Hi everyone,

I've been a lurker of these forums for some time now. It is quite interesting to read of others' experiences. This will be my first post here and I'd just like to ask a few questions that I haven't been able to resolve. Thanks for the site!

This first post of mine will be longer than subsequent posts, no doubt, since I need to introduce myself and explain.

Until around 4 years ago, I had never experienced anything strange in my life in terms of lucid dreams, sleep paralysis, or anything else like that. I was a confimed antheist all my life. That is, until I had my first episode of sleep paralysis. Now that I know that there is a term for what I went through, and that it is fairly typical for first timers, I'm not freaked-out over it. However, until I knew about sleep paralysis I never told anyone for around 2 years because of how scary it all was and that they might think I was crazy.

The first SP was when I was home in my basement alone one night. I woke up for some reason and felt that there was someone in the room with me, and I knew the general direction of where they were. I felt engulfed in an evil presence. My heart was racing so fast and I thought I was near death. I did my best to fake being asleep. Then opened my eyes a little, looked towards my toes and could see a black mist residing in the open doorway to my furnace room. I then knew that the black mist was the evil entity. It seemed fully conscious and intent on harming me. I closed my eyes again and faked being a sleep. It was so hard to do. After a few seconds I felt the thing jump on my chest! At that point I managed to get out of bed and run up the stairs. All of sudden though, I was back in my bed! So I ran up the stairs again, exactly as before. It was extreme Deja Vu. I never went back downstairs for a long time. Turned on all the lights in the house, had every T.V and radio playing. For some reason I just felt that it would help keep the thing from me.

That last paragraph is told using words as how I made sense of the experience. When I remember what happend, that is what comes to mind, however, I now know that it is attributed to SP with hallucinations. My brain was probably trying to make sense out of such a strange experience and so I saw the black mist, etc. BUT, it felt totally real, and I did see it, and did feel it jump on my chest. The brain is amazing!

So, that was my first experience with anything strange, and I wouldn't want anyone else to experience it. Words to not do these phenomena justice. I hadn't had any other thing like that until a few years later, at which point I had already learned that there was a term called Sleep Paralysis and so the next episdoes were not bothersome.

I do not do drugs, or take any medications. I believe my recurrent bouts of sleep paralysis can be attributed to my genes, as, as far I know, my mother, aunt, and uncle, all have had similar experiences. It is only after my aunt learned of mine that she admitted and told of her own scary experiences that she hadn't told anyone. She often has OBE's, and SP with the old hag. For instance, in one case she awoke and saw an old lady sitting on her chest and sucking the breath out from her lungs. Scary stuff, even when you know its only in your mind!

I am now a believer that there is more to this reality than meets the eye, and just feel that there is something good out there. It's a wondeful feeling. My late father, who was very open minded, always would say to me that I had blinders on (for horses), and that one day I would look back and laugh. Well, that day came. And now I understand what he meant.

As to my questions that I would like experienced and the kind among you to answer: Why is it that I often experience SP, and can do it any night that I wish, but can not manage to have lucid dreams?

Let me explain what SP is like for me.

There are always sounds associated with it. A few sounds are always present. One sounds like ocean waves. Another, fainter, sounds like crickets chirping. These are heard at the same time. Rarer, I will hear people talking to me, or about me. Usually the sentences are small. For instance, "Can you hear us out there?" or, "But I see you." Since I know it's in my head, it can be quite interesting, but was scary the first time. Like I said, those are rarer. I've learned that when in SP, the sounds around my sleeping environment will be heard, but the magitude of the sounds will be increased dramatically. It's as if the sound of a pin dropping can be heard, or able to listen to the TV on the lowest setting. I think that is why some people can be woken easily from minute sounds. To us, the awake, the sounds are minute, but not to the sleeping. Perhaps this is for survival.

There is also associated, and the best part!, a sensation of waves of energy coarsing through my body. It is the reason why I allow the SP to continue. It is like feeling goodbumps all over your body, and the zap of energy up your spine that people experience when awake, but intensely magnified and of much longer duration. It can last from seconds to many minutes. It feels wonderful!

As I've managed to control the onset and duration of SP, I've felt further sensations. When I feel the SP decline and about to end, I can manage to prolong it. There is really no way to describe how I do this. It's as if I just will it, and it happens. When this is done, I feel more tingling at the junction of my next and head. It then proceeds to the rest of my body and the waves of energy continue.

During SP, I am almost always fully conscious. I qualify that statement with "almost" because there have been times when I was unsure if my last SP episode was real or a dream. There definately are degrees of consciousness. Unlike just being awake, or alseep, and nothing in between.

When I prolong the SP, I try to get out of body for an OBE or just stare at my eyelids and try to have a lucid dream. I've managed to have two OBE's, but I was just flying in a black void and so didn't see anything. I've had around 3 lucid dreams, but they did not occur from my wanting them to. They just happend, and not after my being in SP.

I would like to know why I can control sleep paralysis so well, and have it so often, but not be able to control my mind so that I can have a lucid dream or OBE, etc. I've read about how others go about it, and that reaching SP is often one of the steps, so it very much baffeles me why I, myself, can not reach lucidity. I remember my dreams quite well, and can wake up and go back to the same dream I just had, but I am not lucid in them at all.

What step or thought am I not doing correctly? Can a person have SP at will, control it for long periods, but not be able to have LDs? If so, that really is a let-down. SP feels incredibly wonderful, but its not exciting after you've done it night after night. Not that I would give it up or anything! lol.

Thank for reading. Perhaps you've learned something in the process from my experiences, and can share with me.