RE: Sleep Paralysis: An Unpleasant Side Effect of Lucid Dreaming
I believe a normal REM cycle is 20mins so if you open your eyes at the beginning of the cycle and become conscious then you would be in it for a long time. Its probably very rare though. Yeah I have heard that a lot of people believe that they are evil spirits. People make comments such as "it was like someone was sitting on my chest" or "it was like I was being choked by something."
Your experiences sound pretty intense. Wow. The OBE experience would be fascinating. I've never had that. I agree that staying calm and letting it pass helps. If you try to move and talk it makes it scarier because your body doesn't allow it which amplifies the discomfort. But if you just lay there then its just like laying in bed with your eyes open.
I think that lucid dreaming increases their occurrence because, you tend to wake up a lot more during the night when you lucid dream (thats the case for me at least) and you tend to remain more conscious throughout the night. Your mind is constantly trying to wake up so if it does in REM and your eyes happen to open, then you get that weird combination of paralysis from REM and somewhat dreamy state.
With practice, this state can last forever and one can use it to practice many highly advance "meditation" techniques. This is a doorway one must learn to experience in order to become more aware of the distinction between being within the confines of the body by opposition with being outside of it. As soon as you are outside of it, even if it is only a millimetre above your eyes, your entire body is apparently paralyzed, unless you have had enough experience to feel that you aren't within the confines of the body anymore. Still, with tons of experience, it is still a bit confusing to hear that your body was actually snoring while you think you are silently observing the person getting ready to come to bed with you. LOL!!!
Namaste :)
It's true the rem cycle is 20mins but I also think 20mins of paralysis is rare or maybe those who experienced it never woke up to tell. 20mins in that state will be a terrible experience.
At this point, I can't tell if my experiences back then were influenced by the type of materials I read back then, or if the experiences lead me to the books I read but I experienced funny things like sound of water rushing in your head after coming off paralysis them flowing into a short obe. I had a nice lucid dream trigger as a kid, once I saw paintings of mary(we were catholics) in the sky. As a teenager, once I sat in an exam and don't know the answer, I just realized I must be dreaming. It was a recurrent nightmare.
I never made the connection but I guess the mind trying to wake up is the cause of lucid dreams and paralysis but why doesn't it happen for everybody?.
yeah you are probably right about 20 mins being extremely rare.
I don't think that sleep paralysis only occurs because of lucid dreaming , I think it is just one aspect to it, like it can be an unwanted consequence or side effect of trying to lucid dream. I'm sure there are many reasons that people experience sleep paralysis. Sorry, if my statements seemed very matter of fact, that wasn't my intention. I'm certainly not an expert on this stuff - more of a student with a few personal experiences to share lol.
So i'm not sure why it doesn't happen to everyone or why it only happens to some.(??)
I understood your statements, I was just pointing out a few things and asking a question at the end. I would want to believe it's a side effect of lucid dreaming too.
I know no one can answer these questions fully. lol we'll all just keep observing and learning.
There are multiple cultures who have observed and lived and still practice being in these states as they are a key to the full unification and understanding of the plane of existence we are mostly living in and with. (See the first comment I just left for leaky20. There are much more.) The sleep paralysis is a natural part of the process of becoming fully aware, thus a bit of a side-effect of learning to lucid dream, as one thing, but also a side effect of meditation, when one gets to a certain depth...
Namaste :)
Yeah, this is true and Leaky20's post supports that too.
ok gotcha :)
Yes I agree that we are all observing and learning