goes to show how crippling this fear can be.

Anyway, we bought a condo in Florida (I only saw pictures), and I think it was a way of John forcing me to fly. I went to the doctor and got Valium and flew like a champ. Had no control over myself, but I FLEW. I hated how it felt. I finally went through hypnosis, and it was wonderful. A tug on my ear would get rid of the anxiety for weeks before. It worked very well for two flights, and then we had a turbulent one. I went into a full-fledged panic on-board. The hypnosis had not taught me how to deal with anything other than getting on the plane.

SOAR was recommended by my family physician. It worked. It teaches you how to deal with anything that comes up. It works with the side of your brain that causes you to go into your own panic mode.

I've flown maybe 50 times since taking the course. Every flight is different. Every one is just a flight. It's not a big deal any more. Some are very, very turbulent - it's okay. Some are smooth as glass - I don't wanna get off!! All of them are very exciting to me. Not scary - just part of an adventure.

Emphatically stated here -- YES, SOAR works. Despite anything else that's gone over on "that" board, Tom has found something that works - for everyone.

Worth the money? Absolutely.

As a matter of fact, when I get home from work tonight, I have to do some internetting to find a flight back out to Phoenix shortly. Hell, I've been back for almost 5 days!!

I'll be more than happy to answer any other questions. Really. I appreciate the support that's over here - it's a necessary thing. But the "cure" still lays over at that "other board".

Debbie

[LesliePHX]

Hi, Jean,

What I think helped me most, or what brought it all together for me, is a line in one of the last tapes, "Nobody suffers from what goes on inside an airplane except for what they add or try to subtract." From my perspective, the rest of the course is built around that statement, providing tools to keep us from adding to what's really happening and from trying to deny what's really happening, tools that keep us comfortably in the moment.

I should add that I'm not sure whether other SOAR grads or even Capt. Tom would agree with my take on it -- but the material that comes with the course says that some stuff will resonate with some people, some with others, and we should concentrate on the stuff that resonates with us. So even within the course, there's an opportunity to pick and choose what fits you best.

Obviously I'm talking about the cassette course; as you know, SOAR has been redone for DVDs, and I don't know how much of the old stuff remains on the DVDs.

You asked if it was worth it. It was worth it to me because I HAD to find a way to get past the fear because I was having to fly more and more for work. Until then, my approach to flight was just to accept that I was gonna be scared to death during the flight and at the end of it, I'd be at my happy vacation spot. That works OK (or it did for me) when you're only flying once or twice a year, but I hit a point where being miserable in the air was taking up a significant part of my life, and that's why I sought help. If my flying were still limited to quickie Vegas vacations and trips to see family, I doubt I would have thought to look for help.

(As an aside, husband jokes that it was worth the money just for the perks I used to get when I showed the crew the Capt. Tom letter -- a couple of free upgrades, a bottle of champagne when we landed once, and of course the obligatory tour of the cockpit. ;) )

To what degree did it help? Well, it helped me feel differently about flying. I guess I had been hoping that it would make flying as boring as a bus ride to me, and it doesn't do that. I think I got something better though -- it helped me appreciate and sometimes even enjoy flying, and it taught me how accepting the bad feelings can diminish them. It gave me the ability to trust the pilots, mechanics, and others who work to make flying as safe as it can be, and to put my flight in their hands.

I'm not sure if that answers the question, but that's my take on SOAR and what it did for me.

Leslie