Aiming for Awesome? Get Struck by Lightening!

One of those awesome experiences in life, totally awe-inspiring and shocking to the core of your being is coming close to being struck by lightening.

I had one of those experiences yesterday. In fact, it was the COOLEST experience of my entire 41 year life! I’ll tell you why in a moment… Almost getting struck, or getting struck and being OK must be the ULTIMATE experience as it turns your entire body into pure adrenalin. You are wondering if you’re dead…

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When I lived in Hawaii there was not much lightening. Usually storms did NOT have any lightening. In Florida - and especially the Tampa area, it is the lightening capital of the WORLD. There are more strikes per square mile than anywhere in the world. I regularly saw lightening strike so close to me that there was very little gap between the hit and the thunder clap (< 1 sec). I counseled a man in Florida (for a traumatic brain injury center), that had been hit by lightening 2 times. He was 6′ 7″ and over 280 lbs of muscle. He cowered in the bathroom when a thunderstorm came during our session.

The closest I came to being hit in Florida was while I was in Miami and attending the university. I was carrying my laundry basket toward the laundry room 10 meters away from my room in a pouring rain. It was so hard I couldn’t see more than 10 meters in front of me. I was half-way there when a bolt of lightening struck the laundry room (a clothes dryer, actually) and the earth shook with the noise. I was dropped to my feet in an instant, on my knees. I say “I was dropped” because there is no way in the world I could have a reaction that fast because it was as if I dropped at the exact time the lightening struck. No gap. I layed there in the rain puddle afraid to move an inch for a couple minutes, not believing lightening never strikes the same spot twice. I washed my clothes the next day!

The vehicle I was in on the way from Tampa to Pittsburgh was struck by lightening once. Anyone ever had that happen? The vehicle was a large jetliner that was flying right through the worst turbulence I’d ever experienced on a plane and I’ve had well over 100 flights.

I was sitting at the window seat immediately behind the right wing. My girlfriend at the time was pretty scared, she was no stranger to flying, but this flight was NUTS, passengers were crying and occasionally someone would scream or curse something when we hit bad pockets of turbulence that would have sent us crashing into the ceiling of the plane were it not for the seat belts.

The sound of the lighting striking the plane was as if someone was standing on the wing and hit the metal with a 100 lb sledgehammer - if someone could swing one VERY fast. The entire plane shook or steadied - it did something different from what it was doing, hard to tell. The lights went out and there was this aweful and very loud sound like the groan of a capacitor sucking up the million volts or so into safety coils so we didn’t all die. It was the sound of death for sure.

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When the strike hit, the entire plane was quiet as death - because that’s what we thought we were about to experience.

But, within a few seconds everything revved back up - including the engines I think because it seemed like they turned back on. Emergency lights went on and we all were still VERY quiet despite the same turbulence throwing the plane around.

My girlfriend was locked onto my entire left side. If I would have stood up, she’d have been FIRMLY attached. She had a death grip on me. She asked me, “Were we just hit by lightening?” (she hadn’t seen the flash on the wing like I did).

I said, “No, I think the rain is just really heavy.” A BAREFACED lie, but anything to calm her. In fact, not many saw the strike but everyone heard and felt the result.

Well, we lived through it and it was one of the most awesome (scary) experiences I’ve ever had. THE scariest?

But those things were in the past… Yesterday’s experience was something novel, something so extraordinary… and an AWESOME experience, not a negative one…

I was at the top of a mountain and taking photos. The sky was incredible and I had already seen a rainbow in a small rainstorm and took many photos of that. Seeing a rainbow (’roong’ Thais’ say) is quite a rarity in Thailand!

I had been up at the top for a couple of hours, planning to meditate but on this day it was cooler, the sun wasn’t out full-force and I was plagued by mosquitoes at the spot I wanted to sit. Then the clouds started to change around the 360-degree view and I was happy taking photos. The sky started to grow into one massive storm. There was lightening once every 10 minutes or so. The rain was far away, about 4 miles I’m guessing. The lightening was sometimes as close as 2 miles, but not closer (counted to 10, 1 sec = 1/5 of a mile away).

I was taking photos of the storm (see top pic) when, DURING this photo a strong lightening bolt struck far away, toward the center of the storm and my entire body tingled as if God reached down from the sky and touched me. The hair on my entire body stood up and my skin “tingled” all over…

You know if you put your hand on the glass of an old TV screen and turn it on - you feel that charge and it makes you tingle? It was similar to that, but multiplied by a few factors of 10.

At the same time I felt this incredible sensation I heard the various antennae around me humming (for lack of a better word). I couldn’t move. I was asking myself for about 10 seconds, am I dead now? I was looking at my feet for a body - you know, like I could see it if I was already dead and separate from it! My mouth fell open and I just stood there looking around. One other guy was close to me (10 meters) and was doing the same thing as me… just looking around in an obvious state of shock. He too had felt the awesome power of the lightening bolt miles away.

There was a Buddhist monk and some girls from Denmark that were further away, maybe 30 meters and they didn’t feel it. There were some tourists climbing down the steps that I met up with (because I was getting down QUICK) that said they didn’t feel it either.

Feeling that energy - that charge that made my entire self vibrate, was the most awesome spontaneous experience that I’ve ever had. It was even more incredible than seeing the Northern Lights or bodyboarding a monster wave. I think what made it so cool was because I was totally unprepared for it, and because it really made me wonder in the most profound and truthful way… “Am I dead now?” I was actually considering that question…!

Best of Life!

Vern

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