What happens after we die?
Oct. 10, 2023

#348 - 16 Year Old Scott's Experience With Suicide and Hell

#348 - 16 Year Old Scott's Experience With Suicide and Hell
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Round Trip Death
WARNING: This episode contains graphic discussion about a suicide attempt and may be inappropriate for children and those sensitive to this topic. Scott Bowman grew up in very difficult circumstances. His biological father was murdered a week before he was born. He was abused by family, lived in the foster care system, and eventually in a juvenile detention center. All of this eventually led to a suicide attempt when he was 16 years old. This episode details this attempt, and his experience with hell, God, and the "other guy." Learn how he was saved and how this experience left him with no fear of death. Scott describes doing this interview as both "brutal and awesome at the same time." RoundTripDeath.com Donate to the show https://www.roundtripdeath.com/support/
Transcript
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Hey everyone, just a quick warning about this episode of Round Trip Death.

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It includes graphic discussion about a suicide attempt that may be inappropriate for children

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and those sensitive to this topic.

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From the time that they pronounced me dead was a good 45 minutes.

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They cut my clothes and then they paddled my hocks, my heart had stopped,

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and I could see people screaming and crying, but I didn't realize that was actually my physical

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body because I was somewhere else.

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The only thing that I could feel if you could imagine absolute love and peace,

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there wasn't anything else to be felt.

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I was greeted by people I'd known in the past.

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I'm back home again.

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Incredibly safe and felt at home.

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Welcome to Round Trip Death, everybody.

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You have found the number one near-death experience podcast.

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So congratulations and welcome.

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And it's because of you.

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So thank you very much to our listeners.

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And a big welcome to our special guest today, Scott Bowman.

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Coming to us from the middle of the continent, St. Louis, Missouri.

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How are you today, Scott?

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I'm doing fantastic.

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Thanks so much for having me, Eric.

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Hey, do you mind letting our listeners get to know you a little bit?

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Tell us about you.

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Well, I'm about to be 50 years old.

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I'm a USMC Combat Veteran and a flooring installer here in St. Louis.

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You look 25, by the way.

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Oh, well, I thank you so much, Flattery.

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You'll get you everywhere.

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Sorry, go ahead.

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You're a flooring installer.

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Yeah, I'm a flooring installer for Evans Flooring here in St. Louis.

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It's a family-owned company that has been very powerful in my life and just giving me

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a sense of belonging.

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The trades are great, brother.

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People are getting downsized everywhere.

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We're busy.

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And it gives a man some connection to creationism within himself.

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And making the world a better place, one home at a time.

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It's kind of the way.

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Yeah, I used to say no one ever wants to be a floor guy, but you spend enough of your life

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rock bottom.

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You figure you might as well spruce up the place a bit.

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I like it.

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I like it.

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And working with your hands, that's a great thing.

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Does it feel good when you're done laying?

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I don't know if you do carpet or wood or what, but when you're done with a whole floor,

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just take a step back and go, I did that.

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Oh, yeah.

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Yeah, I specialize in exotic hardwoods and all higher-end residential homes.

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I do a lot of custom stairs as well.

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And people want it.

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There are lots of trades where it's something like, I have to get this or I have to get that.

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But for us at Evans, we get to sort of be dream makers.

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Or, oh, I always wanted an oak floor.

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I always wanted some Brazilian cherry in my home.

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Or I just always wanted to get this new, but they've been waiting their whole lives for

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their kids to grow up, no rollerblading on the house.

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And so being able to do that, as a combat veteran, you get people that want to thank

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you for your service a lot.

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We hate that.

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It was a job.

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It's a job that I was young and dumb and I needed something to straighten me up anyway.

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And you can only walk through so many opium fields and oil fields before you're like,

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maybe this isn't about freedom.

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But when a homeowner shows that appreciation and gratitude for me for changing their entire

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home, increasing the value, increasing the equity, I actually get to feel like a hero.

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I actually did something great for this person.

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That's awesome.

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And you get paid for it.

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And I get paid quite well actually.

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There's a 70% vacancy rate in the trade right now.

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Wow.

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Okay.

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This show is all about near-death experiences.

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We're going to talk about yours.

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I want a little background leading up to it because it tells part of the story.

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Would you mind telling me a little bit about what your life was like growing up?

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Yeah.

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That's the little bit part is the most difficult.

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I had a very, very challenging childhood.

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My biological father was murdered a week before I was born.

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My mother was just a teenager.

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This was in inner-city Chicago.

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My grandfather, whom she lived with, was a World War II veteran, had a bullet in his

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brain.

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And her brother was mentally disabled, extremely mentally challenged.

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She was born, breached with a billy-coat cord around his neck.

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So here she is, a little girl with a little boy all alone with no one to take care of her.

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And immediately I dealt with a lot of trauma that we don't even know the cause of it, whether

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it was my grandfather or my disabled uncle.

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But I was found with ruses, crying upstairs alone.

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A lot of neglected abuse happening before my mother even could finish college and started

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taking care of me herself.

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I spent my fifth to fast forward.

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I spent my fifth birthday in a hospital.

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I spent my fifth birthday in a Lakeshore mental institution in an abused children's unit.

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And years and years of my life, I was in and out of different institutions, juvenile homes,

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foster care, group homes.

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None of them were terrible.

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In fact, when you look at the experiences of children in today's foster group here with

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similar experiences, the level of abuse and trauma they have is almost worse than when

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they were in the home.

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But all of that really stopped for me when I was out of the home.

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I didn't have stepfathers beating me.

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I'd been hospitalized several times for child abuse that led to these consistent out-home

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placements.

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But honestly, God protected me through the vast majority of these facilities and homes

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where they were good homes and I just wasn't a good fit.

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I had a very high IQ.

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And one of these facilities, I was tested and found to have an IQ of 186.

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To put that in reference, Einstein's was 169.

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So my ability to create destruction and chaos around me was just very high.

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I could take all these things apart.

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I could escape.

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I had been running away my entire life just trying to be an adult and a child's body,

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understanding things of a spiritual nature.

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I mean, I read Homer's Iliad in the Odyssey when I was eight years old.

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And that led to a world of study of myth and religion and spirituality that just followed

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me to this day.

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But I never, ever felt home.

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I never had a good structure.

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I never had parents other than my relationship with God, which developed at a very, very early age.

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Sometimes I wonder if abused children have some connection with God broken open with them

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that just makes them closer, father to the fatherless, as we talked about.

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Talked about once before.

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And that can create a sort of bitterness.

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Well, if you're my dad, why are you such an absent father?

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Why are things so hard for me?

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Why can't I have a home?

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And just even places that I really loved.

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In fact, often the place where I was like, oh, I want to stay here.

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I want to be your little boy.

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Can I be this?

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For whatever reason, just wouldn't work out.

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And then eventually, being a six foot one, 200 pound man today, I developed into this

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larger child quite quickly.

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And you sort of, well, here's a child with behavioral issues, child abuse, child trauma,

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incredible high tolerances for pain.

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And we're going to take him into our home.

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It's not something you can expect a family with other small children that's working in

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foster care to want to take on.

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It's a heavy burden.

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Yeah, that really is.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I wound up, the best places for me were always like juvenile correction facilities

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or sort of academies.

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And some of those experiences were good, but there would always be this battle for freedom

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and control that would yield me in violent situations or escape situations.

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I'm just going to pack a bag, set up my timing, use my extreme intellect to know when I'm

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going to leave and escape.

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And once you escape a facility so many times, they don't want you back.

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They just send you to juvenile corrections and obviously you don't want to be here.

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So we'll find a different place for you.

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So this evening that we're going to talk about, I believe you had mentioned to me before

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you were in a parochial school.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, a fantastic one.

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The thing is I'm going to name drop them a bit, let me not trash talk Norris as a facility.

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A beautiful school campus, fantastic staff.

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The children are broken up into different pods or wings, each with a different name

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and a different focus.

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So they're trying to make sure that they don't put children that have been through extreme

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sexual abuse with extreme physical abuse or drug abuse.

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You know, where they tried to find the best place for you.

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The facility is in a very natural region in rural Wisconsin.

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There's a stocked lake there and game rooms and lots of great activities.

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And some of the things I learned from the staff, people there like Big Dan and Cuomo

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and some of the wonderful young ladies there have held me to this day and have been a part

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of creating healthy coping skills.

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But the problem with all of these facilities isn't the adults, it's the children.

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And when you take children out of these painful places that have some very dark coping skills,

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you can share these coping skills like, oh, that cutting and drug use and all of these

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things, oh, that works for you.

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And in bulimia and sort of eating disorders, you'll sort of absorb one another's disorders

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like a sponge because your children, you're young, you're malleable.

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Child on child abuse is one of the most common abuses on the country.

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And for our generation is Gen Xers.

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We're all latchkey kids.

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Parents weren't around as it was anyway.

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So we were all self-taught.

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We were all kind of on our own on the tracks, if you would.

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And that led to some very unhealthy and dangerous situations for sure.

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Now, initially to the evening in question, I had been a little younger when I first got

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to Norris and they put me in what was called the West Wing.

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It's an all-young children unit, regardless of your trauma and whatnot.

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If you were under a certain age, you went to West Wing.

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It's probably one of the highlights of my childhood actually because of the staff.

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They were all really sweet, good-natured and gentle.

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And there was a lot of structure, which I was craving, dearly, dearly craving it.

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And I had never been so well-behaved in my entire life, too well-behaved so that when

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I had had a birthday and I had reached a certain point, they had decided that they were going

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to send me to the group home.

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You know, they were like, this kid never does anything wrong.

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He's always helping the other kids.

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He's always doing well.

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His grades are great.

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Let's reward him by sending him to this group home called New Beginnings.

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It's right there on the same facilities.

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You get access, but you get to go to town, which is kind of fun.

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You can get on a bike and go to town and hang out with some of the local girls, which for

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a young adolescent boy is about the greatest thing ever.

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Unfortunately, this also introduces some substance issues.

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Like, you've got access to alcohol.

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These girls can steal from their parents' liquor cabinets, and they're hanging out with the

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bad kids from the group home for a reason.

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And there's fighting and whatnot.

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They're rowdy boys.

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We're not as washed as we were on the other facility.

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And eventually, several incidents had happened to the point where I didn't have an off switch,

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a really long fuse, but once it goes off, there's no off switch.

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Well, if this is the limit of how we can be, I'm going way past it.

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And so they wound up kicking me out of the group home and sending me to the druggy unit,

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if you will, just called New Day.

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And that was just a very dark place.

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And here I am, where I'd finally found a home, if you will.

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It was as much of a home as I had ever had at West Wing, to being moved again.

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I was good, and you took me out of my home.

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So it doesn't matter if I'm bad or good, I'm constantly punished either way.

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It really creates conflict in a child's mind.

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And now here I am in a place where I didn't have any substance abuse issues.

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In fact, I had never even thought of using substances until you sent me to that group

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home.

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Do you remember how old you were then?

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Yeah.

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Yeah, that would have been 16.

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So here I am 16.

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At this point, I had been being shipped around the country across several different state

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lines from facility to facility, some of which were far more psychiatric facilities, where

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when you have an extremely high IQ and advanced psychologists and students of psychology are

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experimenting on you, you're learning things that the human mind doesn't need to know as

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far as manipulation and what your worth is.

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And it definitely creates a sort of dark attachments in a human being.

235
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:54,640
I almost went into psychology.

236
00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:59,200
But that was the first thing I studied at Mizzou here when I went to college with my

237
00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:00,200
GI grant.

238
00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:05,440
And I was just like, man, I don't want to make a living turning normal personality quarks

239
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:07,600
into dysfunction for profit.

240
00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:09,720
And I just wanted to figure myself out.

241
00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:14,520
And the young interns and whatnot that are at the whim of these psychologists that control

242
00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:17,600
some of these darker facilities, they don't care.

243
00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:19,960
You're just data for them.

244
00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:26,640
And so a lot of that culminated in this position where here I am in another one of these cold

245
00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:31,360
sterile facilities where now I don't know anybody again.

246
00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:37,560
Now I'm alone and I'm kind of an outsider and nobody wants me.

247
00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:43,480
And at this point, I never really wanted to kill myself.

248
00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:47,240
I was talking with this to the wife the other night.

249
00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:49,440
Suicide wasn't the goal.

250
00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,280
Or was it attention?

251
00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:54,280
What I wanted was freedom and control.

252
00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:55,280
I felt punished.

253
00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:56,640
I felt punished by God.

254
00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:59,440
I felt very angry with him.

255
00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:07,120
The only thing I can write that's of any value to God is this life, this temple.

256
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:12,320
And that's the only way I can hurt him in a way he's allowed me to be hurt is to destroy

257
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:13,320
this thing.

258
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,840
And on this night, I set out to do just that.

259
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,400
And how did you do it?

260
00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:26,000
Well, you learned a lot of ways in these facilities on how to harm yourself and to get attention

261
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,240
and whatnot.

262
00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:34,720
And the one thing that I found was this sort of the most successful implement was your

263
00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:36,320
toothpaste packet.

264
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:43,400
This is a small, maybe one inch by five inch aluminum foil packet coated in a plastic coating.

265
00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:44,400
I'm sure you've seen that.

266
00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,280
And they're often in camping and travel kits.

267
00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:54,160
And if you strip off that plastic coating, the corners are razor, razor sharp.

268
00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:59,520
And so before the evening, it's early in the day and everybody's kind of getting ready

269
00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:01,560
to go to their groups and their meetings.

270
00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:07,200
I sharpen both corners of one as clean as I could that were on the opposite from the

271
00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:08,200
open end.

272
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:09,200
And then I hit it.

273
00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,840
So this was a very premeditated event.

274
00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:18,200
I am going to break loose of this mortal coil this evening.

275
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:20,280
So I stashed that.

276
00:17:20,280 --> 00:17:28,200
And now at night after bed, when they do lights out, about every hour or so, a staff person

277
00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:31,400
does a walk down the hall.

278
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:36,880
And these rooms are about eight by 10 rooms with a door in one corner and at the very

279
00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,200
opposite end of corner of your bed.

280
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:40,200
Comfy enough.

281
00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:47,000
And then a small window in the door that's of a height to where only an adult would be

282
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:48,480
able to peek through.

283
00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:52,560
So that way the staff person that's on shift can peek in on the kids when they're sleeping

284
00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:53,560
and make sure.

285
00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:54,560
But I figure I got an hour.

286
00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:58,200
I got an hour to make this thing happen.

287
00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:04,600
So I wait until Andrew, who was a third shifter for that evening, comes past my room.

288
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:09,640
And literally the moment he passes by my door and checks.

289
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:18,200
I pull my cover down, exposing the radial artery in my left arm.

290
00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:19,200
Right.

291
00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:20,200
Inside your elbow.

292
00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:21,200
Yeah.

293
00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:26,000
The inside of the elbow, as you can see right there, scarred to there to this day.

294
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:30,120
And I began working my way through, sort of cutting a trough.

295
00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:35,720
Now, you know, for a child that's been through extreme levels of child abuse, this little

296
00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:41,280
stinging pain with each sort of, you know, little cut, because you got to work your way

297
00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:42,280
down.

298
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:43,280
It's not a real razor blade.

299
00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:44,280
It doesn't open it up at once.

300
00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:45,760
It takes some time.

301
00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:52,120
And you start as you start going through, you know, the different dermal layers, it

302
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:53,880
gets a little emotional.

303
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:54,880
You start sweating.

304
00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:57,880
Your blood starts pumping through your veins.

305
00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:03,800
Kind of have to take little breaks, you know, and you keep going on.

306
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:09,800
And the pain starts getting a little bit more intense as you get through the initial dermal

307
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:17,440
layers and you start kind of getting hung up, if you will, on the meteor tissue and tendon

308
00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:23,760
tissue, the stuff that's in the way of that arterial sort of tissue.

309
00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:26,800
The sound, the sound is awful.

310
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:30,040
It's kind of sickening, you know, but you just keep working.

311
00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:32,040
And there's not a lot of blood at this point either.

312
00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:34,760
It's just all really superficial stuff.

313
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:39,760
Now, mind you, I'm laying down and then doing this laying down in bed.

314
00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:43,360
I've got my like, my knee up and my arm kind of stretched across.

315
00:19:43,360 --> 00:19:46,360
I'm just working my way down as much as I can.

316
00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:47,600
And it kind of opens up.

317
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:52,640
The wound opens up a little bit more, a little bit more, you know, until eventually you can

318
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,040
you can full seed the artery there.

319
00:19:56,040 --> 00:20:02,880
In fact, it's almost until this point until I had exposed and opened up that arterial

320
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:07,480
cavity, if you will, and I can I can see in there.

321
00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:11,200
It wasn't like I was attempting to kill myself.

322
00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:18,040
I wasn't crying or saying why God, because it's so premeditated where I was like, if

323
00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:24,000
this is the end result, if this is the course of my life, then this is the plan I'm taking.

324
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:31,840
It was more so like I was attempting to break out of a prison with a spoon, you know, like

325
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:36,880
I'm just scooping out this tunnel and I'm very focused and I want to be quiet.

326
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:45,520
I was more apprehensive and had more anxiety about getting caught by the staff person than

327
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:54,400
I was apprehensive about my mortality, about ending my life until this moment.

328
00:20:54,400 --> 00:21:00,360
Once the the the arteries exposed, and I can see it, you know, I can literally see the

329
00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:02,320
artery pulsing in there.

330
00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:03,320
My heart is beating.

331
00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:09,040
You know, there's a ton of sweat on my brow, the sort of gravity of what I was about to

332
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:10,840
do really sets in.

333
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:12,360
And tears started to come.

334
00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:17,760
I couldn't say I was crying, but I couldn't, I definitely the tears were just flowing down

335
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:19,920
my face or it's like, this is it.

336
00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:26,600
And I set my eyes on the ceiling and I turned around the toothpaste packet to the unused

337
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:32,760
sharp side and I held it against that artery and I just really fast just ripped out.

338
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:38,560
And I could immediately feel this like just warmth just like began pulling down me and

339
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:40,880
I still hadn't looked at it.

340
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:45,360
And then I did it when I did him feel fear.

341
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:46,860
I felt relief.

342
00:21:46,860 --> 00:21:54,320
I felt like like a construction worker that is just put his last board in on a big flooring

343
00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:55,320
project.

344
00:21:55,320 --> 00:22:00,880
And I laid my arm down flat along my side with the wound filling up.

345
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:07,720
I could smell this sort of metallic coppery smell in the air, hold the cover up over my

346
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:12,200
chest and close my eyes just relaxed.

347
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:17,200
And I had to think that I didn't pray.

348
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:21,960
All this time I spent talking to God, I felt like I had said everything I wanted to say

349
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:22,960
to God.

350
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:28,480
I just figured I was going to go to sleep for the last time.

351
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:33,120
I listened to my heartbeat normalize because I'm calming down.

352
00:22:33,120 --> 00:22:40,280
And I listened to the hum of a facility whenever you're in one of these facilities, they all

353
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:42,880
sound kind of the same.

354
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:46,320
There's a hum of the fluorescent lights in the hall.

355
00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,120
Some TV plays in the distance.

356
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:51,440
A phone rings.

357
00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:52,440
It's just the same.

358
00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:56,360
The same sound in a hospital.

359
00:22:56,360 --> 00:23:00,200
This sort of buzz because it's building as a live itself.

360
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:01,840
I just listened to that.

361
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,520
And eventually it was different than falling asleep.

362
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:12,360
I actually began to feel like I was sort of sinking, sinking into my covers, into the

363
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:13,360
bed.

364
00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:14,360
Right.

365
00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:18,680
I guess I kind of couldn't tell anymore where the bed began.

366
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:23,440
I ended and then down further and further.

367
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,560
And that continued for some time.

368
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,920
I couldn't even tell you how long that continued.

369
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,920
But eventually something changed.

370
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:34,120
I felt like I was being sucked down.

371
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:36,400
Like I was being pulled out.

372
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,600
And even this was just a very interesting experience.

373
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:44,240
This is until a sort of pulling.

374
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:52,880
I can't say it was hands or claws or anything, but it was a thing or many things that began

375
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:54,400
pulling me down.

376
00:23:54,400 --> 00:24:01,720
And that is when this laughter began, a sort of slow motion laughter.

377
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:09,360
Like if a laugh track was playing on a TV and you put it on like one tenth speed, except

378
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:15,920
every crescendo of the laugh impacted me.

379
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:21,760
Like I could feel it in the sort of fiber of my being and myself.

380
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,360
Something I heard in my ears.

381
00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,480
It was something I felt.

382
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:35,920
And I became overwhelmed with a powerful sense of dread that I had made a tragic mistake,

383
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:39,440
a permanent tragic mistake.

384
00:24:39,440 --> 00:24:46,240
But yet even then, as I was writing about this in my journal the other night, I just

385
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,240
kind of accepted it.

386
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:54,760
I didn't beg for God's forgiveness or for anyone or anything to come save me.

387
00:24:54,760 --> 00:25:02,160
I just kind of accepted that this was the choice I made and what was suffering if it

388
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,280
was eternal anyway.

389
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:09,840
This would just be it forever, except that it wasn't.

390
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,920
And I don't know when it stopped or where it stopped.

391
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:20,320
All I remember is the coming awake in a very fuzzy hospital room.

392
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:27,440
That I can remember the hospital room, but I can't remember anyone that was present there.

393
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,320
I can't remember anyone coming and talking to me.

394
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,920
I don't remember when my arm was bandaged.

395
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:40,720
And I also don't remember leaving the hospital and being back at Norris.

396
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:47,560
My next memory, in fact, is sitting in a chair in front of one of these little tables that

397
00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:53,520
they have in every hospital next to a window on a beautiful sunny day.

398
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:59,840
I had 72 hours locked down where I wasn't allowed to leave the unit and I was on intense

399
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:01,960
observation.

400
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,000
And different doctors and staff people would come and talk to me regularly.

401
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:14,760
And I remember this woman coming and telling me how Andrew, that staff person, it wasn't

402
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:21,520
even time for him to do the walkthrough yet, but he had seen this weird dark substance

403
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,760
like near the door in the hallway.

404
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:30,960
And had came to investigate and the blood, you know, about 10 feet, because it's an 8

405
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:39,880
by 10 room, had poured all the way and because of the slope of the room, had poured all the

406
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:43,400
way under the door and my arm was hanging off the bed.

407
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:48,720
So I guess at some point it had slipped out from the covers and it had been able to wick

408
00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:53,680
its way down my arm and down the room.

409
00:26:53,680 --> 00:27:00,920
And Andrew had screamed for help and rushed in and with his fingers had pinched that arm

410
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:08,000
artery to stop the bleeding from anymore and had held it the entire way to the hospital,

411
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:12,040
which was white some ways away, right?

412
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:14,400
Like this is a rural facility.

413
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,560
So it was several hours.

414
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:21,040
I guess he had had nerve damage in his hand from holding it for that long because he'd

415
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:26,320
cut off the circulation to his fingers in order to save my life.

416
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:31,880
This man saved my life, I never got to thank him, I never even saw him again.

417
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:37,000
He was a third shifter and most of the third shifters were students, you know?

418
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:42,840
So who knows what path his life took after this incident.

419
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:49,680
As for me, I did not stop self-harm.

420
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:57,120
It only happened again when I was really, really trapped and it definitely happened

421
00:27:57,120 --> 00:27:59,760
in a much more superficial way.

422
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:08,520
That laughter, sound, the very fiber of my soul stuck with me throughout my entire life.

423
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:15,360
One would think that it would have a more pivotal effect, but for whatever reason, when

424
00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:23,000
I have absolutely everything I want in my life, I forget that sound and what it means

425
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,360
is waiting for you.

426
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:33,440
And I take glory away from God and I forget all the blessings and protection that's been

427
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:37,040
there in my life.

428
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,160
That's kind of ancient history for me now.

429
00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:41,840
Let's take a breath.

430
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:42,840
Yeah.

431
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:43,840
I know I need one.

432
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:49,680
I don't know about you, but man, that is rough.

433
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:55,240
On this show, we hear from so many people have these beautiful near-death experiences

434
00:28:55,240 --> 00:29:00,840
that are lifted up at opposite of you, up out of their body.

435
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:02,440
They can see down on it.

436
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:09,320
Some people go through this tunnel to the light and see rainbows and, you know, I'm

437
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:16,560
almost said unicorns, nobody sees unicorns, but the idea of this wonderful, beautiful,

438
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,680
loving experience.

439
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,360
And yours was not that way.

440
00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:24,600
Let me just make sure I've got all of this.

441
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,160
It really consisted of a couple of things.

442
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:29,720
One feeling like you were pulled down.

443
00:29:29,720 --> 00:29:32,960
Well, initially, it was just a sinking.

444
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:37,200
It was just like I was floating down, if you will.

445
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:43,960
Anyway, it's down, sinking, and then something pulling you down.

446
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:44,960
Yeah.

447
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:50,000
There was like a three, sorry to interrupt, there was like a three-stage process, right?

448
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:54,360
Just an initial sinking, like losing buoyancy in the water.

449
00:29:54,360 --> 00:30:03,960
And then a sort of gravitational pull where I'm accelerating in my sinking, and then a

450
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,840
sort of things grabbing out.

451
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:07,840
I wouldn't say hands.

452
00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:15,200
I don't, at least I don't recall any fingers, but I definitely felt a thing grab onto me,

453
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:17,240
like a hand with mittens, if you will.

454
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:25,640
It's hard to describe, but like something with intelligence grabbing me, and I had gone

455
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:31,320
within its grasp, where it was almost telekinetically pulling me down.

456
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:35,840
And then when I got to a certain point, and there were many of them that were grabbing

457
00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:37,160
me and pulling me down.

458
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:44,960
And it was that moment, like I felt panic then, but the terror, the dread, then started

459
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:45,960
to laugh.

460
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:47,360
What was the laugh like?

461
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:48,360
It was like it was mocking.

462
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:51,000
It was a very mocking laughter.

463
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:52,000
That's so terrifying.

464
00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:53,000
Oh, yeah.

465
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,960
It gives me the chipper's out.

466
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,520
I've got hair standing up right now.

467
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:02,520
Do you think you were out of body at that point?

468
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:08,200
Or was this just more of a, I don't know, a dream that happened while you were dying

469
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:09,680
and you were unconscious?

470
00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,960
Or what do you think was going on?

471
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:13,880
Yeah, I thought about that.

472
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,640
Was the laughter of TV playing in the distance?

473
00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:21,440
And because I'm going, I'm losing blood flow to the brain.

474
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,800
I've thought about that.

475
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,400
It's possible.

476
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:26,400
It's possible.

477
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:29,240
But I don't know.

478
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:36,200
Because there's been one other incident in my life where I felt like God spoke to me

479
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:42,440
or some other being spoke to me and he yelled at me to get up.

480
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:45,280
And I told you about this, the other thing.

481
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:49,960
And I definitely believe in otherworldly voices, right?

482
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:52,600
And that sound, and it's not something you hear with your body.

483
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:54,280
I want to make sure I'm clear.

484
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:57,480
You didn't feel like this was God mocking you, did you?

485
00:31:57,480 --> 00:31:58,480
Oh, no.

486
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:00,880
No, definitely the other guy.

487
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:01,880
Definitely the other guy.

488
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:02,880
The other guy.

489
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:03,880
That's a good name for him.

490
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:04,880
Yeah.

491
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:05,880
Definitely the other guy.

492
00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:09,560
Or some minion of his or of who what it was.

493
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:16,880
I felt like putting a child in this sort of position, right?

494
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:17,880
It's not on accident.

495
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:23,720
I've always felt like you make the agreement before you come here.

496
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:30,160
You sign a sole contract towards the sort of blessings you're going to get and the sort

497
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:32,560
of challenges that come with them.

498
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:35,320
Maybe I wanted hyperintelligence, right?

499
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:41,240
Let me have a bring up some two, two brilliant minds here that are great example of super

500
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:42,240
intelligence.

501
00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:45,080
Einstein and Tesla.

502
00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:50,280
One time, Einstein was asked what it was like to be the most intelligent man alive.

503
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:55,720
And he said, I don't know, asked Nikolai Tesla.

504
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,560
Einstein died, loved, family, in a nice home.

505
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,960
And he was probably just a patent thief, to be honest with you.

506
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:09,640
Tesla was a truly, truly brilliant man who's still affecting all of our lives today.

507
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:17,960
And he died alone, penniless, miserable, destitute in a hotel room.

508
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:22,920
He'd shortly had everything he'd ever worked on taken away from him and split up by powerful

509
00:33:22,920 --> 00:33:24,400
cover.

510
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:25,600
What is intelligence?

511
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:33,840
What are the consequences of overthinking everything in life and allowing your mind?

512
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:39,480
Great tool, horrible master, to kind of take over your life.

513
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:45,400
Even now, where I truly, truly do have a love for Jesus.

514
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,120
I truly have a love for God.

515
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,320
I feel his inner workings in my life.

516
00:33:51,320 --> 00:34:00,160
I'm often brought to a point of discomfort when I'm comfortable because I have to overthink

517
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:01,160
sort of everything.

518
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:03,040
How does this look to God?

519
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,400
How am I doing right now?

520
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:11,360
It's a very challenging place to be, especially as a child when you don't have the capacity

521
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:14,000
to just surrender.

522
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:15,680
You're always helpless.

523
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:22,480
So tell me how that experience back then with the other guy led to your belief in God now?

524
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,480
I don't know that I have a good answer for that.

525
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,920
Okay, let me ask something else then.

526
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:31,200
Did your life immediately change after this?

527
00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:34,080
No, it's always bothered me.

528
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,320
You know, especially when you do hear about other people's stories and they have this

529
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:41,760
like powerful turnover.

530
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:46,960
I would say if anything, it made me a better father.

531
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:52,440
The reason being is because I know that negative reinforcement just doesn't work.

532
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,640
It's just very unsuccessful.

533
00:34:54,640 --> 00:35:00,680
Look at all the people that have these experiences and they come into the beauty and grace and

534
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:04,600
glory of God and they turn their lives around.

535
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:10,120
It has powerful, powerful changes in them.

536
00:35:10,120 --> 00:35:15,800
There I went, the worst possible outcome and eternal of suffering.

537
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:23,280
I was right there at the door and I still lived a very, very difficult childhood after

538
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:24,280
that.

539
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,280
In fact, you know, continue.

540
00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,520
I attempted to escape from Norris multiple times.

541
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:33,240
I mean, I did escape from Norris multiple times after that.

542
00:35:33,240 --> 00:35:35,040
I got into trouble.

543
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:40,240
I chased girls like no tomorrow and drugs.

544
00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:43,920
I went really deep into the narcotics world.

545
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:51,080
You know, I only enlisted because I was facing an incident where I had 15 charges and nine

546
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,760
of those were police endangerment felonies.

547
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:59,920
I had to go to a boot camp, complete that boot camp successfully and then be accepted

548
00:35:59,920 --> 00:36:03,680
and the only ones that would take me were the Marines, Ura.

549
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:11,000
You know, and even that experience and, you know, I had near death experiences with retours

550
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,680
under my belt too, but they weren't like this.

551
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:14,680
I didn't go anywhere.

552
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:21,680
I just got pushed me out of the way of getting blown up, you know, like, oh crap, that just

553
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:22,680
missed me.

554
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:29,440
And even then you think, oh man, if I died, I would have gone back to that place maybe.

555
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,560
It just, if anything.

556
00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:34,880
I do have an answer for your first question.

557
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:36,880
All right, go for it.

558
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:40,400
If anything, it made me feel invincible.

559
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,920
Well, I went to Devil's door and came right back.

560
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:48,480
That probably wasn't a good thing at that age.

561
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:49,480
Definitely not.

562
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:51,560
I don't think it's ever been a good thing.

563
00:36:51,560 --> 00:37:00,200
In fact, it's only the loss of a love, only the loss of a woman's love and disappointing

564
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:06,920
a woman's love has ever really initiated substantial change in growth in me for whatever reason.

565
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:13,800
You know, all of my biggest growth and development in my life that made me a good human being

566
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:18,160
were because of meeting some woman I was unworthy of.

567
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:20,640
By the way, I just want to interject something here.

568
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:28,280
I want to make sure that we don't ever cross a line on glorifying suicide in any way, shape,

569
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:29,400
or form.

570
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:37,160
What do you have to say for anyone who may be contemplating taking their own life?

571
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:41,200
You know, it's never about that.

572
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:45,600
I don't think anybody wants to die, brother.

573
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:48,760
We all want to live.

574
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:51,120
We all want freedom.

575
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:56,680
We all want control of our own destinies.

576
00:37:56,680 --> 00:38:06,320
Especially if you're young and you're trapped in that place, the best tool for that is surrender,

577
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:14,800
to understand that there is a higher path out there and to breathe deep and to find

578
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,440
a path to stoicism.

579
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,100
You are not your emotions.

580
00:38:21,100 --> 00:38:24,440
You are not the situation.

581
00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,760
You're not even here in this body.

582
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:31,800
That is probably the greatest lesson that freed me from self-harm.

583
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:34,880
I'm not this man.

584
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:36,520
I'm not Scott Bowman.

585
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:37,800
That's just a name.

586
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:40,120
I'm not this body.

587
00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:45,600
Something else outside of it bearing witness to this all unfolding.

588
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:53,540
And cutting that story short is robbing you of what might be the most epic and incredible

589
00:38:53,540 --> 00:38:55,760
journey ever.

590
00:38:55,760 --> 00:39:03,400
Because some of the darkest, most painful, worst things that have ever happened to me

591
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:10,880
led to the most beautiful, wonderful experiences.

592
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:16,640
My ability to be a parent and to love a child and to be infinitely patient with one, and

593
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:22,600
they're grown now, came from my own suffering.

594
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:28,560
I remember when one of my boys was stuffing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a VCR.

595
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:33,200
And in his defense, it did look like a face with the dials and whatnot.

596
00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:36,920
And his mother was really agitated about it.

597
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:40,440
And I was just like, I can go to Walmart and buy a new VCR.

598
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:44,800
It's not worth raising my voice at this little boy.

599
00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:52,520
And getting to witness the creation, to be a part of summoning a new soul into this world

600
00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:58,920
and be ashamed to miss that just because somebody took your childhood away.

601
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:00,120
That's awesome.

602
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:07,000
And if you need to talk to somebody anywhere in the US, you can call 988-SUICIDEHOTLINE.

603
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:08,000
There's somebody there.

604
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:09,000
Yeah.

605
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:10,000
Yeah.

606
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:11,000
They're surprisingly helpful.

607
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:15,720
And if you're a fellow combat veteran, we have a special one.

608
00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:17,400
We have a number of their own.

609
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,200
There's a veteran's hotline out there.

610
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:21,720
And it's fellow veterans.

611
00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:23,600
And so they get it a little better.

612
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:29,560
I've definitely been talked down from some situations by some of those fantastic people

613
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:35,080
that are sacrificing a big part of themselves to help others.

614
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:36,640
All right.

615
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:38,360
We don't have a lot of time left.

616
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:41,160
Let's find a silver lining in this whole thing.

617
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,120
You know, I love my life.

618
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:46,480
I love my relationship with God.

619
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:57,000
It was difficult as a child to understand how free will of all things good and evil

620
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,520
are required for the beauty of creation.

621
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:05,520
And as an older and wiser man, I can see that.

622
00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:13,320
You know, if what I wanted, if what led to my struggle was a desire for freedom and control,

623
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:20,360
I have to accept that that needs to exist in all things and that all things want that.

624
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:27,000
And learning that lesson and that there was, there was God's love out there.

625
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,840
That was the best silver lining I have.

626
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:40,000
That in surrender, you don't need to control yourself because there is a greater being

627
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:46,400
of infinite love out there, just waiting for you to embrace it.

628
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:54,960
I don't have any powerful esoteric wisdom that can be attributed to this experience,

629
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,800
but there is a lot of love and joy in my life.

630
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:04,680
My ability to work through pain and struggle has allowed me to climb to the top of my industry,

631
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:09,160
the top of my company, and it's been very fulfilling.

632
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:14,280
You know, everything I've suffered from has given me some sort of strength and insight

633
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:22,760
that has made me loved by all the people around me, the fantastic friends I have, and the fantastic

634
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:27,600
woman that loves me despite how difficult I am.

635
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:30,200
So it's a beautiful world out there.

636
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:35,320
I'm glad God saw fit to send me out through the rest of it.

637
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:36,320
All right.

638
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:38,360
Thanks a ton.

639
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:43,960
Your experience is so different than most people that I talk to on this show that I'm

640
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:47,480
going to ask you the question that I ask a lot of other people, and I don't know what

641
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:49,000
your response is going to be.

642
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:54,240
Usually, I know what everybody else's response is, and that is that I ask them, how much

643
00:42:54,240 --> 00:42:56,560
fear do you have of death?

644
00:42:56,560 --> 00:42:57,560
None.

645
00:42:57,560 --> 00:42:58,560
Why is that?

646
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:00,600
Jesus, brother.

647
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:08,320
You know, if the other guy is real, you know, I don't believe in God.

648
00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:12,840
I don't believe in the Messiah.

649
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:18,680
I believe whether or not my daughter brushed her teeth like she said she does.

650
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:28,320
I have conviction in a creator and a divine source in the Son of Destruction and the Messiah.

651
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:29,600
Conviction.

652
00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:38,280
I see it in how it works in my life and every little thing I do and how God uses me in my

653
00:43:38,280 --> 00:43:42,680
life and His plans to reach other people on the daily.

654
00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:49,640
With every minute that ticks on the clock, with every age I open in a book, with every

655
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:58,240
interaction I have, even with meeting you, Eric, I see God's plan unfolding.

656
00:43:58,240 --> 00:44:02,200
The ancient Egyptians don't even have a word for death.

657
00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:04,320
The term is Westing.

658
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:08,960
And so I don't see that as a thing.

659
00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:14,240
None of my behaviors are going to, sort of, attempting to take my own life.

660
00:44:14,240 --> 00:44:22,480
I think are capable of sending me there because I've accepted this relationship with a father,

661
00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:31,720
a friend, and a king that loves me, despite how awful I've been, you know, including with

662
00:44:31,720 --> 00:44:33,800
how awful I've been.

663
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:41,800
And so I look forward to my next homecoming, but not because of my will, because it has.

664
00:44:41,800 --> 00:44:44,880
It's not as good as I can do, brother.

665
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:46,760
Well I appreciate it, Scott.

666
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:48,800
And I appreciate you being so vulnerable.

667
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:51,320
This can't be easy to talk about.

668
00:44:51,320 --> 00:44:55,040
It was brutal and awesome at the same time, Eric.

669
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:56,400
It was brutal and awesome.

670
00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:59,200
We got to heal these things, you know?

671
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:04,000
We've been talking about a lot of opposites today, so that just fits perfectly.

672
00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:05,000
Awesome.

673
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:06,000
Thank you for the experience.

674
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:07,000
I really appreciate you, brother.

675
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:08,960
You've definitely got a fan for life.

676
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:14,600
I'll be listening, brother.

677
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,560
Thanks again for listening and sharing this podcast.

678
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:21,600
If you've had a roundtrip death experience, we would love to hear from you.

679
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,000
Send an email to eric at roundtripdeath.com.

680
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:29,880
Until then, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and the next.