Soar

The Breakthrough Treatment for Fear of Flying

By: Tom Bunn

Narrated by: Thomas C. Bunn

Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

Captain Bunn founded SOAR to develop effective methods for dealing with flight anxiety. Therapists who have found this phobia difficult to treat will find everything they need to give their clients success. Anxious flyers who have “tried everything” to no avail can look forward to joining the nearly 10,000 graduates of the SOAR program who now have the whole world open to them as they fly anxiety free wherever they want. 

This approach begins by explaining how anxiety, claustrophobia, and panic are caused when noises, motions - or even the thought of flying - trigger excessive stress hormones. Then, to stop this problem, Captain Bunn takes the listener step-by-step through exercises that permanently and automatically control these feelings. He also explains how flying works, why it is safe, and teaches flyers how to strategically plan their flight, choose the right airlines, meet the captain, and so on. Through this program, Captain Bunn has helped thousands overcome their fear of flying. Now his book arms listeners with the information they need to control their anxiety and fly comfortably.

©2013 Thomas C. Bunn (P)2013 Thomas C. Bunn

Great book, AWFUL narration

Read the book, it's fascinating and has decreased my anxiety 100 fold. But the narration appears to be unedited. For chapter 9, as example, the author clears his throat and re-reads the previous sentence no less than a half dozen times. Poor form, Audible.

I absolutely loved every second of it!

I can’t believe reading the reviews about the performance almost convinced me not to read this book. In reality, he only clears his throat a few times throughout the entire book and it doesn’t take away from the valuable information he is reading. Please give it a try!

Excellent for nervous flyers

I just finished the book and it’s probably the best resource you can get on how to overcome fear of flying. The performance is done by the author and there are maybe 20 spots Throughout the book where he stops to clear his throat or has to start a certain section over several times. Other than that, I enjoyed his narration.

Are you kidding????

First time trying Audible and holy crap, how is this terrible narrating even allowed. This only man spent 5 minutes trying to get through a sentence in Chapter 9. God this is annoying. Not continuing my subscription, I can’t believe this passed audit.

No one edited this book

It’s read by the author and he coughs throughout. Which is kinda funny. I wonder why no one edited it? Still, it’s a great book.

Waste of time and money.

I had to force myself through every chapter. managed to only get through the half of the book. The technique presented is absolutely useless. Most of the time the narator is just blowing his own horn by reading supposedly "reviews" from people who have used the program and liked it. I didn't find it helpful in the least.

Good content but needs audio editing

I have had panic attacks for 5 years, and with that I have had trouble flying. I got some new information out of this audiobook, and it helped me to see how fear of flying relates to anxiety disorders and panic attacks in general. One problem with the recording is that it needs audio editing. There are instances where the author loses his voice, coughs, and clears his throat -- to the point of distraction from the content of the book. Even in spite of the audio editing issues, I would recommend this to anyone with fear of flying or panic attacks.

Excellent

I only gave the performance three stars because there are some false starts, mispronunciations, and throat clearing sporadically included throughout the book.

This seems to be an editing oversight as opposed to the author’s poor performance, however, I still wanted to include it in the review.

Also, the chapters listed are off by two when compared to the audio announcement.

audio needs to be edited

this is the first flying phobia book I've listened to and also the first phobia book I've "read," so I can't say that I'm familiar with the literature. the bulk of this book is dedicated to the author's "strengthening exercise," which has the aviophobe "link flight situations to a moment of empathic connection." so, for example, the person who fears flying would choose a memory of a moment of empathic attunement with a loved one (staring into a loved ones eyes for instance) and then pair this memory with the feared situation (turbulence mid flight or any other event leading up to or during a flight--maybe driving to he airport if that provokes anxiety) and do this exercise multiple times a day in the days before a flight and then during the flight if anxiety symptoms persist. the technique derives from stephen porges' research on the social engagement system (SES), which basically says that in the moment of empathic attunement, oxytocin is released, which inhibits the stress/fear/fight-or-flight response. there's also lots of helpful information about how flight works, encouraging facts and perspectives about the safety of flying, and other techniques to try (grounding and relaxation exercises, e.g.) that all work together to create a pretty good comprehensive self-help manual for fear of flying.

that said, other techniques to deal with a fear of flying get relative short shrift in this book. I imagine this whole 'pairing a memory of a moment of empathic attunement with a feared stimulus' thing can useful for reducing anxiety, but what happens when this technique just doesn't work for a particular person? following the work of david burns (see his book 'when panic attacks'), I think it's a better idea for the person who fears flying to review and practice a number of CBT tools or coping skills and develop a toolkit that works for him/her.

a few times during the reading the author's throat was dry or he fumbled words so he went back and repeated himself. but these mistakes weren't edited out. otherwise the narration is fine.

This works!

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

I first read a printed copy of SOAR in 2014 and then also purchased a full online video program from Captain Tom. After not flying for 8 years because the terror was just too much to cope with, I have recently taken 4 flights - the last 2 on my own - and I had no panic at all. The last of the flights was even quite turbulent, and it didn’t bother me in the slightest. The techniques Capt Tom teaches are unbelievably effective, and the explanation of the theories and principles behind them are not only fascinating, but also helped me understand the root of my flying phobia and other anxiety issues.
I’ve just listened to the whole book as a SOAR ‘graduate’ and really enjoyed revisiting it with my recent flights in mind.
This is a genuinely life changing book and I will be eternally grateful to Capt Tom for helping me do what I never thought possible- to fly without panic.

Great book, Badly edited!

The content and delivery by captain Tom is very good.
Unfortunately the audio book remains Un-edited in many places leaving several takes/ attempts at some of the dialogue in succession on the recording and a selection of coughing / throat clearing.

This must be a mistake.

It serves to break the flow of listening and spoil some passages if the narrative.

Great tips

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has given me some good tips for anxiety which will help with all sorts of scenarios, not just flying. Couldn’t recommend enough.