The Floating Bulgarians

It was a Saturday afternoon in the late 80s. I was relaxing as later on that evening I had a hockey game outside of the city in a farming community. I was nine years old at the time of this incident. 

​I was sitting at home watching t.v. when a show came on the tube. It was called, "Mystic Powers." It looked interesting but at the same time scary. I sat in my seat and watched with curiosity. The intro was a creepy type of synthesizer music that made the hair stand on my neck. The narrator came onto the screen; he looked like a vampire in a suit, and as he started to speak he sounded like a vampire as well. The first scene came on and it took place in Bulgaria. There was a family that was walking through the burial grounds of their ancestors and as soon as they stepped over the burial ground they rose into the air in a horizontal position. The whole family looked like they were swimming on their backs. There was something about seeing that was so believable and eerie that it burned my memory. I kept watching as the music and the narrators voice tormented me. There were more scenes of people floating over graves in the sacred village of Bulgaria. I couldn't watch anymore so I turned the channel but would turn back periodically to see what was happening.

By the end of the half hour program I was very disturbed with what I saw. I became nervous and started to doubt my own being. I became obsessed with the thought of things not existing, including myself. My father asked me what was wrong and I told him I was okay. As he walked out of the room I imagined him floating in the air like the Bulgarians.

We left for my hockey game that night. I felt fine as we drove through the city but as soon as we got into the country it became extremely dark and I told my dad I wanted to go home. He looked at me and asked me why. I told him I wasn't feeling good. He kept driving through the darkness and my dread deepened.

I looked out the car window into the night and all I could see were the Bulgarians floating in the air. I wondered if I was really here on earth, because I no longer felt attached to reality. Maybe nothing was real and my mind was nothing more than a video.

We arrived at the rink and as I got dressed for the game I talked to some of my teammates. Their voices sounded weird in an echoing sort of way. I looked around the dressing room and all my teammates seemed to be shrinking in size. I stood up and that's when the room seemed to tilt and I Iost my balance and fell onto the floor. 

Everyone looked at me and asked if I was okay. I said I was fine. We left the dressing room and as we walked to the ice surface the walls seemed to be moving closer and then further away from me. I was losing it.

During the warm I kept hearing a ringing in my ear and for whatever reason I was having balance problems. I looked down the ice at the opposition and they seemed so far away, my depth perception was completely out of whack.

My first shift of the game was a disaster. As soon as the game started everyone on the ice started to float like the Bulgarians from the show. I gave the puck away on my first shift and the other team scored. I sat on the bench and looked around in the stands and nothing appeared real. I felt scared and wanted to go home. My coach hollered at me to go onto the ice but my body wouldn't move. My mind was fully detached from my body and I was paralyzed from moving. 

Thank God that my coach benched me for the rest of the game. As I sat on the bench I could hear noises from the ice but they seemed so distant. The players seemed to be moving in super slow motion. The game ended and I wasn't sure if we had won or lost. My dad worked me over the whole ride home, asking me if I was okay and if I wanted to see a doctor. Over the next couple of weeks I gradually forgot about my outer body experience.

Then 33 years later I was invited to watch my nephew play at the same arena. I drove out that night and soon was driving on the dark country road that led to the arena. I looked out into the night and saw the floating Bulgarians for the first time in 33 years. My vision blurred and I almost drove into the ditch. That night while I watched my nephew's game I experienced various noise distortions and visual warpings. 

Two weeks later I was invited to the same arena to watch another game. This time I declined.