How do I get over the fear?

**sanctum** · 01-27-2012 02:50 PM

Three nights ago, I stayed up much past my usual bedtime for a project; so two days ago I decided to try to WILD before going to bed. I figured that being tired, I could practice clearing my mind, and maybe even get to SP due to my messed-up sleep schedule. I figured my chances of getting a lucid dream were slim, though.

After lying down and relaxing for a while, I felt the usual sensations before initially falling asleep. Sometimes I feel like I'm floating or that my hands have disappeared. I've learned that those sensations aren't actually SP or HI, but the side effects of being tired and relaxed. That night, though, I had an unusual amount of "seeing through the eyelids" sensation -- I felt like if I concentrated a little, I could see right through the back of my eyelids into the room beyond.

About half an hour passed of being a little too aware for sleep, so I decided to just fall asleep. I quickly lost awareness as usual, and was headed toward sleep until something very strange happened. All of a sudden, I was aware that I could see into my room. In the back of my mind I knew that my eyes were still closed; the view of the room was a little offset from the way I knew my head was positioned. This all took a lower priority to the fact that I could see very clearly and very realistically a tall man, draped in my bed sheet, slowly reaching for me.

Needless to say, I was very scared, because nothing like this had happened to me before. The image was very clear in my head and I could still vaguely feel my body in bed, so it felt completely like this was actually happen. Naturally, I freaked and forced myself to open my eyes in the real world. Naturally, there was no real man reaching for me, but I was still afraid.

I proceeded to have a night full of awesome DILDs and WILDs, but the image still frightened me. The next two nights I lost a lot of sleep because I was afraid of what might form beyond my eyelids. I know it's not real, but lying there at night I can still see it happening, and I don't want it to happen again.

Has anybody had something suddenly appear beyond their eyelids like that? How do you escape the fear and get back into sleeping and lucid dreaming?

Thanks for reading

**LucasPotter** · 01-27-2012 07:42 PM

As you know, I'm new here. However, I've been dealing with SP for some years now. The only thing that used to help me get through it (but my goal was waking up, not having a lucid dream) was chanting in my head "This is NOT real. You know what this is. This is NOT real. You know what this is."

Telling myself that 1) it's not actually happening and 2) I'm aware of it, I know what it is (knowledge really is power!

) relaxes me and I feel much better.

But yeah, this is all I can tell you, sorry... Maybe somebody else has a different way of feeling better with it!

**Robot_Butler** · 01-27-2012 11:22 PM

I get hallucinations like this all the time. Anytime I feel the presence of someone else in the room, I try to reach out to them for help. Changing your attitude towards them helps them become something friendly instead of threatening. I will try to stretch a hand out to them, or vocally ask them to help me up. Think of them as a guide and a friend.

**Telinir** · 01-28-2012 04:21 AM

Wow, that's really something I would have never thought of Robot_Butler. That sounds like a really nice approach. Thanks

**Fuyons9999** · 02-07-2012 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

I get hallucinations like this all the time. Anytime I feel the presence of someone else in the room, I try to reach out to them for help. Changing your attitude towards them helps them become something friendly instead of threatening. I will try to stretch a hand out to them, or vocally ask them to help me up. Think of them as a guide and a friend.

I'm sorry to sound cynical, but has that actually changed how your hallucinations have acted towards you, or is that just a momentary aid?

**LucasPotter** · 02-07-2012 09:28 PM

Yeah, I'd like to know if anyone has tried Robot's idea and how that went. I've had one hallucination recently, but I completely forgot about this.

**dms111** · 02-07-2012 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by Fuyons9999

I'm sorry to sound cynical, but has that actually changed how your hallucinations have acted towards you, or is that just a momentary aid?

Hallucinations don't act towards you, they respond to you. I haven't had a scary SP experience since my third one. Having experienced SP 50+ times the hallucinations will almost always do what I want them to do, and that's if they appear at all. Once you develop the proper mindset the hallucinations can disappear completely.

**sanctum** · 02-11-2012 05:06 AM

I've only had a few other seeing through the eyelids/hallucination episodes since then. Nothing scary since; sometimes I can see my room, and it's so clear. I'm just passively observing it. I've read of people who can turn that into an OBE, but I can't do anything but look, and it eventually fades. I can't change or control it at all.

**RebelSeven** · 02-11-2012 05:22 AM

I have never seen any one in my room due to HH (though if I do I will use Butlers advice!) but I get horrible feelings of terror whenever I go through SP (a few times a month for WILD attempts)

I get them every single time and they are very intense, but in the long run I am not bothered by these episodes. Partly because (as Angelpotter put it) knowledge is power and I know exactly what is happening and why. But mostly I have learned to let myself be terrified, while at the same time, not letting it too close

Don't be afraid of the fear in other words. It is an emotion naturally propagated by the body and it's not really you that is afraid. This might not be the clearest of thinking, but I actually kind of enjoy those moments of horror with this mindset. You have the opportunity to gain experience in an emotion that you otherwise might not ever get, and in any other circumstance you wouldn't want.

**Desert Claw** · 02-11-2012 05:33 AM

the source of your fear is uncertainty, and can be resolved with curiousity. Its okay to be scared, and seeing as your are in a situation where your fear is in a feedback loop (not sure whats going to happen > your subconsious thinks about possibilities > directly influences your dream > repeat stages 1-3 until you are so freaked out you wake up)

In a situation like that, maybe your better off imagining someone you already know (like a friend or family member) being with you before you start thinking you are all alone, to take the man in the bedsheet's place. Or robot butlers idea, that suggestion is more of a resolution then prevention but still a very good idea

Anyway good to see you are getting more comfortable and confident exploring, and stuff

**sanctum** · 02-11-2012 04:30 PM

I guess I'm most definitely NOT over the fear, because I completely freaked out last night and I was completely awake. It went like this.

I began the night reading DreamViews—big mistake on my part. I ended up reading about people’s terrifying hallucinations and naturally freaked when it was time to sleep. I didn’t want anything else happening behind my eyelids. But at the same time, I totally did, because then I could try to OBE before I even slept! I realized that when I closed my eyes and focused on my eyelids, it would feel like my eyelids were creeping upward. But when I would open them all the way, I’d have to unstick them (I could actually hear them opening). So what was going on? I thought maybe it was my third eye opening and I should let it and see what happened. So I focused on my eyelids, waited for them to creep upward, and…oh. I ended up opening my eyes completely and was looking at the side of my nightstand. But that wasn’t all. I realized that the headphones I had laid flat on the nightstand were now nearly vertical and not moving.

I thought, “I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming!” No way, I was actually in a dream and I felt so awake. I tried to make something happen, but nothing did. But the headphones got creepier and creepier. I kind of forgot to breathe and static covered my vision. I know it sounds lame--the headphones were moved, that's all--but it was frightening in a menacing way. Everything around it was normal--it was just these headphones at an unnatural angle, a black outline against the dark room. I wanted to see if I could pick them up, but the thought of things coming out of the darkness were enough to keep me under the blanket. Finally, though, I took a deep breath and began to reach toward it. The blanket shifted, released the cord that had been pulled tight under the weight of it, and the headphones went clattering to the ground. I was awake, and it was just a freakish coincidence of forces that made the headphones stand up on their own.

I think I'll restrict my reading before bed to sunshine and ponies and fuzzy things, because if a real-life pair of headphones practically caused me to hyperventilate, how am I supposed to handle the infinitely more flexible world of dreams?

**wintersleep** · 02-12-2012 05:00 AM

I personally have never had a successful wild and have reached SP only about 3 times that i can remember. The first was when my face was kind of near the edge of the bed and i could feel the air from the vent on the floor and then i awoke in SP [still feeling air] and started hearing whispering which woke me. The next was when i woke up to get ready for school and for some reason decided to just lay down on the floor at my door frame and ended up getting to SP but waking up bc. i knew i had school (DAMN). The last, and the one that might be helpful is when i woke up, got ready for school, but still felt like i was drowzy so i decided to sleep for the last 15 min. b4 i left for school. I awoke in SP and saw my brothers pitbull laying on my nightstand. At first this was scary for some reason but being that i was so aware, and knowing that i only had time for SP b4 i would be awaken by my alarm, i started observing all the other parts of my room and all my other senses. This caused the strangely terrifying dog [his dog really is not the scary type normaly] to lose all of its scaryness, and just turned into a frozen image, as if it was a wax sculpture that you see at musuems. I personally think that if you have the interest to explore your SP, and not have that mindset of, "ill make it through this" and rather be interested by anything that happens as a learning experience, then you wont have the fear. On the other hand if you feel that it is super scary and you just want to get through it, then your mind is naturally going to scare itself bc. all you are thinking about is that scary object.

**RebelSeven** · 02-12-2012 09:50 PM

The headphones themselves did not scare you. Being scared was part of the SP and you explained it to yourself by projecting your fear onto the headphones.

**sanctum** · 02-13-2012 12:23 AM

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I wasn't actually in SP or anything that time -- I was completely awake. But for a few minutes I was convinced I was dreaming because my window of vision was mostly blocked by my blanket, and all I could see were my headphones apparently defying gravity.

I think it was closer to when you suddenly realize it's dark and quiet, and every creak and shadow becomes scary. Likewise, I realized all the frightening things that I could possibly see during sleep, and every strange sighting wasn't rationally explained away but taken as a sign of menacing things to come. Maybe that's what you were trying to explain; I'm not sure