Research Redux

[SweetWitch]

Okay, so my first thread was a bit unclear. Let’s try this again.

I’m looking for information regarding the emotional impact of coming close to death. It’s not so much the actual “near-death” experience that I’m researching, but the “close call”.

Were you a lumberjack suspended upside down and hanging by a thread when your safety equipment malfunctioned? Were you barreling down the highway only to have someone cut you off and force your vehicle off the road with nothing but a deep ravine waiting for you? Were you trapped in a forest fire, an earthquake, a tornado and wonder how you were going to survive?

What went through your mind at the precise moment you realized you might night survive? Were you afraid, angry, sick, awestruck? How did you feel afterwards? Do you remember?

 

[R. Richard]

What went through your mind at the precise moment you realized you might night survive? Were you afraid, angry, sick, awestruck? How did you feel afterwards? Do you remember?

I'll try to answer your question, although I doubt that my answer is typical.

Several dozen times in my life, I have been attacked by hoodlums. I stress that the attacks weren't due to any provocation on my part and I reacted in a entirely defensive manner.

Time would slow down for me. I could still move at normal speed, but everything else around me slowed down. I would become totally focused on the matters at hand. I could see small errors on the part of my attackers and I was able to use the errors to deal with my attackers. My already excellent low light vision increased and I could see things in great detail, even though most of the attacks were at night and in the dark alleys that I favored for my activities. My strength seemed to increase, although it might just have been a matter of the great speed with which I moved. I would deal with the hoodlums, until I was sure that they posed no further threat to me.

Once I had dealt with the attackers, I would, assuming that I had time before the scumbags arrived, confiscate the watches and wallets that the cheap bastards carried and then move along dark alleyways. I would have a sense of achievement and accomplishment. I would also be very hungry and very thirsty. I would find an all-night cafe and pork out, assuming that the cheap bastards had enough to pay for my repast. (If not,I would find an all-night market and buy or shoplift food.) I would then return to my abode and very carefully examine the remaining watches, if any, to try to estimate what they might bring at downtown pawn shops the next day.

I never lost a minute's sleep worrying about the cheap bastards who attacked me. I also didn't try to report the unprovoked attacks to the scumbags, as the scumbags wouldn't do anything except try to throw my ass into juvie.

 

[SweetWitch]

I'll try to answer your question, although I doubt that my answer is typical.

Several dozen times in my life, I have been attacked by hoodlums. I stress that the attacks weren't due to any provocation on my part and I reacted in a entirely defensive manner.

Time would slow down for me. I could still move at normal speed, but everything else around me slowed down. I would become totally focused on the matters at hand. I could see small errors on the part of my attackers and I was able to use the errors to deal with my attackers. My already excellent low light vision increased and I could see things in great detail, even though most of the attacks were at night and in the dark alleys that I favored for my activities. My strength seemed to increase, although it might just have been a matter of the great speed with which I moved. I would deal with the hoodlums, until I was sure that they posed no further threat to me.

Once I had dealt with the attackers, I would, assuming that I had time before the scumbags arrived, confiscate the watches and wallets that the cheap bastards carried and then move along dark alleyways. I would have a sense of achievement and accomplishment. I would also be very hungry and very thirsty. I would find an all-night cafe and pork out, assuming that the cheap bastards had enough to pay for my repast. (If not,I would find an all-night market and buy or shoplift food.) I would then return to my abode and very carefully examine the remaining watches, if any, to try to estimate what they might bring at downtown pawn shops the next day.

I never lost a minute's sleep worrying about the cheap bastards who attacked me. I also didn't try to report the unprovoked attacks to the scumbags, as the scumbags wouldn't do anything except try to throw my ass into juvie.

Thank you for the response. How did you feel about it at the time it was happening and immediately following?

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I don't know how much this applies...but I'll try.

A few years ago...maybe four...(?) I was very depressed/numb/considering suicide. I went for a walk and stepped off the curb without paying attention. A car was coming down the road directly in front of me. I froze -- that deer in the headlights feeling is accurate -- and I remember that it felt like a strange optical illusion, as though the road was rushing at me rather than the car. I think I felt hot...numb, then panicky.

Anyway, I got out of that situation without incident. But that's what I remember.

 

[SweetWitch]

I don't know how much this applies...but I'll try.

A few years ago...maybe four...(?) I was very depressed/numb/considering suicide. I went for a walk and stepped off the curb without paying attention. A car was coming down the road directly in front of me. I froze -- that deer in the headlights feeling is accurate -- and I remember that it felt like a strange optical illusion, as though the road was rushing at me rather than the car. I think I felt hot...numb, then panicky.

Anyway, I got out of that situation without incident. But that's what I remember.

That's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for. Thank you so much. Very descriptive.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

That's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for. Thank you so much. Very descriptive.

It didn't, and still doesn't feel real. It felt rather dream like or trance like.

You're welcome.

 

[SweetWitch]

It didn't, and still doesn't feel real. It felt rather dream like or trance like.

You're welcome.

I can relate to it. The day I was waterskiing and wiped out so badly, pulled under by a tangle of ropes and brush, I watched the world above me, above the surface of the water and sort of stepped outside the reality of the situation.

It's strange what goes through one's mind at such a time. I knew there was nothing I could do, that I would likely never breathe air again and yet I noticed the faces of those looking over the edge of the boat at me, laughing like it was all a joke. I watched their faces change when the realized I was in trouble and found it amusing. They looked quite comical, their eyes so huge and the smiles turning to horror. But then, I wasn't really feeling my own situation.

 

[R. Richard]

Thank you for the response. How did you feel about it at the time it was happening and immediately following?

At the time when it happened, I really had no feeling at all. My mind went into survival mode and I begin to examine the situation to see how I could best improve my chances for survival. I simply reviewed each tactical situation, as things developed and updated my survival plan as I went.

Afterward, I felt a sort of rush of euphoria, as I realized that I had survived again. However, the small amounts of money and cheap goods that my attackers carried quickly brought me down from my high.

 

[SweetWitch]

At the time when it happened, I really had no feeling at all. My mind went into survival mode and I begin to examine the situation to see how I could best improve my chances for survival. I simply reviewed each tactical situation, as things developed and updated my survival plan as I went.

Afterward, I felt a sort of rush of euphoria, as I realized that I had survived again. However, the small amounts of money and cheap goods that my attackers carried quickly brought me down from my high.

I can understand how that would be a buzz-kill.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

I can relate to it. The day I was waterskiing and wiped out so badly, pulled under by a tangle of ropes and brush, I watched the world above me, above the surface of the water and sort of stepped outside the reality of the situation.

It's strange what goes through one's mind at such a time. I knew there was nothing I could do, that I would likely never breathe air again and yet I noticed the faces of those looking over the edge of the boat at me, laughing like it was all a joke. I watched their faces change when the realized I was in trouble and found it amusing. They looked quite comical, their eyes so huge and the smiles turning to horror. But then, I wasn't really feeling my own situation.

When I hear stories like yours, I can't help but empathize on some level. My body and mind respond to it as though it's happening at that moment. Do you ever feel like that...when someone talks about a broken bone or a near death experience or something like that?

 

[SweetWitch]

When I hear stories like yours, I can't help but empathize on some level. My body and mind respond to it as though it's happening at that moment. Do you ever feel like that...when someone talks about a broken bone or a near death experience or something like that?

I can feel it--all the way to my toes.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Well, I have had three close calls.

Age 17, Chicago...motorcycle accident...cut off by car...slammed into the side of a parked car, hit the back of the car parked in front of that one. Landed in the middle of the street.

What I remember is starting around the corner...then I was looking up at the sky with a bunch of strange faces around me. I hurt all over, I couldn't breath, collapsed lung. I was lucky to make it...it was way before EMS and paramedics. Spent a week in the hospital and two weeks at home while my ribs healed.

1975, Korea...stabbed by a Korean national when I surprised him trying to break in to a barracks. At first I thought he had just hit me and I started to run after him when he turned and ran away. Then I couldn't breath and dropped to my knees. Looking down at my chest I say the handle of the knife sticking out. I pulled my sidearm and popped three caps at him. Hit him in the leg with one. As I fell forward I saw my partner and his dog catch him.

Five days later he was hanged by the Korean government. I was in the base hospital for a week, then they sent me home for reassignment. I malingered for about three months and took an early out a month before my release date.

2001, Chicago, heart attack. Was in the hospital within 40 minutes. Pain, couldn't breath...I remember saying to myself not now, not now as I yelled to my wife to call 911. Pain, searing pain across my chest. Difficult breathing. From what I was told the next day, I died on the ER table. They had to zap me twice to get me back.

I remember them cutting my clothes off, shaving my crotch and wheeling me into the cathlab. After what seemed an eternity, they popped the balloon in the artery of my heart and the pain disappeared and I could breath again. What a relief. I was in the hospital for a week and home rest for another two. Was back to work at the start of the third week...I worked from home at the time so it wasn't a stretch.

Hope this helps. As far as emotions at the time...in two cases I was pissed, as the motorcycle accident I guess I was pissed then two...to this day I don't remember hitting those cars. To tell the truth I don't think I want too.

I also don't remember dying in the ER, although I remember having a conversation with a co-worker while I was there, but he wasn't.

 

[ishtat]

Most of the respondents to this thread are approaching this issue from the point of view of someone who has survived which is of course what you asked. It might be more productive to study death as it less dramatically creeps up on us through age, infirmity, senility etc. It seems to me that most of these stories rely on the proximity of death and particularly the fear of death for their (melo)dramatic impact.

In real life the inevitability and the acceptance of death are the reality, not so dramatic and more difficult to write but no less powerful.

One real life experience I can relate is of a man who put himself at great risk to save the life of another. His courage was later widely discounted when it was revealed he was dying with pancreatic cancer. Only he seemed to appreciate the irony that for him the fraction of life he had left was just as valuable as those with normal expectations