Sleep paralysis and ominous presence

[spacecurious]

Hello everybody.

I think I had an OBE and since I’m a total noob it scared me a great deal. I’d like to point out that I didn’t try to induce it whatsoever (I wouldn’t even know how to do it) and in general I don’t know much about OBEs, so here it goes.

I went to sleep at 10 pm (i know cause I texted my gf goodnight at that time), then I woke up at 2.30 am to drink some water. I went back to sleep immediately thereafter and had a number of normal dreams (I can remember all my dreams very easily).

After one of these dreams I became very aware of my body, in the sense that I could see both it and the room in the darkness as if my eyes were open (not from above: from my normal sleeping position). I sleep on my back with my arms crossed on my chest. My body was incredibly heavy, like if it was made of stone, and even if I felt very awake I didn’t have any control on it.

The part that scared me is this: I heard quick steps approaching me in the darkness. I didn’t see anything but I knew in my bones that there was something lurking there in the darkness. I panicked and tried to move my body to run, but I couldn’t. I was petrified, completely paralyzed. So with an extreme effort I tried to move my right arm. I thought I succeeded in doing so, but when I watched at my chest there were both my arms crossed as usual. In the trajectory through which I thought I released my arm there was a silver trail and my arm as if it was made of a silver fog.

Meanwhile I felt the steps keeping approaching and I started screaming. Granted, I couldn’t open my lips so it was a muffled sound, but it was strong enough to wake up my brother who came to wake me up. Two things here: I totally heard him waking up from his bed in the other room and coming to me and I was aware he was coming to wake me. I couldn’t see him when he arrived in my room but I could hear him and I knew it was him. And two: I couldn’t be waked by just talking, I had to be violently shaken to wake up. I was shattered by fear. I am sure it wasn’t an ordinarily dream/nightmare because it felt extremely real.

I woke up thanks to my brother at exactly 4am, and I couldn’t sleep anymore till dawn. I talked with him and he suggested me it could have been helpful to tell this story here, so here I am. I am very afraid to experience again that sleep paralysis and even more to feel that ominous presence lurking next to me.

This is not the first time I get sleep paralysis and I panic due to “it”, but never like last night (last night was the first time I could see a trail of my arm moving and the single time I succeeded in screaming). What is going on? Thank you if you arrived till here, I will appreciate any help.

[Summerlander]

Typical sleep paralysis experience, which means you were already in the phase state (OBE/LD/SP).

The intruder/demonic hallucination is quite common in sleep paralysis and with a bit of skill, without panicking, you can turn such experiences into optimal phase experiences, i.e., lucid dreams where you have reasonable control.

What you saw and were moving was your phantom arm, which is part of your dream body. The experience seemed real because sensations in the phase can have a lot more in common with waking state perception than ordinary dreaming.

You seem to have a predisposition to entering the phase than the average person. It is also a good thing that you remember your dreams as it can help you to achieve waking consciousness while dreaming.