The closest thing to a time slip I've experienced

I'm one of those people who thinks I want to experience the paranormal, but would probably go into panic mode if anything significant actually occurred. I jump out of my skin if a real person speaks when I think I'm alone in a room, so it's somewhat laughable to think I'd appreciate a ghost sighting. (Except I swear I would...)

I had a small taste of how I'd probably react to a time slip. It was my senior year of college and I lay down for a nap one afternoon. As I entered sleep, I began to feel a spinning sensation. (I had not been drinking :-D). Then I was dreaming. The dream began with me floating through the air and into my early childhood bedroom on Hurricane Creek Road in West Virginia. A Rod Serling-type voice was narrating, "Sometimes, when we dream, we go back in time." (Pretty hokey, but I've had credits scroll up at the end of a dream, so...)  I floated down until I was sitting on my carpet. The carpet and decor were yellow, as they had been in my earlier childhood before we had redecorated. I only took vague notice of this, because I was instantly panicked. All I could think was that I was stuck in the past. I scrambled to my feet and raced to open my door. I ran through the hallway to my parents' room. Even in my panic, I noticed with some surprise that the hallway had the earth tones that were also from my early childhood before we had redecorated. (I'm not sure I could have even told you what color they were until that dream reminded me.) 

I rushed into my parents' room. My dad was sleeping, his face to the wall as he most often did. My mom was sitting up and I believe she was sewing/mending something. I ran to her, still panicked, and threw my arms around her. "Mom, you've got to pray for me - I'm stuck in a --" I started to say "dream" - which indicates I was realizing that this was a dream - but I stopped, worried that I would scare her. She was watching me with alarm, and I struggled with how to approach the issue. I looked out the window of the balcony to the backyard, still thinking. Finally, I asked, "Are we on Hurricane Creek?" Logic clearly failed me here, as it does in dreams, because asking my mom if we were on the street where we clearly were could be no less alarming than asking what year it was. "Yes," Mom answered, still watching me in concern. 

Then I remembered that I always pray to get out of terrifying dreams, but it hadn't occurred to me. I said, "Jesus, help me to wake up." Immediately, my eyes flew open and I was back in my own time (or, awake).

I had an immense sense of relief, and now that I knew it had just been a dream, I decided to go back to sleep and finish my nap. I closed my eyes, and within a few minutes that spinning sensation started back up. It freaked me out so much that I decided not to nap after all, and I got up.

If anyone had told me that I would react in such a way to being sent back to my early childhood, I wouldn't have believed them. I would have thought that I'd enjoy exploring my old house again, seeing my parents, venturing into the wooded foothills and creeks with my friends. But in that moment that I settled onto my yellow carpet, I felt only panic. I knew I was in the past and I was afraid I was stuck.

So when I consider people who have been wide awake and found themselves displaced in time - and realized that is what was happening - I can't imagine they would enjoy the experience.

Naomi West