sleep paralysis

[himself]

I don't know much about "astral projection" and metaphysical stuff like that but ever since I can remember I've experienced things that aren't normal. I used to think that it was just tintinabulitis or maybe something similar to epilepsy, but now I'm not so sure. I didn't even know how to describe it without sounding ridiculous so I never told anyone. Well, here we go. If I close my eyes while laying down or sitting, and the place I'm in is relatively quiet I first start to hear a rushing sound. If I turn my attention to the rushing sound it gets louder and starts rushing towards me. At first it is mostly white noise but then the sound starts having tonal qualities. It pulsates and recedes and rushes. Similar to a wind that blows and tickles my skin. I like that part. This also happens visually. When the sound starts there is a kind of blur at first but as the sound progresses and gets more complex, so does the visuals. A kind of steady rythm controls me.

It's getting annoying.

 

[Direwolf]

That does sound like a lot of what I've heard about sleep paralysis. I'd probably see a psychologist though.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

well, he didn't say it was when he was falling asleep though.. or that he was paralyzed. the halucinations do sound like a phisiological disorder, but maybe psychological. do you expeience this no matter where you lay down? does it happen every time?

edit: oh, ha, the title of the thread is "sleep paralysis" :|
himself, can you confirm that you are actually paralyzed when you experiece this?

 

[Sprafa]

You're scaring me....

 

[LittleB]

They say that sometimes in dreams your soul goes to heavenly places so people there can help you deal with psychological problems. Sometimes I get after a dream, right before I wake up, I'm travelling through a black tunnels with golden sparks all around, also with a pulsating zooming sound, very VERY loud. So I think by accident I am slightly conscious while my soul makes the trip back to my body.

 

[clarky003]

.. what is the world bound by. and what keeps us alive. that is the answer to everything... Electrical energy!. the most integral component that makes everything the way it is, binding the atom. giving rise to gravity, and our ability to see, and the way we percieved the world. Its crazy, but our world actually exists in our heads as electrical impulses inerpreting specific signals. although from multiple perspectives it then seems the world exists without?.. its terribly confusing... but intresting

 

[Jackal hit]

well as far as the instant of waking up, hearing sounds and seeing things, that is supposed to happen. it's normal (this can be learned in any beginning psychology class). i personally believe in astral-projection/out of body experiences/whatever you wanna call it. i've had plenty of "odd" psychic experiences and other 6th sense type things that current scientific knowledge either doesn't understand or writes off as a form of psychosis, and i am most definitely not psychotic.

 

[himself]

yes lil' timmy. it doesnt happen everytime i close my eyes, the place im in must be (as i said) relatively quiet. so it wont work in school etc.

 

[Neutrino]

.. what is the world bound by. and what keeps us alive. that is the answer to everything... Electrical energy!. the most integral component that makes everything the way it is, binding the atom. giving rise to gravity, and our ability to see, and the way we percieved the world. Its crazy, but our world actually exists in our heads as electrical impulses inerpreting specific signals. although from multiple perspectives it then seems the world exists without?.. its terribly confusing... but intresting

Um, you've got it slightly wrong there. Electrical energy is not the be all and end all of the universe as you imply. It does not bind the atom by itself. The strong and weak nuclear forces probably play a larger role in that. It does not give rise to gravity. The gravitation force does that, which has nothing to do with electricity. Electrical energy is nothing special in itself. It's just the interactions and flow of electrons. Granted it does affect many many things, but no more than the other three forces of the universe.

 

[SheepFactory]

I'm an astral projector, have been projecting for 3 1/2 years now.

Your experience is unlike anything I have heard before. It is possible that for some reason your mind enters the hynogogic state very quickly upon lying down to rest. The hypnogogic state is a state we enter before we fall asweep where our minds sometimes create audible noises or visual images behind our closed eyelids. Ever been laying down and trying to go to slepp when suddenly you hear a voice or noise that you swear is real? Like your name being called? This occurs often with people, and happens when our mind is entering the hypnogogic state.

It may be possible to learn to control, I suggest you post this question at an astral projection forum. astralpulse.com and astralsociety.com are good ones.



If it is true sleep paralysis, that would be a little different. Can you confirm you are actually unable to move during these episodes? Sleep paralysis can be overcome aswell, but it's a bit more difficult.


I would refrain from seeking a psychologist until after you have presented your problem to an astral projection community. Psychologists don't understand the mind half as well as they like to think they do, and many of them are not metaphysically inclined people and would be perscribing massive amoutns of medication before ever understanding the nature of your problem, if your problem is indeed metaphysical.

 

[Neutrino]

I would refrain from seeking a psychologist until after you have presented your problem to an astral projection community. Psychologists don't understand the mind half as well as they like to think they do, and many of them are not metaphysically inclined people and would be perscribing massive amoutns of medication before even attempting to understand your problem.

I would suggest taking this with a grain of salt. When talking about mental health and such I think it's wise to be very careful. The above statement about psychologists is just one opinion. I personally think that if you find a good one it can be very helpful and they will not do anything like prescribe medication without your consent. Many may not be metaphysically inclined, (and for good reason because they are professionals who have to be completely objective about such things) but they do have years of experience and an extensive knowledge.

So basically I'd suggest that if your worried about it or it's affecting you negatively in any way to seek professional help before you take the advice of any "metaphysical" forums. Those places might be right or they might be wrong, but I don't think they are a good place to go for an objective opinion.

 

[Lucifer Crass]

Did u know since light travels through everything you can accualty see everything that gives off light? Yes, technically i can see everyone one this forum right now. I have evidence to support this theory. If you take glass for instance, its hard and brittle yet see through. How do you explain this phenomenon? Well glass does not allow light to reflect off of it or the light it gives off cannot be precieved by our brains, thus our minds pick up anything else around it. A mirror does the same sort of thing. The light waves a mirrior gives off are exactly replicated by the lightwaves hitting it. Thats my theory, but what does this have to do with anything? Well.....maybe when we have our eyes closed we are allowing our minds to pick up other types of light waves that our eyelids filter out.
I am just bored so dont take this post seriously lol.

 

[Neutrino]

Did u know since light travels through everything you can accualty see everything that gives off light? Yes, technically i can see everyone one this forum right now. I have evidence to support this theory. If you take glass for instance, its hard and brittle yet see through. How do you explain this phenomenon? Well glass does not allow light to reflect off of it or the light it gives off cannot be precieved by our brains, thus our minds pick up anything else around it. A mirror does the same sort of thing. The light waves a mirrior gives off are exactly replicated by the lightwaves hitting it. Thats my theory, but what does this have to do with anything? Well.....maybe when we have our eyes closed we are allowing our minds to pick up other types of light waves that our eyelids filter out.
I am just bored so dont take this post seriously lol.

One word:

Huh?

(Alright, one word and a smiley.)

 

[Direwolf]

The whole mirror an glass theory doesn't coincide with the known nature of light. They've run tests with photon emitters and detectors in thousands of experiments, and even if you were to be in complete darkness and emit only a single photon the particle still will pass through glass or bounce off a mirror.
Those materials have certain properties governing the behavior of photons when they collide with them.

 

[Lucifer Crass]

The whole mirror an glass theory doesn't coincide with the known nature of light. They've run tests with photon emitters and detectors in thousands of experiments, and even if you were to be in complete darkness and emit only a single photon the particle still will pass through glass or bounce off a mirror.
Those materials have certain properties governing the behavior of photons when they collide with them.

Sounds like these people are just as bored as I am

 

[hiln]

sleep paralysis is a scary thing.
If no one has mentioned it, you should check out the album "El Cielo" by dredg.
It's a concept album about sleep paralysis, but it's brilliant.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-4601795-2789626?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

and on their site (http://www.dredg.com) if you download and install the 'el cielo media player' on the front page, you can listen to the entire album free, as much as you want.
beautiful music

And if you end up liking them, buy the album, they're barely known as it is.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I have an experience just like this when I sleep, I cant move my body I beg for control from the inside jerking jolting and such from within its completely odd and terrifying sometimes I see inside my room but with hallucinations like once I looked into a mirror and I had no reflection... anways a reaccuring dream sequence of mine is me not being able to move but being awake sometimes with hallucinations but its all when I start to sleep so it usually dosnt worry me... wtf... ive never bothered to tell anyone but my parents whom dont worry about it.. it just is getting annoying and terrifying and I thought might have to do with the fact that I take SSRI's (serrotonin regulators) and desipramine another anti depressant... idk if that has anything to do with this awful and scary happening... there is more to it that I cant really explain the experience is something I cant really type its like trying to wiggle within myself and sometimes my heel kicks and wakes up the rest of my helpless body.. I want to wake so bad and I know im asleep (R.E.M JUST STARTING) not even begun yet, yet I kick and kick but cant break free from the cycles of paralasis. It's hell when it happens and scares me still...this may have to do with irregular sleep patterns or the prescriptions I have but I have a feeling its something else because it happens even when things are regular occasionally... sometimes I think im going nuts or going to just all the sudden get paralyzed in real life or fall over dead... I've never done illegal drugs so I cant see that as causeing it I do have a panic disorder and depression (why I take the medicine) but the fact that sleeping is literally hell sometimes makes me terrified... update: I read after reading this topic and googleing Sleep paralasis that anti depressants are often used to treat it

hypnopompic state

The hypnopompic state is the transition state of semiconsciousness between sleeping and waking. For some people, this is a time of visual and auditory hallucination. <---- sounds kind of like that except occasionally I experience visual hallucination (REM?) along with feelings of impending doom decending (SP?)

 

[Naft]

sleep paralysis is a scary thing.
If no one has mentioned it, you should check out the album "El Cielo" by dredg.
It's a concept album about sleep paralysis, but it's brilliant.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=music&n=507846

And if you end up liking them, buy the album, they're barely known as it is.

dredg is freakin awesome. buy their album now. everyone.

hmm. twice (the second time i will speak of, the first was pretty saucy). ok, so once in spanish class (5th, after lunch) near the end, i was just sitting in my desk in the middle of the room, at room temperature (75-77 Fahrenheit, id say(thats what, 28ish C?). next thing i know im sweating profusely, it feels at least 100 degrees in the room, the sounds of the class fade out into my peripheral hearing, about 33% of my blood goes rushing to my head(accompanied by a large rushing sound). I cant even hold my head up at this point, so i bend down on my desk(like im tired/sleeping), and about 7 seconds later the noise leaves and i start cooling down, although for at least two minutes my hearing is distanced and im pretty freaking hot. it was pretty scary, i was shaken for at least 15 minutes after that, but no one even noticed, an im a shrug-it-of-once-its-over type of guy, and since that was two+ months ago i really dont care anymore. weird though.

I used to have hardcore hallucinations whenever i had the slightest fever . . . felt like there was about 500 lbs of (get this)noodles pursuing me, pressing down on my back. the noodles would steadily grow in weight and size until they were the entire earth. the pressure(to my mind) exceeded normal human comprehension, and the only thing i could do is crawl along the floor(it took a minutes worth of effort to lift my hand off the ground(with all that weight on it, dontcha know)) towards other people(happened in the middle of the night) cause when i was talked to it gradually went away(i could use their outside perception to reason it out) sometimes i would struggle for at least a half an hour in my room.

You probably have no idea what it feels like to be crushed to death every second, yet be unable to die as the weight steadily increases and increases. And the only thing you can do is push back against the weight. ive been forced(by absolutely nothing) to carry the entire universe on my back, all the way into the bathroom. What does it feel like . . . ? I'll tell you: its HELL.

thank god i defeated that nightmare about 3-4 years ago. (when it happened to me on my 12th birthday, in my room, while my friends were out making s'mores over a campfire(for my part, i was intermittently vomitting into the toilet), i said **** YOU, and stabbed it in the heart). for a while though(up untill about a year ago), I had flashbacks, and they are scary even in remembrance.

but yeah, anyway . . . i'm just your average guy.

 

[ImJacksAmygdala]

OK I'll reply to my first thread in this forum.

When I was 16, I'm 26 now, I had something happen in my sleep that scared the crap out of me. I heard the rushing sound you described and had visuals pulse and felt this weird weight on my head and saw a blue glow. The next thing I know I am in a different place and I'm talking to this alien in a hall with shadows on boths sides and a beam of light down the middle. There are whispers in the shadows and I walked down the beam of light to this pure white alien on a throne. Hes said Indian, and I said yes. Then it tried this ET thing and tried to touch me and I freaked and then I woke up and had this blue light pinning me down on my bed like a ton of bricks and this loud rushing sound in my ears and I sensed movement in my room. I could not move at all and then after about 10 minutes as I watched the alarm clock tick them by I could finally move and I went and woke my mom up and told her what happened. She said I probably had some kind of anxiety attack and agreed that I should see the doctor and talk to him about it instead of going to school.

I didn't think it was an alien visit or anything and still don't now. I have the ability to have lucid dreams as an adult so I think I created the visuals. But I cannot explain the blue light and weight that pinned me down when I woke up and opened my eyes except that I had sleep paralysis. I have witnessed my children have sleep terrors where they wake up and cannot move and look terrified. I think the same thing happened to me and the chemical in my body that prevents movment during sleep had not worn off by the time I woke up.

Never the less it scared the crap out of me and it hasn't happened since so instead I just focus on lucid dreams like watching and creating movies or playing a video game. I can somewhat control my dreams where I can fight ninjas and open a kitchen droor and it will be full of mac10's matrix style.

I think everything I experiencd can be explained scientifically and although that case was scary it can be explained scientifically although I think the human brain is a mysterious place that will never be fully explained. At least not in my lifetime....

 

[Brian Damage]

Meh, you should know. After all, you're apparently part of Jack's brain, whoever Jack is...

 

[jimbones]

Sleep paralysis? I think the brain actually inhibts your motor control during sleep so you don't "act out your dream" (running, jumping, flying, flailing your bedmate) so I wouldn't be surprised if the conscious part of your brain sometimes takes notice of that..

And himself: The sound you hear might be the blood rushing through the capillaries near you inner year. The sound gets picked up by the cochlea (inner ear) when it's quiet and you concentrate on/sensitize your hearing..

Btw I have that too sometimes, it's cool ! =)

 

[jimbones]

I would refrain from seeking a psychologist until after you have presented your problem to an astral projection community. Psychologists don't understand the mind half as well as they like to think they do, and many of them are not metaphysically inclined people and would be perscribing massive amoutns of medication before ever understanding the nature of your problem, if your problem is indeed metaphysical.

Holy cow! Do you really believe what you are talking about??!!

:O

 

[Brian Damage]

Sleep paralysis? I think the brain actually inhibts your motor control during sleep so you don't "act out your dream" (running, jumping, flying, flailing your bedmate) so I wouldn't be surprised if the conscious part of your brain sometimes takes notice of that..

And himself: The sound you hear might be the blood rushing through the capillaries near you inner year. The sound gets picked up by the cochlea (inner ear) when it's quiet and you concentrate on/sensitize your hearing..

Btw I have that too sometimes, it's cool ! =)

You got it in one, jimbones. The sleep paralysis "circuit" evolved so that our small and furry ancestors wouldn't go sleepwalking out of their burrows in the middle of the night (Or day, if they were nocturnal) and get gobbled up.

It's a bit glitchy, and can activate when we are semiconcious. I'd imagine another form of the glitch is sleepwalking itself, where it fails to engage once we're asleep...

 

[hiln]

And I forgot to say to sleep on your side or stomach. It's supposedly more likely to happen if you sleep on your back.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

One theoy is that dreams are simply our minds viewing other than sight...The idea was that our concious mind travels to hyperspace while we are sleeping and its another "universe" where things work different.

Personally i dont agree, and it probably doesnt bare relation to what you said. But i dont think its too abnormal to be hearing things like that...when you start to hear voices its getting bad but simple rushing sounds could just be bodily functions gone wild (ITV anyone?)


Edit: It seems someone already said what i said...well...darn.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Oh god I had this kinda thing some weeks ago, it had to be a sleep paralysis but I didn't knew anything about that before this thread..

I remember I had trouble falling to sleep once, I just waited and waited.. Finally I must've fallen asleep, and when I woke up in the middle of the night I was like dreaming and awake at the same time.. I saw this grey concrete room , slowly moving towards in it, at the same time I knew I was awake, but I had this HUGE weight on my body, couldn't move it if my life depended on it.. Somehow it finally let go, I realised what had happened and I was completely terrified, kinda like if you couldn't breath or was stuck on a railroad track with a train rushing towards you..

 

[CrazyHarij]

It is kinda interesting though that this happen to all of us normal john doe dudes..

BTW, I've read alot about astral projecting before, and there seem to be a good technique for getting it to happen:
Lie down on your bed, it should be quiet and dark, but you're not going to fall asleep or sumthing.. close your eyes and keep them closed all the time.
Imagine mental hands softening up your entire body, imagine them going from toe to your head.. I recommend you should try being calm and after this stage you should feel just a little softer and calmer, maybe just a tiny bit..

Imagine a rope hanging above you, like above the upper part of yer chest, and imagine your arms pulling them (no just mentally, still lie there).

If you imagine this and focus your mind pretty hard, you will feel a very strange feeling. Like if your soul tries to escape the body. This is like as far as I've gotten, but if you continue you should go with the flow or something and continue climbing and I know there'll be some other stage (don't remember it though) ..

I've heard there is some sort of astral world that you can get to by astral projecting, where you may meet other astral projecters and you can go to places in the world.. But the world is apparently very strange there, and you can meet demons that ppl who believe in this say you shouldn't interfere with and then they will cause no harm.. You also have this "omni-vision" or something, you see all directions all the time.. And if you focus on something it starts "melting", like if you look at your hands they just become some kinda fingerless blobs, like they're made of clay apparently..

And according to some buddhism theory or something there are several stages of these worlds, and the highest one is heaven or something..

Don't think of me as a some kinda spiritual metaphysicist mindtravelling bullshit believer, this is just stuff I've read and tried a little.. Metaphysicism is kinda interesting. (guess what profession I play as in Anarchy Online)

 

[himself]

sleep paralysis is a scary thing.
If no one has mentioned it, you should check out the album "El Cielo" by dredg.
It's a concept album about sleep paralysis, but it's brilliant.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-4601795-2789626?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

and on their site (http://www.dredg.com) if you download and install the 'el cielo media player' on the front page, you can listen to the entire album free, as much as you want.
beautiful music

And if you end up liking them, buy the album, they're barely known as it is.

i second that. i have taken my 'sleep-paralysis-text' out of their booklet, its not my own text. but it describes exactly what i experience.

anyways, thanks for your advices.

 

[hiln]

i second that. i have taken my 'sleep-paralysis-text' out of their booklet, its not my own text. but it describes exactly what i experience.

heh, awesome (not your problems, just that you took it out of the el cielo booklet), I didn't notice that.