When I saw this thread, I thought it was about something entirely different.
Over the years, I've skydived (extensively), raced cars, rode motorcycles, hitchhiked, done drugs, hung out in biker bars (as a tourist only), guzzled whiskey, bungee jumped, IndoBoarded, and engaged in all sorts of high risk activities.
And yet, the closest I ever came to dying (as in, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel) was in bed one night next to my husband. I had a bad cold and a cough that had prevented me from sleeping more than 10-15 minutes at a stretch for about a week. I was frantic!
One night, I put a package of Hall's Cough Drops on the shelf over the bed. In the middle of the night I was suffering with a tickle in my throat that would not let me sleep. I reached for the cough drops and popped one in my mouth.
I guess it must have worked well enough for me to fall asleep. Next thing I knew, I was awake and unable to breathe. I clutched for my husband -- but unfortunately, I tend to be an animated sleeper anyway, and he has learned to pay no mind to my calisthenics in bed! I couldn't dislodge the lozenge and I couldn't breathe around it. I literally saw the tunnel and the bright (fuzzy) white light. (But all the while, I was doing all I could to dislodge the obstruction.)
And I finally did.
But of all the high-risk activities I have engaged in (joyfully!) over the course of my life, that is truly the closest I ever came to dying!
It's not how I imagined it would happen.
..c..