This guide was originally published by Jeremiah Johnson at Tess Pennington’s Ready Nutrition.com.

ReadyNutrition Readers, this is the final installment on our Escape from the Stalag/Gulag series, in which we present a few uncovered finer points and tie it all in together.  You have read about the importance of the will to win, and about adaptability.  You have been introduced to the things you should do when first captured and interred.  You also read about what things you need to do before you “exit” the Gulag, and pointers to help keep you free.  All of these items are subordinate to one concept that will mean either success or failure for you:

You must not merely believe that you can do it, you must know you can do it.

4 Tips to Use When Escaping From a FEMA Camp

1. You Will Need to Overcome Certain Factors 

Now, another step in your escape is this concept: You must be willing to do what you normally would not even consider. The concept engendered here is that of risk: of putting your trust in yourself and taking a roll of the dice.  You have to take a chance.  Your job is to make that chance as greatly calculated as possible to what-if and war game every scenario in your mind.  Here are some of the things you must resolve yourself to do, if the need arises:

• *Silence a guard: either by incapacitating or by killing
• *Stealing equipment/weapons/food: being as “opportunistic a forager” as possible
• *When you have decided the time is right, you may have to leave when others do not wish to: this can be very difficult, as the social aspect of human beings is sometimes so strong as to negate
• *The weather may be terrible, but you have your only “open window” to act (in a fierce snowstorm…JJ’s personal favorite…or in pouring rain)
• *The overall situation may not be good: a tremendous amount of prisoners executed/tortured, and other assorted horrors

*Your physical condition may be extremely deteriorated (malnutrition, sickness, abuse, or a combination thereof).

2. Your Mind is Your Greatest Tool

There are many factors that have just been listed that you will have to overcome.  I wish to recommend a good tool that will help you to accomplish your task of physical and mental preparation.  The tool is meditation.  You will (as a diverse audience) undoubtedly have many religious and social practices in which you have learned in your lifetime to draw strength from.

Without meaning to sound didactic, follow whatever course you normally do, and seek a method of meditation that does not conflict with your beliefs/practices.

You need to learn to focus and clear your mind, and to do deep breathing exercises to control your heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and alleviate stress.  This is key now, because you will rely on this in your debilitated state as a prisoner.  Trust me, it will make a great deal of difference and will be a balancing factor that will help you to make it through your troubles.  A form of discipline, meditation can place structure into a life that is turned upside down because of the captivity.  It falls in line with the “Small Victories” concept I outlined for your earlier.

By clearing your mind and learning to relax and adjust the way your body responds to stressors, you give yourself an advantage.  This will arise in the way that you see things and plan your actions.

Observe, observe, and observe.  Your situational analysis will never cease, and although most of your confinement will seem as if it is drudgery, there are fine details to analyze that may make the difference in your success for escaping.

3. You Must Know Your Enemies (captors) Better Than They Know Themselves!

Watch what they do.  Watch their actions and habits.  They will “telegraph” their weaknesses and shortcomings, just as a prize fighter telegraphs an opening every time he responds to your jab by dropping his left hand.  The guards are human beings, and in their stressful positions oftentimes the guards will neglect a self-analysis that would have caught the error that you, the captive must capitalize upon.

Do your guards like to drink?  Do they appear to be lecherous towards the prisoners?  Do they fall asleep on their shift?  You must find their weaknesses and exploit them.  In this manner you will do more than merely find an opening: you will create the opening that you need.  Does this sound extreme?  It is, and guess what?

Being captured and interred as a prisoner is also extreme.

4. One other thought: a mule laden with gold will find its way through the gates of the most heavily-guarded fortress.

You must preposition some valuables, such as gold, silver, jewelry, gems, antiques, artwork, etc.  Follow JJ’s advice, and do this in 3 different locations/caches.  You will then have a means of bargaining with collateral for your own release.  You must be very careful, because you must assess whether or not they will make a deal with you or if they will kill you and take your stuff.

The plan can also be used to enable them to take you out of the camp.  Once you’re out, you may be able to “deal” with them more effectively and on terms you can create.  In route to the “cache” location, arrange to pass by a spot where a weapon can be stashed, and you may be able to turn the tables.  All of this will take a lot of planning and coordination.  It will take a lot of mental discipline on your part to envision all of these things transpiring and how you will deal with them.

If you have these tips and a format down in your mind, you will increase your chances of being able to escape exponentially.  You will have no choice at that time: you must win with the weapons that you have.  The best of these is your mind, if you prepare it beforehand.  May it be that you follow JJ’s number one rule in dealing with being a prisoner:

Do not allow yourself or your family to be taken…ever.

Here’s wishing you success in all you do, and that you will develop the resolve to formulate a plan and then to execute it when the time and need arise.  Take care of one another and keep fighting the good fight!

Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson was a Special Forces Medic, EMT and ACLS-certified, with comprehensive training in wilderness survival, rescue, and patient-extraction. Mr. Johnson is an ardent advocate for preparedness, self-sufficiency, and long-term disaster sustainability for families. He and his wife survived Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Cross-trained as a Special Forces Engineer, he is an expert in supply, logistics, transport, and long-term storage of perishable materials, having incorporated many of these techniques plus some unique innovations in his own homestead.

This article first appeared at Tess Pennington’s Ready Nutrition.com.

Also From Ready Nutrition:

How to Escape a Totalitarian Detention Camp

A Green Beret’s Guide to EMP: Practical Steps to Prepare for a “Lights Out” Scenario

Preparedness 101

Disaster Scenarios

Going Rogue: 15 Ways to Detach From the System