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Additional comments by respondents indicated that these experiences were rarely the rather passive sensations suggestions by the term ‘‘floating,’’ but often consisted of more vigorous sensations of flying, acceleration, and even wrenching of the ‘‘person’’ from his or her body. In response to questions about floating sensations respondents spontaneously reported a variety of inertial forces acting on them, which they described as rising, lifting, falling, flying, spinning, and swirling sensations or similar to going up or down in an elevator or an escalator, being hurled through a tunnel, or simply accelerating and decelerating rapidly. Associated feelings of light-headedness and dizziness were also occasionally described. The impressions of strong inertial forces may also explain why some respondents experienced the out-of-body experience as a violent extraction of the self from the body. Several people reported feeling forcibly pulled or sucked from their bodies, sometimes through the forehead and sometimes through the feet, and one person described a sensation of ‘‘falling out of’’ his body.
Cheyne, J.A., Rueffer, S.D., & Newby-Clark, I.R. (1999) Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations during sleep paralysis: neurological and cultural construction of the night-mare. Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 319-337.
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The Waterloo Unusual Sleep Experiences Scale includes items assessing frequency and intensity of SP episodes and of a variety of hallucinoid experiences. The 18 specific different hallucination types assessed were: sensed presence, auditory, visual, and tactile hallucinations, hallucinations that the bedding is moving or being pulled, breathing constriction, choking, pressure on the chest, or other body part, pain,
death thoughts, floating, flying, and falling sensations, OBEs, and autoscopy, and illusions of motor movement.
Cheyne, J.A. (2005) Sleep paralysis episode frequency and number, types, and structure of associated hallucinations. J. Sleep Res., 14, 319-324.
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Intruder experiences involve a feeling of a presence (FP: defined for participants as a feeling of something present, independent of actually seeing or hearing something) and sensory (Visual, Auditory, and Tactile = VAT) hallucinations as well as a specific hallucination that something is pulling at the bedcovers.
Incubus experiences include difficulty breathing, feelings of suffocation, smothering, or choking, sensations of pressure (typically on the chest), pain, and thoughts of immanent death. For both types of experiences, these sensations occur both as isolated sensations and as more elaborate narratives.
Cheyne, J.A. & Girard, T.A. (2007) Paranoid delusions and threatening hallucinations: A prospective study of sleep paralysis experiences. Consciousness and Cognition, 16, 959–974.
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Intensity measures for each of the major hallucination types (Intruder,Incubus,and STO) were created by taking the mean of their constituent hallucination subtypes. These subtypes were: for the Intruder factor: sensed presence,auditory,visual, and tactile hallucinations,as well as hallucinations that the bedding is moving or being pulled; for the Incubus factor: breathing constriction,smothering or choking feelings,pressure on the chest,or other body part, and pain; and for the STO factor: floating, flying,and falling sensations,out-of body experiences,and autoscopy,as well as illusions of movement,such as sitting up, getting out of bed, and walking
around the room.
Cheyne, J.A. (2002). Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations: position and timing effects. J. Sleep Res., 11, 169-177.
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Originally Posted by
Video_Junkie
Let me start by saying that I have never had a 'pleasant' hyonogig experience. A few years ago I went searching online to find out what was happening to me, and found out the name for it was most likely hypnogogia. I would be asleep, or I guess almost asleep' and then I would feel paralyzed or more accurately held down by a malicious presence while I was forced out of my body. Each and every experience is accompanied by the feeling of an evil presence. There is no joy here. The worst one i ever experienced was last year when I was falling asleep and felt the familiar paralysis as I rolled out of my body and onto the floor. It was as though I was in 2 places at once (asleep on the bed AND awake on the floor). I tried crawling along the floor into the corner of the room when a hand grabbed my arm and strating pulling me toward it very roughly. Luckily, I jolted back awake. I was scared as hell. It felt very real and I was convinced there was some evil spirit trying to'get' me. Another time I was asleep and then got that paralysis and heard footstpes coming up the stairs while something strong held me down again, and a light in the hallway was on that should not have been. When I awoke, the light was not on and everything was as it should be. I cannot stress enough how REAL the experience is, however.
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Originally Posted by
Video_Junkie
Today I had another involuntary session. This never fails: I awakw earlier than normal, go downstairs andhave a coffee, smoke etc....then an hour later I go back to bed for a 'nap'. I ALWAYS get the out of body LD state when I do this, and today was no exception. But today I took your advice and eliminated my fear and 'went with it'. It started with obligatory ringing in my ears, which then turned to a rather turbulent vibration feeling in my whole body, and then the feeling of something pulling my feet and pulling my astral body out of my real body via my feet. I sank to the floor, as usual. Then I was flaoting around the room. I mean, all over. Every corner, the ceiling and everything.
