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near death experiences (well, falling..) 26-Nov-2005 At 11:58:05 PM gremlin

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My first 'near death' experiance was in a severe thunderstorm several years ago up near Lizard Point (about 1000m) on the QLD main range. Lightning was crashing down around us so close i (my mate fell asleep) could feel the shockwave it gave off but wouldn't hear the thunder from it. The thunder from other strikes would echo off the cliffs near us and last for almost a whole minute. Thin top soil and the high winds that shook the trees made me think that the 300m cliffs we were above were collapsing. The storm lasted about 4 hours of shear terror with me cringing each time there was a bright flash only to open one eye again with the thought "Oh shit! I'm alive!". The chap i was with was a christian who i'd managed to coax along by saying "You'll be much closer to god than you will be at church". He slept through the whole thing and to this day has no idea how close he came to meeting his maker.

The second was in a 3 car smash where an oncoming car crossed a white line, cleaned up the car in front of us and then smashed into the car we were in putting us into a spin. I remember watching the cars in front burst into pieces, me saying "Ahh f---!", a large thud, my father and i smashing our heads togeather and then spinning around a few times. After crawling out of what was left of the mangled wreck the adrenalin wore off and both my father and i had to sit down on the embankment till we stopped shaking. I didn't like travelling in cars for months afterward and avoided it as much as possible.

Another horrible experiance was with a freind and i soloing a granite slab on Mt Gilies, i reached a ledge that i could traverse off to get down after accepting the fact that i'd need a rope to get down the next much steeper section. My freind decided to continue on even after i had explained that we could get up but probably not down. He started moving up getting off 'route' and into steeper ground and i thought i can't watch this, pleaded for him to come down and continued downward. I got down a little further to where i could no longer see him and heard a heap of rocks tumbling down the slab. I closed my eyes expecting a sickening scream or a crunch or something but there was nothing. I raced/slid down to the base and ran around to where we had started expecting to find a mangled body while thinking "What am i going to tell his parents?!" only to find nothing... I looked up and found a petrified person 40m up, clinging to the rock for dear life. He looked down and said "I think i'll take your advice and come down now"

Personally i find watching other people almost come unstuck or seriously hurt themselves is much worse than when something similar happens to you. That dark fear that fills your chest as you watch it all happen in slow motion, the sickening thud, then wondering how the hell to you get this person to medical help. When its you its all happens really quick then the adrenalin kicks in, you feel pain, go into shock, blackout, or die...