Sleep Paralysis and The Supernatural

i'm new here and i' ve had my sp experiences one of which was truly terrifying.

i also heard people connecting sp to astral projection and the spiritual, there is more to it than just a medical condition isnt there?

One of those times i woke up like 6 am (i looked at the alarm clock which is by my side and it was dawning)and i felt a presence in the room and i felt i couldnt move, i was paralysed, sleeping with my face down and something or someone was on the top of my back. i wanted to move but i couldn't, wanted to scream for my brothers or father to help me, but nothing would come out from my mouth not even the faintest sound.

This thing or whatever it was had the power to take my ability to move or talk so i was laying helpless in my bed. In a last effort i managed to pray to god for protection in my mind only cause i couldn't speak, after that the weight on my back dissapeared.


This is the element that made me think that sp may be connected to the supernatural realm. The weight that was on my back vanished when i asked in my brain for god to help me and deliver me from evil.

I'm not a religious man, i don't go to the church, i'm a non practicioner catholic so i saw this help from above the only way to break the "spell" i was into.

I'm not making this up, oh and also, before this happened,20 to 30 minutes before this happened, i can't be precise, i heard something near my ears, like a humming sound, it started distant and low but it began to increase in proximity and volume, instantly i was only hearing this and nothing more. i didn't give it any importance, thought it was a mosquito or something then that happened.


it's my first post here, sorry for my english, i'm from portugal and just wanted to share my experience. thankfully it didnt happen to me again till now of course.

Glad to hear some oppinions about this. Is sp always related to a sleep disorder or is it there more to it, something that the scientists didnt yet discovered.

thanks for your time

There is a great film you should check out on this topic.

www.youtube.com...

It's pretty much been summed up by science. There isn't anything metaphysical going on here. Just a sleep disorder.

Yeah--it's a pretty interesting experience, isn't it?

Some people will dismiss it as the "night hag" phenomenon and leave it at that--who knows if these people have had the experience themselves, or if they're just citing scientific evidence they've heard about--doesn't matter.

From my own experience, it's a really cool trance state. And from that trance state, you can learn to "go off" into other trance states and have some fantastic adventures.

Try not to be frightened by it, and next time embrace it. If there IS a presence in the room with you, it probably won't be able to cause you any lasting harm...other than frightening you.

Of course if you don't want it to happen again and don't want anything to do with it--just remember the scientific argument about it.

F

Originally posted by SkepticalSteve
It's pretty much been summed up by science. There isn't anything metaphysical going on here. Just a sleep disorder.

I guess skepticalsteve hasn't experienced this oddity then?

reply to post by mr-lizard


Hell, I've had multiple Out of Body Experiences and they can all be explained by science.

reply to post by SkepticalSteve


Heck, yeah. So have I--and sure they can be explained by science.

Or, rather, as I learned to say a few years back: they've got the _potential_ to be explained by science; if it exists and is real, there's a scientific explanation for it (even if the explanation is waiting to be discovered).




[edit on 1/9/08 by Fuggle]

Sleep paralysis itself is just the process to prevent you from acting out your dreams.

This thread seems to be more about suffering from SP whilst being awake.
There's a difference between the two.

The "Old hag syndrome" is basically ''dreaming'' whilst being awake.
It doesn't even have to be an old hag, it can be anything.

[edit on 1/9/08 by -0mega-]

reply to post by -0mega-


Not really, as sleep paralysis is a phenomenon experienced while awake - even if the name seems to indicate otherwise.

Originally posted by dave420
reply to post by -0mega-

 

Not really, as sleep paralysis is a phenomenon experienced while awake - even if the name seems to indicate otherwise.

It is the same paralysis that occurs whilst being asleep though, just didn't know that the term was used for ''waking'' SP as well.

Regardless, it most often occurs just before / after sleeping, sometimes accompanied with hypnagogic imagery, which in turn, can practically affect all the senses.

Originally posted by Picollo30
This thing or whatever it was had the power to take my ability to move or talk so i was laying helpless in my bed. In a last effort i managed to pray to god for protection in my mind only cause i couldn't speak, after that the weight on my back dissapeared.

Did you regain the ability to move & talk immediately after that as well?

[edit on 1/9/08 by -0mega-]

i can assure omega it was immediately after i prayed in my mind for divine help/protection. whatever/whoever was doing this to me vanished.

can it be that maybe just maybe some evil forces try to use the sleep paralysis in their behalf because they sense we are more vulnerable?

dont you find strange that so many people invoke the power of god and then the paralysis is broken?

i've been raised to believe in logic and not in superstitions but there are things in our world we can´t simply explain.

edit: i forgot to add that the weight resembled the weight of a baby or a small animal like a cat. creepy

[edit on 1-9-2008 by Picollo30]

Originally posted by Picollo30
can it be that maybe just maybe some evil forces try to use the sleep paralysis in their behalf because they sense we are more vulnerable?

dont you find strange that so many people invoke the power of god and then the paralysis is broken?

Well I don't know of many people that worship spoons.

In a certain way you could see it not as ''power of God" but simply as their ''trigger'' to snap out of the paralysis. Just like how you can snap out of a nightmare when freaking out.

To test this you should find people that suffer from Sleep Paralysis but that believe in something other than God.

For example. Let an Atheïst pray to god, and after that let a religious person use something else rather than prayer.

Sleep Paralysis -> Freak Out -> Faith -> Sleep Paralysis Gone
Nightmare -> Freak Out -> Faith -> Wake up.

Originally posted by Picollo30
edit: i forgot to add that the weight resembled the weight of a baby or a small animal like a cat. creepy

Hypnagogic imagery (associated with sleep paralysis) can affect all the senses, the ''pressure'' feeling on a certain part of the body is quite ''normal''. (Experienced by many.)

[edit on 1/9/08 by -0mega-]

dunno i dont buy it mate although i respect your ideas. how come i could see what time it was in my alarm clock through the corner of my eye (6 o' clock in the morning) and what about the presence? The presence was there i could feel it, i just couldnt move my head to see what was there at the end of the bed because i was sleeping in my stomach and couldn't move, but it was very real. You know that gut feeling when something is wrong? Call it surviving instinct if you wish but something triggered the fear reaction i me and the sp was not the only one.

Your experience is like what happened to my mother. She was laying on the couch when all of a sudden she heard a growling in her ear. when she turned her head to see what it was, she saw a floating black cloud. As soon as she saw it, she became paralyzed and couldn't move, talk, or even breath. She prayed to god for a few seconds and the cloud went out the window and she could move and breath again.
I, too, have had some experiences with it, and while I did feel a presence near me, it wasn't on me. It felt like something was leaning over me, and I felt the blanket and mattress next to me shift as if someone was putting some of their weight there. I was terrified, even though the presence didn't seem threatening, and I had to muster up all my will power and strength just to sit up and break away from that state. Each of the three times I've had Sleep Paralysis, I never prayed, but I used my own strength to break away from it.
When I'm not experiencing it, I am partly inclined to believe that it could be just a scientific anomaly, my body preparing for sleep when it shouldn't, but when it's happening, there is no doubt in my mind that I'm having a paranormal experience.