I'm dead but I keep waking up.

[just typing out loud]

Apologies for the sensationalist topic title but it is about as close as I can summarize my latest experience. The first time I've felt a need to share an experience to try to figure it out. My background personal experience is about 40 years of a natural dream state progression (no self help books or such) from vivid nightmares bordering on lucid dreaming from as far back as I can remember (age 5-6 is my clearest memory) through lucid dreaming (with some precog dreams mixed in), dream control, and a stage beyond that I'm not sure what to categorize as (obe, alternate reality trips, super lucid). I didn't even know there were names for most of what I grew up experiencing until about 10 years ago, nor that it was anything unusual. Typically I'll go through a dream drought of weeks before a period of enhanced dreaming. By that I mean each drought has been followed by a new twist on the old dream state. Always an enhancement of some kind. Either more lucidity or more control or both. Such upgrades used to happen more frequently and appear to be tied to a lack of stimulation of my imagination from other sources. Which is probably natural too. I've been in an extended dream drought of late though, possibly due to stress, depression, and health issues. But the drought may have passed now with a new experience. I'm not even sure it's a dream, and like some repeat dreams I've had in the past I only remembered that I had dreamed it before this time. Finally onto the experience... I am awakened from a deep sleep by two things. The first is a noise, heard as from a distance though I know it is louder and near, like my hearing is not perfect, it is muffled. There is no other sound, it is like a camera flash charging up. The second is a loud snap, like a spark, and I actually feel it jolt me awake. It was disturbing to say the least, doubly so when I realized the same thing had happened about a week ago and I'd blacked it out. But what has really got me freaked is the first thought that popped into my head when it woke me up this morning. I "knew" what the sounds were and the jolt I'd felt. I'd been defibrillated. And that lead to the nagging feeling that I was still dead (twice shocked) and that I'd hadn't actually awoken. That I was (am) still lying somewhere dying or dead with medical science trying to bring me back. But instead I "wake up" into a kind of "life flashing before my eyes" (albeit in slow motion). Of course it that is true, then I can't be typing this can I. Causality and all. Except that if I am dying and this is my brain's last grasp at life I could be imagining even this. Anyway I had to complete the chain of thought from this morning and type this up, share it somewhere, to prove, well, nothing I guess I am interested in what believers (and skeptics, though I understand they're not supposed to be here ) make of this. Maybe it's happened to someone else. Or something similar. Thank you for the forum to spill my mind in. EDIT - Addendum. Well that was interesting I went to preview my post just now and although logged in got an error message that I was not logged in and I had a moment there when I thought maybe my post was gone and I really am not logged in and can't log in, which would tie in with the I can't post this since it would be causally(?) impossible if true. Nice trick Multiverse Fortunately, logging in again my post is still here and I'm able to edit it and post it (I think... ) which would mean...

[AmazeO XD]

Sound quite interesting. But yes, you are alive. You wouldn't be able to type this if you were dead! As far as the jolts and noises, I can't really tell you what about it. Someone else will have to help you there.

[Abra]

It could be particularly violent sleep paralysis, which occurs at the onset of dreaming. That'd explain the altered sounds you heard, and jolt you felt. Comparing it to defibrillation, however, reminds me of dark romantic literature, especially since you mention depression and stress. The truth is that these replies you are reading do not exist. All interaction with the world around you are created only by your own mind, which struggles to hold onto the life it has known. I suppose that explains the startling accuracy to real life you experience. Congratulations, you have discovered the truth about the afterlife. If I was the author of the story, that's the revelation the main character would reach at the end (in other words, that previous paragraph was a joke, but intended to make the future readers of this thread think a little more). Don't worry. You are living. I perceive your post perfectly, and as long as you can trust my words, you exist.

[Robot_Butler]

Have you ever been defibrillated before in real life?

[just typing out loud]

It could be particularly violent sleep paralysis, which occurs at the onset of dreaming. That'd explain the altered sounds you heard, and jolt you felt... That sounds good, I mean not "good" but it makes sense. I thought most severe or violent sleep paralysis came after dreaming though and is the root of abduction and visitation events/stories? ...that previous paragraph was a joke, but intended to make the future readers of this thread think a little more. Thinking is always good, and I agree there is a good story in there, I'd seen it too, ah but writing it is another thing Thanks all. No I'm not really that serious about the "death" explanation. I am serious about how deeply the explanation hit me though. It was a similar feeling to the two or three precog dreams I've had. Those were rather surrealistic though, full of symbology, and only one of them did I correctly interpret and see come to pass. And of course that's not enough of a history to proclaim any proof. Besides it was a trivial event predicted, what kind of talent would that be I wanna know the numbers in the lotto ahead of time

[just typing out loud]

Have you ever been defibrillated before in real life? Short answer, nope.

[blade5x]

I get jolts like that on the border of sleep sometimes. They either happen in one of two ways... Nap Jolt: I'll have a very faded dream where I fall, and right before I hit the ground my entire body will shudder and make me snap out of it. Before Full Sleep: These one's I have no idea where they come from. From what I can always recall, it seems like after having some typical imagery when drifting off I sort of fall into a really quiet and calm state. At this point I'm on the verge of falling into deep sleep. And then it hits me. Much more intense and violent then the ones I experience during nap times. I find it odd that you haven't experienced this in your life until recently... but I myself cannot really recall such events from when I was little, or even a few years ago, because I have never really thought about them after they happened. Guaranteed I've had them - they were insignificant and are now lost from daily memory.

[just typing out loud]

I find it odd that you haven't experienced this in your life until recently... Yeah, but then my sleep cycle has been pretty much the same all my life. A long slow descent into slumber and an instant full alertness to wakefullness. Like a switch flipping on. Maybe related, but not shockingly so like this or your jolts if I read it right. Just a calm full alert awake state. Usually after a rem period (often after each rem period). But I'm usually able to go right back to full sleep. Though even my deep sleep state is not too deep though and I am easily wakened to abnormal changes in the environment.

[Barns]

If I were you I would see a doctor. If they say it is nothing then it must be your mind.

[Carôusoul]

I'm alive and I keep waking up. Same time every day.. weird, no?

[G0MPgomp]

Dying (going deceased) can be seen as simple as just being a change of reality.. I often killed myself, when stuck in dreams, then I could not kill myself, no matter what I did.. And learned to just go to sleep, like I do in this reality to "escape" it.. ;p