How it all began
As a child I often suffered from nightmares, as do many other kids. My parents disregarded those experiences as something “not real” and thus not worth being bothered by. I’ve developed a way of dealing with them by myself and as I gradually adopted their point of view, years began to pass.
When I was around the age of fifteen, a memory arose in my mind of somewhat nightmarish childhood dream:
I’m running down the hill in the village I live at as a huge German shepherd is chasing me. My heart is pounding so hard I think it would explode; I know that if it caught me, I was done for. Thinking only about a way to escape the fearsome beast and saving my life, I‘m not paying attention to where I‘m going and I trip over a stone lying on the ground. I start falling head first but instead of hitting the ground something unusual happens – I stop in mid-air approximately 30 centimeters above the ground. I think the time had stopped; I’m floating like a bubble parallel with the ground for some time, then start gaining speed as I begin to move (fly) downhill. All of a sudden there is no more feeling of dread I felt moments before when the ferocious dog was chasing me; instead, there is this amazing feeling of being able to do whatever I want. Soon after I wake up in my bed and the dream is gone, leaving only a strange sensation in me that gradually fades away.
I don’t know why but I started to think about it again, though it was a long time since I’ve dreamt it in the first place. I wondered if I could “recreate” it, maybe even to dream it again and to my surprise the dream repeated itself to the minor detail the following night. Even though I was amazed at what had happened, the event soon sank into my subconscious and years have passed before I recalled this experience again.