What's Really Happening?

"It was the night before Friday and Saturday when I woke up.

My room was covered in pink fog and I looked around to see where I was.

I saw my own lamp and knew I was in my room.

It was strange I was in my bed but didn't know in which position.

I couldn't feel my legs or arms, as if I was paralyzed.

I felt very light but still under my blanket. I couldn't move, only my eyes moved a little."

Notice how this account describes a typical sleep paralysis experience. The pink fog probably is the individuals interpretation of obscured vision, possibly astral sight. The fact that she feels very light under the blanket suggests she is describing her projected self, possibly not completely exited.

This story is being told by Tarja Katiska. This is how it continues.

"To my left, next to the bed I saw pale, small beings. They had wrinkled faces. I wasn't afraid of them. I felt like this was the beginning of an adventure. Where would we go to? I was ready to follow them. They saw what I was thinking and they smiled in a friendly way. I saw one of them taking a notepad and pen and they said "write." I hesitated. What and to whom should I write? They told me just to write."

This story was actually told as an encounter with aliens for the making of a Finish UFO & Paranormal documentary.

Multiple Dimensions and Multiple Bodies.

To better gain an understanding of what an Out of Body Experience (OBE) or an astral projection is, let us look at couple of basic questions?

1. What is it, going Out of Body or Projecting from me?


2. Where is the escaping part going to?
   

Ok, in relation to question 2, exiting the body you are not in the exact same plane of existence (dimension) as your physical body. There are seven different dimensions, and within each one there are another seven planes which then contain subplanes themselves. But to keep it simple we'll just say there are seven levels of existence which we'll call dimensions.

The seven dimensions can be called;

1. The Physical - where we live


2. The Astral
   
3. The Mental


4. The Buddhic


5. The Atmic


6. The Anupadaka


7. The Adi
   

It is not possible to give a description of these planes that conveys what they are truly like or explain them in an understandable fashion, such is the complexity of dimensional theory. What is commonly agreed is that the other six planes vibrate at a higher frequency than the physical plane. That statement in itself can be quite meaningless to most of us!

I think one way to look at that statement is to imagine the spectrum of light, or the different colours in a rainbow. Each colour has a different frequency that determines its place in the light spectrum and that colour exists without intrusion in it's defined space in the spectrum, determined by it's frequency. In the same way each dimension vibrates at its own frequency.

Ok so now we've got an idea of the where, back to question 1. What?

There are many types of OBE and as a result there are many types of what we call, 'projected double', as mentioned in the post 'Out of body, out of mind?

There are three aspects of this projectable double and these are called;

• The Real Time Body
• The Astral Reflection
• The Astral Body

(There are other aspects of the body that we may refer to later on so don't think of these 3 parts as exclusive.)

Realm of the Real Time

Projectors will often refer to a projection in 'Real Time' or within their Real Time body. The realm of Real Time is that dimension which is closest to the physical dimension. It is in fact a nonphysical reflection of the physical dimension. For example a projector can pass through solid matter in this realm (it's non physical) but it's appearance is much the same as our reality here. Time passed in this Real Time dimension is the same in duration as time here which is why it is called 'Real Time' . This is the place that most projectors will find themselves during an OBE. You'll have noticed this place isn't on the list. Probably because the Eastern theory which formed the list perceived it to be a sub-realm. Modern thinking doesn't always agree but we need not worry about that now.

The Astral

This is where the descriptions become difficult. The Astral dimension is unlike the Real Time and the physical. The physics of the astral plane do not obey fixed laws, they are variable and the astral environment can even be effected by the mind of the projector. So because of this fact alone, any predictability and certainty that you get with our physical reality may not be so in the astral. I've never taken acid/LSD but I imagine that's the closest experience to the astral you could get here.

When the projector experiences an OBE in his astral body it is a more stable experience. The astral plane is the astral body's natural environment and control of ones body will feel a little easier as this body is more energised than the real time self.

So there's a little introduction to the realms and the chariots in which we travel. I hope that makes sense.

Sleep Paralysis Stories - Something Pinned Me Down

This is a story someone told me a few weeks back from their personal experience. This particular person, I should mention, has been a practitioner of the qabalah for quite a few years. I mention this because such a person has a slightly different take on things than that of your average person and is likely to act differently in certain situations given their knowledge.

The experience he told was from a while ago but he recalled half waking, with the sensation of being held down by a weight on his chest. He could see a large black shape on his chest. He described the shape as sitting there like a cat, just looking at him. It was a being of some sort, what, he didn't know. His main concern at this point was getting free of it. Although he couldn't physically move he moved his right arm outside of his physical arm (as you might in achieving an OBE) and grabbed the being and hurled it through the window next to his bed.

He described the shock of this thing when he grabbed hold of it, as if that had never happened to it before and was totally un-expected. (I can't remember if this was a sense or from it's appearance). I should imagine it even less expected to be hurled out of a window. In retrospect he expressed regret in his action and felt sorry for what ever it was that was sat on him that night.

I know many sleep paralysis victims have experienced the sensation and or belief that they have been pinned down in their sleep by something or someone. While there are many possible explanations for this which we'll go into another time I'll just mention the story of the succubus.

The Succubus is a female spirit that visits young men in their sleep to copulate with them. It tends to visit only teenage boys because they are brimming with hormones at that age and give the succubus a high amount of sexual energy on which she feeds and sustains herself.

Other details of the succubus vary depending on the source as its one of those creatures that features in mythologies across the world.

You will still here stories of people today who undergo the succubus experience. A reality or a common dream?

Out of Body, Out of Mind?

Out of Body Experiences and Astral Projection are the same thing to some authors on the subject. Some writers even include Lucid Dreaming as just another description for an OBE or projection. The more technical experts on this subject however will view each term as a different event arising and experienced in a different form to the other. I would tend to agree that at least two of these three names are not the same thing.


Here is a description of Astral Projection by Abisheck Agarwal;

"It is a process by which the human consciousness temporarily leaves the physical body and functions independently, while the physical body remains passive and still throughout.

This results in observing the world from a point of view other than that of the physical body and by means other than those of the physical senses.

Sometimes, however we have complete waking consciousness during the experience, and remember the event in every detail upon returning to the physical body. Mostly this happens without any forethought, by complete surprise and more often than you might think."

When the human consciousness leaves the body it travels in a vehicle more suited to the astral plane, the astral body. Robert Bruce in talking about OBEs clarifies the point well by saying;

"When you project out of body you are not leaving your body an empty shell devoid of mind, spirit, and soul. The term out-of-body experience is really a misnomer, because your spirit is not actually departing your physical body. Rather, you are transferring a perfect thinking copy of your consciousness into a projected double that can exist outside the confines of your physical body and mind. The transfer of this copy occurs automatically during the OBE exit process. In essence, this can permit projectors to experience two places at once."

This creation of a double, a copy of your mind, is the reason that two streams of memory and experience can exist at one time, as first mentioned in the post Who is The Night Stalker.

It gets more complicated as other copies/bodies come into the theory and is confused further by the fact that the names for them will differ between projectors & authors. The descriptions of these bodies may also often be coloured slightly by a particular religious outlook.

For the sake of clarity I will look at the breakdown of our bodies and describe them in terms that are the made the most accessible. Perhaps a better understanding of the attributes of each body will provide some greater insight for the sleep paralysis victim.