That Horrifying Night !

I must start with saying that it was indeed an experience I cannot forget for life. 

I was in the UK in 2018 for an assignment, where I shared the apartment with two others.

One night I went to sleep early while my flat mates were chilling in a neighbor’s house. I loved sleeping early and rising sooner than others even then. The flat was pretty quiet and dark, but I am usually not bothered by any of it. They sometimes even tried to scare me in the middle of the night, but it almost had no effect on me.

I remember being half asleep that night, still aware of everything around. An hour or so into sleeping, I was disturbed by some movements around. I opened my eyes sensing something really strange. There were many Gollum (from Lord of the Rings) like looking creatures wriggling at the end of my bed. I was horrified at the sight and tried to wake up and move, but no, I couldn’t. I felt like I was dead, with only my consciousness awake and trying to escape but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t move a limb. Out of helplessness I tried to scream so my flat mates could hear me and come for rescue, but I had lost my voice too. I remember shouting at the top of my voice, but no sound coming out of my throat. I thought they are going to kill me and just when that feeling occurred I felt myself being dragged, too fast. Nobody held me, it was as if I was just being pulled by air and I kept trying to reach out to something to hold onto. But there was nothing and I was moving too fast to even realize where I am being dragged. There was one large window right in front of me and it felt like I am going to be flown away through that into some other world. Nothing that my eyes saw perceived to be this world.

Terrified, I was thinking of ways to just survive this somehow. My consciousness kicked in and I started chanting the one mantra that I chanted almost every time at that time. “Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare” I went on chanting this repeatedly as I got dragged to what seemed like the pull of death. 
Almost within a few seconds into chanting I woke up panicking and anxious. I was still on my bed and everything around was extremely familiar. I could feel my limbs again and speak and hear. That was the first thing I checked, believe me. I should have settled in sooner had the experience not felt so real. It wasn’t a nightmare? Or was it ? I was too scared to continue sleeping by myself, so I rushed to the other room where my flat mates slept and tried sleeping with them. The memory of the experience lasted with me for several days and I trembled every time.

This could have been a nightmare, but for how real it felt, I still sometimes think may be it was not. And the hero Krishna did come to save his devotee from the demons of a different world. I like thinking that way because this one time, he did really come and rescue me immediately when I called him and let go.