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"When I was 9yrs old, my parents sent me to summer camp with the other kids in my neighborhood. We spent out afternoons swimming in a lake and diving off of a raft in the middle of that lake. Well what happened to me happened while I was swimming one sunny afternoon. I dove off of the raft in the middle of a lake and when I was coming up for air, another boy dove off and hit me square in the chest knocking all the air from my lungs and sending me into a state of temporary shock. I sunk quickly to the bottom of the lake and was swallowed up by tall weeds that were growing there. I guess I was pretty much hidden from anyone that might have been looking for me in the weeds. Well, I don't have to tell you how much pain I was in from the lack of oxygen as well as the solid hit in the chest. To boot, it was very cold and black at the bottom of this lake, under the weeds. I was terrified and in a second when I overcame the initial shock, I tried to claw my way back up to the surface. This seemed to do nothing more than get me further tangled up in the weeds.
So, there I was at the bottom of this lake, cold, dark, in pain and terrified. Just when I thought I couldn't stand the pain anymore something very strange happened. It was as if a light switch had been thrown. Not that there was instantly any light, but all of a sudden and simultaneously the pain, fear and darkness was gone. I have to explain something here about the darkness. It wasn't that I was surrounded by any bright lights or anything like that, but somehow, the darkness was gone. Instead of any bright lights, the best I can do to describe this is by calling it an absense of darkness. Well, anyway here I was and the only way I could possibly describe how I felt was by saying it was the most overwhelming feeling of peace and serenity that I could ever imagine. As a matter of fact, I can't imagine it even today. I only have the memory of that feeling which is just not the same. There is nothing I've ever experienced in my short 42yrs that has even come close. I don't know how long I was down there but all I can say is that it could have been 10min or 10yrs as time seemed to no longer exist at this point. All I can say is that I wanted to stay there forever. It seemed as if a ton of weight had been lifted from my shoulders and all cares and worries and anything else was gone from me.
After being in that state for, I don't know how long it was, again something unusual happened. Somewhere deep inside of me a voice said to me, "You don't belong here yet" and as soon as I heard that it caused me to remember that I was actually on the bottom of a lake. With this memory came the feeling of fear. And as soon as I felt fear, it was as if another light switch had been thrown and I blacked out. What I mean is that any form of consciousness was wiped from me. The very next thing I remember was waking up on top of the raft with the lifeguard giving me CPR. After a while I had asked what happened and they told me they had been searching for me from the start as the child who had hit me told the lifeguard what happened and he started diving for me. I was in fact hidden by the weeds and it was purely good luck that I was found and brought back up to the surface. It seems that all in all, I was under the water for approximately 10min until I was found and when I was brought back up, I was blue and not breathing and there was no sign of life in me. It was the CPR that brought me back to life.
There were profound effects in my life as a result of that experience. .... All I'll say is that it took me years to come to terms with what had happened to me and really to figure out what actually did happen to me at all. I hope this is appropriate place to post my story, and I thank you all for the opportunity to express my experience here! God Bless!"
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