Sleep paralysis in a False Awakening?!

[rosettastoned]

Following a semi lucid dream i had somewhat of a frightening experience. as the dream i was having faded out, i kept my eyes closed in an attempt to stay in the dream state. i saw some sort of vision of a man with a beard talking without any sound. Nothing happened so i opened my eyes. (or so i thought.) I was *awake* and was aware that i could not move. When i attempted to move electrocuting pain would pass through my body. I was on my side head facing north and my face facing east and on the side i wasnt facing i kept hearing a clicking sound. I thought it was my brother messing with my alarm clock or something. Because of the paralysis, i could barely talk. I gargled *matt*, *matt* and slowly he started to come to my side of the bed. He was asking me what was wrong. I was weirded out because he is very dark in real life but in this dream he was white. I was like 'dude you look white' and immediately my right arm began to flail intensely out of control and he had the most scared and horrified face ive seen anybody have.

Anybody have anything like this?

[insanecoder101]

I've had this happen thrice and each time was memorable for the most obvious reasons.
Like you I was completely paralyzed not even sure I was breathing and not sure if I could move my eyeballs but I was definitely able to look around.
Each time was accompanied by sensing the invisible presence of other beings/things/spirits?
The first time I thought I was having a heart attack and dying but the sense of presence of others made me feel more like being possessed or something .. pressure on my chest.
The second time was also accompanied by swishing wind blowing sounds..and I was frightened and couldnt move even by the strongest of will.
The third time was accompanied by a loud cyclic electric generator like sound lasting 15+ seconds or so. The third time I purposely settled into calm, smiled, and just radiated love surrendering to the whole things w/o trying to move.. and the paralysis broke slightly earlier.
The first and second time when the paralysis broke I guess if someone was watching theyd prob see me flailing all over from suddenly being able to move again.. so yea yer not crazy.
I was told subsequently that these things sometimes happen when astral traveling in sleep and for whatever reason you return abruptly slamming back into your physical body causing this.

[Steve]

Back in the day when I played with this stuff - I found that in a profound relaxed state you can experience kind of a muscle stasis where the abductor and adductor muscles in the body reach a perfect equilibrium...with the result of being stiff as a board. Should this happen in a sleep state it might be the 'sleep paralysis' so described. This can be expereinced in a non sleep state, which is weird in itself, but might reduce the panic by a subconcious recognition when sleeping.

my 2 cents

peace,
s

[4ernyikot]

OMG!!! i am not alone! i thought that i am crazy! that strange thing happens to me about 3 times in a month. you know, usually before THAT happens i feel like i am falling somewhare, or as if there is not enough oxygen, and i am waking up from it. then i am falling "half" asleep. i cant move my body, i just can move me eyes and can control breathe. i cant make even a sound i that state. and i hear voices and sometimes see dark shadows. but i think that these are only hallucinations. because i learnt how to stop that voices and images of scary creatures. after i stop it i cant move still, i cant fall asleep too. and i am kinda confused what to do?? cause i cant either awake fully or fall asleep fully! that state longs about 20-30 minuts, then i finally fall asleep. does anyone know what to do then??? may be there are special ways to experience lucid dreaming after that stage of paralysis???
sorry for bad english.
from russia with love=)

[Steve]

Pryvet 4,

Sleep paralysis is not rare, but I am a bit concerned over your frequency. Please make sure you don't suffer from sleep apnea. If you become sleepy during the day a lot or snore heavily, please get checked out. I know my quality of life improved with the use of a C-PAP machine, so please check this out.

As to how to deal with sleep paralysis: When you become aware that you are in a paralysis state the first thing to do is to relax and not panic-while uncomfortable, it won't cause harm. Next, move your attention to your breath. Slowly start to breathe deeply through your nose, keeping your attention on the breath and how it feels moving in and out of the front of the nose. Keep doing this and you will either wake up or go to sleep.

As to the lucid dreaming (and I am NOT an expert here), I would try and see if I could extend the time between waking and sleeping (the hypogagic state) and not try to lucid dream. The longer you are in this state the more chances are the lucid dream will occur naturally.

Pakah (and peace)

s

[lostsoul]

I have had experiences like this! I think it is a state before an OBE... I personally relaxed and had a vibrating sensation in my body but not apparent from the outside, and I could control the vibrations, by telling them to move faster or slower. I could also send them to any part of my body. However, I couldn't stop it. It also went away in 20-30 minutes. The hardest thing was controlling the feeling of not breathing. ... Oh by the way... I also see shadows and sometimes people. I am not crazy either. The people just stare at me when I see them. I am not sure who is more shocked. Also, they try to talk to me but I ignore them.. One night I believe a man must have said hello to me 100-250 times. I believe we live among others and they do get pissed off some times by are unawareness. I mean there are children as well as adults. The point of why certain people can see/feel or hear them is still a puzzle to me.

[Steve]

I had a similar meeting some months back. I really don't practice in the hypogogic state anymore, usually I'm out like a light. This is not to say that some changes haven't occured with my dream states, but hanging out 'between the worlds' doesn't happen very often with me. I did meet this one guy who was suprized I saw him. He appeared like someone who tried to assume human features but didn't quite get it right. Anyway, when we noticed each other I did the friendly thing and invited him in. He just seemed a bit embarassed or perplexed that I could see him and left. Not a sociable guy I guess.

Anyway, I would not be too alarmed when you run into these beings. Go ahead and talk with them, I can't see any harm in this. This space is occupied by all sorts of things, most of them benign. As to why some people more than others see them? I think the real talent (which I don't have) with lucid dreaming, OBEs, meeting beings, etc. is the ability to stay in the hypogogic state for longer periods. Like I said, I'm usually asleep very quickly. The people who can stay longer between the states or the transitional period before sleep, have more OBEs and experiences like yours.

Peace
s

[insanecoder101]

Sounds like you are experiencing astral vision and hearing. These other entities could be either deceased entities not moved on or people astral traveling whilst asleep. Wonderfully strange experience isnt it? So what is reality? This? or that?.. or neither?