Have you ever almost died?

[wazup]

I was on a catamaran in Thailand and the boat could only get so close to shore. Our options were to swim or have these thai teenagers paddle us in. Big dawg me decided to swim as it didn't look too far. I quickly became out of breath as I'm not a great swimmer. I remembered as a kid it was easy to float on your back, which I was able to do until I felt the bottom. I was able to walk to shore completely exhausted. I was seconds from drowning I believe.

Don't know if I've been in the water since, and this was 5 or so years ago.

I was also in Bangkok during their coup a few years ago, there was a city wide curfew and i was stumbling around drunk at 5am without a sole around except Thais in tents and these scary looking thai dudes with bandanas covering everything but their eyes. Not almost killed but that was a fucked up place when that was going on.

 

[Caspertheghost]

I have died and been resuscitated. Saw that tunnel with bright light at end of it. Calm. Peaceful. Wonderful. Am not afraid to die now.

BTW it you don’t panic it is very hard to drown in salt water if you have any swimming ability. If water is warm you should be able to float and swim in stages. Stop and drown proof for a bit when you need a rest.

 

[|2 /-\ | /|/]

Kind of 3 times.

1 - locked in the basement and had city in Bosnia called Sarajevo getting blitzed in mortars and people running around the streets shooting each other. One of the mortars went off in front of my house scattering shrapnel everywhere. I was playing at that location with my friends 5 minutes earlier until the sirens went off and we ran to the basement. Also snipers came out during the attack from the high rises and started taking out civilians that were not their side.

2 - Uncle who was special forces getting triggered with PTSD and threatening the entire family with gun at one of the family luncheon. I was at the table and only 12 starring at that gun and feeling my heart racing out of my chest.

3 - Retired war general who is also another uncle getting triggered with PTSD drinking too much vine and threatening again to take us out and breaking down and crying and screaming. My aunt told me he had the gun and luckily I ran out of the house in time because he was looking to take me out. Luckily I only broke my foot trying to escape and nothing serious happened.

 

[luvyeah]

city getting blitzed in mortars and people running around the streets shooting each other

it only begs the question

but where?

 

[|2 /-\ | /|/]

it only begs the question

but where?

Sarajevo, Bosnia.

 

[angrymime666]

in a car fire. oddly enough I can still remember the waves of color dancing in the air....

 

[Malika Fantasy]

I died once at 14 years old for 19 seconds and got resurected.
Wont say the why and all.

But the white light at the end of the tunnel is true, however I dont believe in god or the like, so its actually probably the light that is right above you when you have numerous dr and nurses working on you

 

[mellowjello]

In Cancun, I was lazing around in the water, before I knew it I couldn't make out who anyone was on the beach
and sound was barely audible. Tried to swim back in, undertow kept pulling me out as waves kept crashing at the back of my head.
I gave up from exhaustion and just stayed on the surface and let the waves push me in.

I got to shore and collapsed and saw two women being brought in by dudes on boogie boards.
I remember thinking I was going to die and no one would know.

 

[|2 /-\ | /|/]

I died once at 14 years old for 19 seconds and got resurected.
Wont say the why and all.

But the white light at the end of the tunnel is true, however I dont believe in god or the like, so its actually probably the light that is right above you when you have numerous dr and nurses working on you

I know someone who was clinically dead for 10mins and is recorded on their medical records. They describe the tunnel and light and all that. The one interesting thing they described is the feeling of love and warmth all around them like a blanket or swimming in it. Then something told them their time is not done and woke back up on the operating table. Did you feel anything similar like warmth pure love or anything like that?

 

[Smash]

I was also in Bangkok during their coup a few years ago, there was a city wide curfew and i was stumbling around drunk at 5am without a sole around except Thais in tents and these scary looking thai dudes with bandanas covering everything but their eyes. Not almost killed but that was a fucked up place when that was going on.

A few months ago I watched the Owen Wilson movie No Escape. It was about rebels trying to take over parts of Thailand, kinda like you witnessed. Great little movie and to me super terrifying to be in that situation especially with kids and a wife. A nice watch

 

[james t kirk]

1. Walked in on an armed robbery in Hamilton in the late 80's. I had no idea what was going on when I walked in the door. Dude runs right over at me and points a loaded gun right at my head (yes, it was a real gun, I know this because a month later the cops shot him dead and he had stolen the gun from his friends father who was a cop and collected guns). Yells and screams at me to lay on the floor (which I do). He then ran out.

2. Working as an iron worker way back when putting up metal roof deck on steel joists. 30 feet up, I'm laying Q deck sheets and walking on loose sheets I had laid out to give me access. Just as I'm stepping between loose sheets the guy I was working with kicked the sheet i was intending to step on to to move it and I missed the sheet with my stride. I fall, but my forward momentum carries me into a steel joist and I grab that. Hanging draped over the joist about 30 feet in the air. I managed to swing my foot up and hook the joist and pull myself up. The guy I was working with went white, my heart was pounding, but I was ok. Falling from that height would not have been good. Back then, we never wore harnesses. We didn't even have hard hats.

3. Driving on QEW about 10 years ago, trucker falls asleep. His truck hits the right concrete barrier wall and then he goes careening all across the highway right into the left concrete barrier wall. Truck's fuel tank tears open and diesel ignites. I was right beside him when he started to drift to the right and I just stood on the brake. The entire axle of his trailer rips right off. I literally saw it fly out of the flames and come shooting right at me. All I could do was close my eyes. I was completely aware of the situation, I knew what seeing that flying axle (complete with tires) meant and I thought I was going to be killed. (Just a flying wheel from a truck has killed many people. Imagine an entire axle.) But instead of hitting my car, it It bounced on the road in front of me and flew right over my car. The lady behind me was ok as it came to a rest before it hit her car. I got out of my car, the entire eastbound QEW had come to a hault and this guy walks over to me and looks at me and he says how lucky I was, and that he would move my car for me out of the way for the emergency vehicles. The lady behind me says that they were at Casino Niagara and didn't win a thing and then she say, "but I just got lucky now".

My car was blackened, but not a scratch on me.

But the thing that I remember the most is how everything unfolded and how I understood the consequences of what was happening and the implications to me. There was no confusion, there was just me processing the events one after the other and what it meant.

 

[Malibuk]

I was in a very bad car accident around 30 years ago.
I was in the front passenger seat and the driver beside me died.

 

[Robert Mugabe]

it only begs the question

but where?

it only begs the question, what part of that couldn't you read?

 

[Robert Mugabe]

Kind of 3 times.

1 - locked in the basement and had city in Bosnia called Sarajevo getting blitzed in mortars and people running around the streets shooting each other. One of the mortars went off in front of my house scattering shrapnel everywhere. I was playing at that location with my friends 5 minutes earlier until the sirens went off and we ran to the basement. Also snipers came out during the attack from the high rises and started taking out civilians that were not their side.

2 - Uncle who was special forces getting triggered with PTSD and threatening the entire family with gun at one of the family luncheon. I was at the table and only 12 starring at that gun and feeling my heart racing out of my chest.

3 - Retired war general who is also another uncle getting triggered with PTSD drinking too much vine and threatening again to take us out and breaking down and crying and screaming. My aunt told me he had the gun and luckily I ran out of the house in time because he was looking to take me out. Luckily I only broke my foot trying to escape and nothing serious happened.

OK. I'm not Dr. Phil or anything, but I think from now on your family should set some ground rules. No guns at the dinner table.
As to the thread question. once doing standup in Orillia.

 

[Boss Nass]

Parachute failure, helicopter crash, and one really pissed off wife.

 

[The Hof]

kidnapping, in another country
hunted down in a cemetery by an unknown gang that popped out of a white van at 3am, in this country
the 80s

 

[bigdickdean]

Back in 2000, I was driving a car from San Francisco to Toronto. Got to Reno, Nevada but no hotels available as it was St. Patrick's Day weekend, so slept in the car in a parking lot that night. Next day set off out east. About two hours eastbound out of Reno, I dozed for a moment from lack of sleep, hit the rumble strip by the side of the interstate, and the car flipped into the median. Car was totally pancaked. Took me a minute or two to climb out. Fortunately, no fire otherwise I would have been toast.

 

[|2 /-\ | /|/]

Many years ago I was on the East Coast. It was early morning, I was on a downhill road with the North Atlantic beside me. As I came to a right curve in the road I hit some black ice and started sliding right toward the edge of the road, where there was only a very small guard rail. I knew I was going to hit it and go over the edge and it was about a 100 foot drop right into the ocean. It was a strange, surreal experience. And then around the turn coming the other way (on a road that wasn't well travelled) was another car that smashed into me head on and stopped my slide. Both cars were totalled; neither I or the other driver were badly hurt. If that hadn't happened I'd have likely been dead. It all happened in just a matter of a few seconds but it seemed like slow motion. I can still remember, as I was sliding toward the edge of the road and the inevitable drop, calmly thinking "I'm going to die." Really, really strange.

Everything happens for a reason and we are all connected. Its happening way to often to just take the easy way out and blame coincidences and randomness on it. Every person we meet every single traffic light we miss, even the radio and what it plays works together to guide us. A fraction of a second different for you during that drive and even that day could have made a big difference on the outcome.

That’s a very cool story and thanks for sharing. Its a bad incident to be put into that situation and experiencing it however great outcome and something that checks you back in place.

I know that feeling very well where everything slows down and and its so fucking cool. I had this happen when I was riding my road bike going about 40 kph. A squirrel jumped in front and I hit the front break way before hitting the back break. I just tuned my breaks and the guy made it way tight from what I was originally conditioned to. As soon as I tapped the break I saw my back wheel start lifting off causing momentum to launch into the air and then I remember seeing my entire bicycle doing an180 hitting the handle bars then flipping 360 with the two water bottles still in the air that got released then hitting the ground around the same time then collided with the pavement and started to slide the seeing the water bottles hitting and bouncing on the ground. Even though I was nowhere close to dying I vividly remember everything, and its like all the senses got heightened by 100. The few seconds seemed way longer and like all time slowed down. Its a very cool feeling and happens when you least expect it and i guess when your subconscious senses a threat to your survival.

 

[kherg007]

Yes. Couple of times. Makes you appreciate life, but sort of not care as much about death. Now it's just between me and my PTSD...

 

[richaceg]

In a basketball court back in the Philippines...everyone started running because this drunk cop just walked in stumbling and too drunk to walk straight but was holding a pistol and wants to shoot everyone...I froze...he walked straight at me but before he was able to point his gun even when he was drunk he recognized me and knew who my dad was...(retired military officer). he walked away...