Drowing victims inexplicably saved and other cases of divine intervention

When I was a child, I was at the YMCA and I almost drowned. I was about 8 years old and not really a strong swimmer at the time. I was starting in the shallow end of the pool and walking toward the deep end. As the water got to be deep, I would hold my breath, sink to the bottom and push off the floor to the surface, catch my breath and repeat... gradually moving toward the deep end.

Eventually it got deep and I was getting tired and I had mistimed my push off of the floor and ran out of breath. I was thrashing around at the bottom of the pool, out of breath and about to give up. All of the sudden, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me up to the surface and over to the side of the pool. I was pretty freaked out by almost drowning and I quickly wiped my eyes and looked around to see who saved me. The thing is that no one was within 20 feet of me. Even stranger was that no one was even looking at me.

I have to think that 99% of people who would rescue a small child from drowning would at least make sure that he or she is OK before leaving them. Maybe even ask where their parents were. So, in my simple mind, I think that something "supernatural" was what saved me. Call it a guardian angel, call it whatever you want. I don't think it was normal.

As it turns out, it isn't an isolated event to be miraculously saved when you are drowning. TravelerintheDark wrote a thread about his/her experience here www.abovetopsecret.com...

My memory of the moments between realizing I was drowning a mere foot from the dock, and hadn't the strength to get back to the surface, and finding myself on the dock

More examples:
www.storiesfromthepeople.com...

nstead of staying in the shallow water, I ventured out into the deep, where I promptly began to drown. I was trying to keep my head above water but took a lot in. I was struggling for my life. Suddenly, a man pulled me out of the water and laid me on the bank. I don’t know where he came from. When I caught my breath, he was gone and I never saw him again. As far as I know, he was an angel who saved me.

www.authorsden.com...

. The rapids were roaring and a giganticrock stuck out of the center of the rapids. The rock divided the river in jalf. We did everything we could to avoid the rock, but fate took us right into it. We capsized and the current took me under the water to some underbrush. I got tangled up in this brush and was running out of air and energy. I kept trying to free myself. I thought to myself, "This is it. This is the way that I am going to die." Then I prayed to God to help me. While I was praying, I felt something tug on me and pull me to the surface. I could not believe it. I had almost given up. My friends were trying to find me. Here I was back in the canoe and wondering what had saved me. Then a peace and calmness came over me. I then realized what had saved me. I also knew that we would be safe the rest of the trip. We did not capsize the rest of the journey down the rapids.

There are many more out there. I heard some on C2C of some fishermen being saved in a similar fashion to me. They had almost given up when they were grabbed by the arm and dragged to safety. Yet they were off shore and there wasn't another soul for miles.

Anyways, I thought this was an interesting subject and I wonder if any other ATS members have had similar experiences.



[edit on 24-9-2008 by Karlhungis]

I was a lifeguard for 8 years before I moved to Australia. I remember having saved a few kids doing the very same thing you were doing. They would get halfway across the pool lengthwise, and then I would only see hands splashing. Thinking back to those times, there was no way I could have gotten out of sight before they were able to notice anything. When I grabbed them, I would always lift them by their armpits and then carry them to the edge. I absolutely feel what you experienced was supernatural.

I didn't have an experience like yours, however my Mom did just after she found out she had breast cancer. She was on her lunch break, eating alone at a local restaurant when a woman came up to where she was sitting, told her everything was going to be OK, and walked off. My Mom looked right at her when the woman spoke, and looked away when she walked off. She then did a double take second guessing what actually happened, and the lady was gone. Mom was sitting in the back of the restaurant and could see the entrance - there was no one around at the time...the lady just disappeared. It affected her positively, and she's OK today.

I just love threads like this!
I’ve heard (and experienced) sooo many things such as this, but, the drowning one is *specific* here, and a new one I hadn’t heard about.
Too bad it wasn’t open water I’d have to say you’ve the Mermen to thank - but - no such luck in the pool.
Actually the pool part is even better - no way it could be explained other than divine intervention!
Well, glad you’re still alive and I’m looking forward to hearing more reports of saved drowning victims.

reply to post by Evasius


Thanks for the validation. I am glad to hear a lifeguards take on it.

"Mysteriously saved" is a great topic.

I remember my cousin saving me from having drowned in a lake. It was one of my defining childhood moments. However....my cousin doesnt remember having saved me, nor does he remember me having drowned. So I can only assume it was somebody else appearing as my cousin....

reply to post by Skyfloating


Thanks for the contribution. Always nice to get some Mod participation. How old were you when it happened? Can you remember it clearly enough to say whether it was possible for it to not be your cousin? As in, did he save you and quickly leave, or did he come out of nowhere to save you... anything odd about it other than him not remembering it?

Originally posted by Karlhungis
reply to post by Skyfloating

 

Thanks for the contribution. Always nice to get some Mod participation. How old were you when it happened? Can you remember it clearly enough to say whether it was possible for it to not be your cousin? As in, did he save you and quickly leave, or did he come out of nowhere to save you... anything odd about it other than him not remembering it?

I remember it all clearly.

My cousin and aunt were at the beach and I was swimming as far out as I could. I was 8 years old. After awhile I got tired and started to panic, splashing and hitting around, swallowing lots of water, coughing it up, swallowing more. I went down and blacked out. The next thing I know is my cousin saying "i gotcha, I gotcha. Hold on. I gotcha." He took me to another side of the beach and did some kind of first aid. Then we walked back to where my aunt was and he told her all about it.

About 10 years later I said to my cousin: "You did save my life".

He didnt know what I was talking about. I told him what happened. He didnt remember any of it. "You must have dreamed that" he said.

I got confused and approached my aunt about it: "Remember when we went to that lake when I was a child, and I almost drowned?". She remembered none of it either. And yet the memory is vivid.

Purhaps you have a guardian angel?

Don't take this the wrong way, but purhaps it was the same "being" you had a run in with in your bedroom?

You never know.

How about this possibility, you actually saved yourself. We're still only starting to scrape the surface of what may be possible by the human mind and given our lack of understanding about the relationship of consciousness and the quantum world we may be looking at examples of telekinisis or translocation (both of which are theoretically possible).

reply to post by PW229


An interesting theory. It is certainly just as plausible as a guardian angel. Or maybe it didn't happen at all.... due to the nature of reality.

I have perhaps a similar story. I was very young and it's a little foggy in my memory but I do remember bits and pieces, and have heard the story a million times from family members.

I was about 2.5-3 at the time and we were visiting an aunt. She had a large above ground pool probably only about 4.5 feet deep. There was noone swimming at the time but apparently I had toddled away from my parents and went up on the deck. I have no recollection of whether I fell or jumped, I just remember suddenly being in the pool and going under. I vividly remember opening my eyes underwater and looking up at the surface and very clearly seeing both my parents standing on the deck looking at me in the water totally horrified. I do remember thinking "everything's ok...my parents are here". The next thing I remember is opening my eyes laying on the deck of the pool and everyone, including my parents running up the stairs to the deck. There were about 30 people there that day for a BBQ and everyone insists that I must have climbed out of the pool myself because noone had even noticed me in the pool much less rescued me.

Now, I do think it is totally possible that at that age I could have swam to the surface myself, but what got everyone thinking is the fact that from the water marks it was clear that I exited the pool from the side, not from the ladder. With the water being a full foot lower than the edge of the pool it seemed like a great task for a little 3 year old to pull herself out on her own...especially after being tired from almost drowning.

I still insist my parents were there on the side of the pool...and everyone insists nobody was there...that they didn't realize I was in the pool until someone noticed me missing, and when they all ran to the pool that's where they found me on the deck.

Divine intervention...possibly. A surge of adrenaline that helped me save myself...possibly as well. I guess I'll never know!

Michelle

reply to post by Michelle129


Thanks, another interesting one. I am glad we are getting so many members to tell their story.

reply to post by Karlhungis


Were there any other instances you felt you were being helped out by an invisible force?

reply to post by Skyfloating


That one is really the strongest memory of such an event. I did have another time as a child where I was riding my bike across a highway without looking (I wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer) and a car managed to stop and avoid killing me. It sounds normal, but I would say that if that same scenario were to happen, 99 times out of 100 they wouldn't have been able to see me and stop in time. It was a 55mph zone and I didn't give them much time to see me or react. Now, this didn't feel as "supernatural" to me but I am very fortunate to be alive because of it.

I'll have to rack my brain and see if I can remember any other times.

How about you?

reply to post by PW229


Telekinesis or translocation.

Thanks for the term, 'translocation'. For years (and here on ATS as well) I've been labelling it as 'being in two places at once'. Something I've experienced several times during very frightening situations. Translocation's much more elegant.

Don't have a drowning experience to relate, but have experienced a few similar mysteries.

Up on a two-and-half storey rooftop, for example. Aged nine. Instructed by my father to spread a pitch-type substance on and around bolts he'd used to secure the skillion roof. He went down the ladder, repeating again the warning that I must not work backwards, or I'd risk backing over the roof edge to almost certain death. Face the roof edge always, he said, and work forwards in that way, so that I would see the danger before I reached it.

But because the wind was blowing my hair into my eyes, I must have ended up turning to face the wind, which put my back to the roof-edge. I'd spread pitch on one bolt-head, after which I'd take a few steps backwards (without looking behind me) in order to spread pitch on the next bolt.

This went on for a while. It was hot and windy up there and a pretty boring job, bent over and just dabbing sticky black stuff every few feet. I must have started daydreaming.

Next I knew, I felt a hand pressing against my back. It didn't startle me, that's the funny thing. Anyway, I was trying to move backwards so that I'd have room to bend down and spread pitch on the bolt just near my feet. So I pushed against the hand so that I could move a bit further back.

But the hand wouldn't let me move backwards.
I pushed against it harder. It was stopping me from doing what I had to do. I didn't even think about any of it .. just tried to get myself a bit further back.

Don't remember how long this went on .. probably only a few seconds really.

Then, suddenly, it dawned on me that someone was stopping me from moving backwards.

Dumb nine year old. It was only then that I came out of my daydreams and looked around to see who was preventing me from moving.

But when I turned around, there was no-one there !

And then I saw what had been behind me ... a several metre drop, straight off the end of the roof.

At that point, I nearly wet myself with fear, because my father didn't suffer fools at all. He'd warned me several times to work forwards and keep the roof edges in my line of sight. And I'd nodded over and over again and said, yes, I would do that.

But I hadn't. And now, standing there on the edge of the roof, I was terrified that the hand which had stopped me plunging to the ground had been my father's hand. In which case, I could expect a thump around the ear any moment now.

I stood there, worried sick that I'd soon hear the roar of his voice. But there was nothing, no-one .. just the sound of the wind, the heat of the sun and that sense of silence you get when you're up high.

Not long afterwards, my father's head popped over the edge of the roof on the far side (he was on a ladder). This is it, I thought .. I'm really going to get it now. Because I was sure he must have seen what had happened.

But he was fine. Not angry with me. I couldn't believe I'd gotten away with it.

It wasn't until ages later that I finally got around to wondering who on earth had saved me by putting their hand against my back, thus preventing me from falling backwards over the edge.

All I know is, the hand 'felt like' my grandfather's presence. Yet he'd died some months earlier, on the other side of the world.

I've been saved a heap of times by invisible forces .. just lucky I guess. Although when you come to ATS, you read about hundreds of similar incidents. We're all lucky at some point, by the sound of it. Lucky, yet with no 'real' explanation of who or what intervened on our behalf.





[edit on 24-9-2008 by Dock6]

Yes, occurences to convince me of some sort of higher guidance have been plentiful. Car-accidents which I surived unbruised for example. The last occurence was a few months ago. There was an accident on the highway. About 30 seconds before this accident occured I got a really bad sinking feeling in my stomach and switched lanes...otherwise I might not be sitting here. And so on and so forth.

But I´d say children are "more in touch". Remember the countless dangerous situations you went through as a child and nothing happened?

reply to post by Skyfloating

Remember the countless dangerous situations you went through as a child and nothing happened?

Yes, I am amazed that I am alive. Sometimes I wonder if my parents didn't want me around . When I think about the things that I did as a kid, I can't imagine my own children going through them. I think of how fortunate I was and how all it would take is a lack of fortune on any of the thousands of misadventures I went on and I wouldn't be here. It honestly scares me to think about my own kids not being as lucky. Especially since we can't watch over them every minute of every day.

This next is basically a 'double-barrelled' intervention. Bit embarrassing, but we're anonymous and it might serve as a warning and help someone. At the very least, it makes you wonder about who/what is working overtime to keep us alive (and let's face it, most of us don't live noteworthy existences or achieve anything stupendous. Which has made me wonder at times why our 'saviours' bother keeping us alive. Guess the point of the life-exercise is so we might learn something. But even so .. what do we do with what we've learned ? More than one or a hundred mysteries in life, that's for sure ).

Ok. Broke up with my first boyfriend after nine years. He'd been very over-protective / over-possessive. As result, despite my respectable age at that point, I probably had less street-smarts than the average 13 year old. Which is a roundabout way of making an excuse for what comes next.

I was depressed. About life, basically. And the break-up added to it. I'd been depressed for years, result of childhood. A bit obsessed with dying, to be honest. During those years, dying seemed to me to be very desirable.

Because of my boyfriend's controlling nature, I didn't know many people. Big city. Out of my element. No real family presence either. So, I made up my mind (seems ridiculous now, all these years later) that if I hadn't made any new friends by 10 o'clock, I would die and get it all over with. I decided jumping under a train would be quick and final.

Off I went. Shy, nervous, clueless. Went to a church meeting-hall I'd seen. Knew they had get-togethers in the evenings. But stood outside, too nervous to go in. You're hopeless, I decided. Then set off to the railway station.

Close to 10 o'clock. I checked the timetable boards. Saw I had a few minutes of life left. Felt quite calm.

Then, down on the roadway (about ten metres away) someone began calling out. I looked. Saw a car identical to my ex-boyfriend's friend. Same model, same colour. Couldn't see the driver. The body wants to survive. Only explanation for the fact I went down to the car, leaned down, expecting to see my ex-boyfriend's friend. Looking forward to it in fact.

But it wasn't who I expected. It was a stranger. So I backed away and said sorry, but I'd thought he was Joe.

I am Joe, he replied. I thought he was joking, but apparently not. Just a little coincidence.

I made to walk away, but he leaned right over to the passenger side window and called me back, asked me to go for coffee.

Last thing in the world I would normally have done. But, it was a choice between death and coffee. Shrug. I could always have coffee and then die later. So, I got into his car.

Off we went, the radio playing. Someone to talk to. He seemed very nice.

I'd thought we'd be having coffee nearby, but he kept driving. As he passed a row of parked cars, he sounded the car horn. I looked at him questioningly. He said he was just saying hello to friends of his.

We seemed to be driving for a long time. But it was nice, the lights were shining, people were walking around. For once I was one of them .. just young and having a pleasant night.

We'd left the town and were in what seemed a rural area. I asked where the coffee shop was. Joe said not far .. a nice little place that wasn't crowded.

Then there were hardly any lights at all. I didn't know where I was, didn't recognise anything. Could see bush on either side of the road.

The car swung around a corner, then another. Everything was very dark now. Stupidly, I was still trusting this stranger.

Then, the car stopped. It was very dark. I had no idea where we were. Later, I learned it had been an unused quarry out in the bush.

When the car stopped, Joe just stared at me. Not friendly, not smiling any more. A weird expression on his face. I still had no idea what lay in store.

Then, he grabbed my handbag and tossed it into the rear of the car. I was shocked. Was he mad ? Everything of value was in my handbag: my keys, purse, identification, etc.

The front seat was a bench type. So I had to lean right over it to try to reach my bag. Joe pushed me, because next thing, I was falling over the back of the front seat and into the back of the car.

I was dazed and scared, but also angry. As I was trying to get myself into an upright position, Joe opened the door to the rear of the car and began pulling off his shirt. I was transfixed. He must be mad. There was no explanation for this.

He soon explained. He was a rapist, he said .. had raped over a dozen girls.

I said something dumb, such as: ' I expected better of you. I'm very disappointed.'

Then, I don't know what happened. His face went a bit more normal and he stopped wrestling with me. Sat up and looked at me without saying anything for a while. I just stared back. Basically I was incredulous that he'd dare consider raping me. But mostly, I was surprised about all of it.

Next, he told me he was sorry. Helped me out of the back of the car and opened the front door so I could regain my original seat. Then he got into the driver's side and lit a cigarette. He apologised several times. He seemed a lot more normal and human by now.

Then, the car and the entire quarry was lit up, followed by the sound of cars and radios. Other cars had entered the enclosure. I turned around to look at them, wondering if I could run to the other cars for help.

Joe told me to sit still. Then, he got out and started putting on his shirt. And told me in a very quiet and serious voice to lock all the doors after he left and not to open them, no matter what. Then he left and walked to the other cars.

After a few minutes, the other cars started turning around and leaving and Joe returned. He continued apologising. Only later on did he reveal that the other cars belonged to his friends. I had been the intended victim of a pack rape. These were the cars he'd sounded the horn to earlier. It had been a signal to say he had a victim. And they all knew to head to the quarry. It had happened to other girls before.

As Joe was explaining all this and apologising and asking if I'd see him again because he really liked me, I could hear the sound of a bell. After everything that had happened, I didn't know if I was imagining it. But when I asked if he could hear it too, Joe said he could.

He was still apologising and trying to make excuses for being a rapist, when I nearly jumped out of my skin .. because a very tall man had appeared out of the darkness, near Joe's side of the car.

The tall man bent down and leaned right into Joe's window. He asked if everything was alright. Then, the man stared across to me and his eyes looked straight into mine. ' Are you alright young lady?'. I nodded. To be honest, I was more scared of the tall man than I was of Joe at that point.

The man asked me over and over if I was alright.
Joe wasn't happy about the interruption and asked the man what he wanted .. what was he doing wandering around in the dark ?

The tall man said he was looking for his sheep ! (or goat .. I can't remember which).

It felt like a nightmare. A sheep ? Who had sheep these days ? Was it a joke ? Was he another from the rapist gang ?

But then I remembered the bell I'd heard not long before. It must have been a real sheep. Which meant the tall man must be a genuine person. So I did my best to tell him which direction the bell had gone. He just seemed to vanish in a second.

Joe stared at me and I could see he was nervous now too.

Cont. next post

WOW....

It is hard to believe that people like Joe and his "pack raping" buddies really exist. Humanity sure can be disgusting. Your post gave me goosebumps. What a terrible thing.

Cont. from previous post:

After the shepherd left, Joe was a bit edgy.

He continued apologising for trying to rape me and asked if I could ever forgive him, etc. He asked where I worked and lived and if I had a boyfriend, etc. I dodged his questions or gave false responses.

It was surreal. He seemed to be of the belief that raping women generally was not a particularly bad thing to do, although he was regretful about trying to include me amongst his victims.

It went on for quite a while. Every now and then his face looked demented. I was scared, but behaved as if I were relaxed and as if all this was normal. Tried to sound like the psychiatrists in movies, saying 'mmmm' a lot sympathetically.

Joe said he wanted to go to America to find his real parents. He said he'd discovered papers in his parents' room which revealed he'd been adopted. His adoptive parents were Italian, he said, but his real father was in the United States. For this reason, Joe said he was going to change his surname to Houston, in honour of his true father. Despite these claims, Joe looked typically Italian. I wondered what could have happened to him in life which could have caused him to become a rapist, deny his parentage and fixate on an imaginary American father.

Finally, Joe started up the car and drove me home. I wouldn't tell him where I really lived. Instead, I convinced him to take me to a railway station near where I lived. When I thought it was safe and he had finally gone away, I left the railway via another exit and went home.

It took a long time to get it all in place in my mind. I knew I'd nearly become a statistic and had nearly been subjected to an experience which would have had disastrous effects on my life, lifelong. It was my own fault, of course, for getting into a stranger's car, and I'd known that -- and deeply regretted it --- once everything began going crazy.

Against all the odds, I'd been spared. And those odds had been overwhelmingly in favour of the rapists.

Yet, inexplicably, Joe had turned from rapist one moment to gentleman the next. And had then defended me against the other rapists.

But, if he hadn't had a change of heart just in time, there had been the shepherd. So, even if Joe and the other rapists had been free to follow their plans, fate had arranged for the shepherd to appear. So in effect, I'd been saved twice .. first by Joe and then by the back-up shepherd. For surely, the shepherd would have intervened if Joe and his friends had proceeded in their plans. Two 'saviours' then ?

It's tempting to imagine my 'guardian angels' had sprung into emergency-mode, first working on Joe's brain so that he stopped being a rapist just in time, and then arranging for the shepherd as back-up rescue. Made me feel pretty guilty for putting the guardian-angels through so much effort. Made me feel pretty special, too .. for a while.

But then a horrible thought occurred to me: was the shepherd not a guardian angel at all, but a voyeur ? After all, the quarry was the 'rape location', apparently. And if the shepherd lived nearby, surely he'd have investigated the cars in the quarry at night, long ago ? Had he intended to observe another rape in action ? Or had he genuinely lost his sheep ? Or was he a back-up guardian-angel ?

Won't know, if at all, until after I've shuffled off the mortal coil.