Waking Dreams

[Cyberman]

I myself had had a few similar things happen, which I've shrugged off as the usual dream state stuff. One, however, does stick with me, not so much because I attach any greater significance to it but because of the unusual (for me) way it occurred. I was lying in bed, just trying to relax. I was alert and conscious of my surroundings throughout, but clearly my mind had started to drift off and do its own thing without me. I was suddenly aware of an invisible something, a large animal such as a dog or similar, trying to climb onto the bed with me. To revisit a joke from another thread, this would be the dog I never had - there were pets in the flat at the time, but I'm not aware of fish being that curious or agile.

But I was aware enough to realise it was my mind playing tricks, so I played along and shooed it away. Then without any warning, there was an invisible person snuggled up alongside me. I could feel them pressing into me and then drape an arm across my chest. It hadn't climbed into bed with me or anything, it was suddenly there. Now the 'dog' hadn't fazed me in the slightest, I took that in my stride and was in fact slightly amused by it. But this was different, it felt different, it was completely unexpected and the shock jolted me back to full alertness - a bit like one of those annoying myoclonic jerks that wake you up just as you're drifting off. I was now fully awake, but I could still feel this 'presence' and the pressure of the 'arm' draped across me. As soon as I started to move, however, it seemed to melt away, which was odd in itself because somehow I would have expected it to suddenly stop being there as though I flicked a switch. As I said, it left an impression on me similar to hearing a noise in the middle if the night, opening a door to an empty room to investigate and finding it was a book that had fallen off a shelf, relaxing in relief - and then hearing a voice right by your ear.

I don't particularly attach undue significance to any of this, other than making me intensely curious (and of course the obvious sentimental wishful thinking) and I certainly don't go around trying to convince others, since I know that would be pointless. I'd like to note that there have been other... interesting events when I haven't been anywhere approaching a dream state, but that's all outside the scope of this thread. I also feel intensely silly now for sharing this.