Was this paralysis?

**FreshBrains** · 06-11-2006 12:46 PM

First off, woohoo! I think I am one step closer to that ever-elusive first LD.
So... About sleep paralysis. I think I entered it last night, but I'm not entirely sure. This is before I got ANY sleep, mind you- at about 10:00 PM last night.
Anyway, I lie down, try to relax... And pay way too much attention to myself falling asleep. Eventually I start to feel vibrations after about maybe 5 minutes of this. These vibrations got more and more intense, and eventually I was left with a strange tingling sensation from my neck down, and I just didn't move my body at all. It felt as if I could have moved if I wanted to, (Which I did) but it would take a lot more effort, like my body was encased in some weird electrified shell in light anethesia. The strange thing is, I didn't fall asleep. I'm just lying there, still as if I'm on top of a dozen vibrators (But actually not moving at all) and I'm still wide awake. I can vaguely notice the bed and pillow, but not much... Was I in paralysis, or was I close?

**Leo Volont** · 06-11-2006 01:19 PM

Originally posted by FreshBrains
First off, woohoo! I think I am one step closer to that ever-elusive first LD.
So... About sleep paralysis. I think I entered it last night, but I'm not entirely sure. This is before I got ANY sleep, mind you- at about 10:00 PM last night.
Anyway, I lie down, try to relax... And pay way too much attention to myself falling asleep. Eventually I start to feel vibrations after about maybe 5 minutes of this. These vibrations got more and more intense, and eventually I was left with a strange tingling sensation from my neck down, and I just didn't move my body at all. It felt as if I could have moved if I wanted to, (Which I did) but it would take a lot more effort, like my body was encased in some weird electrified shell in light anethesia. The strange thing is, I didn't fall asleep. I'm just lying there, still as if I'm on top of a dozen vibrators (But actually not moving at all) and I'm still wide awake. I can vaguely notice the bed and pillow, but not much... Was I in paralysis, or was I close?

yes, if you are not exaggerating the vibrations, then that was classic sleep paralysis. don't be confused because you were not asleep. If you had been really asleep you would not have remembered it, would you. In every case where you remember 'sleep paralysis' it will occur, incongruously, while you are still awake. Indeed, that is the trick with sleep paralysis.. to manage to stay awake for it.

It is usually considered something of a Life Skill, the ability to quickly fall asleep -- to sleep on demand. But Lucid Dreamers and Astral Projectors turn this wisdom on its head and instead cultivate the art of staving off sleep until the actual mechanics of physical sleep begin to tic off their checklist, even while the subject is still stubbornly clutching onto consciousness.

Oh, and by the way, if you are particularly good at inducing, or arriving consciously to sleep paralysis, then why not go the way of Astral Projection. Sure, one can rise to the Spiritual Planes through Lucid Dreaming, but wouldn't Astral Projection be the more direct route?