About twenty three years ago,my wife ( girlfriend then) and I were sleeping in bed when I was woken up sudennlty by a load sound near the foot of the bed.
It was like something clanking and rattling like someone trying to get in our apartment.
On reflex,I leaned over to the side of the bed,grabbed my 357 mag Dan wesson six inch barrel revolver,aimed it at the bedroom door opening and looked up at where the the bedroom door was wide open ( as we left it).
Where I saw a huge black blob in the doorway.
I had a bead drawn on the doorway and the blob never moved and as I leaned in my bed,gun drawn oin the door the blob simply melted away and the door way was seen in the dim night light clear and open.
The noise was a fan we had at the end of the bed that the bearings had failed in and the fan had simply gone nuts when the motor went bad.
That blob was a phenomenon caused by my suddenly waking up in a hurry and looking as hard as I could into a darkened door opening looking for a potential bad guy.
Thankfully,I never let a 357 158 grnr fly into the open doorway that night.
It was a sobering thing to have happen and it taught me to indeed wait until my eyes adjusted to the light before I ever engaged my weapon again.
My wife likes to talk about the night I almost shot the fan in our bedroom but I like to think of the night that I did'nt discharge my weapon until I knew there was a reason.
I am telling you this story so that you might try yourself at night-suddenly opening your eyes and see if you see the same dark blob I saw.
It's a optical illusion you need to know about when dealing with light changes and eyes trying to adjust to that.
And train yourself accordingly to not engage until you can truly see what is in front of you.
It was like something clanking and rattling like someone trying to get in our apartment.
On reflex,I leaned over to the side of the bed,grabbed my 357 mag Dan wesson six inch barrel revolver,aimed it at the bedroom door opening and looked up at where the the bedroom door was wide open ( as we left it).
Where I saw a huge black blob in the doorway.
I had a bead drawn on the doorway and the blob never moved and as I leaned in my bed,gun drawn oin the door the blob simply melted away and the door way was seen in the dim night light clear and open.
The noise was a fan we had at the end of the bed that the bearings had failed in and the fan had simply gone nuts when the motor went bad.
That blob was a phenomenon caused by my suddenly waking up in a hurry and looking as hard as I could into a darkened door opening looking for a potential bad guy.
Thankfully,I never let a 357 158 grnr fly into the open doorway that night.
It was a sobering thing to have happen and it taught me to indeed wait until my eyes adjusted to the light before I ever engaged my weapon again.
My wife likes to talk about the night I almost shot the fan in our bedroom but I like to think of the night that I did'nt discharge my weapon until I knew there was a reason.
I am telling you this story so that you might try yourself at night-suddenly opening your eyes and see if you see the same dark blob I saw.
It's a optical illusion you need to know about when dealing with light changes and eyes trying to adjust to that.
And train yourself accordingly to not engage until you can truly see what is in front of you.