Name: VIPPER 2006-07-09 11:46
From Some forum:
Now usually I don't post personal things about me, I certainly don't go into personal problems or anything like that on Op Som..... But I've had some special experiences with a phenomenon that apparently affects as much as 40% of all Americans in varying degrees. I normally wouldn't go into this, but seeing as it's possible that some of you might also have this in some form, and that writing about it is cathartic for me, I figured I'd post.
Just recently I experienced the most terrifying moment of my entire life....
In the middle of the night I woke up after having a vivid dream which I can only recall bits and pieces of. As I awoke I found that I could not move my muscles; my hands and arms were numb, I could not even move my lips, my eyes were half-open and as I tried to move my neck I found I couldn't. Suddenly, in the darkness of my room I saw a shadow moving in a very disturbing and unnatural manner on my cieling....as the shadow came into focus, I could make out a small girl in a perfectly clean white blouse with a little bow and long uncombed hair crawling on my cieling like a spider.
At this point I was in complete shock. On the one hand, this CANNOT BE HAPPENING. But let me make it clear that this was NOTHING like a drug-induced hallucination. My mind was clear, and even though I was paralyzed there was NO sense of dream-like reality. This was just as real as if I were looking at a person sitting across from me. This [u]appeared visually to be 100% PHYSICALLY REAL and I could not ignore the apparent absolute reality of what my eyes were seeing.[/b]
My heart was racing and my entire body felt like it was vibrating; I was instantly drenched in sweat. I don't really have any belief in ghosts or any aspect of the supernatural, yet I was faced with what I was seeing with my own eyes. I kept repeating in my head like a mantra "HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING??". My breathing became difficult as my body stiffened.
The girl crawled along my cieling apparently taking no notice of me, then as though she could smell my fear, she changed direction and crawled directly above of me. Her long hair was dangling right over me at this point. Then she slowly turned her neck and looked directly at me, eye-to-eye.....Man...even as I am typing this right now my muscles are starting tense up....the memory is so vivid in my mind... It is difficult to describe, but even though the rest of her was clean and perfect, like something out of a Victorian portait, her face was not normal.... Her eyes were stark white with a tiny black dot in the center; her entire face was wrapped with black vericose veins; her mouth was open and her tongue was hanging out as though she were animal... She moved her lips and made some grunting noises that sounded like....a dog of some kind.
At this point, a wave of absolute terror washed over my entire body. I felt a huge pressure on my chest and my heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to explode. I thought my chest was going to burst from the inside. I felt like I was going to die.
All of a sudden I was moving around in my bed like I had had an electric shock, and I almost slid right off the bed. I was now fully awake and moving, I was panting heavily, and the cieling was clear, the room was empty.
I was so terrified because what I saw was so absolutely real that I just stayed crouch on the floor for almost twenty minutes; I knew that what I saw couldn't be real, and I started to feel humiliated.... I actually thought it was possible that I was having some kind of schizophrenic hallucination. Maybe I was mentally ill?
What made the experience so horrible (and still horrible) is that unlike dreams and nightmares, I can recall the event in perfect detail, and the imagery is still vivid in my mind...as though what I saw reality.
Well, I felt so traumatized that I actually dreaded the prospect of going to sleep the next night. I had an impromptu visit with my doctor; he asked me if it was the first time it had happened.......I had to admit it wasn't.
One of my most vivid memories as a young child was another similar incident in the middle of the night after waking from a nightmare. I was woken up by a noise outside of my bedroom window; like something banging against a fence. I was paralyzed and couldn't move, but I could see and hear perfectly. I heard something walking on the grass outside, and then I heard a noise of something crawling up the side of the house...it sounded like an animal...I thought maybe it was a squirrel... The noise got closer until a figure peeked its head into my window from where the noise was coming from; It was a skeleton. I screamed out loud, and my mom and dad told me it was "just a nightmare". I thought it happened to everyone.
Events like that recurred almost every few months, but I didn't scream...I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.
The last time it happened was years ago when I was a teenager. Again I was paralyzed. This time it was a large jet black dog (more like a wolf) with glowing eyes running from the bedroom door onto my bed and on top of me.
Since it hadn't happened in many years, I was unprepared....and this most recent occurence was without a doubt the most absolutely vivid and realistic of these experiences I'd had. I considered the possibility that I had a mental illness.
Luckily my doctor told me I had all the classic symptoms of Sleep Paralysis. Many people have this in varying degrees, some people actually stay in the paralyzed state witnessing terrifying hallucinations for an hour or more; some people get the paralysis, but no hallucinations. Basically parts of the brain are in a semi-dream state whereas your senses are awake and aware.
The only thing I've been doing for now is taking sleeping pills; The hope is that I'll be more "out of it" and less likely to wake up during nightmares.
Even so, I'm still shaken up after the last incident and I still don't look forward to going to sleep.
Now usually I don't post personal things about me, I certainly don't go into personal problems or anything like that on Op Som..... But I've had some special experiences with a phenomenon that apparently affects as much as 40% of all Americans in varying degrees. I normally wouldn't go into this, but seeing as it's possible that some of you might also have this in some form, and that writing about it is cathartic for me, I figured I'd post.
Just recently I experienced the most terrifying moment of my entire life....
In the middle of the night I woke up after having a vivid dream which I can only recall bits and pieces of. As I awoke I found that I could not move my muscles; my hands and arms were numb, I could not even move my lips, my eyes were half-open and as I tried to move my neck I found I couldn't. Suddenly, in the darkness of my room I saw a shadow moving in a very disturbing and unnatural manner on my cieling....as the shadow came into focus, I could make out a small girl in a perfectly clean white blouse with a little bow and long uncombed hair crawling on my cieling like a spider.
At this point I was in complete shock. On the one hand, this CANNOT BE HAPPENING. But let me make it clear that this was NOTHING like a drug-induced hallucination. My mind was clear, and even though I was paralyzed there was NO sense of dream-like reality. This was just as real as if I were looking at a person sitting across from me. This [u]appeared visually to be 100% PHYSICALLY REAL and I could not ignore the apparent absolute reality of what my eyes were seeing.[/b]
My heart was racing and my entire body felt like it was vibrating; I was instantly drenched in sweat. I don't really have any belief in ghosts or any aspect of the supernatural, yet I was faced with what I was seeing with my own eyes. I kept repeating in my head like a mantra "HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING??". My breathing became difficult as my body stiffened.
The girl crawled along my cieling apparently taking no notice of me, then as though she could smell my fear, she changed direction and crawled directly above of me. Her long hair was dangling right over me at this point. Then she slowly turned her neck and looked directly at me, eye-to-eye.....Man...even as I am typing this right now my muscles are starting tense up....the memory is so vivid in my mind... It is difficult to describe, but even though the rest of her was clean and perfect, like something out of a Victorian portait, her face was not normal.... Her eyes were stark white with a tiny black dot in the center; her entire face was wrapped with black vericose veins; her mouth was open and her tongue was hanging out as though she were animal... She moved her lips and made some grunting noises that sounded like....a dog of some kind.
At this point, a wave of absolute terror washed over my entire body. I felt a huge pressure on my chest and my heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to explode. I thought my chest was going to burst from the inside. I felt like I was going to die.
All of a sudden I was moving around in my bed like I had had an electric shock, and I almost slid right off the bed. I was now fully awake and moving, I was panting heavily, and the cieling was clear, the room was empty.
I was so terrified because what I saw was so absolutely real that I just stayed crouch on the floor for almost twenty minutes; I knew that what I saw couldn't be real, and I started to feel humiliated.... I actually thought it was possible that I was having some kind of schizophrenic hallucination. Maybe I was mentally ill?
What made the experience so horrible (and still horrible) is that unlike dreams and nightmares, I can recall the event in perfect detail, and the imagery is still vivid in my mind...as though what I saw reality.
Well, I felt so traumatized that I actually dreaded the prospect of going to sleep the next night. I had an impromptu visit with my doctor; he asked me if it was the first time it had happened.......I had to admit it wasn't.
One of my most vivid memories as a young child was another similar incident in the middle of the night after waking from a nightmare. I was woken up by a noise outside of my bedroom window; like something banging against a fence. I was paralyzed and couldn't move, but I could see and hear perfectly. I heard something walking on the grass outside, and then I heard a noise of something crawling up the side of the house...it sounded like an animal...I thought maybe it was a squirrel... The noise got closer until a figure peeked its head into my window from where the noise was coming from; It was a skeleton. I screamed out loud, and my mom and dad told me it was "just a nightmare". I thought it happened to everyone.
Events like that recurred almost every few months, but I didn't scream...I was too embarrassed to tell anyone.
The last time it happened was years ago when I was a teenager. Again I was paralyzed. This time it was a large jet black dog (more like a wolf) with glowing eyes running from the bedroom door onto my bed and on top of me.
Since it hadn't happened in many years, I was unprepared....and this most recent occurence was without a doubt the most absolutely vivid and realistic of these experiences I'd had. I considered the possibility that I had a mental illness.
Luckily my doctor told me I had all the classic symptoms of Sleep Paralysis. Many people have this in varying degrees, some people actually stay in the paralyzed state witnessing terrifying hallucinations for an hour or more; some people get the paralysis, but no hallucinations. Basically parts of the brain are in a semi-dream state whereas your senses are awake and aware.
The only thing I've been doing for now is taking sleeping pills; The hope is that I'll be more "out of it" and less likely to wake up during nightmares.
Even so, I'm still shaken up after the last incident and I still don't look forward to going to sleep.