New research challenges the traditional view of sleep paralysis - Cure Found

ChaoticOrder
reply to post by DazDaKing

 

If that's the case, lets just say it is the MOST impressive and realistic recreation your brain will ever create in your whole life. I'm speaking as someone who had such a 'sleep paralysis' experience, and it literally turned me from being a stone-cold atheist and non-believer of the super natural into an agnostic with a belief in the supernatural. It was that powerful for me - before I had even read about others experiences or ideas on it my gut instinct was telling me I had encountered an 'evil' presence that WAS real in some sense.

I experienced a sleep paralysis episode a few years ago. Only time it has ever happened to me, but I remember it very vividly because of how frightening it was. There was a very real sense that some sort of sinister presence was pinning me down on my bed. When I started reading into it I found that 99% of sleep paralysis episodes are the same, the person will report an evil presence holding them down on the bed and it usually happens as they are trying to get to sleep. The high degree of consistency between all the reports I've read strongly indicate to me that it's some type of mental illusion. Why would evil spirits go around pinning people down to their bed, why would they do it exactly the same way every time and why would it always be when the person is trying to go to sleep? The obvious answer is that the brain generates the event during the intermediate period where the brain is shifting between consciousness and sleep. For some reason it just happens to create an effect which makes people believe it's an evil entity of some type.

The reason why this treatment works is because may people are convinced that sleep paralysis is a spiritual, and they cannot be convinced otherwise, so when they get a treatment which confirms their beliefs it creates a stronger placebo effect.

edit on 5/3/2014 by ChaoticOrder because: (no reason given)

I never experienced being pinned down, and I have a friend who experienced an encounter extremely similar to mine while not even getting ready to go sleep. My experience started with me randomly waking up, not falling asleep.

The MAIN synchronicities between people's experiences are: feeling of 'evil' presence, tall dark figure or shadow person as many call them, temporary or permanent (throughout the experience) inability to move or make a sound and finally it often involves the perceived entity as approaching the person, standing at the side or end of their bed, sitting or putting pressure on the person or strangling them.

There is verbal communication a lot of the time as well - the thing I experienced spoke to me in a language I've never heard before. You really can't say 99% of these events can boil down to being pinned onto your bed...

Your logic is slightly flawed as well, if I may say so. On the contrary, the fact that there are large overlaps in these experiences suggest an entity with a purpose or desire rather than a 'pre-set' chemical reaction while falling asleep.

Think about it - people's brains are very subjective things generally (besides the 5 main senses...in most people at least), and react differently to the same foreign reactions or chemicals. If you give 100 people a psychedelic compound of the exact same chemical make up they would all have vastly unique experiences. Brain medication can help one yet harm another. We have unique operating systems. Our brains aren't these super rigid things that give you Result X for Input Y every time.

Perhaps, if it was an extremely hardwired natural instinct to teach us fear or something, but then why is it only prevalent in some humans and why did it happen to me in my early 20s when I had already had a lifetime of some seriously #ed up scenarios? There seems to be no demographic/cultural/ethnic/religious link here either - you find all types of people reporting these experiences.

You ask 'why would spirits go around pinning people to their bed before sleep?'. Let me entertain this question for fun/food for thought. Perhaps this is the wrong question, how about: Why do these spirits go around CAUSING FEAR?

My dad is a very logical, down to Earth and intelligent man who never cared for the supernatural or God etc. One day we were having a deep conversation about reality (the more I teach him about modern science and specifically electromagnetism and quantum physics the more he's become convinced this reality is a created platform ironically). I was talking about aliens/possibility of intelligent alien life or alien intervention on Earth.

He says to me out the blue - 'What if they're around us now, but they're so advanced we can't see them/they cloak themselves from us, and what if they feed off the physical effect of FEAR just like we feed on food (which is ultimately a vibrational state just like fear and hence has a form in a sense)?'

I'm sure many people will instantly recognise this train of thought and perhaps think of people like David Icke. Interestingly enough my dads never been exposed to such theories and came to this potential hypothesis from observing the world around him and especially the human focus on pain, suffering, war, fearmongering etc. Ultimately, it was just a rough thought he threw out there, but it is definitely an assumption that can be worked with.

A lot of these experiences involve fear being induced on someone almost in a purposeful way, along with people sometimes experiencing 2 or more of these things examining them or having an out of body experience and seeing these things play around our body. Some people have said that when it first happened they felt like they completely 'submitted' to this force and the experiences began happening more commonly and involving more than one 'entity'.

Just throwing it out there, but if we imagine we have a 'soul' or aspect of our human experience (such as consciousness itself) existing externally to our reality, then when we are sleeping this 'soul' is in its purer form, free of the ego and the physical brains 'cage' and open to a wider range of perceptual and emotional experiences from the aspect of the 'soul'. If that was the case (which many believe actually), it sort of makes sense in a way why such an entity would choose such a time.

If they did 'feed' on fear it would definitely add up in a way. Not that I believe this as fact at all, but you asked and I'm telling you a way it can be conceptualised.

Of course, I understand this is absolute crazy talk to a lot of people - but I trust my own intelligence enough to throw these ideas out for the sake of it. Some people believe they are the same force as that in UFO abductions, where as others believe this is the Jinn as mentioned in the Quran. Some think its just a brain chemical reaction that manifests as a very similar hallucination in many people.

It is like the UFO abduction phenomenon - much of the proposed theories are as far fetched as each other or are untestable. Who really knows right now?

By the way - people please be clear that I am not arguing for this phenomenon being caused by supernatural entities. I am very much on the fence myself, but having experienced it I am much more open to/likely to entertain ideas that I before would have laughed off in a second. It's funny how things change.

gardener

When the conciousness doesn't have control of the body, something else will try to use it

When your consciousness (you) no longer controls the body, the body dies, as its animating force has left it.

The idea that the body can be taken over against ones will, especially if one happens to "leave" their body, such as during astral projection or OBE, is an old one born out of superstition and fear.

gardener

I theorize that negative energy is drawn to the body that is still alive, but without sub/conscious spirit control/protecting it.

"Negative energy" is drawn to fear.

gardener

Why do most, virtually all sleep paralysis stories include a threat rather than a delight?! Think about it..

Because most people are living in fear.

gardener

It has been my experience that prayers and commands are the only statements that ward off this evil, hooded, faceless, dark entity.

Thats because prayer and commands bring forth a feeling of comfort and control, respectively. Comfort and control mitigate fear, thus the manifestation of your fear, a shapeless, "evil" entity, dissipates as its font of energy dries up.

But prayer and commands are temporary fixes... they are almost like running away, avoiding the confrontation (especially prayer), screaming for help, even. They sometimes work... they sometimes wont.

No one can save you from yourself but you.

For anyone experiencing this problem, the next time you see the manifestation of your fear, metaphorically look it in the eye, unblinkingly stare it down, and give not an inch. Youll quickly discover, that this "entity" isnt really that scary at all... and in knowing, and the fear alleviated, your specter that youve subconsciously created vanishes.

Or, better yet, stop living in fear, especially of death, and especially of an imaginary egomaniac ultimate judge who can never really be pleased by anything.

Know that you are the absolute sovereign of your being, and in that knowing, realize there is nothing to fear, and all manifestations of that obsolete fear will themselves become antiquated, and nothing more but memories of relics of a past long behind you now.

If you look at history and examine all the instances of parapsychological study and unconventional "research" what you find is most if not all of them are now discredited or completely nutty. Two names which pop into my head are Edgar Cayce and Semyon Kirlian, Edgar being the example of the latter: completely nutty. Semyon did "research" and was more convincing. Today this is what's known as pseudo-science. You can find lots of examples. One of the very best and latest comes from the works of Michael Persinger. Point of all this? If it has been proven to be garbage in the past then it's most likely to be garbage tomorrow.

So thus I have to say sleep paralysis is the product of a malfunctioning or confused mind. Dreams, similarly, in all their beauty and value to us in evolutionary terms, are not real. As yet, there's no evidence the human mind has any capability to acquire telepathy or precognition or any of the other (parapsychological gobbledegook) psi abilities claimed to be in existence. We have to conclude the mind is fully enveloped in the physical tissue of the brain and has all of the limitations ascribed to it and has no supernatural traits.

It's not popular to believe we're just some transient atoms trapped on earth, spreading our DNA from generation to generation, riding the wave of opportunity and disaster which defines our experience. To many, believing this is all there is and there's nothing more, is like plunging into a burning cauldron of oil. The response, if not the instinct, is to violently repel against it and to instead believe in the supernatural fairy tale in an attempt to find some safety from the threatening presence of our sometimes bleak physical existence.

CaticusMaximus

gardener

When the conciousness doesn't have control of the body, something else will try to use it

Wow, really? When someone is unconscious, and doesn't have control of their body, they are dead?

While someone is unconscious, the perfpheral nervous system continues homeostatis of the body.

CaticusMaximus

For anyone experiencing this problem, the next time you see the manifestation of your fear, metaphorically look it in the eye, unblinkingly stare it down, and give not an inch. Youll quickly discover, that this "entity" isnt really that scary at all... and in knowing, and the fear alleviated, your specter that youve subconsciously created vanishes.

Or, better yet, stop living in fear, especially of death, and especially of an imaginary egomaniac ultimate judge who can never really be pleased by anything.

Know that you are the absolute sovereign of your being, and in that knowing, realize there is nothing to fear, and all manifestations of that obsolete fear will themselves become antiquated, and nothing more but memories of relics of a past long behind you now.

Sounds like very wholesome existential advice, and I take it you're stating that if someone is absolutely fearless, they will experience zero negative entity phenonemon during sleep paralysis ever again =D

TheJourney
Well I don't know, because he talks about sleep paralysis in the typically negative way, which I don't agree with. Yes people have scary experiences in sleep paralysis, simply because they are scared. It's related to dreaming, and the subconscious. If you feel scared, you will project scary sights and sounds. I have experienced quite a lot of sleep paralysis in my life, being a regular lucid dreamer. It's honestly never really scared me. As a result, I've never perceived any dark entities or any such things. I actually think it is a useful spiritual state. The one time I successfully astral projected it was out of sleep paralysis. I have also learned that you can create ANY perception you would like out of it. If you can avoid reactionary fear, you can literally create any sight/sound/feeling you would like. You basically just have to imagine it, and you'll perceive it. Actually, I haven't had sleep paralysis in a while and would like to again...perhaps could astral project again.

Someone gets it!

BTW, if you practice trance meditation (which is basically just keeping your mind awake through somewhat intensely concentrating on something, and allowing your body to fall asleep), you will be able to experience SP pretty easily, and with that, you can astral project fairly simply.

ChaoticOrder
The high degree of consistency between all the reports I've read strongly indicate to me that it's some type of mental illusion.

If it was a mental illusion then how come so many people from different backgrounds and cultures would experience exactly the same thing.
If it was conjured from the subconscious then it would surely be different for each "mind".
But as others have said, you have to experience it to have any real opinion of it.

gardener

Wow, really? When someone is unconscious, and doesn't have control of their body, they are dead?

While someone is unconscious, the perfpheral nervous system continues homeostatis of the body.

I think you are confusing the medical definition of "consciousness" with the spiritual one. I am using the spiritual definition, which I thought you were too.

But yes, when you, the consciousness, the awareness, the observer, the spirit, the soul, truly leaves the body... the body dies. Whether it is kept from decomposing by machines or not, its dead; it is without spirit.

gardener

Sounds like very wholesome existential advice, and I take it you're stating that if someone is absolutely fearless, they will experience zero negative entity phenonemon during sleep paralysis ever again =D

One thing I meant to mention but did not, was that two things will happen when you actively know that you are the absolute sovereign of your being.

One, is that you will become fearless, both spiritually and mentally. And two, which is a direct result of one, is without spiritual fear, though there may in fact be external negative entities that might want to scare you, they will be completely tangential to your existence; they will leave you alone, and youll have no reason not to leave them alone.

External "negative entities" seek specific things, whether to fuel themselves, or just to get pleasure, it doesnt really matter. What they are attracted to is fear, and to them, exuding fear either consciously or subconsciously is like a giant neon flashing "Golden Corral" sign to a hungry southern baptist after a 3 hour sermon in an un-ACed Alabama church in July. To the supposed entities, the one who knows themselves will be about as interesting as "Jims Rock Quarry" would be to the same guy just mentioned.

Theyll leave you alone, because theres nothing they can gain from going to you.

And if a curious one does decide to visit you? Without fear just say "hello". Seeing their presence acknowledged, and with no sign of deep fried terror nor of sugary dread, but only rock solid spiritual calm and a diamondine mental fortitude... you can guess how long they will stick around.

Believe what you want, though ultimately, you are in control.

I've had issues with sleep paralysis throughout my entire life. Sometimes I will go months without an "episode", other times it will be a nightly thing. My experiences with SP have never included any sort of entity, evil or otherwise.

Each time plays out almost the same way, and I can usually feel it coming on a few seconds to a minute before hand. It happens when I am trying to get to sleep, but it happens at varying stages of pre-sleep. I will hear (and almost feel in my head) a sort of electrical sound, sort of like the sound you would expect in a sci-fi movie when they power up a high power device (I have heard the exact sound in movies/games before, but it is impossible for me to explain), then my entire body feels as though there is a very slight static charge just under my skin...I have the classic symptoms of inability to speak and move, and I can often times shake myself out of it by shaking my head around, but generally the episode resumes when I try to sleep again. Another common thing with my episodes is that when I try to move a limb it feels as though the limb is moving, but I can look and see that it is clearly motionless. I am almost always terrified when it happens, because I have no idea what is going on.

There was one episode in which I did have a genuine out of body experience, which is the only "supernatural" experience I have had in my 28 years. I had stayed the night at a bandmates house, I passed out in a super comfortable recliner, and another friend was on a couch maybe 5 feet from me. I had woke up and got some water, and before I could get back to sleep I had an episode. I tried to slam my hand on the recliner to make some noise, in attempt to wake someone up. Of course that wasn't happening. I managed to shake my head and snap out of it, and decided to try and stay awake for a bit. For whatever reason, I stayed in the insanely comfortable chair and started to drift off again. This time I felt the little charge beginning, and I don't even remember a transition.......all of a sudden I'm looking down on my friend and I asleep in the living room. I could still feel the staticy feeling all over my body, I could still feel my limbs trying to move, but I was somewhere else. It lasted for what seemed like only a few seconds, I don't remember a transition "back", but when I returned my hand was slamming down on the arm of the recliner, and somehow no one woke up.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to mention that in addition to SP, I have also had other sleep issues including but not limited to night terrors. I have woke up with the sole intention of getting as far away as I can from a seemingly imagined entity. As a kid I woke up and swore to my mom that there were snakes crawling on my ceiling. I have woke up and had rambling conversations with people about some rather frightening subjects, only to immediately fall back to sleep. My favorite is when I wake up just screaming so loud that my grandfather comes out of his room with a fully loaded shotgun prepared to save me from an attacker

Sleep and dreams have always fascinated me...I actually had my first lucid dream (accidentally) about a week ago. So disappointed in how it turned out. I realized I was dreaming, stayed asleep, and instantly I wanted to fly. Long story short - didn't happen. :'(

I used to get this as a kid. I still remember quite vividly what happened in these episodes.
I was VERY young, and only a handful of memories stick with me and a few instances were involved with sleep paralysis.
I'd wake up terrified and E.T - yes the little lovable alien - would be either coming in through my door, chasing me around my house, or just standing at the foot of my bed, in either case the 'chase' always ended with me in my bed, unable to move, only look around the room. It was terrifying! I got out of the state by counting from one to ten, at the time I could only count that high, but it seemed to work.

I have done some research about the subject since then. And well, yes it is all in your head. It's not 'new', when you sleep your body releases a chemical which almost paralyzes you from moving while in deep sleep, and if you have a nightmare so terrifying you can sudden wake up only to be able to see, hear, and smell, the direct sensors to your brain. But unable to move, it's pretty creepy.

First of all, the claim in the title goes well beyond what should be considered within the limits of a 'decide for yourself' rule for determining what is and is not labeled as a hoax. A false claim of a cure should always be labeled a hoax.

Some of what causes sleep paralysis is sleep apnea; that is, basically, not breathing well while you are sleeping.

But that's not the end-all be-all of it, because messing with neuro-transmitter levels, such as by taking an anti-depressant, can cause it to occur in someone who wasn't experiencing it at all before. The anti-depressants that seem to be more associated with it are the ones that mess with neurotransmitter levels other than just serotonin, and iirc norepinephrine in particular seems to be associated with it.

Both suggest to me that it is in general something that is associated with a brain that is used to being rather active, 'running hot,' etc, one which doesn't need quite as much sleep as an average brain. These brains seem to sometimes even wake up and be ready to go before the rest of the body does...and that's sleep paralysis.

A friend of mine gets sleep paralysis once in a while. He probably does have some mild sleep apnea but it mostly doesn't bother him so he's never gone to doctor's for it. He also has excellent dream recall, which also suggests he's a light sleeper in general.

Amenti
According to Chris White and his new book,

Got this far before I thought 'garbage peddler peddling garbage.' And sure enough, his explanation is absolute garbage. Once again it seems to me this guy is just out to make a buck off of people he believes to be ignorant and so easy marks. It's easy to see that his plan here is to make money off of religious people who experience sleep apnea and seek a religious explanation.

Given that he has so much contempt for religious people, I'd like to watch his face while he reads John 10 and see for myself how much guilt and fear he experiences. I suspect I'd see more of both than should be there for a cynical non-believer who makes his living 'pretending to be one of them' for profit. Rather, I suspect he has a more complicated and generally messed up relationship with his religion.

reply to post by DazDaKing

My experience started with me randomly waking up, not falling asleep.

Same thing, it's the transition between consciousness and sleep which matters.

Your logic is slightly flawed as well, if I may say so. On the contrary, the fact that there are large overlaps in these experiences suggest an entity with a purpose or desire rather than a 'pre-set' chemical reaction while falling asleep.

So one entity travels the world and does this to millions of people every single day? Or there's a whole lot of evil spirits who have the exact same MO? Lets get real here...

Perhaps, if it was an extremely hardwired natural instinct to teach us fear or something, but then why is it only prevalent in some humans and why did it happen to me in my early 20s when I had already had a lifetime of some seriously #ed up scenarios?

It happened to me when I was around 20 too, I don't know why, it might have something to do with the development of the brain, who knows... maybe the evil spirit just likes scaring young adults.

You ask 'why would spirits go around pinning people to their bed before sleep?'. Let me entertain this question for fun/food for thought. Perhaps this is the wrong question, how about: Why do these spirits go around CAUSING FEAR?

But why would they do it in almost exactly the same way every time? Why is it always paralyzing people in the bed just before or after sleep and why do 99% of people report the same thing? Don't these so called evil spirits have an creativity, can't they think of any other scary things? It's obviously a mental illusion...

reply to post by OneManArmy

If it was a mental illusion then how come so many people from different backgrounds and cultures would experience exactly the same thing. If it was conjured from the subconscious then it would surely be different for each "mind".

Maybe because it's more of a physiological thing than a "mind" thing. It's clearly something in the way humans are built which is the same for the majority of people. If you read the scientific explanation for sleep paralysis you'll see that it's caused during the shift to and from sleep because the mind stops sending commands to the body to ensure that you don't flail around in your sleep. If you get consciously caught in that state where you mind has delinked its self from the body then it'll feel like you are paralyzed and cannot move. Consequently, you get scared and automatically assume that something must be holding you down, and that generates an instinctual feeling that something sinister must be responsible.

But as others have said, you have to experience it to have any real opinion of it.

I have experienced it myself.

reply to post by Amenti


In my late teens and early twenties i suffered a lot
from this.. i grew out of it.
By the the time i was 35 it was gone completely.

It was so bad at one time i would get it when merely resting.
That felt like I had died.. but I was still awake ..but unable to move.

Other times, at he point of falling asleep i would simply shoot into outer space.

Lol its all true.. but bizarre.

reply to post by DazDaKing

. . .
The obvious answer is that the brain generates the event during the intermediate period where the brain is shifting between consciousness and sleep.
. . .

Uhhhhhhhhhhh, No.

That's NOT the obvious answer.

THAT'S obviously a BELIEF, an ASSUMPTION, a conjecture.

There's lots of variables that does NOT account for.

BO XIAN
reply to post by DazDaKing

 

. . .
The obvious answer is that the brain generates the event during the intermediate period where the brain is shifting between consciousness and sleep.
. . .

Uhhhhhhhhhhh, No.

That's NOT the obvious answer.

THAT'S obviously a BELIEF, an ASSUMPTION, a conjecture.

There's lots of variables that does NOT account for.

What variables does that not account for?

reply to post by TheJourney



Don't really want to go there . . . nor the back and forth about it . . . think. Think again.

Maybe 3-4 or so . . .

1. Sleep paralysis does not explain the marks and the implants.

2. Sleep paralysis does not explain knowledge derived during an abduction and corroborated by other victims that the individual could not have known from mere sleep paralysis.

3. Sleep paralysis does not explain sleepware being put on backwards or otherwise totally missing or someone else's clothing. There's the case where different victims ended up in one another's clothing--maybe even male to female . . . I forget . . . and later such victims discovered each other and corroborated what had happened.

4. Sleep p does not explain ending up in different locations nude and bruised.

5. Sleep p does not explain other poltergeist goings on.

Guy Malone has 400 cases in his files . . . many of them defy sleep paralysis as an explanation.

www.alienresistance.org...

very interesting topic
as to the call on jesus thing
if that actually worked, there would be no such a thing as the so called persecution of Christianity now would there...
(i have a working celtic cross now so... i know the true meaning of that symbol...)
imho
go with what works
which appears to be the answer posited in the OP

star that BO...from personal experience id say thats pretty close to how it goes..
i wouldn't define all night time occurrences as sleep paralysis...
thats more the old hag thats sits on your chest sort of thing

BO XIAN
reply to post by TheJourney

 

Don't really want to go there . . . nor the back and forth about it . . . think. Think again.

Maybe 3-4 or so . . .

1. Sleep paralysis does not explain the marks and the implants.

2. Sleep paralysis does not explain knowledge derived during an abduction and corroborated by other victims that the individual could not have known from mere sleep paralysis.

3. Sleep paralysis does not explain sleepware being put on backwards or otherwise totally missing or someone else's clothing. There's the case where different victims ended up in one another's clothing--maybe even male to female . . . I forget . . . and later such victims discovered each other and corroborated what had happened.

4. Sleep p does not explain ending up in different locations nude and bruised.

5. Sleep p does not explain other poltergeist goings on.

Guy Malone has 400 cases in his files . . . many of them defy sleep paralysis as an explanation.

www.alienresistance.org...

edit on 8/3/2014 by BO XIAN because: added

None of that has anything to do with sleep paralysis, or does anything to refute the notion that sleep paralysis, and the phenomena experienced therein, is caused by the brain transitionin between waking and sleeping consciousness...

I experienced sleep paralysis from my early childhood right through to my 20's. The last major episode i had involved the feeling of an 'evil' entity grabbing my by the ankles and trying to pull me out of bed (did NOT sleep the rest of that night....).

After that one, i decided i needed to look into what it was. Found out about sleep paralysis, the general widely accepted cause and from then i havent had that kind of intense experience again. In my case, at least, it appears that once i learned there was a rational explanation for it, my brain no longer had to invent wild imaginings for what was going on.

Of course, another explanation would be that my brain now just ignores anything spiritual that is occurring around it during that brief period. These types of things are never really clear cut given that there is so much about our brains, spirituality, energy in the universe that we really have no idea about.