Sleep Paralysis- specifically describe the presence/witch/shadow/ghost etc

Here is what my sleep paralysis episodes are like. I usually get them whe nI am overtired from lack of sleep. I begin to fall asleep, but then that deep sinking feeling starts. I try to move but cant. I feel a buzzing vibration in between my eyes. I sometimes feel as though I am in a different dimension, no longer in my room. Or I feel as though I am outside the house and there is lightning and thunder. At times I feel the covers being pulled off of me, terrified I struggle to move and break free. I usually do. The worst is I am laying there frozen, and I can feel (I can't see at all) small creatures frantically pushing me up and down in the bed, breathing and snorting at a fast rate into my ears. Sometimes I feel as though i am being raised upwards, as opposed to the sinking sensation. As a small boy I remember having fevers, and a few times I floated right out of my body and hit the ceiling of my bedroom, I felt like a speck and the room looked huge from up there. I was then "pulled" along an invisible track with a painful buxxing feeling, I had no control, it was like a bad ride at an amusement park and it wasn't over until i reached the other end of the ceiling. OK, here is a strange one, will anybody out there tell me if this has happened to you, or if your brave try it. My wife bought us a new cordless phone, and it has BLUE LED lights on it. She put it in our bedroom, and for two nights I didn't sleep soundly, I kept feeling a precense in the room, I opened my eyes and in that dim blue haze, I swear I saw these large dark shadowy beings walking around in our room. it was damn scary. I told her the phone and chargere was going to be put in the spare bedroom, my experiences stopped.My wife never had an incident, she claims she very rarely remembers even dreaming. I had a customer at work bring back a router, he was irritated that the blinking lights, and the blue light in particular, kept him from sleeping. Try it and let me know.

[edit on 28-4-2010 by jymmyjaymes]

I've had SP since I was little and don't usually get visual hallucinations, but almost always auditory ones. 9 out of 10 times, I would hear an male voice speaking evil gibberish and laughing in an evil manner. The voice gets louder the more I panic.

Sometimes I hear a female voice instead, but no matter what, the voice is always menacing and evil.

The closest I came to sensing an entity and not just a voice was a month ago, I woke up and couldn't move, so I was struggling to wake up and talk to my husband because I could hear and see a person over me. When I finally was able to wake up, he said he wasn't in the room.

These days it's more annoying than scary usually. I have really bad eyesight so I wonder if that's what's causing me to not "see" the entity.

I wonder if SP is a genetic disorder. Turns out my brother had it when he was young too, but he had visual hallucinations as well as hearing the evil voice. He'd see a man's face pop out of the wall and say the evil gibberish to him.

And my mom told me a long time ago how a ghost sat on her on her honeymoon, so I assume she had SP as well.

You can ask me, im a so called "seasoned" sleep paralysis victim.

I used to have them almost everyday for a period of time. I don't have any now though.

I don't remember seeing any witches, ghosts or stuff. Anyway in sleep paralysis, everything is a figment of your imagination. But I do remember vividly a shoe attacking me (Hilarious I know but was frightening then).

One common theme I always had is a sensation of floating, vibrations and a constant humming noise in the head. Also initially i had a impending sense of doom most of you would have felt too.

I have had this all my life. I have learned it only happens when I sleep on my back. Mostly it was just demon like creatures but the most frightening one was like a golden energy that was trying to posses my body. I could feel its vibrations against my skin like it was trying to get inside of my body.

I started having sleep paralysis my senior year of high school when I turned 18, I am 21 now. It went on for 2 years constantly happening every other night, if not every night, until I moved away to college. It still happens from time to time, but not every night like it used to when I lived back home. It always happened between 2-4am, when im in REM sleep. It’s funny how it hardly ever happens anymore but when I go home it starts back up again, really weird. Anyways I have always fought it and could feel a presence but was never brave enough to open my eyes; I have always kept them closed up until recently.

I have had so many interactions with these things I've finaly just gotten used to them. Ive been researching astral projection for a while now and have had 1 succesfull obe on my own. I was laying in bed a couple months ago and when sp came over me i woke up but it was at about 75% so there wasnt soo much fear as there usually is. So, I tell myself ok herse your chance and start trying to rise out of my body and a couple sec's later im floating above my body for 20secs, pretty sweet.

However, I have had other encounters where something has run its hand down my stomach and grabbed my stuff down there lol. It wasnt fun at the time, but later I thought it was kinda cool to get molested by a incubuss or whatever they call it.

Now, the other day it happend again, this time I actually got scared. I didnt mean to but I opened my eyes and could see a shadow ontop of me holding down my hands as I was fighting it, while im awake but cant move. That wasnt very fun at the time.

From what Ive read, these are low energy beings which feed off of fear/emotions. Ive also hear that these beings are around alot of places in which there is alot of lust at. Maybe if your a lustful person that gives off a low energy of some kind, idk i just heard that

Edit: Also I get vibrations to, comes from the center of my head, my thoughts are that its coming from the pineal gland?

[edit on 4-5-2010 by keyboard warrior]

I have had two of these experiences when I was a teenager. I am in my 20's now. The first time I remember waking up and my body was really heavy. I couldn't move it. I remember seeing a black mass go over my body and that was what really scared me. I tried to call for my mother but nothing was coming out of my mouth. The black mass seem to just disappear at once when my body went back to normal. The second time was a few days after and it was the pretty much the same experience. The only difference was instead of the black mass it was a dark figure of a male going over me.

These are my only experiences of having sleep paralysis.

Below is a copy-pasted comment from my thread in the Gray Area ('Hands up if you're a little confused'). This section deals entirely with a particularly nasty sleep paralysis episode I had (and its after-effects):




Thought I'd share a key aspect of the more surreal and terrifying events that occurred when I was a bit younger. This is one of those things that I didn't really want to confront before, and even now, the potential meaning of the event scares the living **** out of me.

Bit of background to the event:

I was in hostels aged around 17/18. I was being kicked from place to place for minor reasons bordering on the ridiculous (such as being unable, for two weeks, to pay the £22 per week service charge - as a result of delays in claiming a benefit I was entitled to).

Anyway, eventually (after three stays at three different hostels, each span ending for equally silly reasons beyond my control), I was put in a bail hostel. Effectively a halfway house for violent adult criminals and sex offenders who had just been released from prison. Certainly not the place that a mentally anxious and vulnerable young man should be dispensed to by a local authority with a duty of care.

Various events took place in the hostel; none of which were pleasant. Assault, theft, incitement to criminal activity, incitement to hard drug use - mental abuse in the form of deliberate fear-inducement being employed by other tenants 'for fun'.

One night, while suffering the effects of a combination of 'delusional' and real fears caused by various events, I eventually managed to get to sleep. I awoke early in the morning - around 4am. I sensed a presence in the room with me; a female presence, though there was no-one visible. I tried to move, but was under a form of hypnopompic paralysis. The room around me was blurred to my vision, but as with a former 'out of body' experience, I was very much conscious of the fact that I was not dreaming in the normal sense.

The female figure lay down on top of my paralysed form. At first, it seemed quite 'arousing', and there was a dark sensuality about her presence. She leaned in to kiss me, and my response was to kiss back (naturally red-blooded man that I am). Despite the fact that the experience was completely surreal, I was in full charge of my mental faculties. As the kiss tool place, an entirely unexpected thing occurred. A ball of jelly-like material was passed from her mouth to mine. It felt like what I imagine the texture of 'frogspawn' would feel like if one were odd enough to want to ingest it, but was about the size of a golf ball.

The moment that the 'thing' had gone into my mouth, it made its way down my throat - how, I don't know - it seemed somehow self-propelled.

As soon as that had occurred, the presence vanished, the room cleared in my vision and I transitioned to full control of my body within seconds. I was obviously shocked, scared, and very confused about what had just happened. I tried to shake off the experience as some kind of dream, but was confident that something very real had just taken place.

The next day, things got worse. I started to experience strong pains in my stomach - accompanied by a movement, akin to that of a wriggling worm or snake (the sensation was equivalent to the movements such creatures make when they are observed in ordinary environments). To explain the pain, it was of a similar intensity to the pain I experienced the following summer when I suffered pancreatitis due to over-consumption of alcohol. To those who have no idea what that feels like, it literally stops you from breathing - morphine is needed to prevent you from passing out due to oxygen starvation. It makes you feel as though someone has jabbed a knife into your insides, and is pushing and twisting it about. I am not kidding - the pain was beyond any other pain I have ever experienced. The movement sensations continued for weeks afterwards - accompanied on occasion by visible movement under the surface of the skin at the front and sides of my abdomen.

A few days after the initial event, I started to fear that a living creature had been implanted into me. I was reading the local free newspaper, and saw a cartoon which had a pigeon, looking very confused, and a speech bubble coming out from its stomach, saying 'hello..?' An hour or so later, one of the key 'abusers' living in the hostel walked into the common sitting room I was in and said - "How're you feeling pigeon..?" His grin was nothing short of demonic - I kid you not. He then laughed (manically) and said "It's beejebub".

Now what the **** does that mean..? I associated it at the time with the idea that each of us has a 'personal devil' ('be-e-jebub' sounds similar to 'be-el-zebub').

Much later on (a year or so later) I was taken on a group outing to watch a new film that had been much-hyped by the industry and media. It was called 'The Matrix'. And you'll understand that the scene wherein the agents implant the character Neo (Keanu Reeves) with a worm-like electronic device, scared the living **** out of me.

Now, over time, I got used to the fact that there seemed to be some kind of creature/device living inside me. That can only be understood if you live through such a thing for yourself. Intermittently, it has crippled me for up to an hour, preventing me from doing whatever I was doing; it's impossible to try and explain to people that there's no point going to a hospital. Even now, ten years later, the damn thing still wakes me at night, wriggling round in my abdomen, spiking my insides and causing the same intense and insufferable pain, visible movements observable under my skin.

If anyone has heard of a precedent for such things, I would like to know about it. I have never told anyone of any of the things I've just covered in this post.

To be honest, one of the most scary aspects of this experience is that once, years after, while reading the Bible, I came across the following passage in the book of Isaiah (Old Testament), describing the fate that would befall those that had rebelled against God at the 'End of Time':

"And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (Isaiah 66:24)



Please help me out if you know anything about these things - it's scary stuff to live with.


Noah.

I will never forget the horrifying shadow that I saw during sleep paralysis. It was the shadow of a huge rams head. Unable to run like I wanted to do, I had to lay there in total fear. The ram looked and felt evil. I started reciting "The Lord's Prayer" and a bright light appeared hovering over my bed. It was such a pleasant presence. Peaceful, yet powerful and strong. The light seemed to defeat the ram because it disappeared. I always felt like there was a powerful message to me in that experience.

I am a lifelong victim to sleep paralysis, and all my friends I've told thought I was crazy. I still get it, but not AS often now - but still fairly regularly (I'm 29 now). I believe there is far more to sleep and to the mind than just merely "dreaming." However, sleep paralysis visions and sounds I do feel are mostly just hallucinations, but still terrifying.

I always find it interesting hearing the experiences of others, because everyone's SP is similar, yet involves something slightly different, something that they fear more than other things and that influences it I believe. Some people see and hear the human evil entity, some experience some type or creature or monster, some experience some kind of animal like wolf or what not. Some experience just some terrifying unknown force or ball of light, etc.

Myself, it always involves something that I know is human, yet is nothing but pure evil incarnate. It's sick what our mind's can make up.

Anyway I've had hundreds upon hundreds of harrowing episodes, and I know others like to hear them too so here are a few of note:
------------

I remember one time I was trying to induce SP to have an OOBE, and when I felt myself drifting into the state I fought mightily against it to no avail. Next thing I knew I was lying there with my eyes partially open, completely unable to move. Everything had an eerie night-time glow about it and I was completely cognizant and could see and hear everything happening. I immediately got a dry mouth and was close to panicking b/c I knew what was about to go down. A buddy I lived with must have had to T.V. on in the other room because I could distinctly hear it, it was like Rosanne or something, but it sounded different and weird in an eerie way. Then all of a sudden everything got "more real," the music and sound faded, and I saw the silloutte of a man walk slowly past the outside of my window across from my bed, I could see his silloutte walk past the billowing tree limbs.

To my horror, I saw the shadow of the window behind my shades begin to rise, and 2 pure white, disgustingly terrifying hands slipped onto the inside window sill, then he slowly pulled himself into my room. I tried to scream and yell, but nothing came obviously. He shambled over to the corner and was just standing there staring at me, he walked in a diseased and crippled manner. He was wearing a black robe and I couldn't make out a face, just darker there.

At this point I was completely panic stricken as my normal means for getting out of a SP were not working at all, this was far more intense than normal. One of the worst. I somehow forced myself to avert my eyes. Then I heard what I can only describe as someone meniaclly and frantically typing away and pounding at my keyboard at my desk, right next to my bed. I can't explain why, but it was probably the most horrifying moment of all, just typing in a panicked and frantic manner. So of course I strained my eyes over there (could barely move anything due to SP), and as I did he turned to look at me and leaned beside me. He spoke to me in hushed tones: "You see? Now I will show you why to be afraid." He began to take off his hood and reach for me and at this point I managed to fight free and jolted up with a yell.

Simply horrible.
-------

Another time I was again trying to induce an OOBE, and fell into sleep paralysis. I read somewhere that you shouldn't fight it, but just give in to the evil force or whatever it is, because it's not really evil, just your mind trying to stop you from "something."

Anyway I'm lying there and not seeing anything, just building intensity. I hear murmurs and laughter, so start panicking. This same entity I described before then appears outside my room and stands in the doorway. He crouches low and began crawling toward my bed, occasionally going out of site, making it even more scary. The moments I could see him, he would occasionally collapse like he had dislocated joints all over and continue closer. It was really bad. Next thing I know I see him rising from the foot of my bed, and he kneeled on it and began climbing towards me. At this point I'm thinking, "Ok F--- this, I need to wake up NOW!!!" Usually I can, but this time is so much more intense that I can't. He gets to me and lies next to me and it feels like my heart is going to burst through my chest, literally. Then I start to feel pressure on my chest and see him pushing down on it. He started saying things to me like "Do you believe?" and "Look what you've done" and then even started yelling, sort of like he was panicking himself, which made it even worse - like some maniac. Anyway at that point I somehow forced myself to roll over and completely fell out of bed and banged my shoulder pretty good.


Anyway, those are just 2 of my hundreds of episodes, every time I have them nowadays they're just getting worse.

[edit on 7-6-2010 by Ajax]

what do you call something like this?

I will add to the discussion but I really can't be bothered explaining it again so 1st post of this thread explains.

I have had another SP since then and decided to relax (while my body was vibrating) and then I was OB floating above my body. Not as scary as the first episode but then there was not a presence there the second time.

I have two stories. One not so serious, another one that was experienced by my girlfriend that had total three people see it (which would be more crediable, since the saying goes, reality is judged best if there is a second witness).

Actually, I redited this post. I have a lot of sleep paraylsis, just like my dad. I once saw "something" that freaked me out. It was more of a presence hiding. This was a very realistic experience, nothing big. Another time, i heard my window open and felt the weight of the floorboards crack, and I heard it whisper to me saying that if i opened my eyes it would kill me. I was fully awake (or felt I was) and when i opened my eyes i got into a fighting stance and was basically waiting to kill or be killed. I searched the apartment, and found nothing. This second occurence didnt feel supernatural like the first, it felt like there was someone robbing my house. Also, nothing serious... the real one is what follows.. which happened to my gf.

Now... my girlfriend. She saw the shadowperson in full form... now... her mom saw it too... same night, plus so did her dad. Those were 6 eyes and three brains that registered a shadowbeing in their presence on the same night. One refused to admit it ( which was the dad, went to go see a shaman in an Indian reserve, and thats when they found out he saw it too that night). My girlfriend refused to speak about unless I am with her, and her mom was wrote to a paranormal show about it (nothing happened from her letter). My GF ended up seeing it again, and I was in her house, it came at her from the stairs, I was actualy down those stairs sleeping on the coach (we had a fight...) and she begged me to go up, and she refused to tell me she saw them until many days later. I didnt see anything tho, I was chillin watching familyguy downstairs, which made me think this time it really was a nightmare she had, especially since we had a fight.

When it comes to actual sleep paralysis, I would remember that I would always hear something like electrical current flowing. Like shizzzzzzzzzz. I dont think its anything supernatural though, I noticed one that I forced myself to get up and walk, and the form of my body as i tried to walk was exactly the same position as when I slept (which means my friggen face was mushed in and i was walking crooked and slanted, because that was how i was sleeping).

My dad freaked out and told me never to panic, because it can kill me. And to just relax... and wait.

To me, it just means what science says it means... a part of you brain wakes up before you body does.

reply to post by ammocase


I'd agree with the scientific statement - however, I believe that during sleep or altered states, our consciousness can somehow tap into other, lower-order astral realms from time-to-time.

Sometimes these experiences are straightforward dreams playing out before our eyes; at others I am convinced that there is a possibility we are witnessing inter-dimensional beings taking advantage of the anxiety/ energy signature given off by an individual in SP.

Whether for energetic or associative experience with a human, or simply to enjoy tormenting the sufferer, I couldn't say. In most cases it seems to be a macabre, sadistic sport to them.

My personal advice for anyone who has come across tormenting entities while in this SP condition? Stay focused; don't fear. Know your position and your enemy - hold true to a pure cause of self-enlightenment. There are entities who can and will assist, if you channel your daily thoughts / actions correctly. The shadows will always flee from the light of a thousand suns.

Take care,


Noah.

My first sleep paralysis experience occurred during my freshman year of college. I was sleeping in my dorm about halfway through the school year. I had a dream that I couldn't remember well, and as I was waking up, I was completely paralyzed. I couldn't open my eyes, lift my arms, or even wiggle my fingers. Slowly, as my eyes grew less heavy, I made out a figure standing in my open closet at the foot of my bed. It was very tall and had the distinct "alien look" - elongated head, tall, grey, with long hands and fingers. I didn't dare look into its eyes.
I don't really remember how it left, but I think it was just the last bit of a dream I was having and, terrified, I shut my eyes tight. When I reopened them, I looked over at my roommate who was fast asleep in the bed beside me.

Oh! I'm sorry, I got it backward - my actual first experience with SP was when I was about 17 years old. I was sleeping in my dad's new house and having a nightmare in which I was being tortured. I was flat on my back on a cold solid surface and a figure above me in armour(?) was holding a huge, metal spear aimed at a little target painted on my chest. Just as the spear came thrusting down, I awoke - but very slowly, paralyzed, and feeling like I had the wind knocked out of me. I felt pressure on my chest where the spear came down in my dream and it definitely kept me from sleeping much more that night.

I never realized how many of these SP experiences included figures and shadows...

I've had sleep paralysis occur 2 or 3 times.

First time was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. I was a freshman in college and living in an apartment with one other guy. It was pretty early in the morning (about 7 am) and I was alone. I think I might have been a little sleep deprived during the week this occurred, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I woke up, and I was on my back. I could not move at all, and suddenly felt a horrible presence around me. I saw from the corner of my eye a shadow move from the door to on top of my chest. I felt like it was pulling something out of me. At this point, I thought I was dying, and this was the Angel of Death pulling my soul out. I tried to yell out or move, but I could not. Eventually, this presence and feeling left, and I snapped out of it. When I actually got up, I felt like the entire apartment had a dark presence living in it. Even to this day, I sometimes feel like something is not right about the place, like there might be a mischievous Jinn lurking around.

The second time I was in a hotel room with a friend. We were away from home and I accompanied him for a job interview. While in the room before going to sleep, I felt like something was wrong--like there was something sinister about the room. At about 5 am, I awoke, in a state of sleep paralysis. It was not nearly as bad as my 1st experience, but it was still a bit frightening. This time I tried to fight the negativity though. Eventually I was able to get up. We checked out that afternoon.

[edit on 1-8-2010 by muftanan]

It's happened to me soo many times I can actually break free from it.

It's takes alot though, it's hard enough just to wiggle my big toe, but I actually can do it.

But recently I know for a fact, that it was a stronger force than before.
About a week ago, I kept trying and trying to move, and could'nt move my toe, I kept trying and trying, and nothing. Then in my head I opened my mouth and a very loud scream came out, like a very odd kind of scream, I got up afterwards and felt my ears ringing.

And here's another incident.

I had just fallen asleep, and it felt like as soon I did, I saw a horse jump into my window vanished as soon as it went through the screen. Then right after I was unable to move, and was feeling a strong pressure on my shoulder. While I kept trying to move and wake myself, my body felt like it was shaking. I was able to move after that.

For some reason, it happens to me alot.
Could be something medical, but most likely not, since im in good condition (I hope)

I had sleep paralysis ever since I was a kid. I'm not sure the precise age that it started though. I hadn't had one for a little more than a year now. Again, this is just an estimation because I don't really track the episodes down. I lost track on how many I had but it happens a few times a month.

When I get sleep paralysis, sometimes I see something, while sometimes I don't. What I see, I cannot clearly see so I have no idea what I'm seeing. Hence, there is no "attacker" per-se that I saw.

When I get sleep paralysis, the first thing I do is to open my eyes asap - which is near impossible to do. Every time I get SP I can get a 1/3rd of my eyelid open so I do know that I'm awake. Around half the time of the SP episodes the lights are on. Yes. Sometimes, we do sleep with the lights on.

The more memorable episodes that I got into was my first remembered SP which occured maybe when I was less than 10 years old (I don't really track things down). I woke up and cannot move but I can slightly open my eyes. What I see that is looking down before me was a head that is sort (like a gray alien head with a thick neck) of silhouetted so I can't see the face. The lights were dim as well. Turns out, it was just one of the frills in a pillow (I was a kid back then so I never really cared if my pillowcase was frilly).

Another one with visuals happened probably around 5 years or so ago. An SP episode then a vision of a slow-rotating tunnel of fire. It turns out that since my eyes were 1/3rd open, I was seeing the television which was turned on at the time.

There was also an SP episode with visuals that I saw giant versions of bugs (centipedes, cockroaches, pillbugs) across the floor. I think they were a foot long. At this phase, I didn't really feel afraid while seeing the critters moving about on the floor while I was paralyzed since I was familiar that I'm just having SP. After 5 minutes or so of struggling, I finally got up and the things slowly faded after around 10 seconds or so.

All of the SP + visuals that I shared above happened with the lights on except for the first one.

There was also a way to easily get out of SP that a friend told me a while back. It's very simple really. Just move your toe. One toe is enough and voila. You're out of SP in an instant. I only tried this twice because most of the time I felt panicked and I usually move my whole body to get out of it, which is pretty tough unlike the Toe Technique.

I've had several sleep paralsis episodes over the years and never actually seen anything. I've also had expereinces similar to sleep paralysis though, but instead of waking up paralyzed, I'd start to become paralyzed right as I'm about to doze off.

Like the night before last I had 3 in a row and each time seemed like something was trying to get in me through my back. At one point I thought I saw something that look like a mutated person. Had long arms but not really a neck and only noticed 1 big eye. It was the 3rd time it happened and that time it also felt like something was holding down my wrists and biting the back of my hand. I felt the pressure of the shoulders and a chest trying to push into my back. I wiggled my hands free from the paralysis and shouldered the feeling away then went and slept on the couch

It was kind of a freaky because earlier I went to visit my sister a few times and everytime I went in her place I would instantly get a nasty pinching feeling between my eyebrows and she was just zoning out looking at me like a zombie while saying she felt off. Then later my roommate was moaning and sounded scared and when I checked in she was laying with the covers pushed to her side and her arms flat at her side like he was tied down.

It was a spooky night!

reply to post by AllseeingEYE


Have you ever had sleep paralysis in a dream? Let me reword that. Have you ever woke up and you could not move? you recognize you are having sleep paralysis and you try to wake yourself up cant move talk, ect. After all of this you wake up to find yourself in another dream having sleep paralysis? If you need me to reword or elaborate please let me know.

reply to post by kiwifoot


I only experienced this once and it was a terrifying experience. In my case it was a lost love one hovering over me. The entire incident made no sense because this person in real life would never have attempted to frighten me, so I discounted it as a bad dream, but it was in the waking realm of the sleep cycle. In my experience it felt like my arms were pinned to the bed, and like something was pushing down on my body while I peered into my dead grandmothers face, not an experience I would like to go through again.