Does everyone experience sleep paralysis?

[Gbob]

Well thinking objectively, the answer would be yes as without sleep paralysis we'd be sleep walking every night. But it's just odd that lots of people (including myself) have never experienced it before. Are there any things we can do to increase the probability of experiencing them? I've tried laying there for an hour, setting my alarm early...even of all the times I naturally wake up in the middle of the night I've never experienced it. Not even after lucid dreams as well. Oh 

[lee46]

I have only experienced it once and well in my opinion it wasn't pleasant at all, it happened when I least expect it to happen, actually I didn't even expect it at all, I just woke up in the middle of a nap because I was feeling like someone was pinching my face so then I tried to move and I couldn't, tried to scream and yet nothing happened, that's when I started freaking out, I just couldn't help it. I guess it just happens naturally sometimes and also if you set your alarm then you will wake up physically.

[kurtykurt42]

I never have experienced it but I guess we all do it when we go to sleep. I can't even imagine lying there not being able to move... That must be pretty bad.

[Valkry]

I experience sleep paralysis pretty much every night. I hate it.

BUT I can usually project from it, so that's good. Unfortunately once I get out I meet my astral guests. Who are even less pleasant.   

[kurtykurt42]

Every night! 

So, you are completely paralyzed and unable to move an inch? I really don't understand how this works.

[T.L.]

In sleep most of us do, I have occasionally sleep walked before though. During projections I do not experience sleep paralysis however. At least not like most people who claim they can't move period. I'm able during a projection to force my physical body to sit up, and that is how I end the projections. Works like a charm that way I do not lapse into a dream or unconscious state while I am out, so I can write it into my journal immediately.

[Valkry]

Every night! 

So, you are completely paralyzed and unable to move an inch? I really don't understand how this works.

Yep, whenever I come out of lucid dreams or projections (typically every night) I am in sleep paralysis and can't move my physical body at all, hear voices, am assaulted, or (if I'm lucky) I can project again. I hate it so I usually dread the end of my projections/LDs.

[kurtykurt42]

I asked you before if you wanted my help with these guys and you said that you didn't. I have the ability to teleport over there and destroy every single one of them...

[Valkry]

Huh, me?  Of course I want your help! Don't know when I said I didn't?  Sorry if I came across like that, would appreciate any help - its getting unbearable to even sleep at night now! 

[kurtykurt42]

Ya you!  

I'm guessing that they can't come in your room because of the barrier that you set up. I will be over there later with my buddy Archangel Michael and heads will roll...



+ me: http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5971/dsc03910.jpg

[Valkry]

Yay!!! Omigosh I hope this works, I am at my wit's end. I know of two females and three males. I see one of the males more often than the others, so make him your priority hehehe.  Hope they suffer. 

[kurtykurt42]

We'll be able to handle them but as with all evil villains, there will be others to take there place. Which is why you must learn how to defend yourself and begin training in energy body development.

[Questioner]

Everyonce in awhile(i would say atleast once a week) usually when i wake up,and am very tired,but my mind is still concentrating on something so my body falls asleep instantly,though its not complete paralysis.
I can move certain parts(mainly a finger or toe) which i move intill my body knows i am awake.
How ever what sucks is that i could have easily taken these chances to try and project,but paralysis feels too darn weird.

[personalreality]

Haven't ever experienced it in relation to OBEs.  Though I have woken up a few times in my life in the middle of the night paralyzed. 

Funny story, (not about me, but about sleep paralysis). 

I've mentioned it a bit, but I work in a metaphysical bookshop (only about 1/3 books, 2/3 metaphysical supplies, i.e herbs, candles, oils, crystals, feng shui items, statuary, etc. etc. etc.) and naturally I come across many characters from the whole spectrum of odd and hilarious people one could hope to meet in a lifetime.  One of my customers, a black lady who grew up in New Orleans in a Voodoo family (though she tells me she never cared to much for the religion, but she practices the magick side, Hoodoo), talks to me all the time about what it was like to grow up with Voodoo around all the time.  I wish I had a picture of her because you'd never believe that she practiced Hoodoo and was raised in Voodoo if you saw her.  Talking to her and seeing her, you'd think she was the most straight laced, conservative, mainstream, disciplined CEO type you've ever met.  Yet, she is a magick practitioner.  This is what I'm talking about.  In my job I get to meet the coolest people.  Anyway, that was a bunch of nonsense for a really short anecdote.

She told me that when she was growing up, every time she experienced sleep paralysis her grandma told her that a "witch was riding her".  Basically a witch has somehow pinned you down through some kind of spell work or the like paralyzed you.  It's an interesting "superstition" or a freaky bit of truth.

[Valkry]

personalreality, that's strange because while in sleep paralysis I've attacked by a voodoo witch a couple times before! Strange.

[Fourthdimension]

i dont experience sleep paryalsis but my limbs do become heavy
i was thinking mabye i do experience it but dont realise i have experienced it because i intend on rojection and not to move and so if i dofnt move how do i know i can move lol

[personalreality]

From what I understand Valkry, that's a really common explanation in many religious traditions.  Been around a long time.  Perhaps they were always right. 

By the way Valkry, you seem to be the victim of a lot of ill-wishing.  Either you pose a great threat, you have a very strong sense of the 'victim consciousness', or you have really ticked off a lot of beings.

[Valkry]

Victim Consciousness? What's that? 

Yeah, tell me about it. Its horrible. I honestly don't know what I did wrong, but I had my birth chart read and apparently I might have been the leader of these beings in a past life. Apparently I was a terrible person in both realms and attracted a lot of negative energy that followed into this lifetime which manifested as the psychosis and personality disorders in the physical realm, and them trailing me in the astral realm. I actually hate going to sleep at night because some nights when I wake up, I'm out of body, and they're there.
But yeah I've definitely ticked them off, that's for certain.
I should also note that my chart reader said that I was some sort of sexual aggressor. This too fits because the majority of these entities are sexual in nature and maliciously so.

[Eyyoshi]

Something that I actually achieved, sleep paralysis. But only twice. Everyone goes through sleep paralysis when they sleep.

Oh god, the first time...I could barely breath. Went on for like 1 minute or so. Just suffocating and struggling to move despite that I couldn't move at all.

I hit it a second time and saw images. Luckily there was no suffocation.

[The_One]

 I've experienced it twice and I agree, it was very frightening for me. On both occasions it caught me off guard.

[avenged7x]

I have it most days. It was the reason why I got into Lucid Dreaming in the first place.

I use to be afraid of it, but now it has a purpose so its not so bad.

[Timandra]

No I've never experienced it, just a heavy feeling in my body. 

[Gbob]

Woah people! I only just wrote this question yesterday and there are 21 replies! Well, at least it's better than not having any 

About sleep paralysis, I would have thought all the people who are able to consciously AP will experience sleep paralysis? Or is that not true?

Oh man I want to project so badly lol. I'm just so stuck with everyday things that I don't feel like I have the time and the motivation. I haven't even had a lucid dream a a few weeks.

[avenged7x]

About sleep paralysis, I would have thought all the people who are able to consciously AP will experience sleep paralysis? Or is that not true?

Well with Lucid Dreaming, sometimes you can 'skip' the sleep paralysis stage and jump straight into the dream. Since the technique for wake induced Lucid Dreams are more or less the same as techniques to Astral Project, I am assuming you can skip sleep paralysis too.
However, this doesn't mean it hasn't occurred. Your waking body will automatically fall into paralysis when you are asleep.

[personalreality]

Victim Consciousness? What's that? 

Victim Consciousness is something that I have contemplated a lot and I think it is the crux of the psychological problems held by most "normal everyday people".  I'm a psychology student and this is something I've spent a lot of time on.  I have other theories about some of the more "serious" disorders, but your run of the mill anxiety, depression, and on the metaphysical side, negative energy attraction, I believe are caused by the afflicted person.

It may sound like I'm blaming people for their problems, and that's absolutely right, I am.  Well not really.  I don't think it's their fault that they have this perception, but I think that it is their energy doing it.  Victim Consciousness is essentially always playing the victim.  Now this comes to greater or lesser degrees.  Everyone has almost certainly met at least one of the more intense victims, the person who blames everything on every thing else but themselves.  It's always someone or something else's fault.  But I see Victim Consciousness as more of an internal error in the way reality is perceived by the majority of people.  That error is basically that people don't comprehend that they are very much responsible for their reality in a number of different ways.  From their consciousness choosing this physical manifestation (if you believe in that sort of thing), to their emotional state attracting similar energy, to the intention they put out in the universe.  Each person has created their own reality, from their first journey to the physical, to the attitudes they hold in daily life that paint their perception of reality in a particular way, to the emotional energy they create in the majority of experiences. 

What happens (IMO) is that people these days don't have much experience with the energetic side of their life and so they attribute all shortcomings and "bad luck" to outside sources.  That source may be people in their life, it may be God, it may be the Devil, it may be their job, the town they were born in, their "bad luck", or whatever.  The point is, they never stop to consider that maybe they created these situations for themselves.  By continuously placing blame for your situation or experience of reality, you are forever attracting that exact type of situation.  It creates an endless loop of pity and blame that just keeps coming back and causing them to place more and more blame.  Some people are absolutely worse about this than others.  But I think nearly everyone has Victim Consciousness to some degree.  It follows a simple principle that your experience of your reality is dictated by your perception of it.  If your attitude is that everything you experience is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and your life, then the energy you put out in the universe will bring to you more new opportunities and less of the same "victim" experience over and over.  If your attitude is that you're always the victim of some other influence, then you will continually experience that type of victimization, over and over, never really learning from it. 

Modern western culture doesn't help this much.  From the time we're little kids we're taught that there's almost always someone to blame but ourselves.  If we're sick, we caught a bug of some sort and we take a pill to kill it.  Never do we consider that perhaps we needed to learn something so our energy attracted an illness intentionally.  If we slip and fall in a store, we sue the owner for being negligent, instead of considering our own involvement.  Physically we chose to go to the store and walk down that particular aisle at that particular time.  Energetically we probably attracted the spill that made us slip because there was a lesson there somewhere.  Not to mention the other side of the coin, that nothing in this universe is independent and static (at least from the perspective of our experience in physicality).  Each lesson we learn is also a lesson for someone else.  A beautifully orchestrated symphony of energetic push and pull to create a situation that perfectly provides us with the elements we need to learn about ourselves. 

You can absolutely look at simple cause and effect and say, well, there was a germ, I got it, I got sick.  And that is technically true.  But from a larger scale and farther position, the germ was put in the right place at the right time where you just so happened to be which allowed it to enter your body.  These things aren't chance.  The amount of accuracy needed to pull of just one perfect alignment of energy is practically impossible to achieve by mere coincidence.  However, happening once isn't impossible, it could happen accidentally.  I'm sure there are some statistics out there to prove its possible.  But for these tiny moments of opportunity to happen in every moment of every day in such a way that they bring interactions between people and things in such a seemingly intentional manner.  That's just too much.  The has to be some conscious direction.  I believe we are directing it.  But the victim believes they are just that, a victim to circumstances beyond their control or conscious direction. 

I've become a part-time counselor at a methadone clinic and I use this theory (loosely) with some of the clients and it has helped them a lot to figure out some of the underlying emotional causes about why they started using in the first place.  It worked for me too.