WHAT IS SLEEP PARALYSIS ?
Sleep paralysis is a disorder that occurs during the waking or sleeping phase. The subject becomes paralyzed, often half awake.
To go into details very slightly, when we sleep, our muscles are “asleep” from the moment we enter the REM sleep phase, to avoid that we move while we dream (imagine what would happen if we were dreaming about Kung-Fu…). The muscles are thus directly reactivated when you wake up.
In the case of sleep paralysis, when you come out of REM sleep, there is a time lag between the awakening of the brain and the awakening of the muscles. As a result, the subject finds himself paralyzed, whether half awake in bed or directly during his current dream.
20% of people are subject to at least one experience of sleep paralysis in their lives. Basically, you have a 1-in-5 chance of being in the game. 😛
UNFOLDING :
The following cases are very often found without the subject being able to move:
- the subject is in a state of lightness, without anything happening
- the subject is faced with one or more hallucinations in his dream, in visual (shadow, creature, light point…), auditory (voice or other sounds) and tactile form
In both cases, the person experiences one or more of the following symptoms :
- inability to move his limbs
- difficulty or inability to speak
- feeling of being crushed and/or suffocated
- feeling of anxiety or well-being depending on how the paralysis is experienced (yes yes, I did write “well-being”!). (poor sleep paralysis… People just talk about its negative aspects…) :'(
With all these sensations that seem real when you experience it, it is very likely that a person with these symptoms thinks they are a victim of a paranormal phenomenon (many people think they are haunted by a spirit and I myself did not rule this out at the time). The presence that one perceives or feels can be simply transient or oppressive (through aggression in particular).
Although very little is known about sleep paralysis, some scientists explain that if we have hallucinations, it is because our brain wants to give us an explanation as to why we are paralyzed.
Sometimes this presence is very strong during these dreams, to the point where psychologists use these dreams to analyze their patients who are victims of this disorder. Sleep paralysis can also have a depressive origin, and many elements often come out of these dreams related to the patient’s current state (as I sometimes explain in my dream diary, in relation to my experiences).
And these elements are the fruit of our unconscious…
DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW :
In the context of sleep paralysis, the word “unconscious” is often used by both scientists/psychologists and spiritualists, in both cases to define ourselves.
- In scientists and psychologists, it is our unconscious mind that manifests itself to send us a message during sleep paralysis (thing that it already does in normal dreams, but often more accentuated in paralysis).
- In some spiritualists, the unconscious is also very present. Some see it during their experiences of astral travel (sleep paralysis being one of the means of being able to make these journeys). However, like many people who are not spiritists also suffer from sleep paralysis, some spiritists also run away from him… Bunch of racists of the unconscious! LOL
Perhaps my experiences can also help spiritualists to better understand their unconscious, despite the fact that the spiritual aspect is absent in my stories…
To come back to the basic subject, we still have two totally different points of view, which put forward the unconscious. Only religions affirm in their books that the monsters we see are on the contrary evil creatures, named as demons, jinns…
MY POINTS OF VIEW :
My purpose is not to assert that I hold THE absolute truth. It’s up to you to make your own experience and to think as you wish.. I am not trying to break your beliefs, but assume that my point of view, in relation to sleep paralysis, revolves mainly around the unconscious and oneself. That why I will talk about my adventures with the Mind Flayer both during my sleep paralysis and also during my normal dreams and lucid dreams.
Although I can discuss and often go in the same direction with spiritualists, I have a lot of trouble with religions. Given the subject I am dealing with, religion has not been able to give me any valid counter-arguments. It’s not that I don’t want to be contradicted. On the contrary ! But the only religious arguments I’ve had are:
- the person has seen or heard the God they believe in, who saved them from monsters. Since then, the person no longer has paralysis. : this can easily be contradicted by the cultural background and psychology of the person. Moreover, since the brain is an often underestimated tool, it could very well take back the face of God, in order to reassure the person in the dream (the faces we see in dreams are all faces we have seen at least once in our lives).
- the person has blessed/purified their home and no longer has sleep paralysis : so easily explained with the psychology of the person, especially if the person had just moved out.
Again, I’m not trying to break any beliefs. The problem being that when I ask a believing person why it wouldn’t be our unconscious that we see and not a demon, he doesn’t seem to want to question himself for a single second (hence the fact that I get along well with spiritualists). Moreover, even when giving relevant arguments, the best religious counter-argument I’ve had is the following :
« Because when you see weird humanoid figures who want to hurt you, who speak a strange language, who oppress you, who scare you, who make fun of you, they are demons. Period. »
As you can see, I have assertions each time, but no arguments… Knowing that the religious answer above is the best I’ve had, despite my research on the net, understand that unless someone comes forward, the religious point of view won’t help me to make people advance on themselves… That being said, that doesn’t mean that the demonic side has to be discarded, because we’re far from knowing everything about this world !
In the course of my research, I’ve noticed that the paranormal aspect of sleep paralysis is easier to believe than to dig personally into the real nature of the phenomenon. In order not to take the easy way out, I’ve conducted a long investigation to get safe answers (and also because Flageounet used to piss me off LOL). It’s up to you to decide if you want the easy way out or the truth…
Through my stories, you will find my answers about sleep paralysis and the thing that haunts us…