Note: what follows is a more or less verbatim copy from a written account I made in 1983.
I had the strangest experience last week. I have never experienced anything quite so odd in my life.
Time, about twenty past three, in the morning. I'd gone to bed at around two o'clock Saturday morning and fallen asleep. I awoke, not gripped by fear or evil so much as intense surprise. I kept saying to myself, "what the hell was that?".
Well, we'd has a big thunderstorm the previous evening, and it had gone very dark under the thick clouds. Heavy rain fell, many overpoweringly bright flashes and bangs came. I remember looking out at the darkness caused by the cloud.
That was one reality.
In my sleeping reality, I was with my family, and there was a heavy storm approaching. I don't remember it raining. We looked at some buildings, as one does when in a street, perhaps standing in a doorway and looking out at the houses opposite. The darkening of the sky was extreme and the buildings looked odd in the dimming light. So far normality, everyday reality ruled. But then a new reality, dimly remembered perhaps: the darkness rapidly fell, within two or three seconds the whole world had become black. And silent. The effect was as if the whole world had stopped. No motion no time no light no sound. Within myself was a powerful sensation, a recognition that this was a profound change, a crux, cusp, turning point. It was perhaps as if all life was a ball thrown in the air and still rising. This was the moment at the top of its flight, that moment when it comes to a halt.
But I felt odd, frightened a little, aware that "it" had happened. It was as if all matter had disappeared. There was no air. I did not feel any discomfort of suffocation or breathlessness, but felt as if all air had been sucked from my body as the atmospheric pressure fell to zero. With the loss of all matter, sound, light, there was also no time. The moment was eternity. (That sounds now to me like repetition of a cliché, but it is a fair description of my experience). And I felt infinitely small. There was still some sort of universe and I was in it, very small, reduced to a pinpoint. It was as if my body was a rubber glove and had been turned inside-out. That appears to contradict being point-sized. What I mean is, I seemed to shrink to a point and pass through it, whatever that may mean.
There was a vague sense of falling, but normally one falls relative to something eg a cliff, a building or just the ground. Here I had no point of reference and the "falling" is more a way to describe the sensation than a factual description.
(The original account goes on at some length, repeating itself somewhat, attempting to emphasise the profoundness of the change).
The sky was dark, the light heavily filtered through the clouds. Then the world ended. This illusion we live ground to a halt, as if we were watching a cinema film and the projector was turned off. The motion ceased and the light dimmed. I seemed to exhale every last breath from my body as the world shut off. There was an eerie sensation, perhaps from a forgotten but half-remembered famililiarity with this experience. I was a little confused, rather frightened, perhaps as one would be if one was walking along and the ground disappeared beneath one's feet.
Shortly afterwards I awoke in my bedroom. I felt somewhat overwhelmed at what had just happened. Although it seems to start with a dream, and end with an awakening, what took place in between was something other. I had a few ideas at the time as to what it meant. Since so many years have since elapsed, it seems odd that the part I now remember best is not even recorded in the above written account. There was a sound that was so deep and powerful that it wasn't a sound. As the light faded and the world ground to a halt, there was an indescribable sound, almost a feeling, a sort of grinding or rumbling as all motion ceased. The biggest difficulty in all of this is attempting to describe the indescribable.
(This post was last modified: 2018-06-28, 06:04 PM by Typoz.)
I had the strangest experience last week. I have never experienced anything quite so odd in my life.
Time, about twenty past three, in the morning. I'd gone to bed at around two o'clock Saturday morning and fallen asleep. I awoke, not gripped by fear or evil so much as intense surprise. I kept saying to myself, "what the hell was that?".
Well, we'd has a big thunderstorm the previous evening, and it had gone very dark under the thick clouds. Heavy rain fell, many overpoweringly bright flashes and bangs came. I remember looking out at the darkness caused by the cloud.
That was one reality.
In my sleeping reality, I was with my family, and there was a heavy storm approaching. I don't remember it raining. We looked at some buildings, as one does when in a street, perhaps standing in a doorway and looking out at the houses opposite. The darkening of the sky was extreme and the buildings looked odd in the dimming light. So far normality, everyday reality ruled. But then a new reality, dimly remembered perhaps: the darkness rapidly fell, within two or three seconds the whole world had become black. And silent. The effect was as if the whole world had stopped. No motion no time no light no sound. Within myself was a powerful sensation, a recognition that this was a profound change, a crux, cusp, turning point. It was perhaps as if all life was a ball thrown in the air and still rising. This was the moment at the top of its flight, that moment when it comes to a halt.
But I felt odd, frightened a little, aware that "it" had happened. It was as if all matter had disappeared. There was no air. I did not feel any discomfort of suffocation or breathlessness, but felt as if all air had been sucked from my body as the atmospheric pressure fell to zero. With the loss of all matter, sound, light, there was also no time. The moment was eternity. (That sounds now to me like repetition of a cliché, but it is a fair description of my experience). And I felt infinitely small. There was still some sort of universe and I was in it, very small, reduced to a pinpoint. It was as if my body was a rubber glove and had been turned inside-out. That appears to contradict being point-sized. What I mean is, I seemed to shrink to a point and pass through it, whatever that may mean.
There was a vague sense of falling, but normally one falls relative to something eg a cliff, a building or just the ground. Here I had no point of reference and the "falling" is more a way to describe the sensation than a factual description.
(The original account goes on at some length, repeating itself somewhat, attempting to emphasise the profoundness of the change).
The sky was dark, the light heavily filtered through the clouds. Then the world ended. This illusion we live ground to a halt, as if we were watching a cinema film and the projector was turned off. The motion ceased and the light dimmed. I seemed to exhale every last breath from my body as the world shut off. There was an eerie sensation, perhaps from a forgotten but half-remembered famililiarity with this experience. I was a little confused, rather frightened, perhaps as one would be if one was walking along and the ground disappeared beneath one's feet.
Shortly afterwards I awoke in my bedroom. I felt somewhat overwhelmed at what had just happened. Although it seems to start with a dream, and end with an awakening, what took place in between was something other. I had a few ideas at the time as to what it meant. Since so many years have since elapsed, it seems odd that the part I now remember best is not even recorded in the above written account. There was a sound that was so deep and powerful that it wasn't a sound. As the light faded and the world ground to a halt, there was an indescribable sound, almost a feeling, a sort of grinding or rumbling as all motion ceased. The biggest difficulty in all of this is attempting to describe the indescribable.
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