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I was about 12 years old in my second story bedroom when I woke up at about 3am. I could not move. I couldn't talk. I was awake and this was not a dream!
There were three 6 feet tall "shadow figures" in the room. Think of a two dimensional very dark figure. Darker than dark. Two of them were at the foot of my bed to the left standing near my closet. The one on the left was standing still. The one on the right was standing in the same place but rocking back and forth. The third one would move around and would get right in my face and I could hear it was speaking some kind of demonic language. I was terrified only being 12.
This lasted for about 5 to 10 minutes and eventually I was able to start praying and I was able to cover my head with the blankets.
I'll re-print one from a previous post. I really do think that these experiences, while frightening, are, completely natural, and people who have them would be better off telling themselves as much, but with something so terriying and personal, it is up to you to come to the conclusion that you will.
The reason you feel so terrified is because there is a fourth component beyond waking/still dreaming/still paralyzed so that you don't act out your dream. There is a part of your brain that is evolved to feel pure terror. That is because you need to be terrified for fight or flight. That part of your brain gets triggered as well, leading to the feelings of dread and the sensing or pure evil.
In any event...
SLEEP PARALYSIS
When I was 5-6, I has an episode of sleep paralysis accompanied with a full-on hallucination of a shadowy being. I opened my eyes and looked though the open door portal into the lit hallway to see a dark silhouette standing there, apparently regarding me. I thought I might be my sister, but I had a sense of fear, and then, all at once, it was next to me for a second, as if it had teleported or moved at fantastic speed. I can still remember distinctly that I felt it pinch me. And then it was gone.
At the time I tried to convince myself that I was dreaming when I knew damn well that I wasn't, because, at the time, I was not capable of dreaming in that sort of detail. My dreams were then entirely impressionistic in a way that is hard to describe, something like a comic book, and mostly remain so until this day. I was looking down that hallway, and I would not be able to dream real-world images like that at all until I was better than 30 years old.
I carried that around for a long time, and was very relieved when many years later I discovered sleep paralysis as a logical, and fairly common, explanation.
I was about 12 years old in my second story bedroom when I woke up at about 3am. I could not move. I couldn't talk. I was awake and this was not a dream!
There were three 6 feet tall "shadow figures" in the room. Think of a two dimensional very dark figure. Darker than dark. Two of them were at the foot of my bed to the left standing near my closet. The one on the left was standing still. The one on the right was standing in the same place but rocking back and forth. The third one would move around and would get right in my face and I could hear it was speaking some kind of demonic language. I was terrified only being 12.
This lasted for about 5 to 10 minutes and eventually I was able to start praying and I was able to cover my head with the blankets.
I've had sleep paralysis, but it usually would be in the form
of this whooshing sound in my ears and a feeling of
pressure in my head, accompanied by a vague sense not so
much of doom, but that whatever dreams I would have at
that point would likely take a turn for the worse.
I've never gotten to the stage of seeing shadow-figures
associated with those experiences (though I did see a
shadow-entity once, not associated with sleep paralysis; I
was awake at that time). Usually, I'm able to convince
myself to at least roll over and assume a different sleeping
position, and the sensation fades away, like changing a
channel.
I understand that my, rather boring, kind of sleep-paralysis
can be scientifically explained, but what about those whose
experience includes seeing actual entities standing in the
room with them and moving about? Maybe a hypnopompic/
hypnogogic thing?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cachibatches
When I was 5-6, I has an episode of sleep paralysis accompanied with a full-on hallucination of a shadowy being. I opened my eyes and looked though the open door portal into the lit hallway to see a dark silhouette standing there, apparently regarding me. I thought I might be my sister, but I had a sense of fear, and then, all at once, it was next to me for a second, as if it had teleported or moved at fantastic speed. I can still remember distinctly that I felt it pinch me. And then it was gone.
My first thought was wondering if the entity pinched you to
help you wake up, realizing that you were having
one of those uncomfortable sleep-paralysis experiences.
I understand that my, rather boring, kind of sleep-paralysis
can be scientifically explained, but what about those whose
experience includes seeing actual entities standing in the
room with them and moving about? Maybe a hypnopompic/
hypnogogic thing?.....
-
All I'm saying is that I was awake and it was reality.I wasn't imagining it. There's thousands of similarstories all over the internet. Even before that Art Bell did a story in 2001 on coast to coast and he got 4700 emails from people with similar but different stories.
I've only experienced this once and that was enough. I don't know how long it lasted, could have been just seconds or a few minutes. I know it the terror that I felt was very real, I'm a combat veteran, I've experienced the fear of being shot at and the possibility of being killed, but this terror I felt that night was the most terrified I've ever been. I opened my eyes and couldn't move, the room was dark and I couldn't see anything, but I sensed something was in the room and it wasn't good. I tried to move my arms to wake my wife, but nothing would move, I tried to talk but I couldn't, I was terrified. I tried again to speak, and I yelled and my wife woke up. I was dripping with sweat by the time I could move my body. I'm glad this has only happened once, it is something I don't want to experience again.
I was about 12 years old in my second story bedroom when I woke up at about 3am. I could not move. I couldn't talk. I was awake and this was not a dream!
There were three 6 feet tall "shadow figures" in the room. Think of a two dimensional very dark figure. Darker than dark. Two of them were at the foot of my bed to the left standing near my closet. The one on the left was standing still. The one on the right was standing in the same place but rocking back and forth. The third one would move around and would get right in my face and I could hear it was speaking some kind of demonic language. I was terrified only being 12.
This lasted for about 5 to 10 minutes and eventually I was able to start praying and I was able to cover my head with the blankets.
Evil demons! That never happened again.
Just thought I would share.
It sounds like you had an hallucination during an episode of sleep paralysis.
4. Sleep paralysis can involve hallucinations.
Unlike the visuals in nightmares or lucid dreams, which occur when the eyes are closed in REM sleep, these hallucinations occur in the state between sleeping and waking when the mind is alert and the eyes are open. True visual and auditory hallucinations during sleep paralysis are relatively rare, according to Breus, but many patients report feeling an undeniably strange or scary presence in the room.
Plus, sleep paralysis is just super frightening to begin with, so it often triggers a panicked response with increased heart rate. "People freak out because they can't move, and it's this extreme anxiety which causes people to be very fearful of their surroundings," says Breus.
I've had similar experiences a few times. I would be asleep but felt a hostile presence in the room and knew that my life was in danger and I needed to wake up but couldn't no matter how hard I tried. Eventually I did wake up, no danger, so back to sleep. Sometimes the brain and body get out of sync or something while you're asleep and you experience some strange things. It's not a big deal. I remember one time, I fell asleep on the floor, and I suddenly felt something violently shaking me. After a few moments I woke up. I find experiences like these interesting.
Last edited by Michael Way; 02-12-2018 at 03:38 PM..
I need to pay more attention the next time it happens to me.
Usually I'm so focused on just rolling over before the
nightmares begin that I don't even bother to look around
the room; entities could be there, and I'm totally missing it.
I want to see those rascals!
Usually, my sleep paralysis occurs when I sleep in a little
too late. It's almost as though it functions as a mechanism
to force me up out of bed by making remaining in it an
unpleasant experience.
The mechanism that causes sleep paralysis is a good thing - it's what keeps you from sleepwalking or rolling out of bed when you actually are asleep. Occasional episodes of sleep paralysis, particularly if your routine rest has recently been disrupted in some way, aren't a medical cause for concern, but if you're having them repeatedly, I'd see a specialist and get check out for narcolepsy, sleep apnea, other problems that could be disrupting your sleep cycles.
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