Thread: Intro & personal experiences - paralysis, obe, LD

Hello, just wanted to introduce myself to the forum and share my life experiences with odd sleep or dream related phenomena. I'm 25 years old now and have had various combinations of sleep paralysis, vibrations, dark/evil presences, and lucid dreaming for most of my life. As a child, paralysis (waking up, unable to move, entire body vibrating or feeling like I was being electrocuted, high-pitched ringing noises, etc) was quite common and was often associated with hallucinations or very odd dreams. In my youngest years these hallucinations mostly involved floating orbs or other lighted objects (which at the time I attributed to space objects, planets, moons etc, as I had no idea about spirits or other things like that, hard to explain I guess). As I grew into my teens, the paralysis events, although I still experienced them, became less and less frequent and I began remembering specific incidents and dates of their occurance. Also, into my teens and twenties the paralysis starting becoming associated with nightmarish experiences, evil presences in the room or other fearful events. I think I'm usually able to determine whether I think it was just a dream or was an actual waking event. It has been several (2-3) years since my last paralysis that I'm aware of.

The following is some of my more vivid experiences:

When I was 18 I was spending the night at a friend's house in his living room. He was on the floor across the room and I was laying on a couch. I awoke to a high-pitched screaming or wailing sound, like a woman screaming combined with a alarm of some kind. This startled me and I tried to move but could not. I was laying on my back (which is always the case when I become paralyized, but I do not normally fall asleep in that position) and began to feel the familiar buzzing vibration, which lasted I believe for at least several minutes. I could move my eyes or head enough to see my friend sleeping on the floor, but of course my attempts to call out did not succeed. During this time the screaming continued and was quite frightening. After a while the screaming faded off, then after several minutes of struggling I slowly began to regain control of my limbs and body. I was quite afraid and covered in sweat, and I layed still for what must have been an hour or two before I was able to fall asleep again. I never did figure out the odd noises, but asked my friend the next day and he denied knowing what it was. For some reason he seemed very nervous about the subject and I got a distinct impression that he didnt want to talk about it. Their property was located on a civil-war era graveyard where soldiers were apparently buried (some of the gravestones were still visible amongst the trees) and I think they had some issues with that, although I dont think that has anything to do with my experience.

The several years following this event included my parents getting divorced and other events which were emtionally disturbing to me, and I had a little bit of depression as a result. Most of this depression seemed to manifest itself in my sleep experiences. I had nightmares almost every night, and from the period of about 19-21 years old I had a temporary increase in paralysis events, this time involving what I thought of as 'demons' or evil presences in the room with me when I awoke. These happened once every few months, sometimes more than once per month. Most often it was an unseen force accompanying the paralysis with the usual vibrations/buzzing. On occasion I could see a four-legged form moving about the room, climbing walls, ceiling, clawing at the side of my bed, etc. The noises associated with the beasts were the distinct sounds of it's feet running around the carpeted room, along with snorting/snarling/growling noises. I remember the high-pitched scream returning on one or two occasions. It was at about this time that I began researching the phenomena on the internet and found out that I was not alone, and that paralysis was happening to a lot of people. I also found info on OBE's and astral projection, etc which I'm not really sure what to make of. After a while the nightmares ceased, as did the paralysis, and it has been a few years since my last event.

Then, last night, I decided to try lucid dreaming. I have read about the buzzing/vibration being associated with this also. Note that I have always been able to turn on a similar 'buzzing' sensation at will and can do this at any time, not to the extent as when paralyized, but a similar sensation. I dont know how I do it, or how to explain it exactly, but it comes from the back of my neck, where my spine meets my head, and travels down my back and into my feet and legs. Last night I went to bed simply with the thought that I wanted to be aware of my dreams and remember them the next day. The result was multiple out-of-body 'dreams' or what I think are fake OBE's, maybe the readers can offer insight, as this is all new to me. The reason I feel these were not OBE's in the 'real' sense (whatever that means) is that everything was dream-like, meaning there were things not quite right with my room, neighborhood, sense of direction, etc. I slept on my back and distinctly remember 'waking up' or being at least partially aware of my body facing upwards in my bed, looking out, knowing that I was dreaming. I then told myself I was going to leave my body and fly upwards. I was able to stretch upwards and 'kick' away from the bed, which sent me flying upwards and out of the building. After a few seconds I would be 'sucked' back into my body, but was able to rise out and fly off multiple (10-12) times in a row. I could look back and see my bed, but only faintly make out a person sleeping in it so I couldn't be sure. After a few tries I realized I could somewhat control the direction of my flying and was, with some effort, able to float down my street and into a neighbors window using a 'swimming' motion with my legs and feet. But, it was like a current or wind pulling me away, and I was aware that each time I tried I could only be out for a short period of time. After a few tries I then became fully awake in my bed, and I lay there thinking about what just happened for a while before going back to sleep, awakening this morning, and posting this message.

I'd like to hear any comments from readers, these are just my experiences as I know them and as my memory allows.

Thanks!
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frosty
currently in seattle, wa