i experienced something like that once - when i was much younger. i was at a friends house, talking to her when suddenly i was somewhere else. it was if someone had flipped a switch, and i was instantly in another place. it did not seem like a dream, it felt, sounded, looked, even smelled real. i was someone else - an old man, lying on a fur covered bed or couch. a beautiful woman (she looked in her early thirties perhaps) dressed in white was standing by a wall with a small balcony. the walls were stone, like a castle, and she was lit by candle-light, or a flaming torch.
"come see this" she said. painfully, i got from my pallet and hobbled to the balcony. i felt i was not long for this world. i looked down into a courtyard, which was lit by lanterns. the air was warm and smelled of summer, but the sky was dark, so it must have been quite late.
in the courtyard, people were dancing, and i heard children singing.
"this is all in honour of you, this is what you mean to them" the lady said. i felt great bliss, happy and contented. i smiled, with a tear in my eye.
suddenly i was back in my friend's house, and i found myself finishing the sentence that i was in the midst of before my strange switch. i was confused for a moment, and my friend said that i had stopped midway through a word, and just froze. for a few seconds i was just frozen like a statue, blank faced, then back to normal again.
i don't know what happened, where or who i was. for a short moment my consciousness was somewhere else. it was so real and vivid.
i've never forgotten it - though it was 25 years ago now. i still feel a sense of loss for being snatched back to this life. i know that life was at it's end, but i would gladly change places again for a chance to experience that night.
