Originally Posted by
fogelbise
I just want to share my experience. I am definitely not saying anyone is wrong, just stating my experience. I certainly would not assume someone is crazy, as one person suggested.
I had a sleep paralysis experience shortly before starting my adult lucid dreaming practice. Due to my fear in the situation of feeling like I was being held down by an invisible entity, I decided to pray until I woke up (related to my mostly dormant religious upbringing). I looked for guidance online (it eventually led me here a number of months later). I read about sleep paralysis experiences of all kinds, with people experiencing a big variety of things holding them down: aliens, man/rapist, dogs/wolves or other animals, spirits, etc. I then read about SP from the scientific perspective and decided that was the most likely explanation for what I experienced. Over the subsequent 5+ years, I have had other experiences of something fairly heavy on top of me and in those experiences I turned them into a woman as the explanation for the heaviness on top of me. Anyone who knows my lucid adventures, knows that I obviously had a great time. I also haven't suffered any negative consequences.
I am concerned that some people will read these fairly common experiences and have fear like I initially did. They may experience schema poisoning and have the same type of experiences that they just read about and may stay away from lucid dreaming. I also know a few friends who love nightmare scenarios and such discussion may draw them into lucid dreaming, but I think they are in the minority.
Edit: I have also done the same thing when experiencing scary things in lucid dreams and have found personally that the only thing to fear, is the fear itself.