SP, my indefinite link to lucidity?
Whilst reading an informational guide dealing with the properties and characterisitcs of sleep I have unknowingly stumbled across this very nicely designed lucid dreaming site. While I am not new to the idea of lucid dreaming and probably have read almost every other medical, tutorial, and informational article on the subject in the past few years I have yet to once come across this site. Sometime in my leaving from the LD4ALL irc chat(after being an active member for some odd years) and giving up my steady interest in the pursuit of lucid dreaming for school, I have stumbled across another source for one of my favorite sleep activities(its actually my only sleep activity besides sleep itself :lol: ). After reading the entire webpage I've browsed arround the forums for a while and come across a topic that dealt with sleep paralysis.
Myself as a younger boy, roughly 11-12 years of age, suffered from a very severe case of hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences (HHE's) brought on by reocurring predormital paralysis. While I now know exactly what causes my SP, when I was younger this caused serious psychological effects to my sleep habbits. The HHE's were so terrifying I was afraid to go to sleep. I did'nt understand them, what they were, where they came from, or why they were happening to me. Well arround 16 I had stumbled upon a reasearch that involved lucid dreaming. It explained what SP was and now I finally understood what was happening to me and why. At this time I was on SSRI's such as Prozac and a few other drugs to reduce neurotransmitter serotonins. The doctors were aware of my situation but seeing as that it was all in my mind, there was nother they could offer more than a handfull of pills.. Until I slowly learned how to gain control of them.
I started noticing my presleep habbits and finally figured out a logical explination. On nights that I had come home from work and flopped out I rarley if ever had SP's. However on nights that I would study and do school work till I was phsyically exhausted till 1 and 2PM is when I would have several SP's in one night. (I find the only way to break the spell long enough to fall alseep was by splashing water in my face then quickly going back to bed) There entailed the solution to an ongoing problem in my life for over 5 years. My SP was caused by phsyical tiredness and mental stimulation. What I'm saying is that my body would be phsyically tired, but if I had read books, or done heavy mathwork my mind would stimulated up and perky. So my body would assume its natural sleeping habbits even if my mind was wide awake.
The only thing that was extremly wierd about my case of postdormital paralysis is that I could remain in a paralyzed state while still having full control and movement of my eyes. Yes, I could phsyically see while sleeping, in a sense. After I was able to control my SP, I told my doctor and he decided to do a study on me. I would stay awake in this sleep observation room until 2 and 3 in the morning then either read heavily or do complex math. I would then lie on a table and the doctor would hook machines that measured my brain waves, heart beat, breathing rate, temperature etc... And to "induce" the SP all I would do is lay in a supine(face up) position thinking about random things in the world and my SP would set in after being relaxed for so long. After the SP set in the HHE's begain. Even though my eyes were open and I could see the doctore writing away on his notepad I still had severe cases of HHE's. I would feel a malevolent precense arround my body. I would hear screams, whispers, and howls of "evil enteties". Not only would I feels as if I were laying next to a 747, there would be an increased ammount of noise, or static, in my ears.
However I could still hear and differentiate audible noise so the doctor was able to communicate with me using a system of eye blinks and left, right, up, down movement. He would first ask me questions about my level of comfort. Did I feel a presence over by body etc.. Just simple test to show classic signs of postdormital paralysis. So yep, I had a severe case of hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences because after my first HHE I was afraid to sleep wich only increased the chance of having more HHE's.
So now as I stand today I'd say I'm pretty much the guru of sleep paralysis. I know just about everything there is to know about it phsyically and mentally. I know how to achieve lucidity from a SP state and even have had several OBE's from it. I've even coached a few Lucid Dreamers into conquering the feeling of being attacked by and evil precense. The question that was arround these forums a while ago was "Can you induce a SP?". The answer is no, as far as I'm concerned it is impossible to make yourself go into a paraylized state simply my mental or phsyical force. It is controlled by an unconscious part of your brain. However, if you know your body well enough you can set yourself up for one without failure. In my case, there has'nt been a single time I have not been able to reach an SP state. Except for that one time, but that does'nt count as I was sleeping in the bed with a girl who likes to kick. And its pretty hard to enter a state of SP while being kicked repeatedly. I've never had to practice any other technique than dream recall to LD. I simply set myself up for an SP and them become lucid from an SP state.
I'm going to try and cut this "ginourmously" long post short. Just letting everyone know I could assist anyone with SP related questions if they need help. I'll be arround, thanx for reading...
