The reason I finally became an active member of ATS

In 1996 I had my first sleep paralysis episode. I had graduated high school and I was staying with relatives in the south of England.

I was reading the Martian chronicles and looked over at the time and saw that it said 3am. I left the light on and closed my eyes to sleep. I began to dream.

I was sitting upright on the bed. My girlfriend and best friend were sitting next to me. We laughed and joked. Suddenly I was shocked out of my dream and I was back in the room and I was paralyzed and I felt like I was being pulled by my feet down the bed. I struggled but couldn't break free of the sensation. Then I heard a woman's voice soothingly call my name and I was released. It stoped. I couldn't sleep the rest of that night.

This episode started years of sleep paralysis night terrors that finally ended with the scariest feeling I have felt in my adult life.

After returning to the states I had a few more episodes. I contributed them to too much hard drinking. I decided to hit up the 1997-1998 Internet for answers. I found an article that discussed sleep paralysis attributing it to hyperKPP or hypoKPP. Too much or too little potassium in the blood stream and that it is also genetic coming from the mothers side of the family. This felt satiystifactoty to me so I decided to nip the problem in the bud and eat a ton more avocados!

After I had done this research one morning I asked my mother if she had ever experienced this and she said she had. Being a very reserved English woman she had never talked about it with anyone and we never really spoke of it again. Our relationship isn't usually one of sharing personally details. She is classic cold English. I felt again this was satisfactory and knowing it happened to her as well made me feel less alone.

The reason I felt to write and share this piece is from this experience I'm about to share. It is my paramount sleep paralysis episode. It still shakes me from time to time.

I was failing hard through life. I had left home and moved away only to end up back in LA multiple times. I was about to join the marine corps to finally straighten my degenerate punkass up. This was early 2001. I drank way into the night and would never sleep right. I was trying to be a wreck of a human being. I would stress about my future because at this point I had none.

One night I stayed awake until six am then decided to go to sleep. The bedroom I slept in was decorated by my parents and was very nice. When lying down on the bed looking straight forward you would see a large window with curtains. Next to the window on the far wall was an ornate mirror. The wall to the right of me also had a large window with curtains and directly below that was a clothes hamper.

As I was failing asleep I could instantly feel a sleep paralysis episode about to occur. I struggled to break free from it but couldn't.

I saw a raven fly in my room and sit on the frame of the mirror and stare at me like in the poem. Then it happened and I saw him.

There was a man sitting on my hamper all dressed in black. Black rimmed hat, black vest, black duster, black jeans, black boots. He was all rumpled, ragged. He had straw like black hair and was pale white. He was laughing to himself and his legs were crossed. In his right hand that was on his knee he was holding a syringe and I felt as though he was waiting for me to sleep and then would inject me with the solution. He would look at me and slowly move his hand holding the syringe. His prescience was terrifying. I awoke and he was gone. I was shaken for days.

He looked like the character the sandman from the comic.

When I finally entered the Marines the episodes stopped for many years.

It wasn't until 2014 when I was doing some internet browsing that I came across the "Hatman". This ghoul still gives me the shakes when I think about it.

I guess I write this because I wonder why I saw something others have been seeing without Pryor knowledge of this occurrence happening. Is this figure my unconscious version of the boogeyman? Is this my modern version of terror?

It was such a horrible experience that my first comment on ATS was about my thoughts on sleep paralysis.

Thank you for suffering through my writing style and reading this

Nice post mate, it seems as if these episodes always happen when someone is highly stressed or going through stressful periods in there lifes, i have had sleep paralysis in my early 20s a couple of times, but it happened to me in the morning time and i knew there was nothing there, as it was light, if ut had been dark my mind would have created all sorts out the shadows, your shadowy man reminds me of Jungs description of the Shadow that resides in your unconscious, the man could be like an archetypal image of something that resides in the collective unconscious, hence why it is common.
www.thesap.org.uk...
Complementary to Jung’s idea of the persona, which is “what oneself as well as others thinks one is” [CW9 para 221], the “shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors…If it has been believed hitherto that the human shadow was the source of evil, it can now be ascertained on closer investigation that the unconscious man, that is his shadow does not consist only of morally reprehensible tendencies, but also displays a number of good qualities, such as normal instincts, appropriate reactions, realistic insights, creative impulses etc

a reply to: Davg80


I have always feared man more than the supernatural.

It does not surprise me that as a collected group people can project the same visions since we are all exposed to the same things. How we interpret those things is where it gets tricky however. My dreams are usually crowded. I dream of large crowds while I surf through my subconscious and have done so since I was about 12. This SP episode was so visceral that it shook me, deep.

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

i too joined the army to try and escape the bubble i was in, drinking and fighting amongst other things, turns out being in the army doesn't make those things better lol, i was 22 and left after 9 months, after being told i was signed up for 4 years, and couldn't leave, i "knew" otherwise though. what i feel is important at this stage is knowing and believing, even if you dont know believe you know, and you will know, and fear opens a door for all that negative #.

btw i just type what im thinking at the time, raw if you like, just thought id share with you

or as a famous president said.... theres nothing to fear, but fear itself. FDR

Interesting post.

I too have had sleep paralysis. Lasted some months.

Very interesting to hear your experiences.

Avacados??? I'll have to remember that. Cheers!

a reply to: Mandy555

Ha! Yeah, well I figured with the drinking not enough potassium instead of too much. Avocados are crazy high in the stuff. When I have a good routine, eat right, don't binge drink and don't stress nap I seem to never get it. It only happens when I'm stressing out and drinking too much.

It always hapoened to me when I went to sleep on my back.

If I felt it starting and could either turn onto my side or force my eyes open, it would end.

Obviously the paralysis side of the whole business made that difficult.

So horrible. This thing would sit on my chest, then it's arms would turn into spikes (like terminator), and it would stab me up through the chest with them.
It was really painful, but as soon as I could get out of it the pain would be gone.

So, so weird.

a reply to: Mandy555

Why do you think you would get a chest sitter that would stab you repeatedly?

Isn't it weird that we are prone to a visual and auditory disorder that has been recorded as different entities across the globe?

I have read that pregnant women can also experience sleep paralysis

I have no idea why. I also had my only OOBE around that time. I said 'up' and flew throught the ceiling. Shocked me so much I woke up! Other odd dream stuff too.

Yeah, very weird. People talk about demons and stuff. It makes me wonder.
I thought it might have been something to do with the house I was living in.

I invested in a bit of psychic protection. It seemed to work, but maybe it would just have stopped anyway.

Just fingers crossed it don't come back!