Has anyone had any Paranormal Sleep Paralysis experiences? (lights, aliens, vision)

[Creature of the Wheel]

Originally Posted by LuckyGem

O.K. I feel a little uneasy about posting this story because the people I have shared it with in the past usually thought I was certifiably nuts afterward, but on an anonymous forum such as this, the story could be read by thousands of people, and might be the best way to share my experience and get some feedback, possibly from others who had a similar experience.

I had a series of very strange occurrences over three years, I even kept a log and I wrote down each experience after they began in 1993. These experiences basically kickstarted my spiritual awakening - as you could call it. I cared less for religion because it didn't make any sense after what I had experienced and focused my thoughts around spirituality instead of man-made religion.

Before bed, usually I'd shower, read a book before turning out the light after midnight sometimes later. No drinking coffee or alcoholic beverages, no drugs in my system.

Every experience would begin like this:

Fully awake lying in bed, I would have a slight ringing in my ears, followed by sounds becoming more muted, feeling lightheaded, next I'd feel the energy drain from my body and I would feel an uncontrollable urge to close my eyes, if I fought the urge to close my eyes I would begin to feel intense fear and anxiety/nervous, but the more I allowed myself to fall into a state of relaxation the more positive of mind and relaxed I would feel. Next I'd feel a pressure on my chest like something holding me down, followed by what felt like hands holding my feet to the bed and a veil envelop my body. And then complete paralysis, but my mind was fully awake.

Then there was a second stage of the experience.

Once I was fully relaxed, I could feel something that felt like a person sit on the bed (I could feel the pressure of what felt like weight sitting on my mattress). If my mind raced to something filled with terror, I would feel a touch on my forehead and then my body would slowly go numb of sensation and peaceful thoughts would fill my mind and the fear would quickly subside.

Other things would happen, for instance one of my first experiences I felt the pressure of a body next to me in bed, and I was scared to death but then whatever it was, allowed my hand to relax and touch whatever it was in the bed with me and it felt like a human male leg - it had skin texture and hair and was warm like flesh and toned with muscle. Strangest thing I have ever experienced in my life.

I even moved to a new home and they followed me to my new home. I started sleeping with my bedside table light on. I discovered that on the nights I slept with my light on, the experiences wouldn't happen. I slept with the light on as much as I could but it was very expensive to do so. But sometimes I would have an urge to turn the light off and when I did that's when the experience would start. More than a few times, when I reached to turn the light off I could feel the lightheaded sensation starting sound going dull in my ears and I knew I was going to have an experience, once when I reached to touch the switch on the light I felt something like a hand force my hand down to my side after I turned the light off, a pressure on my chest forcing me down into bed, and the experience would start.

They became so regular I could lay down and clear my mind, and focus on that "energy" and initiate a contact.

It was frightening to me because a few times the "energy" would overpower my senses and if I sat on my bed I could feel something surround me and the pressure on my chest, and ringing in my ears sound to lay down.

I could feel it examine my body and probe it, it attempted to examine my eyes and I told whatever-it-was that if I saw it I would be completely terrified, and it opened my eyes with "fingers" (at least it felt like fingers), shone a light into my eyes, but totally obscured my vision so I wouldn't see what it was.

Other strange things happened, even telepathic experiences. I speak several foreign languages and I could carry on conversations with it in French or Spanish. There were some projects I was hoping would pan out at the time which were pretty much "done deals", but when I would ask "it" about the future of the projects, "it" told me that they wouldn't happen - and the project I was hoping for collapsed 3 weeks later. I asked it things about my life in the future, and it told me different things which have also happened. A surgery for instance that happened in 2009.

The experiences gave me insight. I know that everybody isn't open to having those kinds of experiences, and "it" told me that everyone isn't ready for them.

My experiences stopped in 1996.

Strangest experiences of my entire life.

In the aftermath of each experience I had I began to see humanity totally differently. I feel a lot more connected spiritually with other humans and I can sense a kind of common relationship with just about everything and everyone around me.

Anyone else?

I've had similar experiences that have happened over the course of the last four years. The most frightening one was the time I heard Lucifer speaking to me in Latin. He seemed to be angry that I no longer paid much attention to his influences in my life. I told him to "shove it" and to leave me alone. Shortly after that, I felt an incredible amount of static electricity all around me, the room darkened to pitch black, and I felt the presence of two things in my room. One held me down, put its hand over my mouth, and held my hands together. The other held my ankles together and pulled me off of my bed. I fought all I could. Eventually I broke free and was able to scream at the top of my lungs. Once that happened, it all stopped, and I was left alone.

The most recent episode of something similar was a few months ago. The static electricity surrounded me. I eventually heard some purring and some meows from a cat. I answered back with a couple of meows. The cat jumped up on to my bed, walked along my left side, began pawing, or rubbing down my left shoulder blade, and eventually curled up into a ball to sleep. I tried to pet the cat. It disappeared once my hand moved toward it. This cat didn't have a malevolent feel to it whatsoever. By the way, I don't have a cat.

I sometimes feel that my gut feeling is similar to whatever or whomever was protecting Eli in the movie, The Book of Eli. I live my life how I want. If something doesn't seem right, I have my trusted, proven gut feeling to help guide me along the correct path.

[ocpaul20]

Anything (any being) which seeks to control or to limit us is NOT one we want to engage with. Many people believe we are gifted with free will and this cannot be exercised or chosen if we are held, or stopped from doing things and should ring alarm bells if we are subjected to this kind of control.

I do not think that any being who wanted to 'help' would try to control us in any way, so in my mind, any being who does not act in this way is not one which I choose to deal with.

Just thoughts to think about.

[firstborn888]

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

I understand what is being said. However, there are others including myself, who have never, ever had sleep paralysis and it follows therefore that it is NOT a fuction of REM sleep but something else (since all healthy people have REM sleep.)

Probably we should research what science is actually saying about all this, if we care to learn.

[ocpaul20]

Probably we should research what science is actually saying about all this, if we care to learn.

Yes, well that does not say anything except that you dont like to be wrong.

Previously, you have made statements which to me, are clearly not correct. You continue to think that they are correct. If science is saying that we ALL get sleep paralysis when in REM sleep, then it is clearly not correct since I have never had this. I assume I am not unique and so science needs to have a re-think. Since you have said that science maintains that REM sleep paralysis is a natural part of life, perhaps you can point to somewhere this is explained or maybe even a peer-reviewed paper or two perhaps?

I have acknowledged that there are SOME people who experience apparent paralysis in sleep but I contest that EVERYONE gets it due to at least one person (myself) who does not.

Now instead of making crass remarks like the one above, maybe you can come up with some actual information rather than just trotting out what you have heard - which is clearly not correct as I have argued in my previous posts.

The people describing the experience here are the ones who are reportedly trying to move but are unable. It's part of the evidence showing that in REM sleep the body is normally paralyzed and if jarred out of REM consciousness can occur without motor control being instantly reestablished.

NO it is NOT part of the evidence to support the theory that the body goes into paralysis everytime it reaches REM sleep.

There is evidence that people can unknowingly physically act out their dreams if motor signals are not shut down from the brain. The theory is that during sleep the brain stops sending electrical signals to the muscles during sleep because we are using the same parts of our brain to walk and talk in dreams as we do in an awakened state.

YES they CAN unkowingly act out their dreams, BUT not many people do this. WHOSE theory says that ?

So all science is saying is that upon the arrival of a sleep state the mind stops sending signals to the muscles to move.

You are arguing that the mind is UNABLE to move during REM sleep. WHERE is science saying this?

[firstborn888]

Originally Posted by firstborn888

Probably we should research what science is actually saying about all this, if we care to learn.

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

Yes, well that does not say anything except that you dont like to be wrong.

Actually I meant "we" (meaning "you and I") should probably find out what the scientific data actually is and what it actually says before continuing.

I'm only guessing (in my comments) what the science is from things I've read and could be wrong. I've been wrong many many times about many many things and may be wrong about this (but you're right about one thing - I don't like to be wrong!).

So - to be right - I suggest we find out: what does science actually say? Do you know? If so please point me to the scholarly peer reviewed data and THEN maybe discuss this again?

[ron1999]

I experience a similar sleep paralysis situation from time to time. It all depends on how tired I am.

I will relax in my recliner and turn on the TV with the volume on low and fall asleep. I don't know how long I'm asleep. It could be 15 minutes or over an hour. But, I get to the point where I begin to hear everything going on. I can hear the TV, I can hear cars going by outside, I can hear birds chirping, and I can hear all the normal sounds going on in my house.

The really odd thing, though, is that I get an intense feeling that someone is staring at me through the front door (even though it's closed and locked).

I can feel my heart racing faster. My mind is telling me it's an emergency and I need to open my eyes. Now!

But, my eyes won't open. I attempt to force myself to get out of my recliner and open the door to see if someone is there. However, I can't move and I can't open my eyes.

I have no idea how much time passes, but eventually I am able to open my eyes and move my body.

No harm has ever come to me. However, it concerns me to think what would happen if I was having one of those episodes and a true emergency (fire, etc) occurred. I wonder if I would be able to get out safely.

[jezzabella]

I have had this since I was 19 years old. At 19 years old I moved into my ex husbands mothers house which everyone thought to be "haunted". They saw a shadow figure 3 feet tall and nicknamed it "3 foot". Although I never saw it I did have an experience where something/someone said my first and middle name to me over and over one night. That same night my ex mother law had the same thing happen to her. I am 36 now and it has got a lot worse over the past 2 years. I have been diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnia and the doctor explained his version of what is going on, saying that I go into REM sleep immediately and wake up during. He added I wake up thinking I am awake but I am really not and that the body was still paralyzed during REM sleep so I did not act out my dreams and that was normal but my mind was awake or so I think it is. They actually caught it on my sleep study.

However, my son is 7 and autistic. He has slept in his own bed since he was 5 weeks old with no problems up until 2 years ago as well. We moved into a different house 2 years ago but we do not live there anymore. He recently told me he sees "floating heads" and "shadow people" while hearing cracking sounds. The other night he was laying beside me asleep. I also was asleep but woke up in sleep paralysis. Although I cannot move, or open my eyes and a lot of times I struggle to breathe, I heard and felt my son woke up about 30 seconds later and was screaming for me to hold him because he was scared of the shadow. I could not move to comfort him, it was the most vulnerable experience of my life for him and myself. Sometimes I have it once a week, sometimes over and over and over all night. The best way I describe it to my husband is that it feels like I am drowning. I don't hear sounds, I can't see anything because my eyes won't open, I have felt something pull my hair a couple of times and been touched before. I do feel like there is something evil in the room. I woke up once while living in that house 2 years ago with my fingers in some sort of pretzel like stance. I cannot even make my fingers do what they were doing then and I remember the pain so vividly. When I was able to come out of the paralysis I remember saying "F*&$ You!" I cannot remember much, I just remember something/someone wanted me to do something bad and that was my answer for it. If what the doctor told me was correct then I should not have been able to move my fingers in those positions because my whole body would have been paralyzed.

Since this has happened with my son I do not believe it is what the doctor explains it to be or at least not for me so I do plan on doing some type of house cleansing, even if I am wrong a cleansing cannot hurt. It is a very hard thing to talk about as people tend to give you that "you are crazy" type of look. Thank you for posting about this as it helps people to realize they are not crazy, or at least not due to this.

[imcurious]

I had sleep paralysis, but don't see my experience as paranormal - mine was about integrating stuff, psychologically. It was very frightening and I could not even move my eyeballs for hours on end, days at a time - until I had a breakthrough (that was one episode when I was 19 and in a strange country).

The second episode was in my early twenties - and it would happen when I napped in the middle of the day - felt an ominous presence - it was very scary - but I think it was my own psychological stuff . . . not an entity but at the time it felt like an "other."

[ParallelJJCat]

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

Yes, well that does not say anything except that you dont like to be wrong.

Previously, you have made statements which to me, are clearly not correct. You continue to think that they are correct. If science is saying that we ALL get sleep paralysis when in REM sleep, then it is clearly not correct since I have never had this. I assume I am not unique and so science needs to have a re-think. Since you have said that science maintains that REM sleep paralysis is a natural part of life, perhaps you can point to somewhere this is explained or maybe even a peer-reviewed paper or two perhaps?

I have acknowledged that there are SOME people who experience apparent paralysis in sleep but I contest that EVERYONE gets it due to at least one person (myself) who does not.

Can I interject a bit? Sleep paralysis has long been a subject of fascination for me because I have suffered from it for much of my life. Accordingly I have done a good deal of reading on it.

When I first started experiencing this phenomenon, it was very frightening. Indeed, it still very much is! For me, it takes the form of a sense of vibration and a vibrating sound while on the edge of sleep. The vibration itself is almost pleasant in an odd sort of way. As I fall deeper into it, I get the paralysis and a sense of suffocation. That is at the point where I start to struggle. I have to focus very hard on moving a part of my body in order to 'break out.' Once I do, the temptation is very strong to fall back into it. I have to get up and move to avoid this, otherwise I'll just keep lapsing into it repeatedly.

Over the last five years or so, I've also developed the ability to wake from a dream and throw myself into sleep paralysis. I've always been a lucid dreamer (which sleep paralysis is strongly associated with.) If I'm having a dream I don't much like, I'll involuntarily (but while realizing it is a dream) 'ditch out' and cause the onset of sleep paralysis. When this happens, I'll start to repeatedly have visions of rising and walking away from my bed...a dozen times over. It can be very hard to break out.

Sleep paralysis runs on the female side of my family. My mother can talk in this state and call for help (I can't.) She once hallucinated small, alien like beings standing around her bed chanting 'we're here and we love'. Fun, no?

But to try and address some of your questions about the science behind it...

Science actually doesn't quite know why this happens. I'll get to the theories in a minute. The previous poster is correct though in stating that during REM sleep, chemicals are released that causes a form of paralysis. It is a protection mechanism for the body to avoid injury while acting out dreams. And yes, some people DO act out their dreams and some people are actually harmed because of it. That's a failure of this self protection mechanism cause by disordered brain chemistry. It is a sleep disorder, one which can, if severe enough, require treatment (typically anti-depressants in an effort to correct the out-of-whack brain chemistry.)

So expecting those individuals who have the sleep disorder of LACKING REM paralysis, we DO all go into a mild paralytic state while sleeping. Why then, doesn't everyone get sleep paralysis? Actually, many people will experience it at least once in their lives, but it often goes unrecognized. It is dismissed as a scary dream or night terror. As a person with recurrent sleep paralysis, I can't count the number of times I've mentioned the vibration/suffocation/paralysis and had the other person's eyes go wide as they say "oh, THAT'S what that was!" The experience tends to stick in the mind even when they thought it was just a standard dream.

So many people will go through it at least once in their life. Why do some unlucky folks go through it repeatedly? Again, brain chemistry. It seems to be a problem with the REM cycles being too short and overlapping too much with the arousal part of sleep (the waking phase.) This was confirmed for me through a sleep study with daytime sleepiness study. I have night owl syndrome (DSPS) as well, meaning my sleep cycle is reversed from what is considered 'normal.'

Supporting the brain chemistry theory is the fact that sleep paralysis does seem to have a genetic component with its recurrent form. It is also very much affected by exhaustion (which because of my DSPS I'm always in a state of) and hormones. It's more common in women than men, and often dies away after menopause. My mother at 67 suffers it much less frequently now than she did in her youth, and much less frequently than I do at 32.

Also, from my own experience I think unshielded EMPs will set it off. If I sleep in the bedroom downstairs, I can very reliably cause sleep paralysis and I will always hear the 'buzzing' and feel the vibration even if I don't drop into the full blown thing There's something in that room that triggers it.

Now, with all of this said, this doesn't mean sleep paralysis can't possibly have any sort of paranormal connection. I don't believe that the actual paralysis is paranormal, nor the hallucinations that often occupy it. In fact, I think it is very, very likely the cause behind old legends of demons visiting people in the night. The 'old hag that sits on the chest'- sleep paralysis. Some reports of alien abductions? Sleep paralysis. My mom's little chanting guys? Sleep paralysis.

BUT, sleep paralysis IS connected to lucid dreaming. And if you can learn to harness and control it, lucid dreaming can be very powerful and help with many aspects of spiritual life (though I wouldn't say SUPERNATURAL.) Funny enough, the reason the two go together is again probably because of a misfire in brain chemistry- lucid dreaming probably happens because your brain isn't shutting down the way it's meant to. But if you believe anything about dreams having power or meaning, sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming are something to explore.

There doesn't have to be a supernatural reason behind something to make it interesting (I think all this is much more cool than 'demons do it') At the same time, a science driven explanation doesn't have to remove all mystery or take away all connection to spiritual or even paranormal things. You can accept the science behind all this, and still believe that some people have this altered chemistry for a reason (I don't, but that's me.) Or accept that it is an altered brain chemistry...but believe demons are the ones altering it (again, nope for me.)

But the science is important because there are plenty of people who suffer from sleep paralysis and don't know what it is. Who are scared and think they're going crazy and never mentioned it to anyone. I can't tell you the relief of knowing this was a real thing and there were things I could do to help prevent it (not terribly effective, but you know, I could try) and even just knowing part of life's 'big change' would be an end to this bloody nuisance of an affliction.

Way more than you bargained for, I know.

[spm62]

Originally Posted by ParallelJJCat

Now, with all of this said, this doesn't mean sleep paralysis can't possibly have any sort of paranormal connection. I don't believe that the actual paralysis is paranormal, nor the hallucinations that often occupy it. In fact, I think it is very, very likely the cause behind old legends of demons visiting people in the night. The 'old hag that sits on the chest'- sleep paralysis. Some reports of alien abductions? Sleep paralysis. My mom's little chanting guys?

Why do you suppose demons, aliens, darkness, gloom, or dread is mostly associated with sleep paralysis? That`s the part that is perplexing to me.