Thread: Fear

Welcome to DV.

I completely understand where you are coming from. when I first started having SP attacks I was completely frightened to the point that I could not sleep.

Think about it this way, SP is a gateway to Lucid dreaming. You should view it as the holy grail rather than something horrible.
I promise, once you successfully go into a lucid dream from SP you will feel enlightened and you will look at SP in a complete different way.

The fact that you're so incredibly terrified and actually hallucinating and losing sleep makes me think you ought to see a professional about this...

If it's a consolation, WILD w/ SP is the only technique that uses SP. There is also HIT, VILD, DEILD, unnamed 'techniques' that don't involve paralysis, then there are DILD techniques like RCing, MILD, autosuggestion, whatever. Learning to lucid dream does not have to involve SP.

I highly suspect that the scary parts of SP (mainly the sensed presence or incubus) are rarer than you'd think. Most people on DV who talk about sleep paralysis are merely referring to some hypnagogic hallucinations, like the buzzing feeling. This isn't scary. At the worst you just feel like you've squeezed down on one of those trick shocking pens or something.

Bottom line: You don't need SP to lucid dream, I think you're overreacting, in general SP itself is not as scary as you think, letting yourself be afraid will actually make things worse, so take a deep breath, read more on the forums, and relax.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Scratch that, I just saw that you suffer from ISP, you're not just interested in getting it to lucid dream.

You say you've been 'studying' SP, but in my experience that leads people to not fear it at all, not to become utterly terrified. What exactly have you been studying? What are your SP 'symptoms'? Which hallucinations do you get?
As deano said, yea, people who suffer from SP can learn to use it to lucid dream, which can completely change the way you think about it and eliminate your fear of it. Like I said above, keep reading, if you want more material I can send it to you, but I think you're overreacting, one thing that can definitely make your hallucinations worse, but the good news is that if you get it this frequently, it shouldn't be very hard at all for you to have that paradigm shift and learn to LD and look forward to sleep paralysis.

Thank you all, for your help, but I don't get sleep paralysis when trying to WILD, I get it almost every night without trying to go LD/OBE. It started 6 months ago, and it got worse and worse up to this point. Its easy to say for me, that I try to get over my fears tonight, but when it happens, I loose my mind, and i can only panic. Its so loud, and all those scary demons. And if I let it happen more, the more intense it becomes...

Originally Posted by SolvedSnake

Thank you all, for your help, but I don't get sleep paralysis when trying to WILD, I get it almost every night without trying to go LD/OBE. It started 6 months ago, and it got worse and worse up to this point. Its easy to say for me, that I try to get over my fears tonight, but when it happens, I loose my mind, and i can only panic. Its so loud, and all those scary demons. And if I let it happen more, the more intense it becomes...

Next time you enter SP close your eyes, I always found that a easy way to deal with the hallucinations.
I assume you already know how to get out of SP, but just in case. Try to move your fingers, once you have moved them your whole body will then be released.

Try and get enthusiastic about Lucid dreaming, hopefully the excitement of having a Lucid dream with drown out the fear of the SP.

but yeah, I ALWAYS close my eyes when in a SP. It helps wonders.

(When I say eyes, I obviously mean your dream eyes. Your real eyes are not actually open.)

Actually during SP your eyes are able to be opened and closed, and the person is able to look around and see their true environment. It's only if you manage to WILD that you have dream eyes.

Originally Posted by Shift

What exactly have you been studying? What are your SP 'symptoms'? Which hallucinations do you get?

Originally Posted by Shift

Actually during SP your eyes are able to be opened and closed, and the person is able to look around and see their true environment. It's only if you manage to WILD that you have dream eyes.

Ooh I didn't know that

So when I am in SP and have my eyes open. My eyes in waking life are open?

If you're looking at your room, then most likely yes, unless you've entered a dream without realizing it and are laying in a dream bed. My guess is that once you've started dreaming, you've fallen asleep and your eyes have been closed or closed themselves, but then I've seen some people sleep with their eyes open so I won't say yes or no either way But yea, during SP eyes and lids can still move It seems like you're linking SP and WILDs together, but really they're two different things, and one can help you achieve the other.

Well, actually the only way I can get out of SP is to try to open my eyes. It always helps. But I try what you said. But not "seeing" whats around me, and just guessing makes it even more scarier for me.