Ending It All: Jumpers and the Golden Gate Bridge

I was recently made aware of a fascinating article in the New Yorker magazine called "Jumpers." The article (by Tad Friend) describes "the fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge," documenting the fact that about 24 souls per year depart this world by jumping off.

People come from all over just to jump off the bridge. They fly from out of state, take busses or trains or drive. One of the reasons is that the bridge is an easy way to arrange your own suicide. The rail on the bridge's walkway is only 4 feet high and easily scalable by most adults. Anyone who wants can walk the bridge, find an appropriate place, climb the rail and jump.

The Bridge is a cheap, sure and easy way to end one's life, but there is apparently a kind of fatal romance about it too. One's final view of this world is usually one of beauty.

 Most jumpers do it on the side of the bridge facing the coast (the opposite side faces out to sea). The jumper can see Angel Island, Alacatraz Island, Treasure Island, and a Bay filled with sailboats and windsurfers. More people have committed suicide from the Bridge than anywhere else in the world.
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There is a 32 inch beam just behind the barrier that is known as "the chord." Often jumpers stand there for a few moments to get up their nerve. Beyond the chord there is only space and, 220 feet below, the Pacific Ocean. At that distance a body can accelerate to about 80 miles per hour in free fall. The impact generally shatters the rib cage or spine, exploding bone fragments through the internal organs of the heart, spleen, liver and lungs. The Coast Guard usually recovers the bodies but not all of them. Some are swept out to sea and never recovered, becoming food for the crabs. According to the television documentary "The Bridge," 24 people jumped to their deaths in 2004, three of whose bodies were never recovered.
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You can watch "The Bridge" on YouTube and it is touching and thought-provoking. Here's what the YouTube info says about it:

"The Bridge" is a 2006 documentary film by Eric Steel that tells the stories of a handful of individuals who committed suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. The film was inspired by an article entitled "Jumpers," written by Tad Friend appearing in The New Yorker magazine in 2003.

The Bridge focuses on the large number of suicides that occur each year at the Golden Gate Bridge, capturing footage of the suicides and interviewing family members. Also interviewed are people who have attempted suicide at the bridge, witnesses of the suicides, and a jump survivor.

The movie was shot with multiple cameras pointed at a notorious suicide spot on the bridge during 2004. It captured 19 people as they took their final plunge, and then offers interviews with grieving families.

There are nine segments on YouTube, linked below in order to help you find them. I watched them all on Tuesday. I live near San Francisco and have been on the Golden Gate Bridge many times. The soft gray fog is cool and refreshing, the views spectacular. The film captures this and accentuates it with soft music, creating an almost meditative mood.
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I was particularly touched by a young thirty-something man with long, flowing hair, black sunglasses, a black leather jacket and black pants. His name was Gene Sprague and he was from San Jose, California.  The cameras caught him walking back and forth along the safety barrier for some time. Occasionally he paused by the barrier and appeared to be looking at the horizon, no doubt thinking about what he had come to do. I felt myself wishing I could have been there to try and talk him out of it.

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Finally, he climbs the barrier and stands on it, his back to the abyss. Then he gracefully falls backward off of the bridge (photo, above right), plunging downward. Another camera picks up the splash as he hits the Bay. The splash is violent, a tall geyser of white foam, followed by a lesser one seconds later. He does not reappear on the surface. He is dead. What a waste.
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Another segment of the film ends better. A man, Richard Waters of Pittsburgh, was walking the bridge and spies a young woman who has climbed over the barrier and is sitting on the chord, quietly staring at the watery depths below. At first Waters takes photographs of her and then realizes she is about to kill herself. He reaches over the barrier, grabs the collar of her coat and hoists her head first back over the barrier. She fights so he sits on her chest, using his cell phone to dial 911. Rescue personnel arrive quickly on the scene to take the woman away for psychiatric evaluation.
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I really admire private citizens who do heroic things on the spur of the moment. Richard Waters is a hero in my book.
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I do hope that anyone reading this, who is depressed or in psychic pain, to get help because a lot of people do care about you, whether you know it or not. Don't go over the Bridge. Death is permanent and irrevocable. Once you step off into space there is no changing your mind. Be a survivor, not a victim.

Someone did a study and discovered that, of the hundreds who have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, 28 have survived. All of them have said, that once they reached free fall, the first thing in their mind was "Oh God, I don't want to die."
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RELATED LINKS:

Here are the links to the YouTube videos of "The Bridge":

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3

Segment 4

Segment 5

Segment 6

Segment 7

Segment 8

Segment 9
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Other links:

Related article from the U.K. Guardian, "Get Your Suicides Here Folks."

Related article from the U.K. Times Online, "The Bridge of Broken Dreams."

Related article from the U.K. Independent, "Bridge to Nowhere."

Suicide Prevention: If you are contemplating taking your own life, seek help.

Stephen King's "Duma Key"

I just read Stephen King's novel "Duma Key" and found it horrifically enjoyable. King always finds a seemingly plausible way for his characters to intersect the paranormal. In this novel the major character is Edgar Freemantle, a former construction contractor whose head is crushed in an accident; he also loses his right arm. His brain was damaged in a place called "the Broca's area," creating a "contracoup injury." He survives the injuries and goes to a small island off the Florida coast called Duma Key to recuperate.

To pass the time, Freemantle takes up sketching and painting and instantly begins turning out masterpieces. But his newfound talent, as well as the scenes he paints, somehow flow through his altered brain from the supernatural. His phantom right arm also gives him a connection to the other plane, and when the missing arm begins to itch, the only way to stop it is to paint. On Duma Key, a phantom limb is more than a medical phenomenon; it is a ghostly one as well.

I like fiction that allows us to imagine other planes, other dimensions, where human souls may go after physical death, or from where other spiritual entities dwell (some of them evil or malevolent). King does this very well. The evil spirit in "Duma Key" comes in the form of a china figure that is recovered from old ship wreckage in the surf, uncovered after a hurricane. The spirit's name is Perse and she is nasty and vicious to living souls. She kills people who cross her.

King does not explain how Perse came into existence or why she is antagonistic to humans. It really doesn't matter, however. When walking by a cemetery in the middle of the night, one doesn't generally worry about how malevolent spirits come to be; one only worries about avoiding them.

King's novels are entertainment, but for me they always seem to probe the boundaries of where everyday reality ends and the supernatural begins -- and that's what makes them fun.

"Dead Like Me" - a Compelling Television Series

"Dead Like Me" was one of my favorite television series. It ran only two seasons and was not picked up for a third. Too bad. I liked the stories concerning life and death and what it all means. The story line is about an 18 year old girl, Georgia Lass (played by Ellen Muth) who is killed on the first day of her first job -- by falling debris from a Russian space station. She then is chosen to be a "reaper" as in "grim reaper." Her duties in her new undead state is to walk among the living, harvesting souls that are assigned to her on high. But, she regrets her missed opportunities and she misses her family and sometimes breaks the rules to see her loved ones again.

Here is the first episode following the pilot film. Enjoy.

It's Not a Matter of Life and Death -- Or Maybe It Is

I started this blog to explore possible alternate realities -- not crazy moonbat stuff, like whether Bigfoot and Elvis got married and are now living in Boulder. No, not like that. However, dry skeptics bug me, the ones who deny that anything at all exists beyond the limits of their five senses. They are...BORING.

Although many of the themes I want to pursue here are often derived from eastern mysticism and philosophy, I am just a normal (sort of) American guy; I don't shave my head, burn incense, or wear saffron robes while chanting in the full lotus position. All that too is ritual and dogma, and I hate religious ritual and dogma because they are substitutes for thinking and the use of one's own intuition.

So don't be put off by the eastern symbols in my banner. I'll probably change that soon to something that more closely reflects who I am: someone who is intrigued with life and death and the barrier between, and what happens to those who cross over from the former to the latter.

Update:  I removed the eastern symbols for now.  I have also renamed the working blog name as "The Candle" as many will find "The Third Eye" a bit too hippy acid-rock 1969.

David Carradine: Death of a Shaolin Priest

David Carradine, a remarkable actor, died this past week by hanging himself in his Bangkok hotel room.  What a sad end for an actor whose role as a Shaolin Priest in the TV series Kung-Fu so inspired me in the 1970's.

I remember the first episode so well.  It was March of 1972, and that very day the Chinese girl that I was in love with told me that our love affair was over and that there would be no reconciliation.  Heartbroken, I turned on the TV and saw the first episode -- of a half Chinese boy who became a Shaolin Monk and learned, not only the art of self-defense, but many great spiritual truths as well.  Seeing the first episode, I wished that I might be like that Shaolin Monk, living with a calm soul and freed from the pain and bitterness of my failed romance.

As a young man freshly graduated from the monastery, Cane, as Carradine's character was called, killed a Chinese prince in retaliation for his murder of Master Po, Cane's mentor.  Cane then fled to America and the Old West, where he regularly encountered all kinds of low-lifes, putting them in their place with a few deft karate kicks and neck chops.  All the while, however, he was soft spoken and gentle, seeking a peaceful way if one was possible, resorting to force only to protect himself and the innocent.

What impressed me most about the Cane character was his spirituality, the calmness in his soul, his complete lack of the fear of death; how he never offended anyone's religious beliefs but afforded them the benefit of a doubt, knowing somehow that we are all brethren in the soul, all made of the same stuff, both flesh and spirit.

I always think of the Cane character as a sort of role model, even though he was fictional; a spiritual person who allowed the banality and turbulence of human existence to flow around him, as the river flows around a rock, neither consuming evil nor allowing himself to be consumed by it.  He was the tree that bends in a strong wind and so survives.

I will miss David Carradine and the beautiful images of courage, self-mastery and spirituality that his Cane character conveyed so convincingly.

The Near Death Experience: Spooky Tales or Proof of Life After Death?

Everyone has heard of the “near death experience,” or NDE for short. The NDE happens so often it is almost commonplace. The experience happens to people who suffer some accident or physical trauma that puts them at the point of death. It involves a feeling of leaving the body, of looking down at their own sleeping form from above. Some also see a bright light and experience moving through a long tunnel towards that light. It is common for NDE patients to have a “life review,” wherein they are made to remember the major events of their lives, the successes and the failures. They often meet a figure in white garments who greets them into the light, and tells them that their time is not yet, to return to the land of the living.

For most of us who hope there is life after death, such stories are comforting. However, they are “anecdotal,” that is, personal stories that cannot be evaluated scientifically or objectively.

I once worked with a woman in an accounting firm, whom I will call “Sandra,” who one day told me about her NDE. She had a miscarriage and something had gone wrong during her period of recuperation at home. During the night she hemorrhaged badly. Her husband was awakened by the warm pool of blood, and found his wife unconscious. Their mattress was soaked with blood. He quickly threw on some clothes and carried his unconscious wife to the car, then rushed her to the hospital.

He exited the car, trying to carry Sandra into the emergency room, when suddenly an ambulance driver saw him struggling and rushed over to help. The ambulance driver, a big, tall man, threw my friend over his shoulder and began running towards the emergency room door, slapping her legs as he did so to stimulate circulation. Sandra remembers the details well, even though she was unconscious. She watched it all happen just over the ambulance driver’s shoulder.

Sandra was wheeled quickly into a surgery room, where she watched the frantic doctors struggling to save her life. That is to say, she watched from the ceiling of the operating room, looking down on her own body and the doctors around her. Her husband tried to come in and the doctors pushed him out. As doctors shouted orders to nurses and transfusion equipment was hurriedly prepared, Sandra felt relaxed, comfortable and unworried. She was surprised by all the fuss, which she felt to be unnecessary.

Sandra did not travel through the tunnel towards a light like many others. She just awakened in her hospital bed and thought, “wow, that was weird!” Later, Sandra verified the details she remembered with her husband and the operating room doctors; the facts all checked out, i.e., they were not merely hallucinations.

A few years ago I read a book called “Closer to the Light: Learning From Near Death Experiences of Children,” by Dr. Melvin Morse, M.D. Dr. Morse treated some children who had nearly died, one by almost drowning in the family swimming pool. When he was examining the children following their recovery, they told him startling stories of a world beyond this one. He later got a research grant and studied the phenomenon in children.

Morse said he thought children would provide interesting data, as they are too young and innocent to be embarrassed by such experiences, and are less likely than adults to color these experiences with previous religious or cultural programming. The result was his fascinating book. I read the book right after my father died, and found it to be a great source of comfort and hope.

Amazon now lists many books on the Near Death Experience. One of the first, if not THE first book on the subject, was Raymond Moody’s “Life After Life.” Moody, if I remember correctly, was teaching at a university where the subject of NDE’s came up. He described the experience to his class and asked them how many of them knew someone who had experienced a NDE. A number of hands shot up. This intrigued Moody, a doctor, who began studying it in depth and eventually writing his ground-breaking book on the subject.

Moody concluded that there are nine experiences common to most people who have had a near death experience. These are:

hearing sounds such as buzzing
a feeling of peace and painlessness
having an out-of-body experience
a feeling of traveling through a tunnel
a feeling of rising into the heavens
seeing people, often dead relatives
meeting a spiritual being such as God
seeing a review of one’s life
feeling a reluctance to return to life

This is a topic I find fascinating.

More on Amazing Coincidence (Synchronicity)

A couple of years back I indulged a longtime interest in coincidences and bought two books on the subject. One was Incredible Coincidences, the Baffling World of Synchronicity by Alan Vaughan. The book was published in 1989 and is now out of print, so I had to buy it through used book dealers via Amazon.com. Alan Vaughan relates various true life strange coincidences in the book but also delves into the theory of coincidences, termed “synchronicity” by Psychologist Carl Jung. Synchronicity is basically meaningful coincidences that happen without cause, i.e. they are acausal. What is really interesting is the implications these phenomena point to, namely, that the human mind is capable of extrordinary things not fully understood, and that the nature of reality is not so cut-and-dried as we might think.

Vaughan’s tales of coincidences are interesting if not fascinating. For example, he tells of a woman in Berekely, California who is locked out of her house and wondering how to get in. Then the postman walks up and hands her a letter from her brother. Inside is a spare key.

A housewife loses her ring in a potato field. Forty years later she is cutting a potato and finds the ring inside.

Most coincidences are not startling, just interesting. The second book I read was What A Coincidence, the Wow Factor in Synchronicity by Susan Watkins. It was a book I found while browsing Amazon.com and sounded interesting, so I ordered it.

Susan relates a number of personal coincidences that are interesting but not necessarily astounding. She notes that coincidences seem to happen in clusters, or sometimes update themselves with the passage of time. As if to illustrate coincidences, she tells about her son Sean who rode a motorcycle (against her wishes). Interesting. I have a son Sean who rode a motorcycle and I nagged him regularly to give it up. Finally he did. Okay, that is not an earth shaking coincidence, just a mildly interesting one.

However, Susan tells of how her son Sean moved to San Francisco in 1989 and lived through the big earthquake that year. While he was there, she looked on a map and was surprised to see that there was a little town called Hollister south of San Francisco. She thought it significant, because she had lived on a street named Hollister. I thought it was pretty significant too, as I was sitting in my backyard in Hollister, California reading about Susan thinking about Hollister, California. She lives on the East Coast. Hollister is a small cow town with about 15,000 residents. It is not well known by any means. Okay Susan, you got my attention. What better way to teach coincidences than by demonstrating one?

We all have stories of coincidences that were meaningful to us. One of my most striking ones happened three years ago. I have a friend named Larry who lives in Gilroy, California. I had been helping him with his tax returns and negotiating with the IRS. Our efforts were difficult but successful. It was a big relief to both of us.

Two weeks later I flew to Seattle, Washington to begin a consulting assignment there. I got off the plane and walked to the rental car area where I was told to take the elevator down. However, I pushed the wrong button and went a floor further down than I should have. When the elevator doors opened, I walked out just as Larry was walking in. He cried, “Gary, what are you doing here?” I said “Larry???”

Larry was there to drop off a rental car after visiting relatives in Seattle. I was there to pick up a rental car. If I had not pushed the wrong elevator button, we would have missed each other completely. The fact that we were there, 800 miles from home, in the same spot at the same time was incredible. Neither of us knew the other would be in Seattle. What are the odds?

Another coincidence of the everyday variety involved my first son, Gary Jr. Gary used to drive a big rig truck up and down the west coast. Starting from northern Washington he would drive all the way to Los Angeles and back. One morning he was driving through the Bay Area and called me on his cell phone. We were yakking it up when Gary asked me where I was. I told him I was stopped at a light at the intersection of Highway 25 and 156. He said, “I’m approaching that intersection now.” I couldn’t see in his direction, as there was a large Pepsi truck on my right side blocking my view of Highway 156. I told Gary, “There’s a big Pepsi truck on my right side.” He replied, “I see it!” Then WHOOSH! His big rig went speeding through the intersection and we saw each other just for a second as he sped out of sight. “I saw you!” he exclaimed. “I saw you too!” I replied.

This was another interesting and meaningful coincidence. Gary Jr. drives a route of 1,500 miles and finds me at the same intersection for a split second in the morning of a workday. If I’d left the house five minutes earlier or five minutes later, we would have missed each other.

I love coincidences and synchronicity. They are like chili peppers in the gruel of life.