When you are but a breath away from the wrong step and certain death, life shifts perspective for you.
Humans sometimes forget that they are mortal and that at any moment, they may face the end of their lives. When confronted with that mortality, people have a hard time fully grasping that. It can cause a full shift in their lives.
And chances are, you'll never forget the incident that almost ended your life.
u/ferfeb asked:
Here were some of those answers.
Trigger warnings: violence, blood, moments of terror, death.
Hostage Situation
I was an English teacher in Honduras. About 8 months in myself and 4 other volunteers decided to go to a "bar" a few towns over(the closest one) to celebrate one of their birthdays. A few hours in, a group of 4 men came in with masks and HUGE guns and told everyone to drop to the floor. Being half in the bag (or possibly more), I decided to hide in the men's washroom as I was right beside it.
I got yanked out by one of the men and pushed up against the wall. He then held the gun to my head and told me to give him everything I had. He then told us 4 (we were put together on the wall as we were obviously the ones that were not from around there), and said if we reported them, they knew where we worked (and they did), and would kill us. We reported the incident (although nothing came from it), and I was back home in Canada 3 days later.
Thank Goodness Indeed
Giphy
Slipped on some rocks and was about to fall 20-30 feet into the ocean and more rocks. When you see someone in the movies falling and they grab on to basically nothing. That can't happen you think. Wrong, thank goodness.
Away From The Cliffside
I went hiking with a friend and her family in 6th grade during a camping trip they invited me on. We were coming back down and I lost my footing and feel. I started sliding towards a cliff and a bush caught me. If not for that bush I would have gone off a 200ft (at least/best guess) drop into a lake.
Even now at 21 hiking makes nervous.
Saved From The Tupperware
Shoeing horses. Was tucked under the hind end of one when something spooked him. I got dragged down between his hind legs. He was in cross ties so he could only really move side to side so neither of us could get away. Luckily my boss was nearby and was able to untie him and get him off me.
I was really lucky and got off mostly okay. Had a few broken ribs, a punctured and collapsed lung, broke my nose, and got a bunch of soft tissue injuries in my right arm.
But it got me out of a Tupperware party I didn't want to go to so all in all 10/10 would get trampled again
Just Driftin'
My doctor prescribed me medications that had an interaction which suppressed my central nervous system. Basically it felt like I was taking heavy tranquilizers constantly.
At the time I was commuting on a mountain road to go to night school and the meds made me so tired I almost fell asleep driving multiple times. After I almost got in what would have been a huge accident I withdrew from school for the semester.
Another doctor figured it out, took me off my meds, and I felt like a new person within days.
Just The Wrong Angle
Slipped in a club and fell onto a half pint glass. The glass shattered and sliced open my wrist, nicking the artery and the tendon and opening my palm to the bone.
Plus side; just before I went I to shock I got to see my tendon move like the terminator! Minus side; I accidentally covered a bunch of people in my blood. Oh, and the surgeries... and the scar on my wrist
An Old Injury
Hit by a car doing 70mph back in 1989 - shattered my femur, half of it turned to dust, the other half ripped its way out my outer thigh as if to say "welp, gotta go kiddo, my work here is done...".
Fractured skull with brain swelling, smashed knee, smashed hip, internal bleeding - according to most witnesses, I looked like I'd stepped on a landmine.
I spent 6 months in hospital, was fitted with a custom titanium reinforced composite femur, had to relearn how to walk. The scar went keloid and its about 8 inches long, going from my hip to my knee.
In 1993 I had to have the bone swapped out for an adult one so as not to screw up my growth. I walk fine but I run with a limp.
A Warning To All
I made the mistake of driving drunk. Not, "a little tipsy" and not, "I'm pretty sure I'm fine".... Drunk with a capital D.
I am a complete jerk for driving in that state. I didn't even remember getting home. Fortunately nobody got hurt, but waking up in bed the next morning with no recollection of how I got there...
I could have killed someone and myself. Please, anyone reading this: There is always someone willing to come pick you up and drive you home. Don't let pride get in the way of that. It is always the safer option.
Just Typical Of Newark
I was almost run over by a speeding bus in my teens. I lived in Newark, NJ at the time, and I was listening to Slipknot on my Zune (lol). I was going to cross the street, when a song came on that I didn't wanna listen to, so I stopped for a second to hit next, and the exact second I did, a bus flew past me, just inches away from my face. I literally felt the wind almost knock me back. The driver had ignored a red light and just kept on going, and I would've been mush, if I hadn't stopped to select a different song. Slipknot's Iowa album literally saved my life, in a way.
We Have Ignition
Giphy
I was an aircraft hydraulics specialist and while looking for a leak in a 3,000 psi pressure line, a pinhole leak started right next to my head and shaved off a bit of hair just above my ear. Had I been just an inch or two to the left I would of had a stream of high pressure fluid cut right into my skull.
I can't definitively say I've come face to face with the spirits. But I have had some unsettling feelings in the dark. Shadows are just shadows sometimes, but who can be sure.
I hear it...
Nbc Wings GIF by HULUGiphy"I was helping my dad clean my grandma's house after she passed and I went in and was trying to find a song in my phone and before I could I heard a cough plain as day come from down the hallway where her room was. She died of lung and throat cancer it was pretty crazy."
Running Past...
"When I was 5 I remember getting home from my grandpa's birthday party. For context my mom was pregnant with my brother at the time, so my parents had already bought his crib. I woke up in the middle of the night to find a women in a white dress and long black hair standing over my brother's crib. I managed to wake up my dad so he could take me to the bathroom. When I got back it was still there. It was only until morning when it disappeared. Every now and then I see a glance of what I assume is that thing running past the backyard."
The Cat
"My best friend and his wife had moved to a new apartment. I came over to visit a few times, and each time I'd see the motion of a cat in my peripheral vision. Not the image of a cat, but a sense of how a cat moves. Anyway, one day I finally cracked some joke about the ghost cat in the place and his wife was instantly saying "See! See! I told you we had a ghost cat!"
"excuse me"
"I worked graveyard shift in a dementia ward for 4 years and it was anything but quiet. I was working with a nurse one night when we both heard a resident say "excuse me." We looked around and no-one was there. I checked on the resident in question and she was fast asleep in her own room. Many of us also experienced someone whistling in the ward late at night and one nurse even managed to catch a video of it happening. It was unnerving to say the least."
Clueless
Skeleton GIFGiphy"I once saw someone short walk by me in my house. They walked into the laundry room which only has one way in. I walked into it behind them and they where gone. I thought it was my little brother but I went to his room and he was asleep. I still have no clue what that was."
- ImBolio
Now was everyone here positive they were sober? Just asking. Those are certainly spooky moments. I'd like some video footage please. Continue...
Reflections
ghost library GIFGiphy"I was up at 3am when I was maybe 7 or 8. I looked out the window and saw a woman in a white dress run across my yard. I could see through her. She was transparent like the reflections on the window."
"you alright?"
"So, my work place is haunted. I was having a really crap day, and as a cleaner, it's normal that me and my co worker will be the only ones left at night. So I was standing on the second floor, leaning on the banister for the stair case, when I heard this male voice say in my ear "you alright?" Clear as day. I turned around so fast and nobody was there and it scared the hell out of me."
- Rex-the-
Watching Me
"I remember as a young kid I usually use to sit in my bed and watch tv with my room door open while the adjacent guest bedroom next to mine would always have the door shut. I always remember seeing that door fully open and close by itself multiple times a day very slowly and gently. Never really bothered me much now that I think about it… but there were other creepier experiences I had in the same house that made me feel uncomfortable like I was being watched."
Betsy
"I went to the Betsy Ross House as a really little kid in the early 90s. Normal house but I was confused why the tour guide never talked about the woman on the chair crying at the edge of the bed in Betsy Ross's bedroom. So I asked about it. No one else saw the woman at the edge of the bed. I figured it was just a wax museum since there was a wax statue of a man in uniform rolling bullets in the basement."
"Years later, I was looking at haunted Philadelphia tours to go on with a friend and the Betsy Ross House was on it. I was like "woah! I was there!" and looked into it some more. Turns out there is a woman at the end of the bed crying and a uniformed man in the basement that people have reported seeing. There is no way that 8 year old me would have known about either of these things."
hello kitty...
hello kitty lol GIF by Animation Domination High-DefGiphy"I had this hello kitty Balloon In my bed room, it had a string and weight on it. So it was late, I had the lights on just Sitting on my bed. The Balloon turns, faces my door, slowly floats into my hallway and turns and floats into my sister's room. To this day I am scared of balloons."
They are among us and they like Hello Kitty. I'm probably rattling the paranormal cages and they'll come for me next, but I'm ready. I feel like this thread has prepared me.
Boo!
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