My worst nightmare

This is a photo that I took of a scary-as-hell-ad in a newspaper in Yemen. It was circa 2011 while working there, the image still haunts me. It makes me wonder what kind of sadistic editor that's working on that magazine. Or perhaps the person is just haunted by such nightmares that this seemed like a ray of sunshine in his/her day of darkness.

Let me tell you a true story about true hallucinations

The image reminds me of a mix of the movie The Ring (English or Japanese version, both are scary) and the worst nightmares that I ever had. True story, true hallucinations.

It was long time ago, when I studied at university up in the north of Sweden. Where sun sets at 11pm and rise at 2am during the longest days. I woke up one night and it was already bright in the room, but since light wasn't a good indicator of time during the summer, I leaned over to try and see the dining room wall clock through my open bedroom door. It was only 3:30. Then I saw her, a little girl standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

My heart stopped beating and I just fell back on my pillow. Unable to move. Unable to make my heart start beating again. Everything was real. I felt the bedsheets, the weight of my body, the smell of the room, all those things that you don't feel in dreams. I closed my eyes. Sleep took me again. Then I woke up. It was morning and there was only me in the apartment.

I still get chills down my spine thinking about this. I love how my brain could make all this seem so real. It is a philosophical wakeup call for questioning perception of reality and how amazing our brains are.

PS. No drugs were involved and no animals got harmed.