It was in the summer of 2003 that I experienced that false awakening that I wrote about earlier. Not too long after that I had another really strange sleep related experience. After I had the false awakening I got on the internet and started to do searches on OBE's and I found this group that actively tries to seek out such experiences. I found out that I had experienced sleep paralysis from time to time before in my life but never knew what it was or called before. I found out that it can sometimes act as a springboard for lucid dreams and OBE's. I also learned of a theory that many people who experience alien abduction may be experiencing sleep paralysis.
Anyway, about a month after the false awakening as I was sleeping I felt myself falling into sleep paralysis. Most of the time I first notice it as a kind of buzzing or humming feeling that is taking over me and I instinctively fight to break free of. This time when I broke free of it I woke up in a strange bed in a strange house. That was really a pretty strange scary feeling as I wasn't really all that aware of what a lucid dream was for sure. Anyway, I started to walk through the house hoping to myself that I wouldn't run into any entities that I had learned you can sometimes meet up with. I walked down a hallway and then into this open room and I remember looking to the left and down stairs a ways and saw what looked like a kitchen with a door slightly open. I remember seeing stars outside the door. Then I looked across from where I was standing and saw another room that had a light in it and there I saw two figure setting at a table facing each other and in the background I just saw the legs of some guy who was walking up a flight of stairs. Seeing those people really kind of freaked me out at the time and I grab a chair that was close by and threw it towards them. The one setting at the left end of the table stood up and looked over towards me and then walked over close to me and said, "Hey, don't be coming in here and start shooting people now." I nervously said, "OK we can be friends." I saw a slight smile start to come on his face and then I woke up.
I think part of the reason that I started to have these strange sleep experiences at this time was because I had just completed a 6 month treatment for hepatitis C. The treatment was known to cause a decrease of serotonin levels and it was recommended that people take antidepressants while under going treatment. I didn't want to take any though and didn't.
I came across this documentary about sleep paralysis at that documentary site that you led me to. Thanks again for that Costello.
Warning though. It might be a little disturbing for some to watch.
http://watchdocumentary.com/watch/sl...8db271025.html
Quote:
Originally Posted by costello
Very interesting, Shoe. I always think that to really understand the dream you have to know quite a bit about the person and their circumstances. Symbols can be so personal. Some of my dreams are so obvious that I know immediately what they mean. Some are nonsense. Others - like the house dreams - seem significant to me, but I confess I don't spend a lot of time trying to work them out. Seems like it would do the dream violence in some way. I guess I think if my subconscious is trying to talk to me in symbols I shouldn't try to force it into some kind of logical narrative.
I can only remember one tiny bit of my dream last night. I was walking around the lake I live at (which I had been thinking about doing before I fell asleep). Just as I got to the dam I saw a large reptile - a crocodile or alligator - running up the spillway toward me, but then it stopped. Then I looked down and saw a wild cat (a cougar?) walking next to me, just like a dog heeling. Then it disappeared. There was another wild animal in the same sequence, but I can't remember what. The funny thing is I was trying to remember what that third animal was in a later part of the dream. Reminds me of porcupine's totems. 
P.S. I just checked wikipedia. It was definitely a cougar in my dream. And the reptile was an American alligator. Neither animal lives in my area, of course. 
What's funny is how clearly I saw that alligator. Even though I have no interest in alligators and haven't studied them closely, I somehow had a very accurate alligator image stored in my mind. Yet if you asked me to describe an alligator when awake, I doubt if I'd be able to do as well as I did in the dream.
That's the real reason I want a lucid dream. My dad died 18 years ago, and I miss him. I'd like to talk to him in a dream, because I know that if I could see him in a dream I'd have access to parts of my memory that I don't have access to while I'm awake. I'd like to "hear" his voice and have him tell me some of his stories of his childhood that he told me while he was alive but I can't remember the details. I'm sure the details are locked away in my memory - just like the image of the alligator was - but I don't have conscious access to them. |