Charmed, I'm sure.

[PrismEntity]

I will not say that these experiences are paranormal, per se. However, they are certainly very very thought provoking to me. I have considered the statistical arguments that I'm sure will come, and having lived through these things, find them unsatisfying. The only thing I really know for sure is that I know nothing. Here they are anyway for your consideration.

1. When in basic training in the army, I had a near death experience on the grenade range. Not near death in the sense of tunnels and white lights, but near death in the sense that I should have died and didn't. The range was to provide us with our first experience in handling live grenades. (This was at Ft Benning in 1989-90, I was 11B, and there are probably records of the incident if you know how to find them).

I went through the line, got my grenades, and when my turn came, I went to the pit, followed the instruction of the DS, and threw my first grenade. As soon as it left my hand, the spoon flew off, with the grenade about six inches away, there was a loud bang, and the DS threw me and himself to the ground, where we waited.... nothing further happened.

They shut the entire range down while EOD (Explosive Ordinance Division) was called in. After checking the defective grenade (which still had never exploded) over, they inserted a new fuse, and blew it in place. It blew immediately with the new fuse. The original fuse detonating had been responsible for the bang as it left my hand, because it was the fuse, not the grenade, that was defective. It simply had no time delay and had blown immediately.

The EOD officer talked to me after it was over, and said, "Private, that grenade should have blown when the fuse blew. We have no idea why it didn’t. You should be dead. We figure there is a one in several billion chance that what happened could happen". (the defective fuse blowing but not the grenade).

Now, this incident alone is interesting, but could certainly be written off as a statistical anomaly, except that the near death, highly statistically improbable events kept coming.

2. While stationed overseas, I woke up one morning in late December to find that I was late for formation. I threw on my BDU's, grabbed my keys, ran to the car to find that it was frosted over. So of course, I scraped holes just big enough to see through front and back, and I was off. About halfway down a hill, I hit a patch of black ice. The car began doing 360's and I had absolutely no control, which didn't matter because I couldn't see anyway. Getting to the bottom of the hill, the road turned, I didn't, and went straight up into someone’s yard, through the fence, and finally stopped.

When I went to open the door, it opened about a half an inch and stopped. "There's something in the way", I sez to meself, "and I’m lucky I didn’t hit it."

So, over to the passenger door, which also opened about a half inch before stopping. "Whoa", sez I.

Climbing out the back (three door hatchback), I discover that I am sitting between two pad mounted transformers which were carrying around 50 - 100,000 volts each. Had I hit either of them, I would have crispy, and I never touched them. There was just enough room for the car between them with about an inch to spare. I don’t think I could have driven the car through them even if I could see and had control.

In addition to these examples, I have had brushes with death at astronomical odds against me on at least three other occasions.

Hmmmmmm. Interesting, anyway.

[Craig Browning]

Ok... between this post and the other that I responded to I feel it safe to assume that you have far better drugs than the ones I'm on.

[PrismEntity]

Whys that?

[cbhattarai]