The aliens in the television
When I was very young I was moved from sleeping on the same floor of the house as my family to sleeping on a different floor. Moving to "my own room" meant I had to sleep on the first floor alone. My new room was next to the "tv room" (or den). Sleeping so far from the rest of the family wasn't something I was unhappy or stressed about, but soon after I moved I began to have nightmares. I would awake at night and walk into the tv room. I didn't want to walk into the room, but felt myself pulled in. I would go closer and closer to the tv set, until I was pulled into it. There aliens, green and small would strap me down to a dentist style chair. I would scream and cry to get out., sometimes my brother would come and get me. He seemed to be sleepwalking, but would hear me and pull me out and walk me back into my bedroom. Often I would then scream loudly. I remember my family not being able to hear my screams, and they would find me shaking in bed in the morning. Finally my family put in an intercom system so they could hear me when I cried out. I became afraid to even walk by the tv room during the day unless the door was closed. For years I was known as a "nervous child", but no one believed me when I talked about the aliens.
After a few years of this another family member took over the tv room as their bedroom. Soon after the aliens in the tv were simply a bad nightmare. While I never forgot them, I supposed I was alone in this fear of the television. One day I was at the movies seeing the film "Poltergeist". I had to walk out of the movie theatre because of the little girl being in the television. I felt like I had a flashback. I couldn't believe someone else (the writer of the movie I supposed) had ever had an experience like mine. I later found out fears of being pulled into the television was a common nightmare and fear for young children. I was also confused. The movie had ghosts. I had aliens. Other people had demons or witches. While I don't believe it was real aliens that pulled me in, I do believe there is something in our minds that can make many people have the same type of fear or experience. Aliens or ghosts or demons - it feels very real and is very stressful. To find out that many people have this same type of experiencs made me feel better, while also making me wish my family had known not to just laugh at my "abductions".