I’ve never understood why sleep paralysis scares so many people and why they say they “suffer” from it.
Since childhood (though I can’t pinpoint if it was grade school or junior high), I’ve experienced sleep paralysis. Note that I say “experienced” rather than “suffer.”
However, why is it that when I experience sleep paralysis…every single time without fail…it follows a lucid flight dream?
Every single time. Now this doesn’t mean that every single time I have a lucid flight dream, I enter into sleep paralysis. But it’s the other way around.
The paranormal explanation is that the lucid flight dream is not an actual REM stage dream at all, but an out-of-body experience (astral projection).
Paranormal enthusiasts would explain that the sleep paralysis that follows is that of my astral body returning to my physical body.
It takes a few minutes for the “fit” to complete, and hence, the sleep paralysis. Hmmm.
I can pop in and out of sleep paralysis during a brief time window that follows the first episode. I’ve always enjoyed tinkering around with it.
There’ve been times when it felt as though the upper half of my body was inside my body, but my legs were sticking outside my body.
There’ve also been times that it felt that I was hovering horizontally five feet above my body, but every time I’ve opened my eyes, I was inside my body.
As for opening my eyes…I’m able to do this during sleep paralysis, but only for several moments; they become too heavy to keep open.
How I Know I’m Not Dreaming About Sleep Paralysis
I know I’m not dreaming these experiences because I’ve verified them by noting the precise configuration of bed sheet wrinkles and the position of my arm and hand.
When I pop out of the sleep paralysis and open my eyes…everything appears as it had during the paralysis.
This also goes for the exact time. For example, I might note it’s 8:02 a.m. during an episode of sleep paralysis. When it concludes and I open my eyes, it’s 8:03 or 8:04.
When I’m in sleep paralysis, I try to astral project, and thus far, have not succeeded, though I still seriously wonder if the lucid flight dreams are actual out-of-body excursions.
Astral Projection
What makes these “dreams” highly suspect for astral projections are the following key features:
#1. The flights are amazingly vivid and realistic, as though they are actually happening. I swear, I know exactly what it feels like to fly above a canyon or mountain range.
#2. In almost every flight dream, there are no other people present. It’s just me and the beautiful nature I’m flying over. Why aren’t there any characters in these dreams?
In my non-lucid dreams or lucid non-flight dreams, there are always other characters involved. Funny how they’re almost always absent in the lucid flight dreams.
#3. While I’m having a lucid flight dream, I can induce sleep paralysis. I can’t explain how I do it, but I just do it.
#4. If I’m having a lucid non-flight dream, I never think of inducing sleep paralysis. The phenomenon is the farthest thing from my mind. Instead, I’m caught up with the story in the dream, no matter how bizarre it is.
This suggests that the lucid flight dream is, in fact, an out-of-body experience, during which my mental faculties are NOT muddled by the dream state.
Once I’m in sleep paralysis, I cannot get back into the dream, but when the sleep paralysis wears off, I can pop back into the paralysis as long as I attempt that within a few moments.
Otherwise, if I wait too long, the opportunity expires and I’m fully awake.
Are there elements of lucid flight dreams that suggest they’re just dreams?
#1. It’s always daylight, even though sometimes when I have these experiences, it’s in the middle of the night when it’s dark (unless my out-of-body episodes somehow always end up in a distant time zone?).
#2. Sometimes interaction with characters precedes the flight, even though once I’m in flight, no characters exist 99 percent of the time.
There have been lucid flight dreams in which, while I was airborne, I did see people on the ground (though this is very rare).
So if this is an astral projection…who were those characters? They certainly didn’t come across as spirits—just run-of-the-mill dream characters.
#3. If these are out-of-body experiences, why is the part when I’m leaving my body and viewing it in my bed bypassed?
In other words, the astral projection involves teleportation rather than manual exiting of my body.
All that being said, I enjoy sleep paralysis and you should too. It’s cool and far out!
If you’re scared of sleep paralysis, ask your doctor if this is a symptom of a medical condition.
If sleep paralysis continues to frighten you, take better care of your body. If you have a fit, strong body, you’ll be less likely to fear having a disease that causes paralysis.
