The thing that you call you is made of more than just one part. To illustrate let's take the concept that man is made of the physical body and a soul within that body. Now imagine that the soul is made up of more than one part. In a similar way that your body contains a heart, brain and lungs, the soul has more than one part also. However unlike the body the souls separate parts can move apart from one another. For now it is probably easier to imagine these parts as being copies of one another, (although they have different attributes).
If you have researched sleeping paralysis before you may have come across the phenomenon of out of body experiences known as OBE for short. Don't be mistaken into thinking that this is something that only occurs in near-death experiences. There are a great many people who experienced OBEs regularly and by choice. For the majority of people this takes quite a degree of training but there are a few who have a natural ability for OBEs.
When the out of body experience occurs there is something called the mind split which occurs. What this means is that there are two strains of memory being recorded at the same time. One by the part of you outside the body and the other by the remaining parts of you, in your bed.
Now for some reason during sleep paralysis your awareness is only in the part of you that is in bed. It is likely that you just awakened after separation. The presence that you are aware of close by, is another part of you! Each part has its own awareness and memory. You are experiencing awareness from the part of you that has awoken.
Although you are also out of your body, what we will call projecting, you could not receive the experiences of that part of you until the parts are re-joined and only then can memories be synchronised. But they very rarely are for reasons we’ll discuss another time.
Experts on the subject of out of body experiences describe an unpleasant feedback situation which can occur when the projecting body is in close proximity to the physical body. This accounts for part of the overwhelming feelings suchas terror some paralysis victims experience.
So next time this happens know that it's only yourself you are sensing and not monsters comming to get you.
Sunday 24 May 2009
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Hello. I kind of stumbled here to your blog from Webmd. I've been doing some research on SP for a few months now. I'm very happy to have a "name" for what I've been experiencing for 12 years. Maybe I'm not so crazy.
ReplyDeleteI've read your posts and they are very helpful - and it's just nice to hear the experience first hand from someone else who has experienced the same as me.
For your research, and others, here is my usual experience: I am always on my back (I try very hard to sleep on my side, but I think in my frightful state I thrash onto my back) I always have the feeling that something has woken me up. Either a bad dream or something in the room with me. I usually hear whispers and noises that sound like people moving around in the room. I can't move, of course, and I can't open my eyes or make any noises. It seems like forever before I'm finally able to wake up(open my eyes), and it's always a struggle. When I finally open my eyes I have to turn all the lights on. Sometimes I can get back to sleep, but I usally just get up and make coffee and keep myself awake after that. Once I have one episode, it usually keeps happening over and over til I get out of bed. I had always thought that there really was something in the room with me. After doing research it's helped me to know that the noises are hallucination, and it helps me to know that what's happening is just a mechanisim in my brain to keep me from running into the wall when I have a scary dream.
There have been a few times that after I've opened my eyes I've seen something. Once a boy in the corner. And the worst episode I've had, only one time, was the one with the black "thing" that crawled up the foot of my bed to sit on my chest. I know that it's probably just hallucinations. But I do find it odd that so many people have the same kind of experience - I had never in my life heard of anyone else having these experiences, til I did research.
Anyway. I just wanted to say thank you for your posts. And this one post in particular stood out to me. I am very interested in the prospect that this thing that I feel in the room with me could in fact be ME. And when I read this post it scared me. I had to look behind me because I got that weird feeling like someone was there. It says a lot about who I am - and how I see myself.
I have had problems in the past with outer body experiences. And the experience of not living inside myself (I had an eating disorder - and that whole experience was as if I was living outside of myself, I didn't want to be inside my body. But that is a whole different post, isn't it).
I just want to say thank you for this post. It's giving me a lot to think about. And sorry this ended up being so long!
Thankyou for sharing those experiences with us. Its comforting for many when someone else can describe an experience you can closly relate to and that sounds so similar to my own experiences.
ReplyDeleteI too have found that the experience will often repeat unless I shake off the sluggish sensation that it leaves me with. Just getting up for a short while, doing something else, then returning to bed seems to do the trick but I too have left the light on on a few occassions.
The Out of Body Experience scenario is one I will try and expand on in future posts. It's a complex subject and I want to try and put it into an understandable format for everyone, as much as possible.
I hope you with time you are able to control your fears and begin to sleep more peacefully.
Hello again. I'll be looking for your future posts on the out of body experience.
ReplyDeleteI was just curious if you've had this kind of dream. Every so often I get stuck in a kind of dream loop where I have the same dream over and over - it's a dream where I'm sleeping in my bed, then I get out of bed & get ready for the day: brush teeth, get dressed, get breakfast. And then I kind of wake up (but not really) from the dream and realize that I'm actually asleep and so I get out of bed and get ready for the day.. brush teeth etc., and then realize again that I'm actually asleep... then wake up... etc, etc, etc, but the whole time I'm still asleep. It's very confusing and very exhasting. Just curious if anyone else experiences this or what your thoughts are.
I remember as a child seeing a mini-horror, probably an episode of the twilight zone, on TV where the charactor experienced the same dream you describe but it got longer and longer untill the dream included his whole day. I remember thinking what a spooky idea that was.
ReplyDeleteI've had a similar experience, thankfully just the once that I recall. I kept waking getting up and walking around but realised I wasn't awake when my hand would pass through the light switch or the door handle when I reached out to use it. 'I'm not awake again!' I'd think to myself and go back to bed. It happened maybe three times in a row. The fact that I passed through solid matter leads me to think that it was what I'll call a separation experience. I should have logged the details in my neglected dream diary as retrospective analysis can oten be very insightfull and revealing but the memory is a bit vague now.
I've just got back from a 3 week trip so posts will resume shortly. Thanks for reading.
I'm very intrigued by this separation experience. Have you yourself ever had issues with out of body experience in your awake life?
ReplyDeleteIs sleep paralysis simply psychosomatic? It is, really. But can it be controlled? Can it go away? Why do only a small amount of people experience hallucinations?
It is perhaps too late at night to be thinking about this.
Thank you for your reply, and posts.
I have never personally experienced an out of body experience whilst awake, what is often called a spontaneous OBE. If you have, I would be very interested to hear about it, as I'm sure other readers would too.
ReplyDeleteBy definition, you can call sleep paralysis psychosomatic. I do believe it can be controlled without medication and would urge sufferers to try tackling it mentally first before resorting to drugs.
It does go away for the majority of people. Usually those who experience sleep paralysis do so between late teens to mid-twenties. Or those experiencing at other times in life will find it a passing phase. It's not the sort of thing many will talk about so the ones you usually hear about are those who have had the experienes for many many years.
As for your question about hallucinations and not wanting to go on too long here. I'm going to say that when in a high state of fear people's minds will make what they can from the information that they recieve, which is limited when your laying paralysed, in the dark. In unknown territory things can be misinterpreted and fears can cloud the mind.
Thanks for your comment.
The only real out of body experience I can say I've had is when I've been in a situation that I didn't want to be. A sort of defence mechanism. The only way I can explain it is when I remember the experience... I can only mostly remember it from outside my body. Like I'm watching the event from afar instead of inside my body.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious of the sleep paralysis will go away. I'm 28 and It's been going on since I was around 15, that I can remember. Guess we'll wait and see.
I agree that the mind is trained to recognize things. This is why we see things in the dark. I just think it's interesting that only some people have the hallucinations and others don't.
And what do you think about ghosts, Mr. Josh? Just curious..
That's interesting and a comment I've heard before relating to traumatic events but I've never looked at it from the point of view of this topic before. A point maybe worth researching in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think when some people experience hallucinations, others will say that what they experienced was in fact real. Down to the point of view of the person having the experience I guess.
Ghosts! Well I know that they appear. There are multiple planes of existence all around us that we cannot see, nor see their inhabitants. Evidently there are occasions when they stray into our world as we do into theirs. I would say the same about some of the objects filmed over earth by the shuttle missions.
Yes... I'm wondering if at the time of a traumatic event and, for people like me, there is an out of body experience... that maybe that's what kind of starts the mind/body split and then that separation causes problems in the future. Like other out of body experiences at times that are not traumatic (maybe not obviously traumatic). That then lead to a permanent separation that has side affects such as sleep paralysis. Something starts to unravel and it keeps going.
ReplyDeleteI thought my hallucinations during sleep paralysis were real. Why wouldn't I? I can only hope it isn't real.
I'm intrigued by ghosts but I'm still not sure what my final thoughts are. Again, I believe our minds seek answers and sees what it needs to see. But that doesn't count for those unexplainable experiences.
Anyway, thank you for humoring me.
Have you been sleeping well?
Yes not too bad, thanks for asking, and thanks for sharing your thought here too.
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI too have experienced sleep paralysis. It started when I was 14 until now. I'm 34 now.
One thing I need to add is that I am a born again Christian since the age of 25.
I personally believe that there is a spiritual realm (good and evil: God's angels vs. demons)
The entity that I see during SP is usually a black shadowy figure. I don't think it's a part of me. I think it's a glimpse into the spiritual realm.
Whenever these occur, I call out to my Lord Jesus Christ and simply praise Him during these episodes and then eventually I get out of it.
They use to terrify me a lot these SP's but now that I'm saved and a child of God. I know that He is protecting me and that He allows these things to occur.
Sincerely,
Sophie
Sophie,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing your experience with us.
I'm interested to know what your thoughts might be on who the shadowy figure is and what the purpose of his appearance is?
Do you still regularly experience SP?
Regards,
Josh.
Long time sufferer, First time poster, I Recently Found out last night that if i hold my breath, i can come out of sleep p, alot faster. Does this work for anyone else.
ReplyDeleteKind Regards
Rowan
That's interesting. Never tried it but will do next time.
ReplyDeleteWhat else have you tried before?