moved to Beyond Dreaming from dream diary forum 
I haven’t had an LD since I was a kid (I only just started trying again 2 days ago), but I was reading about spirit guides and it got me thinking. I had a recurring LD when I was a kid that I was being chased (in my home) by a man in a cloak who had an upside-down boot for a head (sure it sounds funny now but it wasnt at the time). I read somewhere that many people have an “evil” spirit guide, or a spirit guide that helps you with your fears, but will only talk to you after you prove yourself to it. It said that these spirit guides are often the things that chased you in your childhood dreams (sort of “preparing” you for the future). Could the boot-head man be one of my spirit guides? Also, as a child I had a dream (only I was awake, I am 100% sure I was awake) where a kind of half human/half snake figure made up of a glowing green outline appeared in my room and simply said “last night” and then began slowly hissing and moving towards my bed. I screamed at it and it disappeared. Any ideas?
interesting stuff…
i can’t say i have ever heard of anyone having an evil SG, and it doesnt sound too likely to me, but it wouldnt surprise me if an SG was trying to help you confront your fears. though im kinda hesitant to say that the thing that scares you is an SG in disguise.
all i can recommend regarding something that scares you in your dreams is to turn around, confront it, and make it harmless by way of words and/or fists, in that order. finding out what said scary thing is representing, is up to you.
My SG tried to help me confront my fears. It just scared the hell out of me.
Yea that makes more sense to me. But like I said, that was when I was a small child. It just intersted me that I possibly had already come into contact with my SG without even knowing it. But like you said, it probably wasnt an SG at all. What really interested me was the snake-man in my room, could that have been the old hag maybe?
According to my beliefs, SGs can’t be evil. They’re as human as you yourself—in fact, they’re pretty much part of you 
Moreover, I think they will follow your cultural patterns, so if you believe you have to deserve their help before getting it, that’s what will happen…
But that’s just my beliefs.
I wonder why you suppose those nightmarish characters to be SG’s. 
I remember an old dream account were a woman had reccuring nightmares which took place in her bedroom with a disturbing character. She managed to have a LD and to overcome her fear and when she asked him why he was frightening her, the character replied: “I didn’t want to frighten you. I was just here to protect you.” Thus it could be an example of a frightening SG.
Now reccuring nightmares are often provoked by psychoanalytic reasons, especially childhood dreams and it seems it was your case (snake, boots are sexual symbols).
I find it obvious that somebody can’t meet their SG if they are afraid of their dream world, so it could explain why some people say, in a sort of reverse thinking, that your SG “will only talk to you after you prove yourself to it.” Now I find it unsure that frightening dream characters may be SG’s themselves.
When we talk about the old hag, it concerns the rare cases of people experiencing sleep paralysis trouble episodes with nightmarish hallucinations. What you describe is nightmare without SP, so it’s not really the “old hag” phenomenon. Anyways, it’s rather common during nightmares (with or without SP) to feel an evil presence in the bedroom.
yea the thing about the evil SGs sounds about right to me, but the snake-man in my room was not just the feeling of an evil presence. I could see and hear it as clearly as I can see the computer screen right now and hear the music I’m listening to, and I was definately awake.
In that case, chances are it was just an old hag, don’t jump to the conclusion that it was your SG until you check with them first. Just look at the “Meeting your Spirit guide while awake” topic if you need to. 
From the sounds of it, it might have been nothing but an old hag, don’t worry about it.
I say it was all made up by your mind, since i think spirit guides are just some bullshit.
But that is my opinion…
I agree with Tomas that spirit guides are all in your head. But I mean, that’s how everything in a lucid dream is anyway. I’m sure a spirit guide could be evil if that’s how your mind wants it to be, but I do doubt that any of those beings could have been spirit guides.
Kewl