A true ghost story? You decide!

i want to share a story that recounts my first experience with SP / LD, an encounter that really started making me question the world around me and the world within me. it is also a real life ghost story, or perhaps as close to encountering the paranormal as i can imagine. it is a long read so please bear with me.

this fateful night occurred approximately 6 years ago. i had been going out with my girlfriend then for about half a year and her father was out of town for the weekend so I was staying over her house for the night.

a little back story: her mother had committed suicide (manic depressive) a year previous to this in that same house. we discussed her mom that night before going to bed and my girlfriend told me that i had to sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door. she explained that for months after her mom's death, she had always felt a presence by the door and had just taken to sleeping on the other side of the bed.

i had never been a superstitious person so naturally i brushed it off and agreed to sleep on the door side...

several hours later... i wake up.

and i'm paralyzed. i can't move a muscle in my body, my head is being sucked back into the pillow, but out of the corner of my right eye, i can see a figure by the door. even now as i write this, some 6 years later, a shiver runs down my spine. it is somewhat tall and robed in white. immediately, every fiber in my body panics... i can't move, i can't move, help me, help me... all i can do is breathe rapidly, hoping for my girlfriend to wake up and save me...

i am suddenly awake. i quickly turn to the door; nothing there. it is sometime in the middle of the night, my girlfriend is soundly asleep and i am drenched in sweat. i realize that it was just a dream, but it felt SO REAL. i rationalize everything in my head and decide its finally time to go back to sleep...

i am paralyzed again. i don't like this, i try to shake myself out of it, trying to pull my head out of the pillow but nothing moves... and this time the figure is closer. it is right beside the bed, looking down on me. i simply lose my mind. breathe, breathe, breathe, move something, help me help me help me, breathe faster faster...

and again i wake up. my girlfriend is still asleep and i am literally shaking from the experience. dream or no dream, i don't want to go back to sleep. i lie there contemplating waking my girlfriend but i decide against it, it was just a dream anyway. soon enough, sleep takes me again...

it happens again.

and the figure is sitting beside the bed, POKING my shoulder repeatedly. i can see black hair matted over her face, the white sleeping gown, i can feel her breath... PLEASE HELP ME I CAN'T MOVE PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME


i wake again and it is daylight. my girlfriend is looking down at me concerned. "were you having a nightmare? you were breathing really hard." at the time i had no idea what SP was... i truly believed that i had been visited by her dead mother. for weeks afterwards, i couldn't sleep, i spent all night combing the internet for similar experiences, trying to convince myself that it was just a dream.

and it led me to this site. you can imagine my relief when discovered the possibility of such realistic dreams. since that day, my interest in existentialism and reality has only grown to allow me to explore corners of the mind and soul that i had never known existed.

now, i ask all of you... where does the dream end and the paranormal begin? if there is such a fine line between dreams and reality, can there not be an equally fine line between life and the afterlife? perhaps, in our dreams is the only medium through which these spirits can communciate... is it such a far stretch? :eek:

That seems to be a very unlucky coincidence of sleep hallucinations. I dont think these instances were anything paranormal, but only your own fear that created these visions. I would like to believe that when we die we go into an eternal state of dreaming and that through learning how to control our dreams in this life, we will be able to control them in death...but now theres no such thing as waking up to ruin the dream. Who really knows, but i think there is some connection between dreaming and death although i dont think your experience was anything like that....but then again im no expert. Just saying that the reason sleep hallucinations are scary is because we scare ourselves into them. There was some part of you that was scared by what she said of her mother and because of this i think your mind created these images. If you had woken up that night and instead of being scared started thinking of turkeys..it probably would have been a turkey that visited you. Just what i think but like i said before your opinion could be just as correct. Dont think we'll find out for sure.

Ah! Sounds like Hallucinations to me. That would be freaky though!!
(On and in case you didn't figure this out, the feeling of not being able to move was indeed sleep paralysis. Which is not dangerous as far as I know)
The best thing to do so not to get scared is to just remind yourself that its all in your head. It can't hurt you.
I myself have never experianced SP or hallucinations (and I don't want to!) So I don't have much information to give you, but it was definiely just a hallucination.

of course now i know that it was simply a hallucination, but sometimes it still makes me wonder if there's some sort of bridge to the other world there. im sure paranormal encounters are just as subjective as dreams are right?

Shadow Person taunting me
ok so i have never posted here before but have been lovingly lurking in the background reading all your stories. Enlightening.

Anyway, i have only had 3 lucids. the first only lasted about 5 seconds ending in a witch like lady telling me not to enter. the second was a fantastic 10-15 min totally lucid peaceful, meaningful, and exciting lucid. the third was last night.

i was dreaming about a field (a lot like the one in the end of gladiator) not lucid yet. i noticed a few strands of grass were bluish and realized i was dreaming. i became immediately completely lucid. i was very excited but didnt loose lucidity at all. i was just walking around the tall grass and a few bright red buildings. i noticed a black object in my peripheral, thinking it is nothing i continue. i keep seeing this shadow out of the corners of my eyes and every so often it gets braver entering my center field of vision but never slow enough to make it out as a person or what not. then a black measuring cup showed up right in front of my face. i tried to move it but couldnt and it kept growing. the shadow person kept running around scary types of movements and i got freaked. i woke up and couldnt move. my wife and dog were laying in the bed with me and i could barely get out my wifes name. i whispered her name a few times and then a black hand came over my face. i was absolutely terrified thinking somehow a demon or something had followed me....i had had a false awakening and paralysis in the false awakening. the black hand woke me and i was in a wet sweat....very scary, very real and i really dont know if i want to try luciding again for a while.

I just recently heard about some paranormal studies by some British university professor. They have found out that never ever ghost has hurt anyone.

I agree with Mitch. If you think some subject very intensively before going to sleep, it will most likely appear to you. It is creation of your own mind, like all dreams. In SP you are awake, but able to have dreams (at least that is my experience) and that is why you can control them as well. I actually tricked/fooled an "evil spirit" while in LD/SP. :)

Lucidology 101 (YouTube) said that you can break free from SP by changing your breathing rhytm if I remember correctly. Anyway, there were some method for it.

to the above poster, i wouldn't put too much trust in Lucidology 101, having been a lucid dreamer all my life, most of what that guy says dosn't ring true. It comes across as someone saying a LOT of unverified, unproven and quite often frankly wrong information said in the confident salesman tone of someone on an infomercial. Don't believe everything you read (or watch on youtube for that matter).

To the original poster:

I think what you experienced is the phenomenal power of suggestion, coupled with your body not reaching the same deep sleep you may have in your own bed. Just out of interest, what had you been doing before bed? I'd not be suprised if you'd perhaps been drinking a little, as that can really mess with REM.

As for being any kind of proof for the veil between life and death being thin, sorry but that is a bit like saying that dreaming of winning the lottery means you are more likely to win the lottery. Dreams, especially those feverish half awake moments in SP are so much more likely to be influenced by the thoughts and concerns of the waking mind prior to bed.
Think of all those times you've had an exam in the morning, and dreamt of running late for the exam, or some other worry that has acted as a powerful suggestion on your mind.

I had a dream a ghost came to me, and whispered in my ear: this thread will end up in Beyond Dreaming.... :P

Even though this is off topic, thanks spaceexplorer!

What is bit fishy in Lucidology is that there are some methods, but rest of the method is told in the course 102, which isn't free! Or something like that.

I've tried some of those and I'm not sure what to say. I've had SP in similar conditions as he explains. I was in a hospital and was forced to lie on my back without possibility to turn for two weeks. Had four lucid dreams starting from SP during that time... Ok, the medication could have something to do with my LDs.

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Originally Posted by WolfTotem

Even though this is off topic, thanks spaceexplorer!

What is bit fishy in Lucidology is that there are some methods, but rest of the method is told in the course 102, which isn't free! Or something like that.

I've tried some of those and I'm not sure what to say. I've had SP in similar conditions as he explains. I was in a hospital and was forced to lie on my back without possibility to turn for two weeks. Had four lucid dreams starting from SP during that time... Ok, the medication could have something to do with my LDs.

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the lucidology 101-102 thing does sound intriguing... yet fishy.. yet intriguing. Some of the stuff he says does make sense.

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What is bit fishy in Lucidology is that there are some methods, but rest of the method is told in the course 102, which isn't free! Or something like that.

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AFAIK all the methods are told in the free courses. 102 is about getting lower quality LDs more often. Sign me up.