Topic: Near-Death Experiences (Read 2761 times)

Spaco · « **on:** April 05, 2009, 07:05:35 PM »

Had one yesterday. This is the second time I've almost died while rock climbing. The first one was when I hadn't secured the straps on my harness properly and they popped open while descending from the top of the cliff, sixty feet up. Luckily I had good hands and footing, so I just hung there while a guy climbed up and re-strapped my harness. Yesterday, I took a scary leader fall and fell about fifteen feet, with the rope catching me inches before hitting some menacing spiky boulders directly beneath my head and spine.

In theory, it makes you realize your mortality and prioritize your goals and time better. We'll see if that actually comes true.

Mongrel · « **Reply #1 on:** April 05, 2009, 07:27:57 PM »

I've had a couple of these and am keenly aware of my own mortality.

Doesn't make me any less slothful though, so your mileage may vary.

Spaco · « **Reply #2 on:** April 05, 2009, 08:43:24 PM »

As shown by your lack of explanation concerning your experiences.

Care to share?

Arc · « **Reply #3 on:** April 05, 2009, 09:25:17 PM »

Shopping cart racing.

Shopping cart racing accidentally flowing into open traffic.

jsnlxndrlv · « **Reply #4 on:** April 05, 2009, 09:39:32 PM »

I once fell asleep while doing 65 on the turnpike at 1:30 AM. There was almost no traffic, though, so it was only my own car that I totaled.

Spaco · « **Reply #5 on:** April 05, 2009, 10:06:58 PM »

Oh, right, car related ones. I totaled my previous car by running into the tanker-end side of a flammable liquids tanker truck.

Luckily I hit the wheel strut and bounced off.

Brentai · « **Reply #6 on:** April 05, 2009, 10:11:27 PM »

This thread makes me feel like a good driver.

And that's terrible.

JDigital · « **Reply #7 on:** April 06, 2009, 12:37:37 AM »

This only confirms my current hobby of staying in bed all day.

Mongrel · « **Reply #8 on:** April 06, 2009, 03:11:12 AM »

Quote from: Spaco on April 05, 2009, 08:43:24 PM

As shown by your lack of explanation concerning your experiences.

Care to share?

Yeah, car accidents, motorbike near-accidents, being way too close to a downtown shooting, all mundane stuff.

Burrito Al Pastor · « **Reply #9 on:** April 06, 2009, 04:21:45 AM »

I like that. Most people wouldn't consider near-death experiences to be mundane. That's very holistic of you.

I've never had any real near-death experiences, but I also don't drive, so there may or may not be a connection there.

Mongrel · « **Reply #10 on:** April 06, 2009, 04:52:26 AM »

Well, in fairness, for the shooting, I was on an adjacent street, the car accident I slept through, even though a matter of two inches in a 60 mph T-Bone made the difference between my head being pulped and not, and for the several motorbike incidents I've always been OMGOMGOMGOMG much later on, like in the shower that night.

I think I've had a few others, but I can't remember them offhand right now. That doesn't make me some kind of death-defying daredevil though. If anything, my low skill levels and ADD-esque lack of paying attention in just about everything I do is what puts me in danger. That or random chance.

I actually sort of wish they'd been WOW LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES, but this world is a dangerous place. Death hangs by a thread - which makes it rather commonplace, really.

EDIT: Remembered another one: I probably flew on that plane that crashed in Buffalo earlier this year, sometime this winter. At the very least I probably had some of the same crew on the same type of plane.

Büge · « **Reply #11 on:** April 06, 2009, 06:24:45 AM »

My brother hit me in the head with a rock on two separate occasions. Both required stitches. One was right above the temple, and it was explained to me that had he hit a little lower, he would have killed me.

Brentai · « **Reply #12 on:** April 06, 2009, 09:08:02 AM »

...who didn't read 'rock' at first up there?

Bal · « **Reply #13 on:** April 06, 2009, 09:56:02 AM »

I nearly drowned in the ocean once. Under current grabbed me after a wave passed over. Happened so fast, next thing I knew I was on the beach looking up at my step-sister. I didn't need CPR or anything. Once they had me laid out I just coughed a couple times and was worn out, but ok. Apparently, accoridng to what I was told after, I swam most of the way back myself, and then my step-sister grabbed me. She was high school aged at the time, and I was about 10.

James Edward Smith · « **Reply #14 on:** April 06, 2009, 10:08:12 AM »

When you lost consciousness, was it a blackout like a horror movie or 50s-90s tv drama or was it a whiteout like a post-millenium drama?

Beat Bandit · « **Reply #15 on:** April 06, 2009, 10:40:24 AM »

I'm not sure what I'd consider a 'near-death experience'. Is it almost doing something that would kill you? Doing something that almost kills you? Realizing 'I could've been there'? All / none of the above?

I've been stuck under water long enough to worry about asphyxiation a few times, but I don't know if I'd consider it a near death experience. The same with the building I've fallen off of, or car crashes that I've walked away from. They are all things that could have killed me but didn't, and I'm not sure how close they got. I've never seen a white light or heard angels or anything like that, but I have had a lot of chances to think to myself "really? I'm going out like this?"

Alex · « **Reply #16 on:** April 06, 2009, 10:47:51 AM »

Just about skid through a guard rail and off a cliff last Friday on my way home after it snowed pretty hard. It took a minute, but when I saw the edge coming and my car not doing what I wanted it to, I started thinking '...Well, shit.'

Suddenly, this avatar change feels appropriate.

Catloaf · « **Reply #17 on:** April 06, 2009, 11:08:57 AM »

I was nearly carried out to sea. Apparently it was the worst riptide ever that year. The only way I could slow my movement towards the other side of the Atlantic was to dig my feet under the sand. However, each wave pulled me 4 feet up and 5 feet further from the shore. I tried to swim, but I the best I could do was stay in one place and I knew I would just tire myself out. So I just waved my arms above my head and waited for a lifeguard to save me. Luckily one saw me, through their binoculars, and I was pulled to shore, a good 5 minute walk away from where I had started on the beach.

Rosencrantz · « **Reply #18 on:** April 06, 2009, 11:53:32 AM »

Several years ago I fell asleep while driving to work one early morning and almost drove into a big ol' ditch.

Oh yeah, and I got pulled into the ocean while on an eighth grade field trip and I kept getting pulled back when I tried swimming back to shore. The scariest part was that the rest of the group continued walking down the beach and nobody noticed what had happened. Or what almost happened.

Mongrel · « **Reply #19 on:** April 06, 2009, 12:17:24 PM »

I'm surprised our Army/Navy/Air Force folks don't have more to share. Not in the "URRRAH! I SAW ACTION!" sense, but in the sense of all the random bizarro accidents that can (and sometimes do) kill military personnel.

A consequence of constantly working in extreme environments, with heavy machinery and things that are designed to kill people I suppose.

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Author Topic: Near-Death Experiences (Read 2761 times)