"Sleep Paralysis" or Something Else?

By Lori Lines

Am I dying or am I experiencing something else?  Oh my God!  This thought raced through my head in a swirling circle. I felt myself attempting to scream for help but my entire body would not cooperate. I was unable to move.  I thought of jumping out of bed but I felt disoriented and there was a heavy weight pinning my legs, chest, arms to the mattress.  My eyes were open and I caught a fleeting glimpse of a dark shadow hovering over me.  Were those gnashing teeth and piercing eyes I just saw?

Paralyzed in fear, this incident only lasted for a few minutes until the thought dropped into my head, "Pray NOW!" OKAY! "Our Father who art in heaven...." I prayed in my mind until my mouth could cooperate and function again.  The heaviness on top of me dissipated like ashes scattering to the wind. "Thank you Heavenly Father..." I heard myself say.

All the while the clock was ticking but my reality had halted time.  It was 2 a.m. There was no way I was going back to sleep. Nope. Nada. Ain't gonna happen. I thought, "was this fantasy?" It wasn't and I knew it.  I decided to meditate and pray while staying up until it was time for me to get up and get my child ready for school.

To this day, when I shut my eyes, I can remember each snapshot of it.  I have read about benevolent beings and nefarious energies for as long as I can remember.  Holy messengers have always been acceptable who brought feelings of love, bliss and light. Malevolent beings brought difficulty, fear, darkness, obliteration.

Was that what it was? Evil? I did forget to meditate and pray that night prior to going to sleep.

In looking back, experiencing things like this was pretty common when I was a child. It rarely happened as an adult.  But, one thing I know for sure, when one experiences something so..."other worldly" like that, it is very real and can be a very frightening thing.  Many people, in the millions actually, experience sleep paralysis at least once in their lives.  Sleep paralysis happens when we are either waking up or falling asleep and can last for seconds up to minutes.  It involves not being able to move or speak and includes not being able to open or shut your eyes.  During a sleep paralysis episode many people report "hallucinations" and scary events such as a feeling that someone is holding them down and that they are not able to take a breath.

Just like me, most people come out of the event with a sudden and quick jerk, perhaps grabbing at their throat as they gasp for air.  If you happen to have your eyes open, you may not be able to see the physical world or you may not be able to recognize it.  Many have reported seeing spirits and feeling as if they were falling or flying without any control, something that is commonly experienced in the spirit realm.  

Is there a spiritual take on sleep paralysis?  Many people feel there is. I sure do.  When experiencing this type of paralysis many people report that they seem to be partially in their bodies and partially out and when they come out of the paralysis, they seem to "fall" back into their physical body as if they were astral-projecting and landing back into their body too quickly.

So, does sleep paralysis have a connection to astral-projecting?  Are we partially out of our body and partially still connected and something goes very wrong resulting in sleep paralysis?  Many spiritualists say this.  Astral projecting takes place by those who do not have control over it when they are falling asleep, have hit REM sleep or who are coming out of a deep REM sleep.  But, what if there is a problem somewhere between REM sleep and astral projection that results in sleep paralysis?  Some sleep professionals that are geared toward the spiritual purview will agree with this theory.  From experience, sleep paralysis may be the beginning stage of astral projection and without advanced knowledge, wisdom and experience in controlled astral projection, there can be quite the issue.

So, what can we do about this potentially frightening experience?  Well, to begin with it is well known that the closer to your spiritual self you become, the better experiences like sleep paralysis can be understood.  Those who actually learn about projecting, while sleeping, and practice it have said that they experience much less sleep paralysis when they are used to practicing astral projection.  Alternatively,  those that say they have a daily life long meditation routine have reported much less episodes as well.  

There have been sleep studies that suggest that sleep paralysis takes place, with those people that seem to be overly tired than when trying to go to sleep more so than when they go to bed at a routine time.

Taking that into account, there are some things both physically and spiritually that one can do to find a bit of control over sleep paralysis.  However, if you are searching for metaphysical takes on this, there are some that have been suggested and are believed.  

One such belief is that the reason you are having episodes of this is because you are psychic.  Clairvoyance tends to focus on visions, however, psychic mediums have been known to travel into the spirit realm, controlled, throughout their lives many times.  In fact, those that follow a Shamanic path are often in the spirit realm and say that, to them, sleep paralysis seems like the soul is trying to connect and enter the spirit realm but the body is fighting back.

Another belief is that you are psychic and probably a medium, natural born.  Sleep paralysis happens when a soul or element is attempting to speak with you or overwhelm you. Vitality creatures in different realms and domains are, in some cases, progressively more mindful of your psychic medium-dispatch capacities than you are.

If you are a medium, you sparkle a specific light and transmit a particular vibration that draws them in to you.  In the event that you are unconscious, this is going on or still can't seem to recognize or grasp these blessings, at that point you will completely encounter the downturn, tension and stress that analysts will attempt to fault as the purpose behind the sleep paralysis.

Be that as it may, the downturn, tension and stress are simply one more arrangement of the side-effects...and not the reason.  So, if this is true, then it would be of great assistance for you to learn al you can about being a psychic medium and get as close to your spiritual side as possible.  Then, naturally, as you progress your practice, you will find that sleep paralysis may actually become a full-blown spiritual world trip for you.

In love and truth,

Lori Lines

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