Tell Me Something Strange
In the Halloween spirit...
Years ago, I thought of compiling a book called Tell Me Something Strange, in which I'd collect stories of weird experiences from family and friends and random people. Because the thing that interests me is that nearly everyone has a strange story to tell -- including people who are very invested in not believing in strangeness (atheists, Christians, skeptics, nice little old ladies who strive for maximum ordinariness, what have you).
So...anyone want to tell me something strange? (_siddal_, you just did, so you're off the hook unless you want to tell more, which I always welcome.) Hey, this can be a meme!
________________________________________
The 'Tell Me Something Strange' meme by _lillassea_:
Post a strange experience you've had, and encourage your friends list to do the same. Strange doesn't have to mean ghostly necessarily, just...strange. An extraordinary coincidence; a precognitive experience; a prolonged bit of deja-vu; a dream that didn't seem to be just a dream; a weird fear of yours that frightens other people when you describe it; something odd you would swear you heard/saw/felt even though you know it's impossible.
Here's a story...
Once, I was staying in a hotel room and I began to wake up slowly, because I had the sense that something was odd about my surroundings. You know how you rise up in slow motion through layer after layer of sleep, and at each step you become slightly more aware? Well, at first I just had the sense that something wasn't quite right, somehow. Then I realized that I felt no blankets on me, but wasn't cold (and I'm always cold). Then I had a peculiar partial awareness that my nightgown's fabric was standing away from my body, not touching me, and that there was a static-electricity feeling in the space between skin and cloth.
Then I realized I was lying completely face down, both head and body (I virtually never sleep on my stomach), and that the strange thing that had awakened me was the fact that from the way I was positioned, my face had to be buried in my pillow or pressed into the bed, yet I couldn't feel anything touching my face at all, and I had no trouble breathing whatsoever. And there were no blankets, and my gown wasn't touching me...
Like lightning, the thought flashed through me, Whatthefuck! I am floating facedown in the air above the bed! I am levitating! And just when I should have jarred awake at that thought -- I fell instantly back into dreamless sleep. Remembered it all in the morning, bit by bit.
A dream or hallucination, of course. But it was very specific and vivid, and consisted of nothing else but those sensations and perceptions, and it ended in total blankness so suddenly.
Postscript:
Just remembered another stay in a hotel room, with two friends. I spent a restless night, afraid, feeling vulnerable and unsafe. I kept thinking I heard people moving around in the room (other than my friends), and I even had the sense that shadowy figures were going through our bags, like it was something I saw through half-open eyes, but I couldn't make myself wake up fully to see for sure.
In the morning, before I said anything, one of my friends said he kept feeling like there were people in our room during the night, and that they were messing with our belongings. But the door was chained, and absolutely nothing of ours was missing or disturbed.
[Now go to your journal, and tell ME something strange. Comment if you're not on my Friends List so I can be sure to take a look.]
Years ago, I thought of compiling a book called Tell Me Something Strange, in which I'd collect stories of weird experiences from family and friends and random people. Because the thing that interests me is that nearly everyone has a strange story to tell -- including people who are very invested in not believing in strangeness (atheists, Christians, skeptics, nice little old ladies who strive for maximum ordinariness, what have you).
So...anyone want to tell me something strange? (_siddal_, you just did, so you're off the hook unless you want to tell more, which I always welcome.) Hey, this can be a meme!
________________________________________
The 'Tell Me Something Strange' meme by _lillassea_:
Post a strange experience you've had, and encourage your friends list to do the same. Strange doesn't have to mean ghostly necessarily, just...strange. An extraordinary coincidence; a precognitive experience; a prolonged bit of deja-vu; a dream that didn't seem to be just a dream; a weird fear of yours that frightens other people when you describe it; something odd you would swear you heard/saw/felt even though you know it's impossible.
Here's a story...
Once, I was staying in a hotel room and I began to wake up slowly, because I had the sense that something was odd about my surroundings. You know how you rise up in slow motion through layer after layer of sleep, and at each step you become slightly more aware? Well, at first I just had the sense that something wasn't quite right, somehow. Then I realized that I felt no blankets on me, but wasn't cold (and I'm always cold). Then I had a peculiar partial awareness that my nightgown's fabric was standing away from my body, not touching me, and that there was a static-electricity feeling in the space between skin and cloth.
Then I realized I was lying completely face down, both head and body (I virtually never sleep on my stomach), and that the strange thing that had awakened me was the fact that from the way I was positioned, my face had to be buried in my pillow or pressed into the bed, yet I couldn't feel anything touching my face at all, and I had no trouble breathing whatsoever. And there were no blankets, and my gown wasn't touching me...
Like lightning, the thought flashed through me, Whatthefuck! I am floating facedown in the air above the bed! I am levitating! And just when I should have jarred awake at that thought -- I fell instantly back into dreamless sleep. Remembered it all in the morning, bit by bit.
A dream or hallucination, of course. But it was very specific and vivid, and consisted of nothing else but those sensations and perceptions, and it ended in total blankness so suddenly.
Postscript:
Just remembered another stay in a hotel room, with two friends. I spent a restless night, afraid, feeling vulnerable and unsafe. I kept thinking I heard people moving around in the room (other than my friends), and I even had the sense that shadowy figures were going through our bags, like it was something I saw through half-open eyes, but I couldn't make myself wake up fully to see for sure.
In the morning, before I said anything, one of my friends said he kept feeling like there were people in our room during the night, and that they were messing with our belongings. But the door was chained, and absolutely nothing of ours was missing or disturbed.
[Now go to your journal, and tell ME something strange. Comment if you're not on my Friends List so I can be sure to take a look.]