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... not near-death experiences in the sense of a near-death experience, but an experience in which you almost died.

Personally, I almost drowned to death when I was two. I was afraid of water for years after that and would only take a bath with water two inches deep. It did not bode well for my hygiene, and I still don't know how to swim.

So yeah, have you guys every almost died?

Nope. 

I wish I could contribute a story, too.

You're not missing out, trust me.

.

Well, I somehow got on a rollar-coaster ride as a child that was obviously for people that were older. I barely even met the height criteria and I actually only got on because my cousin was pressuring me. The crazy thing had us holding on to bars upside down in midair,  I thought my arms were going to give out and I felt myself just slowly slipping from the seatbelt, luckily before I did fall out of my seat we weren't upside down any longer.

Now I don't think that really qualifies,  but I'm sure if I did let go of the bars I would've really slipped from the safety seat because I'm tiny enough as is. x:

I thoroughly dislike heights,  especially being high in the air and upside down at that.

Depends on how fast the thing was going but you were probably going to be fine.

I was born about three months early at one pound and four ounces. Technically, I should be dead or in a wheelchair or something. Only things I have are minor Cerebral Palsy (if I spelt that right) and Asperger's.

You spelt it right, but the term "Cerebral Palsy" is being debated in the medical community because

1) It's not a palsy. It does not cause what is medically defined as paralysis, and is instead a spastic disorder

2) It's not cerebral. It doesn't always affect the brain, and the majority of cases have no symptoms which impact brain function in any way.

Several times, actually.

Story time, Kiel?

Ah, sure. Why not? I'll steer away from the darker stuff, though. 

So there are two things about my birth that my mom has repeated over and over to me and various family members: One is that, instead of crying, the first sound I made after being born was laughter... but second thing is that, before I started laughing, I wasn't breathing.

Apparently in my eagerness in the midst of all that crazy "being born" stuff, I accidentally swallowed... something, (I don't really want to know what, given the materials that kids are covered in during birthing) and started choking to death.

Until about age six, the experience repeated itself via asthma. I have had multiple attacks in the middle of the night where I stopped breathing. (I scared my mom a lot as a child.) Even as an adult, I try not to go anywhere without an inhaler because I can (and do) still get severe attacks. They're just exceedingly rare and haven't hospitalized me since then.

At age two-three or so, I stupidly walked into the above ground pool in our backyard without wearing any floatation device. I remember sinking like a rock and blacking out. IIRC, my older brother pulled me out. By now, none of you should be surprised that one of my biggest fears as a child was death by suffocation. :P Because it nearly happened, many times, (Hell, my last nightmare about it was probably less than a year ago.) 

Oh, and... there was a psychiatric patient who once tried to strangle me just... kinda out of the blue. Not sure what he thought I said or did, but I wasn't the only one he tried to kill that day, so maybe he was just in a shitty mood, I dunno.

So not the best childhood stories, I take it.

I'd like to say that near death experiences were the worst parts of my childhood, but ... yeah, that wouldn't be true.

Hmm. How long does childhood extend to? Like, is 17 still considered part of your childhood?

Technically, yes... I guess it depends on who you ask.

I'm not really sure how my childhood was. For the most part it was great, until I hit about the age of ten. Then my dad got remarried and it all went downhill. Not to mention that 17 was probably the worst year of my life so far.

Ah. My parents splitting was a pretty big catalyst for things in my life, too. My condolences.

Eh, I'm over it. I'm just glad the son of a bitch is out of my life.

Word for word, sounds like something I would say.

Instead of crying, the first sound I made was laughter...

How fucking terrifying would that've been for your mother. Her id just starting to laugh maniacally after birth?

After a near death experience, don't forget that part. I nearly suffocated and my reaction was "hey, that was funny!" ... but I've always been kind of odd, really.

Oh geez, now my story feels totally tame compared to everything you just expressed to us all. Ah, that sounds a bit insensitive doesn't it? I'm screamish when it comes to literally everything so I admire your resolve.

Nah, experiences like this are rather relative. After all, believing you're about to die has similar results regardless of the reason. Hell, you can actually die from the fear itself. Sure, those experiences were definitely not fun, but everyone here telling that sort of story is still here to be able to tell it, and that's the important thing.

I got tackled by a very big, angry dog when I was wee, and we had a bit of s scuffle before they pulled him off me. But that wasn't very noteworthy. I more remember what happened afterwards, but I didn't almost die then.

Once, I was playing around in an old warehouse my parents were helping renovate because the whole place was going to be sold. Then a huge, sideways light-table fell off the thing it was leaning on because I was fucking around with it, and it would've crushed me to death if I didn't run immediately. It instead sheared the skin off my nearest temple.

Oh yeah, I went bungee jumping when I was maybe 3 or 4 with actual hooked bungee chords, by hooking them up to my pants and to the sides of a slide and jumping down. They fell right off, one hit me in the shoulder, but the other one came straight down on my skull, slashed my scalp open, left my ears ringing, and I could feel my hair being really wet and blood was dripping down my head. I probably wouldn't have died, but it did hurt, and I sure thought I was dying.

Smacked myself in the knee with a hatchet, a wooden skid fell on me on multiple occassions, burned my hand severely by sticking it under the hood of a running car, but I wouldn't have died then either. I never broke any bones as a child, but I did do a lot of bleeding.

Smacked myself in the knee with a hatchet

What the fuck, like one of these? http://www.topsurvivalweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Husqvarna-hatchet.jpg

Did you stab yourself with the blade, or the wooden handle? Why did you even have a hatchet? This is definitely worth a story.

Something more like this,

http://entertainmentguide.local.com/DM-Resize/photos.demandstudios.com/getty/article/251/89/87528642.jpg?w=600&h=600&keep_ratio=1 

except much older, with a blue handle, and rusty.

One fine day, 6/7 year old me found a hatchet in our shed. He was like, "Holy shit! I could cut woof with this!" Lo and behold, he could indeed cause 2x4s some incredible mangledness, but he couldn't chop it in half because it was dull, old, and rusty, and the wood was just sitting on the ground, which absorbed the force. If he couldn't chop normal wood with an axe, how would he ever be able to chop imaginary bad guys with an axe!? If he couldn't chop bad guys with an axe, what the fuck kind of Viking king was he going to be!? (He had arbitrarily decided to crown himself King of the Vikings, because there were no other Vikings around that had axes.)

So in order to chop this 2x4, he put it up between 2 saw horses raised it high up over his head, and smashed it.

The problem, which little me had failed to consider earlier, that the 10 or 20 previous attempts to cut the 2x4 in half had significantly weakened it. Not enough to make it snap like a toothpick, it definitely took a bit of force, but not enough to stop the swing of an overzealous tweener.

And then, it was buried in my knee. Well, not buried, but it stuck in there a little bit before fall in out of my hands. Glanced off my kneecap, so nothing of import was lost, save for many, many brave skin cells, but it did hurt like a birch and I cried the manliest tears I had ever cried up until that point in time and kept asking my parents whether or not I had a shot for rust.

Luckily, I did have a tetanus shot. But they still disinfected it with spray shit, and it hurt like an absolute anus. 5 stitches, IIRC.

Born in Australia. We call NDE's Tuesday, or Bruce.

I remember (vaguely) almost drowning as a kid, but yeah, I also lived in Australia so...snakes? And just general Australia-ness.

I also got really sick once...like, high fever and hallucinations level sick? I dunno if I almost died, but I know I was not well.

Nothing like that recently though, thank goodness.

Had a fever of 105(f) within the past couple years.

*looks at everyone else's stories of NDE's.* Mff. Guess mine is the only boring one so far.

When I was about five I used to be in a swimming class so I could learn how to swim without floaties. One day, after one of the classes, my mom took me to my friend Cameron's house. His family had a pool, and his mom was throwing a pool party, so there was a lot of people and we got to swim around in it. Eventually I took off my floaties and jumped into the pool, and I just sank to the bottom. I was under there maybe a full minute or two until finally my mom swam in and got me.

Other than that, this one time my uncle Dan and I went up to the Hualapai Mountains and hiked to Aspen Peak, and I slipped and almost fell to my death. Thankfully my uncle caught me in time.

EDIT: Almost forgot, but when my mom was supposed to give birth to me, my heart apparently started to slow and I was slowly dying. So, the doctors gave my mom a c-section and revived me. To this day I joke about being removed rather than born.

So yeah. I've almost died three times. Goody.

I was really small when i was little sadly and my brother ( who was tall af ) took me to the 4 feet area of the pool and pretended to drown me. Actually almost cuz i fell of his back and i kept on swimming back up and falling and luckily there was a floaty nearby someone passed me or I would've died.

Also when i was really little my feet were hanging in the water of the pool ( once again ) and i fell in the pool and once again almost drowned since  did not know how to swim but luckily some people and my mom saved me and since I was little i had a diaper on so when i got out all i could wear was a towel.

I almost died twice both for the same cause. :( :(  DROWNING IS A CAUSE OF EEEEEEEVVVVVVIIIIIIIIILLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This stuff is so sad :(

 

I wonder why some people think that drowning is one of the most peaceful ways to die.

Seriously? Drowning is a terrible way to go. Who would be stupid enough to think it's peaceful? It's terrifying, and it can be incredibly painful.

Granted, if you somehow manage to hold your breath the entire time you're conscious and you pass out very quickly, you're practically dying in your sleep, but you'd still be panicked the entire time you were awake. 

If you're conscious when the water fills your lungs, though? Yeah, no. You'll suffer. 

The most peaceful way to go, in my humble opinion, would be on the operating table.  With both of my surgeries, it seemed as if there was absolutely no time passage whatsoever between Pre-op and Recovery.

But that's not the way I want to go out...

Depends. People have been fully conscious and in pain during surgery. If you specifically mean dying while drugged up to the point of being totally unaware? I agree, can't think of any way that would be less painful or more peaceful. Even natural sleep could involve nightmares or minimal awareness of physical distress.

I'm curious now, how do you want to go out if not peacefully?

Hopefully, while on some adventure — perhaps exploring somewhere that's still wild.  I'm not saying that it wouldn't be nice if it were peaceful and painless, but hopefully it would be quick and while I was having fun, enjoying myself.

Makes sense. Personally... I'd like to know its going to happen. Get a few days to talk to everyone, say my goodbyes, maybe do some stuff I'd be too scared or too responsible to do if I didn't think I was dying. 

If we're talking about how we want to die now... I'd personally like to die like the old age ending of Alter Ego: walking through my home after a long day, laying down in my bed, closing my eyes, thinking about all the things I've done, and then just letting death wash over me. Or, if I live long enough to see the technology that would allow it, I'd like to prolong my life as long as possible via technology or even live forever (the most logical way of doing so being transferring my conscience to a machine. See: Transcendence).

I'd like to pass peacefully in my sleep as well.

Not to mention the horror of dry drowning. How awful is it that people (generally kids) could be walking around drowning and no one even know it?

Kind of a misnomer because it can involve water, but yeah... 

When I was about 8 we found out I had athsma. When I was 11 I almost died from it. 

Growing up in foster care ive "Lived " in many different places 20 foster homes, 3 group homes and a six month stay at a nuthouse for trying to off my self at 13  (because i was not aloud to have ANY contact with my family period.) i have some fu(Ked up storys, here's one you enjoy... I was about 11 years old and it was the day before thanksgiving ,now my  foster dad ()at the time was drinking ALOT and decided to cook a Turkey now the only problem was there was no turkey in the house just me and his 4 week old kid... So he preheats the oven grabs his kid (who was on the dinner table) and goes to put him in the oven and as i Watch my foster dad reachs for the oven's door handle, fails and falls landing on the baby he was gunna cook crushing it... I was the for a total of 6 days and that home was one of the better places i've lived at.

That was hard to read and you posted in the wrong place.

You should be ashamed.

1 I forgot to edit it. 

2 oops.

I used to live in a pretty rural area. One guy had a ditch on the edge of his property facing the road, and it was full of rusty piping and sharp metal. I fell off my bike into the ditch, and came pretty close to impaling myself. 

Not sure I would have died, but it would have been pretty damn painful.

Not really sure where to start with this one, there have been so many.  From car, motorcycle, really bad bicycle and skateboard wrecks, wild animal attacks, severe beatings from adults when I was just a kid, a burst appendix, accidental poisoning, chainsaw accident, snake and spider bites...  I'm sure there are even some that I've blocked out.

Suffice to say that without " 'near'-death experiences", I wouldn't be alive today.

I'm curious about the chainsaw. 

It was one of those really stupid things I've done to myself.

I was working alone clearing some brush for an elderly neighbor on a newly built road.  It was hot and I was in a hurry ... and instead of killing it before climbing through some downed trees, I just staggered through like an idiot.  Anyway, I must have knocked something loose because I was slapped sharply on the back by a loaded limb.  It drove me into a kneeling position and the chainsaw came down on my knee, revved up due to me gripping it out of reflex.

The hairy part of the whole thing was that I had to hobble back to my truck, keeping pressure on the profusely bleeding wound as best I could, and then start, back out, and turn around without bending my knee.  It was a stick shift, so it wasn't easy to do without clutching.

Nineteen stitches later and I've got a pretty gnarly scar over my left kneecap when my leg's extended.  That's how close I came to crippling myself.  But whatever doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger, right?

Edit:  It's not exactly "near-death", but it would have only taken one thing going wrong for it to have been...

Whoa. O-o 

 

Imagine this, only forwards.

I also fell headfirst off a ladder when I was three.

Oh wow, someone's using my gif!

One time, my mother almost broke a glass bottle on my head. I deflected it by hitting her elbow the last second and it flung right behind my head and blew up right behind me.

IDK if that counts as a ''Near Death Experience''

She would've only cracked it against your head - you would've died though. You have a terrible mother.

 

I don't know what you mean by "blew up behind me" unless this is an action movie, in which case you'd have been fine.

Sorry my english is not good. I meant it hit the wall behind me and the glass exploded into hundreds of shards.

This happened last year. I was being driven home from an orchestra concert at my high school, and my dad was going slightly above the speed limit. Suddenly, some idiot decides to cut in front of us, extremely above the speed limit, from a byroad when we had right of way. I remember seeing a blur of lights, and being frozen in fear. For a split second, I was so sure that this was the last thing I'd ever see. My mother and I screamed, but my dad hit the breaks just in time. My voice was so hoarse that night.

I also have a family member's near-death experience. Before I was born, my mom, dad and older brother (probably 3 or 4 years old at the time) were at the beach. My brother was playing near the water with my dad close by. A wave suddenly picked my brother up and dragged him out into the water. Being a small child in a country where most children do not learn how to swim, he began to drown. Fortunately, my dad swam out to him and saved him. Now he's nearly 22, and deathly afraid of water. He's so afraid, that he was willing to fail his high school P.E. class one year just so he wouldn't have to do the swimming unit (his teacher found an alternative and he passed).

My stories are pretty docile compared to yours, but here goes.

When I was a baby, apparently I stopped breathing for a while. Fun!

Once, when I was like 9, the wall of the basement in my house caught fire, and there was smoke everywhere, but it wasn't really a near-death experience because the smoke alarms were all fully functioning and there were like 4 of them blaring in my ears. Although I would have died from smoke inhalation if my mom hadn't dragged me out of the house because it was winter and sometimes when my dad was putting wood in the woodstove in winter the smoke alarms starting going off for a minute or two before quitting, and so when the smoke alarms woke me up that night, I rolled over to go back to sleep.

 

I just realized how incredibly boring my life is.

Is that why your username is "Cinderblaze"? Was that an origin story?

A while ago I was biking with some friends by the coast, and we wanted to go to a nearby mall, so we had to take our bikes up a cliff. Then, when I had almost reached the top, I tripped and nearly fell down the 20 meter cliff.

... You park your bikes on the cliff? Doesn't the mall have a bike rack or something?

I was at the bottom of the cliff and had to get up the cliff to then park my bike on the mall. It was around here:

http://www.mirafloresperu.com/turismo-miraflores-lima-peru/malecones-miraflores.php

Almost slipped off a cliff two years ago. I had slipped and was hanging over forest.

One time when I was about six or seven, my family were at this indoor swimming pool. My Dad told me not to go over I to the deep end. A few minutes later, I went into the deep end. XD I only remember being underwater for a few seconds before my dad pulled my out. He was (understandably) pretty mad. XD 

 

Another time, when I was also around seven, I'd visited my cousin's house for the first time in years (they lived in another country, so...). Her little sister didn't recognise me at all, since she'd been really young the last time I'd visited. ...so, she decided to chase me around their apartment with a knife. Afterwards, everyone would say that it hasn't been that dangerous, and that my three year old cousin would never have actually stabbed me, but at the time I was so scared I somehow managed to jump/climb up to a random ledge in the kitchen. O_o

 

Aaaaand there was that one time my friend's mum almost ran me over (technically, it was kind of my fault, since I hadn't been paying much attention to the road). 

 

 

This thread almost died, but you posted in it nearly a month after everyone had stopped.

Please, in the future, let threads without boldened time thingies have their rest.

Ah, okay. I did think it seemed like a while since anyone has posted anything. I'll keep that in mind~

Soooo many lol. Had guns pulled on me multiple times, been almost hit by a car (and a few times actually did) more times than I can count, fell through the ice in the metroparks and almost drowned, almost OD'd on xanax a couple years back.

Closest I've come to death though? Probably getting shot at and having a pair of scizzors put to my throat and fighting over it.

Remember kids, life is a joke, so don't take it too seriously. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are running for president, if that's not something straight out of a Monty Python movie, I don't know what is.

"Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it. Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true. Just know it's all a show, keep em laughing as you go, just remembers that the last laugh is on you."

Oh. Well there was this one time where I broke my nose, and I didn't get it checked out for like, a week afterwards. Found out it could have turned fatal.