The Disturbing Reddit Lamp Story - MrBallen 

Hello you savages. Watch the full episode with MrBallen here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NEIVgSYPYcU.html Get $500 discount on Fountain Life at fountainlife.com/modernwisdom

He should have known something was off once they were able to buy a house two years after graduation.

i'm the opposite of that guy...i've got no wife, no kids, no life, no money. i'm just waiting to wake up from my coma too.

"A fraction of a second; like 10 seconds." - Mr. Ballen. 🤣 I love it

Someone else experienced this?!? Five years ago, I spent 13 years in a real time dream. Went to bed on Tuesday, woke up on Wednesday and my boss told me I need to relocate to San Francisco. So I moved, got an apartment, met someone at a park, got married, had one girl, then a boy, and I woke up when my wife was in labor with out third child (supposed to be second daughter). I jolted up in bed and it was Wednesday, and I took off work for two days to grieve the loss of my family, friends, and recouperate. Things haven’t been the same, and I see them in dreams sometimes. Even weirder, I went to San Francisco three years later and all the places I remember were there. I sometimes worry I’ll wake up again, and this life will be a dream too

I’m 56 now and when I was around 10 years old, I woke up in my bed and experienced an entire family and life as a mother. First thing I saw were my hands as I stretched. I had a wedding band on and my nails were manicured (didn’t know what this was called at the time). I immediately turned to my right and saw a man sleeping with his back to me. I got up and met my 2 children and made them breakfast. I was living this experience, not dreamlike at all. I remember going back to bed and falling asleep. I woke up and fully expected to see my husband and children, but I was 10 years old again….I was so heartbroken.

Kayla: He's probably thinking about other girls Mitch: LAMP

I've had a similar experience, waking up from a dream that was SO real I felt genuine grief when I realised it wasn't real

I had a very similar experience in 1988. I was on a cultural exchange in Zaire and I caught Malaria. It was excruciating. I had a temp of 105+ and was delirious for days. When the fever finally broke I had lost over 30 pounds and was weak as water for weeks but I finished the exchange, went home to Canada, and went back to school to become an RN. Two weeks after I got home my best friend's older brother, that I'd had a crush on since 5th grade, called me and asked me out. We were married three months after I graduated and became an RN. He'd started working for the police force in the small town we were both born in right out of high school. I had very bad endometriosis and we went through 4 heartbreaking miscarriages before our daughters were born. My incredibly selfless SIL/BFF carried them for her brother and I. Life was bliss right up until the morning I woke up to find that someone had ripped the roof off our house and the most intense beam of light I've ever seen was blinding me. My fever had broken. The light that blinded me was a doctor's penlight as he checked my pupillary reflexes. None of it had happened. I was still in Zaire. The folks in charge of the exchange had actually been making arrangements to have me airlifted to the closest place with a functioning hospital because the one in Zaire was an absolute horror and, apparently, I'd been very close to death. It took me YEARS to come to terms with none of it being real. I did return to Canada but my BFF got married and moved away a few months later and her brother never asked me out. I moved away from our hometown because every time I saw him with his girlfriend it broke my heart. I've never told anyone about it because it seemed so absolutely ridiculous and nobody would have believed me anyhow and it didn't REALLY happen so what's the big deal? I've written a handful of novels (nothing published) and I did include it in one of the storylines for one of my main characters but I ended up not including it in the final draft because, even a decade later, it still seemed too far fetched for anyone to believe. I'm sooo happy to know that I'm not alone!!

Had a similar experience with a dream I had, woke up and cried for a few days when I realized the life I lived was just a dream.

I spent a month in a coma. I watched a family from a third person perspective for GENERATIONS. Unconsciousness is absolutely insane

"...his wife is on the phone with the doctor." "You got a beer belly?..." That ad was impeccably placed.

Oh my god. I suffer from depression and anxiety. But I can't even imagine what this poor man must be suffering from. I just want to hold him in my arms and hug him and tell him it's going to be okay. My heart aches for this guy. God bless him. I want him to be okay. Please, God.

Commendable - MrBallen's fluent explanation without a cut and explaining just as he does in his regular videos ♥️

I've heard or read this story several times over the years, but NO ONE tells it better than Mr. Ballen.

This story is hands down the most heartbreaking Mr Ballen has ever told.

I heard about this story many years ago online (2012?) and thought it was insane. I forgot about it for over a decade. Then to hear MrBallen talk about it in his video was a trip.

I had a dream. I had a life, wife, kids, I was happy. It was the most real thing I ever had. When I woke up from that "life" to this (people here call it the real life, but I call it a nightmare dream), I begged to fall asleep again and come back to that. I was the happiest person there. I had all memories, the whole story. Everything.

Consciousness is a freaky thing. I had been totally out from having seizures for too long. When I came to in the ICU, they asked me how long I thought I had been there. I thought 2 or 3 days, maybe. They told me I had been in the ICU for 10 days already. I also kept ripping my IVs out while they were working on me because from my perspective, I saw myself in a morgue with a mortician trying to embalm me while I was still alive. But the reality was that it was a doctor or nurse that was putting my IVs back in and I was laying in a hospital bed. I was in the hospital for almost a month and I had terrible hallucinations that the nurses were out to get me.

Not as harrowing for an experience, but just today, I stumbled upon a clip on RU-vid of a Japanese movie from around 2009-ish. It was about four men from different backgrounds who became acquainted because of a stray cat they took care of, starring Abe Hiroshi, Takeru Satoh, and two more actors I'm familiar with but couldn't recall their names. The clip shows a portion of the bittersweet ending where the cat crosses the rainbow bridge and the men go back to their personal lives, apparently having their relationships with their spouses and families rekindled, as the movie ends with a monologue of the four reminiscing their late cat. And then I woke up from my short nap. Turns out I was dreaming of myself randomly browsing RU-vid, and watching a video of a movie that never existed. What's crazy was the quality of the clip was exactly something like a DVD rip you would find around that era, the actors looked exactly like how they used to 15 years ago, and there was a song that sounded like something sung by Greeen playing during the reunion scenes. It feels like our brains are capable of making false memories complete with enough details that make you think you were already living on a non-existent event.

I have watched every single Mr. Ballen video - some more than once - and this is the story I have not stopped thinking about. Crazy.

I'm sure this story has been blown out of proportion, but I can believe it. Even without a head injury I've had dreams that were so real the transition back to reality was strange. I still have memories from dreams that feel as real as any other memory. I also have lucid dreams frequently. I imagine a lot of people can't believe a story like this because they've never experienced anything like it, but it is a real thing. Of course it could be made up, or at least greatly embellished, but I've experienced similar things.

Wait a minute. no "umms", "aahs", "like", "literallys", "obviouslys" In today's world of "filler" talk, Mr Ballen speaks as seamlessly and effortlessly as he does on his own RU-vid channel. Im highly impressed.

Such a wild story! I've heard MrBallen tell it before but never get tired of his voice.💙

Sounds like that Star Trek The Next Generation episode called "The Inner Light", where Picard lives an entire life of a member of a dead civilization (a husband, father, then grandfather) in a few moments. It's the only episode that ever made me cry the first time I saw it. I can't imagine having to carry the weight of an entire life of experience. I'd never wish to be immortal for this reason.

lamps are the worst

It was really strange. I remembered this story. I read it once, and I never forgot it. Once Ballen brought up a lamp, I knew it would be the same story. I have had night terrors and used to lucid dream a lot when I was younger. This wouldn't be something I would be interested in happening. I've had dreams with men that I'll never forget. I'm happily married. However these men were a different feeling and I wake up feeling such a deep loss. I've also never had sex in a dream.

I remember when he first posted this story on his RU-vid page...it was shocking then, but even hearing it for a second time, it's shocking and hard to grasp!!🖤

This feels like a rehash of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge...a short story I read in high school in the 80s. Great read for anyone who's interested.

That was a really sad story. I've read several stories just like this one. There's a series of books by a guy named Tom Slemen, he's from Liverpool England and he has written 100+ books maybe, but he has a series called Haunted Liverpool, I've read all of them, I think there's 36 in this series. They are all well researched stories of people's encounters with the Paranormal, time slips, strange creatures, witches, vampires and all forms of high strangeness. He's written about 7 or 8 people that the exact same thing has happened to them as this story MrBallen just told. Most of these books are on Amazon, a lot are out of print. Great video!

In the movie Beau is Afraid The main character starts watching a play, it morphs into his whole life story, (visually awesome) and hen realizes the play is about him, but soon after realizing it isn’t because he never had children Mind blowing movie

I had a traumatic, abusive childhood. Even since I got away from it, I’m afraid to go to sleep sometimes. I just get filled with this sense of dread and the fear that when I wake up, I’ll be back there. I’ll wake up to see my entire life up to this point has been a dream. I was so screwed up the first time I heard this story. It just stoked that phobia hahahaha. Man, if it ever does happen to me, I’ll just find a way to check out. I wouldn’t be able to handle living with the memories of my kids, my family, my LIFE and knowing it didn’t really happen.

This story was made up by a redditor who did 2 AMAs and then ghosted everyone on a burner account.

In 1999 the same thing happened to me without the head injury. Lost the love of my life when i awoke and felt the ache in my heart for years. I was a teen then as well

I've always been very disturbed by the way, when I first wake up in the morning, I'm so affected by whatever my dream was, for a few seconds, I'm in a totally different life, but then, having awakened, I start to remember my real, actual, pleasantly dull life, and I know, that in a few minutes, I'm going to totally forget that exciting dream life, the one I was just fully living, good or bad. I've tried the method of writing down a few notes, a few sentences, right on waking up, about what I dreamed, but then, my mind only hangs onto the bare thread of the plot. The richness of it, all the detail still goes away. I have felt the grief of loss as this guy does, but only for a minute or two. It goes away as the dream memory fades. So given this guy's experience, I guess that's a good thing. Another weird thing about dreams: when I was a little kid, like in the years before I started school, when something odd or improbable happened in a dream, I KNEW I was asleep and dreaming. My sleeping self would actually say "ah, you must be dreaming." And at some point in my life, I lost that ability to do that.

Mr. Ballen I've watched 20 of your stories this one took me on a journey I wasn't ready for.

I had a dream where I was in the normal timeline where Berenstain Bears were Berenstein Bears again and everything was perfect and awesome like it used to be.... Then I woke back up into this shit hole.

I've had dreams like that and even as the dream memories fade I can't help but feel a huge loss for something that never happened.

I have vivid dreams like this all the time. While I'm in the dream I remember my history as different than my waking one, but looking back at it the pacing and situations are wildly inconsistent almost like movie where one minute I'm getting ready for work and next I'm on a bus. They are vivid enough sometimes make me have to think twice about if something that happened to me was a dream or a memory.

My personal opinion is that these experiences are our brain tapping into parallel dimensions when it can't fully connect with our current one. Like a brain injury can tune to a different radio station briefly until the healing brings it back to ours. Quantum Physics is already showing the parallel dimension theory and thought created reality are tangible. Now if only we could get the amazing MrBallen to narrate thise studies for us!😁

As crazy as this may sound, I don't think this life never existed for him; I think this life was a past-life, and he went back to that time because it was so great for him. We just don't know what's happened before us or after us, but I firmly believe that our existence in our present time is a very small moment, and somewhere deep inside we hold the memories of our Soul's experiences.

I've heard of these dreams, but not to this extent. I use to draw blood, and sometimes people pass out. It's typical vasovegal syncopy. For most people, they know it will happen and can warn me. Some people even get the urge to giggle when you draw their blood. One guy, who happened to be a coworker who I happened to believe, passed out for a few seconds and when he woke up he told me about the roadtrip that he just took in his dream. It lasted weeks, and he was aware that he was probably only out for about 4 seconds because it apparently happens to him regularly. I wouldn't know how to confirm it, and I can't speak to the accuracy of the story in the video.

Mr BALLEN, this one got me hook, line and sinker. when you talk i feel it and then at the end you pull me back to reality, and i feel safe and know that i am safe. you are awesome.. sorry im rambling. I was diagnose as Terminal ill, severe Psoriasis: your videos and back story has help me to stay strong, and do not give up. like you i was depressed and it took 3 years to be diagnose correctly. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE. ♥ i wish i could support you in the way of buying your book, but all my money is going to my treatment. Medi CAL has denied me. but i wont give up. because you didn't.

This actually made me cry. I never heard this story before but as Mr Ballen was telling it, I had a hunch that his wife and kids were never real and that Mitch was an old man who died alone 😢

Ive listened to hundreds of MrBallen stories but this one always has been my favorite.

This story reminded me of the film, "Jacob's Ladder". It's amazing what the mind is capable of.

I saw that episode a few years ago, still impact me to think what he was through, not really having a family, but maybe he was looking at his future, or to another dimension, another reality. Anyway, I wish him the best! God bless him 🙏✨

I once had a similar experience in a dream. Like a whole life inside. When I woke up I couldn't recognize whats going on at first. Then the situation quickly came back to me, but the feeling of loss remained for the whole day. Like I lost a piece of me in a split second. This dream happened randomly, I wasn't sick or high, or anything like that... Yet it was immensely vivid a long.

Our brains are just so weird. I was watching this series and there was an actor in a secondary role that I paid no attention to, in particular. One night I had a dream about me and him being in a relationship and it lasted for quite some time and I totally, completely fell in love with him in my dream. Waking up, my life felt totally strange. The feelings were still there. I continued watching the series being completely smitten with the actor and (even though I am a grown adult), I spent the next few months crying over a relationship I never had. I started following him on Instagram, googled pics of him non stop. Finally the series ended and I cried some more, but in time, it faded away. I still see his posts sometimes online. He's not an extremely famous actor, but I still remember the strong feelings I had for him, and this has never happened to me, this is why it was so strange. I am not the type to fall in love easily and I never get any crushes, not at this age, at least..

I think about this a lot. I always wonder if any moment or any day I'll wake up as a kid to my dad making breakfast downstairs on a Saturday morning while his Sting album plays in the background

Best story teller ever! Love MrBallen ❤ he gets you so immersed in the story and into the people’s heads. Amazing!

I have dreams like this constantly and they are absolutely brutal on your psyche. Don't take people for granted who have problems and can't cope just because of "bad dreams". In these dreams we can actually feel time, pain and heartache similar to what would be assumed to feel like real life.

When John said "and he's perpetually 5 years old" at 9:33, it sounded like his voice was trembling. Perhaps he was so invested in the story that he put himself in Mitch's shoes and experienced that pain. I would be a wreck too if I thought I had a perfect life only for it to be a dream.

I was working at a med supply company, and dozed off at my desk one day after lunch-it was only for a minute or two. But when I did, I was suddenly standing in an apartment in the city, and I was a realtor, showing the apartment off to a young couple. Apparently I clicked in at the wrong moment, and they were asking me questions about the place-how do I know, lady? I just got here… I told them the kitchen was *probably* through the next door, ran to the window to try to find out how I got to that 3rd-floor walk-up from my desk at the med supply company…and then woke up back at work. I wonder if I disappeared after that, or if my alternate self took back control of the showing?

I had long dreams of alternative lives that was a whole lifetime. Once waking up it is briefly confusing.

Life is such a mystery! Never knowing where we came from, wondering what would have been "if only", dreams that are so real you swear you were there. It's all so incredible!

I love this story, and John tells it so well

I had a dream where I was an teen again but I had different parents and a little brother. Somehow our family home blew up and my mom and little brother doth died. I saw my brothers lifeless body and the fire reflecting off his eyes (I know doesn’t make sense he’d be burnt to a crisp). When I woke up I was so depressed thinking I lost my brother. In real life I’m an only child. Sometimes I still think about him and feel unbelievably sad but I have to tell myself he’s not real. Some days though I think if he is real and he’s somewhere out there that I hope he’s doing well and he’s healthy and safe. Mom too.

Can you guys produce more of this? It's helping distract me from my everyday depression.

He seems very nervous, yet he delivers the story flawlessly, and so captivatingly. Talent.

Ive had 2 experiences with sudden unconsciousness, both created a weird alternate reality experience, longer term than actual time. Both seemed totally real. I can still remember them now.

This is basically the Rick and Morty episode of that game called Roy: A Life Well Lived.

Watched this on his RU-vid channel some years ago and it broke my hearth. Have respoken this story many times and always people are so shocked .

This was the first story I heard on his podcast. I have been hooked ever since.

My mouth is literally gaping open. This was maybe the best Mr. Ballen story ever. I mean, I feel bad for the guy but this is absolutely wild and fascinating! Our brains are really amazing.

I once had a situation like this and then a Japanese guy in a helicopter recruited me to do the same thing to his business rival and convince the rival not to go into business against him, and after I did that, I got to see my kids again.

I got into Mr. Ballen when I got sick with covid in 2020. I couldn't do much but binge watch/listen to his entire catalog. My daughter and her friend are now big fans too.

I remember seeing the AMA on the top page all those years ago. To this day, I don't think any other story has made me more depressed than this one, the twist is so miserably sad.

Plot twist: The life he had with wife and kids was the real world and the life he came back to is the simulation.

This is brutal. I love MrBallen, have followed him from day 1, he got me hooked on this kind of content. He’s an expert story teller and has a fantastic team producing his content. His mother is a superb writer, she created some fantastic podcast stories. Very talented family all round. And to think he was the underachiever of the family at one point 🤷🏼‍♀️ That’s the level they’re working at 😎

Love this texture and sound in the video!

heard this story before but mrballen just tells it so much better. This story reminds me of some of the trips people have had on saliva

how do you verify that a personal story by a redditor is real? if nothing else, the fact that a cop picks him up, runs with him, tosses him into his car, and takes him to the hospital instead of calling an ambulance sounds pretty suspicious. especially since it's a head injury.

I absolutely take that story for real. Time and space change with the state of mind. Just think about your dreams or consider how drugs can completely contort your perception of reality

I have recurring dreams with a similar but different life and "recognise" things only to awaken and realise none of it exists, but I do return eventually to it again and again over years.

I was so invested in this story that the ad made me jump 😂

I got headbutted by a lineman as I was coming on a blitz. Sadly my life ended up being true.

This was on Reddit? Uh yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and have to say I don't believe this.

Mr. Ballen has fascinating stories for every situation... pretty cool! 🔥

When I was 16, I had a very realistic dream that seemed to last months. I met a girl online and she eventually moved to my city. I was excited to introduce her to all my friends, to show off how popular I was, how I made everyone laugh; all of the silly things a young boy in love thinks are important. After an exciting first day of school, we took the bus back to my house, but immediately upon getting off the bus, we noticed we were being followed. A dozen men in black suits followed us on the walk/run to my house, and just as we burst through the front door, I see my mom and stepdad coming down the stairs. I begged them to help, begged them to not let them take her away, but they said there was nothing they could do. The men in black suits took her away, and I woke up feeling like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I can’t even remember her face, but I’ll never forget that feeling.

Mr Ballen, is an incredible story teller.. really enjoy his talent..

I can't even imagine something like this. For me, this is one of the most disturbing stories MrBallen has ever told, and I have heard quite a few. From reading some comments, others have also experienced this phenomenon in some form or exactly. Just wow.

This story made me cry so much. Unbelievably sad.

Now this is a great interview.

"a fraction of a second..like 10 seconds."

Where are all the comments that I'm looking forward to reading ?

Oh shit! I used to watch MrBallen all the time. I'm not big on paranormal stuff, but just as stories, his content was so interesting. Even my mum would sit down and watch it with me, and she's pushing 70. But for some reason I stopped getting recommendations for his channel, and it remained lost in my favorites list of about 500 channels. I'm really glad I found this again. I even know exactly what story this is before even watching it. It's the guy who sees the upside down lamp. It's one of the ones that stuck with me because I love anything about fake reality.

Once had a dream similar to this as a kid, lived an entire life with kids and a wife and we grew old together. I woke up devastated and not really even being able to process it. Crazy feeling.

If I ever have a story worthy enough to tell, I hope Mr. Ballen is the one to tell it.

" UM IT'S NOT REAL IT'S REDDIT 🤓☝" It's a cool fucking story. Loosen up a little, guys. Don't be reddit atheists. Have some fun once in a while.

Incredible story! I love Mr. Ballen' s stories!!!!

favorite story. got me hooked to Mr. Ballen

When I’m really sick with flu, stomach bug or whatever I have hallucinations. I’ve never had a whole life but I’ve had some major trips. Never done any drugs as well.

I know how this feels except with lucid dreaming. I've had an EXTREMELY vivid lucid dream in my life when I've lived an ENTIRE LIFE in the dream. I had wife and kids and a job that loved. We went to big family gatherings over the span of about twenty years until in the dream, it sort of faded away. After I had that dream, I woke up in my bed and sat up and it took me and entire half an hour to realize that I was now awake and that whole life was just a dream. I was depressed for a couple weeks after that one and I STILL think about it.

You are a great entertainer. I really hope you have been greatly awarded for this gift.

The reveal in this story isn't that it didn't happen, it's the trauma

It's not a figment of his imagination. He just connected with himself who lives in another dimension and both of their conscience were intertwined.

I've had a couple of dreams like this. On waking the grief was just unreal. But it was strange how quickly it disappeared like all dreams do, no matter how hard you try to hang on to the memory of them. Makes you wonder if this will happen when you die.

I've been looking for this story for a long time.

I had a dream that I was married and had 2 children with my wife. The dream felt like it lasted 7 years and was so surreal. I was just a teen at the time, but even then I felt so saddened by the loss of my family that never existed… I still think about them sometimes.