Near Death Experiences (On and Off Topic)

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FinnMaCoul

Trad climber

Green Mountains, Vermont

Aug 23, 2012 - 11:06am PT

Mid 80's... typical 60mph dense moving traffic snarl on 4 lane I-95 north of Boston. Traffic is moving but it is typical Boston driving, fast and tight as hell. I'm heading to see my girlfriend in my '72 Chevy Nova SS traveling in the 2nd lane from the right. It is pouring rain. Looking back I'm quite sure my tires were bald as all get out.

My exit is coming up and I signal and angle to slide into the far right lane. I start to hydroplane, the nose of the car angled to the right as I cut through traffic in the far right lane, sliding smoothly diagonally for the shoulder. I'm turning the wheel hard to the left trying to get straight when I come out of the puddle. My rear end fishtails me perpendicular to traffic and I shoot across ALL FOUR lanes of dense traffic with me cutting the wheel hard right.

I hit the shoulder of the passing lane, fishtail my rear end up into the median and promptly shoot BACK again perpendicular through the traffic. Within seconds, somehow, I'm back in my original lane going straight exactly between the two cars I'd started out between.

I look to my left and can't even see a hole in the traffic that I might have slipped through. It's wall to wall cars in all four lanes.

A driver in the lane to my left is staring at me slack jawed and sick looking. He just shakes his head. It should have been a gruesome 20 car pileup with multiple traumas.

I signal for the lane change, slide into the right lane and take my exit. Find a place to safely park and wait until I stop shaking and hyperventilating. I'm sure I wasn't the only one on that little stretch of road that day that couldn't believe they didn't just wreck at 60mph.

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Aug 23, 2012 - 11:30am PT

Mister E, you crazy bra! You must be some kinda peacenik not to have assaulted
the skipper.

OK, as embarrassing as it is, here's like my second post on SuperTopo;
I think it qualifies as nearly death:

The Thread of Life

tallguy

Trad climber

eastside

Aug 23, 2012 - 12:43pm PT

Had a few, but one particularly memorable one was surfing..

At 4-mile, N. of Santa Cruz on a rapidly dropping tide and rapidly rising winter swell one January. Too inexperienced to know better at that point. It quickly got scary big, and I am paddling farther and farther out trying to stay outside of the sets. A small group of us is now way outside the cove, with me at least 50 yards further out looking for safety and wondering how I am going to get back to shore. It's really big.

If you surf, you know it well. The sea darkens in a strange way way outside; much, much further out than anything we've seen so far that day. A scary sort of dark that grows and grows, and gives you lots of time to panic. I put my head down and head straight out as fast as I can as the mother of all clean-up sets swings toward shore. I almost made it.

I felt the lip of the first wave hit the back of my legs, took my board and rag dolled me for awhile, as did the next few. I had said goodbye at that point. For those of you who know the area, that first wave closed out the entire cove of 4-mile, starting well to the north of the cove, and most of 3-mile in a single simulataneous closeout, according to those on shore. Probably over a mile wide. Way, way big, and many hundreds of yards further out than the normal lineup.

The waves weren't actually so bad, I learned to relax there. But the long swim in almost got me, the currents were bad and I just made it out onto the rocks near three mile before the current swept me way back out. Hacked up alot of water and barely had the strength to crawl up on the beach, where I lay for quite some time. Too close.

Gunkie

Trad climber

East Coast US

Aug 23, 2012 - 01:11pm PT

If you surf, you know it well. The sea darkens in a strange way way outside; much, much further out than anything we've seen so far that day. A scary sort of dark that grows and grows, and gives you lots of time to panic.

I know that feeling. However, there are plenty of spots that will put you inside on big sets before you even know they're coming (e.g. Blacks). Maybe that's a more humane surf spot ;) The canyon sets happen so fast at Blacks that I just kook-out and dive for the bottom if I'm sitting inside of the peak, particularly north peak. But if I'm toward a shoulder, I paddle north or south until (1) I clear it just to see the next, bigger wave feathering or (2) get steamrolled sideways and then hog tied by the leash while the board batters me about the head. Either scenario is always 'go get a beer' fodder.

StahlBro

Trad climber

San Diego, CA

Aug 23, 2012 - 01:24pm PT

I had two epic beat-down, hold-down's surfing. One in South Laguna and the other at Makapu'u in Hawai'i. Both times I was out when huge cleanup sets rolled in and there was nowhere to hide. Swam to the bottom but got sucked over the falls and hammered repeatedly. Pretty much figured that was it on both because I couldn't hold by breath much longer. Managed to get outside and recover enough to wait for a smaller set to ride close enough to shore to desperately claw onto the beach and pretty much pass out.

A friend of mine got off route and botched the belay on the 3rd? pitch of Lucky Streaks. There were 4 of us, and when I got to his belay (hanging) I was horrified. There were several opposing small wires behind some sh*tty flakes. I really couldn't understand how it was even holding his weight. I had cleaned the pitch, so there was nothing but a trail rope down to the last belay where my bro and another friend were waiting. I went into pure survival mode and switched ends of rope with the the guy at the belay, told him to give his gear (with a look in my eye he remembered for a while). I told the folks below to put him on belay. They said "WTF?", but there really wasn't a lot of time to explain. I took off and and got back on route. The first few placements were a little weak and there were some 5.9 moves to get through, but I finally got into the bomber crack. Most focused I have ever been climbing. When we were all together at the top, my bro just looked at me and said "Holy Sh*t!!!" I had tied the guy at the botched belay off, and my bother had climbed to the real belay and looked over to where the other dude was "hanging".

I barn-doored soloing the lower Right Ski Track in JT. I was in the little dihedral before turning the roof and the smear for my left foot crumbled a bit. As I swung out I figured I was done, but somehow I stopped before my fingers popped out of the crack. I sat on the ledge above and whimpered for about a half hour before going to the top.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

merced, california

Aug 23, 2012 - 01:41pm PT

Reilly's fairy was certainly watching over him that day. (I just finished watching Finding Neverland, so...)

Dannion Brinkley is an "interesting" case of NDE. A doctor, Raymond Moody, is also, like Brinkley, a researcher in the subject and coined the term, in fact.

When I sold these books (and they were good sellers, by the way) of theirs, Saved by the Light and Life After Life, I had to choke back the scorn. I have changed. It is not that it is verboten to laugh at the genre and those who read it with more faith than I would, (if I bothered to read any New Age books), but I realize I should have a little concern for others' feelings. They could be mourning a lost loved one and seeking some solace. Or they could be seriously seeking answers to life's mysterious questions.

It's perfectly all right to make mock of the genre, but leave the seekers out of it. Is this a cool way to be? Or are we all gonna die...

and come back?

John Duffield

Mountain climber

New York

Aug 23, 2012 - 03:01pm PT

Where to begin with this? I was drafted into the Vietnam War and was in the WTC 9/11. I SCUBA dive, extreme ski, Cycle the streets of NYC near daily, etc etc.

Saw this video this morning, put me in mind of something long ago...

http://www.aol.com/video/a-man-falls-overboard-with-a-running-chainsaw/517421054/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl38%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D196100

I'd bought a 200 yo house in New Hampshire.

I hadn't closed on it yet, but summer was on the run, it had holes in the roof and three branches on a tree growing onto the roof that had to be removed before I did the roof. In fact, I had figured out how to get into the house and was spending weekends there.

I borrowed a chainsaw and a 40 foot extension ladder. Like most things you borrow, the chaninsaw was f*#ked. It wouldn't idle. Had to be kept running full blast or would shut off.

The lower two branches, were relatively easy. The upper one required the ladder (13 meters) be tied straight up to the tree, standing against the tree on the top rung, stretch up and back hand the branch. Couldn't start the saw on the ladder, had to start it on the ground, climb the vertical ladder straight up the tree with the saw running full bore all the way. Bolo'd it a few times and finally got it right. Branch came down, took me and the running saw straight off the ladder.

mouse from merced

Trad climber

merced, california

Aug 23, 2012 - 07:02pm PT

Three guys died and were taken to the top of a cliff by Himself, who informed them they'd led such exemplary lives on earth that they were free to choose what they would like to become.

Number one ran to the cliff edge, sprang into the air shouting, "I want to be an eagle." His wish was granted and he flew off.

Number two ran to the cliff edge, yelling he is going to be an owl. He flapped happily off into the sunset, too.

Number three ran to the cliff edge, tripped on a stone, and yelled, "Ah, sh#t..."

"I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens."
---Woody Allen

justthemaid

climber

Jim Henson's Basement

Aug 23, 2012 - 07:48pm PT

Great stories.

The sea.. in particular.. is a frightening place to be when things go drastically wrong. As a kid... I got blown out to sea by a sudden violent storm in the Sea of Cortez on my kayak and had to spend hours paddling/tacking through white-caps to reach some land to wait it out. I didn't have a life-vest and the possibility of being tossed into the sea was real.

... oh.. and I totally guggli-mucchied my very first rappel. I'd only been climbing a couple of months. Tried to do a two-rope rappel with one 60m. Rapped off the ends onto a small ledge 100 feet above the ground and 15 feet above a mid-anchor. Had no clue how to ascend a rope. Partner couldn't hear me. Got freaked. Ended up solo down-climbing to the anchor. Totally thought I was going to die.

John Duffield

Mountain climber

New York

Aug 23, 2012 - 08:22pm PT

Water is very unforgiving.

No doubt about it.

Here's an incident, basically going on in real time. He flies out tomorrow.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/431107-bent-belize.html

I used a visual reference, stayed atwhat I thought was 30 feet, and assumed a 10 minute deco stop. (that's three untrained decompression dives in one day.) I was down for about an hour again (the second dive was about an hour too) and surfaced with 600 psi. I did note that the borrowed computer (which had been on three wrists today) said nothing about deco. I could read it clearly from about 15 feet above it. I had trouble peeing in the ocean. Ten years of drysuit training is hard to break out of, but I managed a little. I wasn't running too dry.

On the way back, we rinsed off, turned in our gear, and dried off. I was shivering.

Remember the part where I'm Canadian and I dive in 50F? I don't shiver in the water. I don't shiver after polar bear swims.

We were given pina coladas by the crew. Now, I don't usually drink and I didn't get lunch, so I got hit hard and fast. I was the first to say “Tip! It should be $5 a tank!”so I got more drinks. I commented a few times that I couldn't feel my lips and the ends of my hands were numb too.

I was too drunk to notice the problem. The crew didn't hear me and the rest of the cattle boat was not experienced enough to realize the problem.

nutjob

Gym climber

Berkeley, CA

Aug 23, 2012 - 08:25pm PT

This thread is awesome!

Really short stories of using up my 9 lives....
1. As a toddler, bit a lamp cord behind a chair in Tulsa Oklahoma. Adults noticed I was missing when then lights in the house dimmed. Jaw locked to the cable, head vibrating and gnashing, seeing black and blue spots, charred cheeks, dad whacked my head to get me off the cord (or maybe it just got the cord off the wall).

2. As a toddler, crawled out of crib onto dresser, to window sill and leaned against the screen to talk to the neighbor through her window. Screen ripped open, fell two stories doing a flip, landed feet first between a gas meter and a wood pile. Only scratched my ankle.

justthemaid

climber

Jim Henson's Basement

Aug 23, 2012 - 08:42pm PT

Nutjob- funny stories. You just totally brought back a memory.

When I was like.. 4.. I saw one of those public service announcements on the TV telling kids NOT to put scissors in a light socket.

... of course it had never occurred to me to put scissors in a light socket before they suggested it, so I immediately decided to give it a try. Jabbed the scissors in. (I did it fast 'cause I knew something bad was going to happen). Sparks started to fly. The wall caught on fire... my mother was cleaning and just happened to stroll by with a broom at that moment.. then saw the fire and proceeded to beat it out and knock the scissors out of the socket.

I wasn't holding onto the scissors so I guess it wasn't a near death experience like Nutjob flopping around on the cord there... except for the whole catching the house on fire-thing.

MisterE

Social climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2012 - 11:02pm PT

Mister E, you crazy bra! You must be some kinda peacenik not to have assaulted the skipper.

OK Reilly, I'll bite: Yes, I committed myself to non-violence at an early age. I have never been in a physical fight in my life. This eventually led to being a pretty good 2-miler in high-school. ;)

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Aug 24, 2012 - 01:41am PT

Yeah, Erik, that was pretty obvious. It takes a real man to use his brain. :-)

I had some good ones kayaking both rivers and ocean. The water doesn't stop flowing.
I definitely shouldn't have gone down the Skykomish in that January flood - alone.
Dumb and dumber?

splitter

Trad climber

Hodad, surfing the galactic plane

Aug 24, 2012 - 01:46am PT

It is mid June 1965. I had just graduated from 9th grade and said goodbye to my girlfriend, all my friends in SLC, Utah. My dad had decided to move on, once again, for greener pastures. He decided to return to Cali, a place that seemed to always offer hope, when all else failed, to him and the migrants & dreamers of America. So off we went, cept first we were headed east & not west. He decided since he was already perhaps a third of the way across the country, we might as well make a visit to his and my mothers brothers and sisters and moms in Cape Breton, NS!

So, there I was, sitting on top of a suitcase directly behind my father in the second hand 1959 fourdoor caddie he piciked up cheap in SLC just before we left. i had a perfect view of the odometer over my fathers right shoulder. I clearly recall it was holding steady at the 75 mph speed limit. It had been for some time since he was utilizing the cruise control. My younger brother was to my right, next to the right rear door and sitting on top of another suitcase.

We were cruising through Nebraska (just outside of Kearney) very flat & nothing but cornfields and silos and the occasional farm/farmhouse that you could generally see for miles away, cuz they were generally surrounded by a grove of large oak trees and right next to the road. One was coming up on our left. Just as we were almost in front of it, this old chevie pulls out and stops right in front of us. Stops dead. My father didn't have time to hit the brakes, all he could do was jerk the steering wheel to the left. Prollie saves the lady and her sons life & perhaps us. Cuz slamming directly into another big car at 75 mph that was stopped dead would have most likely killed somebody, perhaps all of us.

All I can recall, and as if it were in slow motion, was my head hitting the top door jam as I sailed past it and exited the car. It knocked me out cold. My brother and the rear door had followed the lady and her son and their chevie across the road and into the corn field that lay on the other side. My mother said that she caught glimpses of me going head over heals(cartwheeling) over and over again, as the caddie spun around and around before it came to a stop. She also recalled thinking that, if I wasn't dead already as I came to a stop in the middle of the road, she was certain that the big 18 wheeler that came plummeting down the road, and not so much as attempting to slow down and that proceeded to run right over the top of me had certainly sealed my fate. Evidently he new that there was enough clearance and that if he kept me between his wheels that he would clear me...or maybe he just didn't give a damn, cuz he didn't stop to help and they never saw him again.

I recall, while in that state between subconscience and conscienceness just before coming to, hearing the intermitant wine of the ambulance. Sure is taking them along time I thought. It stops and goes, stops and goes. Then i awoke. I opened my eyes to what i at first mistakingly determined was the glaring sun shining down on me and causing me to blink my eyes. It turned out to be the emergency room or operating room overhead light. And what i had mistook as being an ambulance was the sound of them either drilling holes or tightening the screws (or grinding/adjusting something related to it) to the halo device they were fastening to my head to stabilise the cervical neck fracture i had evidently incurred secondary to the impact of the door jam with my head, i imagine.

My brother was in another room and still unconscious. And he would be for the rest of the day & night. But he was a little more fortunate than I, he would have nothing broken,, etc., no damageat all other than a concussion.

I suppose i was fortunate also, the halo/cast and the neck brace that was soon to replace it were only temporary. Although it left a permenant crook in my neck, which was prollie the reason my nephews when they later came of age nic-named me hunchy, it left me with no other permanent damage!

So I prollie escaped the Grim Reaper once again in my relatively young life. That would have been around #5 and I had only just turned 16 y.o.! I have certainly gone beyond the proverial 9 lives of Mr. Cat!!

BTW, i do not have spell check, so there are prollie a lot of typos and spelling errors, etc.! i don't have the time to correct them (it is late) and i don't really care.

edit: Here are the four others that i can think of, besides this one, up to this point:

1). 7 y.o. = drowned after an abandoned rowboat that my cousins & i attempted to repair, sunk over a deep channel in a river near our homes. my cousins new how to swim, i didn't and went under & was rescued & resuscitated by my 13-14 y.o. cousin who had, fortunately just showed up with his newly finished rowboat. a miracle really (imo). (Belle Cote, Cape Breton, NS)! (sorry MisterE., prollie shouldn't have deleted this shortly after i posted it here).

2). shortly after i turn 8 y.o. i encounter a serial killer (upstate NY/Norfork-Norwood) who had his wife & young son & daughter with him at the time (his M. O./he had them with him in order to lower his victems guard/i never would have followed him into the woods if he was alone!!) and was about to kill me, had described how he was going to torcher me first & finished by saying, "When they find you, they will think you were run over by a train." I escaped by the skin of my teeth. His son later appeared on a TV show (Court TV, with Nancy Grace) & also wrote a book about his life with his wicked parents. He & his two sisters claim that they had murdered more than 30 young boys, all of which were around my age 8 y. o. at the time. I did contact the DA, etc. and they confirmed that it was the same man from the testimony i gave them & knowledge that only someone who was there could have, plus he was a nighbor as were his mother & father to us (where we were living at the time)!!

3). A group of kids, shortly after I turned 9 years old, attempted to lure me into jumping off of a bridge (short jump) and being sucked through a pipe and under the road and out the other side (the Spring runn off had overflowed a stream and turned it into a temporary swimming hole they were enjoying). They said that they had all just done so. I couldn't see all the way through the pipe because the water was brushing against the top of it, so I wisely declined. Out of curiosity, I went back a few weeks later when the water had subsided and there was rebar crisscrossing it with chicken coop wire meshed to it in the middle of the pipe blocking passage. The force of the water running through the narrow pipe would have held me under water and the rebar.\' etc., would have blocked my passage. i would have surely drowned. (i told this story on Jaybro's thread in more detail).

4). When i was 10-11 a kid that was a sociopath, attempted to kill me by shooting an arrow at me. I saw what he was doing out of the corner of my eye (peripheral vision) and moved at the last second. The arrow, which had a broadhead point (for hunting deer, etc) stuck into the ground right where i had been laying seconds before. it would have entered my chest and come out the other side. (i also wrote about this in more detailon Jaybro's thread, i believe).

I already told of the time I went for Mr. Toads Wild Ride underneath my Chevie van around 1990. And there are several others, a couple climbing related, another car wreck in which i rolled my parents Lincoln Contenental over an embankment (totaled it & nearly totaled myself). Several major "beat-down hold-downs" surfing at low tide on a shallow reef in huge surf (16 ft & 30+ ft) both times being sucked up and over the falls twice (underwater the whole time, ie. being sucked up & over the falls and then drug along the bottom and then suddenly being sucked up and over the falls a second time & then being drug along the bottom = 2 cyles & a very long & exhausting time under water/believe me, U R fighting for yer life). Another time (16/17 y.o.)surfing in huge winter surf being taken a couple miles (2-3) out to sea via a strong rip current and powerful Japanese Current (took me south) & being rescued (just short of disapearing forever in the offshore fogbank) by a fishing boat whos only reason for being there was because his wife had gotten violently seasick & they had to return from baja (lucky me, eh?). etc., etc.!

And i told you on the TS bridge suicide thread recently, about the time I was diagnozed with a hideously painful terminal illness for several years that turned out to be not terminal and secondary to a toxic/slowly poisonous allergic reaction to a medication. And how, before I learned that it wasn't terminal, i decided to take the "easy way out" believe me, there is nothing easy about it, but failed in my attempt.

Crazy life, eh? At this point, when death does come, I will be ready. I have cheated it repeatedly, and will hopefully continue to do so, but we all have a date, sooner or later, with the Reaper. We can only say FU to him for so long!!

Oh yeah, i just remembered the time when I was about 21y.o. were i went for a walk and encounter this guy literally flying out a side door to his house (house on fire). He runs over to the curb, directly in front of me, where all the skin/tissue on his right arm, from fingertips to his shoulder, slides off and into the gutter in a big, wet puddle. Eye opening to say the least. He then sits down and looks up at me making eye contact & with a shocked and desperate look in his eyes/face says "My baby is in there!" that is all he said. It was apparent/obvious to me what he was asking me to do. Anybody in my position would have done the same thing. You would have had to been there, gone into that raging inferno to really know what I am talking about, but i came very, very close to not coming out, as did his young wife and baby daughter. i am glad i did what I did, and it nearly cost me my life, but most likely saved theirs. The place exploded and burnt to the ground very shortly after we safely got out (actually the wife was in pretty bad shape and almost didn't survive/was in icu klinging to life for about 3 weeks before she was released). (i also have sprayed about this here on ST on one thread or another over the years)...narcisist that I am! lol

EDIT: one more which i recently related/told about on another thread and that was within seconds of turning deadly. It was the time (1972) i was playing catch-up to my two friends (Kenny Cook & Chuck Parker) who were on the Illigitimate route at Tahquitz (5.9) & were already leading the second pitch. so i put my rope over my shhoulder and soloed the 1st pitch (5.7). the crux is around 70/80ft off the deck and is a couple crimper & edging moves on a block/steep slab to the left of the crack, which is fairly easy, but you leave it because it basically comes to an end at a manzanita tree/bush that blocks the way. i was right in the middle of the 5.7 moves when i came to a dead stop. it felt like a tug on my waste. i had bought this cheap pocket watch and the manzanita had snagged the chain that i had attached to a belt loop. i pulled like all hell. i recall looking down between my legs at the scree/talus some 70-80ft below contemplating my landing zone & what i needed to attempt to avoid hitting (it had come to that/i was about to fall). it came that close. suddenly the chain broke and i reached for a jug. i was totally pumped and shook up. i was literally within a second or two of plummeting to my death!!

Gunkie

Trad climber

East Coast US

Aug 24, 2012 - 08:13am PT

splitter wins. (holy crap!)

MisterE

Social climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 24, 2012 - 10:13am PT

Well, I am glad everyone made it through their close calls! Thanks for taking the time to share your stories.

Wow, Splitter - those are crazy experiences, as diverse as they are frightening!

At this point, when death does come, I will be ready.

Totally agree with this statement, I have no fear of it.

MisterE

Social climber

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 25, 2012 - 12:15am PT

Been thinking about Splitter's crazy stories all day, and another one came back to me.

#8 (out of sequence):

I met a gypsy girl when I was living in Anacortes, and totally fell hard for her. I as bouldering on the beach at Deception Pass, and she just danced into my life on that beach. She was a drop-dead gorgeous free spirit, and represented everything I longed for at the time. She liked that I climbed. We exchanged information before her intense Gypsy father showed up, but I knew the look he gave me...or maybe I didn't.

No matter, she was from San Francisco and I was a Washington boy - I found a way to SF that winter with my one-eyed friend who knew told me he could get us CASES of wine and brandy from the Gallo family where he had connections.

Booze and a girl - what more incentive does one need to load up the '71 bus and head South? Off we went.

I didn't call her until I was a few minutes away cuz I was afraid of her dad. She sounded nervous, but invited me anyway and said she would meet me "outside" her place. I saw the rustling curtain when I showed up, and my one-eyed friend saw more than I did and warned me off: "Dude, let's bail and get our booze!"

No Matter, I was all in. We picked her up, and she wanted to visit a friend - we were invited. He had Mono, and she wanted to visit to see if he was OK. We went, then I got blown off by her, and we picked up our cases of random wines from my friend's connection in the Valley and we headed North - my heart broken. We drank hard all the way home.

I got back to Guemes Island after a drunken spree back from Cali, and immediately got wicked sick. I was 28 years old, and as an only child, had never gotten Chicken Pox. Now I had it, and was running a 108 temperature late at night on a remote island where the last ferry to the mainland was 6PM.

My parents went to every neighbor and got all of the ice cubes the could find and threw them in the cold bath I was soaking in.

Remember Jacob's Ladder? Yep, just like that. I remember just swimming between consciousness that felt like the thread of life and just allowing the other thing.

I also got a strong sense that I was fighting a battle with mortal enemies of lifetimes that were trying to kill me - the gypsy father/daughter. I know it seems weird, but it was very strong at the time, and stayed with me for years.

splitter

Trad climber

Hodad, surfing the galactic plane

Aug 25, 2012 - 11:58am PT

^^^^ Wow, dood, that is trippy. 108 temp. you had definitely crossed over the line. Glad that you were able to return!

I ran into this chick at Wind & Sea beach. It was a blustery winter/autumn day & only her & I were there. She was very pretty & perhaps 7-8 years older than me (i was 21). She told me fairly soon in our initial conversation that she belonged to a family that had been involved in the occult (i don't recall the precise term she used) for many generations. She spoke of her father being a high priest & she said she was also a priestess. She wouldn't get anymore specific than that. i suspect now that it was a coven. I prollie should of checked out right then. But she was very alluring, enticing, seductive.

So, she invites me to come visit her at her house that evening. I can't recall what plans we had made, but to begin with she wanted to read my palms. And then take our relationship from there. So i show up and it was this big old house, kind of trippy. Just different. It definitely had an "air" of its own. Anyway, she takes me into her bedroom and she has this big king size poster bed with this purple & lavender silk cloth hanging from it like your entering a tent. We go inside and sit cross legged and she takes my palms and starts following/tracing the lines on my palms (reading them). Suddenly, her eyes open wide, she became intensely startled & gives me this very odd look. She paused for a second, then grabbed my other hand and looked at it, placed her finger on a line, looked at me and jumped up and ran into her kitchen, called somebody on her phone. There was a muffled conversation and all I heard was "Hurry, hurry!".

I was sitting on her bed thinking what the fluck?? It was such drastic a departure from where things had been going. She just walked in once or twice and gave me a somewhat bewildered/puzzled and hauntingly sinister look. I had suddenly become something/somebody that made her very uncomfortable, and i had done nothing. Up until that point, i was fairly submissive, just going along with her. A tad bit curious & a little reserved, perhaps. But she seemed very upbeat, glad that we had met each other, or so she had repeated a few times.

It seemed like only a few short minutes later that this older gal, perhaps in her mid to late thirties shows up (drove up). They had a brief conversation in another room and then they both came in and the other lady told me, "You must leave now and never return." The priestess gal never said another word to me after she picked up my palms and freaked. I simply obliged them and left. Very freaky. There was definitely, in my opinion, a strange vibe/spirit/air to the whole thing. Actually from the time I had met her.

I just wrote it off as a part of the "What along, strange trip this has been." (CSN&Y). But, I am certain that it had something to do with the sequence of events that occurred immediately after that. The very next morning I wound up in jail. I had acne on my back and was at the beach on my bike checking out some surf spots. I was in my wetsuit & had my surfboard & three tetracycline pills for my acne in a plastic baggy. A cop pulls me over cuz my dog was not on a leash. He could have given a sh#t about my dog, he just wanted to hassle me because i was a long haired surfer. He finds the pills and arrests me. Long story short. I end up in a place called G-Tank in county jail from Thursday morning to early Tuesday morning. About six days. What a friggin experience.

G-tank was/is for the serious offenders/felons. It was only supposed to house 24 prisoner's, but had over 70. Very intense. They had murderer's. arm robbers, hells angels, etc., a very violent place. Hispanic, black & white's all mixed together in very tight situation. I made a mistake of stepping on the tank captains "boy's" mattress which was on the floor the day i arrived. The tank captain (TC) was this badass black dood that I, nor anyone else had any intentions of crossing his path or messing with if we could help it. It was obvious he hated whites. His "boy" was as buffed and badass as the TC was. He was actually gonna be the next TC, was in the process of training & taking over once the other dood left. He was in for strong armed robbery.

Anyway, the first day i step on the corner of his mattress (big no no). It was on the floor in front of the TC's cell. He gets right in my face. "You stepped on my mat"!! What could i do but apologize. "Sorry, it was an accident, it won't happen again." Obviously, that wasn't good enough, cuz he repeats himself. "YOU STEPPED ON MY MAT!" So, what could I do but repeat myself, "Sorry, it was an accident,...!" He repeats himself "YOU...!" getting more pissed every time. And i am starting to get really pissed cuz I am realizing what a F'n bully/jerk the guy is. I have always loathed bully's, etc.! Plus, everything came to a head, my whole friggin pathetic and unjust situation. I was extremely polite to the guy and he rebuffed it, etc!So the gruffer he got, the louder and gruffer I got.

What really surprised me was, he suddenly backed down. Turned and walked away. But, that was not a necessarily a good thing. I was now on the tank captains sh#t list. I ended up getting food poisoned (or poisoned by something). The only person in the whole friggin tank that got sick after a meal. It wasn't the food, they friggin poisoned me by putting something in the food. Talk about a long miserable night. I believe i came close to death, wicked sick. Another guy told me to watch my back, cuz i was about to get shanked. Said that I was marked or whatever. Talk about some strange juju. I believe it was true, cuz there were a few other incidents leading up to it besides the face to face hollering match i got into with TC's "boy". What a frigin zoo. Some of those doods were going away for life or worse, didn't have anything to loose. I got my "roll up" call shortly after i was warned about getting shanked.

But here is the weirdest thing that happened. Within the first 15-30 minutes of entering G-Tank, I find myself face to face with this dood who was about 26 y.o., about 5-6 years older than me! I mean he got right in my face. Nose to nose, so he must have been close to my height (6'2"). This guy had shoulder length scraggly/dirty blond hair. But what was VERY distinguishing was this big inverted (upside down) cross he had tattooed to his right cheek/face. I mean this wasn't any old tattoo, it took up the whole right side of his face from just below the eye socket to the jaw line. And it was as if someone took a Roman style cross, laid it on his face, and traced around it with a tattoo gun. Very freaky for the early seventies. Not many people had tattoos, period, back then let alone huge facial tattoo's.

So he gets right in my face and we are looking directly into each others eyes. And he says, "Do you know who I am?" I simply divert my eyes for a second or two at the inverted cross and then look back into his eyes. It was pretty obvious to me who he was. The whole damn place was silent, you could have heard a pin drop. I was wondering "WHAT THE F*#K"? So i am looking into his eyes and he repeats himself, but adds something to it, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" This went on for about two or three more times. I would simply look at the upside down cross for a second each time and then stair back into his eyes. I didn't say one word. I had zero fear. Perhaps he was looking for fear. I do not know. Anyway, he finally goes "I am a high priest in the Church of Satan. And when I get out of here in nine months (said the exact day he was getting out). I am going to find a girl, rape her and at the moment I _ _ _ _ _ _ I am going to shoot her in the head! He then got this wicked looking gleam in his eyes, and with a sinister looking smile, turned and walked away.

I was a Christian, not a very vocal one, my friends new i was, but i never brought the subject up with them nor anybody. Most people i new, didn't have a clue that i was. I certainly did not tell anyone in G-tank that i was. After my encounter with the "Priest" a dood comes up and tells me that he (Satanist priest) new i was a Christian, told everyone and that he was very serious in regards to the message he had for me.

So, of course, the charges were dropped, after they found out it was medication (i have to admit that a yellow & purple capsules prollie did look like street drugs). So, fast forward to nine months later. I pretty much forgot,or at least did not dwell on the whole friggin incident let alone Mr. Priest. But I am up at Idyllwild and more or less living & climbing there for the summer. i get to know these guys from the Mountain People Store (a climbing shop in Idyllwild) One day we are visiting these two gals who did some sewing for the owner of MPS (they eventually started what is now Eagle Creek). They (two gals) suddenly voice the concern for their roommate who didn't return from the Colorado River (on the border of eastern Cali & Arizona). I have never been there, but it was a very popular place for San Diegan's back then Particularly on Memorial Day at the end of May. That was the weekend that "Mr. Priest" was released from jail/said he was going to be anyway.

I hadn't thought about him, or what he said, for a long time. But suddenly a cold chill ran through my body and what he had said came rushing back to me. About a week or so later they found her body. She had been raped & murdered...shot in the head!

Think what you like, coincidence? Perhaps. But I believe there was something more than just his sinister & evil designs behind this whole eerie episode that started with the gal/priestess. It all seemed linked together at the time. Someone sent me a message, loud and clear, here is a little something to remember me/us by and exactly "WHO I AM"!!

edit: i told this story on Jaybro's thread also. I deleted it because I saw nothing of value in it, other than it is eerie, dark, unsettling and i really don't even like to think about it. I have told it to family and friends and it has never seemed to have any positive value to telling it. So, therefore why should i expose it to others, particularly here. So i may soon delete it. It makes me uncomfortable just thinking about it. It was one very odd week in my life right from the get go, meeting that chick. i wish that i had never come in contact with her. i should have known better.

Anyway, I told this story, cuz your story of the Gypsy brought it all flooding back into my memory. And i do believe i came pretty close to dying secondary to what they attempted to poison me with in G-Tank. There seemed to be some vibes/spirits following me around after that encounter with the "Priestess". It was strange,to say the least.