Read the full story of my near-death encounter in a Balinese sacred river
This is actually my second near-death encounter. When I was 6 years old, I almost drowned in the ocean. I was swept away by the current (similar to this second experience). Someone saved me, and I don’t remember the rest. It took me 12 years to return back to the ocean. Now, I dive with sharks, and swim freely. It took a long time, but now, I am here.
I am still integrating the lessons from the recent near death experience, as it has only been about three weeks. Here are some of the lessons that continue to unfold as I confront the intimacy of death.
- Surrender and Control
- The Body Knows
- Recover Before Action
- Steady, slow, sure.
- Village or Community is a Life Line
- Ritual or Ceremony Helps to Heal Trauma
- Respect the Dangers of the Wild
Surrender and Control
When you are at the edge of death, if you resist it, it will be harder to go through. Surrendering to death was what helped me go through the experience with more awareness, wisdom, and ease. Yet, it was not giving-up.
The awareness that comes along with the surrendering helped offer me clarity amidst a matter of seconds, leading to potential solutions, even if the solutions failed. Eventually, if you keep on trying, if it is meant to be, you will make it through.
The Body Knows
When you’re desperately tired, out of water to drink, isolated and out of reach in the middle of a wild jungle – the only thing you can do is breathe and be with yourself.
The body starts to respond in ways that may not be common, trembling in the jaw, shaking of the legs. It may seem counter-intuitive, as you want to feel ‘calm’. Yet, these responses are wise, because the body is releasing the shock from the system.
Once the shock was fully released, the internal space, gives – ideas, solutions, possibilities, connection, eventually – action. When you are left bare – the body will simply know what to do next.
Recover Before Action
Without properly giving myself moments of recovery and rest, a few minutes here and there – I probably would have fallen on the rocky edge of the jungle into the deadly river current, again. Without moments of pause, I likely would not be able to think with coherence, to climb my way upstream, or to have the strength in my feet to know where to go next.
Steady, slow, sure.
When a fall could mean your life, each step, each grasp, each shift of weight, each gesture is methodical. Gazing ahead, you first envision the potential steps, only about four steps ahead, not more. Then, you simply take, one step at a time, with a steadiness in your feet, and slowness in your movement, and an assurance in each breath.
I return to this mantra, often, even before this experience. It helps me return to my center to know how to make better decisions that are truly from my own inner voice, and not from the influence or pressures of conditional society, such as a social media post.
Village or Community is a Life Line
My life line were those three fishermen that saw me falling downstream. Without them sharing with their community, and without the organised search party – I would have been left on the edge of a jungle. In life or death situations, your neighbours matter, whom you come across, even if you just pass by them, it matters.
Ritual or Ceremony Helps to Heal Trauma
It is painfully sad to see how we have lost our native and animistic ways of relating with nature. When such an intense experience occurs, when you were at the gates of the holy of the holies… It feels right to negotiate at those gates, in between the worlds, with the support of those whom are a bridge to them – the priests, the shamans, the Babaylans, those whom are truly in right relationship with the spirits. The ancient sciences reveal to us many specific rituals for everything, with specific people that uphold those traditions.
Respect the Dangers of the Wild
Nature is wild. Nature is dangerous. Nature can kill. We have to learn how to respect the vulnerability of our humanity. Vulnerability not as weak, but as our place in the larger ecosystem.
