Benjamin
The Living Force
I had the opportunity to meet Approaching_Infinity, which I did, yesterday! He's taller then I thought. We hung out for a couple of hours, had a coffee (he had a chai latte) and a chat. It was good all round but I won't get into that so much as something else related. I told this story to Approaching_Infinity, but got a few small details wrong after talking with the manager of the apartments, whom I've known for years, this morning.
On the day of our meeting, I got up early to get ready for travel. I went out for a wake-up smoke in my usual location in the back alley located by some dumpsters belonging to the apartments near my house.
A guy from one of the buildings came out to toss some garbage. I held the lid open for him since the dumpster was quite full and he ended up commenting that someone (the manager) had thrown out a speaker-infused gamer chair, that he noticed was sitting in a hallway earlier, that he wanted. I removed some garbage bags so that he could grab it and pulled it out. I replaced the bags and that was that. He pulled out a smoke and we got to chatting.
He was a smaller guy with a pronounced hunched-over stature. I learned that he was 49 and found out later from the manager that his name was RS and that he did not live in the building but was in fact squatting in a guy's apartment (a recurring issue with other homeless). To my memory, I had never spoken to this guy before and don't even remember seeing him around, though his name was familiar to me.
At one point in our conversation he casually mentioned his death. Wait, what? My ears perked right up and when the opportunity arose, I calmly asked him hoping he'd elaborate. Luckily he did.
Between that ages of 19-42 he was a partier, a speed-freak, and @sshole to many people- his words. On the day in question, he was out on the "back 40" near Tofield, AB with his boss, at the time, racing snowmobiles. He described the ones they were driving and I got the solid impression they were powerful and fast machines. He was travelling side-by-side with his boss when he signalled to "go". His boss signalled back and they gunned their machines. At a curve in the trail, doing "a buck forty" (140 km/h) he lost control of his snowmobile. When he realised what was about to happen he said, "Weeeell, shiiiiit," and looked at his boss and he knew that his boss knew, too, what was about to happen. He shot off into the trees first plowing through a ~10" trunk, then was launched into the air, landing in the branches of another tree with his snowmobile on top of him pinning him in the tree. His boss pulled the still running machine off of him and got him down. At some point he was airlifted to the hospital via STARS. He told me that they couldn't do compressions on him because his rib cage was crushed. The next part of his story was that he found himself in the ICU hooked up to medical machines, IV, a tube down his throat and nose and 16 staples in his head. I didn't ask him how long he was in the hospital.
Now for the weird stuff.
Before he told me the details of the accident, he said that he knew that people were taken before they died. He then told me that just before he crashed (but after the "well, shit, there's nothing I can do" acceptance), he described a man grabbing him. He said the man was muscular, like, really well built. He repeated this point later. After a little clarification, the guy was wearing something like a toga (maybe?) that had a circular clasp up by the left shoulder. RS then used his left arm to illustrate saying the guy had, not excessive, hair on his forearm, and a wide gold bracelet on his wrist. He then revealed he had braided red hair. With conviction he believed that this guy was God. I knew it wasn't but I really couldn't say anything. Still, I told him his tale was utterly remarkable.
Later he told me of a black tunnel with a light at the end that got further and further away but woke up before he could reach it. He told me he saw that tunnel a second time but there was no light at the end and the blackness was closing in around him which made him jolt awake in a total panic. That's when he regained consciousness in the ICU. I asked him what the blackness was and he said "Hell". He was absolutely terrified and started pulling out all the tubes and IV's from his body. He got up and started to walk to find somebody but found he was attached to a catheter bag. He ran into an orderly who said he should not be up because he had just died seven minutes prior. A doctor was alerted and they talked for a bit revealing that RS had died seven times. To make a long story short, against the advice, RS signed himself out shortly after that.
At this point, because it was -20C and we had been talking for awhile, he couldn't feel his hands. He left carrying the chair back to the apartment saying to me that he now believes in God.
I'm sure there are obvious problems with this tale, embellishments, memory lapses, obvious trauma, etc., but there are some very interesting descriptions that I can't figure on how he could come up with on his own. Needless to say, there was a change in his character after the accident.
I also found it quite strange that the first time I was going to meet my first forum member that afternoon, and this is the story I'm hit with first thing in the morning? Wild.
On the day of our meeting, I got up early to get ready for travel. I went out for a wake-up smoke in my usual location in the back alley located by some dumpsters belonging to the apartments near my house.
A guy from one of the buildings came out to toss some garbage. I held the lid open for him since the dumpster was quite full and he ended up commenting that someone (the manager) had thrown out a speaker-infused gamer chair, that he noticed was sitting in a hallway earlier, that he wanted. I removed some garbage bags so that he could grab it and pulled it out. I replaced the bags and that was that. He pulled out a smoke and we got to chatting.
He was a smaller guy with a pronounced hunched-over stature. I learned that he was 49 and found out later from the manager that his name was RS and that he did not live in the building but was in fact squatting in a guy's apartment (a recurring issue with other homeless). To my memory, I had never spoken to this guy before and don't even remember seeing him around, though his name was familiar to me.
At one point in our conversation he casually mentioned his death. Wait, what? My ears perked right up and when the opportunity arose, I calmly asked him hoping he'd elaborate. Luckily he did.
Between that ages of 19-42 he was a partier, a speed-freak, and @sshole to many people- his words. On the day in question, he was out on the "back 40" near Tofield, AB with his boss, at the time, racing snowmobiles. He described the ones they were driving and I got the solid impression they were powerful and fast machines. He was travelling side-by-side with his boss when he signalled to "go". His boss signalled back and they gunned their machines. At a curve in the trail, doing "a buck forty" (140 km/h) he lost control of his snowmobile. When he realised what was about to happen he said, "Weeeell, shiiiiit," and looked at his boss and he knew that his boss knew, too, what was about to happen. He shot off into the trees first plowing through a ~10" trunk, then was launched into the air, landing in the branches of another tree with his snowmobile on top of him pinning him in the tree. His boss pulled the still running machine off of him and got him down. At some point he was airlifted to the hospital via STARS. He told me that they couldn't do compressions on him because his rib cage was crushed. The next part of his story was that he found himself in the ICU hooked up to medical machines, IV, a tube down his throat and nose and 16 staples in his head. I didn't ask him how long he was in the hospital.
Now for the weird stuff.
Before he told me the details of the accident, he said that he knew that people were taken before they died. He then told me that just before he crashed (but after the "well, shit, there's nothing I can do" acceptance), he described a man grabbing him. He said the man was muscular, like, really well built. He repeated this point later. After a little clarification, the guy was wearing something like a toga (maybe?) that had a circular clasp up by the left shoulder. RS then used his left arm to illustrate saying the guy had, not excessive, hair on his forearm, and a wide gold bracelet on his wrist. He then revealed he had braided red hair. With conviction he believed that this guy was God. I knew it wasn't but I really couldn't say anything. Still, I told him his tale was utterly remarkable.
Later he told me of a black tunnel with a light at the end that got further and further away but woke up before he could reach it. He told me he saw that tunnel a second time but there was no light at the end and the blackness was closing in around him which made him jolt awake in a total panic. That's when he regained consciousness in the ICU. I asked him what the blackness was and he said "Hell". He was absolutely terrified and started pulling out all the tubes and IV's from his body. He got up and started to walk to find somebody but found he was attached to a catheter bag. He ran into an orderly who said he should not be up because he had just died seven minutes prior. A doctor was alerted and they talked for a bit revealing that RS had died seven times. To make a long story short, against the advice, RS signed himself out shortly after that.
At this point, because it was -20C and we had been talking for awhile, he couldn't feel his hands. He left carrying the chair back to the apartment saying to me that he now believes in God.
I'm sure there are obvious problems with this tale, embellishments, memory lapses, obvious trauma, etc., but there are some very interesting descriptions that I can't figure on how he could come up with on his own. Needless to say, there was a change in his character after the accident.
I also found it quite strange that the first time I was going to meet my first forum member that afternoon, and this is the story I'm hit with first thing in the morning? Wild.
