Crack

I am a network engineer for a small credit union in Ohio. We have a small network "closet" where most of the servers, rack mounted backups, patch panels and a myriad of other routers, hubs, switches and anything else you can imagine.

The room is about 3ft by 6ft, and there isn't much space to move around with all the network cables and phone lines and power running every witch way. If you close your eyes, you can hear the energy moving around. Power supplies humming with electricity hard drives revving up and slowing down, static in the air makes your hair stand up if you are in there too long. And the fans, the loud buzzing fans are a constant. It's the heart and the brain of the network providing service to about 250 computers and users. Banking transactions and e-mail, phone calls and internet. Everything is routed through this single point.

Well, I was in there a little while back, (Tuesday, today is Thursday) working on a mail server that refused to serve, when I stood up too quickly and got a bit dizzy. Everyone has done it before, and I know how it feels. It made me a bit off balance and I stepped back for a second and the back of my head hit a large split cable. I wasn't really sure the purpose of the cable, I knew it wasn't live, because I have touched it before. It looked like a cable TV (coaxial) cable, but thicker. It had been there for as long as my co-worker had known, and he has been here for 12 years. He seems to think it was part of the original system that was installed in the mid 80s for bank transaction routing. Regardless of what it was for, I hit it with the back of my head. I reached out and grabbed at what ever I could to stop myself from falling over and hitting the mouse trap that I had noticed earlier on the ground next to me. I got a hold of something it felt like cat 5 cable, but it could have been phone lines, I didn't see, my eyes closed tight as soon as my head hit the thick cable.

In an instant I felt extremely sleepy, like I had been knocked out at the dentist's office with the gas or something to that effect. I was still holding on to the cables in front of me, and my back was up against a wiring rack and my head might have still been touching the thick cable, I don't know.

The strangest thing then happened. I was dreaming. I know I wasn't sleeping, but I was dreaming. I saw thousands of bright white lights, all with an aura around them, like if you have water in your eyes and look at a light at night time. It reminded me of stars. There were thousands of them, moving very fast. Some went maybe a few feet and poof, then went out, only to be replaced by another going some other direction. I watched for a moment, it felt like a moment anyways. I could see a pattern in the movement. All the lights followed the same paths, some to different places, some a bit faster than the others, but they were all in the same paths. When they would "poof" out they seemed to flare up a bit a split second before they did.

Then it all went white.

I opened my eyes like waking up from a sleep. I wasn't dizzy any more, and I felt the back of my head, there was no bump, it didn't hurt at all.

The only think I can think happened was I got up too fast and saw stars. But it wasn't like that. I know what that feels and looks like. It seemed for a moment that I had saw the traffic. The flow of data on the network, packets and bytes running down wires and routed to other places. It made sense to me at the time, but I'm not sure anymore. I tried to do it again, but I was unable. Something is off, something just isn't working when I try it again.

I have not told anyone else, and I don't think I will. It's bad enough I am writing it on here, because if you guys didn't think I was crazy before, I am sure you do now.

Ideas?

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Cynthetiq

you saw the matrix.

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guccilvr

umm..


pass the blunt.




:shrug: No idea what it could have been or if that's just how your mind related the experience of a longer than normal star seeing experience after you fully awakened. I have nfi.

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Lucifer

ROFLMAO!

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ShaniFaye

I know when I have passed out I hear a loud electrical buzzing noise and everything goes white (before it goes black)

It could just be the way your brain reacted when you hit it. Stimuli to diff parts of the brain do dif things so it could just be "one of those things" tied to where you hit your head

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fhqwhgads

Are you able to move things with your mind and learn foreign languages at a moments notice? It may be a tumor.

Just sayin', that's all.

Medusa

I've passed out before and saw a bunch of what I described as dancing white dots. It was weird, but I just assumed it was a part of the passing out and never questioned it. I'd guess it was similar to what you experienced.

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Crack

I have never passed out before, but I don't think I passed out this time. I was standing the whole time, it might have been 10-15 seconds total.

The Matrix: Kinda, like at the end of the movie, in the hallway, it was like that, but white dots, not green characters. It wasn't random, they were all doing something, going somewhere. I don't know where, but it was strange to say the least.

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Astrocloud

Sounds like you had a vasovagal response while you fainted. "Out of body" experiences are common. Seems like you were thinking about your ATM network before you fainted and this is probably what dictated the content of your experience.

Go to a doctor and tell him what happened -mention that you hit your head. Fainting could be a sign of something bad.

newtx

I almost passed out once and experienced something similar.

MexicanOnABike

lay off the magic mushrooms!

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DaveOrion

This is the most likely explanation, I experienced something very similar. Its unlikely that you actually saw the network, with all the packets flying around. The power of suggestion and your current state of mind combined with the vasovagal response would explain this.

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opus123

Had you eaten very much that day ?

You might have had a pinched nerve in your lower back. As I was reading your story, it was very very similar to my rollerblade crash. I fell on my tail bone and I hadn't eaten all day. I saw the flashes and the stars and then it all went white. I was told by someone that going all white is a sign of going into mental shock from the event. One would assume that everything in that room is grounded so I doubt you were shocked by electricity. But as you stood up, you may have broken a blood vessel in your skull or perhaps you injured your lower back slightly and the white out shut off all the physical pain.

Anyway, it's hard to track these things and recreating them is a bad idea IMHO.

My two cents,

Jonathan

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pornclerk

I get the stars thing all the time. It usually happens when I get up too fast or I am dizzy and move too quickly.

That's probably what it was. I wouldn't go drawing any irrational conclusions about it. That kind of thing is very common.

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MSD

You suffered orthostatic hypotension when you stood up, triggering a vasovegal response. Talk to a doctor.

paulskinback

You are the Lawnmower man and were connected to the network by your brain for a few moments

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archetypal fool

I'm sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but do you remember seeing old cartoons where, when the character was hit by something on the head they saw stars flying around their head in circles (think Tom and Jerry)? That's exactly what happened. It's because the section of your brain that's in charge of visuals is near the back of the head, so when people get hit back there hard enough, they "see stars". When your brain gets hit, stimuli are created within it (think about a bunch of active exposed electric wires, all close together, and what happened when they crash together). When it happens on the back of your head, your sight gets over stimulated, and so you see stars.