WordWolf

As to the poster, yes, that's a lot of information on which to form an opinion. I'm curious-but will get no answer- on the tiny minutiae of the lungs functioning in this instance. I'm well aware (broken ribs inspire shallow breathing) that pneumonia is no joke, and can result from an infection in the lungs (introduced matter COULD cause that, I suppose, if it introduced a virus or made it easy for a virus to thrive) or from an inability to properly inflate the lungs. (If you can't take even an OCCASIONAL deep breath, you're at risk for pneumonia.) I would imagine that pneumonia here would be prevented by some respiratory machine that made sure the lungs fully inflated every once in a while, a respirator or some other device, I really don't know what each would do but it seems the obvious answer. If anyone's curious, now that DWBH's refreshed my memory and added to what I'd known, I'll mention that the epiglottis is the thing that covers the windpipe and keeps us from something "going down the wrong pipe" when we accidentally inhale some food or drink. Lots of things can cause problems that affect it or compromise it, and that's potentially dangerous for our thinking.

Next round, let's see.... Jon Rubin Sam Nicoletti Bruce Pearson Alfredo Berlinghieri Monroe Stahr Jimmy Doyle

"I won't fail you. I'm not afraid." "You will be. You... will... be." "All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing."

Would you believe I have the thing on DVD? I found it on extreme clearance. Paid $2 something for it. I figured that- even if it was awful- it would be worth at least that. I feel I got my money's worth, and paying that little made me feel better about how badly it stunk. Now I need to come up with a movie, let's see...

Was this set in Los Angeles?

So, Human's turn.

Thank you, it helps a lot. As someone whose main information about intubation centers around "once had a tube down his throat towards his stomach", I am understandably curious about some really specific things. (In my case, I had broken ribs, and the tube was to occasionally introduce something to neutralize my stomach acids and keep them from climbing up and dissolving stuff. I was 'eating" by IV at the time, so my digestive system had nothing to digest, and a bored digestive system is a mischievous digestive system. BTW, It's hard to talk with one of those in- lots of talking and you're at risk of throwing up.) So, I'm curious about a really, really minor point- where the stomach contents went. Did some of them end up in the windpipe and thus in the lungs, introducing foreign matter into the lungs? (I know I'm the only one who's curious, so if it's not worth it, don't bother. I'm not trying to disintegrate YOUR grey matter in the process. ;) ) BTW, thanks for explaining that you know him PERSONALLY. That explains your reaction. Any chance you haven't heard from him in decades, and he MIGHT have improved since then, or are you roughly aware of how he's been doing down the decades? (I'm guessing the latter, but I shouldn't guess.)

You asked if he was in. I followed up by asking where and when, which caused a little confusion. But, yes, this question's worth asking. Why DID twi discourage personal testimonies? Except, of course, when vpw made them....

If it gets moved from Doctrinal, it will either get sent to Soap Opera (if it descends to drama and name-calling), or be locked and/or deleted as being off-topic even for Doctrinal. The GSC is for ex-twi, for twi survivors. No belief system is assumed or required. So, generally, discussions of belief go in Doctrinal or its skeptical subforum. There is no subforum for non-skepticism, so it's Doctrinal or post it elsewhere.

DWBH, if you could explain a little about aspiration and possible lung damage for those of us who know a lot less, I'd sure appreciate it. I don't think the OP is trying to CON anybody. I think he means everything he's posting, and genuinely loves God, and has little idea why he's being yelled at.

That is a good question. Were you ever in that organization, and, if so, where and when?

Actually, Hawkeye's question was in response to the crashing the jeep and setting himself on fire. The other incident was when Flagg's arm was healed, and Hawkeye was going to remove his cast. When he found out Hawkeye couldn't give him a medical reason to stay, he shouted and slammed that x-ray machine (or something) into his arm, smashing the cast and re-breaking his arm. Hawkeye: "NOW I can give you a medical excuse." That was "Colonel Flagg", which may or have not been his name. The other intelligence agent called him "Sam", but I think that was more to invoke "Sam" and "Ralph", the coyote and sheepdog that punch a time-clock at the beginning and end of the day. https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Ralph_Wolf_and_Sam_Sheepdog

It'll be hard to find the posts where we discussed family, since some were edited for privacy reasons. However, there's still a discussion here that included quoting him mentioning family, which will take time to find. I bumped up some discussions that overlapped this, with quotes of some overlap.

"When they came for me, I ran like a thief right into Grand Central Station. They trapped me in a pay toilet." "Beautiful." "Cost them four dollars in nickels to get me out." "I love a volunteer." One recurring character was interesting. He once claimed to be with the CIA, but said he had to stop because that made people think he was with the CIC, and he was actually with the CID all along. In fact, he once tried to get into the CIC's offices by crashing a car and setting himself on fire. He also claimed to try not to sit for more than 2 hours a day, IIRC. ("It's bad to put pressure on your brain.") He prided himself on neither laughing nor smiling. "I've trained myself not to laugh or smile. I watched a hundred hours of the Three Stooges; every time I felt like smiling or laughing, I jabbed myself in the stomach with a cattle prod."

That makes me feel more confident about my guess, then. Let's see. It sounded familiar. To be specific, that opening reminded me of Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard. So, a ST movie from "Generations" to "Nemesis", inclusive. That includes at least one good movie ("First Contact", so we count that out) and several stinkers. I think I have it down to 2 movies. To save time, I'll throw both names up, "Star Trek-Insurrection" "Star Trek- Nemesis". Raf's comment has me suspecting the latter, despite the former having funnier quotes.

Yes, that was a quote from a TV show, to be exact.

It is indeed "HAVE A CIGAR,", from PINK FLOYD. I really like the little clue that the promoter or whoever has never heard of them before and doesn't know where the name "Pink Floyd" comes from, but is enthusiastic to say he's a long-time fan while trying to get them to generate more cash.

All of this offers a credible answer which also fits the actual evidence.

Contacting them would accomplish nothing. The only thing we would prove is that they believe what they said. We all stipulated to that- we believe that they believe all of this. The further we go with this, the more of a non-story it seems. If an experience (ANY experience) leads one to live a better life and seek God, I'm for that. It doesn't have to be miraculous.

vpw went to India. ACCORDING TO HIM, while he was there, he performed LOTS of miraculous healings, including one off the back of a train for a non-Christian. ACCORDING TO HIM, he was told that India would be open to him if he ever chose to return there. He never returned there, he never did such miracles over here, and he never brought out anything documenting even one actual miracle. (We got one account of "the guy in this photo is somebody vpw healed" - but a still photo proves the man existed and was in the same room with vpw at least once. We didn't get a still photo of a man with a withered arm, then another one with the same man with a healthy arm.) vpw made a lot of CLAIMS but did not prove them. We should not believe him. This couple made a lot of CLAIMS but did not prove them. Should we believe them nevertheless, or at least wait until some real documentation comes along?

A) "Did Gary die or not?" There's no reason to think he died other than their conviction that he died. Even their account said it was a "COMA." Medicine keeping people in a coma alive is not startling, coming out of a coma is not startling, either. B) "Could he then breathe on his own without functioning lungs?" There's no reason to think his lungs were non-functional nor significantly damaged, other than her testimony. "Could this have been a miracle from God giving Gary a new set of lungs?" Possibly. Equally possible? His lungs were not damaged to the degree you were told- if at all. It's all based on their testimonies, nothing from the reporter actually spending time in the hospital. If I were to place a guess, the only reason he didn't follow up on this was that he was already supremely confident this whole story was "an exercise in creative thinking." Otherwise, he'd have been all over the hospital, getting quotes, photocopying medical reports and diagnoses and so on. C) I'm sure there's more remarkable testimonies than this one- but let's finish with this one before getting to others. As for this one, it's full of question marks. I accept he's in decent health now, and that he had some sort of attack before. Anything else would need the hospital or a doctor who treated him to document something- and this entire article skipped that step. It doesn't guarantee any of this was false, but it does nothing whatsoever to support the claims. They documented that the couple made these claims.