Every time I've eaten at McDonald's.

No, but fun fact. The common NDE trope of floating above your body and seeing a light is commonly experienced by astronauts that pass out in centrifuge training. It appears that it is a symptom of a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Yes, but it wasn't anything supernatural.

The most telling thing about NDEs is they merely reflect the beliefs of whoever experiences them.

Near-Drowning while Kayaking

In 2012, I dated a medical doctor from Little Rock, Arkansas. In April, he flew me to visit him. We drove three hours north to kayak a river in Tennessee.

This was a hillbilly version of kayak rentals. I pointed out that they broke four major safety rules:

1. No helmets.
2. No life jackets.
3. No guide.
4. No "sweep" to bring up the rear and help people in trouble.

"This is unsafe," I insisted. The doctor argued. "Let's try it," he insisted. "Are there any other kayak rentals in this area?" I asked. No. I relented because I didn't want to spoil the trip. It nearly cost me my life.

Kayaking a series of rapids, my kayak suddenly flipped and I was swept under a "strainer," pinned underwater beneath a tree. Strainers are deadly. I took a big breath just before going underwater.

"I'm not going to drown on my watch," I thought. I'm a great swimmer.

The powerful river was pushing me under the tree from two directions. Trapped underwater, I tried problem-solving in quick succession. Couldn't climb the vertical mud bank. Couldn't push myself out from under the tree. I was trapped.

Then I had an idea. Pushed my body straight down. It was counter-intuitive. I wanted to go up to the surface, not down.

Scrabbled on the bottom with my feet and connected with a rock. I kicked hard off the rock. Holding the kayak to protect my eyes from branches, I exploded myself and the kayak sideways and away from the tree.

Sweet air! Immediately lunged, grabbing the kayak to keep it from being swept away. Never lose your craft. It took three tries to roll into the kayak, shaken and battered.

People were desperately padding upriver toward me. "Has anyone seen my paddle?" I called. "I've got it!" a man yelled. "I'll come to you."

Shooting downriver without a paddle, I quickly fixed my footrest. Grabbed the paddle as I shot by. "Thank you!"

No time to relax. My whole body was trembling. Miles to go. When I finally saw the landing up ahead, I nearly cried with relief.

"You were underwater a long time," the doctor said when I arrived at the landing. "You messed up your hair." I showed him my cuts and abrasions. "I've seen worse," he dismissed me.

Arrogant asshole. I dumped him shortly thereafter.

I know this doesn't qualify as an NDE, but I will tell it anyway. I spent several hours on a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska. A storm warning called smaller boats to shore. Having a bigger boat, the captain opted to ride it out. Waves crashed over the front and sides of the boat, violently rocking it in every direction. Down below, I puked out everything I had ever eaten in my life into a bucket and thought for sure we were all going to die.

I should mention, I get motion sickness very easily. I can't even ride in the back seat of cars. I never would have gone out on the boat if I had not been assured by family that the water was "smooth as glass." Well, it was until that fucking storm came in . But, I survived to tell the story .

When I was eleven, I went through the ice, and was comatose for three days. Of which, i remember absolutely nothing.

Back in my pharmavore days, I used to front a death metal band. For performances, I used to procure speed - a nice little dose for my fellow noise merchants to keep everyone sharp (helpful if you work full time and have to play at 10pm), and a healthy wack for myself.

Anywho, one particular gig the speed I got was of exceptional quality. Pure, transparent, rectangular crystals. When I told the band 'just a tiny taste', they thought I was being stingy. 10 minutes later, they were saying 'holyfuckballswhatthehellwasTHAT!'

So, I have my usual (but tempered) healthy wack, and we're all lit up like Christmas trees.
And then the fun begins. First band blows an amp, takes ages to sort themselves out. Second band farts around and also runs overtime. We're headlining, so we're frantically setting up when the pub owner tells us that they have a hard shut down time of midnight, and they're on their third warning for noise and if they breach again they'll lose their licence.

Leaves us 30 minutes to play a 50 minute set. But we're wired to the gills. I look at the guys, and say "Fuck it. No covers. No breaks between songs. Fast as we can, play until they switch is off."

And we cranked. Must have been topping 200bpm the whole gig. I'm thrashing and convulsing around the stage, screaming my tits off. The punters go bezerk. Finish the eighth track, I collapse in a pool of our mingled sweat, the owner shuts off the PA, punters are baying for more.

Everything goes white.
My pulse is hammering arhythmically in my ears.
I'm gasping for breath like a landed fish.
My hearing fades to a wall of feedback.
I disconnect.

I feel a boot in my ribs.
I hear a voice from a mile away, shouting.
I can barely make out the words.
I recognise the voice. It's Dave the drummer's girlfriend, Kim.
What's she saying?
Oh.
"Play fucken' Slayer! Play Slayer, ya lazy cunt!"

The sheer ridiculousness of the situation gives me the giggles. I roll onto my side, convulsing with laughter, feebly trying to fend off Kim with my free hand. My pulse settles back to a steady (still very fast) rhythm. The world swims back into focus.

We pack up, get paid, and go back to Kim and Dave's for bongs.

Swear that mad bitch saved my life that night.

At least 4 .But this was one of the bad ones .In Oahu Hawaii When I was 24 I was swimming in a rock pool formation about 75 feet from the ocean when I was sucked into a natural formed underwater tunnel from an out going wave .I was facing upwards on my back and all I could feel was rock on top of me .I held my breadth and just in time I was pushed out of a small hole in the rocky ground about 20 feet from the main pool by the rush of incoming ocean water and actually popped out of the hole .A couple of more seconds I would have drowned . It’s called the toilet bowl by locals.

My most memorable near death experience was when I got pinned under a descending load of collar on a rig (really heavy pipe). The crane operator couldn't see me and had to rely on another bloke signalling him. By the time the load stopped it was brushing my chest as it swung. I thought I was gone but I still remember the words in my head just before I thought I was going to die. They were: "well, it's been a f###ing blast".

When I was a teenager, my foot got caught in the ski rope and it was dragging me behind the boat underwater for what seemed like an eternity. I thought I was dying and I also thought it didn't feel bad at all. Obviously I wasn't dying or it probably would have been much more frightening.

I almost fell off of a roof,. 3rd story. I have been attacked by men with killing tools. I had pneumonia & beat it myself like a stupid virus denier. Jumped out of a car going 30 miles an hour to escape a family member. The coup de gras.......... 2 asthma attacks resulting in pulmonary failure & 7 days in ICU. A different doctor put me on ADVAIR (bought the practice) & now the FDA advises NOT to use it for asthmatics. Malpractice suit? No. Different doctor? Yes.

I used to ride bulls in rodeo. One particular ride, I came off after the second jump. I landed on my shoulder blades. It knocked the wind out me and I went blank. Somehow I stood up, but I could see was white. I began to walk toward the light as that was all I could see. The internal fence surrounding the arena was only four feet to my right, but I couldnt see it.

As I stumbled toward the back of the arena , I'm told the bull came back around and glanced my back. After about 50 ft I went down on one knee and suddenly my breath came rushing back in and I regained regular consciousness. After the bull fighters reached me and asked if I was alright, I had gotten my breath and was aware. I said I was and excited the back of the arena to rest.

Turns out I had broken my 4th lumbar vertebrae. I rode two more times with a broken vertebra before I ended my bull riding career. I think the white light was an optical illusion brought out by a narrowed vision due to being knocked loopy and some sunlight reflection in the direction I first looked and subsequently walked.

Not that I was in coma or lost consciousness. But one time when I was under 10yo i was on a pool float in the ocean with bunch of cousins and an uncle. I fell in the water and the float went above me. The water was brownish, hard to see and every time I tried getting out of the bottom of the float, the float would move and cover me again. I couldn't grab anyones leg because they were all moving fast and having fun. I started feeling dizzy and no more oxygen, suddenly a hand grabbed my hair and pulled me out of the water.
I guess my uncle finally noticed a kid missing and saw my hair under the liner.
I got lucky there.

Clinically Dead...ceased respiratory and cardiac functions. Remember getting dizzy, then truly nothing. Woke with a pen light shining in my eyes and an EMT asking me my name, where I worked, what my birthday, where I lived, what year....basically to evaluate if there was brain damage. NDE? No and according to the doctor it's probably because I my lack of beliefs and I did not have brain damage or oxygen deprivation. He said I should be thankful because NDE's in my situation usually are an initial sign of PTSD.

Yup! Shot at and narrowly missed. That counts, right?

Having a "near death" experience in no way means that anyone has died. Keep in mind also that the person having said experience never really went anywhere else.

Many years ago I picked up a rather nasty sudden onset sickness that began as a violent (GI) based episode that greatly reduced my ability to stand or walk so I left work (I never leave work early) and somehow managed to drive home and make it to bed and called the folks to tell them I would not be making it over to eat.

Shortly the room spun and I no longer had the ability to sit up. This was followed by shivers and cold sweats and system wide pain that was unlike anything I had experienced - It felt like every joint in my body was being bombarded with thousands of finishing nails driven through the bones into surrounding soft tissue.

After what I am guessing was many hours this illness progressed from shivers into severe convulsions that rippled through my body like a wave that were actually euphoric (the best runners high endorphins I had ever experienced). About six months earlier I had asked my grandfather how he was doing and he replied, "I am ready to die. Too much pain. Life is no longer worth living." He died two months later. I fully understood his position and, no longer able to navigate to a phone, figured I would not make it through the night. This was not disturbing just an anticipated outcome. No thoughts of any supernatural nonsense just the acceptance of the inevitable end. I finally lost consciousness.

I was surprised to wake up (wow. I'm still alive) the next morning feeling relatively good.

Spent a few days in a coma, but it wasn't something that I "experienced" in the same way that people experience things consciously. It was just nothingness. Not much of a story.

I suppose that I was near death (hence the life support).

Yep, several but got away relatively unscathed each time. One of the reasons I am continuously amazed at reaching this age and still waking up each day.

One.
When I had my second baby, my water broke but I had no contractions. The unit was really busy, so my Pitocin wasn’t started until 11:20am. Two contractions later, I thought I was dying. (Previous natural birth of 12 hours. This was so different). At a few minutes before noon, I was screaming because I felt like I was being torn in half, and I had to push. The pain was so intense, I had lost all control.
I remember the blurry lights, going to the delivery room—my glasses were back in the labor room.

Suddenly I was in the right upper corner of the room, looking down. My vision was perfect, and there was no noise, though I understood what was going on. I saw my doctor from the back, the nurses getting things ready, myself on the delivery table...and saw that I was bleeding heavily. The head was crowning.
I recall feeling very detached: there was no sense of fear or urgency, though it could have only been a few minutes. Like: That’s me. Hmmm. The baby’s coming. Oh. That’s a lot of blood.
My daughter was born at noon exactly.
Then I was on my back, looking up, and my vision was blurry again. My daughter had been born.
It turned out that I lost 3 points of hemoglobin during delivery.
So, dissociation? Really out of my body? I don’t know.

Not me, but a psychiatrist with whom I used to work. He said he went flat-line in a surgery, twice. I asked if he had some experience during his "down" time, and he said he did not.

BTW, I was dead before I was born. It was real quiet.

"Near death" means not dead. So is "near" death different?

A near death experience, so an out of body or tunnel of light type of thing? No. I nearly drowned while swimming in the ocean in the Bahamas once but I didn't lose consciousness. I expect you'd have to believe in an afterlife to have that sort of hallucination.