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Peacefull, Still And Alert Mind Before Sleep And Horrid Lucidity

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Does anyone else experience this? Its always the same, if I meditate or stay alert as i drift off to sleep ( sometimes I dont have a choice) I go to sleep with a very quiet yet alert mind, sometimes i can feels waves of energy flowing through my body, my mind feels expansive, very alive, on the brink of...? something.
As I enter into the sleeping state i realise Im actually aware of being asleep, bizarre as that may sound, then the whole contents of my mind start to spill into awareness,sometimes Its truly horrifying and painful, i will experience myself dying in various hideous ways..over and over again, ill float over towns and forests in full lucid technicolour, monsters, angels and all manner of mind boggling creatures vie for attention, loud whistlings, buzzings and deafening white noise will ring in my ears, the only option is to let go, let everything unfold, it feels like a kind of death to do that though and I havnt so far had the courage to let go completely and see where this will take me.
I havnt had this for a while as its so bloody exhausting, every night is an adventure, Ive been holding back and losing myself in mundane day to day activities, yet I know Im gonna have to see this through, It feels as if its something that has to be pursued to the full in order to get to some sort of clarity beneath.
i would be very interested if anyone else has similar experiences, or if not then try staying completely alert and relaxed as you go to sleep, watch like a hawk everything that is going on in your mind without any sense of judgement or control, its a kind of absolute letting go combined with a full and all encompassing attention.
good luck!
 
Re: Peacefull, still and alert mind before sleep and horrid

pinkmoon said:
Does anyone else experience this? Its always the same, if I meditate or stay alert as i drift off to sleep ( sometimes I dont have a choice) I go to sleep with a very quiet yet alert mind, sometimes i can feels waves of energy flowing through my body, my mind feels expansive, very alive, on the brink of...? something.
As I enter into the sleeping state i realise Im actually aware of being asleep, bizarre as that may sound, then the whole contents of my mind start to spill into awareness,sometimes Its truly horrifying and painful, i will experience myself dying in various hideous ways..over and over again, ill float over towns and forests in full lucid technicolour, monsters, angels and all manner of mind boggling creatures vie for attention, loud whistlings, buzzings and deafening white noise will ring in my ears, the only option is to let go, let everything unfold, it feels like a kind of death to do that though and I havnt so far had the courage to let go completely and see where this will take me.
I havnt had this for a while as its so bloody exhausting, every night is an adventure, Ive been holding back and losing myself in mundane day to day activities, yet I know Im gonna have to see this through, It feels as if its something that has to be pursued to the full in order to get to some sort of clarity beneath.
i would be very interested if anyone else has similar experiences, or if not then try staying completely alert and relaxed as you go to sleep, watch like a hawk everything that is going on in your mind without any sense of judgement or control, its a kind of absolute letting go combined with a full and all encompassing attention.
good luck!
Click to expand...


Hmmm... Anything like this?

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9463
 
Ive "suffered" from sleep paralysis for years and its usually incorporated into this experience, Im so used to it now( presence in room ect.) that It dosnt really bother me. I get it on many "normal" nights and its certainly connected to this thing I have but these experiences go much deeper than just sleep paralysis
 
Wow! Thanks to this thread, I now know what sleep paralysis is. And I have indeed had an experience, although not a bad one.
I didn't have any weights on my chest or beings in my room though.

It started off like a regular nightmare, but it was one of those nightmares in which it seems that hours pass even if you have only slept for minutes. It was of me waking up on an alternate Earth. Everything was foreign, twisted, or somehow overly complex (I.E., Those old pictures of stairs that twist and turn or go upside down).

It was indeed scary until I realized that I had control of what I did, saw, and thought. In almost all of the dreams I remember one or all of those freedoms were absent. I did what every youth would have done with control over their environment, do every dangerous and reckless thing possible.

However, when I woke up, what seemed to be a nightmare turned ultimate fantasy was over. But, I couldn't move. Everything I wanted to do physically, happened mentally in my dream. I then realized that the dream wasn't over.

But, when you wake up and can't move, the dream isn't all that important anymore. It turned back into a nightmare quick. I could see both the ceiling of my room, and this hellish playground. For what seemed as both hours and minutes at the same time, I was trapped between mental and physical actions. When I was finally able to phase out the dream and move again, I kept it to myself, not knowing how much was a dream and how much was real.

Eventually I told a few people, all of which thought it was weird, even for a dream.

I can't say that I would mind it happening again, as long as I can control what happens.

I feel sorry for those of you that have to go through the more terrifying ones though.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that there were people in the dream, but they looked foreign, twisted, or somehow overly complex, just like everything else. No matter how hard I tried, neither I, nor them, could understand the other.

I wonder what they tried to say...
 
Thanks for the reply aqua, your experience sounds very similar to some of mine. It seems the conscious part of the mind can sometimes become fully conscious of all its hidden depths during sleep, Ive never really attempted to control my dreams in the same way that you did partly because for my case it seems a total letting go of control is necessary in order for me to access these states, although thinking about it now there seems to be a part of my mind that is controlling what happens to some extent and another part that is just letting go and observing.
I wonder what this conscious part of the mind/brain is? Where does it usually go during sleep (to sleep?) and how can consciousness become aware of unconsciousness? I wonder if i can become aware during deep dreamless sleep? What is the "i" anyway?
 
I'd sworn never to post here again, but I must confess, I have the same trouble. Last week I was bundled into the trunk of a car, gassed unconcious, then met with a startling graphic and painful demise, which I won't bore you with.

It was a dream, incidentally.

(not a 23 anywhere, swines).
 
I've been "plaged" with sleep paralysis for yonks ... a couple of years ago when I first started driving [as in driving our car not with an instructor] every night when I was drifting off to sleep I'd suddenly get this rushing feeling as though I was driving really fast [100mph+] and I could see a road whizzing by underneath me, before I crashed throught a hedge and sailed into a field .. I'd always shake myself awake at that point. It stopped after a while. Kinda freaky while it was happening because it was a part of the road I drive on ...:eek!!!!:
 
Ive "suffered" from sleep paralysis for years and its usually incorporated into this experience, Im so used to it now( presence in room ect.) that It dosnt really bother me.
Click to expand...

I can see how a man, who is not used to it, could have woken up long ago to am imaginary demon and cause a big panic about succubi (Meant it plurally, although I am not sure if I used it right) in town, causing a big fright which could have led more people experiencing the same to come forward and scare even more people.

This just might be the best explanation possible for a mythological monster so far.

And, Pinkmoon, you are very welcome. I should thank you for being the person who shed light on what I used to thing of as sort of a botched dream. I would never have geussed it were sleep paralysis, nor would I have ever geussed that so many people have experienced it.

Well, my world just keeps getting bigger, thanks to this site...:)
 
It sounds like an acid-trip.

I've never had one (though have tried!:D ) but some of the ealiest users used to use it to tap into an 'alternative universe' which they thought actually existed. Perhaps that's what is happening to your mind and you're picking up on this stuff without needing LSD to tune in. Wierd. Don't necessarily believe the scientific explanation without giving due consideration to other ideas about consciousness and reality discussed at absorbing length on other threads. Overactive mind/mind receiver. Who knows. All very interesting stuff, eh?;)
 
I am kinda proud of the fact that something that everybody has (dreams), is something that will always have aspects that remain a complete mystery.

I sometimes wonder if any of what we know about dreams is actually the truth or a logical conclusion.

I geuss all we really know is that it involves the mind.
 
Every time I talk to someone about dreams, I notice the extreme contrast between that persons dreams and my own.

I often have dreams that I don't remember until some time later, when something I see toggles the memory. I do however know as soon as I wake up that I have had a dream.

I notice though, that many people speak of their own death in dreams. I have never died in a dream that I remember. I have, however, gotten to a point that could be death, but ends before I find out what happens.

This might be due to the fact that I convince myself that there is a way to get out of every situation.

I know it may be a little off topic, but I just thought it odd that even in my worst nightmares, the worst that will happen is I fail, resulting in the death of others, or an occurrence which cannot be reversed.

But, that may be as a result of my want to help others before myself in critical times.

Anyway, I was just wondering if you guys always die, or if it ever ends just slightly before.
 
A slight aside, but does anyone else find that when remembering a dream it is really really hard to remember when you dreamed it?
 
You mean when you think of a dream and you can't even come close to being sure whether you dreamed it yesterday, weeks, months, or even years ago?
 
Breakfast said:
A slight aside, but does anyone else find that when remembering a dream it is really really hard to remember when you dreamed it?
Click to expand...

Or how's about dreaming and realising it's a dream and playing around? I've done that several times...
 
Re: Peacefull, still and alert mind before sleep and horrid

pinkmoon said:
...ill float over towns and forests in full lucid technicolour, monsters, angels and all manner of mind boggling creatures vie for attention, loud whistlings, buzzings and deafening white noise will ring in my ears...
Click to expand...

Is it just me, or did this bit scare the crap out of everyone? If I were Pinkmoon I'd be mainlining Pro-Plus by now!
 
Sleep Paralysis

It seems that the conventional wisdom is that sleep paralysis is a result of the mind creating images to account for a physiological condition that occurs at the edge of consciousness. Sounds nice and scientific.

But what if it's like this: at the edge of consciousness, when the body is paralyzed, the invisible entities that surround us all the time, trying to get inside, trying to influence us -- what if so-called "sleep paralysis" renders us vulnerable to them?

What if "hags" are real?

Are the scientific explanation and the traditional understanding of this phenomenon necessarily mutually exclusive? And if so, why?
 
Breakfast said:
A slight aside, but does anyone else find that when remembering a dream it is really really hard to remember when you dreamed it?
Click to expand...


YES !!! Now I thought that I was the only one THAT hapened to ! Do we know why this is ?
 
Obviously you have to be paralysed when asleep, otherwise you would physically try to act out your dreams. (They have done nasty experiments with rats, and showed that you can disable the part of the brain that does this). However, it is also clearly possible that you can be conscious while asleep, as in lucid dreaming.

So sleep paralysis is an obvious outcome. No need to bring in hags - unless you're also going to claim that the stars you see when you bang your head are really there all along, like the sahpes you get when you rub your eyes, or the ringing noise in your ears, or...
 
There's a Difference

I think I would distinguish between seeing stars, ringing in the ears, etc.,
because they are physiological responses with no specific psychological content. The "night hag" --- and associated
phenomena such as alien abduction, the specific vision mentioned at the beginning of this thread, are rich with imagery and usually have an associated narrative. Quite unlike "the shapes you see when you rub your eyes."

So the question is, why is specific psychological content associated with sleep paralysis? Why do so many people report the same nightmarish images? Does sleep paralysis "cause" alien abduction / night hag fantasies, or does it rather facilitate them?
 
I have to disagree with you on that!

Sleep paralysis IS a physiological experience with physiological content (eg feeling of a weight on the chest).

It may also be accompanied by 'vivid dreamlike hallucinations' - people, demons, ghosts, ETs, animals or spirits - and their content may depend on various factors such as culture.

It is not so much a matter of people reporting the same thing as people reporting many different things from the same experience.

Now then, are Nightmares real, or a product of your mind?? ;)
 
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