Sleep Paralysis, shadow people

[mwyna]

Originally Posted by austin123

I too have heard of this theory and have thought that maybe this could be the case. What I don't understand though, and I don't mean to sound like a preacher type person because I am honestly not very religious at all! But why (and this has been the case for myself, my mother and my sister) has the 'thing' gone when I have had to pray for it go? Unless that is also part of the 'dream'. It's just a shame that there is not much info on it I must add though, what was 'visiting' you doesnt seem to have been anything horrible unlike mine and some of the other peoples experiences.

no I don't think what visited me was horrible but I do not know what it was. It wasn't something "normal" for sure and certainly not my normal experience with this type of "dream". I will say that in previous experiences I have felt something bad coming for me, it has never actually made it into the room, but it was near and I knew it was coming and I could look around the room but not move. I would say, it was a sense of evil that I felt that was very near and getting closer. It was only breaking myself out by moving even a finger slightly that would release me. Sleeping with the lights on was absolutely no help and some nights this experience would just repeat, repeat, repeat. Very frustrating. I have read much on this and you are right, many do get out of it through prayer though I admit I have not tried it myself. I have no reason for why I haven't, I am not anti religion, it just didn't occur to me at the time. I think I was more in survival mode and willing myself to move as I knew this could break me from it. My sister has had your experience by the way, with the dark creature on her bed. She said it was a small evil looking man sort of thing. Also you might be interested to know that these things tend to run in families, though not always. I couldn't tell you why. I'm not an expert (except in having too many of these experiences!).

[mwyna]

Originally Posted by Unknown1

Your Welcome. As i say, iam on this website to help, also figure out my problems too, and they have been helpful. Iam not religious, But i do believe in God. And i believe in Ghosts/Demons/Fairies..etc, I believe there is something else out there that maybe some people cant explain, and i reallly do believe i saw something in my room that night. A question for you..You say you saw something once, a tall person/thing? Sounds strange, But were they wearing a Hat? What looks like a Top Hat actually..

Hope I am not guilty of double posting. I would have answered this question with the other if I had bothered to read both pages first, sorry
Thank you for the welcome.
I cannot tell you yes or no, was it wearing a hat. Though I am curious to know why now you have mentioned it. I'll try to explain the best I can what I saw.
It was a tall thin person, I can't say man or woman I really don't know. They were dark to the extent that they were somewhat in shadow but more in the sense that they were not all there if that makes sense? It was either wearing clothes or I could see colours through it as there was colour but it was again muted though I think muted is the wrong word. I have never seen a ghost before so I couldn't tell you if that is what I saw but it wasn't black and white like I see ghosts portrayed on tv. I certainly couldn't answer why it helped me. Never before has that happened and though I'll have a check I can't remember reading anything about that either when researching these types of "dreams". When I say it breathed on my face, I mean as if you were blowing out a candle, that is what it did. To me, I took it that it was giving me my breath and it certainly worked whatever happened. I felt no malice from it though I found the experience obviously disturbing as it's so unexplainable.

[Unknown1]

Originally Posted by austin123

Thats ok, I'm not too worried. It was such a long time ago and it hasn't happened since. Honestly, thanks for your advice. I'm just glad that you don't think I'm a crazy person!

Thats ok! Iam not here to judge, and i believe what you tell me, i believe you saw something. I guess..People that havent had anything like that happen to them before, they have to see it to believe it..which is the case for some.

[Unknown1]

Originally Posted by austin123

I too have heard of this theory and have thought that maybe this could be the case. What I don't understand though, and I don't mean to sound like a preacher type person because I am honestly not very religious at all! But why (and this has been the case for myself, my mother and my sister) has the 'thing' gone when I have had to pray for it go? Unless that is also part of the 'dream'. It's just a shame that there is not much info on it I must add though, what was 'visiting' you doesnt seem to have been anything horrible unlike mine and some of the other peoples experiences.

I think the reason why it disappered when you prayed, was because..Whatever that thing was..was evil, so a hope of believing in God, Probably fended it off in some way..maybe..

[Unknown1]

Originally Posted by mwyna

Hope I am not guilty of double posting. I would have answered this question with the other if I had bothered to read both pages first, sorry
Thank you for the welcome.
I cannot tell you yes or no, was it wearing a hat. Though I am curious to know why now you have mentioned it. I'll try to explain the best I can what I saw.
It was a tall thin person, I can't say man or woman I really don't know. They were dark to the extent that they were somewhat in shadow but more in the sense that they were not all there if that makes sense? It was either wearing clothes or I could see colours through it as there was colour but it was again muted though I think muted is the wrong word. I have never seen a ghost before so I couldn't tell you if that is what I saw but it wasn't black and white like I see ghosts portrayed on tv. I certainly couldn't answer why it helped me. Never before has that happened and though I'll have a check I can't remember reading anything about that either when researching these types of "dreams". When I say it breathed on my face, I mean as if you were blowing out a candle, that is what it did. To me, I took it that it was giving me my breath and it certainly worked whatever happened. I felt no malice from it though I found the experience obviously disturbing as it's so unexplainable.

No of course not. Erm..The reason i asked is cos the Demon/Evil spirit that came to me was wearing a Top Hat, Weird! But from what you described of it, def doesnt sound like Inguma. I will surf the net from your info, and see what i can find out for you.

[mr. Zim]

you know, I like how this story is both... sort of... provable in a spiritual way and a physical way.

It's quite common that people with sleep paralysis experience these sort of ghost figures. And alot of the time the ghost figure always does something like sit on the person or do this weird sucking thing... The brain is perfectly capable of producing an effect like this in dreams and sleep paralysis is a situation in which the brain is sort of shocked into a halfway sort of place between sleep and awake.

The other side is that as soon as you prayed for it to go away, not soon after it did. And that to me is a sign that it did happen and that it was... at the least, very real to you or maybe more.

It's kind of like the placebo effect, though, except taken to the extreme, some believe that it's possible to make the mind believe something so strongly that it actually happens to their body.
(for the original story posted)

[mwyna]

hmm my sister mentioned something to me yesterday while I was discussing this with her. I've had a search online and it seems she's right.

A particularly interesting thing to note about Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, is evidence shows that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis will often effect an area like an epidemic. Many cases will be reported in a short period of time when no cases had been reported prior. Studies show that some areas can remain affected for years, but most only weeks or months. This is something science has not yet been able to explain. Old Hag Syndrome also seems to run in families

While I realised already the family connection, I hadn't heard that it could be experienced by people in particular areas like an epidemic. Weird. Anyway, not sure if it's ok to post news articles so I haven't given the link.

[Unknown1]

Yeah, Its all weird experiences..The part where it runs in families, thats interesting. Ive spoken to family members about what happened to me, and they all say they havent had that. I think the very common saying ive said before.."Some people have to see it to believe it" I would love to find out about the mysteries of the world, Cos you get believers and you get non-believers. It would be good to prove that there is something more out there.

[mr. Zim]

I can easily understand why it might run in families because sleep paralysis is when you wake up and sleep atonia hasn't worn off yet. Sleep atonia is what keeps your body from moving while in REM sleep, so when a person wakes up and is still effected by it they can't move their body. While it's happening, in some cases the person experiences "hallucinations", thats what it said in my studies for my research paper on lucid dreaming under the background info. There isn't a lot out there that tells you how such an incident might actually happen, and the idea of it becoming an epidemic is just sort of weird. The idea is pretty cool though, and freaky.

[hollowdeath]

Hello, I myeslf have sleeping paralysis as well. I was checked out when I was in 8th grade if I remember right. I experienced what you experienced just this morning. I was sleeping and I woke up and was unable to move like usual which i'm used to that, I just wake myself up from it. This time was different though cause I felt a coldness on my right foot, then it hit my left foot and made its way up to my left side. My eyes happened to be closed all this time, not sure if I couldn't open them at the moment or if I kept them closed. Anyway, when I realized they were open, I felt the cold and there was this black shadow human figure standing to my left and I could almost see eyes. He was leaning closer and closer to me and I felt weird like something weird was happening to me like he was draining me of strength and I woke myself up. This has happened a few times but never to where I seen a shadow figure that close to me and almost could make out eyes. This though I believe is what they call a hypnagogic hallucination that comes from being in an REM dream state where you are viewing vivid images in a dream. You may not remember the dream, but then again we don't remember ALL the dreams we have in a night. So thus waking from this dream state to a near fully awake state of mind you are experience a rift of the two states of mind. Between the REM state and the awakened state. So your brain is still making these images only they are on top of reality that you are seeing since you are awake. It's scary, but it's nothing to worry about. I've grown used to seeing things like this, but this morning it was too close to me for comfort so I know how you are feeling. Sometimes it feels like they are smothering you. Sometimes I can't breath when I experience this too, but I think sleeping paralysis goes deeper then just not being able to move ur body, I think maybe sometimes ur brain gets in such a fuss it actually forgets to breath. I'm not sure, but check out hypnagogic hallucinations on google or any search engine and read into it.