Near Death

~ Gottfried

One of the near-death experience truths is that each person integrates their near-death experience into their own pre-existing belief system. Sometimes a little near death experience helps put things in perspective. I gathered responses of Banter Republicans who have cheated death. Grab a chair. 

David – A routine Friday turned chaotic at New Haven junction as tire screeches heralded armed robbers. Warning shots shattered the air, sending fruit vendors diving and bystanders scattering. Hidden behind a tree, I witnessed the violence unfold. Amidst the chaos, a bullet struck my refuge, narrowly missing my head. Whisker. 

Sunday – After the burial of my father, a simple walk turned into paralysis. My legs failed, requiring assistance to the parlor. A chilling chorus of my name began, each call draining my life. Three echoes later, I succumbed, fading into oblivion. Thirty minutes passed before a fragile return to consciousness. Always drink milk. 

Precious – Late one night, my Dad collapsed, ceasing all vital signs, leaving my mother in frantic despair. When he came to, he miraculously walked into the hospital. He described a dark struggle, pulled away by shadowy figures, before hearing prayers call him back. Returning to life, he was profoundly changed. Another chance. 

Skokz – What began as a simple date spiraled into a near-fatal experience. Her influence led me down a path of intense hardship, culminating in a hospital stay. Recovery demanded a grueling journey through rehab, seeking both physical and spiritual healing. Finally, I sought solace and restoration within the church.

Alabi – Assassins targeted my family, a chilling threat looming. The leader, surprisingly, recognized my father from a past act of kindness. He refused to carry out the deadly task. Removing his mask, he betrayed his employer, revealing the conspiracy. This unexpected act of mercy spared my family from a violent end.

What’s your near death experience? 

©️ Gottfried. All rights reserved

26 thoughts on “Near Death”

  1. As Promised Back Sooner
    Than Later Mr Gottfried

    And Yes 3 Near Death
    Experiences for me

    In the Beginning of the
    Dead Zone of Hell With
    All Of Those 19 Medical Disorders
    Mostly Stress Related from the Previous
    11 Years of Work Including the Worst Pain
    Known to Humankind Yep You’ve Heard the

    Story Enough Yet True Type Two Trigeminal
    Neuralgia No Drug Would Touch Yes Assessed
    as Literally Worse that the Torture of Crucifixion
    In the Literature Assessing the Disease for me Yes

    Wake to Sleep For 66 Months Yes no Drug Would
    Touch and No Shorter ‘Joy Ride of Real Crucifixion’

    From 3 Hours to 3 Days as They Suggest Life Might Last
    Dying Alive Yet Surely Not the 66 Months Wake to Sleep Style

    True No Prognosis For
    Recover in Synergy
    of Life Threat
    For all Those
    Diseases of
    Course the Worst
    Part Never Remembering
    the Feeling of a Smile Anyway

    The First Brush With Death Somewhat
    of an Illusion With A Severe Panic Attack
    At the Beginning of 66 Months of Hell

    And With the Dysautonomia From the
    Beginning Blood Pressure Not syncing
    With Heart Rate Not Able to Get Blood
    to Brain Gasping for Breath Whenever
    I Drifted Off to Card Board Shallow Sleep

    Not Able to Catch my Breath for A Whole
    Day With a Prescribed Alpha Blocker Finally
    Providing an Hour of that Shallow Sleep the
    First 35 Of 40 Days and then for the Last 5 of 40
    in the Spring Lent Season of 2008 NONE Ah Yes A Brush

    With Pain and Numb Worse Than Any Death Or Burning
    Hell Imaginable Just the Dante Frozen Ringed Place So
    Far Below

    the Basement
    Floor of Existence

    Yes A Place Where
    Both Demons and
    Angels Would Fear to Tread

    Beyond All Fear indeed Just
    Piece of Paper Existence That’s All

    All is Time a Second A Thousand

    Years In Hell Within For Real

    Just Nothing
    At All the
    Grand
    BLaCK
    Abyss
    Stuck Between
    The Shores Boat
    Sinking in the Hades River

    Deepest Within No Bottom of That

    Soulless

    Pit

    Yet It’s True

    On That 40th Day
    Finally Agreeing to
    Go to the Hospital

    Technician Thumping
    on my Chest Trying to
    Get Some Kind of Response

    All Was Cold and Temporarily

    All the Pain Just Everything Went Away

    True after Close
    to 40 Days Without
    Sleep Somewhat

    And For Real

    Just Out
    of my Mind

    at Peace Letting
    Go to Die Yet the
    Voices of my Wife
    And Sister Drew me

    Back in Existence and

    Yes Here i am on Banter
    Republic As Promised

    Returning Sooner
    Than Soon as

    Usual No
    Later than
    Now With SMiLes

    Just Another Member
    of the “Hell’s Angel’s Club”
    Without A Frigging Motorcycle to Escape hehe..:)

    -Born to
    Be Wild Horns
    And All Born
    on 6.6.60 Literally
    Raised on ‘Elm Street’

    Nick Named ‘Freddy’ by Mama

    True God Yes ‘The Omen’ Too Hehe

    True my Super Power is Laughing at Hell

    for
    now
    at least
    no longer
    the living dead…

    indeed a Near Dead
    Experience For Real…

    Could Show a pic of me then
    When i First Got out of Hell Yet

    for Now YucK tHere are enough
    Scary Folks to See on the News Hehe

    to Laugh
    at Some
    More
    Familiar
    Where they
    Come From and
    STiLL Staycation Now

    FOR REAL

    -Ain’t
    scared been
    THere Done
    Below the
    Basement
    Floor Living Dead…

    Ahhhhh What a Relief
    Just INHaLing Peace
    Exhaling LoVE iN JoY oF LiGHT

    Yep the J Place For Real As Promised

    Now Always New Just Giving Sharing
    Caring Healing For All With Most Respect Least Harm

    Naked Enough
    Whole Complete

    As Forecast Human
    Potential by Many
    Metaphors in Many

    Books Yet For Real

    in the Experience of Dancing Singing Freely

    Humanity in ‘The Other Place’ Now

    Newly With
    SMiLeS AGAiN

    (Yep Reborn Real)

    Just Burning Up
    The Digital Keys
    on This Laptop
    in A Break From All
    Day Public Dance in

    Whataburger Soon to
    Be Walmart Dance Again
    After That Thousands of

    Words of Free Verse Poetic
    Song Again Yep What Ya Do

    Best After
    Hell at Least
    for me a Covenant Within
    Now YeS AGAiN in the Other Place

    For
    Now at
    Least All
    in Effortless
    Wu Wei Ease…:)

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  2. I’ve had two near-death experiences that really shook me.The first was my first-ever car accident. I was driving along East-West Road in Rivers State during light rainfall, doing about 80 to 100 km/h. Out of nowhere, my tires slipped because of diesel spilled by one of those leaking tanker trucks. Before I could react, my car spun 360° and landed on the other side of the road. Till today, I still have the video, and every time I watch it, I just know, God saved me that day.The second happened during one of my regular workout sessions. After jogging about 1.7 km, I decided to do some push-ups, squats, and bends. Everything was fine until I suddenly started struggling to breathe. My vision blurred, my legs gave out, and I had no strength to stand. I had to call out for help, and thankfully, two passersby came to my rescue. Omo, it felt like a movie scene,unreal and terrifying.Both experiences made me realize how fragile life is. I don’t take anything for granted anymore.

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  4. Can an entire year qualify as a near – death experience? Bc 2020 was after my life and after everything that made life worth living lol

    On a lighter note , when my dad woke up from coma I was quick to ask him if he remembered anything or if he saw anything at all while he was in coma. He said no. I was a little disappointed but I was also glad he woke up at all 🙂.

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    1. 2020 was after our collective lives. That entire year moved like Thanos 🤣

      Reality is often disappointing. If he were creative he could have told you the most interesting and lasting tale of your life 🤣

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  8. It’s a tragic fact that many chronically and pharmaceutically-untreatably depressed people won’t miss this world if they, for whatever reason, never wake up again. It’s not that they necessarily want to die per se; it’s that they want their pointless corporeal suffering to end.

    Also, I read [and any reader should correct me if I’m in error] Sigmund Freud postulated that, regardless of one’s mental health and relative happiness or existential contentment, the ultimate goal of our brain/mind is death’s bliss because of the general stressful nature of our physical existence, i.e. anxiety or “stimuli”. It’s important to clarify, however, that it’s not brain death per se that is the aim but rather the kind of absolute peace that only brain death can offer in this hectic world.

    Indeed, the Sigmund Freud character in the 2011 film A Dangerous Method, muttered upon having a near-death-experience heart attack, “How sweet it must be to die.”

    Quite unfortunately, some people genuinely feel the greatest gift life offers them is that someday they get to die. Perhaps worsening matters is when suicide is simply not an option, meaning there’s little hope of receiving an early reprieve from their literal life sentence. And, of course, reincarnation is therefore the ultimate and unthinkable Hell.

    ________

    I awoke from another very bad dream, a reincarnation nightmare /
    where having blessedly died I’m being bullied towards rebirth into human form / despite my pleas I be allowed to rest in permanent peace. //

    My bed wet from sweat, I futilely try to convince my own autistic brain / I want to live, the same traumatized dysthymic brain displacing me from the functional world. //

    Within my nightmare a mob encircles me and insists that life’s a blessing, including mine. // I ask them for the blessed purpose of my continuance. I insist upon a practical purpose. //

    Give me a real purpose, I cry out, and it’s not enough simply to live / nor that it’s a beautiful sunny day with colorful fragrant flowers! // I’m tormented hourly by my desire for emotional, material and creative gain / that ultimately matters naught, I explain. My own mind brutalizes me like it has / a sadistic mind of its own. I must have a progressive reason for this harsh endurance! //

    Bewildered they warn that one day on my death bed I’ll regret my ingratitude / and that I’m about to lose my life. // I counter that I cannot mourn the loss of something I never really had / so I’m unlikely to dread parting from it. //

    Frustrated they say that moments from death I’ll clamor and claw for life / like a bridge-jumper instinctively flailing his limbs as though to grasp at something / anything that may delay his imminent thrust into the eternal abyss. // How can I in good conscience morosely hate my life / while many who love theirs lose it so soon? they ask. //

    Angry I reply that people bewail the ‘unfair’ untimely deaths of the young who’ve actually received early reprieve from their life sentence / while those people must remain behind corporeally confined / AND do their utmost to complete their entire life sentence—if not even more time, if permitted! //

    The vexed mob then curse me with envy for rejecting what they’d kill for—continued life through unending rebirth. // “Then why don’t you just kill yourself?” they yell, to which I retort “I would if I could. //

    My life sentence is made all the more oppressive by my inability to take my own life.” // “Then we’ll do it for you.” As their circle closes on me, I wake up. //

    Could there be people who immensely suffer yet convince themselves they sincerely want to live when in / fact they don’t want to die, so greatly they fear Death’s unknown? //

    No one should ever have to repeat and suffer again a single second that passes. … Nay, leave me be to engage the dying of my blight!

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