February 1st, 2013

I am standing in a field. I walk forward and suddenly fall into a pool I hadn't seen. It's an in-ground pool with cement sides. I fall like a stone and watch the sides of the pool slip past me. 

Panic. 

Fearful I will drown, I try to stop my rapid descent, but nothing I do slows the pace.

The cement sides of the pool are now gone; replaced by earth and stone. I'm in a subterranean pool that seems to have no bottom. I try to breathe and discover I can in a limited way.

I realized I'm dreaming and try to awaken. My body shakes violently. I've had sleep paralysis in the past. I feel like an etherized patient awakening in the middle of surgery. I sense a force or presence more powerful than me holding me down, preventing me from awakening--which is typical of sleep paralysis.

~~~

In college, I fell asleep after a morning class. I opened my eyes about half an hour later, but couldn't move my body. I could only move my eyes. As I scanned the room, I could see the sun on the carpet, my desk and computer, my roommate's desk. I heard the sound of a TV with no reception--often described as "snow" (but I've never heard snow in this way, only the soft flap as it piles up on the ground). I hear sinister laughing and sense an evil presence holding me down. This experience terrified me, but I later learned about sleep paralysis and that these are typical symptoms / experiences. I also learned that such episodes are thought to be the source of reports of alien abduction. Turns out folks who think they were abducted by aliens and probed or operated upon, may have merely been suffering from this sleep disorder. I completely understand how such a mistake could be made. I certainly have never been abducted by aliens (a fact I find quite sad).