Have you ever walked into a situation you weren't sure you were going to walk out of?

There were spring break riots at seaside beach a while back. I happened to be there at the wrong time. Only time I have ever been tear gassed. I truly expected the cops to open fire at any time.



Then there was the time I was driving down a logging road and ended up dead ending at what was either a drug operation, or a militia operation. I pulled into the clearing , saw 3 military style rifles pointed at me, threw it in reversed, and backed up a narrow logging road and about 30 miles an hour, mostly afraid take my eyes off of the direction of the clearing.

I was in an apartment a few years back when there was a knock on the door, turned out to be 2 crackheads off their tits. One pulled out a huge knife and started to stab me repeatedly. Made me strip to my underwear.
im standing in the middle of the room bleeding from about 8 different stab wounds, one crackhead ransacking the gaff the other waving the blade at me drooling and foaming at the mouth.
So when they couldnt find any cash then things got hairy.
Crackhead with blade starts sticking it in me again, me trying to evade him with not much luck.
So then one says something like "if you dont give us all your money we're gonna kill you right now" and believe me they meant it.
Their faces gnarled with anger and rage, me bleeding profusely at this stage.
I glance over at the window, my only way out. But we're 3 floors up. Crackhead spots me looking at the window. Our eyes meet and i think 'im a dead man here im going out the window'
So i run at the window, thinking if i dive hands first to break the glass i'll somersault out and land on my back and die.
So i put my elbows to my knees and smash through the glass (it was a single pane) and miraculously land on my feet.
i was out. My heart is thumping like a million times a second. I stand up take a stride and AAARRRRRGH the pain!
i smashed both my ankles and fractured my heels. i couldnt walk.
Next thing i hear a crackhead coming at me from the front door. There were steps going up to the front door. He puts his arm around my neck from behind and is dragging me up the steps saying things like "your a dead man now, im gonna cut your ears off"
I was #ting it.
Next thing way off in the distance we hear a siren like a police car. He stops dragging me and the siren sounds a bit nearer. So to my unbelievable luck he let me go and went into the building closing the front door behind him.
Time for me to get the hell outta there. But the pain in my feet was unreal, they felt like 2 watermelons throbbing with absolute pain.So i had to crawl on my hands and knees, hysterical at this point, away from there covered in blood.
People avoided me they walked around me, this was in Brixton south London.
i crawled around the corner and kept going until i came to a tube station where i pulled myself up to the ticket counter and asked the vendor to phone an ambulance, which came soon after.
i spent 4 months in hospital,i felt and still feel lucky to be alive.

Theres more dtail to this story but it would take me ages to get it all down, so this is the short version.

There was a time a few years ago when I stuck my nose into something I was lucky to walk away from... Sorry the details are too sensitive even now... Ultimately I lost all fear of everything as a result, when you know your life can end at any moment you can either live in fear or let it go.... Since that time my life has changed dramatically, I see that past as a completely different lifetime. I still have no fear, and I live my life out traveling on the road, both by choice and necessity...

Spirituality came to me in ways that cannot be expressed here, or in words. I know my fate, I follow my destiny, I know how it ends and begins.

I nearly drowned in Greece once.

Went for a week with a couple of work mates.

One of them went swimming in the sea and yelled for me to join him.

He was stood up with the water just coming up to his chest; we're the same height.

I'm not a strong swimmer but I thought, "Yep. I can handle this one."

Thing is, what I didn't know is that my friend wasn't stood up - he was treading water.

I reached him then...sunk.

For a few frantic minutes I was desperately trying to keep my head above water and panicking.

Two life guards appeared from nowhere and rescued me.

It still feels like a miracle and that, by rights, I should have died. Terrible memory.

Happened about a month after 911.

I was in a car accident once and didn't know how badly I was hurt so I didn't know if I was going to live or not. Ended up with a broken leg, severe contusions, nerve damage etc.

Also lived through cancer and so far I'm still here.

I didn't learn anything from the experiences. I had always lived my life never taking anything or anyone for granted. Always had love and compassion for people.

#1: There is a surf spot on Kauai just around the bend from Kalapaki beach on the east side of the island, it's called "running waters".

Breaks inside of a tight little cove, so the waves do all kinds of crazy things.

Fairly inexperienced in surfing, let alone in Hawaiian surf, I paddled out on a body board with no leash.

The waves were about 4-6 ft Hawaiian, (you could fit a vw bug inside the breaking wave is what I remember thinking)

On the horizon appeared the monstrous outside set of waves. I remember being in awe of the impressive nature of these waves.

Awe turned into terror when I realized these things were gonna land on my head. I tried padde out of the impact zone, tried to duck the first wave as it broke (from my viewpoint I remember the face as 15ft tall) didn't work and I got thrown over backwards, completely worked by the wave and lost my board....

I surfaced completely out of breath without my board and took three more on the head before I got pushed close enough to shore to crawl out....

Oh yeah I was saying my goodbyes that's for sure.....

I still surf but have such a fear of big waves now....

Far too many over the years ... meh.. life goes on ..

I flipped my truck about a 6 months ago, came around a corner to fast and my driver side rear tire was low on air. Back end kicked out and I lost it.
Didn't have my seat belt on and my driver side window was down.
It was also the driver side that took most the damage. Would say the door frame was dented in a good 6 inches or more.
I also was on a road where on either side of me was about a 10 foot drop.
When everything was said and done I had a pretty good scratch on my hand and to rather large bruises on my thighs, lets say softball size.
Had my never drive faster then your guardian angle can fly medallion my mom always made me drive with.
Since then I stopped testing how fast she could fly and have slowed down since then.
And I check my tires far more often now.
For those that don't know, a low tire can be like driving in water when you brake

a reply to: GoShredAK

I surfaced completely out of breath without my board and took three more on the head before I got pushed close enough to shore to crawl out....

Impact zone soup. Too much water to breath, too much air to swim in.
I was sure I was going to die at Pipeline. More than once.

Went to the house of a known biker gang to purchase some "bike parts" as I arrived with my friend, a guy was thrown down a staircase. He damn near landed on us. Turns out the individual we needed to speak with was the thrower. Anyway he retrieved bike parts. and my friend was not happy with the quality and refused to pay. I thought for sure we were dead. I actually went to the bathroom and unlocked the window so I would have a way out. Anyway the guy said fine get the f&^%k out of here. To With, we skidaddled quick like. Still here to tell the tale. No #, many details left out to protect the guilty.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: GoShredAK

I surfaced completely out of breath without my board and took three more on the head before I got pushed close enough to shore to crawl out....

Impact zone soup. Too much water to breath, too much air to swim in.
I was sure I was going to die at Pipeline. More than once.

Running waters was so minor compared to Pipe, no reef, all sand. Respect Phage.

Local kids were hooting and hollering, they loved it! Meanwhile it was life and death for me. Afterwards on the beach A little boy said to me, word for word, "ho brah, I thought you was going to die"......probably cause I was floundering around on the inside like a newb...

a reply to: onequestion

Three come to mind:

1. I got myself into a spin one winter - Not only did I remember there being other cars on the road, but also that time definitely slowed down in the car. I wasn't able to control the skid at first, because I couldn't tell which way was the side of the road.

First half of the skid was in real-time, and then it transitioned to slowed-down time - In that split second, I was able to come up with a plan, turn the wheel to aim for the ditch, and still managed to stop a couple inches from the sign.

Not only was I unhurt, but the car had maybe a speck of paint chipped off, there was no physical damage to the car. I was able to drive home the same day.

To this day, part of me is still a bit confused as to what happened, because by all accounts, I should have gotten hit by another car, as I there were ones on the road. And, the people that I saw watching me while in the skid, acted as if they never saw me swerving around when they came running to help (they even asked me when it happened, and looked confused when I said that both of them were watching me while it was going on).

2. A long time ago, I was at a party with some friends. Well, someone thought it would be brilliant to throw me into the deep end of the pool (I can't swim, and didn't have enough time to warn them). I entered the water, and blacked out. When I came to, I was in the shallow end, holding onto the barrier between the hot tub and pool.

When I asked them what happened, they said I went under, and swam (poorly, but it was swimming) to the other end of the pool. Funny thing about this one was that I have never been given lessons on how to swim, so somehow, something clicked in my brain that allowed me to unconsciously swim to safety.

3. Farther back, I remember as a kid going to a beach that had piles of limestone on both sides of the point. Because I was a bit adventurous, I was climbing on the piles about 15ft above the water, and saw an interesting rock I wanted to investigate. I get to the rock, only to find the part I wanted to look at is just above a 4-5ft drop. At this point, I'm not sure if my hands slipped, or if the rock I was on tilted, but I found myself with my back to a rock, hands clinging to rocks, and nothing below my feet.

Same day, I was looking in a "cavern" at some beach items someone left - Only way in was a ramp-like rock with a drop on the other end. Well, I got in, found the items, and discovered there was no good way to climb back out. My two choices were: Try to escape through an underwater opening that looked to be my size, or climb back up the way I came. Don't know how it was done, but a few scraped knees and cuts, and I was on the surface.
-fossilera

Lots of hair-breadth misses, more than I deserve, but I don't talk of them except to say I believe in miracles for good reason.

#3

After two years of marriage my wife and I got caught in the mix with the hardest of drugs, and the worst of people. I failed to protect my family and make the right decisions to fix the situation.

In the fog of drug addled madness she disappeared, I was living with my two best friends in San Diego (sobering up) and my son was abandoned with her parents.

I caught a train, stayed with them for a night, left with my son in the morning.

Caught another train and made it to the wrong destination, caught the right train and made it to Los Angeles.

Caught a bus headed for LAX......

Upon arrival the bus was cut off and surrounded by several of whom I can only assume were LAPD. I was told to exit the bus, I did, and found myself along with my son surrounded by about ten officers of the law.

It was crazy how things escalated and fell apart so quickly. This whole thing was a miracle in the end.

Long story short: they concluded I was perfectly fit to take my son to my intended destination of Alaska, and after a very eventful and blessed year the three of us are very much happily together....

Believe it or not my heart has stopped at least 10 times over the course of the last 5 years. The last time was in February of 2013. I did not know that was what was occurring, because it felt almost like a panic attack and then I would black out. I would wake up a few minutes later. My heart always restarted on its own. The last time was when I actually learned it was my heart, as I was in the ambulance and I was trying to tell the paramedic that every 5 or 10 minutes I was passing out and felt funny, and during that trip I had someone riding with me up front, who later said that the paramedic had said my heart was stopping.

Anyway, the family cardiologist worked at the hospital that I went to that night, and he said that there was probably a 10% chance that my heart would not restart after stopping, as this was a substance abuse issue. I had been to the hospital 2 or 3 times before that and not one of those times did anyone actually tell me that my heat was stopping. Needless to say that once I figured it out I made some lifestyle changes. I figure if the doctor was right about the 10% chance then probability was working against me at this point.

So I don't know if that means I have been dead that many times or what, but I will say it was a somewhat scary experience all of those times. It is like a wave of panic came over my body, kind of like that electricity or burning feeling in your chest if you've ever had a panic attack, and thus why I thought that was what it was...And then I could feel myself blacking out. Breathing was difficult. That would last less than 5 seconds for sure. But once I was in the ambulance or had professionals there, I was not so afraid anymore. So that leads me to believe that the scariest part was being alone. This happened so many times before I ever went to the hospital, and even when there were others in the house I was in a room alone and this would happen and I would wake up still alone...It could have happened 20 times, I just cannot remember. But at least 10.

Not once did I have a near death experience, although I would sometimes fade in and out and could see stuff going on around me. They never used the paddles on me which suggests to me that my heart must have been stopping for only a matter of seconds. I do not really understand how it is possible for your heart to start itself again, but it always worked out that way. So I do not know if I didn't have a NDE because I was not really dying, or what. But these were definitely the closest calls I've ever had.

One fine summer day, when i was about 7 years old, I was watching our Appaloosa mare nurse her month old colt. I was warned by my stepmother not to get too close, but you know how kids are. I just had to find out just how close was too close. The colt on one side, me coming up on the other, i bend over and peer under Freckles belly to see just where the colt was sucking. As i a looking, in total awe of what i am witnessing, I see a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye, got the feeling of what seemed like a hammer hitting me in the neck, then the most excruciating pain/flash. My left hand immediately clamps onto the spot where I was bitten, and the first thought going thru my head is 'Mom is gonna whoop my ass for sure!!' I run screaming and for some reason, i hid in the garage, cowering down in the corner, with my little sister yelling at me saying 'I'm gonna tell Mom' By this time, blood is just pouring out of my neck, and i'm getting light headed, but i was insistent that my sister not tell. She doesn't listen, and runs off to tell Mom what happened. All i could think of was the ass whipping i was gonna get for not listening to my mom.
Mom comes out, see what happened, and i hear 'Oh fu%$!' And that is when i knew this was serious. She gets me up, takes me to the house to clean me up and assess the situation. I see her take out her first aid kit, some clean cloths, my dads' bottle of brandy, and 2 shot glasses. She pours us each a shot, we take them, and she starts to go to work on my neck. Time slows to a crawl for me at this time, the brandy slowly taking effect, my stepmothers soothing words calming me down, as she methodically sews up the gaping wound in my neck. I can still hear her saying 'What the hell am i gonna tell your father?'
It was years later that i found out just how close to death i really was. You see, That horse that bit me just meant to nip at me, but as she had a crooked tooth, it caught on the flesh of my neck, tearing out a chunk of meat, and nicked my jugular vein. My stepmother was able to save my life due to her experiences and training she had as a triage nurse during the Korean war.
Lesson learned? ALWAYS listen to Mom.

Well.... Where do I start. I have turned my nose to the grim reaper many times. No way I can reme So I'll list the circumstance and then state what I learned.

1.Was shot at because I accidentally cut a guy off on what I "thought" was a completely empty freeway.
-I learned to always look over my shoulder while changing lanes, no matter what I "think" the traffic conditions are like.

2. I've been struck by lightening once and close calls 3 other times.
- I learned not to go outside in a lightening storm

3. I was nearly mugged in central park New York. I luckily made it to a police officer before he caught me.
- I learned to always know where your nearest officer is. ( I didn't have my CHL at the time)

4. I got robbed at a seedy strip club in Tokyo, Japan.
- I learned if it looks like a place that you might get robbed, then your probably gonna get robbed.

5. I used to be on a pit crew on a race team. I was standing in the pit lane and stupidly had my back to the cars coming in to pit. Well on 3 or 4 occasions cars had accidents near me and I've had to jump out of the way of crashing cars going freeway speeds. on one occasion I actually jumped over the front end of a car that slid through our pit stall.
- I learned to always face where the danger is going to be coming from.

6. I was nearly jumped by 4 very drunk men. No one else was around and I thought my demise was certain. I somehow talked my way out of the situation without a single punch thrown.
- I learned to have a strong mind is better than strong arms

7. I was driving down a rain slicked freeway when the driver in front of me slammed his brakes to miss roadkill. This action caused me to lose control and slide sideways in traffic. Somehow I didn't flip my truck nor hit any other motorist or walls. It was the longest few seconds of my life, I was certain this was gonna be the "big one".
- I learned that practice makes perfect because my practiced driving skills and not panicking most certainly saved my life.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head but Im sure there have been other close calls.


I cant remember the exact quote but it was something along the lines of.... The only way to truly enjoy life, is to come close to death. Much like how can you know happiness without knowing sorrow. how can you know softness without knowing hardness.

Everyday we are faced with life and we take it for granted that it will be here tomorrow. Well there are countless people that didn't expect today to be there last.

In the words of singer Tim McGraw- Someday I hope you get the chance, to live like you were dying.

a reply to: onequestion

This life. Good there's dreams to offer some escape at night, and meditation, but besides that it's a centurylong drag once you get to know it. Worst thing is, I believe I'll be reincarnated so there's no end to it. Gotta get outta this wheel really fast.

Couple of car crashes, passenger on both occasions, but my most frightening experience was being locked up in a Spanish jail cell wearing only a pair of Speedo's ....I wasn't in fear of my life, more concerned i was about to be violated by a couple of mean looking Locals.
Never been so relieved in my life to be dumped on a deserted road in 30 degree heat with a five mile bare foot walk back to the hotel.
Never use fire to chase lizards out of their hidey holes in Spain. especially on a island nature reserve.

Let's see...

The Seattle riots a few years back... Lesson learned? When the cops say move along...? Move along. It's much less painful.

I was a bouncer in a bar in South Naknek, Alaska; called the Red Dog... Got involved in a brawl, knives came out...got stabbed in the leg... Lesson learned? Always look out for the small guy...

Same bar, different fight... Got stabbed again... Lesson learned? Find a frickin' different job... Getting stabbed hurts...a lot.

A dumb person (no, not me... ), tried to mug me outside of a night club in Anchorage, Alaska...Chilikut Charlies. Didn't get stabbed, though... Still pretty damned scary when I realized I was going to have to get busy.

I'm noticing a trend here...

Flying into a fishing village in the Shumigan Islands in Alaska, aboard a bush plane whose pilot may not have been entirely sober... Couldn't see the ground due to cloud cover, so we circled for a bit, then a patch opened up, and the dude decided to make like a WWII dive bomber pilot, and went nearly vertical to get to the runway... The only time I've ever gotten airsick. Served the bastard right, I tell ya... Scared the whey outta me.