Lost is not just a hit TV series. It's something Yossi Ghinsberg lived through. As a young man, he survived 20 days alone in the Amazon after separating from his friends and that remarkable tale is now chronicled in one episode of a new Discovery Channel series, I Shouldn't Be Alive, which debuts tonight. The experience has clearly transformed Ghinsberg, in Hong Kong on Friday to plug the 10-part series, into a placid man of zen.

'Fear is my friend,' he says. 'I embrace fear because if I run from it, it follows me. But if I confront fear, it goes away.

'The turning point for me was after about five days without eating. I climbed a tree to get some berries. It turns out there was a venomous snake in the tree and the 'fight or flight' reflex hit me. I attacked the snake with a branch, killed it and just ate it raw. At that point, I felt like I could do anything.'