sleep paralysis yes i know but not the same question i hope! lol

I read alot of sleep paralysis post and it seems everyone says its good and helps you become lucid...but when i google it, it comes up as a sleeping disorder and from cultures around the world its refered as evil entering you, some examples african culture say its "the devil riding you" packstan lore they say its a jinn or demon, mexican its a dead person trying to enter you, everything i read says sleep paralysis is a form of demonic control and crap.

Can anyone who has alot of info about sleep paralysis correct me and give me info on how it interacts with lucid dreaming?

Sleep paralysis means that your body is asleep. This happens to us every night, but the mind is supposed to fall asleep first, so we don't notice it.
It's only a sleep disorder if you frequently wake up in SP, but this - or entering SP with WILD + WBTB - can be used to achieve lucidity.
If your body is asleep, then it shouldn't take long for your mind to fall asleep too. A dream will form around you (and if it doesn't you can visualize one yourself), so that you may jump directly into a [lucid] dream from waking state.

Why SP is/was seen as "demon attacks" is because hypnotic imagery (a form of hallucination) can occur if you are awake while in SP. You might see a dark figure at the end of the room, you might hear voices etc.
This is also known as "the Hag syndrome", when you see something scary but is unable to move.

Sleep paralysis occurs to keep you from acting out your dreams. A lot of cultures presented it as a demon possession because that had such little information about it.

When you are in sleep paralysis, a dream shouldn't be far away. If you continue to lie there and visualize dream imagery or focus on HI, then eventually you should enter into a (most likely lucid) dream.

Before we had so much information, people just kind of winged it when they explained what was happening.

Eventually, the idea that a "Demon" is haunting you became an accepted idea of what was happening.

Even though we know that all is happening is your body is asleep, some people still believe it is a "Demon".

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Originally Posted by AngelZlayer

Sleep paralysis means that your body is asleep. This happens to us every night, but the mind is supposed to fall asleep first, so we don't notice it.

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This is incorrect. REM atonia happens during REM periods in the normal population. SP does not occur regularly in the normal population.

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Originally Posted by AngelZlayer

Why SP is/was seen as "demon attacks" is because hypnotic imagery (a form of hallucination) can occur if you are awake while in SP. You might see a dark figure at the end of the room, you might hear voices etc.
This is also known as "the Hag syndrome", when you see something scary but is unable to move.

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SP is the paralysis of your body outside of REM sleep, while you're either falling asleep or waking up (I mean it gets more specific than that, but if you want to know the particulars then look up some articles). It is more common that it occurs upon awakening. It can but is not always accompanied by hypnagogic hallucinations while falling asleep and hypnopompic hallucinations when waking up.

SP experiences can include an incredibly wide range of hallucinations, from a tingling feeling to feeling as though you are floating to feeling as though you are being zoomed out of your bed to hearing sounds or voices to seeing colors or people. In the possibly scarier range of hallucinations, you can have sensed presences, the feeling that there's someone/thing in the room with you, or incubi hallucinations, the feeling that someone is holding you down, suffocating you, pushing on your chest, etc. This is what is usually referred to by the 'old hag', but not every case of SP is going to have these more inherently frightening experiences. In some you may feel like your limbs are heavy, or you may hear beeping or the rushing of wind/water. These simpler, less frightening experiences are rarely referred to as the hag syndrome. That's typically reserved for the hallucination that there is something present in your room with malicious intentions. People can have sensed presence hallucinations that are not related to intruders or malicious visitors. For example, one of my sensed presences was that my sister was in my room. I hadn't tried to move yet and I couldn't figure out how or why she'd come to my dorm room far from home in the middle of the night until I figured out that I was in SP.

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Originally Posted by Hazel

Sleep paralysis occurs to keep you from acting out your dreams. A lot of cultures presented it as a demon possession because that had such little information about it.

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Again, this is REM atonia you're referring to, not sleep paralysis. And yes, assumptions formed in the absence of actual knowledge usually tend to end up incorrect. In the case of seeing things or feeling as though something is in the room holding you down or suffocating you, demonic or satanic attacks are often assumed to be the source by cultures who believe in such things.[/QUOTE]

OP, I recommend these reads:

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=67910
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...39&postcount=4
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...52&postcount=9
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...71&postcount=3

thanks guys for the info, I recently ran into sp when waking from a few non lucid dreams. And yeah i saw a female on my chest biting my neck like a vampire so was like wtf

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Again, this is REM atonia you're referring to, not sleep paralysis.

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I know, but I still tend to refer to it as SP for some reason. Plus, you still have dreams in N-REM, so the same concept applies.

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Originally Posted by Hazel

I know, but I still tend to refer to it as SP for some reason. Plus, you still have dreams in N-REM, so the same concept applies.

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REM atonia occurs during REM sleep, and SP while you're awake. What has NREM got to do with it? (And I'm aware of that one thread)

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Originally Posted by Shift

REM atonia occurs during REM sleep, and SP while you're awake. What has NREM got to do with it? (And I'm aware of that one thread)

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I'm sorry, I have no idea what I meant by that. :shock: Minor brain malfunction. Please, carry on.