Did i see something or did i hallucinate?

Well to start my story there about a month long period during my life where i suffered from "sleep paralysis". At the time i had no idea what i was going through i thought i was possessed to be honest. Almost every night i would wake up and not be able to move or talk except for being able to roll my eyes around. It a horrific feeling that i cannot explain enough in words and i guess you would have to experience it to know what i mean. You feel a presence of evil around you when this happens and even sometimes hallucinate things which i did. When i did see things i was still totally paralyzed and had no choice but to stare at it. Now after learning what i was going through due to the wonderful Google search engine i really didn't fear it anymore because i knew it wasn't real and couldn't hurt me. That's all beside the point of this post. During the end of that horrible month i had a nightmare. I didn't remember the details of it just that it ended with me being engulfed by smoke. I suddenly woke from this nightmare to find something hovering in my face. Now this was not like any episode i had before because i could move/scream etc. and by natural reflex's i tried to swat the thing. It proceeded to float to the corner of the room stare at me for a second and vanish. Now my question to anybody who has any similar experiences or knowledge of it. Did i see something for real or was it another hallucination due to sleep paralysis.

reply to post by Hopefromabove


No one can really know if you saw what you think apart from yourself and even then you can't be sure.

If it helps I have had sleep paralysis, and I have also had some very odd visual hallucinations when I wake up. Once I woke up and my duvet / walls of my house and everything else were all a different colour to what they actually are.
The walls were yellow instead of red, and the duvet was completely different.
I looked around in a confused way for a minute before immediately falling back to sleep, when I woke up again everything was back to normal

reply to post by davespanners


yea its just the thing that bugs me is every time i had an episode i was completely paralyzed but when i saw that..whatever it was i had no symptoms of sleep paralysis.. i don't know bugs me to this day.

Originally posted by Hopefromabove
Did i see something for real or was it another hallucination due to sleep paralysis.

Originally posted by Hopefromabove
.whatever it was i had no symptoms of sleep paralysis..

I'd say you pretty much whittled it down there

reply to post by Hopefromabove
I experienced sleep paralysis a few times back in the 70's I don't remember how,or why and this was way before the internet,before I read anything about paranormal experiences,aliens or any other beings.I do remember feeling I couldn't move and as though someone watching me
and have not had it since.It was alot more intense than I can describe you know what I mean?,I believe there is more to it than the usual explanation of your brain waking up before your muscles do.I am far from a scientist but that my 3cents worth.

Well, you certainly present an openminded case and I doubt none of your details. I've experienced sleep paralysis myself and it was fairly intense with the common symptoms.

Apart from that experience which I easily attributed to the "common" scientific answer, I have come to the conclusion that an extra-dimensional world inhabited by impressive intelligences does exist.

So, I think, after your last experience, you have alot to think about! Peace & goodluck on it. S&F for your straight-foward report & interesting postulation.

Did the hair on the back of your neck stand up? its usually a pretty good sign something was in the room with you. Dont forget our entire nervous system is run by mild electricity. If you ever did that old school experiment, placing your hands on the device, receiving the mild electric current the hair on your head stands up. Well its similar when they are nearby, we are simply transducing their electrical signature to ours

Wow..thats very creepy!
I also suffer from SP, and sometimes have woken up KNOWING that Im smoking a cigarette and looking for the ashtray to put it out.
I have hallucinated, but have never seen a creature/entity, yet, and hopefully wont. Sometimes Ive just seen an entirely different room than what Im in. I have however, felt a presence of something/someone in the room, as if they were watching me.
I dont know..it sounds nuts, but it almost feels like when this happens to me, that Im in another time or dimension. I know that doesnt sound logical, but how do we really know ? Maybe sometimes we slip past that thin veil of space/time while we sleep..maybe what you are seeing is real, as real as it can be in "our" world.

reply to post by Hopefromabove


I too have experienced sleep paralysis. One time I woke up on my left side to see a small hooded figure in a checked gown standing at the side of my bed. At first I thought it was my daughter as she used to come beside me when she was smaller, so I called out her name a couple of times. However, even as I was calling her name I realised it wasn't her. A fear started to well up and as it did the figure started to float higher by the side of the bed. By this time, and it was probably only seconds, I was freaking out big time, screaming out, and I kicked out and up with my left leg and kicked the figure in the head and it immediately disappeared. My foot did not come into contact with anything solid. My heart was racing and I was too scared to get up. Eventually I got up and put on the tv. I slept with the tv on for days.

I am prone to waking up and I guess dragging my nightmares with me, as that's what it feels like. I'm awake, as in my eyes are open and I'm in my room but see things like tarantulas on my curtains and bedroom furniture. One time I woke up to see a huge a spider on my wardrobe, I realised it wasn't real, watched it for a bit then fell back asleep. This is the first time I realised it was not real and did not freak out i.e jumping out of bed, switching on the light to try and find a spider.

I experience sleep paralysis and nightmares mostly when I sleep on my back, well this seems to be the position I am in when I wake up. I have had some really scary experiences, well to me anyway.

I know exactly how you feel.

I'm kinda new to these parts of ATS, but I can totally relate what everyone says about sleep paralysis. The strong "impending doom"-feeling of absolute terror as a result of feeling watched, and all.

I know I always kind of hear myself screaming in my head when I suffer from it as well, despite not being able to.


On topic though: How would you describe this "thing"? Perhaps it was some sort of mental artefact from your dream? Kind of how you stare at a bright light-source and you get a spot in your field of vision.

reply to post by Jasper107


Wow, that's pretty intense & seems to share much in common with the OP's experience. Crazy stuff, I'm curious to hear from others too.

reply to post by aboveGoos


I have the impending doom feeling, as well, but mine is more along the lines of..if I dont wake up, I know im dead..I can feel myself actually dying, and the fear is indescribable. Im asleep, but I know I MUST wake up, and I cant! I wonder what is is, all of us are actually going through, its so strange that we all see, or feel things that arent there in actuality. It such a common theme, that it's hard for me to believe we are actually hallucinating.

reply to post by Yummy Freelunch


I also have experienced the impending doom feeling.....as in something is coming to get me. I have been totally awake (well eyes wide open) but paralysed, dreaming a bad dream or feeling something bad is about to happen to me if I don't wake up. I shout my partner's name in my dream to wake me up. However whilst this is going on, I'm lying on or in bed feeling awake.....difficult to describe. My partner says I have never said his name but make grunting noises or loud shouts. This is a regular occurance which used to scare my daughter but bless her she still comes through and wakes me up because she's knows I'm having a scary dream.

Food for thought....I'm quite a worrier and try to analyse most things. I dream most nights and can remember dreams from years ago. My partner is the complete opposite to me and never remembers his dreams. In fact he he says he never dreams, whereas I feel I fall asleep and wake up somewhere else.....feels like I lead a double life and am always shattered the next day as if I have not slept...even though I know I have.

Originally posted by aboveGoos

On topic though: How would you describe this "thing"? Perhaps it was some sort of mental artefact from your dream? Kind of how you stare at a bright light-source and you get a spot in your field of vision.

The figure had nothing to do with the nightmare i had b4 suddenly waking up. I dont know how to describe it except that it was RIGHT in my face like eye to eye when i woke..it had a head i guess and eyes cuz we stared for a second or two. I just dont get why i was able to move and attempt to swipe at it as in my previous "episodes" i couldnt do a thing..maybe this was something else i dont know.

I have two theories on what could really be going on here. Keep in mind these are my own and are not fact at all. They are wayyyy out there but hey that's what this website is about.

Theory #1: Instead of going by the science of sleep paralysis about your mind and muscles etc. maybe you simply are possessed by something that is doing this to you cause lets be honest i get the whole not being able to move aspect but seeing things and feeling evil and feeling impeding doom, sorry not normal, not science. Now whatever was "possessing me" maybe somehow my body rejected it during that nightmare which is why it was so close to me when i woke. Because after that it NEVER happened again.

Theory #2: Well maybe we were abducted in our sleep and the paralysis is a result of that. Isn't criteria for most abduction cases paralysis?

Thoughts?

It's really tough to say... I like to never doubt anything I see, I never blame hallucinations, mental disorders of any sort such as depression and what not, anything going on in your life I wouldn't blame even though from studies apparently it is likely that people going through certain things may 'hallucinate'.
I never like to think it's imagination or anything except for reality.

If you were able to move and swat at it, scream if you wanted to, and all that stuff but with your other experiences you were completely paralyzed, I'd say it's very likely this thing was actually there and that it wasn't just a figment of your imagination or anything else... You said it moved and stared at you for a bit before vanishing?
It seems likely there was some sort of entity there, I would think so personally anyway.

However, since it happened right after a nightmare where you were engulfed in smoke, and this thing, from what you explained it as seemed like some sort of 'fog' or 'smoke', it could have just been your mind playing tricks on you right after you woke up, because I think after a dream your mind is still partially in the dream until you spend some time actually waking up.

Keep us updated, maybe it will happen again sometime.

Originally posted by Jasper107
reply to post by Hopefromabove

 

I too have experienced sleep paralysis. One time I woke up on my left side to see a small hooded figure in a checked gown standing at the side of my bed. At first I thought it was my daughter as she used to come beside me when she was smaller, so I called out her name a couple of times. However, even as I was calling her name I realised it wasn't her. A fear started to well up and as it did the figure started to float higher by the side of the bed. By this time, and it was probably only seconds, I was freaking out big time, screaming out, and I kicked out and up with my left leg and kicked the figure in the head and it immediately disappeared. My foot did not come into contact with anything solid. My heart was racing and I was too scared to get up. Eventually I got up and put on the tv. I slept with the tv on for days.

I am prone to waking up and I guess dragging my nightmares with me, as that's what it feels like. I'm awake, as in my eyes are open and I'm in my room but see things like tarantulas on my curtains and bedroom furniture. One time I woke up to see a huge a spider on my wardrobe, I realised it wasn't real, watched it for a bit then fell back asleep. This is the first time I realised it was not real and did not freak out i.e jumping out of bed, switching on the light to try and find a spider.

I experience sleep paralysis and nightmares mostly when I sleep on my back, well this seems to be the position I am in when I wake up. I have had some really scary experiences, well to me anyway.

I know exactly how you feel.

Sorry I really don't mean to question you Jasper. But you said this was an experience of your SP, but were still able to move/scream/lash out? Also I'm assuming you kicked out/up with your right leg??

I like to look deeper into peoples personal experiences and try to picture them best I can, so again I apologise for seeming as though I'm calling your experience into question it must have been frightening for you...

reply to post by A55A551N


Hey, that's no problem at all. I re-read my post and it does seem a bit misleading. To clarify I have experienced Sleep Paralysis many times. However on the occasion described in my initial post I did not have sleep paralysis although the rest of my story is very true. Apologies for the confusion

Hope you find the answers you are looking for. I don't have any answers for my experiences and have just learned to live with them .