The Nightmare

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1

What was that?

Me and my brother,

we'd just got out of the shower,

and he was about

two years younger than me.

And while my mom

was taking care of him

'cause he's tiny,

I was in the living room,

drying off, watching TV.

Five, four, three...

In a Miami, Florida,

courtroom today,

former Panamanian dictator,

Manuel noriega...

- hey, Chris.

- Whoever the newscaster was

starts kind of getting

my attention...

- Chris.

- Saying like, "hey, Chris. Hey, Chris."

Hey, Chris.

- And It's saying, "don't worry."

- Don't worry.

Everything's gonna be okay.

And one day, We'll be back.

It terrified me.

I remember screaming

to get my mom,

bringing her to the TV,

who now was back to doing

normal news casting,

because that's,

you know, what it was.

And her basically

explaining to me, like,

"tv's don't talk to you.

That's ridiculous."

I'm disenchanted,

because now I thought

something really cool happened,

and that's not a thing

I remember,

I know it was there.

And, you know, I was wide awake.

I had literally

just gotten out of the shower,

and it was this very

overwhelming experience for me

because now,

as a five-year-old,

I didn't know where I belonged.

Okay. Set.

So how did this start, Jeff?

Um, probably about 10 years ago.

My girlfriend at the time and I

were talking about

different paranormal stories,

and she started telling me

about how sometimes

she'd wake up

in the middle of the night,

just, like, unable

to move or breathe.

She said it felt like

there's, like,

an evil presence

in the room with her,

and they would just, like...

kind of, like, torment her.

And she would eventually

wake up,

and it'd be like

it was just a dream.

After she told me that,

I didn't really know

what to make of it.

I was like, "okay, I got

involved with some crazy girl."

And I just kind of changed

the subject,

started talking

about something else.

Then about a week later,

I laid down to go to sleep.

And just as I started

to drift off,

I felt my body

just become extremely heavy.

It was like I fell asleep,

but then woke up

at the same instant.

And my whole body

started tingling.

It just felt like

really weighted down,

like something was pulling me.

And I heard this, like, sound.

It wasn't outside of my head,

but it was just

inside of my head.

It just sounded

like a washing machine

that kind of out of balance

or something,

just banging against the wall,

and just really terrified me.

I kind of started,

like, freaking out,

and, like,

started seeing things.

And it was really bizarre.

Well, what did you see?

Um, it was kind of like...

it was kind of like...

All these different colors,

like a laser light show

or something,

like, I was like flying

through, like, a time warp.

It just had all these colors

just, like, shooting at me

in a light show.

And I found that I had

zero control over my body.

Like, no matter how hard

I tried,

I couldn't move my arms,

my legs, nothing.

And so I really started to

kind of have a panic attack

because I didn't know

what was going on.

I thought I was dead.

I thought it was like

a stroke or something.

Nothing worked.

I couldn't move.

I had no control over anything.

Finally I decided, well,

I'm just gonna try to build up

all the strength

that I have in me

just to get myself

to roll over onto my girlfriend

hoping that it wakes her up.

So it was just like

this last-ditch effort

of everything I had,

I just, like, wrenched my body.

As soon as I flipped over

on top of her, I woke up.

And I was still laying

in my original position

like none of it had happened.

I was just completely shocked.

I had no idea what was going on.

I just did not know

what to make of it.

After that, it was like,

constantly,

night after night after night,

for a couple weeks,

maybe even a month or so.

And...

I just did not know

how to process it at the time.

And so, finally, I told

my girlfriend about it.

I was like, "okay,

this is what's happening to me."

"I think I need

to go to the doctor."

I think I'm having strokes,

like mini-strokes,

or seizures maybe even,"

and she's like,

"no, that's exactly

what happens to me.

That's what I was trying

to tell you about."

I was about 29 years old.

Mm-hmm.

And here in this room,

as I would lay down to sleep,

I'd start feeling tingling

in my feet,

and then I would feel it

rise up my legs...

Up my torso, on my hands,

and I'd also hear buzzing.

You know, like bees buzzing.

That's when these episodes

would start.

I would feel tingling

and I would get...

I'd feel the energy.

I felt that my mind was awake,

but my body was stiff.

I'd try to move my head

from side to side.

I just...

I couldn't move.

And in that moment,

I would hear tapping

on the window.

They would tap here.

I would hear tapping.

And I'm thinking, "well,

maybe It's just a squirrel"

or a raccoon,"

but it was like a pattern.

It was definitely a knock.

And I would open my eyes,

and I'd look toward the window,

and then it would stop.

But after a while,

I started feeling

an actual presence.

And I would feel this presence

right next to me

trying to take my soul out.

It would torture me at night,

and I would try and fight it,

but I felt I was...

my body felt paralyzed.

It was just so strong

that I would just let go,

and then I'd feel myself

floating in the air.

And I could try and see myself,

but I would just see a blur.

And it happened

for many years, and...

when I was pregnant

with my daughter,

and I felt the baby as well,

trying to come out.

But I was trying to fight it,

and I was saying, "no, no."

So I would pull back.

It's like If I would pull back.

And it would pull, you know,

the other way.

When I was in

my mid to late 20s,

I had a really awful breakup.

I was miserable because

I was so brokenhearted.

And I started my first teaching

job around the same time,

so I was super stressed-out

from that.

I would just see this, like,

dark figure by the bookshelves,

and I could not move,

and it was f***ing terrifying.

I didn't know

what was happening.

I did think that somebody

had broken

into my apartment at first,

because at that point,

my roommate and I lived...

I had a roommate then...

we lived on fourth street,

and we were on the top floor

of the building.

And our building

was really easy to get into.

Like, the door in from

the balcony to our apartment

didn't really lock,

so I think I was like,

"Oh, f***,

somebody actually broke in."

To be lying there and know,

I want to move,

and I'm trying to move,

and I cannot...

absolutely terrifying.

I've always had a problem

with states of consciousness.

Slipping in and out

of different states

of consciousness.

And I do remember...

When I was very, very young...

two, three,

I was still in a crib.

And there was

a plug-in night light,

and it was that orange

cast color.

And it was all dark

except for that orange cast,

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