Yello,
I have been wanting to post this question for a long time, but haven't really known how to without risking of being taken for...weird. But at the same time I really want to know if others have similar experiences, so here goes:
I have twice tried to get this cold feeling going down my spine prior to a fellow freediver suffering problems in a dive. On the other hand, the many times I have waited for a buddy coming up from a deep dive and nothing was wrong, I never got this feeling once, even when the dive took longer than anticipated.
I'm asking if any of you have experienced paranormal warnings when looking down for a buddy and feeling something is wrong, when in fact something was wrong. That's as close I get to wording it.
These are my two 'cases':
1) Copenhagen, christmas 1997, my first season training in a freediving club. During pool training, we're playing a diving game picking up plastic rings from the buttom while doing it as slow as possible, diving as long as possible. One of the guys do it for too long and blacks out(!). We're all awfully inexperienced and don't recognize it, thinking he's lying still on the buttom as a part of the game. People laugh, amazed that he can hold his breath for so long (doh!). At this point I too think so, as the guy just lies still and no bubbles comes out. But then I get this tiny cold feeling crawling down my spinal core, and a reflex makes me start swimming out towards him. The guy's girl friend has aparently gotten the same reflex, and she reaches him before me, realizing he's out and quickly grabs him. As we manage to bring the guy back out of the pool (he was out for about 45 seconds), we all feel incredibly stupid. (We started incorporating vast safety measures after that, we're still not too proud of it.)
2) Dahab, Egypt, April 2004. Swede Mikael Hurtig is trying for a Swedish record in no limits on his home made sled, he's going for 90 meters (there's a long thread about these attempts in the archives here on DB) and I'm residing judge on the attempts. The air filling hose falls out of the balloon when the sled lands on the buttom disc, and there is a delay before the safety diver gets it stuck back in. When Mikael finally gets to the surface, he gets a samba. Being on the surface, I half way through his dive get the exact same spinal 'warning' as five years earlier. On none of the many other record attempts or training attempts did it appear.
I simply haven't registered this 'warning' other than in the two cases where something DID go wrong. I even started to register my reactions when waiting for somebody coming up from some pitch black Swedish lake, to try to determine if I'm just being hysterical. I haven't registered any 'illusive' cold signal yet, they only come when it has actually gone wrong down there. No, really.
I got to thinking about it, watching The Big Blue (again) the other day. When Enzo gets in trouble on his last dive, Luc Besson shows us Jacques getting a sudden flashback to his father drowning in the beginning of the film. For a long time, I have just thought 'yeah, right', but now I can't help but compare it to my own experiences.
I feel like I'm asking if anyone else have tried to be obducted by aliens. Am I fooling myself, overinterpreting illusive implulses? I don't wanna be hysterical or 'religious'. I too am raised with science.
I'm taking a chance asking, 'cause I know some will inevitably think 'weirdo' (so would I, probably). I'm being absolutely serious.
Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen
I have been wanting to post this question for a long time, but haven't really known how to without risking of being taken for...weird. But at the same time I really want to know if others have similar experiences, so here goes:
I have twice tried to get this cold feeling going down my spine prior to a fellow freediver suffering problems in a dive. On the other hand, the many times I have waited for a buddy coming up from a deep dive and nothing was wrong, I never got this feeling once, even when the dive took longer than anticipated.
I'm asking if any of you have experienced paranormal warnings when looking down for a buddy and feeling something is wrong, when in fact something was wrong. That's as close I get to wording it.
These are my two 'cases':
1) Copenhagen, christmas 1997, my first season training in a freediving club. During pool training, we're playing a diving game picking up plastic rings from the buttom while doing it as slow as possible, diving as long as possible. One of the guys do it for too long and blacks out(!). We're all awfully inexperienced and don't recognize it, thinking he's lying still on the buttom as a part of the game. People laugh, amazed that he can hold his breath for so long (doh!). At this point I too think so, as the guy just lies still and no bubbles comes out. But then I get this tiny cold feeling crawling down my spinal core, and a reflex makes me start swimming out towards him. The guy's girl friend has aparently gotten the same reflex, and she reaches him before me, realizing he's out and quickly grabs him. As we manage to bring the guy back out of the pool (he was out for about 45 seconds), we all feel incredibly stupid. (We started incorporating vast safety measures after that, we're still not too proud of it.)
2) Dahab, Egypt, April 2004. Swede Mikael Hurtig is trying for a Swedish record in no limits on his home made sled, he's going for 90 meters (there's a long thread about these attempts in the archives here on DB) and I'm residing judge on the attempts. The air filling hose falls out of the balloon when the sled lands on the buttom disc, and there is a delay before the safety diver gets it stuck back in. When Mikael finally gets to the surface, he gets a samba. Being on the surface, I half way through his dive get the exact same spinal 'warning' as five years earlier. On none of the many other record attempts or training attempts did it appear.
I simply haven't registered this 'warning' other than in the two cases where something DID go wrong. I even started to register my reactions when waiting for somebody coming up from some pitch black Swedish lake, to try to determine if I'm just being hysterical. I haven't registered any 'illusive' cold signal yet, they only come when it has actually gone wrong down there. No, really.
I got to thinking about it, watching The Big Blue (again) the other day. When Enzo gets in trouble on his last dive, Luc Besson shows us Jacques getting a sudden flashback to his father drowning in the beginning of the film. For a long time, I have just thought 'yeah, right', but now I can't help but compare it to my own experiences.
I feel like I'm asking if anyone else have tried to be obducted by aliens. Am I fooling myself, overinterpreting illusive implulses? I don't wanna be hysterical or 'religious'. I too am raised with science.
I'm taking a chance asking, 'cause I know some will inevitably think 'weirdo' (so would I, probably). I'm being absolutely serious.
Chris Engelbrecht, Copenhagen