Near Death Experiences

[SecondmateFlint]

Hey everyone! I'm an American film student and I am doing an experimental documentary on near death experiences. I'm looking for stories that I could read and use the audio for.

I'm specifically looking for experiences when time slows down and a feeling of serenity washes over you.

I'll share my story for an example.

I work on tall ships during the summer and this past summer I was climbing aloft with a trainee and we were loosing out the t'gallant (about 85 feet above the water). The ship was rocking like mad while we were up there. The trainee finished what she needed to do so I sent her back down to deck while I took care of some last details. I did what I needed to and started my descent. The ship was rocking so that I would occasionally have to literally hang on. One really bad wave hit and for a second, I thought I was going to let go. Time slowed down as I had the thought, "I'm going to die." I felt a wave of calmness as I pictured my fingers letting go and wondered what people thought about before they died. The ship rocked back and time sped up again. I was able to throw myself on the shrouds and wrap my arms around them. My normal feelings returned and I had to compose myself as I slowly worked my way back down.

Sorry for the long story, but that's the moment I'm looking for: when time slows down. But if you have any story about a near death experience, I'd love to read it!

Thank you everyone in advance,

J.D.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

I was once distracted by a helicopter and walked out in front of a very large truck.

My friend yelled at me, and I noticed that I was about to get run over and squashed flat as a pancake. It was really surreal. I've got a weak heart, but this time I could feel ever single beat of it, I was hyper aware of my body and I know that when I was standing in the road, I didn't take a breath. Time felt like it was standing still and I could have been staring at the truck for an hour. It still stands out so clearly in my mind, like a photograph. There wasn't any sound after my friend yelled for me. I wasn't thinking anything in particular even, not about my friends or family, or any fear that I might die. I didn't have time to. It just happened and my reaction was nothing, just blank.

I was very lucky. My friend was close enough to me grab me and make me fall backwards and out of the road. Time got right back on moving then, even seemed to speed up for a minute or so. The truck swerved to miss me, but there wasn't an accident. I got beeped at by other drivers and my friend punched me in the arm a lot, told me I should be more carefully. I was just in shock.

It's not much of a story, definitely not very thrilling, but the feeling of staring down something that can kill you, even if it's only for moment, is something that I remember very clearly.

 

[ZehMadScientist]

Well, in aside from almost dying from pneumonia (due to neglect) I once got Italy, I did come very close to death once. And it was entirely due to my own stupidity.

In chemistry class we learned and were shown that when you throw sodium in water it goed boom. So me and my like minded idiotic friends stole a little pot of sodium in oil from the teachers desk and went out of our way to test it ourselves. We but it in a glass bowl, and the entire bowl blew up, with a big shard of glass rushing alongside my face. Left a scar, could have killed me.

 

[Dawns Gate]

I've got three pretty bad ones.

The first time was when my best friend and I were bike racing down the street by his house, there was a hill to our right and we failed to look before we crossed the road - they didn't have lights there yet - and we were both nearly hit by a big truck, I lost my front wheel and my friend's back wheel got bent sideways. He was laying on the road for a little while under his bike and I thought he was dead, I was too scared to go over to him, I felt like I couldn't talk to call out for him, I felt like I couldn't even move. Eventually he got up and helped me up, that was pretty scary, it sure taught us a lesson.

The second time was when me and my older brother were climbing hoodoos while we were camping near Drumheller. There was a spot the rain had cleared out a path we could use a slide, you just needed to hop down onto a rock and sit on it to push yourself off. The problem was that it had rained the night before and I had slipped off the side, I saw the deep ravine below and thought "Shit, I'm gonna die." My brother was quick enough and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back up. Dislocated my right shoulder from where he pulled me, the thing was swollen like a basketball for a while.

The final was on my great grandparents anniversary, I was nominated to launch the fireworks, I set everything up right and build a small bunker to go behind before launch, the rocket said 30 seconds, so I thought maybe 15, it blew up as soon as the match hit the wick and exploded - didn't launch or anything - I only saw white and felt like I was laying on the ground for hours, my ears were ringing and my family was trying to talk to me but I felt I couldn't do anything. I was able to start walking after a saw I had a piece of plastic/card stock in my arm and the metal bit you launch it off of was partway in my cheek, I couldn't get the sound out of my head for a month. Got some badass scars though.

Those were the closest I've come to dying, I've been hit by a car a couple times, but they weren't that bad.

 

[Jadak]

Only one near death experience I've had, and fairly similar to yours actually (in the sense that it was on a ship and involved failing, although on an upper deck of the engine room rather than outside). So yeah, I didn't just start to fall, but did fall and for that fraction of a second where I was looking at a free fall leading to a messy death, time definitely slowed down. Certainly wasn't a moment I would describe as calmness , but definitely a surreal sensation as more thoughts seemed to go through my mind than I could begin to process and is what I would imagine the "life flashing before your eyes" thing comes from.

Anyways, I fell a couple metres and managed to catch hold of a railing on the deck below. Hurt my shoulder and made a few bruises as my body swung into things after I caught hold, but definitely not dead. Odds are I wouldn't have died anyways, as I wasn't quite high enough up for that and a few broken bones were far more likely, but nothing quite compares to that moment when your mind registers the fact that you're falling and there's no stopping it.

 

[spartan231490]

When I was a really young kid I was almost 20 feet up in a pine tree when the branches broke and I fell. I experienced the feeling of time slowing down, it helped me catch another branch(i didn't stop falling but it helped me avoid landing on my head). I can't really remember what I was feeling, but I'm pretty sure i was screaming.

Take it with a grain of salt, it was more than 15 years ago and my memories are surprisingly clear so most of it could be embellishments that my mind has filled in in the interim. If it helps, I doubt that's the case, but as you are doing this for the sake of some kind of experiment, I thought I should point out the possibility.

 

[Yassen]

My NDE is a lot slower than the other ones on here, I almost died from a Meningococcal infection in my left foot due to a venous irregularity in said foot. Over the course of a day my foot was swollen, extremely painful and I started getting delirious. Before long I was turning blue and was rushed to hospital. Spent 10 days in intensive care, had half my foot amputated and spent the next month recovering.

Everything was slower, nothing tasted right, my foot felt like it was in a furnace and at least once I had an emotional break-down. When I wasn't cursing my fate I was bored out of my skull, a day felt like a week, and a week felt like a month. It was the longest time of my life and now I'm left with half a foot but a greater appreciation for life. I can also do party tricks with my prothesis. So there's a happy ending to this story.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

A long time ago I used to partake in freestyle kayaking lessons. We hadn't learned to roll back up yet, but that's ok since there's a tab to take your spray-deck off and get out. Sadly, my tab was stuck inside the kayak and I didn't realise this until I was stuck upside down underwater.

I was there for maybe a couple minutes thinking, "Well shit." When my instructor swam, yes that's right, swam down the entire fucking course and pulled me out of my kayak. Apparently it looked rather awesome.

 

[Rule Britannia]

After going to the orthodontist to have my brace put on (February 2010) I went about my day normally,at school, until the pain kicked in (for those of you that have or had braces you will know) I went home and took Tylenol...10-20 minutes later I went into anaphlactic shock. I'm allergic to Acetaminophen (paracetamol). Little ironic really ¬.¬.

But yeah I almost died then, my throat started to close up and what not, I was given tripolon to get rid of some of the reaction but I was taken to the hospital and had an IV of benodryll put into me until I was fully recovered from the reaction (which was about 4 hours)

 

[SecondmateFlint]

Wow everyone, these stories are incredible. I'm always amazed what we can survive. We're hardy buggers, I'll tell you that.

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate these. Would anyone object to me having someone read them for my film? If you pm me, I can let you know details or if you'd like a place in the credits and a copy of the DVD (once it's done and...made...first).

I love these types of stories (not the fact that they happened) but I love them in the sense that they are so personal. And as spartan231490 said, they can stick with you forever.

Thanks again Escapist, you guys are awesome.

Keep 'em coming!

 

[CulixCupric]

at age three: ate cyanide, stomach pumped, bleach, stomach pumped again, etc. happened 10 times in that year

i can't swim, have had over 30 near drowning experiences

electrocuted several times.

been hit by cars over 10 times, luckily i was never badly hurt.

surgery for vein problem. most painless thing i've ever had to deal with. didn't hurt at all.

staff infection covered my whole left arm, and went to my heart. i'm left handed, now i still have the arm, all of it, and am in perfect health.

never broken a bone in my life. i'm damn lucky when it comes to avoiding death.

i'm only 20. that's a lot of death i avoided, i hope it doesn't catch up with me.

 

[cerealnmuffin]

This might be hard for some people to read.

Spoiler

I had tried hanging myself and nearly succeeded. Daily life was a struggle for me especially given my parents refusal to accept me for who I was. My options were skewed when looking through a lens of lifelong depression. This was not my first attempt, but I was determined for it to be my last. After gathering my materials, I selected a piece of classical music that I hoped would convey my sorrow if the words in my letter failed to achieve that. The act of arranging the letter and selecting the piece, fine tuning the volume till it was perfect were attempts to dress up such an ugly act. Yet, neither the most beautiful trills nor tremelos will add any grace to what was about to transpire.

Tears streaming down my face, I climbed onto a chair and slipped the noose around my neck. A printed out page detailing the knot that will snuff my life laid on the floor. The tall door served as the pivot. There was no dramatic kicking of the chair. I took one step forward with that foot wavering in the air like I was merely tiptoeing into a cool lake for a swim. Then another step and the rope pulled taunt.

The rope didn't pinch my arteries hard enough so I slipped into unconsciousness instead of it being a tidal wave of darkness. As I lost flow of fresh blood to my brain, the music swelled to such clarity my speakers were incapable of reproducing. My hearing heightened to such a degree that I swear I heard the outside traffic of cars passing by oblivious to what was unfolding. My vision tunneled as it blurred around the edges until just blackness over took me. My thoughts were nonsensical before slipping under. If I had succeeded, my last thought would not be of how lonely I felt, those that hurt me, or the comforting idea of release from things that have tormented me. I wish it was something grandiose that would cause others to pause at its profoundness. No, it would have been of blueberry muffins and how delicious they were.

When unconscious, time has no value or meaning. Perhaps after a minute or perhaps only the briefest of times, my eyes shot open. Perchance it was good fortuity or a mere fluke due to incompetence on my part, my foot had pressed on the fallen chair thus lessening the rope's tension for the briefest of moments. My thinking was still distorted as fresh blood flow had been cut off for an indiscernible time. I was convinced that my bracelet was what was bringing me to death's door. Despite it lying limply on my wrist, my innate sense of survival was misguided in trying to tear it free. Wrestling with it caused the rope to slip allowing for air.

This happened many years ago after my parents completely rejected me for being myself. Funny how they told me they'd support me no matter what when I was younger even if I was lgbt (turns out they didn't hold true to that)