Stephen and I were doing some odd jobs at a home in Wonder Valley in the late spring of 2010. Stephen was repairing the roof of an outdoor pagoda in a kind of Zen garden with rocks and sculptures, and I was doing yard work about 200 feet away.
The day was getting hot and Stephen wanted to get off the roof without messing up the roofing job he’d just finished. The top of the roof was about 10 feet high. Next to the roof was a 8-foot-tall, 6×6 inch post. Stephen decided to get down off the roof by stepping on this post then jumping down.
But instead of successfully standing on the post, his foot slipped out from under him and he started to fall. Just as he missed his footing he felt a surge of terror realizing he was in big trouble.
Most people in this situation will experience a state called “living in the moment.”
During dangerous accidents, our perceptions become hyper-aware and time seems to slow down. People describe this state like they are moving in slow motion, somehow horribly unable to stop whatever inevitable accident is taking place.
Stephen entered this state at the beginning of the fall, and experienced the usual time distortion, but then in the middle of the fall, he felt a sense of being supported right before blacking out. He couldn’t remember anything until he hit the ground.
He landed on his head on the concrete. He let out a loud yell and I came running.
Stephen had fallen in between three large rocks, a sculpture and a vase. He was only a few inches away from all these things, any one of which would have injured him had he fallen on them. At the time it seemed like a miracle that he didn’t hit anything.
He had a knot on his head from the fall, but didn’t seem to be injured in any other way.
We kept reassessing his condition over the next few hours, but he never showed any signs of concussion.
Stephen believes this might be another case of divine intervention.
