436 Days Lost At Sea Survivor Tells Story

[Ito Jakuchu]

Fisherman that was lost at sea for 438 days tells his story.. "Who survives 14 months at sea? Only a Hollywood screenwriter could write a tale in which such a journey ends happily. I was sceptical, but as a Guardian reporter in the region, I began to investigate… …When he washed ashore (in the same boat that he had left Mexico on), thousands of miles away, he was steadfast in his rejection of interviews – even posting a note on his hospital door begging the press to disappear. Later, I would sit with Alvarenga for many hours, back at his home in El Salvador, as he described in detail the brutal realities of living at sea for more than a year. Over the course of more than 40 interviews, he described his extraordinary survival at sea. This is his story." link

[Anonymous]

Kudos to his perseverance, will power, and resourcefulness. Me, i would have just let the body go unless i was really nudged not to. It's quite nice on the other side if you basically have a good heart (and if you don't, you'll probably eventually get to those more harmonious states of being). Dying when you're conscious, is like waking up from a coma where all your senses have been deadened for awhile, and then you feel truly alive and awake. This physical construct, this is the illusion. And so many are so over attached to it, which keeps them stuck on the hamster wheel. When a person opens up more fully to Love, it frees them. Then you may also come back, but not from addiction and/or attachment, but to serve and help others to become likewise liberated. Course, the natives rarely appreciate the help, and often shoot the messengers, but such is Earth/humanity.

[Jerry Adams]

wow! great story thanks for posting that

[Ralph Burgess]

By strange coincidence, I just finished "In The Heart Of The Sea" today. And I see it has been made into a movie to be released next month. I learned that if one of your shipwreck companions dies of starvation, using their flesh as bait may yield more useful calories than eating them. I wonder how Alvarenga was able to get enough water – it sounds like he survived on collected rainwater, but it's quite difficult to improvise an effective collection system. Maybe he was just in wet weather a lot.

[Dominic Camarda]

Interesting take on this. Are you speaking from experience here? Have you had a near death experience or merely postulating based on what you've read or heard? Hope I don't sound like an angry earthling here to shoot you. Honestly curious on your perspective… Could get seriously off topic though. Thanks!

[Ito Jakuchu]

Glad it is of interest. "Kudos to his perseverance, will power, and resourcefulness. Me, i would have just let the body go unless i was really nudged not to" They do write about how his mum scared him with religious stories about suicide and hell. It is perhaps part of why Japan has a high suicide number (of course other factors play a significant role too) – there is less of a stigma on suicide (in Buddhism, only 1% Christian in Japan). "I wonder how Alvarenga was able to get enough water – it sounds like he survived on collected rainwater, but it's quite difficult to improvise an effective collection system. Maybe he was just in wet weather a lot." I was wondering about that too. They do write about a water collection system and about drinking turtle blood, but still would have liked to have read a bit more, especially since the fishing/birding gets quite some attention. Apart from the physical side, the mental aspect of it (with the fantasised realities etc). is incredible.

[Anonymous]

Hi Dominic, I've had several hard to explain experiences which strongly suggested that the physical is just one dimension and that there are others, and that our consciousness is more than our physical brain (consciousness seems to exist in all dimensions, and all dimensions and all consciousness seem to be fundamentally interconnected). A short list: A couple of out of body experiences, some precognitive dreams that happened tit for tat (one involving highly unusual circumstances), a dream involving past life stuff that was later powerfully verified with a woman during a shared transformative life event (her husband died out of the blue shortly after we met and became friends, and many years before i had the dream, she had a reading with a sensitive that outlined all the same stuff as my dream about a past life together, and the sensitive told her very specifically "you two will meet later in this life, because you have unfinished business"), i had 7 foot + tall ET show up at my house in the middle of the night (i saw UFO's on another occasion, camping up in New Brunswick–3 other friends also saw them), a couple conscious remote viewing exercises where i picked up definite hits on the unknown targets, some "ghost" experiences (just people that are stuck for whatever reason), and many other experiences–many less dramatic and more mundane (many involving my spouse, whom i seem to have a very strong intuitive bond with). My spouse has also had many experiences of her own, some verified some and others not. I believe all or most of us have the capacity to have similar experiences and perceptions, but overly strong beliefs can block them (thankfully i was raised in a household where no beliefs were pushed onto me, so i was free of both religion and atheism–i did eventually came to have a strong, non religious attraction to "Jesus" though, whom i prefer to call Yeshua). Lifestyle choices can also help or hinder the process–i've found the more i get the body clean, balanced, and vital the more things open up for me, also the more loving and positive i become (this more than anything), and the more i consistently meditate. But, i've not had a NDE. I can say with all honesty though, that at this point i have absolutely no fear of death anymore, though i do have some fear of potential extreme body pain that could potentially precede death. I don't want to say anymore here because i've already hijacked this thread enough, but if you want to talk about it further you can p.m. me.

[Anonymous]

Hi Ito Jakuchu, yes i do find some of the cultural differences pretty interesting. I have a lot of respect for Buddhism, though i don't fully agree with all of it (or any codified belief system).

[Daryl and Daryl]

What a story! Very resourceful man.

[Buck Nelson]

There's parts of his story that make it seem like it has to be true, like reportedly the boat registration matched the one he disappeared in. And long voyages like that are undoubtedly possible. On the other hand, I can't understand how someone could spend 436 days in an open boat in the roasting sun, at the end wearing only a pair of torn underwear, eating seabirds, fish and an occasional turtle, and seemingly end up pale and chubby. His lips aren't even chapped. http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1760468/images/o-JOSE-SALVADOR-ALVARENGA-facebook.jpg http://m.wsj.net/video/20140212/021214castaway/021214castaway_640x360.jpg

[Bob Moulder]

I too was similarly struck by those photos… just didn't want to rain on the parade. But he was quite healthy according to credible reports of physical exams. Seems at the very least he would have suffered severely from scurvy, no? Or has Hollywood led us to think that all castaways should look like Tom Hanks at the end of that movie?

[Buck Nelson]

Experts say fresh meat, like he was eating, can prevent scurvy. The rest of it is still hard to explain though.

[Ken Thompson]

Vitamin A in fish eyeballs Attitude is everything.

[Franco Darioli]

I think that the key to survival is a strong reason to remain alive. The commonest reason is family , particularly the partner and or children. In the case of Salvador Alvarenga it seems to me that the fear of going to hell (or not going to Heaven) was the key factor. He might have perceived not trying as hard as he could as a form of suicide.

[Anonymous]

Supposedly he used the icebox as sun protection. But yes, you would think he would have chapped lips and some other overt signs. I always question motive when it comes to things like possible fraud. What is there for him to gain by making something like this up? I don't know one way or the other.

[Buck Nelson]

International fame? Forgiveness by his family? A book deal? He got them all. It would seem the difficulty and unlikeness of a poor Mexican/Salvadoran to pull something like that off for personal gain would make it hugely unlikely. On the other hand the whole thing is hugely unlikely. Seems like if he it were a hoax someone would have proved it by now.

[Author]

Posts