We're a little coddled now though, I'd say.
Just being on the farm, 20 acres back (a few miles), and a surprise storm... where do you go? Under the tress, surely not!
Laying flat may be the only hope.
People used to be outside more, I'd say. I wonder what the historical vs modern wrt population strike numbers look like?
Well, hitting the ground with your face first would be unpleasant
> (Stretching out arms sounds strange, don’t you want to minimize your reach of contact points with the ground, considering how many V/m there will be if lightning strikes close to you?)
I'm guessing it's to basically try to be as flat as possible, covering head would make you be overall higher off the ground
Most of the advice I've seen pretty much goes by "just try to be least conductive target around"
But also try to be not around a slightly worse conductor, like a tree. A slightly better conductor is also not a good idea (getting 1/2 of the current is still deadly).
Current tends to flow around and over things, rather than through them. That is, on the surface. Which means that the conductivity of dry wood ("through") matters far less than the conductivity of slightly mineralised water ("over" or "around").
The pacemaker itself probably isn’t designed for lightning strikes, but it probably is designed to survive hits from a defibrillator. I’d put money on a pacemaker/ICD surviving a lightning strike.
(Stretching out arms sounds strange, don’t you want to minimize your reach of contact points with the ground, considering how many V/m there will be if lightning strikes close to you?)