Surprise:

The Scare Awake

Have you experienced a chill, as if there were a presence, or that burning sensation that made you look around only to find someone is indeed staring at you? Are you awake?

I am proud of the fact that I haven’t had a nightmare since I was 16, with the exception of fever dreams. I really don’t count fever dreams as nightmares. They’re bizarre in their own way. Monday night I awoke with a fright. It was not a dream. I know this because I was actually dreaming. It was like someone cut the feed to my dream and inserted a woman. She leaned over, touched my hand on the bed, and said ‘wake up.’ I sat up in bed, startled, even made a noise. No one there. Even weirder, I fell instantly back to sleep. What was this?!

Mind you, I track dreams probably better than average. I write in a dream journal. I learned to lucid dream. There is a difference between lucid dreams, regular dreams, nightmares, fever dreams, lucid daydreams, regular daydreams, out of body experiences, dissociation, and non drug related trance. I have sorted these experiences and struggle to communicate how they’re different, but I use the word ‘frequency’ to describe a tone or an ambient, intuitive feel.