Welcome back!
Here's the third installment in my series about the story and research behind my novel -- While He Was Sleeping.
Let's recap. First, I told you about how psychic researchers in Toronto created a fictional ghost in 1972 that actually came to life. When I first read about that in a library book, I wished I had seen it on television as described. Imagine my surprise nearly 30 years later to find that video of the original broadcast!
But of course the researchers gained their idea from somewhere. I believe that came from Alexandra David-Neel who I described last time. That post ended with a warning. Don't try to interfere with the unknown unless you have received heaps of training.
Well... let's go back to December of 1987 when I read the library book that described both of the above situations. I was a tender sixteen years of age and thought I knew everything. I wanted to try it out for myself of course! Should I have ignored the obvious warning? No. Did I? Yes.
So my idea to create a ghost or a tulpa seemed pretty wild back then. I had a Dungeons and Dragons book at the time, borrowed from a school friend, called Drums on Fire Mountain. One of the characters in the adventure was named Maerie. If you've already read While He Was Sleeping, these aren't spoilers. If not, well, I'll tread carefully for you.
I created a fictional background for her, just like Philip the Ghost, and even gave her a special home. An interdimensional doorway that could be accessed at a certain point of my yard. There was a secret method to reaching this gateway and if it had worked, that would have been awesome.
Guess what? It didn't work as fast as I wanted.
Did you know I had a really fanciful imagination at sixteen? Neither did I.
I was already a student of hypnosis from library books and had developed an ability to hypnotise myself, which I realised was self-guided meditation. I could save time by meditating in my sleep, lucid dreaming, and utilise that slumber to create Maerie. Did I mention I secretly wanted this girl to have a crush on me? Like a mental pygmalion? Well, not much of a secret now, I guess. And yeah, I had it bad.
My summer holidays finished and there was no sign of Maerie. Not even a shadow. School started again. My senior year.
By March, 1988, I was studying something else which actually did experience success. Astral travelling. I'll write about that another time. But something else happened that month.
A strange presence appeared in the corner of my eye. A slender girl always waited on the outer edges of my peripheral vision. The first time was at school in Chemistry class. It started as the strangest sensation, like someone was staring at me. You know the feeling, right? I turned to see, but nothing was there.
Then I noticed my friend next to me was looking there too. He looked back at me. "Thought someone was there," he whispered with a shrug. My jaw dropped upon realising what had happened.
"Did you see?" I asked.
He frowned, trying to recall. “I thought some chick was there. Didn’t see her though. Did you see where she went?”
We turned to look and found nothing. But I knew, or hoped I did.
Now this friend was the same who had taught me the knack for perfecting my astral travelling. I didn't expect this reaction from him. He wasn't too chuffed about it when he read about what had happened to Alexandra David-Neel's tulpa.
I was busting to tell my friend. The problem was, what would he think? Best to leave it, I decided. Then a voice spoke, startling me.
“Hello, Chris,” it said, distinctly female, sultry and alluring, its accent foreign. I just about filled my pants upon hearing it. My heart beat with excitement. Yes, it was working.
The secret proved too big to keep to myself. I had to tell my friend. So I brought my Tulpa diary to school the next day to show him. At first he was sceptical, then he saw her picture I had sketched.
"Hey!" he said. "That's the chick I thought I saw." Then a penny dropped with him as he saw the grin on my face. "What the hell do you know about her?"
“Keep reading,” I urged, and he did. The diary was voluminous. Fifty-three pages of my thoughts, research, Maerie's fictional biography. Everything I had planned and outlined on a slender young lady with auburn-coloured tresses who was devoted to me as a friend and advisor.
He knew it wasn't something I had made up overnight for him. There was too much, written so neatly. I couldn’t have rushed in the writing. It included photocopies of the book I'd borrowed from the library about Philip the Ghost and the Tibetan tulpas.
"Shit, Chris, what the hell have you done?" he asked, leafing through it. "Is this desperation for a girlfriend or something? This is sick shit."
"You have to stop it, mate," he warned me, handing the book back to me like it was poison.
But how? I hadn't concentrated and meditated on Maerie for over a month. Had my self-hypnosis done it? Had I subconsciously kept creating her even after concentrating on other things? Either way, it worked.
Of course, I made an effort to stop thinking about the tulpa and the plans. But I can't say that my subconscious listened. For she appeared at other times, and not when I was at school or with friends.
That’s when the idea for While He Was Sleeping came to me. Perhaps it was a mistake. By outlining a horror by the name ‘Tulpa’, based partly around my experiences, what had I conjured into being? There is a reason I took years before actually writing it…
That’s a story for next time…
Make sure the lights are on when you read it… next week…
Copyright © Chris Johnson, 2022.
Names have either been changed or omitted to protect the innocent.
Chris Johnson
PS: Like strange tales like this? Be sure to check out my supernatural thriller, While He Was Sleeping. Available now on my Payhip store.
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