... I was on holiday last week, in a log cabin, in a forest, in the middle of nowhere.
It was Sunday night, and I awoke, aware of a white face at the end of the bed, that I could just make out in the near complete darkness. I felt terrorised, tried to move, but was paralysed, and was really quite scared. I wasn't sure where I was, it felt unfamiliar.
I screamed several times, and then it was over. I was sat up in bed, arms in front of me in a defensive position.
Now, many might interpret this as an abduction experience. Especially if they were alone when it happened. Well. I wasn't. I've also had 'night terrors' before, although not for a long time, probably some 15 years give or take.
So, let's dissect the experience;
I was paralysed. Well, yep, this happens to us all when we sleep so we don't act out our dreams and injure ourselves. Sometimes we wake before this wears off, and we can exerperience the paralysis awake. I've had this happen to me twice before, frozen solid, and awake. Pretty scary without the nightmare component. It also turns out I was face down, resting on my own arms when the nightmare started, as witnessed by my girfriend, adding to the feeling of opprression. I sometimes wake up with pins and needles in my hands, as I've been laying on them.
The face I saw. Well, this one is easy. I bought a new snorkel and mask a couple of days earlier, and in the display packaging, was a vacuum formed kind of mask, in white plastic, which the set was framed against. It was full sized, and we wore it to spook our dogs, who barked at us when we wore it. It had obviously made some association with the dogs in my mind.
Not knowing where I was. Well, in the nightmare, I was sat up , facing the end of the bed, but in actual fact, it started when I was face down, so the entire scenario was in a dream, and therefore, not real, so it could have been anywhere, depending on stimuli.
Fear. Well, like I already said, the paralysis is pretty scary without a nightmare, but I was being terrorised by piece of plastic, which added to the experience.
So, how do I know it wasn't a real abduction? Well, it was witnessed by two others. My girlfriend, was in bed next to me, who I woke pretty quickly with my thrashing, and who reported everything to me afterward. Also, her sister was awake upstairs revising for her exams, and heard one of the dogs bark in their sleep shortly before I started screaming. I guess, I heard the dog bark, associated that with the mask, started to wake, was paralysed temporarily, and the rest went as described. My girlfriend's sister's boyfriend was also out in the forest at the time, taking time lapse pictures of the stars, and didn't see any alien craft, beams of light, or little grey men scurrying about.
So, I had all the hallmarks of an abduction. Some will say 'you had no marks on you when you awoke, there's often sighns of surgery'. Well, I always have a scar somewhere, a fresh bruise or cut I notice after the event. I'm an active person, I get bruises, I'd been canoeing, snorkelling, and surfing that weekend, playing with my dogs, and doing various martial arts kata. I nearly always have some DIY related marks on me. So I often have new marks on me, if I chose to look, I'd perhaps find one.
So, unless people can come up with some actual evidence, and show more than I have described here, I have to say that it's most likely they have merely experienced night terrors.
Discuss.
It was Sunday night, and I awoke, aware of a white face at the end of the bed, that I could just make out in the near complete darkness. I felt terrorised, tried to move, but was paralysed, and was really quite scared. I wasn't sure where I was, it felt unfamiliar.
I screamed several times, and then it was over. I was sat up in bed, arms in front of me in a defensive position.
Now, many might interpret this as an abduction experience. Especially if they were alone when it happened. Well. I wasn't. I've also had 'night terrors' before, although not for a long time, probably some 15 years give or take.
So, let's dissect the experience;
I was paralysed. Well, yep, this happens to us all when we sleep so we don't act out our dreams and injure ourselves. Sometimes we wake before this wears off, and we can exerperience the paralysis awake. I've had this happen to me twice before, frozen solid, and awake. Pretty scary without the nightmare component. It also turns out I was face down, resting on my own arms when the nightmare started, as witnessed by my girfriend, adding to the feeling of opprression. I sometimes wake up with pins and needles in my hands, as I've been laying on them.
The face I saw. Well, this one is easy. I bought a new snorkel and mask a couple of days earlier, and in the display packaging, was a vacuum formed kind of mask, in white plastic, which the set was framed against. It was full sized, and we wore it to spook our dogs, who barked at us when we wore it. It had obviously made some association with the dogs in my mind.
Not knowing where I was. Well, in the nightmare, I was sat up , facing the end of the bed, but in actual fact, it started when I was face down, so the entire scenario was in a dream, and therefore, not real, so it could have been anywhere, depending on stimuli.
Fear. Well, like I already said, the paralysis is pretty scary without a nightmare, but I was being terrorised by piece of plastic, which added to the experience.
So, how do I know it wasn't a real abduction? Well, it was witnessed by two others. My girlfriend, was in bed next to me, who I woke pretty quickly with my thrashing, and who reported everything to me afterward. Also, her sister was awake upstairs revising for her exams, and heard one of the dogs bark in their sleep shortly before I started screaming. I guess, I heard the dog bark, associated that with the mask, started to wake, was paralysed temporarily, and the rest went as described. My girlfriend's sister's boyfriend was also out in the forest at the time, taking time lapse pictures of the stars, and didn't see any alien craft, beams of light, or little grey men scurrying about.
So, I had all the hallmarks of an abduction. Some will say 'you had no marks on you when you awoke, there's often sighns of surgery'. Well, I always have a scar somewhere, a fresh bruise or cut I notice after the event. I'm an active person, I get bruises, I'd been canoeing, snorkelling, and surfing that weekend, playing with my dogs, and doing various martial arts kata. I nearly always have some DIY related marks on me. So I often have new marks on me, if I chose to look, I'd perhaps find one.
So, unless people can come up with some actual evidence, and show more than I have described here, I have to say that it's most likely they have merely experienced night terrors.
Discuss.