What the...? (scary experiences)

Hi, I'm new to this board so first off, hello everyone

Right, on with the show... I used to suffer from sleep paralysis a about 2-3 years ago. It lasted for a few months and would occur from many times a night to just a couple of times a week. The symptons were classic, i.e. "awake", seeing strange things in the corners of the room, red lights, fear electricity pulsing through the body wtc.

Now, as I mentioned, I stopped getting the sleep paralysis for a while. However, it never fully stopped... infrequently (enough for me to forget about it) I get a few moments (usually mornings, or if I wake up from sleep) I get this thing what can only be described as being squashed flat and twisted into the bed, almost as if the part of u that exists when u sleep (and can feel leaving ur physical body when u drop off) is getting ripped from ur body and put into a baaad place (the place has some seriously bad vibes!) This onset uses up every last ounce of will u have to resist going to said place (be it in ur mind as a chemical inballance or a place of a more spiritual origin), and I've only ever not had the will to fight it of once. This one time was enough to make sure I never give in to it again... really bad... physical "pain", reinacting out my worst nightmares as a child (more of which I'll go into). Not cool! Anyway, this has dwindled in intensity over the years, so these days I just get the sensation of impeding paralysis and fear, which to be honest is quite easy to shake off.

As a side note, when I was younger I used to have really bad nightmares. They used to follow the same theme (or minor variations) and usually involved pearing into a dark room with my family sitting in it (all dark, they have red eyes, sensation of absolute terror) and then me running out of the house down the same route, with my "father" (and sometimes the rest of the family) in hot pursuite. Another variation involves me playing in the utility room with the dogs (they're now dead, but I don't mean that in a freaky way. Its just bean about 10-15 years since all this). Big, friendly airdales. Suddenly the lights go out and i can see them looking at me with red eyes and snarling. Theres the same bad vibe in the room and then they bite me. I can "feel" the pain, as such, but not as much as if it were for real.

I still get the nightmares, just very infrequently. The actors in the nightmare have changed wih the times (my parents have been divorced for 10 years and the dogs replaced her curent dog). I'd rather we didn't touch on the divorce too much simply because the nightmares have been occuring before, and the sleep paralysis much later.

Back to the sleep paralysis. One of my friends suggested it was my spirit doing something on the astral planes, like it was being... (something something) ...my lifestyle (As u can see, I've forgotten the jist, let alone what he said over the years ). The reason I mention this is because I also had the scientific explanation. I sit on the fence... I defintaley believe there's far more to the world than meets the eye, but haven't investigated enough to choose one explanation/model/belief set. Anyway, my friend suggested meditation, and effectivley put me on the path to self-discovery and learning about the universe (big thanks!).

So, fast forward to the present...last night, I'd been reading up on astral projection on this board (again, thanks, some great info!) and generally lurking in this forum. I was readind about "negs". In some ways it makes sense that there is some not very nice force lurking near me, but in other wyas I'm inclined to say the bad stuff is a manifestation of some of the stuff in my subconscious, and reading about these "negs" triggered another experince last night. But as I say, I sit on the fence and welcome all views, both spiritual and medical/psychological explanations.

Well... last night, after a session of meditation and attempted astral projection, I drifted off to sleep. Happy dreams, nice and cosy etc. The next bit is a little hazy, so I've forgotten details and the precise borders where I was asleep then awake. But anyway, circa 5 a.m. I'me having a generally pleasant dream when all of a sudden I hear this "AAAAAAAARGH!!!" *really* loud, and my dream gets literally torn down bu this... shape? Like he goes "Aaargh!" as he tears my dream open from the corner and jumps in, waking me up. It all happened in an instant but it seemed to last a while, i.e. I felt every detail and was aware of some daaaark force at work. It scared the hell out of me... I woke up screaming, not screaming like in the movies but a strangled, animal-like scream of shear terror. Just like the feeling I descibed above, of my non-physical body being ripped from the dream (and my body) and unceremoniously dumped into reality by somethng pretty angry. I had many bouts of the latter sleep paralysis (i.e. something trying to force my non-physical body into the bad place) but to be fair it wasn't too bad as it was easy to fight off. I was more pissed off at whatever scared the crap out of me and was keeping me from "dreaming" by trying to paralyize me and take me to the dark place (sounds crazy, I know heh).

So, I ask of u guys... whats going on? am I describing experiences which are common, if so what d they mean? Any helps and viewpoints appreciated

P.s. please ignore by spelling and typos

thanks in avance!

[edit on 2-12-2005 by john_bmth]

That is really a very interesting story, I really can't tell you what's causing this, all I know is that sleep paralysis can cause visions, and feelings of terror from time to time. However, with the same "visions", if you will, occuring like this, it's something that seems fairly strange to me.

How often do these occur?

[edit on 12/2/2005 by JBurns]

Hey There,

Thank you for this excellent insight into your sleep paralysis! I know many of us including myself are quick to shrug off frightening bedtime encounters as "sleep paralysis" but your personal recollection adds a much more first person, and in depth telling of it.

It almost makes me want to pick a side of the fence.

Are we too quick to seek a scientific answer to our supernatural-like experienes? Are we too quick to claim bad ju-ju, and not seek the science of it?

Yours is a well explained experience and I thank you for sharing it.

Can you tell us more? Can you describe what this bad entity looks or sounds like?

My Thanks,

-ADHD

I think that many times sleep paralysis IS something much worse. I have had the classic "sleep paralysis" and I do believe I was being bothered by something evil.

Saying Our Lord's Prayer over and over was the only thing that would make it go away/stop.

It was scary and unpleasant and I haven't had it happen to me in years (thankfully)

Interesting exprience, ive been messing with meditating and trying to astral project. Ive gotten to the point where in dreams i think im dreaming but i don't fully realize this and do anything with it just wake up after a few minutes.Your exprience makes me think that the being is maybe outside your dream trying to wake you up real fast. So you go into a paralized state and it can do what it wants to do.

Thanks for the input people, much appreciated

I'll try and answer all points, but forgive me if I jump all over the place with my replies

Your exprience makes me think that the being is maybe outside your dream trying to wake you up real fast. So you go into a paralized state and it can do what it wants to do.

Funny u should hit on this one. Although, first I'd like to clarify a few points...

I don't have enough knowledge from either a medical POV or a spiritual POV to say whether my experiences are intrinsically related, so for the sake of arguement lets say that the sleep paralysis is when I am fully paralysed, and this comes in 2 flavours: firstly, when I experience the "typical" signs, such as being in the room I'm sleeping in albeit "awake" (although I can see as if I was awake, and for a while I believed that I was actually was awake and viewing the room with my eyes open. I realized that I wasn't actually awake when I noticed subtle differences, like my alarm clock being on the wrong side of my bed), and secondally when I am fully paralized and "awake", albeit viewing a nightmarish experiece very vividilly (to the point of "feeling" pain in), but from a very strange perspective (I felt I was squashed into non-3 dimensional space. Its hard to explain, but imagine being squashed flat into 2D and ur sort of there).

We'll also seperate the lead-ins into both forms of sleep paralysis, becqause I enter the 2 in 2 different ways. The onset of "typical" sleep paralysis for me is like falling out of ur body into a hole. Have u ever had it when ur lying in bed dozing off and sudde;y get the sensation of falling backwards into a hole, but u suddenly wake up? Well, its basically that, but u don't wake up. U just fall into the hole and enter the sleep paralysis. Ur suddenly aware of being "awake" looking round ur room, but u cannot mov a muscle. There's this strange electrifying sensation that hurts, but not in a physical sense. The "pain" is just bearable, although it gets more tollerable as u get used to falling into sleep paralysis. Maybe pains not the right word, because it doesn't "hurt" as such, I think its more the the shock of the situation that gets to u. U try and scream, but nothing comes out. The way I'd wake up is struggling with all my will to clench my fists, and eventually u get feeling back in ur body and u wake up. I'd wake up and my fists would be clenched together. In all honesty, I didn't get so mcuh of a bad vibe as such wtih this type of sleep paralysis, it was more the shock of the situation. It was scary in the sense that u felt so alone and just not right, and when u wake up u'd go straight back into it through being so tired.

The lead-in to the second form of sleep paralysis is different, and although I've only entered into this second type of SP once, I've experienced (and faught off) the lead-in many times, far more than the "typical" form of SP. This is much harder to describe, mainly because the sensation is so odd but also because it usually occirs when I''ve woken up at night/early morning, and thus my memory is a tad hazy. Its like this: I wake up, and start to doze off again. Suddenly my body gets twisted up and turned as if something is trying to suck me down a plug hole into another dimension, be it literally or in my mind. Maybe dimension's not the right word, but at least some form of perspective that is very alien to what we percieve in our waking lives. I couldn;t say if my body was was literally surling up or whether it was just in my mind. Whereas the lead-in to "typical" sleep paralyis takes u by suprise (fall backwards->"where am I?"), this has a more ominous vibe. Its a battle of will, quite literally. Something is trying very hard to get me to submit, and I have to use every ounce of energy to resist this. Strangley enough, seeing as I get many bouts in succession, it actually get easier to resist this force, to the point where i can shrug it off and go to sleep. I got used to "typical" SP after a while to the point where it was just an unpleasant experience rather than terror, but this second flavour of SP scares the crap out of me, and I get a vibe of impeding terror when struggling with the lead-in to it.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that my eperiences of "typical" SP were a way of my body/spirit pointing out that my current lifestyle is not good for me (which both science and spirituality explain), and with my other experience of SP, science can explain the symptons, but the cause is of a spiritual/paranormal anture (I suppose I can;t si on the fence 100%, so I'm gonna lean with spirituality until I discover something to the contrary).

Now DarkFollower, back to ur point: yeah, I feel the same. I've tried to explain things as objectivley as possible, so I don;t force u guys down the same route as my own conclusions, but I definatley felt as if some evil force was trying to mess with me. My experience of the non-typical SP was to my knowledge certainly not the product of my subconscious... what possible puepose would my subconscious serve by doing such a thing? It wasn't... right, full-stop. The reason why I've stepped away from the whole "its simply a product of my mind" and a more scientific reasoning is because last night the thing that ripped me out of my dream was not part of my usual dreaming state. The scream/shout was so violent, abnd it literally "tore" my dream open and threw me into my awake state. I was scared and although I carmed down, when I tried to sleep my bosy refused to drif off into numbness and let me sleep. Also, the big clue for me was the second I woke up I was bombarded with the lead-ins to the latter form of SP... on its own not such a strange thing, but to be ripped out of my dreaming state and straight into a battle of wills to stay awake again? Also, I genuinly believe that as u say, it wanted me to go into that paralysed state so it could do whatever the hell it ripped me out of my dream for. Not cool!

Are we too quick to seek a scientific answer to our supernatural-like experienes? Are we too quick to claim bad ju-ju, and not seek the science of it?

Yours is a well explained experience and I thank you for sharing it.

Can you tell us more? Can you describe what this bad entity looks or sounds like?

Its a funny one, because ur senses operate in a half-way house between ur awake and dream state, but I'll try and convey it the best I can. My most vivid sensation would have to be the scream the entity made last night. It was so loud, and sounded like a very very angry large man. How it looked is a hard one, because I didn't get any sense of scale, but it was like as shadowy human. Although it moved in an instant, it had quite a fluidity to its motion. Thing is, I remember waing up and screaming (I've never woken up and screamed. Woken up afraid, yes, but never screamed) in terror because I thought it was in my roo. Whether I actually saw it or just woke up and screamed because it happened so suddenly I dont know. I'm inclined to say I didn;t see anything when I woke up, I just screamed and backed up against the wall (I sleep ona futon pushed up against the wall), realized there wasn't anything there and thought "what the hell was that all about?".

Thanks for the replies, I hope I've explained things well enough (ignore my numerous typos heh)