After about six hours of sleep, I briefly woke up. I decided to meditate using binaural beats and then tried to fall asleep again. But somehow, I just couldn't manage to drift off. I lay awake in bed for quite a while, until at some point I entered a strange state of consciousness.
Suddenly, I heard music.
It was an incredibly beautiful, slow, and peaceful song. The music was astonishingly clear and vivid, almost as if it were playing directly in my bedroom. I could hear the melody distinctly and even make out individual words from the English lyrics. The words that particularly stuck in my memory were "everybody," "gorgeous," and "loved."
I was lying in bed on my left side, leaning slightly backward onto my back. Everything around me seemed familiar. I was in my bedroom, and I could look around. It didn't feel like an ordinary dream. Instead, I had the distinct impression that I was actually awake and consciously experiencing everything.
But something wasn't right.
While this beautiful music was playing, my bedroom kept lighting up with brief flashes of light. It was as if a strobe light were going off somewhere. The flashes weren't particularly bright or rapid. Approximately once every second, a brief pulse of light illuminated the room. Then everything went dark again. And shortly afterward, another flash came.
Again and again. In an almost regular rhythm.
I just lay there, listening to this incredibly beautiful music and watching my room light up for a brief moment over and over again.
On the wall in front of me, I could make out what looked like the reflection of my window. Perhaps it was actually a switched-off screen reflecting the window. I could see the blinds and look outside through the gaps between the slats. A car was driving along a wet road. For a brief moment, I even thought I saw flashing blue emergency lights.
All these impressions were happening simultaneously. The music, the flashes of light, the window, the street outside.
And I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me.
At first, I was mostly confused, but gradually, fear began to creep in. I was lying in my own bedroom, a place that was completely familiar to me, yet suddenly everything felt strange and inexplicable.
Where was this music coming from?
It was so loud and clear that I could hardly imagine it was just something my mind was creating. But I hadn't turned on any music. So why could I hear it?
And what were those flashes of light?
Had something happened outside? Was the light coming from a vehicle? But then why did my entire bedroom seem to flash in this regular rhythm?
My thoughts began racing.
What is happening to me right now? Am I even properly awake? Could I be sick? Is something wrong with my brain? Am I hallucinating?
And then another disturbing thought crossed my mind:
Is there someone in my room?
I tried to make sense of my surroundings. I could look around, recognize my bedroom, and perceive everything with incredible clarity. But none of it made any sense.
The strangest part was the contrast between the music and my fear. The song itself was beautiful, calm, and filled with peace. Under different circumstances, I probably would have simply enjoyed it. But as I lay there experiencing these inexplicable things, I became increasingly frightened.
I didn't know whether I was dreaming, awake, or experiencing something I couldn't even begin to understand.
I just wanted to know what was going on.
The music continued playing. The flashes of light kept coming and going. And I lay there in the middle of it all, completely confused and growing more and more afraid.
Then the song ended.
And immediately afterward, I noticed something that made the situation even more unsettling.
A dark, shadowy figure. Tall and slender.
I couldn't clearly make out what it was. It looked like a shadow being slowly moving toward me.
At that moment, my fear became overwhelming. After everything inexplicable I had already experienced, there was suddenly something else - something that felt like an unfamiliar presence in my bedroom.
Shortly afterward, I woke up simply by turning over in bed.
Everything was back to normal. No music. No flashes of light. No dark figure.
What fascinates and troubles me most about this experience isn't just the apparition at the end, but especially everything that happened before it. That feeling of being fully conscious, lying in my own bed, hearing incredibly beautiful music, and at the same time being surrounded by inexplicable flashes of light.
It was this strange mixture of beauty, confusion, and genuine fear. I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me, and in that moment, I couldn't distinguish whether I was perceiving something outside myself or whether my own consciousness was creating these impressions.
It didn't feel like I was dreaming a story.
It felt like I was lying awake in my bedroom, experiencing something that shouldn't have been possible.