» When were you last really scared?

One off night terror
Several years ago I used to experience sleep paralysis on a fairly regular basis. Anyone else who’s suffered it will know that it’s extremely unpleasant the first few times, but over time I’d managed to more or less get used to it.
Anyway, about four years ago I experienced a subtle but infinitely more terrifying variation of it. I should probably add that I don’t do psychedelics and that on this particular occasion hadn’t even been drinking. Rather than waking up and not being able to move I woke feeling unbelievably dizzy but also completely terrified. Because it was so unfamiliar I couldn’t over come it with the usual “you’ve been her before” anti-terror mantra that had served me so well with in the past. It genuinely felt like someone was swinging me round the room and I was unable to focus properly on anything.
Eventually the dizziness subsided a bit and I managed to focus on something at the end of my bed and immediately wished I hadn’t. Unbelievably, there was a Navigator from Dune (the things with mouths like a baggy fanny) in my bedroom at the bottom of my bed. I could only assume it was doing it’s “bending space and time” party trick which was the cause of my dizziness. I managed to turn the light on hoping that this would defuse the apparent hallucination. Unfortunately, it didn’t and I completely froze with fear. After a few minutes the dizziness eventually subsided and I soon began to see what was really at the bottom of my bed.
From a mental health point of view the truth was even more terrifying. It was a pair of cords that I’d hung up to dry on the clothes horse. The upside down button fly looked uncannily like the fanny gob of a navigator and an overactive noggin had done the rest.
(Tue 27th Feb 2007, 13:38, More)