Too weird... I had never even heard of LD until very recently. I decided to read up on it since I've had recurring bouts of SP for many, many years. Mine seems to differ from the norm, so I was just beginning to think it wasn't SP at all when I stumbled across this topic. Unlike the other occurences of SP (and similar to yours) that I have read about, I see nothing at all while it is occuring, just black. There are no sights, smells, or even sounds. I do get the 'energy waves' you mentioned earlier, but they don't seem pleasant or soothing to me. When I experience them, they are very scary, like a force that is trapping me, preventing me from moving. Occasionally, but not usually I get the FEELING of a hostile entity causing this paralysis, but I never have any associated visions, sounds, etc. This sense of a malicious being has become less and less frequent as time goes on. The energy waves seem to ripple up and down my body, holding it in place with an almost elastic feel to them. By that I mean that with great effort I can move any part of my body a very small distance, but the force of the 'bands' rebounds me back into place. After what seems like 10 minutes or so of struggling, the bands finally 'fall away'. Thats really the only words I have to describe it, but it isnt really adequate.... I always wake up and almost always sit up in bed after the bands fall away, usually with a loud gasp that wakes up my wife. Could this simply be normal SP where I have my eyes closed? I don't recall that I've ever attempted to open my eyes before I always assumed that they were open but there was just nothing to see. I am at least semi, if not fully lucid during these bouts, but trying to open my eyes is just something that I've never considered before.

In another (to me at least) eerie similarity, I've also had several occasions where I seem to fly through a vast black emptiness. Unlike SP, I get an extreme sense of happiness and freedom as I swoop seemingly randomly through a nothingness. These flying episodes usually seem to last for only a few minutes before I either awaken or fall back into a deeper sleep. The flying episodes are much less frequent and I haven't observed any connection between them and the SP. I'm very interested in seeing how similar our experiences are and getting some advice from the pros on these things. I've never even mentioned them to anyone before, I always just thought I was crazy or it was some weird kind of nightmare.