Thread: What Sleep Paralysis Is, and Why You Don't 'Need' It to WILD

Originally Posted by Shift

Just so that, if EWOLD is discussed, everyone knows what it says in EWOLD:

To me it seems like the biggest problem is websites like DV having inaccurate tutorials and videos online teaching WILD/AP that inaccurately use the term, than EWOLD itself. Just think, if he had said 'paralysis' instead of 'sleep paralysis', or used REM atonia accurately... Quite honestly I don't think the average person pays that much attention to the slight details in EWOLD like this, and so if the rest of us just use the terms intelligently and accurately we can shift the use of terminology to be accurate.

*bows out*

PS I really wish that there was a study on definitively, whether people can learn to get themselves into SP and assuming yes (since I assume yes) what the learning curve is like on average, if you're predisposed to it, if you can get it easier if you suffer it, if it's really better to lay on your back, blah blah blah, and to be really monitoring the muscles and not just relying on self reports of mere hypnagogic hallucinations rather than true paralysis. And then we could work on why it is that SP eclipses HIT and VILD.

Hiya shift. The section you quoted (which is on page 108 in my edition of EWOLD) refers to Attention on Body or Self during wild.

The opening paragraph - If you focus on your body while falling asleep, you will sometimes notice a condition in which it seems to undergo extreme distortions, or begins to shake with mysterious vibrations, or becomes completely paralyzed. All of these unusual bodily states are related to the process of sleep onset and particularly REM sleep paralysis.

In the tutorials thereafter Laberge states:

Watch for signs of strange sensations, vibrations, and distortions of your body image. These are the harbringers of REM sleep paralysis.

There seems to be little doubt.
The vibrations etc which many lucid dreamers have experienced is the onset of "sleep paralysis".

We also understand the reasons for these strange feelings. This is the transition zone from external physical input to internal dream input.

So clearly, as far as EWOLD is concerned, when wilding we can physically experience the transition to REM sleep and sleep paralysis.
(or indeed REM like dreams during NREM sleep and sleep paralysis).

On this basis, I would argue the the common use of the term "Sleep Paralysis" to describe REM Muscle Atonia or Muscle Atonia in NREM is fairly understandable.