<Warning: religious content, don't read if you are offended by such matters>

Don't worry NSJ, I'm an easy-going type of guy, certainly not the dogmatic bible-basher you may have in mind. In spiritual matters I believe personal experience is most important, not text-book knowledge. Sure, that can help you to find words to describe your experience, but it can also get in the way by casting in stone that which can barely be spoken.

Luckily I have never been sucked into one of those vortex thingies but I know that a couple of people die each year in NL from these types of accidents. They say you should swim down to escape them, but that's a bit hard if you are tethered to your board or rig.
I can imagine tough people need tough lessons in order to learn sometimes... Its hard to walk the thin line between what we perceive as intuition and reality sometimes. We all fall off at some stage. I like those last two paragraphs of yours, I do believe that's the way it works. There's this famous psalm that goes "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me" Sometimes its good to get a wake-up call from heaven, even if it hurts like hell at the time!