Sleep Paralysis

I first realized it after taking nyquil when I was sick. I woke up in the morning and I couldn't move, I was in my bed screaming for help. Then I just quit struggling and I fell back to sleep only to reawake and find that noone had heard me screaming earlier. A little over a year ago, this started happening to me again, but the effects were longer, more intense, and not caused by nyquil or any other sedative. I also realized I was more prone to experience it if I had been sleeping in the same bed as my girlfriend, and furthermore she started experiencing it as well. Waking up in this state was a familiar feeling, I would always be in a state of panic, as if someone was holding me down and I needed to get somewhere. Sometimes I would find my conciousness somewhat pulling itself from my body and floating around the house only to be pulled back into my body shortly after. It wasn't until a couple nights back that I realized what I was seeing when my conciousness had detached itself from my sleeping body was real, I'd invision the room exactly as it is in reality, I could go into seperate parts of the house and note people moving awake as they were in real life. The only thing I couldn't do was notify the people of this experience as it was happening. I felt as if I was screaming at the top of my lungs and noone could hear me. I just want to know your thoughts on this condition as I find it to be a truly spiritual happening. I've been studying different cultures take on what this 'sleep paralysis' means to them and it usually goes back to some demonic folklore. One culture I specifically was interested by was ion New Guinea. They refer to sleep paralysis as sacred trees feeding off of human essence in the night; sometimes people wake up during the feeding resulting in sleep paralysis.

sleep paralysis is a symptom of astral projection(floating around your house)

when one's soul/consciousness leaves the body and enters the astral plane,the body begins to decay. if you soul/consciousness does not return to the body within about 5 minute,the chemical processes are so degenerate that the body can not "restart" and you are dead as the souls can not re-enter the body.

the paralysis you feel is because of this.it takes a fews minutes for the body to reactivate the chemical processes necessary for life.

rahu

Yeah, I've read up on astral projection. I attempted it myself one night and I was just overcome with this intense feeling that people were trying to talk to me. I literally felt my room full of people or souls. I don't know how to explain it, but I definately see the relation between sleep paralysis and astral projection I just feel like there's a lot more that goes into it.

SapSac, unfortunately many people think they know more than they do, they read books or listen to people and love to quote things that are dramatic, whether true or not. If this is a real problem for you message me personally and I will be happy to try to help you. I have experienced this many times, It is not spiritual, it is medical/scientific. But this does not preclude simultaneously having a psychic or spiritual response because of the state of mind. Howver, these words spiritual and astral, although surely are important words, are often dramatically generalized in use to the point of almost meaningless. Meanwhile, you can be sure you won't degrade or die. That is if Rahu doesn't scare you to death. LOL

It is hard for me to ignore it's spiritual content to the extent that I have been able to see things out of my field of vision while completely unconcious. Because of this I feel the need to look at it as both a spiurtual and scientific occurence. I don't have a distinct problem with it, only that my own curiousity leads me to suspect that there's some sort of answer to be found by exploring this state of mind if I could be more aware of my actions when I "click-in" to it.

rahu said:

sleep paralysis is a symptom of astral projection(floating around your house)

when one's soul/consciousness leaves the body and enters the astral plane,the body begins to decay. if you soul/consciousness does not return to the body within about 5 minute,the chemical processes are so degenerate that the body can not "restart" and you are dead as the souls can not re-enter the body.

the paralysis you feel is because of this.it takes a fews minutes for the body to reactivate the chemical processes necessary for life.

rahu

Click to expand...

Hmmmmm... I thought that the astral body was attached to the physical body with a "silver cord" that does not let you die for no reason. Why do you say by 5 minutes?? I think you can be gone longer... And heard that usually you are floating above the physical body but unconscious during the night.

I end up in something similar to sleep paralysis if Im shocked by being in this state of mind (in the astral body or consciously awake with body sleeping). But its easier to get out of this sleep paralysis if you relax and tell yourself that its normal and youre ok. It has helped me alot to "comfort myself" by talking to myself in a calming way during the sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis is a normal occurrence and part of the human sleep cycle. I must disagree completely with rahu on this one. It doesn't have anything to do with astral projection necessarily. Many people have found that when they are aware, but unable to move physically, their minds have an easier time "freeing" themselves from the physical body. That much is true. However, astral projection does not cause death and neither does sleep paralysis. When you awaken in this state, it is more of a quirk than a problem.

It's a fairly common mistake to think that something leaves the body when the mind is projected somewhere else. Did the mind ever require space in which to exist? Where is your mind right now? Can you point to it? Does the soul require space and time? Does the spirit? Astral projection is a process of attunement. Nothing actually "goes" anywhere. That's why you can only interact with sensitive people in that state. If someone is not attuned to be receptive to you, you will not have any impact on them whatsoever. If you had some sort of substance, you could pinch them, but you don't. It is your mind doing the perceiving, not your brain.

QuantumMystic said that waking sleep paralysis is not spiritual, but medical and scientific. I must ask, what could be more spiritual than physics and medicine? True existence is the phenomenal spark that produces the dross we think to be matter and energy. Our conceptions of ourselves are mistakes. If you think you are your body, then nothing makes sense. Our real selves are Infinite and find expression through that spark of creation that orchestrates all things. We see natural Law reflected in the material and occurrences around us because that Law exists in the spark that creates what we perceive. In Truth, everything is spiritual. The more fundamental something is, the more spiritual it is. Wouldn't you say that quantum physics is just as spiritual as it is concrete? What about the observer effect? What about nonlocality? The one thing that we can say for sure is that this Universe is NOT made of finite, separate pieces of matter. On the quantum level, everything is nonlocal until it is brought to a set state, which, for some reason, seems to be a function of human awareness. If this Universe is anything like the Newtonian picture of it, then what we see happening repeatedly should be impossible.

I agree that Medicine and Physics today could probably change tomorrow. And what was spiritual yesterday, could just as well be physics tomorrow... We dont know everything, and its not easy to prove anything scientifically. Maybe we just cant prove it today.... Cause not enough knowledge. People are limited at times

Mark, if you reread the entire situation patiently, you will probably realize that the context of the original post was as if spiritual was something separate and I replied within that context. Spiritual was seemingly being identified exclusively with psychism. My concern was to give a pragmatic foundation to someone who I do not know and who is talking about screaming for help, just having been told how they could die if they don't get back to their body in time, by Rahu.

QuantumMystic: That's a good cause. I suppose we were both following what we considered to be the best course of action. My intention was to lay open the subject of astral projection and provide a constructive context for it. It is my hope that this information will facilitate the pursuit of Truth. If we are to learn anything, it must be done at the expense of what we already know. In short, I would rather make it an experience of personal evolution than one of trying to protect self from Self.

Mark said:

QuantumMystic: That's a good cause. I suppose we were both following what we considered to be the best course of action. My intention was to lay open the subject of astral projection and provide a constructive context for it. It is my hope that this information will facilitate the pursuit of Truth. If we are to learn anything, it must be done at the expense of what we already know. In short, I would rather make it an experience of personal evolution than one of trying to protect self from Self.

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In response to that, I think that this occurence is caused by an outer force and not something of my own manifestation.

SapSac: It would seem to be external only because you are identifying yourself with your body. As long as you think you are your body, the real you (the Infinite you) would seem to be external. Please believe me when I say that no external force could cause something like this and this confusion is precisely the reason that you need this avenue of exploration. When you were floating about and trying to make people notice you, you existed and perceived, yes? If and when you try, you can observe things in that state that can be confirmed later. This means that you existed apart from your body. If that is possible, then your body must be more akin to a vehicle than a fundamental part of you.

You never stop existing. Your body will cease to exist upon death. In projection, you can directly experience the fact that you exist without physicality. Experiment with this and there will be no denying that you don't need your body. And, if you don't need your body, then why fear death? There is more to life and existence than can be seen with eyes made of dust. Use this opportunity for your own growth. Fear nothing and trust in the Living God whom you can contact if and when you so choose! If ever you find yourself floating in darkness, call out to that Living One and you will be heard.

Sapsac, I had a nightmare at about 8 or 9 and experienced the same as you, I struggled to wake up but found my body was paralysed, and so couldn't. I dreamt huge cockroaches were forcing my eyelids down, so I could not open them, I even had a false awakening, only to realise it was still part of the dream and the cockroaches still had their iron grip.

My mother was totally diss-missive about my fears of sleeping afterwards, though later she told me my father later then had exactly the same experience of being unable to 'break' the sleep, because of this paralysis.

Actually, however, I then read years later that this paralysis is actually quite 'normal.' Without it, we would all be sleepwaking into busy-traffic roads and walking off roofs and doing all kinds of other dangerous things during our dreams. The body is therefore 'meant' to be 'paralysed whilst we are sleeping!

If this is not known, however, then the dreamer may well panic during a lucid dream - or nightmare. But perhaps it isn't demons, or for that matter, malignant insects that causes the problems, but just lack of knowldege of the sleeping state.

Nexus7: I think this was a really well focused addition to this thread!

Today I had sleep paralysis...Something very strange happened...Although I was paralyzed, I felt as someone had moved my hand...Then I grabbed someone's hand and he was trying to break away...I eventually let him...Then I woke up...Although my physical body was paralyzed,I was somehow shifted...Does anyone have an idea of ​​what is it?

this is what I imagine when I read in the bible about the death...there will be two in a field and I will take one. You know its funny we say we goes up must come down, and we dont "understand" why us humans "understand"

and close truthful people have told me their own accounts of this! strange

SapSac said:

I first realized it after taking nyquil when I was sick. I woke up in the morning and I couldn't move, I was in my bed screaming for help. Then I just quit struggling and I fell back to sleep only to reawake and find that noone had heard me screaming earlier. A little over a year ago, this started happening to me again, but the effects were longer, more intense, and not caused by nyquil or any other sedative. I also realized I was more prone to experience it if I had been sleeping in the same bed as my girlfriend, and furthermore she started experiencing it as well. Waking up in this state was a familiar feeling, I would always be in a state of panic, as if someone was holding me down and I needed to get somewhere. Sometimes I would find my conciousness somewhat pulling itself from my body and floating around the house only to be pulled back into my body shortly after. It wasn't until a couple nights back that I realized what I was seeing when my conciousness had detached itself from my sleeping body was real, I'd invision the room exactly as it is in reality, I could go into seperate parts of the house and note people moving awake as they were in real life. The only thing I couldn't do was notify the people of this experience as it was happening. I felt as if I was screaming at the top of my lungs and noone could hear me. I just want to know your thoughts on this condition as I find it to be a truly spiritual happening. I've been studying different cultures take on what this 'sleep paralysis' means to them and it usually goes back to some demonic folklore. One culture I specifically was interested by was ion New Guinea. They refer to sleep paralysis as sacred trees feeding off of human essence in the night; sometimes people wake up during the feeding resulting in sleep paralysis.

Click to expand...

I've experienced this also. It started when I was about 11/12 when I just moved into my new house. It was always just before I woke up that I'd have these experiences. Mostly, it was just laying there, trying to sit up (sometimes I could've sworn I sat up but my body was still just lying there). Sometimes I saw things along with the experiences, like once I saw a couple of shadowy men-like figures (that's the best I can describe them as the image of them weren't clear) just standing in my doorway to my bedroom. It got really worse when I moved back to my old house. It was virtually every morning and every night I'd fear going to sleep, knowing what would come in the morning. What I saw changed, too. They weren't shadowy figures anymore, it was this thing, I can't really describe what it was but it wasn't normal, whatever it was. Sometimes I heard someone walking passed my bedroom door and I'd try to scream for them but it was like I had lost my voice. Anyway, these experiences went on until I was about 13 or 14, maybe 15, and I haven't really had many after that.

rahu said:

sleep paralysis is a symptom of astral projection(floating around your house)

when one's soul/consciousness leaves the body and enters the astral plane,the body begins to decay. if you soul/consciousness does not return to the body within about 5 minute,the chemical processes are so degenerate that the body can not "restart" and you are dead as the souls can not re-enter the body.

the paralysis you feel is because of this.it takes a fews minutes for the body to reactivate the chemical processes necessary for life.

rahu

Click to expand...

I read something similar to this except in the article it said that sleep paralysis was something people experience when they didn't know how to astrally project, what I mean is that they don't know how to move their astral bodies, therefore they get this feeling of being paralyzed and causes them to panic.

I don't entirely believe that it's spiritually related, but I don't think it's purely scientific, either. During the experience I was very conscious of the fact that my body was still resting but my mind wasn't, and my conscious mind felt like it was separate from my actual body. During the experience I knew exactly what was happening, and I knew I had to open my eyes and wake myself up. Eventually I managed to wake myself up with a lot of effort- when my eyes were opening, it was like I could actually see my eyelids opening and shutting from the inside, and yet when they were closed I could still see perfectly. And when I woke up, everything was exactly how I saw it to be when I was having this experience. I'm a very observant person, I take in a lot of detail from my surroundings. Every crease in my blanket, the pattern the creases make, the amount of light shining through my window and what it shone on, the exact position I was lying in and how my hands were placed... everything I saw when I woke up was exactly how it was when I was having this experience.

rahu said:

sleep paralysis is a symptom of astral projection(floating around your house)

when one's soul/consciousness leaves the body and enters the astral plane,the body begins to decay. if you soul/consciousness does not return to the body within about 5 minute,the chemical processes are so degenerate that the body can not "restart" and you are dead as the souls can not re-enter the body.

the paralysis you feel is because of this.it takes a fews minutes for the body to reactivate the chemical processes necessary for life.

rahu

Click to expand...

This is absolute hogwash. Astral projecting can be done for as long as sitting in meditation can be done. The effects on the body are pretty much the same. Sitting in meditation for days is completely doable though not particularly healthy (plenty of monks do it) and leaving the body to traverse the astral is just as doable, traveling can be done for days if the constitution and focus of the physical body has been developed enough. An accomplished practitioner of meditation can sit completely still and let their astral consciousness travel for as long as they could normally endure meditation. The consciousness leaving the body has no more or less of an adverse effect on the body's health as regular meditation. To have an averse effect on the body from astral traveling one would have to have an already very weak physical constitution, a very weak connection to their body and something keeping them from reentering their body. Any one of these or a combination of these can result in death, but it is not as perilous as you make it sound, the body and astral connection is a very strong one in most people.

Stop scaring people. Fear is the greatest barrier to successful prolonged astral consciousness.

Sandra0406 said:

Today I had sleep paralysis...Something very strange happened...Although I was paralyzed, I felt as someone had moved my hand...Then I grabbed someone's hand and he was trying to break away...I eventually let him...Then I woke up...Although my physical body was paralyzed,I was somehow shifted...Does anyone have an idea of ​​what is it?

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This is interesting, has someone you love recently passed on? How did you know it was a he not a she?