Thread: Unintentional Frightening Hypnagogia

It has never been my intention to screw around with Lucid Dreaming or OBE's or Astral Projection. Yet throught my entire life (I am 38 now) I have had semi-regular hynogogic experiences which are both terrifying and unintentional. My mist recent was was ten minutes ago, so I searched online and found this forum. Hopefully I will get some intelligent replies to my situation.

Let me start by saying that I have never had a 'pleasant' hyonogig experience. A few years ago I went searching online to find out what was happening to me, and found out the name for it was most likely hypnogogia. I would be asleep, or I guess almost asleep' and then I would feel paralyzed or more accurately held down by a malicious presence while I was forced out of my body. Each and every experience is accompanied by the feeling of an evil presence. There is no joy here. The worst one i ever experienced was last year when I was falling asleep and felt the familiar paralysis as I rolled out of my body and onto the floor. It was as though I was in 2 places at once (asleep on the bed AND awake on the floor). I tried crawling along the floor into the corner of the room when a hand grabbed my arm and strating pulling me toward it very roughly. Luckily, I jolted back awake. I was scared as hell. It felt very real and I was convinced there was some evil spirit trying to'get' me. Another time I was asleep and then got that paralysis and heard footstpes coming up the stairs while something strong held me down again, and a light in the hallway was on that should not have been. When I awoke, the light was not on and everything was as it should be. I cannot stress enough how REAL the experience is, however.

Just now, I had the experience again. This time, I decided to not fight it and just let it happen and see where it lead. As I heard the familiar ringing/buzzing sound and my body sliding out of my body I said to myself, let it happen. I tried floating up to the top of the room. It worked. I even saw my pillow release it depression from my head and the blankets on top of me move with my ascension. Then I came back down. There was less of the sense of 'evilness' this time but still scary as hell. I tried getting into positions that would help me see the rrom from a different angle so that when I awoke I could remmeber the name of a book, or the placement of a certain bject in the room, so that I could prove I had actually gone out of my body during the experience. I didn't get that far however. Starting tonight I am going to have my girlfriend write a long number (that I will not look at) on a piece of paper and place it in the room somewhere that I cannot see while I am awake, and I will try to float up to it next time I have one of these.

The only consistent theme to all of this is that about 80% of the experience happen during daytime naps, rather than night time sleeps. I get little sleep at night so I try to make up for it in the day. The other mitigating factor is that I am usually quite stressed out when these things happen, although I had them as a small child as well so I can't really explain that.

If anyone can shed some light on what and why this is happening, and what I can do with it (because it seems to be a stepping stone to some other consciousness) I would be grateful. I live in Toronto Canada an would love to meet anyone who has this experience as well. I figure if I'm npot even trying to get to this state, I will probably have an easy time achieving some of the results a lot of people on this website are trying to achieve with LD's and the like. My fina question is this: why are these experiences so often associated with a malevolent presence? And what is the horrible ringing sound I hear just before I leave my body?

Paul

I'm no expert but that seems to be sleep paralysis, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis and, as you said, are experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations from it, there are people more in the matter than me, wait until one answers back, and Welcome to dreamviews

You are certainly suffering from sleep paralysis.

Originally Posted by Shift

Every night when you fall asleep, you go through a series of sleep cycles. These are divided into the N-REM (non-REM) and REM (rapid eye movement) stages. Though it is possible to dream in both NREM and in REM sleep, during REM sleep your body makes intense efforts to keep you from acting out your dreams and hurting yourself. It does this by completely paralyzing your body, except for your eyes and diaphragm, so that your muscles cannot move and you are completely relaxed. This is called REM atonia (atonia = lack of tone, your muscles are not tensed, but relaxed).

Sometimes, you can have a problem with REM atonia. This can happen when it fails to kick in and you act out your dreams (REM Behavioral Disorder), or when it happens when it is not supposed to- when you are awake. This paralysis of your body, abnormally and outside of REM sleep, is called Sleep Paralysis.

Sleep paralysis can happen randomly, and it often does a few times over a person's life. They may be laying in bed, either having woken up from sleep or just about to fall asleep, and find themselves completely paralyzed. In some people, it happens MUCH more frequently, and this is called Isolated Sleep Paralysis (ISP). In those who suffer from disorders such as narcolepsy it can also occur very frequently, but since it is related to other disorders it is not called Isolated Sleep Paralysis, just Sleep Paralysis.

A good read on SP

Some of the best advice you will be given is to learn to use your sleep paralysis episodes to lucid dream, turning it into a positive and beneficial part of your life that you look forward to rather than fear.

Another is to try to moderate your fear, as your own fear will cause your hallucinations (all of your symptoms, except for the paralysis, are just hallucinations) to get scarier and scarier.

Try not to sleep laying on your back in the supine position, as it will happen most often in that position. Try to reduce stress, and not get too exhausted, as this will exacerbate your SP.

There are quite a number of members on Dreamviews who commonly and regularly experience ISP, I am sure some of them will be able to give you firsthand advice.

Kudos to you, Video_Junkie for not jumping to conclusions and assuming you are being abducted by aliens or molested by evil spirits. I'm glad your research brought you to DreamViews instead of... say... to this site:
http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/200...ow-people.html

I hope that link doesn't give everyone the wrong idea, and start a shadow people riot My point is only that this experience is very common, safe, and normal. No reason at all to be afraid. Like you've already said, this is normal hypnagogia / sleep paralysis. Troughout history, this has been seen as everything from demonic posession, to alien abduction, to ghost hauntings, ect. Do an internet search on "Old Hag" or "Succubus" to see what I mean. The experience is filtered through our world view to give life to our mythology.

What you are experiencing is the sometimes rocky transition from wakefulness into a dream state. As real as it seems, you are actually just dreaming you are floating around your room. That is not your real room, only your mind's reconstruction of it. The natural reaction is fear, because this is such an unfamiliar state to be in. I've always assumed the terrifying hallucinations are generated by the fear, not the other way around.

I get this all the time. I get the textbook Sleep Paralysis, with all the associated hallucinations. I sense presences, see shadowy figures, hear loud sounds, feel vibrations and body distortions. This is what led me to lucid dreaming in the first place. I can induce it at will, and it is no longer frightening. The trick is to relax through it, as you did when you floated up out of your bed. If you sense a presence with you, ask it for help, embrace it, or expect kindness from it. Dreams work on expectations, so try and keep your expectations positive and inquisitive. With a little patience, you can turn it into an amazing experience.

Here is one good example from my dream journal:
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...653#post951653

As you get more comfortable with the odd feeling, it will be less frightening and more FUN! Just imagine, you can experience your wildest dreams with that same vividness and realness you felt in your brief floating. When people recount their lucid dreams, they are not just rambling off some brief imaginary daydream. They are recounting something that felt as real as real life. Sometimes more vivid than real life.

People are always trying to prove Out of Body Experiences are 'real' by attempting experiments like the one you suggested. As cool as it would be, none of the experiments have ever worked. It seems like it would be the easiest thing in the world to prove, but sadly, so far it is impossible. Obviously I'm still holding out a little hope, because it would be one of the greatest discoveries in human history.

Originally Posted by Video_Junkie

It has never been my intention to screw around with Lucid Dreaming or OBE's or Astral Projection. Yet throught my entire life (I am 38 now) I have had semi-regular hynogogic experiences which are both terrifying and unintentional. My mist recent was was ten minutes ago, so I searched online and found this forum. Hopefully I will get some intelligent replies to my situation.

Let me start by saying that I have never had a 'pleasant' hyonogig experience. A few years ago I went searching online to find out what was happening to me, and found out the name for it was most likely hypnogogia. I would be asleep, or I guess almost asleep' and then I would feel paralyzed or more accurately held down by a malicious presence while I was forced out of my body. Each and every experience is accompanied by the feeling of an evil presence. There is no joy here. The worst one i ever experienced was last year when I was falling asleep and felt the familiar paralysis as I rolled out of my body and onto the floor. It was as though I was in 2 places at once (asleep on the bed AND awake on the floor). I tried crawling along the floor into the corner of the room when a hand grabbed my arm and strating pulling me toward it very roughly. Luckily, I jolted back awake. I was scared as hell. It felt very real and I was convinced there was some evil spirit trying to'get' me. Another time I was asleep and then got that paralysis and heard footstpes coming up the stairs while something strong held me down again, and a light in the hallway was on that should not have been. When I awoke, the light was not on and everything was as it should be. I cannot stress enough how REAL the experience is, however.

Just now, I had the experience again. This time, I decided to not fight it and just let it happen and see where it lead. As I heard the familiar ringing/buzzing sound and my body sliding out of my body I said to myself, let it happen. I tried floating up to the top of the room. It worked. I even saw my pillow release it depression from my head and the blankets on top of me move with my ascension. Then I came back down. There was less of the sense of 'evilness' this time but still scary as hell. I tried getting into positions that would help me see the rrom from a different angle so that when I awoke I could remmeber the name of a book, or the placement of a certain bject in the room, so that I could prove I had actually gone out of my body during the experience. I didn't get that far however. Starting tonight I am going to have my girlfriend write a long number (that I will not look at) on a piece of paper and place it in the room somewhere that I cannot see while I am awake, and I will try to float up to it next time I have one of these.

The only consistent theme to all of this is that about 80% of the experience happen during daytime naps, rather than night time sleeps. I get little sleep at night so I try to make up for it in the day. The other mitigating factor is that I am usually quite stressed out when these things happen, although I had them as a small child as well so I can't really explain that.

If anyone can shed some light on what and why this is happening, and what I can do with it (because it seems to be a stepping stone to some other consciousness) I would be grateful. I live in Toronto Canada an would love to meet anyone who has this experience as well. I figure if I'm npot even trying to get to this state, I will probably have an easy time achieving some of the results a lot of people on this website are trying to achieve with LD's and the like. My fina question is this: why are these experiences so often associated with a malevolent presence? And what is the horrible ringing sound I hear just before I leave my body?

Paul

Sounds rough, but, its interesting that it happens on its own. I've experienced SP a couple of times, most of them automatic but the last three I experienced(one was yesterday) were due to me trying to get to SP. I haven't had any of these entities, mostly heavy body, numbness, so, I wasn't able to feel the way my body was positioned, sounds such as beeping and yesterday, got some green and purple colors swirling with my eyelids closed. Considering you are getting so far without doing anything means that you can probably get a LD easily compared to others here that have to work for months on end to get one. As for your little experiment with the number, if you are indeed having an OBE, you won't be able to see the number. The reason is from what I've read, the room can change when you OBE and even if you get the same room, the number won't be there/changes, something along those lines. Anyways, keep us updated on that. Would love to see what the results are. BTW, what you are trying to do is called remote viewing if I recall correctly and welcome to dreamviews

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Kudos to you, Video_Junkie for not jumping to conclusions and assuming you are being abducted by aliens or molested by evil spirits. I'm glad your research brought you to DreamViews instead of... say... to this site:
http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/200...ow-people.html

I hope that link doesn't give everyone the wrong idea, and start a shadow people riot My point is only that this experience is very common, safe, and normal. No reason at all to be afraid. Like you've already said, this is normal hypnagogia / sleep paralysis. Troughout history, this has been seen as everything from demonic posession, to alien abduction, to ghost hauntings, ect. Do an internet search on "Old Hag" or "Succubus" to see what I mean. The experience is filtered through our world view to give life to our mythology.

What you are experiencing is the sometimes rocky transition from wakefulness into a dream state. As real as it seems, you are actually just dreaming you are floating around your room. That is not your real room, only your mind's reconstruction of it. The natural reaction is fear, because this is such an unfamiliar state to be in. I've always assumed the terrifying hallucinations are generated by the fear, not the other way around.

I get this all the time. I get the textbook Sleep Paralysis, with all the associated hallucinations. I sense presences, see shadowy figures, hear loud sounds, feel vibrations and body distortions. This is what led me to lucid dreaming in the first place. I can induce it at will, and it is no longer frightening. The trick is to relax through it, as you did when you floated up out of your bed. If you sense a presence with you, ask it for help, embrace it, or expect kindness from it. Dreams work on expectations, so try and keep your expectations positive and inquisitive. With a little patience, you can turn it into an amazing experience.

Here is one good example from my dream journal:
http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...653#post951653

As you get more comfortable with the odd feeling, it will be less frightening and more FUN! Just imagine, you can experience your wildest dreams with that same vividness and realness you felt in your brief floating. When people recount their lucid dreams, they are not just rambling off some brief imaginary daydream. They are recounting something that felt as real as real life. Sometimes more vivid than real life.

People are always trying to prove Out of Body Experiences are 'real' by attempting experiments like the one you suggested. As cool as it would be, none of the experiments have ever worked. It seems like it would be the easiest thing in the world to prove, but sadly, so far it is impossible. Obviously I'm still holding out a little hope, because it would be one of the greatest discoveries in human history.

I've heard about "Succubus", supposdly they steal your energy if you are in contact with them when you OBE. Also, remember reading people's accounts of OBE and in one case, someone said that they saw someone sitting at the bottom of their bed licking their teeth. Scared the hell out of me and I've decided not to OBE because of those two cases and a couple of other things I've heard which might be true.

daytime naps? classic

sleep paralysis usually happens because of bad sleep habits

also, instead of fighting the paralysis, the alternative is to close your eyes and literally fall into a dream. the hag won't follow you into the dream, and you'll wake up naturally

I dont think there any good answers why almost everyone perceives the hag, the pressure, the evil presence in a sleep paralysis. reality is strange, the answers are even stranger

Originally Posted by Video_Junkie

Let me start by saying that I have never had a 'pleasant' hyonogig experience. A few years ago I went searching online to find out what was happening to me, and found out the name for it was most likely hypnogogia. I would be asleep, or I guess almost asleep' and then I would feel paralyzed or more accurately held down by a malicious presence while I was forced out of my body. Each and every experience is accompanied by the feeling of an evil presence. There is no joy here. The worst one i ever experienced was last year when I was falling asleep and felt the familiar paralysis as I rolled out of my body and onto the floor. It was as though I was in 2 places at once (asleep on the bed AND awake on the floor). I tried crawling along the floor into the corner of the room when a hand grabbed my arm and strating pulling me toward it very roughly. Luckily, I jolted back awake. I was scared as hell. It felt very real and I was convinced there was some evil spirit trying to'get' me. Another time I was asleep and then got that paralysis and heard footstpes coming up the stairs while something strong held me down again, and a light in the hallway was on that should not have been. When I awoke, the light was not on and everything was as it should be. I cannot stress enough how REAL the experience is, however.

Paul

I have had some of these out of body experiences too but i know that i was dreaming. I experience these kinds (of?) during a nightmare.

I was lieing on the kitchen sofa in the dream. Then my consciousness were pushed out of the dream body and i fell on to the foor. I heard my mother screaming but when i fell on to the foor there were suddenly a silence. I couldn't move and i felt that my other body were still on the sofa. I was terrified and tried very hardly to wake up and i woke. I hate when these happens. I'm really scared of that.

Because of these nightmares i don't like any floating except flying in dreams or so. At SP (if it is what i think) when i feel floating in the dark room i will try very fast to think about something and keeping my body stable in the dark room.

Sorry for grammar errors, i'm trying to improve my english skills. Please correct me so i can learn.

Sorry that i don't have nothing to say how you can overcome of it or sth.

This happened to me twice, the first time i was taking a nap on my desk during study hall. I entered sleep paralysis then a terrifying ringing sound entered my head, I could not move, it was almost as if i felt another presence in my mind, I immediately started praying, and it slowly went away, all of it.

The second experience happened about two years ago, when i was about to wake up. I opened my eyes in the morning and i saw two black detail-less arms from under me, with its hands grabbing my arms down with extreme force, i couldn't move at all, it was unbelievably terrifying, it even started hurting, i closed my eyes and started praying, and slowly the pain went away, until everything was gone, and when i opened my eyes everything was back to normal.

So basically I understand what you mean. The only advice i can give you is to close your eyes, then start praying, because it has seemed to work for me. If this is a hallucination as everyone suggests, it could be a form of fear from your subconsciousness or something, and as common sense says, confront your fears, investigate it.

Shift, thanlks for your explanation of what to do once I leave my dream body. Today I had another involuntary session. This never fails: I awakw earlier than normal, go downstairs andhave a coffee, smoke etc....then an hour later I go back to bed for a 'nap'. I ALWAYS get the out of body LD state when I do this, and today was no exception. But today I took your advice and eliminated my fear and 'went with it'. It started with obligatory ringing in my ears, which then turned to a rather turbulent vibration feeling in my whole body, and then the feeling of something pulling my feet and pulling my astral body out of my real body via my feet. I sank to the floor, as usual. Then I was flaoting around the room. I mean, all over. Every corner, the ceiling and everything. I placed all fear aside and concentrated on being in the Playboy Mansion lol. But I couldn't leave my room. You mentioned mirrors, and doors. I don't have a mirror in my bedroom, and this time I had closed the door when I went to sleep so I knew the door was closed. I also could see with my dream mind that it was closed.I tried everything I could for what seemed like quite a few minuted but just could not prevail. I never left my room. And then, as usual,I was 'placed' back on my bed in what seemed like a different position from that in which I was originally lying (at the foot of my bed near the bedpost). When I opened my eyes I expected to find myself at the foot of the bed like this, but was pleaseantly surprised to see I was back in teh same position I was in when I went to sleep. Also new during this experience was the lack of a malicious presence, and the sensation of drool on my mouth which I cleared in the dream state. Awesome. So....what next? How do I turn this near LD into a real LD? I really tried.....but just floated around my room with no control over wehre I was headed.

Well, I'm hardly experienced with WILDing But, it seems like you've conquered that fear and made it into your dream! Yay!!

Sounds like the problem you have now is dream control, and I can point out your exact problem, which is a mental one:

But I couldn't leave my room. You mentioned mirrors, and doors. I don't have a mirror in my bedroom, and this time I had closed the door when I went to sleep so I knew the door was closed. I also could see with my dream mind that it was closed.

I want you stop everything you're thinking right now and focus on two questions:

1. Just because there's no mirror in your REAL room, why wouldn't there be a mirror in your DREAM room?
2. Just because the door was physically closed in your REAL room, why would there even be a door in the doorway to your DREAM room?

You're focusing too much on limiting yourself by the logic and rules of the real world. You're lucid dreaming, man! There ARE no rules, there is no logic, all there is is what you want there to be, what you think there to be. So stop thinking about your dreams the way you think about real life, or you're going to have to follow the rules of real life during your dreams.

Next time you manage to succeed like this, first pause, and take a look down at your body. Look at your chest, look at your pelvis, look at your knees, and your feet, and the ground you're standing on. Look at your arms and hands. Once you've done this, look up in front of you and look at the dream mirror that exists in your dream room. It DOES exist in your dream room, because you need it to and want it to. So it DOES. Its existence isn't based on what really is sitting in your bedroom at the moment, but on what you think is in your dream room. So you need to overcome this hurdle of "What's already there is what will be here" and instead say "This is a lucid dream. Anything goes. Anything I want I have. There's a mirror behind me. The door is open and my destination is right across the threshold. I can see it out the door."

Try this out. Looking down at your body will help get you into the dream, and keep your dream from being in the third person. Having this paradigm shift about how to exercise dream control will give you a level of confidence that you need to get your dreams to work the way you want them to. I strongly believe that if you have this mindframe and the confidence, you can have ultimate dream control. The power is overcoming your own mind and doubts, and realizing that dreams are limitless. Try to do reality checks when you're in the dream just to keep proving and reminding to yourself that nothing around you is real. And, if worst comes to worse... just walk through the walls or door Good luck!

Shift, your help is greatly appreciated. With your advice I have managed to conquer to the fear of these unintentional episodes and turn them into amazing flying dreams. You were right about the mirrors and doors. I can now easily skip out of my body, take a few moments to orient myself (because it feels like I'm floating in outer space upside down at the start), and then fly quickly out of my room and through the outside door into the streets. But is this Lucid Dreaming or something else? The 'dream' is always the same. I am flying around my immediate vicinity. The only thing that changes is where and hor far I'm able to go, and at what speed - before waking up. It feels more like an out of body experience I would think. What do you think? What can I do from here to make this even more enjoyable?

Paul