The Thing on Johnny's Bed

I am a child of the 70s. As a late baby boomer I experienced much of the 60’s counter culture. However I had the advantage to see the effects of the unbridled freedom on many of those who abandoned themselves in it and the inevitable consequences served as a warning for me.

Free love and free drugs were the motto of the times in which I grew from childhood to adolescence. I had many a friend who never made it to adulthood and if they did, by the time of this writing they are more than likely consigned to the care of a nursing home or an adult care facility.

Johnny was a friend of mine who at the time would do any drug that passed his way. He loved getting high and it did not matter what kind of high or altered experience it was that said chemical induced. His tastes ran the gambit of the day, from uppers to downers from weed to Mescaline. If you knew of the current drug of the day Johnny had been there and done that, and would offer his sage advice to any stoner who wished to avoid a bad experience with the current drug fad of the time.

One night after a long evening of partying and mixing of various pharmaceuticals he went home to sleep his buzz off. In his basement bedroom he listened to some relaxing music and shut off the lights. He did not know how long it was before a loud sound roused him from his half slumber. With a quick flip of a switch his night light came on and he sat up to see what had caused the commotion.

That was when he saw the thing scurry across the floor.

It had quickly made its way from the bathroom to behind a pile of clothes to the left of his bed. He could barely discern what exactly it was but it was small, short and bipedal. It ran faster than his cat and had made the 4 foot run in a split second. It was also very dark.

Panicked, he was unsure as to what to do next. He decided to just stay in the safety of his bed and pulled the covers up a bit to hide in the safe and warm self made cocoon. It was not a squirrel, he saw no tail. This was the northeastern United States so it could not have been any kind of monkey. The odd this was that it looked like a miniature human scuttling across the floor. It did not slump its back as it ran from the restroom to the pile of clothes in the corner. No it looked like a husky little man in dark as it passed into the pile of soiled apparel.

As he sat there looking into the dark recesses of the basement for any movement near the laundry pile, he was sure he saw something afar off in the back of the room. It darted to and from as if it was trapped in the semi darkness of the room and stayed in the safety of the shadows so it would not be fully seen by the young teen in his bed. But it’s frantic movement betrayed that it was seeking escape.

Soon the movement abruptly stopped.

And the shadow grew larger as the thing came closer in the darkness slowly making its way to the edge of the bed.

In the seconds that it disappeared at the bed’s edge, Johnny did not know whether to feel relief or panic. Had it gone back to his worst nightmare to plague him no more, or was it lurking under his bed waiting for him to come out from under the covers so that it might do its diabolical deeds upon his pink soft flesh? The seconds seemed to span an eternity as he waited for a movement or a sign from above the bed or under it. But then as the horror of the reality that was to befall him permeated his mind his spine became as a frozen icicle as if splayed down from a lonely woebegone ledge.

He felt a tug on the comforter that he had so dearly pulled tight to his body and a single lone hand of impish size came over the edge of the bed.

It was soon followed by its equally unwelcome twin.

The comforter pulled down from his clutching hands as the weight of the thing bore down at its edge, and soon the full body of the being came into sight.

It had a face circled in dark oily hair and its dark skin glistened in the ambient lighting. It almost looked human, if a human face could have been forged in the depths of hell by one who had no pattern with which to form it. It had the basics of twin eyes and ears, but they were both disproportionate and at odd angels. The mouth twisted in a grotesque grin and opened to reveal teeth that made no sense for the small confines from which they had emerged.

As it made its way with dire purpose up the sheet Johnny was still frozen in fear with the sight he beheld before him. That it meant him ill will there was no doubt, but as to what he could do with such a creature he was left to his own small wit. Finally as he felt the small feet cross the sensitive skin of his stomach and knew for a certainty that this was no mere illusion and with dread he finally decided to act.

In a blur of motion he flipped the comforter over unto the small beast that dared assault him and with a twist he enclosed it in the billowing cover of the comforter. He then spun the end which he held making a handle of sorts with which he began to then use the whole as a hammer with which he began to pummel the bare cement floor of the basement with unabashed fear.

After a few minutes of ceaseless pounding on the floor, Johnny caved into the fatigue of his over worked muscles and let go off the wadded up comforter. Breathing heavy he fell heavy on the bedside and examined the balled up mass that lay before him.

Whatever the twisted comforter contained the creature did not move any longer. It was a motionless wad of fabric on the cold cement floor. Warily he prod it with his extended foot, but still there was no movement that he could see. With apprehension and a dread he had never experienced before in his short life the young teen began to unwind the fabric of the comforter to find…

Absolutely nothing.

The comforter was empty. He was sure as he repeatedly hurled it against the floor the comforter had contained some considerable mass. But there was simply nothing there.

He breathed a heavy sigh and in an unspoken oath he vowed to never mix again the concoction of narcotics that he had ingested that night. If he could ever remember which ones they were. And through a struggled and fitful night of half sleep he tried to forget the hallucination that had seemed so real. But whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the creature climb up the bed, and he felt the small clawed feet dig into his abdomen as he lay still on the bed in which he now tried to find rest.

He awoke in the morning feeling worse for the wear and with heavy limbs he forced himself into the bathroom to take his shower and to make himself somewhat presentable for the day of work that lay before him.

But as he stepped into the shower he slipped and fell, hitting his head against the thin Plexiglas of the cheap basement shower in his room. The shower floor was slick from an oily residue and as he regained his balance he saw the thick dark red ochre of drying blood that covered its floor. Then as he strained his head in horror he saw his gutted and disemboweled cat lying at the head of the shower, with half of its internal organs missing and its body torn apart as if from some primitive savage attack of a primordial creature from the blackness of hell.

His beloved pet had fell victim to the self same creature that had climbed up his bed that very night to assault him.

If it were not for the attack of his cat, the experience of Johnny could be easily dismissed it all as a psychotic delusion caused by the overindulgence of various mind altering drugs.

But something tore that poor creature apart that night, and made off with various organs.

Was it Johnny in a panic induced drug filled rage? Or was it the creature he saw in his mind altering state of consciousness?

People who dabble in various mind altering substances perceive things that we as people in a normal state of consciousness usually have no discernment of. From the Shaman to the ancient mystery cultic worshipper, people in religious visions induced by chemical enhancement have perceived sbeyond our own and the creatures that inhabit them.

The Bible warns of such use of mind altering substances and classifies it as witchcraft. In fact In the New Testament Koine Greek word for Witchcraft in many passages is the word Pharmakeia/Pharmakeus (Strongs 5331,5332) which literally means medication and is where we derive the word Pharmacy in the contemporary English language. In ancient Greco Roman culture mystery religions often used mind altering substances with the masses to induce spiritual euphoria in its celebrants.

Such use of pharmaceuticals for spiritual epiphanies can easily be traced to Shamanistic practices by various world wide cultures. Experiential knowledge by these various individuals would tend to suggest that use of psychoactive drugs does tend to open the perception of those partaking to an altered state of consciousness that cannot be perceived by the most ordinary beings. It is a supplement to the God ordained spiritual gift of discernment of spirits that can often attract beings of a malicious nature. Some shaman, like many we encounter in our modern society are gifted by God to perceive a different world around them. They can actually see entities and judge such said beings purpose and nature. In aboriginal societies such persons were elevated to the role of a spiritual leader, a shaman who has the gift to sense when oppressive forces are at work and had the power to overcome them. Their role is that of healer, guide and spiritual leader for the group. But many such roles were hereditary. And while many Shaman did not rely upon pharmaceutical enhancements of their gifts, many of their offspring who were not as gifted tended to rely upon artificial means to enhance their abilities. And this abominable practice tends to draw the darkness.

In brief, that is why the Bible classifies witchcraft and sorcery through the words Pharmakeia and Pharmakeus, it is an unnatural way to attain spiritual enlightenment that can often lead to spiritual oppression.

In altered states of consciousness one can often perceive in their altered states beings that dwell in the twilight of reality. And some of these twilight beings can cling onto the person for a lifetime. Draining their soul and ruining their life.

On rare occasions Johnny is afraid of the dark. He fears the flashbacks where he will once again see the little dark man that scurried across the floor. He fears seeing the being that disemboweled and partially ate his cat in the bathtub. He has seen it three times since, but only that one time long ago did it attack anything dear to him or cause any harm. Even clean and sober he feels helpless against the dark forces that he unwittingly unleashed that night long ago in the late 1970s.

Was it all a drug induced illusion? Perhaps. Or did Johnny really see a dark creature from beyond our realm of the senses that lurks in dark places which we cannot perceive?

I dare not guess.

Now well into his 40’s with a lifetime of experiences behind him, nothing Johnny has ever experienced has been so real and surreal at the same time. All he knows is the cat was dead, and the horror from beyond the pit of hell that he saw in that abysmally dark basement years ago.

To him that is enough.

Until next time,

Pastor Swope