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211 he couldn't remember anything else except the strange creature. It reminded him ofa man-size praying-mantis. One thing that fright- ened him was that a probe of some kind came out ofthe mouth area of the thing and it sunkitinto the right side ofhis back. At that time there was a feeling of paralysis. "Ifelt I couldn't move even if I wanted to, but I knew I shouldn'tmove. I wasn't fighting it, because I knew! wasn't going to be harmed, but yetin the dream I was terrified." I always think of a praying mantis as a creature with big promi- nent eyes, alittle face, and those long folding arms. But he said it was much more than that. "I didn't really see the face so much as the general outline. It was like a stick with a head thing on the end ofit Itseemed to have some sort of arms or appendages that came up. In the dream it was very easy to identify it as a praying mantis." There were sensations when the probe entered his back, but they were not feelings of pain. "Itwas a very real physical sense of some- thing entering my back, but it didn't actually hurt It felt like I was being violated, although that feeling was more psychological than physical. It was so foreign. The feeling of ''T was notin control, and they-this, whatever-was. I didn't have any moral objections to it It was just a situation that Iwas not comfortable with atall. It's hard to describe. Like I said, it's been 10 years ago, and Ididn't really write it down or anything. I haven't thought a whole lot about it, until that book revived the memory." Phil then described his reactions after the dream. ''T woke up and Tabs be THA La 8 a I thought I'd had a nightmare. Ihave never felt such pure terror. I know it scared me to death. I got up and turned on every light in the apartment I didn't want any darkness at all. Ieven turned on the closet lights. And I prayed. Iwas very convinced that the next morn- ing Iwas going to see a priest in town and get back into the Catholic church. I'm not a religious person, but that seemed to be the only thing I could think of. My only thoughts were that there was some- thing evil in the dream that had terrified me. I guess Ijust assigned evil to it, because in the dream itselfit didn't feel that way. But that's the way Idealtwith it,I suppose, by saying it was evil. Itwas avery hor- rible n ghtmare, the worst dream I've ever had in my life. I've never experienced anything that scared me that much. I have talked about that dream over the years, but I never connected it with any type of real experience or abduction, until the book suggested a connection. That's probably all it was,just a bad dream, but it's something I'd like to look into." Terror in the Night