The BIG sleep paralysis and old hag topic Part V

the Stuff Dreams are made of...
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I’m certain i never experienced Old Hag.
I’m fairly certain i never experienced SP either. Or rather, that i never remembered it.

I want to.
As i read previous posts, the general consensus is that WILD is the path to it?
I’ve done quite a bit of WILDing. Recently for a week , i’ve actually trained myself enough to go deep enough to lose conscious thought but not slip into a normal dream or sleep, instead “waking” back within a few minutes. After several hours of this (i’d say ~7) i haven’t experienced body paralysis. It did feel distant, remote, it’s information flow very hampered, but i could move at any time. As a sidenote, if it’s relevant, i also didn’t succeed in producing a LD with WILD during this time. Normally when trying WILD, i simply fall deep enough to sleep or ND, without SP.
edit: Forgot another mention, dunno if it’s relevant either, but… During this week i also experienced an unusually high number of hypnogogic jerks, which are quite rare for me otherwise.

another edit^^:
I stumbled across stopdrop&roll thread (thanks Scipio Xaos!) and decided to give that a shot. WILD with resisting the body query “hello mind are you asleep” of roll over.

Any other suggestions as to how to try achieve it?
If i understood the term right, i’ll actually have trouble seeing Old Hag if i’m not afraid of the SP when it happens?

39

  1. Get lucid

  2. Get weapons

  3. Summon old hag

  4. Shoot that bitch

  5. ???

  6. Profit!

40

^^^ That was really insightful comment, thanks. rolls eyes

Anyways, I experience SP from time to time, and first I was scared, a lot. I didn’t know about SP back then and I had no clue what’s happening. I felt how I was falling asleep, but for some reason I thought that if I fall asleep something bad will happen. So I always tried to fight it and eventually woke up completely. I knew about LD’s and I was having them back then though. So, one night I decided that I will try to fall asleep once I experience this “feeling” (still not aware of the fact that it’s SP), so sure enough, as soon as I got SP again, I tried to calm down, I was nervous and the scary feeling was still there, but like I said, I tried to calm down and slowly drifted to sleep. Turned out to be nice, vivid LD.

I’ve grown to like the feeling of SP, even though I don’t have it too much. It always surprises me, hell sometimes even scares me a bit, but once I realise what’s going on, I calm down, and fall asleep. Needless to say, SP is always surprising for me, I never really expect it to happen, that’s where the shock comes from.

It’s different, it’s not what your body feels like most the time, that’s why you may find it scary, that’s why I found it scary and the stories of “old hag” certainly don’t help.

41

It seems (whenever I discuss this on forums) that people are far too stubborn about their fears. I’ve had some scary experiences with SP and after those nights I didn’t want to sleep either. What we must remember is that these fears are irrational by definition because they can do us no harm, we are essentially scared of being scared. I’ve found a familiarity with SP very helpful in making it a more normal, comfortable experience which has taken me to a couple of LDs, they weren’t even WILDs because I woke in SP, so never technically woke.

42

When I enter sleep paralysis, my trouble isn’t with being too terribly frightened, but I involuntarily start to twitch. I jerk around in my sleep alot. Is it normal that those two things would go together?

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Joethfc, it’s not that people are afraid, it’s that the experience actually stuns them as it is something that goes against our rational “flight or fight” mechanism.

Magy, twitching is normal, and I have to deal with that, too. But I heard if you twitch in the state of laying on your back, it is mostly caused by the fact your legs are so straight. If you really want to induce sleep paralysis then you should lay in a position that is more comfortable to you and try and hold that position instead of the “simple” laying straight down like a board one.

44

What does it mean when you constantly have sleep paralysis? For almost two years now, sleep paralysis has been common for me, it usually happens at least twice a month but sometimes more. What does it mean? Is there anything I can do to stop it? I am very claustrophobic and can’t stand being restricted. So needless to say, it is very scary. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

market samurai ~ marketsamurai ~ marketsamurai.com

45

We don’t know much about SP. Some people believe it’s a kind of dream state, others claim that it’s the work of demons, who want us to astral project to steal our soul (i’m simply shaking in my boots -_-) I believe it’s our mind caught in REM sleep and, if lucidity has been achieved, overstimulating our body thinking we’re still in a dream state. Regardless of what is believed, it makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It is indeed true that calling upon the name of Jesus Christ will bring us our of SP. it is also true that closing your eyes, breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth will loosen you from this paralysis. It’s because both of these work that it’s hard determining just what SP is(although there is the possibility that these are simply placebos and it’s more of the mindset that free’s you) regardless, i think anyone who experiences this should keep track of what they see feel and hear, what they dreamt of before it happened, and what their emotional state was before they fell asleep.

46

We know mostly everything about SP and here’s the article!

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I don’t get why everyone tries to avoid SP during WILD. When you get it, you can enter a very vivid lucid dream quite easily.

Just today after a refreshing afternoon nap, I got SP. I wasn’t scared though, I knew what was happening. For 20-30 minutes, I tried “exiting” my body, that is leaving my physical body with my dream body to start a lucid dream, but I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried. I sinking through my bed, floating out of my body, rolling over, and spinning around.

The experience really depends on what you expect of it. I have a bit of experience with it, and as soon as I discovered what it was and the science behind it, I stopped being afraid of it.

48

I’ve tried getting SP four times by laying down and staying still, trying to use it in WILD. Two times I gave up because I wanted to sleep. The other two weren’t actual successes, but something still.
My first try was the best. I got vibrations on my legs and hands, though it was something closer to cramping, really. But then I probably got too excited because I felt pressure on my chest, as if someone was pushing it and started breathing too heavily. The vibrations stopped, too. I think I was quite close to LD, if I could’ve just rolled over to the dream I would’ve done it.
Second try was lamer, all I got was heavy numbness all over my body. It didn’t make progress for a while so I decided to go to sleep.
That’s all I’ve got, I’ll try it again tonight.

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I have a question about SP, a hopefully simple one…is SP like having LDs, where you can want something to happen and it will? For instance, if I was hallucinating during SP, and there was something scary coming towards me, if I wanted it enough and kept thinking about it, could I “hallucinate” something happening to the monster, like suddenly exploding or turning it into something else?

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You were interacting with HH, usually that breaks the hypnagogic state but some dreamers can interact with them easily but keep in mind that your goal is not SP, it’s lucid dream so maybe is better to passively observe HH, but if you prefer that way and if it’s working for you then do it by the all means! :content:

EDIT:

I just came across this song from U.N.K.L.E - Rabbit In Your Headlights

This lyrics caught my attention and I relate it to SP:

“If you’re frightened of dyin’ and you’re holding on…
You’ll see devils tearing your life away.
But…if you’ve made your peace,
Then the devils are really angels
Freeing you from the earth…from the earth…from the earth”

That’s is very much true for SP too!

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haha i remember when i first was trying to WILD and i got SP and HI and i thought i was going to get lost from my body haha

52

I woke up into sp the other day.
I didn’t realise this at first and it caught me of gaurd, I panicked.
my vission was shaking and a black creature with glowing read eyes appeared next to me. Then I actually realised I was in SP (Iwasn’t clear minded). Anyways the creature was coming towards me fast, but I thought to myself: “I don’t have time for this, I should try to ld now.” I focussed on ld’ing and stopped worrying about the creature completely, and guess what…
It vanished :content:

53

I’ve been having a LOT of SP episodes lately. This is the most recent one before I stopped trying to wake myself up from them:

[spoiler]I “wake up,” incredibly thirsty. “Definitely gotta get up and get some water,” I think groggily. My mouth is so dry that my tongue is practically sticking to the back of my throat.

When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is a tall, dark figure. It is a tall old woman, wearing a black hat and a big black dress. I stare at the woman calmly, fully believing that I’m really just seeing a normal object, my refrigerator maybe, and that my brain is just still half asleep and making me hallucinate. I fully expect her to disappear within a few moments.

She doesn’t.

Instead, she glares directly into my eyes and lunges right at me! I let out a yelp of terror and shut my eyes. “OhmygodOhmygod I’m being attacked,” I think frantically.

Then I realize that I can’t move and that I’ve been stuck in sleep paralysis this whole time.

The realization actually makes me feel a bit better. At least now I know that the old woman isn’t really real. Every time I open my eyes, I see her back in the doorway. Each time, she lunges toward me. I always close my eyes before she reaches me. Even though I know she’s not real, it’s still creepy as hell.

I really want to look at my clock: my one anchor to the physical world. But with the old hag constantly attacking me, I can’t focus enough to do so. I have to get rid of her.

I open my eyes once more. The old woman comes toward me. I focus on speaking. “Don’t. Touch. Me.” It is an effort to get the words out, but I am pleased at how dangerously angry I sound. At the same time, I use an old trick of mine: I gather my fear and send it outward in an aggressive wave. The old woman halts in her tracks, stunned at my sudden retaliation.

After her initial shock, she says something along the lines of, “I will destroy you!”

“You can’t hurt me,” I growl in the same deadly tone.

She cackles. “Wanna bet?” She grabs ahold of my elbow. Pain radiates down my arm, but I’ve had worse and I only laugh.

“Even if you can hurt me, it doesn’t make any difference,” I taunt. “You’re not real. You don’t even exist.”

Infuriated, she releases her hold on me and howls in rage.

“Now get away from me!” I yell. She stands in the doorway for the rest of the dream, not daring to attack again.

Now I can look at the clock. I struggle to make out the numbers: It’s almost six in the morning. I’ve been stuck in SP for a while now, and I’m getting sick of it. SADLY, I fail to remember that I’m SUPPOSED to turn it into an LD or an OBE. Instead, I focus all my efforts into trying to wake myself up.

Nothing I do is helping. The only physical parts of me that I can control are my breathing, my eyes, and my tongue, but I can’t do anything significant enough to wake myself up! Now that I’m not being attacked (and the vibrations aren’t as intense as they have been), I’m getting incredibly bored and fed up with being forced to lie here not doing anything. How much longer could this possibly LAST!?

Screaming at my roommate to wake me up just results in more pointless hallucinations. So I remain stuck in SP for a while longer until I FINALLY snap out of it and wake up for real.[/spoiler]

54

So last night I woke up from a dream and opened my yes and there was someone standing over my bed with a Polaroid camera looking like he/she was taking a photo of me.

I groaned and turned away at least in my mind’s eye. I thought to myself, “go away” and I think I attempted to roll over to try and get into a lucid dream.

Unfortunately I felt an extreme pressure on my chest (despite me not lying on my back), and a distinct sense of fear.

When I woke up the same image of a figure with a Polaroid camera was seen in some of the furniture in my room - except perhaps at a different angle.

55

My first and only experience with the hag herself was in the summer of 2008.

I was standing on the edge of a cliff, staring down into the abyss. Behind me, there were two tall, almost elfish figures. I glanced to the horizon and saw a creature approaching me. She was white, from her skin, to her clothes, to her hair, everything was white except for her black, empty, glassy eyes. I thought that she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw, as she flied towards me. She stopped just inches from my face, and then turned into the most hideous monster one can imagine. Her face wrinkled and twisted, she had long fangs, and her expression was angry, evil.

She attacked me, putting her hand right through my chest, squeezing the heart. I screamed in pain, trying to defend myself, when I had what I now think is a false awakening, but I cannot be sure. I didn’t see her, but I felt her jumping on my chest, and felt my hands move to defend myself. Then she pulled me back into the dream, and tried to throw me off the cliff. The two figures from before were betting on whether I’ll fall or climb back up, and they told me that if I fell, I would never wake up again.

I managed to climb up with just my willpower, and then I woke up for real, paralysed and with chest pain. The weirdest thing is, that when I met my love, we talked casually about dreams and we realized that we dreamt the same hag, probably even at the same time, with the cliff and those two people, everything was the same, and that was way before we even met.

~ Other than that, I don’t experience awareness during sleep paralysis, only the hallucinations and they can get extremely scary or extremely funny (for the people who observe me). My first hallucination upon waking was a giant wasp that was just hanging around my room. After that there were spiders, snakes, or random fuzzy shapes. When I moved to my boyfriend’s house, they got worse. Little children, a doctor, a hanged woman, a bloody hand, black creatures with red eyes, and others. The funnies for my boyfriend was when I woke up, got up, while watching the three white monkeys sitting on my chair, and asked him: What kind of monkeys are these? :happy:

Anyways, I’m trying to realize, upon waking, that what I see is a hallucination, because when I scream, I scare the whole house. It’s difficult. I manage to realize that I’m dreaming when the hallucinations are simple, but when I see a human standing over me… well. I even wanted to pay a visit to a psychologist, but if I can learn to incorporate those into lucid dreams, then maybe there will be no more reason to fear them.

I noticed this, though:

  • When I sleep on my back, I always have nightmares and hallucinations
  • When I sleep on my side turned to the wall, I’m mostly safe. The only thing that can happen is seeing small, fuzzy or triangular shapes.
  • When I sleep turned to the other side of the room, there’s enough room for big hallucinations. That’s the worst.
56

Is it normal that after exiting SP, I can re enter it straight away by lying down again? After exiting I stay awake for around 10 secs.

I could even feel myself enetering it on my way to lying down last week, trying to speak with my mouth locked into place.

57

You know,i believe the old hag is not real.There is no scientific explanation behinf the 'old hag’so i doubt there is anything about that.The old hag os a figmant of your imagination.

Sleep paralysis is not scary,if you believe it to be,it will be,check this link for my fearing topic if you still are scared

Here it is :boogie:
Fears Of LDing