Hypnagogic

A short story I wrote a couple of years back goes like this…

They decided to meet at a coffee shop for their first date. She requested him to pick her up from her workplace - a newly built commercial complex in one of the busiest IT hubs in the city.

Ankit was oblivious to the progress of the construction, and he thought it’d take a few more months to conclude. But, as he parked his car in the driveaway and took a glance at the humongous concrete marvel bearing a resemblance to a glass palace, his mouth agape with incredulity.

He stood in addled stupefaction since the reception hurled a deserted space with no security guards or employees. It was as abandoned as a war-ridden zone. He saw her waving at him from the terrace, signaling him to trail up the stairs.

They spoke about their preferences, work, family, and future for about an hour – simply the intricacies camouflaged in your matrimonial profile.

“So, any secrets?” she inquired as they were about to leave. The skyline was getting darker.

Ankit hesitated for a while before answering.

“I’m getting treated for a rare psychological disorder,” he said, heaving a huge sigh.

“After my father’s death a couple of years ago, I started having these weird dreams. I’ll be at sleep, albeit with full awareness. It’s like, I know I’m hallucinating, yet I  can’t take action. I can hear, feel, and see things that aren’t there. When I wake up, it feels like I had a nightmare… My psychologist inferred it as a mere case of sleep paralysis,” said Ankit looking at the ground, which is at a distance of 7 meters below my feet.

“Yeah, it’s a normal condition. Most of us experience it,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“It isn’t normal in my case. For the past six months, I have stood at the exact same location a person is about to die. I’ll then see a silhouette kind of shadow touching the person. And just before the delineation could catch a sight at me, my sleep gets disturbed. The next day that concerned person is dead. Neighborhood grocery shop owner, my maid’s husband, my friend’s wife, and a distant relative are a few I can remember. I was nearby when their souls departed. I presume the dark shadow is nothing but death,” he said. He whispered the last two words when he told death, ‘deatttthhhh.’

“Unbelievable,” she said.

“My shrink said, this transitional state between sleep and wakefulness is hypnagogic. But, such stark hallucinations might be a neurological concern,” Ankit said, biting his upper lip.

She listened as the breeze blew whooshing their ears.

“Yesterday, I was in my mother’s bedroom during the nightmare. The ‘darkness’ was well within reach of my sleeping mother. I woke her up by screaming. And very next moment, the ceiling fan plummeted right next to the cot, missing her by an inch,” Ankit said, shaking his head. He turned around to look at the orangy sunset in the fading twilight.

“I could use my disorder to save people’s lives rather than get scared. Right?” he said and turned around to find nobody.

In a blink, she went missing. Ankit stood alone. The building was still under construction; sand, bricks, and cement spewed all over.

‘It’ appeared before him, disclosed its identity, and whispered,

“You cannot cheat death; people should die.”

News the next day

A youngster committed suicide by jumping off from an under-construction site in the city. He is survived by his mother, who said the victim had a hallucinating psychological disorder, which could be one of the reasons for taking this extreme step. The police have registered a case for further investigation.

****

So, what is this condition of Hypnagogia?

According to Dr. Daniel Yetman and Dr. Raj Dasgupta, MD, Hypnagogia is the bridge between wakefulness and sleep. It is the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and shut-eye. And people who’re suffering from this extreme condition experience involuntary and imagined experiences. The medical experts term this as hypnagogic hallucinations, and a whopping 70 percent of people experience these hallucinations.

Most of these people experience crazy emotions of sight, sound, and even feeling movements. Muscle jerks, sleep paralysis, and lucid dreams are common during this hypnagogic phase.

When I was researching this scary psychological phenomenon, I realized I had experienced the phenomenon myself. When I was writing a story, especially about horror, I used to get these crazy dreams of the paranormal. And during those moments, I can feel I’m stuck and cannot move my limbs. Yet, to escape those demons that are trying to engulf me, I yell.

That hideous ‘cry-for-help’ kind of yelping makes my wife joggle me. SHE LAUGHS AT ME when I wake up, and I understand it was just a nightmare.

But is it normal?

Some of the world’s most brilliant minds used Hypnagogia to tap into their creativity. Thomas Edison, Edgar Allan Poe, and Salvador Dali used to nap with a steel ball in their hands so that they would wake when the ball hit the floor.

In some civilizations, such conditions are taboo. It is believed that some evil spirit is trying to communicate with the sleeping victim. Tying of auspicious thread in wrists, talisman, amulets, ash on the foreheads, cross as a pendant, Bible or Quran by the mattress – are all the faith instilled to keep away the bad omen from contacting you. According to these cultures, dead spirits are active during the night and can easily attain you while at sleep.

If you are an atheist, you go by the psychological explanation, and the condition is not life-threatening and is VERY NORMAL.

But, what if someone from the ‘other side’ wants to establish a connection with you? Will you go through the nightmare to find out? Or will you hug your religious elements to feel courageous only for that moment?

CLANG!

That was my silver ball. It fell off my hands as I woke up!