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Sleep paralysis ?!?!?! - MEGA MERGED

happened to me the other day. I started to feel a powerful electric buzz all over my body, especially in my back. I couldn't move but i kept falling out of my body. It was pretty strange but interesting. Sometimes in this state i try to let out some noise so i can be woken up but it doesn't always work. I also try to wake myself up. It's not horrifying for me, it's been happening to me since i was a kid, read about out of body experiences as well for some insight
 
I have read, sleep paralysis could be utilized to induce an out of body experience more easily. Anyone here, who did it successfully?

Whenever I find myself in the middle of a sleep paralysis, i try to stay calm and go with the flow. It's hard, because of the intense emotions(especially fear) I perceive in this state.

If I take a deep breath, it cause me to snap out of it in a matter of seconds.
 
many years ago i was on some antidepressants, and went to bed after watching some bruce lee film. anyway i had sleep paralysis that night, and instead of the fright, i was all chilled out by it. actually i recall vividly looking up at the shadow next my bed, normally a presence of utter terror, and looking right up at it and seeing clear as day bruce lee standing over me. that was the only time i wasn't afraid of it during.
 
What really flips me on my head is on occasion, as im falling asleep i'll remain aware at the transitioning moment between waking and sleeping consciousness.. and i can see through my eyelids into my room, like looking into a shadow world. Everything is there as clear as day but there's no texture or detail.. it's so rare that it happens i've only experienced it a couple of times in the past, but it's utterly fascinating. Sleep paralysis for me is on the opposite spectrum of this, where im waking up out of a dream but im caught between the transition of waking and sleeping consciousness so i see the details of my dream reflected all around me.

I was told i use to have night terrors as a child.. where i would wake-up with my eyes open screaming, but i couldn't see my parents.. apparently they had to shake me to pull me out of it. I don't remember any of it, but i suppose i've been experiencing them since i was young.
 
^last year i was frequently experiencing another strange "going to sleep" situation. i'd be reading online, or watching something in bed before i go to sleep, but then find that i am still doing those things with no memory of going to sleep. i'm still reading or watching and i'm wondering what time it is, but then something about the scene isn't quite right. this peculiar feeling takes place along with an anxiety about being up so late, and funnily as a result i wake myself up and find everything switched off.

it's momentarily unsettling because i am certain that i am awake when i'm not, and suddenly i am awake but there's no continuity for how i got to the darkened room.

this happened almost every night for a while
 
waking up in a coma state

ive done a lot of drugs in my past and am not sure if this is the cause for this but i would like some info.
every night i go to sleep and wake up in 1/2 awake/sleep mode.
what i notice when it happens... i cant open my eyes, my body feels like my muscles arent connected and i cant move, i can hear everything that goes on around me, my thought proccess doesnt work but i can move my eyebrows easily, but not my eyelids.

this happens all the time and it was scary at first, but now its just getting really annoying.
 
What a trip. I've suffered with SP since a young child. I never knew what it was until I recently discovered an article online and to know many others experiecne the same condition is somewhat comforting. It's straight terrifying and is guaranteed to happen if I accidentally fall asleep on my back. Feels very similar to an overdose on 5-meo-dmt.
 
Apologies for resurrecting an ancient thread, but I'd like to generate some discussion on this topic. I suffered with SP almost every single night for 4 years, left me with anxiety issues, frequent panic attacks, insomnia and a large amount of derealization. Anyway, the last two nights I've had some of the worst episodes of SP I've ever experienced - as soon as I'm starting to fall asleep I feel pressure all over, a huge, muffled, buzzing noise in my ears and then the hallucinations begin - both visual (hands coming through my window, people with fucked up faces walking into the room) and auditory (a scraping sound like a knife being dragged across a wall while two people talk about how they're going to kill me), so I fight it, I panic, then have the ubiquitous panic attack. But I'm terrified to sleep, I had a panic attack over these things coming to get me, then I had a panic attack about having a panic attack about something that wasn't real. I've been up for 50 hours now and it's really starting to mess with my mind.
 
Hi SproutonSmack, so sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulty in sleeping. My first question is, have you seen a doctor regarding your condition? Perhaps it is about time to see a doctor so you can get checked up since this has been going on for 4 years.

What I can suggest for now is to make sure that you are avoiding stresses in your life, try sleeping as much as you can and be consistent with your sleeping schedule. You can also try to meditate as meditation will help you relax instantly. I have been doing meditation or tai chi or a combination of both every night and it really helps me sleep well. I also go for Acupuncture treatments as this helps corrects imbalances in our body. Here are the threads I have started about Tai Chi and Acupuncture:

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/681145-Acupuncture

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/threads/683851-Tai-Chi

Good luck OP, please report back to us and let us know of your condition in the following months or so.
 
Apologies for resurrecting an ancient thread, but I'd like to generate some discussion on this topic. I suffered with SP almost every single night for 4 years, left me with anxiety issues, frequent panic attacks, insomnia and a large amount of derealization. Anyway, the last two nights I've had some of the worst episodes of SP I've ever experienced - as soon as I'm starting to fall asleep I feel pressure all over, a huge, muffled, buzzing noise in my ears and then the hallucinations begin - both visual (hands coming through my window, people with fucked up faces walking into the room) and auditory (a scraping sound like a knife being dragged across a wall while two people talk about how they're going to kill me), so I fight it, I panic, then have the ubiquitous panic attack. But I'm terrified to sleep, I had a panic attack over these things coming to get me, then I had a panic attack about having a panic attack about something that wasn't real. I've been up for 50 hours now and it's really starting to mess with my mind.

Sounds intense. I think your panic is contributing to the nightmares. Sleep paralysis is not dangerous, but I understand that it's disturbing. Mind awake, body asleep is not a fun experience.

The stage that sleep paralysis happens is the shallow stage of sleep, when the body and mind are transitioning between being awake and being asleep. It is far more likely to happen if there is a disruption in the sleep cycle. For example, on people with an 8 hour sleeping schedule, waking up after 4 hours to go do light tasks around the home, and then return to sleep will more likely yield SP in the last 4 hours of sleep.

The things that make it harder to transition to deeper sleep instead of entering SP are: recent trauma or a feeling that sleep is not safe (hyper-viligance), drug use, inconsistent sleep schedules, a disrupted sleep environment, poor sleep hygiene (i.e. watching TV before bed, or being on the computer in bed), and poor nutrition or not enough calories prior to sleep (both of which disrupt the brain's ability to do its crucial sleep work).

There are also some spiritual reasons, but you haven't mentioned that you are a spiritual practitioner of some kind so I won't mention those here.

I know that this may be difficult for you to hear, but if you expect sleep paralysis to happen then it's more likely to. Carl Jung discovered that people who do dream journaling to set intentions for sleep were significantly more likely to have those desired experiences. This means that if you expect sleep to be a hellish experience, then you may end up manifesting it.

The good news is that you can use the same understanding to have a positive sleep experience. Try doing dream journaling. Don't write what you don't want, but write what you do want. For example: "Tonight when I lay down to go to sleep, I will feel completely relaxed, safe, and at ease. When I finally fall asleep, I will sleep deeply, peacefully, and if I dream, the dreams will be positive and life affirming."

From my own experiences with SP, the research I've done, and others I've met who are dealing with it, pharmaceutical sleep aids are not likely to improve the situation, and may even make it more difficult to emerge from SP.
 
Very sorry to hear that. i used to get SP quite bad, these days with a very good diet iit helps. and obv sleep. lack of sleep sends me around the twist
 
It's also called Focus 10... Mind awake body asleep. A term coined by Robert Monroe, the founder of the Monroe Institute. Focus 10 is the first step to achieving a consciously induced out of body experience. When I was younger I also suffered from SP. I thought I was being possessed by a ghost. I had absolutely no idea what was happening to me. Then I started researching. I stumbled upon a GOLD MINE! "Astral Projection" "Lucid dreams" "Soul Travel".... My God, I thought to myself... Why wasn't I told about this?

I was to determined and to distracted by excitement to be bothered by a little fear. So I set out to induce sleep paralysis... consciously. That night changed my life forever. I am no longer a "sleeper". I am no longer an "unconscious dreamer". No more lapses in consciousness.

"I am awake" - Buddha

Ask yourselves this question, Those of you who know that something is not "right" about this "place". (Yes, I'm referring to our current life system. Planet Earth.)

Why don't they teach this in every elementary school?
 
I'm sure it must have been mentioned before in this thread, but I'll still want to stress that sleep paralysis can be both extremely scary and extremely rewarding - It is what you make of it!!

I had been tortured by this phenomenom on a regular basis for over 5 years, starting when I was 17. It grew in frequency and intensity over the years until I started experiencing clusters made up by 20-30 times of waking up in sleep paralysis in a row (each time thinking I'm finally awake, just to realize I am again paralyzed). Most of the time the state was accompanied by vivid auditory, visual and often very painful tactile hallucinatios.

My interpretation of these scenarios changed from simply being scared that I was going insane during the first episodes to considering it a nuisance in the early stage that followed (especially due to being wide awake after they occured which caused quite a bit of insomnia) and finally sort of accepting it as an illness, a malignant curse resting on me (the latter in a metaphorical sense). Eventually I started gaining a dim sense that what I was experiencing might be a chance of some sorts as well without having any knowledge of what would happen.

Information about it back then was very sparse and therefore years had passed until I stumbled across a forum about so called out-of-body experiences. What utter bullshit, right? Wrong!

It turned out it only took knowledge of this and reading the first 45 pages of a book on the topic of OBE's to free myself from all the terror that was accompanied by the paralyzed state and instead experience what I still consider the most beautiful experience of my life. A religious experience, an experience that changed some basic assumptions that I had carried about my existence for good.

After that I still experienced a few instances of sleep paralysis, but the terrifying electric hissing/vibrating had turned to a very pleasant humming sensation. These always lead to OBE's which unfortunately grew cloudier and cloudier until I would just find myself flying through pitch black darkness, not knowing where I was and constantly flying against invisible walls. I wasn't making any real effort either.

Surprisingly though, with less level of control and clarity during my OBE's, the sleep paralysis also disappeared altogether. I haven't experienced a single episode in about 6 years now. It was as if a messenger was knocking at my door, louder and louder and louder until I finally got the message, which was when he simply went away. I am most grateful to have been blessed with this whole experience. My eyes still water just thinking about it.

So don't be scared! Make the best of it and you will be well rewarded. For those who think this is all a bunch of esoteric bullshit, pot does a pretty good job to suppress sleep paralysis.


EDIT: Reading a few posts on this thread and being pretty positive I am not the first to mention the direct link between sleep paralysis and OBE's, I am a bit puzzled as to why this isn't being recognized as what it is. It's nothing supernatural and thousands of people are actively inducing it. Every single one who experiences sleep paralysis without doing any work to get there should consider himself privileged! There are others out there who practice years to get where you are now. The reason why you interpret this as scary is because you do not know what is happening and for what reason. So I am gonna go ahead and post two starting points for those who want to break the spell:

The book that did it for me, "Adventures Beyond the Body: How to Experience Out-of-Body Travel" by William Buhlmann:
http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Be...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375877409&sr=1-2

A forum on the topic with 310654 posts in 36881 topics:
www.astralpulse.com/forums/index.php

A word of warning... There's a lot of esoteric babble in both the book and on the forums, don't let your scepticism ruin the chance this could be for you.



@SproutOnSmack
Feel free to shoot me a pm. I hope I don't come across as insolent saying this, but I was exactly where you are at now and I'd be very happy if you could manage to break this developement the way that I managed to. You might just be hours away from it.
 
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^ I do think that sleep paralysis is part of the process of learning to travel out of body, but that's an intentional process. Some people don't want to have SP or leave their bodies, but it happens to them uncontrollably. When it's something inflicted I would call it pathological and try to prevent it, instead of pushing people into more esoteric material.

(I say this as someone who has had SP and learned to astral travel.)
 
^ I do think that sleep paralysis is part of the process of learning to travel out of body, but that's an intentional process. Some people don't want to have SP or leave their bodies, but it happens to them uncontrollably. When it's something inflicted I would call it pathological and try to prevent it, instead of pushing people into more esoteric material.

(I say this as someone who has had SP and learned to astral travel.)
Every third male experiences sp involuntarily at least once in his life, how pathological can it be? I've never heard of anyone who managed to prevent it successfully (in the long term) without experiencing an OBE. I know my last post is long, but if you take the time to read it you'll see that learning how to astral travel was actually what made my sleep paralysis disappear completely, after having been haunted by it at night highly frequently for many years.

It's still pathological by definition, but that term only gets us so far in understanding what's going on (not very far at all). An OBE is only as esoteric as you allow it to be. You can just as well understand it as a physiological part of the dreaming process, an ability every person can acquire without making any esoteric conclusions (e.g. there is a soul).

Imho astral travel is something every psychiatrist should know about when patients suffering of sp approach them with this problem. It can be a very stressful phenomenom for those who look at it as a pathological process, but can be cured (!) entirely by not looking at it as such.
 
Look up Astral Projection or OBE ,Out of Body Experience. :). Next time u wake up and can't move don't fear, but embrace it, go with it. Feel the vibrations and imagine yourself rising.. You will over time leave yer body and its a trip.
 
Every third male experiences sp involuntarily at least once in his life, how pathological can it be? I've never heard of anyone who managed to prevent it successfully (in the long term) without experiencing an OBE. I know my last post is long, but if you take the time to read it you'll see that learning how to astral travel was actually what made my sleep paralysis disappear completely, after having been haunted by it at night highly frequently for many years.

It's still pathological by definition, but that term only gets us so far in understanding what's going on (not very far at all). An OBE is only as esoteric as you allow it to be. You can just as well understand it as a physiological part of the dreaming process, an ability every person can acquire without making any esoteric conclusions (e.g. there is a soul).

Imho astral travel is something every psychiatrist should know about when patients suffering of sp approach them with this problem. It can be a very stressful phenomenom for those who look at it as a pathological process, but can be cured (!) entirely by not looking at it as such.

I guess "pathological" is too harsh a term. I mostly mean undesireable. If you don't want to be leaving your body then it should be possible to avoid doing it. When you have mastery over it, it's not ever supposed to be something that happens to you against your will.

For people who don't feel ready to take the astral plunge, they need to be taught how to mega ground themselves before they go to bed so that they stay in their body and have restful sleep. OBEs can be interesting but sleep is never as restful when it happens - I speak from personal experience.

If it's not desired then there have to be other solutions than simply telling people they need to go do it.
 
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