The Nightmare

Subtitle edited - Aorion - "The Nightmare 2015 " ^ (Run time 01:30:43)

What was that?

Me and my brother were like,

we'd just got out of the shower,

and he was about 2 years younger than me.

And... while my mom

was like taking care of him because he's like tiny.

- I was like in the living room, - 5.

- drying off, watching TV. - 4, 3...

In a Miami, Florida, courtroom today,

former Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega--

- Hey, Chris. - Whoever the newscaster was

starts kind of getting my attention...

- Chris. - Saying like, "Hey, Chris. Hey, Chris."

Hey, Chris.

- And it's saying, "Don't worry." - Don't worry.

Everything's gonna be okay.

And one day, we'll be back.

It terrified me.

I remember screaming to get my mom,

bringing her to the TV,

who now was back to doing like normal news casting,

because that's, you know, what it was.

And...

her basically explaining to me, like,

"TVs don't talk to you. That's ridiculous."

I'm disenchanted, because now I thought

something really cool happened, and...

that's not a thing I remember,

I know it was there.

And, you know, I was wide awake.

I had literally just gotten out of the shower,

and it was this very...

overwhelming experience for me because now...

as a five-year-old,

I...

I didn't know where I belonged.

St. Louis, Michigan

Jeff R.

Okay. Set.

So how did this start, Jeff?

Um,

probably about

10 years ago.

My girlfriend at the time and I were talking about

different paranormal stories, and...

and she started telling me about...

me about how sometimes she'd wake up

in the middle of the night,

just, like, unable to move or breathe and...

She said it felt like...

there's like an evil presence in the room with her,

and they would just, like-- kind of, like, torment her and...

And she would eventually wake up,

and it'd be like it was just a dream.

After she told me that,

I didn't really know what to make of it.

I was like, "Okay, I got involved with some crazy girl."

And...

I just kind of changed the subject,

started talking about something else. Then...

About a week later, I laid down to go to sleep.

And just as I started to drift off,

I felt my body just become extremely heavy.

It was like I fell asleep,

but then woke up at the same instant.

And my whole body started tingling.

It felt like really weighted down,

like something was pulling me. And...

I heard this, like, sound.

It wasn't like outside of my head,

but it was just like inside of my head.

It's sounded like a washing machine

that's kind of out of balance or something,

just banging against the wall.

And...

just really terrified me.

I kind of started like...

freaking out, and like,

started seeing things.

And it was really bizarre.

Well, what did you see?

Um, it was kind of like--

it was kind of like...

All these different colors, like a...

laser light show or something,

like, I was like flying through, like, a time warp.

It had all these like colors just, like, shooting at me

in a lighting show.

And I had found that I had zero control over my body.

Like, no matter how hard I tried,

I couldn't move my arms, my legs.

Nothing. And so...

I really started to kind of have a panic attack

because I didn't know what was going on.

I thought I was dead.

I thought it was like a stroke or something.

Nothing worked. I couldn't move.

I had no control over anything.

Finally I decided, well,

I'm just gonna try to build up all the strength

that I have in me, just to get myself to roll over onto my girlfriend.

Hoping that it wakes her up.

So it's just like this last-ditch effort

of everything I had,

I just like, wrenched my body.

As soon as I like...

flipped over on top of her, I woke up.

And I was still laying in my original position

like none of it had happened.

I was just completely shocked.

I had no idea what was going on. And...

I just did not know what to make of it.

After that, it was like...

constantly, night after night after night for...

a couple weeks, maybe even a month or so. And...

I just did not know how to process it at the time.

And so, finally, I told my girlfriend about it.

I was like, "okay, this is what's happening to me."

I think I need to go to the doctor.

I think I'm having strokes,

like mini-strokes, or seizures maybe even.

And she's like, "No, that's exactly what happens to me. And..

that was what I was trying to tell you about."

Elizabeth, New Jersey

- Ana M. - I was about 29 years old.

Mm-hmm.

And here in this room,

Um. As I would lay down to sleep,

I just start feeling tingling in my feet,

and then I would feel it rise up my legs...

Up my torso, on my hands.

And I would also hear buzzing.

You know, like bees buzzing.

That's when these episodes would start.

I would feel tingling and I would get--

And I’d feel the energy.

I felt that my mind was awake, but my body was stiff. I...

try to move my head from side to side.

I just-- I couldn't move.

And in that moment,

I would hear tapping on the window.

They would tap here. I would hear tapping.

And I'm thinking, "well, maybe it's just a squirrel

or a raccoon."

But it was like a pattern. It was definitely a knock.

And I would open my eyes, and I’d look toward the window,

and then it would stop.

But after a while,

I started feeling an actual presence.

And I would feel this presence,

right next to me trying to take my soul out.

It would torture me at night, and I would try and fight it,

but I felt I was-- like my body felt paralyzed.

It was just so strong

that I would just let go, and then I would feel myself...

floating in the air.

And I could try and see myself,

but I would just see a blur.

Um...

And it happened for many years.

And um...

When I was pregnant with my daughter,

and I felt the baby as well, trying to come out.

But I was trying to fight it, and I was saying, "No. No."

So I would pull back. It's like if I would pull back.

And it would pull, you know, the other way.

New York, New York

When I was in my mid to late 20s.

- Kate A. - I had a really awful breakup.

- Kate A. - I was miserable because I was so brokenhearted.

And I started my first teaching job around the same time,

so I was super stressed-out from that.

I would just see this, like, dark figure by the bookshelves,

And then I could not move, and it was fucking terrifying.

I didn't know it was happening.

I did think that somebody had broken into my apartment at first,

because at that point, my roommate and I lived--

I had a roommate then--. We lived on 4th street,

and we were on the top floor of the building.

And our building was really easy to get into.

Like, the door in from the balcony

to like our apartment didn't really lock, So I was...

So I think...

I was like, "Oh, fuck. Somebody actually broke in."

To be lying there and like know,

I want to move, and I’m trying to move, and I cannot--

absolutely terrifying.

I've always had a problem with states of consciousness.

Slipping in and out of different states of consciousness.

- Korinne W. - And...

- Korinne W. - I do remember...

- Korinne W. - When I was very, very young--

2, 3, I was still in a crib.

And there was a plug-in night light,

and it was that orange cast color.

And it was all dark except for that orange cast,

And the room turned red,

and I felt like something was coming after me,

and I cuddled down and covered myself.