My son told me I had to start here----he is so bossy!!

[windy willow]

I am a 56 yr old Mother and Grandmother. My son shoved me toward this site and told me I HAD to post. He is so mean to me. He is sitting right next to me telling me to stop or he will pound me. Sorry, just joking!! Anyway, not joking about the first 2 sentences. My son has been talking to me for weeks about this website and lucid dreaming. The only thing I have going right now is that I have experienced what is probably sleep paralysis many times. At first I had no clue what it was and one day it dawned on me that it must be that. My son says that everyone can experience it differently. I didn't know that. (My son is proofreading everything I type as I sit here. I have had to change my comments several times. He is very controlling. Saying this stuff while he is watching me type is a great way to get back at him. He is being SO defensive!!! LOL!! ) Anyway, I will stop picking on my son (for now). I have had several incidents of sleep paralysis in the last year or so. At first I had no clue what I was feeling. I am on a lot of meds and I thought it might be a reaction to one of them. I didn't know you could actually be awake in that state. But I have been able to keep the sensation going for minutes. I have even gotten up a couple of times to use the bathroom and I went back to bed and immediately went right back into it. It was very cool! So I am wondering what type of sensations others have experienced during sleep paralysis. For me, it is a pulsing sensation. It feels like my whole body is pulsating. Waves just move through my body and jump all around to different places on me. I feel it most intently in my hands and arms. It is a very interesting and cool sensation. What are the rest of you experienceing?

[Robot_Butler]

Windy Willow (and son...) Sleep paralysis is what first made me investigate lucid dreaming, also. It can be such a crazy experience! Mine is never the same twice. A few common things I almost always experience are: 1) An energetic humming, vibration, or (as you described) pulsing. It normally flows through my body in waves. When it is happeneing, I can alter the feeling, location, and intensity of the vibration consciously. Sometimes it is so intense, I feel like my head or my heart is going to explode. 2) The feeling of someone in the room. Sometimes I will see someone walking towards me without really ever coming closer. It is hard to describe. Imagine a hologram of a person walking in place. This can be the scariest part, especially when the it turns into a full blown hallucination, and they start harassing me physically. 3) Sounds and voices. I hallucinate everything from loud bangs and screeches, to whole conversations. I can rarely answer back. When I try, my voice is often slurred or distorted. Like I said, it is never the same thing twice, but it is always fascinating. When I get a frightening hallucination, I find the best way out of it is to embrace it, or ask it for help. If a horrible monster is approaching, I will reach my hand out to it and say, "Help me up, please." If a beastly ghoul is on top of me, I will wrap my arms around it and embrace it like a lover. I think changing my attitude and expectations makes the difference.

[Parsley]

Many folks find sleep paralysis terrifying. There you are conscious and awake and you can't move. You can't talk. You can't move your head to look around. Etc. etc. In addition there is sometimes a sense of a "sinister presence" in the room with you. I have experienced this, and it is difficult to explain to someone who has not experienced it themselves. Yogis sometimes explain this feeling of another "presence" as being your own astral body which has not yet fully integrated with your physical body. It's interesting that you find the experience "cool". Really?

[windy willow]

Very interesting to hear what you experience. I am glad that i don't hullucinate. I have done enough of that years ago when I would wake up. I hope I can eventually experience more than what I am now, but it is still very cool. thanks for your comments

[windy willow]

Many folks find sleep paralysis terrifying. There you are conscious and awake and you can't move. You can't talk. You can't move your head to look around. Etc. etc. In addition there is sometimes a sense of a "sinister presence" in the room with you. I have experienced this, and it is difficult to explain to someone who has not experienced it themselves. Yogis sometimes explain this feeling of another "presence" as being your own astral body which has not yet fully integrated with your physical body. It's interesting that you find the experience "cool". Really? I can move if I want to. If I do move, it instantly stops. I can get up during the experience, and then go back to bed and instantly have the sensations start right up again. Nothing scary yet. I wonder why I can move? Maybe a different state of S.P.?

[Parsley]

With sleep paralysis you are literally paralyzed. What you are experiencing may be related to the vibrations people feel right before they astrally project. You might want to try getting out of your body next time this happens! A good book would be Mastering Astral Projection by Robert Bruce and Brian Mercer.

[Swank]

Sleep paralysis is good for astral projection thats right, good indication that youre on the right track. If youre getting them in the middle of the night youre very close to a wake initiated lucid (WILD), if you can get the vibrations easily it means you have a good natural ability in this area, in my opinion!