The place in between

I don't know what to think of those few rare occasions when I've experienced what I used to think was sleep paralysis, and gone to that murky place between reality and a dream. It's real enough to be real and enough like a dream to be a dream.
Perhaps there is some dimension between wakefulness and a dream. When I experience this I was aware that I wasn't really awake or asleep. I was also very conscious of the fact that I could not move my real body I could not speak or scream irl. I was aware of both sides, but couldn't even wake myself up. I call it the In between.
There doesn't seem to be much light there and it differs from where my physical body actually lays only in that it's creepier. The walls appear dingy or dark red and things are dirty and old... Even the furniture is similar. Lots of darkness.
Those two aspects are scary enough, but there also seems to be a presence in that realm. Not a creature persay, its more like a very strong feeling that something evil and filled with hate and wanting to get me is there with me.
I've encountered many "evil" forces and or entities in my dream world. My faith protects me. I know that if I truely believe that Christ will save me he will... And I very much believe that. I've woken up quite a few times saying the Lord's prayer outloud.
I'm terrified of this presence and the fact I can't move or scream, or even worse, I can't wake myself up. Sometimes I'm able to lift my head up a bit or open my eyes and see the room in its original state, but I slip right back into that scary place.
The second time it happened I was able to gradually pull myself out of it and the last time it happened my xboyfriend who was laying next to me woke me up because he heard me breathing really heavy and made me wake up. Then I described the experience to him and then was able to go back to sleep and all was fine.
You would think because of the paralysis that when this happens, its because I've been up for a long time or I was physically exhausted, but this is not the case. It seems to happen on nights like any other night, except that I fall asleep very fast, almost as soon as I shut my eyes! And there's Noway I should be dreaming yet, but I do... This whole experience only takes like 5 minutes.
To me, it almost feels like I was drawn there by this thing. Maybe it wants to get me, maybe it just wants to scare me. I'm really not sure.
So has anyone had similar experiences? Please tell me your story, I would love to read it!!!! Thank you.

a reply to: NaughtyLibrarian

May be you like having it the way it is. Some people enjoy the terror and uncertainty of their deeper psyche.

The way I got through terror was to walk through it. It is like an initiation. I have been through every part of my psyche and my dreams. Fear turns to dust. I did not want to be controlled or dominated by fear. My psyche was really trying hard to scare me. Remember, everything within comes from you.

There is only the uncertainty of a deeper relationship with yourself and the cosmos to fear psychically.

I believe that in-between place is your psyche trying to make sense of itself. The feeling of an evil presence or force trying to control the dream could be your id showing itself to your reasonable or societal programmed psyche you have structured and nurtured thus far. As you, I too have been introduced to the Christian teachings at a young age and perhaps the concept of good vs. evil (heaven and hell) needs to be more deeply understood via the dream state, or some religious inconsistencies be rectified to one's satisfaction or psyche health, instead of blindly accepting the programming and others' interpretation of what faith and love of God should be.

Now I also believe that while in deep transitional meditation dimensional experiences can and do happen and are completely different from the dream state, whereas, spiritual visions/experiences (for me) are multi-dimensional spiritual journeys (of spirit energy) while still being connected to my physical energy (dimensionally, speaking).

I believe that you are aware of these other realms, but I am not sure if you dip your toe in very far.

I experienced the same between my eleven up to 16. The most awful thing about it was that nobody from my environment could name it. Only recently I learned that it is called "sleep paralysis". It was very scary condition for me until once I ceased to fight it and gave in. When you give in it feels like a huge tide covers you up and brings you to another condition. The latter is called "lucid dream" if my English is right. During this dream you are able to control what is going on. You may go to the balcony and jump from the tenth floor because you know that you can fly or to come up to unfamiliar girl and kiss her because it is all in your head. About an year ago I was taught the method how to induce this "controlled dream" artificially. It is rather interesting but complicated to write it down. Carlos Castaneda in one of his books narrated about it thoroughly

Do not know if this fits your idea.

I had one experience when I had my first encounter with the unknown on the other side of the veil. My mind had been questioning everything I was taught and knew and would not stop thinking and kept the body awake.

After a while my mind went into seek mode. It is a hyper aware state where the mind thinks and logically sees beyond the normal abilities. Understanding after understanding flows and everything makes total logical sense.

It ended with a specific thought and then a sound to answer the thought on the internal speakers. Sound heard within without going thru the ears. I could see the other person in the room and move my body but the body was tired enough to allow the third eye to send sound information.

I have never since heard anything thru the internal speakers. I will not share what the thought was or what the sound was and what it meant.

I have something similar. Except I don't believe it's a dimension in between something, rather each spirit has it's own version of a common universe or existence. To meet others would mean the other coming to your version or you going to the others, the age old my place or your place.

Some of these places are like heaven, some are like hell. Out of all places, one is the best and one is the worst. You might have made contact with the inhabitant of such a place (the worst of this planet) and it might be this spirit is so sad you are drawn to it because that is a normal human reaction when confronted with a being that is in pain, especially when it's the soul kind of pain.

Personally I've never been afraid of spirits even though I've had some scary experiences. All I have to do is see through it all, remember it all and give up the image of myself in the others version, I just return to my own version and the rules there are such that I can't be harmed. It's how nature works, if one gets a bad experience in some one's version that person will just wake up in their own again with nothing but memories at best. Which can be difficult to retrieve, just like it can be hard to remember a dream, I believe thats because the others image of you has the memories which usually stay there and don't make it back to one's own version, it's the focal point of a soul that goes from one version to the other, there is nothing in between. Most people live in someone else's version anyway, usually not by choice but chance. Only more advanced beings (usually good but not always) can travel to others at will, to the rest of us it is more like an uncontrolled dream.

a reply to: johnnyjoe1979

That's a really interesting and valid theory. Thanks for your 2¢. Its very much appreciated! That may be, but I don't think this entity was sad. It was angry for sure... Maybe I was drawn there so it could "feed" off my fear. Unfortunately I'm a wussy! Lol the three times in my life that I've seen other worldly entities my first reaction was to scream at the top of my lungs and all three times the entities faded away... I don't think they wanted to scare me...
But maybe that's what this thing gets off on? I don't know, but Thank you again for your theory.

a reply to: Revolution9

I don't believe that everything comes from within, but I'll admitt that it may have been a darker side of my psyche trying to scare my conscious side... It's possible. Thank-you for your opinion though, its much appreciated!

a reply to: LittleByLittle

Wow, that's really interesting, thank-you for your input.

a reply to: Boticelli

I used to think that it was sleep paralysis too, untill I was studying "shadow people" and learned there was a difference between what I was experiencing and sleep paralysis. Unfortunately, I forget what it was lol !!!! So I'm gonna look it up again and I'll get back to you OK?
Thank-you so much for sharing!

a reply to: InTheLight

Thank you for your opinion, however I disagree. Ive had many precognitive dreams aswell as been visited by... I'll call them guides or teachers... While I was dreaming. I have an extremely rich, vivid, and memorable dream world as I call it. Lol. I know that my consciousness has passed through the boundaries of this realm many times.
As far as having spiritual visions/experiences this has happened to me, however, they weren't apocoliptic or really for anyone else. They were profound and life altering, but personal.
I sort of don't think we usually move from realm to realm, I believe that we exist in them all at the same. Right now, I believe that my soul is running around doing what it does in that world, but our physical senses and materialism, that is so much a part of the human experience, keep our consciousnesses grounded to this level of existence. That's what it means to be a multi-demensional beings to me.
Lol, I hope that makes sense, o have a hard time articulating my ideas sometimes !!!! But again, thank you for your input, very interesting.

a reply to: NaughtyLibrarian

The reason I separate the dream state into the physical Earth-bound realm (Delta) and waking meditative states (Beta and Theta) into tapping into the energy (spiritual) realm is because of my experiences and comparisons. But I believe that while meditating I most definitely reach a higher vibrational level than while sleeping and dreaming because the visions/messages are extremely vivid and easily interpreted (for me).

www.toolsforwellness.com...

a reply to: NaughtyLibrarian

Had any luck finding the distinction between your experience and sleep paralysis? I've experienced that as well and it sounds pretty much the same as what you described.

a reply to: VP740

Yes, I was just getting ready to tell bodicelli and you had already asked!!! How cool?
Anyways, I did!!! OK, the first thing that makes me feel it wasn't sleep paralysis is because sleep paralysis is beleived to happen during REM, the fourth cycle of sleep, so you've already been out for like an hour or more then wake up unable to move for a minute, because your bodies still super relaxed. Where as what happened to me as I fell asleep, or kinda before it ... In between yah know?

And the second thing that makes me wonder at least, is to go back and figure it out I googled : shadow people/sleep paralysis and I wouldn't say its common, but many people have had a similar experience as we had. There are a bunch of links where you can read their experiences and its kind of freaky. I know I sound crazy, but I thought I've seen a shadow person before, not when those experiences happen, but... So maybe they exist, maybe I imagined it, I'm starting to doubt the experience even though at the time I was positive I'd seen a Shadow person. I guess that parts neither here nor there, but reading some of the stories really makes one unsure.

a reply to: Boticelli

I wrote a reply to VP740, but it I think was meant for you, because you said you thought yours was sleep paralysis. I told you I'd look up why I didn't think at least that mine was sleep paralysis. So I hope that gives you more info and something to look into anyways!!! Peace.

a reply to: NaughtyLibrarian

Sleep paralysis is classified as hypnagogia (while falling asleep) and hypnopompia (while waking). Apparently it's most common in narcoleptics who can experience it at any time though. Regardless of what it's called, I'd say it's definitely all related. Personally I've experienced it: before falling asleep as a young child, while waking up as a teenager, and in the middle of the night (I wake up, then go back to sleep) as an adult. People can sometimes get different symptoms from the same disease (not that this is necessarily a disease). When the brain (or mind if you prefer) does quirky things, I think it'll be less by the book than a simple virus. Once as a child I wasn't even paralyzed! That's just in one man, almost certainly all coming from the same root cause. Imagine how much it can vary from person to person!

While researching hypnagogia (used interchangeably with all forms of sleep paralysis), I came across a number of things that rang true. For instance it's supposed to happen most frequently when sleeping on your back. Almost every time I remember it I was sleeping on my back (which isn't how I sleep most of the time). I've heard of people trying to deliberately bring on the experience. The method used is to try to relax and hold your attention on one image as you fall asleep. Maybe you're doing that by accident?

a reply to: VP740

To be honest with you, I'm pretty sure I was on my back each of the times this happened. And without a doubt I was super relaxed to be able to fall asleep so quickly. So, I'm definitely not ruling it out. I realize I have to be logical, and yet part of me still wants to trust my feelings about it, which is that it was something else.

a reply to: NaughtyLibrarian

Well, for what it's worth I can describe some of my own experiences and some theories I've drawn from them.

I've been an insomniac my whole life. I was born with RH disease. I think it's possible I suffered miner brain damage as a consequence; that could explain some things. Often while lying awake at night I'd drift into a calm pleasant state of mind. I didn't think of it as being between asleep and awake, but perhaps that's appropriate. As the brain shifts from awake to asleep it can leave parts of your mind awake. In that case you could go into REM, or have a nightmare while being awake (nightmare means night demon. It originally referred to sleep paralysis). Once in a while I'd see things early in the night before falling asleep; like a hand reaching up next to my bed, or a portal opening with the shadowy figure of a werewolf behind it. I'd freeze from fear. I didn't try to move. Once (I think this was early in the morning) I was lying in the calm state and pulled my blanket over my head without thinking (a normal thing for me to do). It was a blue blanket, but after I covered myself with it it burned read, like coals in a fire (it looked that way, but it felt normal). I panicked and sat up and started pulling the rest of the blanket over my head trying to get out from the end that covered my feet. I felt like it was taking a very long time, but looking back now it probably just seemed that way because of the fear. Before I got out, an ugly mask with sharp teeth flew in front of my face (it seemed like I could see it through the blanket). I froze. Before I could do anything else, everything faded back to normal. I then pulled the last piece of the blanket off and I was free. My family told me it was all just dreams. But I knew what dreams were. These certainly weren't dreams. My older brother told me that even though I was awake the dreams were still in my head. I'd never heard of such a thing and it sounded ridiculous to me. And if I couldn't trust my own eyes, what could I trust? At the time I interpreted all those things as demons. I thought when the blanket turned red the 'mask' was trying to trap me in its dimension. The experience stopped for years until I became a teenager.

As a teenager the experiences were more frequent and more intense than any other time in my life (I'd go through it on a semi-weekly basis). The terror during these episodes was incredible, way beyond any fear I've experienced from the rest of my life; and no matter how I struggled to move, I couldn't. But when I came out of it, the fear just melted away. It's a weird feeling, hard to describe. Sort of like coming from freezing cold into a warm comfortable home. Also at this time; my sleep-cycle was completely screwed up. No longer did I just stay in bed at night and stay awake in the day; I woke up and went to bed at seemingly random intervals. The hallucinations as a teenager were of aliens. In one instance I woke up seeing a very tall gray alien at the foot of my bed. It wasn't a classic Gray, it looked like it was out of a low budget sy-fy from the fifties. It wore a cape with an elaborate collar that stuck up over its head. It was like I could feel evil radiating from it. I tried asking "who are you?", but nothing would come out but heavy breathing. I tried with all my might to kick it, but my leg only twitched. Then everything faded back to normal and I got out of bed. In another instance I saw a large green light come down outside my window. I felt myself sliding toward the foot of my bed. I actually felt the friction as I dragged down. I heard the sheets rubbing against me. I saw the parallax effect from the motion. Nothing seemed at all like an illusion. After calling to god for help in a silent prayer, the light faded from green, to yellow, to orange, to red, and it floated up and away. Everything was normal once again. I barely fit in my bed then. My head was at the top, and my feet were at the bottom. If I moved anywhere near as far as it seemed, my feet would have been sticking a few feet over the end of the bed. That was enough to convince me I couldn't even trust my eyes. Whether awake or in dreams, our brain creates everything we experience. I think most of what we experience while awake is based on the 'real' world, but it's still a construct of the brain. So we can never truly know or experience the real world.

The experience was absent for years in my early adult life; until one night I awoke to see a lightening bolt come down from the light bulb in the middle of my room. There was a weird light and I could sense, but not see a UFO flying around outside. I knew what was happening (hypnogogia) and I wanted to get away. I struggled with all my might to turn my head. I noticed my breathing intensified as if I were exerting myself, but my muscles were relaxed. When I managed to turn my head everything returned to normal. There was nothing left to get away from. I didn't feel hungry or anything, so I just went back to sleep. It's happened every few years since then. Once I saw a big ugly rat come and start chewing on the back of my hand (I wasn't laying on my back this time). I pulled myself out of it and went back to sleep (no marks were left from the rat bites when I awoke). There's still some mild fear when it happens, but nothing near what I felt as a teenager. I've learned to get out of it by moving. Just a theory: in addition to your muscles being inhibited, I think your brain's inverse kinematic system is also down. In other words: you'll find it impossible to perform actions requiring the subconscious coordination of various muscles. If you focus on flexing a specific muscle you may have more luck.

I've had other experiences; usually hearing music when I wake up. I've seen hallucinations when waking up at times without the fear (a long time ago). I've had my eyes open while dreaming before I woke up (the transition from dream to wake is odd and disorienting in that circumstance).

Not sure any of this means anything to you, but it's been nice talking.

a reply to: VP740

Thank you! Don't worry, I'm not sure if any of this means anything although I tend to believe in synchronicity and that there are no coincidences... So I'd like to think it means something... For all I know it could be as simple as the subconscious manufacturing these fear experiences to release chemicals to the body that it needs. I just don't know. For all I know it happened so that we'd have this conversation or so that someone we don't even know would read this article and take something from it... Who knows. The big picture is just too big for any one mind to grasp I think. We're not meant to know, or we would.
In any event, I am grateful that you shared your experiences and look forward to seeing you around in this site, it seems like you have a lot to contribute by way of experience, knowledge, and ideas.
I will say, that I get a sense that we were definitely meant to interact with one another. Thanks again!!!

a reply to: NaughtyLibrarian

Thread hopping here, I love talking about this stuff. Particularly when I get to read up on everyone else's experiences.