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Member (Idle past 1969 days) Posts: 6165 From: Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joined: |
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Author | Topic: How close to death have YOU been... | |||||||||||||||||||||||
iano Member (Idle past 1969 days) Posts: 6165 From: Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joined: |
GOD! The air smelled good. And food. And coffee. And a dry pair of pants. "Immortal" was the way Cavediver described feeling in the period after coming face to face with death. You had it different perhaps... but a sense of heightened life. Life mostly goes along in humdrum fashion. Perhaps there is nothing like a glimpse of death* in order to drag us out of the humdrum. To elevate things. For instance, the commonly occuring sense of things happening in slow motion when facing death would seem to indicate that the brain processes at a higher than normal speed - the faster you process internal thoughts the slower external time will appear to elapse. Exposure to death, the opposite to life also seems to draw a sharper than normal contrast in this, the ultimate contrast. It is darkness which shows us how light light can be, sad which shows us how happy happy can be. Death that shows us what life is - more actually. If we follow the 'logic' then total (as opposed to partial) exposure to death, must have a collory, total life. How 'good' must life be for a person who actually dies. * the one exception to this seems to be a glimpse of total life - in the birth of a baby {AbE} If our processing speed increases due to partial exposure to death then the 'logic' above means death would cause an infinite increase in processing speed - such that time slows down to a stop. A glimpse of an aspect of eternity perhaps. This message has been edited by iano, 25-Jan-2006 12:57 AM
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iano Member (Idle past 1969 days) Posts: 6165 From: Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joined: |
Omni, it may have rendered me speechless (for all kinds of reasons).
But I find that for some reason I like you more.
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nator Member (Idle past 2198 days) Posts: 12961 From: Ann Arbor Joined: |
damn.
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Omnivorous Member Posts: 3991 From: Adirondackia Joined: Member Rating: 6.9 |
Omni is hitchhiking through rural Tennessee, long-haired, tie-dyed, beaded and bangled, lean and hard from a summer carrying hod, and he ain't scared of no crackers.
A rumble comes first, like slow summer thunder from the next valley over, and then the bikes. Big bikes. With big fat men on them who pull over and regard Omni silently. Finally, the Angel on the lead bike says, "Boy, you must be stone fuckin' crazy to be thumbin' round here lookin' like that. Find a bike." The internal debate was short--Omni had heard that Angels struggle with rejection. Omni walked down the line of bikes, the first two or three passenger-less riders giving a short headshake, until one Angel nodded, and Omni got on. Omni wondered what that selection thing was about and hoped not to find out. They only made it a few miles before county law enforcement pulled them over. After an exchange of pleasantries, they were all arrested on suspicion of murder. The Angels promised not to attempt escape in return for the privilege of riding their bikes to jail rather than being hauled in cuffed and shackled inside Black Marias. The cops promised to shoot them if they screwed up. It wasn't bad. Free shower, dinner, delousing, haircut and shave, the last submitted to with especially ill grace by the Angels. They were all released the next morning, and the Angels dropped Omni near where they found him, explaining, "No offense, man, but you're bad luck." Omni stood there in wonderment at being found too troublesome to hang with the Angels when a cross-country trucker picked him up. A big red hammer was painted on the truck--Hammer? "That's what I call my truck." What should I call you? "Hammer." They smoked Omni's hash and ate the Hammer's crosses into West Virginia, where the Hammer needed to sleep; but Omni was too wired and found a roadhouse nearby where he could drink the edge off the meth with Wild Turkey. The mood inside didn't seem improved by Omni's new tie-dyed skinhead look. Within half an hour several local roosters had managed to bump Omni and glare as they walked by his bar stool, and Omni sat small, spoke politely, and called for his tab, hoping to hook back up with the eastbound trucker in one piece. Abruptly, one drunk at the bar turned and shoved the other, who staggered back against a third who splashed his beer on a fourth who... The entire bar was between Omni and the door, so he stepped into the tiny Men's room. A janitor's locker stood against the far wall: he toppled it forward so it blocked the door. The noise outside the Men's room steadily: cursing, shouting, thudding, smacking, pounding, pleas to be let in, crashes, screams, breaking glass... Omni sipped his bourbon straight up until, at last, he heard the sweet sound of sirens. Omni wouldn't lift the locker and open the door until a cop showed his badge through a crack in the door. That same cop dropped him at the county line and told him to keep moving. He did.
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nator Member (Idle past 2198 days) Posts: 12961 From: Ann Arbor Joined: |
sometimes I wish I had been born male.
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Omnivorous Member Posts: 3991 From: Adirondackia Joined: Member Rating: 6.9 |
Yeah, but then most of your friends would be brutish assholes.
Edit: changed "are" to "would be" to clarify. Not your friends now, schraf, but the friends you would have then. This message has been edited by Omnivorous, 01-24-2006 10:57 PM
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macaroniandcheese  Suspended Member (Idle past 3956 days) Posts: 4258 Joined: |
And a dry pair of pants. did you soil them? glad you made it out.and thanks btw.
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randman  Suspended Member (Idle past 4927 days) Posts: 6367 Joined: |
great stories there omni....
not ready to be so forthcoming myself here But a general response to the OP, yea, been there and back and close to there a few times. Only once did time seem to nearly stand still though...at least that I recall.
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iano Member (Idle past 1969 days) Posts: 6165 From: Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joined: |
sometimes I wish I had been born male. Why is that schraf?
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Funkaloyd Inactive Member |
iano writes: If we follow the 'logic' then total (as opposed to partial) exposure to death, must have a collory, total life. How 'good' must life be for a person who actually dies. That's one of the more interesting and original spiritual arguments I've heard, but it isn't exactly logical. If one beer makes you feel good, and two make you feel better, then does it follow that 18 will have you feeling absolutely freakin' terrific?
If our processing speed increases due to partial exposure to death then the 'logic' above means death would cause an infinite increase in processing speed Our brains can work faster when we feel threatened, but how fast they work isn't necessarily proportional to how close to death we are. In fact, time can appear to slow down even when you're perfectly safe.
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iano Member (Idle past 1969 days) Posts: 6165 From: Co. Wicklow, Ireland. Joined: |
Our brains can work faster when we feel threatened, but how fast they work isn't necessarily proportional to how close to death we are. In fact, time can appear to slow down even when you're perfectly safe. Maybe it would be possible to expand the 'logic' a little. When we are bored, time appears to go very slowing indeed and "time flies when we are having fun" Not physical death and life perhaps but boredom is life at it poorer side equating to a kind of death and fun being life at it's richer side - a kind of parallels to life
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riVeRraT Member (Idle past 444 days) Posts: 5788 From: NY USA Joined: |
When I was a teenager, I used to hang out on the train tracks in Long Island NY. Pretty much everyday.
I was standing in the drainage ditch along side the tracks, under a bridge, and next to a 6 ft wall, I was knicked by a train doing 60 mph. I blanked out and woke up 60 feet away up a hill, under the bridge. My friends were all looking for my remains on the tracks after the train passed, until I shouted to them, and said, "I'm up here" They all asked how I got there, and I said I do not know. I also had pneumonia, that I contracted from a sick parrot, and almost died in the hospital. This one I owe to science/medicne for saving me, but if you look at the other side, I probably would have never owned that parrot if it weren't for science. lol
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Omnivorous Member Posts: 3991 From: Adirondackia Joined: Member Rating: 6.9 |
But I find that for some reason I like you more. I'm happy to hear it, iano. I'm a teddy bear, really.
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nator Member (Idle past 2198 days) Posts: 12961 From: Ann Arbor Joined: |
There are certain things that men are able to do and see and experience that, although there is no real reason a woman couldn't do and see and experience them, she would likely get herself attacked or approached in a sexual way. Or, barring that, the situation would be different, as some males want to protect females whenever they are around, no matter if they want or need protection.
I guess I need to refine my statement to "I wish I could be male sometimes, in certain situations." This message has been edited by schrafinator, 01-25-2006 08:53 AM
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Omnivorous Member Posts: 3991 From: Adirondackia Joined: Member Rating: 6.9 |
randman writes: great stories there omni.... not ready to be so forthcoming myself here Thanks, rand. I understand your reticence. I've probably told those stories to no more than a handful of people, until now. The OP struck a chord, though, and loosened my tongue enough to offer a sampler. I think I'm finished, though. My friends like to debate whether I am the luckiest or unluckiest person they know. I come down on the side of lucky: I not only tolerated risk, but actively sought it out. So the perils were merely willful, for the most part, but the survivals were remarkable.
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