Spatial Disorientation for Divers

This publication was written to address the lack of information that exists today regarding spatial disorientation and its effects as it relates to divers. Spatial disorientation contributes more to causing accidents than any other psychological problem in a multi-directional space, such as diving underwater or flying through the air. Regardless of their amount of time or experience underwater, all divers are subject to disorientation. The human body is structured to perceive changes in movement when standing vertically on land in relation to the surface of the earth. When diving, the human sensory systems-the visual system, vestibular system, and proprioceptive system-can and will give the brain erroneous orientation information due to positioning and movement of the body in a space and along an axis foreign to our biological design. This information can and will cause some degree of sensory illusions, which in-turn lead to spatial disorientation, that further leads to confusion, lost time in actions, potentially harmful or dangerous reactions, and a developing spiral of out-of-control events leading to an accident or death.