Life's moments passing by ....

[robnplunder]

Did the following ever happen to you? I thought these were common events but I am not sure anymore.

There were two occasions that I thought I was going to die. One was when I was almost hit by a train (I was walking on tracks with Sony walkman on). Another time was when SF earthquake happened (I was safe but at the time, I thought I can die at any minute). They happened about 10 years apart. Just seconds before I thought I was going to die, for about 3 - 5 seconds, various snapshot of my life came into my head as in slide show. I thought this was common. Years later, when I described the events to others in a casual gathering, they looked at me as if I am telling them that I saw an UFO.

 

[FIREd]

"Life flashing before your eyes" - seems pretty common, although I have never experienced it myself.

 

[easysurfer]

Yes, I have experienced the life flashing before my eyes before as the snapshots.

In my case, I was new to driving on my own (about 17 or 18). Not to get all gross..but I had let out a big sneeze and lets just say, multitasking and keeping my hands on the wheel was difficult. So, next thing, I look up and the car is about to veer off the road on a freeway. I counter steered and did the screeching tires thing..then finally ended up in a grassy ditch between the two way interstate.

Before counter steering for a split second I did start to see the snapshots go fast forward.

If you are a spiritual person and believe in life after death, the life flashing before you might be the starting of your life review before going to the beyond.

 

[Gumby]

In 1991, as I was careening toward a head-on collision with a very big truck, the only thing that flashed through my mind was "Crap! I'm not going to be able to steer out of this one." No pictures.

Yes, we did collide head-on. The wife and I walked away sore, but intact. The car was totaled. The truck drove away and was caught by the state troopers the next day.

 

[MRG]

Mine happened too fast. The worst was the stakes on a log truck 'tripped'. I heard the sound, thought fall in towards the truck, maybe the 20k lb. load won't hit your head. Got lucky, only the 80lb. truck stake did. There were only milliseconds between my hearing the noise and being knocked out. Funny how fast that thought occurred.

The other times were similar, milliseconds spent on how do I survive this event.

I think if a person had the time, it would make sense.
MRG

 

[calmloki]

I guess the closest to death for me was a non event light switch moment. Most of the other events have been time dilated oh **** oh **** oh ****, doing but not doing enough fast enough times. Never have had the past flashing before my eyes experience, more's the pity.

 

[LarryG]

Yes. As a child swimming in Lake Erie I got in literally over my head, and thought I was drowning. Panic set in, and yes I saw the rapid "life events slide show" you described. It really does happen.....at least it did for me.

 

[robnplunder]

Is there a scientific explanation or theory for these phenomena?

 

[Walt34]

It's never happened to me but it seems to be a common enough phenomena that I don't doubt it does happen sometimes.

 

[JoeWras]

I didn't have time for the snapshots. Like the OP, mine was a train. Friend and I were crossing tracks after 12" of snow (think muffled sounds), both wearing snorkel parkas (limited vision) which were in vogue at the time. Turns out a train was coasting, coming right at us. I still get chills when I think about the horn blast. (Thank God the engineer was watching and had a finger on the horn.)

We stopped dead cold in our tracks and the train passed about 2 feet in front of us.

No snapshots, just rigamortis, and the breezy smell of steel and lube oil flying by my face.

 

[Ronstar]

I had a similar moment when I fell through the ice while ice skating. I didn't see my life pass, but it seemed like I was daydreaming that someone was under water. Now I don't remember much of being in the water, just everything after I started crawling up the bank of the lake.

 

[jayc]

Wow... What timing. Xmas eve last week. Chest pains had me in ER at 8 pm. While putting in a stint, I was awake and drifted off to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Next feeling was being lifted off the table by the defib shock and nurse first words were 'welcome back'.

Life will change.......

Jayc

 

[Disappointed]

Did the following ever happen to you? I thought these were common events but I am not sure anymore.

There were two occasions that I thought I was going to die. One was when I was almost hit by a train (I was walking on tracks with Sony walkman on). Another time was when SF earthquake happened (I was safe but at the time, I thought I can die at any minute). They happened about 10 years apart. Just seconds before I thought I was going to die, for about 3 - 5 seconds, various snapshot of my life came into my head as in slide show. I thought this was common. Years later, when I described the events to others in a casual gathering, they looked at me as if I am telling them that I saw an UFO.

Were those snapshots of important events that happened in your life or just random events?

 

[braumeister]

Is there a scientific explanation or theory for these phenomena?

Absolutely. Scientists who study this stuff will tell you that what we remember after an event is a story our subconscious mind reconstructs, not a replay.

The memory we retain consists of bits and pieces that have been reordered in a sequence that makes a kind of sense to the editor in our brain, and may have little or nothing to do with the actual order in which those bits happened in real time.

So what that means is that the flashes of memory that we remember happening either before or during the crisis may have actually occurred a bit later, and our brain moved them around to entertain us when we tell the story later.

 

[robnplunder]

Were those snapshots of important events that happened in your life or just random events?

I don't remember them. But I think they were random events.

 

[tmm99]

I got hit by another car on a freeway on a rainy day and my car spun around 4 or 5 times. All I could see was the scenery change that happened because of the car spinning. No replaying of life events and nothing was in slow motion. I was lucky and ended up on the ditch on the side of the road (There was a solid rock formation a few hundred feet away without any open space where a car can spin around.). I was hit by an 15 year old runaway with no drivers license, driving a stolen car... My lucky outcome on an unlucky day because it was raining and my car spun around instead of rolled, plus he hit me where there is enough open space for my car to be able to spin around without hitting the rock formation.

 

[MRG]

Is there a scientific explanation or theory for these phenomena?

I was told, it was;
Id imperfectum manet dum confectum eri
but I'm often wrong.
MRG

 

[Midpack]

Hasn't happened to me that I recall. But I only recognized my near death experiences after the fact, and what ran through my head was 'boy, that was stupid, what was I thinking?' During I was too focused on doing all I could to survive.

But like the others have said, I don't doubt the snapshot/life flashes before your eyes phenomena exists. With some of the very infrequent but really bizarre dreams I've had, I know the mind can go places it never would while we're conscious...

 

[Khan]

Back in '75 I narrowly a head on collision by some incredible driving (passenger's evaluation). No life review, definite slow motion effect.

 

[W2R]

No life review, definite slow motion effect.

Same here, when confronting an aggressive 27' great white shark up close while diving in 1974. Definite slow motion effect, definitely mostly concerned with doing my best to survive the encounter. I was not particularly upset; no time for that, plus I was [-]half[/-] hypnotized by his stare. While calm, I did mildly regret that my mother would never know my fate.

No slide show of my life. I suspect that different people simply have different reactions to life threatening events.

 

[inky]

No life review, definite slow motion effect.

Experienced that too when a friend and I were mugged violently (fortunately, neither of us were hurt). Slow motion effect and everything happening in flashes, much like an action scene in a movie.

 

[robnplunder]

(Thank God the engineer was watching and had a finger on the horn.)

Me, too. I jumped out of the oncoming train just in time.

 

[Maenad]

Yep, at 19 my recently-ex-boyfriend decided the world would be a better place without me in it. When he raised the blunt object above his head to bring it down onto mine*, I saw the grim reaper and my life flash in front of my eyes. I figured that it was just my subconscious saying, "I'm about to die" and all of the cultural myths about near-death experiences were what was fed to my conscious mind.

While putting in a stint,

Sorry for the nitpick, but it's "stent". I worked for a few years on angioplasty catheters and stent delivery catheters.



*He was stopped by a mutual friend, so I didn't end up with any more physical injuries than some defensive bruising from his punches.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Not yet.

Have survived a number of dangerous events, mostly self-created and really stupid.

I did have a strange case of deja-vu once. I remember a trip as a child, when I heard a particular song, but that song was not written until years later. Crossed wires somewhere in my mushware. I cannot trust my memory very well. Knowing this has been helpful.

 

[jayc]

Yep, at 19 my recently-ex-boyfriend decided the world would be a better place without me in it..

Nitpicking does that.