Blue_Opossum

Night of May 25, 1978. Thursday.



This was a very unusual and near-traumatic experience. It starts out quite calm, though slightly surreal in the imagery and awareness directed at it. I am mentally “reviewing” the chickens we had sold as we are preparing to move to Wisconsin. It seems a bit impersonal in-dream for a time and I feel somewhat isolated still, as the region seems more and more “empty” (with less neighbors now as well). I am still aware that my head is facing south (as well as being vaguely aware of my body position) and I am still somewhat aware of the opening in the ceiling; a ceiling tile that had gotten too damp from a leak in the roof so that it sank downwards (my father fixed it later on with a piece of plywood). I vaguely ponder the potential of a large rat or two getting through in reality as I sleep…

…thus my sleep is not that deep. As I look at a black cochin bantam hen, I feel a very odd closeness and an overwhelming sense of nostalgia (including a sadness it was sold, this being like a “residual” but false memory) - which really makes no direct sense. Interestingly, it has white feathers on its legs and feet, which gives me a strange impression that it is “wearing bloomers” and the concept of an “antique” animal very vaguely emerges briefly. There is a very slight association with the comic strip character Loweezy, wife of Snuffy Smith.

At the same time that this imagery is growing more and more vivid and falsely nostalgic (especially as I had never seen a black cochin with white legs and feet), I am vividly aware of pattering rodent feet directly above my head, which I take to be a large rat that I am thinking will fall through the opening in the ceiling. At the same time, something very strange happens; I somehow “throw” myself out of the bed (oddly while lying in a horizontal position in apparently a light sleep) in reality - all the way to the other side of the room in one movement with no rolling - and injure my leg (but do not break it). Looking back at the distance I “flew”, it seems hard to believe that I was able to fling myself that far from the bed with what seemed like only the muscles of one leg, but this is apparently what had happened. I did not immediately inform my parents and the pain only lasted about a day. This taught me that some events considered supernatural may be related to augmented muscle strength and strange associations during sleep.

This was the only time I ever literally flung myself a fair distance from where I was sleeping.