Closing the Chapter on Bali: Sleepless at 3am

According to the girl I stayed with, Balian is a very spiritual place. Spiritual in many ways, and not in others, I am always sceptical about when people refer to "spiritual energies." I suppose it's my logical / scientific mind clashing with my inquisitive / creative mind that leaves me forever questioning what is reality and what is fiction in a spiritual sense.

I can honestly say, this trip, has made me reflect a bit more on spirituality.

Balian. There are temples all over the village. The local Balinese people are very devoted. When I was there they were mid-ceremony, where some of them spent until 2am in the temple praying.

When I first arrived in Balian, it did have an energy. One that I can't necessarily describe, but there was something. As turned the corner and the village and ocean appeared I did feel an overwhelming sense of relief. When Jen met me, the owner of the house I was staying, everything felt just right. The bar was idyllic, they were playing Wayne's World in the background (my all time favourite movie for those of you who don't know), it was warm, sunny, beautiful beach, peaceful. It was literally perfect. Almost too perfect.

Over my time there, as you know however, I had a bit of a rough go. A bit sick at times, not too often. The drowning experience? That set my off big time... I still haven't really been able to run back into waves above my waist.

Near the end of my stay, I started to notice the regularity of how often and when I awoke at night. Usually a deep sleeper, I sleep right through from the second my head hits the pillow to the moment the
morning sun fills the room. In Balian it was different. For some reason, every single night I awoke between 3am and 4am. Sometimes for 10 minutes sometimes for an hour.. an hour and a half. It was almost routine.

On my last couple nights there, I asked Jen about it. Explained when I woke up. And she said that everyone that stays there says that. They ALL WAKE UP between 3am and 4am. Weird?

We talked more about the village.. and she explained further how spiritual Balian is. She explained how difficult it was for her to be able to settle there. So many unusual things went on. She got very sick. There was many very very scary spiritual experiences as well.

In talking about this, we got back to the wake-up times of myself and other people that come to Balian. At was at this point, she explained that village culture they say that it is between 3am and 4pm that spirits rise. Spirits rise?

The next couple nights I tried not to think about it. I still don't know what to think about it. But... I can't come up with any better explanation for how I woke up so routinely... and how others tourists experienced the same thing. Curious. Slightly unnerving. I haven't woke up at 3am since I left Balian.