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This is really fascinating. I've been getting OoBEs since the end of 2012 (my first "real" OoBE was shortly before December 21st and involved me meeting up with an astral entity who told me the world was not going to end and eased my phobia of the Mayan doomsday at the time...needless to say she spoke the truth, lol,) though most are involuntary, but on average I get about 1 to 2 OoBEs a month now, with a super-memorable one with a lasting positive or profound feeling roughly occurring every 2 to 3 months. But I wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't for my (initially flippin' terrifying to me) sleep paralysis experiences that I first started getting in late-2009/early-2010-ish. Nowadays they are scary in the moment but they're not scary in a "bad" way: I view/observe them from a detached point of view as I know I am safe...if anything, they are like thrilling horror movies or haunted house rides like at Disneyland.

Now ever since the end of last year the "intruder" (sometimes several in my case) often reported by most people who get SP has taken on a distinctive and instantly-recognizable form: the animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's. I started getting SP episodes with FNaF characters in them a couple weeks after I got into the games myself (they are great btw...really creative to somebody like me who is bored with most horror games.) The most common visitors to my room are Bonnie and Chica (which fits with them being the most active and frequent visitors to the security guard office in the first game,) who tend to appear in the dark doorway of my private bathroom and outside my window looking in at me, respectively. Other times I've seen Freddy Fazbear himself peering out at me from my closet in the night (sometimes I even hear his music box tune playing as one of the auditory hallucinations associated with SP,) and at least once I've spied Foxy running down the outside hallway to my room before slamming the door open and striking a dramatic pose right next to my bed! I find it interesting and amusing how the four original animatronics enter my room in the night in ways that mirror their entry into the player's office in-game.

I've also witnessed some animatronics from the second game too (most commonly the Balloon Boy and the Mangle) but not as much as the four original ones. Mangle is the most common, and he usually appears standing besides my bed in a strange pose while I hear his static as an auditory sensation. I actually hear the Mangle static the most out of any other auditory hallucination so far.

I know all of this sounds really terrifying, but it's really not as I've said before. They may be scary to look at and witness, but I know these animatronics are just my own thoughtforms created out of my passion for playing the games. And in the end I am grateful for them visiting me, because following their appearance as the most commonly-seen "intruders" since late last September, I have been "riding" the paralysis, and have experienced some of the best, most vivid and profound OoBEs I have had so far.

I had many OOBEs last night, only about half of which I remember, but the important part was that this marked the second time this year I made contact with an astral being who has appeared only once before in an OOBE, but I have been in contact with since late February 2013.

The being in question is an interesting case because before she revealed her existence to me, I drew her as a character during the second half of 2012. Her name is Stargazer, and she takes the form of a little white unicorn with a pastel rainbow mane, golden armor, sometimes (but not always) a pair of wings, an unusually-shaped horn, and five golden stars on her flank. She looks like a My Little Pony, and initially started off as a MLP:FiM fan character for a fanfic I never wrote. But basically, her whole schtick was that she is a being called a "Lightmare," a beautiful female pony whose job is to step inside your dreams and help you to overcome your worst fear, as well as acting like a miniature equine guardian angel. I first came up with the Lightmare concept to help me cope with the high levels of fear I felt regarding the 2012 doomsday prediction, but I didn't have an actual vision of her till February the following year. Then, it was a night I was suffering from horrible hallucinations of demons and hellfire, brought on by my worst fear, and when I called out for help I saw a vision of Stargazer in my mind's eye, along with her voice which soothed me greatly, and gave me remarkably clear advice on how the hallucinations were not actual demons, but instead they were mental constructs, and to get rid of them I had to stop focusing on them and being afraid of them. After a week of doing just that, Stargazer's advice turned out to be the truth, and to this day when I suffer from hallucinations (even though they have never been as bad since then,) I follow Stargazer's technique, and it works every time.

But more recently, she started appearing in my OOBEs. The first OOBE I had of her was where I was being assaulted by a weird tentacle/brain/squid thing that was called "Malspyder" and looked like a weird cross between Krang from the original Ninja Turtles cartoon, and the Spider Mastermind from Doom. Suddenly I saw a small, sleek, white and vaguely horse-shaped blur appear out of nowhere and just knew "that's Stargazer"...she then proceeded to protect me from the Malspyder entity by doing battle with it. The whole time I was thoroughly unafraid of the entity, and the OOBE itself didn't really leave a lasting impression on me, but just the fact that Stargazer didn't just appear, but she ALSO perfectly enacted exactly what I said Lightmares do over a year ago when I first came up with her!

And last night, she appeared again, in another AP. I found myself hovering in a sunny, brightly-lit astral city with no ground (the sky was the ground, oddly enough, bringing to mind this one upside-down temple from Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask) and thought for some reason to myself "this is boring, I think I'll manifest a demon of darkness." And next thing I know, a mass of black tentacles falls on me from above and I hear the creature making an unearthly shrieking noise (but again, no lasting or overpowering negative vibe...it was pretty "meh" for me,) but then I looked up at a balcony and Stargazer was standing there looking down at me. She told me to follow her so I did, and as I followed her the "demons" faded into white light and it was just me and her then. After than she said "here hold this" and her body suddenly disappeared, her head floating up into my hands and suddenly changing from cute, cartoony and equine to an ugly and realistic face that looked like a cross between a shrunken head and the possessed girl from The Exorcist. Again, no sense of fear, dread or evil, just "huh, that was weird," and after waking up in the night, I had another OOBE that I don't remember, aside from I think I remember Stargazer returned to me, only this time as an unseen but decidedly benevolent and comforting presence/influence, more like how she appeared in the first OOBE I saw her in: couldn't really see her clearly, but I knew she was there.

What are your thoughts on Stargazer? Who or what do you think she is? All I know is even though it's awesome to get to see her in my projections, I am a little disappointed that my OOBEs with her in it haven't been leaving much of a lasting or profound impact on me at all, they're just kinda "there" or neutral. Also, I don't really know why Stargazer's head turned into a weird monster head in last night's AP, but I am guessing it could be a manifestation of some fear and doubt I have where I worry if I try to manifest Stargazer "for real," I will end up manifesting a demon instead, like in countless horror stories and creepypastas. But I am pretty sure I don't need to "manifest" Stargazer at all...I manifested her a loooong time ago, she already exists, she has appeared to me multiple times, and I should be very grateful to know her. Still, I want more...and maybe that will come when I gain more control over my astral abilities.

Glad to hear it was an actual OOBE...and yes, I did read all of the replies. I can't reply in person to everyone on here, but I will say I appreciate the replies greatly.

And yes, this OOBE felt extremely real. I also want to say that the dark-haired girl who was in my room (the one who called me "good-looking" and brushed my hair) exuded a very positive, warm and comforting feeling. I am not quite sure what kind of astral being she was, if she was any at all, but I am pretty sure she was of the Light.

I felt myself getting more and more jittery last night, so even though I didn't get to the nightmarish point yet, I still decided to try soarin12's hot bath approach. Oddly enough, it was still really hard for me to sit still while in the bath, but upon getting out of the bath I was able to sit and meditate for up to 20 minutes before going to bed, and when I went to bed I was able to sit still for longer without switching positions. I needed to take two baths, and I could only manage to lay down in the bath for 5, maybe 10 minutes max, but I spent longer in the second bath, and the water was hotter. I still managed to only get 2-3 hours of sleep last night due to my adrenaline being up, but I at least got some rest. And I feel slightly less jittery this morning.

I also want to say that I recall having specific thoughts while I was trying to go to sleep that would make me more jittery and make the symptoms increase in intensity, which points even more to the possibility of this being a panic attack as soarin12 had suggested. The thoughts in question were with regards to the fact that in my life, me and my two roommates are currently moving into a new house...the move is very stressful, and these thoughts came up where I was worrying about having to deal with these symptoms while packing the next day, whether or not I'll have an attack the first night of sleeping at the new house, and how inappropriate a time this is to be having these symptoms. Yes, a thought other than my fear of damnation caused me to feel worse...so it could be stress in general as well.

It sounds to me like your "healer" friend is fueling the fire here.

You seem to have adapted his/her beliefs to a "T".

Until you find out the truth for yourself, this problem will continue to plague you.

This is only my personal opinion! 

I am open to the possibility of it being both psychic entities like she suggests, and mentally-created constructs brought on by my own worst fears. They really are connected, I believe. They could be thoughtforms generated by my fears. And I will say that the last time I was plagued by demonic hallucinations she (the healer) was one of the main factors in my visions, and eventually a lot of my physical symptoms ceasing. I went almost three whole months with very little fear, only to experience a relapse that I am still struggling with. I feel as if I am very close to finally breaking the habit of this intense and awful phobia of damnation, but I am not there yet. I am currently leaning towards the belief that my hallucinations ARE just mental constructs, but at this point any type of healing helps, even spiritual. It worked last time.

And I am still waiting on soarin12's reply to my question about the panic attacks and SP. I am feeling compelled to look for not just supernatural causes of these symptoms, but also biological and psychological...it seems to all be connected.

Yes.  When I had panic attacks my whole body would vibrate uncontrollably and I would just pace back and forth.  If I tried to sit still the tremors would become extremely violent and I felt like I would not make it through.  I've also had horrible SP experiences.  With those, I had all the symptoms you did EXCEPT the body tremors because when you're in SP you're body can't move at all --it's paralyzed.  It sounds to me like the tremors are the panic attack part of the problem and then you move from there into SP.

Alright, good to know I'm not alone. So the panic attack somehow triggers SP-like auditory/visual hallucinations, intense, unbearable terror, pressure on my chest and right side of body, and all those other things? I'm just confused as to how it can happen when I am not going to sleep or waking up, since my eyes and brain are clearly not in a state of trying to sleep, and I read that the brain generates all those intense, terrifying hallucinations and other symptoms from experiencing a state between being awake and being asleep, so it doesn't make sense how I would experience those while wide awake. However, I am not sure completely but it seemed that most if not all of these attacks started happening while I was lying in bed trying to sleep, so my attempting to doze off may have triggered it. I have not ruled out the possibility that it can happen while I am out of bed and doing other things (since the "precursor" symptoms such as jitteriness can certainly occur while I am awake and doing other things,) but I think I have yet to experience another attack when I am not trying to go to sleep. And last night, I felt it coming but refused to give into fear, and instead it turned into regular, non-scary SP and sent me into an awesome OOBE!

I have been keeping the more mild symptoms under control all yesterday and all today, though I am still afraid of going to sleep tonight and triggering another attack. But I am guessing the fear is what causes it. But can panic attacks just happen spontaneously as well? My attacks are spontaneous, and generally don't have a direct trigger attached to them, save for higher levels of ambient fear in the back of my mind.

I'll add that once when I was having the worst panic attack of my life, (I was alone for the weekend.--no one to help me.)  I called an after hrs. doctor in desperation to ask for advice.  She told me about the hot bath idea and it worked like a charm.  Of course, it doesn't get at the root cause of the problem, but it stopped the episode I was having at the time.

Alright, I'll give that a try...but I seem to recall that the first night it happened I felt like taking a bath, so I did, but it didn't do anything to stop the movement, and I needed to get out of the bath because I was afraid I'd splash water everywhere. Now to be fair, I don't remember the water being all that hot, it was more a typical warm bath, but still, I am afraid to try it for fear it doesn't work and it proves to be something far more sinister than a panic attack. But I will probably give it a try anyways.

After my second OOBE, which was spontaneous, I made up my mind then and there that if I was going to hell, then I would go to hell but I was tired of the fear and wanted to know what was happening.

It takes conviction and this has been a long journey but if you're tired of being scared you'll have more of those wonderful OOBE like the one you just had.

Good luck.

Thanks. So do you think what I am experiencing is at all related to sleep paralysis? I did research on the symptoms and found that the symptoms of most cases of SP are remarkably similar to what I experience when having one of those attacks...pressure on chest restricting breathing, "choking" sensations, hallucinations (which I already experience even normally due to my fear, but which change, intensify and feel more vivid and "interactive" when I am having an attack,) auditory hissing/buzzing effects in my right ear, and intense terror. I heard panic attacks can have similar symptoms, but can SP or panic attacks also cause you to feel like you can't stop moving around, otherwise the tremors will overload your body and you'll jump out of your own skin or your head will fly off? I am curious.

I just wish there was a way to nullify the jitteriness and symptoms, as well as just the fear.

Overcome the fear! For there is nothing to be afraid of!

I am in the process of getting over the fear...it's very difficult, especially when the fear causes me to have one of those attacks, but I think I am definitely going in the right direction. I am grateful I was able to turn what may have been the start of another attack last night, into something very enjoyable.

So was it still a real OOBE, even if I felt I projected from within a dream version of my room?

I had a very unique experience last night after going to sleep. Well first-off I wanna say I've lately been experiencing SP-like symptoms while completely awake, such as intense, overwhelming terror and panic, tremors, feelings of my body flying apart from the inside, choking pressure on my chest and neck, auditory/visual hallucinations (usually a shadowy demon stuck to my right side that hisses and whispers into my right ear,) extreme discomfort in my own body, hypersensitivity to noise, sight and touch, and most of all, inability to stop moving my body (especially my legs,) because if I try and sit still I feel the tremors and "energy" build and it makes me feel like I'm about to violently burst out of my own body any second. It felt like being in a bad nightmare, only I was wide-awake. I still don't know what was causing that, but it could be a panic attack related to my fears. Anyways, I have felt jitteriness and the "early signs" of another one of these attacks since yesterday morning, but I so far have not experienced another major attack, presumably due to my keeping my fear under control.

However, last night while I was going to bed I felt the "rumbling" build in my torso as I was dozing off, not QUITE sure if it was related to an attack starting but it seemed like it was, but I didn't panic, and instead just "let it ride," and it turned into what seemed like normal, non-scary SP. I heard two women talking nearby, and then looked around and saw that I was in a dream version of my own room. I was lying on a futon on the floor, there was nothing left in my room except for a single bed (because we were moving out...we are actually in the process of moving to another place in my actual life as well,) and there was a young, pretty woman sitting up on the bed, looking down at me. I lay on the futon in the dream version of my room and started to feel SP even within my dream, followed by my lifting out of the dream version of my room and going on an astral adventure.

For this astral experience, oddly enough the astral body I chose was in the image of the young woman in my room, only with longer hair. It started with me running along a long, asphalt road in a suburban neighborhood, and the visuals were grainy, like an old color film movie or VHS tape. I was COMPLETELY taken by how real everything felt...I very strongly felt the ground on my feet, the wind in my hair and I am not sure but I think I could even smell the scent of the air! I then jumped up into the air, lifted off and started flying. With everything still feeling just as real as physical reality, I flew through an interesting dream landscape of fluffy white clouds, floating trees and houses, and the saw the ocean, which I flew over before going further inland. When I got further inland I found myself in a fancy city composed of floating skyscrapers and platforms just floating in the air...it looked extremely futuristic, like Coruscant from Star Wars. I floated past a tall spa building with floating swimming pool platforms, then returned to the dream version of my room.

In the dream version of my room the pretty woman was now sitting next to me on the futon, and then she brushed my face with her hand and told me I was "good looking." And then, after a few more things happened, I woke up. Despite the fact that I feel I projected from a parallel, dream version of my room, this was literally THE most vivid, "real" feeling astral experience I have ever had!

It's a little bit difficult to be able to tell you that this is Sleep Paralysis... (mixed with anxiety attacks like soarin12 said)

I say difficult because you are painting and colouring the experience with a lot of religious iconography. Yes.. that's your prerogative and it's what you believe... but it's also potentially ruining your life.

I can empathise with you as to why you are relating these experiences to some sort of external force because I have been there.. in the same position as you. Mine had different fears... but the sensations and fear you speak of are the same.

The only true advice is to please bare in mind that millions of people experience this... you aren't alone. Some think they are being abducted... some think a witch is sitting on their chest... some think they are having a seizure... the list goes on. Some OUT-SMART the fear and go on to have Out of Body Experiences.

You can best put an end to them by NOT NAPPING. Don't go to sleep through the day or evening. It's simple really. Take into consideration that 95% of people who suffer from narcolepsy also suffer from terrifying Sleep Paralysis. This is due to their inadvertent bouts of sleep throughout the day.

Actually, I have been experiencing the "early signs" of these attacks since yesterday morning (jitteriness, especially in the legs, pressure in my chest, occasional lightheadedness, etc.) but amazingly I have not had another major attack since it last happened two nights ago. I have a feeling this may have to do with my regulating my fear and preventing it from getting any worse. This healer who I speak with emailed me back about it yesterday and is under the belief that I AM being messed with by negative entities, but that if I raise my energy levels and get rid of my fear then they will not be able to affect me. I did as she recommended I do last night (drink distilled water with a bit of lemon juice in it, call upon my spirit guides and several ascended masters, and intend to be free of fear) and I did not have to deal with any such attack last night.

In fact, I felt the "rumbling" start in my torso as I was dozing off, but I wasn't afraid of it this time, and if anything it propelled me into what was actually THE best, most-memorable OOBE I have ever had! I am not sure if this rumbling was related to the kind that occurs with an attack, but I am under the impression that it was. I feel like by "letting it ride" and not being afraid of it I turned it into something resembling normal sleep paralysis, and triggered an amazing OOBE! I will write more about this memorable experience later.

It actually happened again last night, though because I attempted to go to sleep so early in the day (between 2 and 4:30 in the afternoon, because the same condition occurring two nights ago left me with absolutely no sleep, as even after it faded out around 3:30 AM I still could not get comfortable) it started happening much sooner, like around 4-5 PM as opposed to at night. Also, for these past two nights in a row of it happening, it would start with 3-4 hours of much more mild jitteriness, increased heart rate, and inability to sit still, only to build to its full "climax" (for lack of a better term) where I literally could not stop moving/pacing, felt an almost choking pressure on the right side of my neck, auditory and visual hallucinations of demons and hissing, the sensation that my head could fly off at any time, or that I would come flying apart from internal pressure if I tried to sit still. It was literally THE most uncomfortable full-body feeling I had felt in my entire life, possibly even more intense than it was eleven nights ago, and while I once again mentally resorted to the same old "I am possessed by a demon, and only Jesus can undo that" thought patterns, I never momentarily gave up my personal beliefs, instead just praying to Jesus in addition to (not instead of) the deities I usually pray to. Just like before there were no instant, miraculous answers to my multiple prayers, but the worst of the condition was over a lot sooner, like only an hour and a half max, as opposed to four or even five hours of nonstop terror and discomfort like when this first happened eleven nights ago, and by eventually lying down and "forcing" myself to lie still, I found the condition subsiding. Eventually around 9:30 it died down and I was able to get some rest, unlike the previous two times when I got no rest at all.

Finally, I said a thank you prayer to whatever entity may have caused it to be over sooner this time, and I heard Jesus's voice tell me that he DOES approve of my belief in spirit guides and deities that aren't just him, and that he's "but one of many." I am currently under the belief that it's not literal demonic possession, as I do not believe in demons, but perhaps an extreme manifestation of my worst fear, with the "intruder" that Lionheart mentioned (the one which sticks to my right side at the climax of the condition, feels like it's restricting my breathing, and hisses and whispers in my right ear) being a fear-based, demonic thoughtform or tulpa. Yes, I got freaked-out again this time, but I didn't let it make me even momentarily abandon my personal beliefs. My worst concern now is that it'll happen more frequently, or the worst part will continue for more than several hours out of one night, possibly impacting my ability to live my life. Any suggestions on how to possibly prevent it from happening again?

The "Demon" or should I say "Intruder" that you are seeing.

Check out this "Sticky".

It explains the "Intruder" scenario to a "T".

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_out_of_body_experiences/everything_you_could_ever_want_to_know_about_sleep_paralysis-t38734.0.html

Interesting, and thanks, only this isn't SP...I am generally fully conscious when this is happening. Unless of course the same principles apply to a situation like mine.

I feel I should also mention that tonight, when it's happening again, I am experiencing lots of muscle spasms on or near my tailbone...I heard that kundalini energy starts at the tailbone, so could it be possible that all this IS kundalini after all?

Reach out to them. Talk to them.

Reach out to whom? I am curious.

There is nothing wrong with Prayer. Don't get me wrong. It is extremely strong.

But instead of Praying for an external source to deal with your current problem, pray for the strength in yourself to see it through. 

That's actually a really good idea.

It sounds to me like your consciousness has decided that it is now time for you to confront your fears and handle them when they arise.

You can do it, once you prove to yourself that you can. Once you prove to yourself that these sensations and visions are just your own fear manifesting itself.

Good Luck and Safe Travels! 

Good to know. What would you think would be some good advice for if it ever happens again? Because it probably will. Whenever it happens intensely, I find myself overcome with fear of the possibility that I may be possessed, along with the same old broken-record thoughts that the only way out is by converting to the one religion I fear is the only true path, thus giving into my fears, and that is the opposite of what I wanna do.

Funny thing is, the first time it happened I kept getting this thought in the back of my mind, telling me "I am on the verge of a breakthrough" regarding my fear of damnation. It was difficult to listen to with all the other, fear-based thoughts going on in the foreground, but it was still there, fairly intensely. And sure enough, for five whole days after the first event of this sort, I was experiencing greatly reduced hallucinations and symptoms (a lot of the time, it's like they were not there at all,) as it wasn't until I had a fear attack several days ago and tried to meditate to reduce the fear, that my meditation backfired due to the intense fear, and I wound up bringing back the hallucinations and the other symptoms, rather stupidly. I still don't have full control over my visualizations.

So yeah, any words of wisdom regarding what I should do if (or when) this happens again? The previous two or three times it happened I said prayers to Jesus to heal me, so I am thinking the next time this happens I might want to say no such prayer, just to see if it still goes away around the same time. What would you have me do?

There's really nothing anyone can tell you that will make you feel better. You have to decide for yourself if believing in Jesus will save you or not. I for one see it as rather silly now after years of having the same fears you do.

We have been over exposed to so many negative ideas that it's hard not to think about them. When they resonate with our fears, they can overwhelm us. If eternal damnation and spirit possession makes sense to you then you have to decide a course of living that will help you.

This fear based thinking no longer has any power over me but I had to decide that I could live with the consequences of being wrong. After all, what choice do I really have?

It has since ended, it ended hours ago, and at this point I am less scared than I am curious as to what is actually going on. I'm just grateful that even though last time this happened I almost gave into my fear and converted, this time I stood stronger in my own beliefs.

I am very sorry for my somewhat broken record-seeming posts, but this fear that Christianity (more specifically evangelical Protestantism) is the only true religion, and that I will go to hell for practicing my own spirituality is my absolute worst fear, like so bad that it manifests demons. But like I said before my episode is over now, and while I would be lying if I told you confidently it will probably never happen again, at this point I am just curious as to what is actually happening. I don't believe in literal demons, but I do believe in demonic thoughtforms generated by this very intense fear, which may be the cause considering I see them a lot even with my eyes open. However I am open to the possibility that this is kundalini unlocking or something, the way my mom thought it was.

I will have you know I am very persistent, and am not one to convert to another religion out of fear. I just deal with a lot of doubt and fear and "what if" scenarios.

This weird thing happens to me sometimes...it is happening tonight and is preventing me from getting any sleep. Last time it happened in full was ten days ago, which was also the first time it happened so intensely. Basically, I start feeling these weird sensations all over my body, my limbs start feeling tingly, jittery and a little bit numb and hard to keep still, generally I find myself having a greatly heightened sensitivity to noise and touch, my heart starts pounding, not always faster but definitely more intensely, and I feel a pressure on my right shoulder, along with imagined, somewhat sinister "hissing" in my right ear. Generally I feel very uncomfortable in my body when this happens, and at times I will almost involuntarily start moving my limbs, generally my legs but also my arms and head, for an indefinite amount of time, in sweeping patterns. Finally, when at its absolute worst, all this comes with the sensation of my body being pulled apart from the inside, as if my head could pop off and float away at any minute, or I could jump out of my own body. Sometimes I even start hallucinating demons crawling on or in my body, or parts of myself exploding off of me.

When this happened ten nights ago, my mom was over, she saw the sweeping motions I was making with my body, and was convinced I was undergoing a kundalini opening/healing...to her, it felt overpoweringly positive. I believed her at first, until I kept doing this four many hours with no end in sight, at which point I started worrying more and more that I was possessed by a demon. Now I suffer from a very intense and persistent fear of damnation for being a non-Christian, so that night I pretty much almost converted to Christianity just to exorcise the "demon" from my body. I recited bible passages to exorcise demons and nothing happened. I also felt urges to take my own life, as the whole event felt more like a bad nightmare that I could "wake up" from if I killed myself...thankfully my mom drove me over to her house around 3:30 AM, and I stayed the night over at her place. I said one last prayer to Jesus to heal me, before attempting to go to sleep again, and then I saw blurry hallucinations of a creature on my right side, whispering "Jesus is lord" repeatedly before fading out, and then a few minutes later the symptoms died down and I was able to rest. My prayer seemingly worked that time, though it made me afraid because I was worried that Jesus is the only way to get rid of these symptoms when they happen, which must mean that I will go to hell when I die if I am not a Christian. Please help.

Finally, my mom told her healer friend about my experience, and she said an unpleasant spirit had made its way into my body, and that it has happened to her before as well, but she got rid of it. I am eager to hear what you guys think is going on. I am very afraid.

Yes, I do feel that positive, amazing, and deeply satisfying dreams have spiritual significance because they are helping to awaken you to who you truly are.  For example, maybe the dream gave you a sense of freedom that you never felt before. (like flying dreams/AP --my favorite!) Or maybe it showed you that you have more love in your heart than you thought you had.   Maybe you made a connection to someone in your dream that made you realize that you were not so alone and separate as you thought you were.  Or maybe the vast beauty of your dream touched you in a way where you just forgot about your fears and decided none of that mattered anymore.  Those special dream experiences (OOBEs and so many things in the physical too) all serve to bring us out of darkness (separateness, fearfulness, bitterness, ego) and into the light of all we truly are when the darkness is stripped away.  This light I would describe as a loving connection to all beings.  Of course, words never really do anything justice do they?  Experience does, though, and dreams are a great way to experience to one extent or another, the truth of our being.

Awesome, glad even the non-AP dreams have some significance to them. Because I sure feel it when they do. I have also noticed an interesting trick that can be performed in order to increase the likelihood of having a more memorable, longer and more "epic" dream than you normally would, and which may even increase the likelihood of AP. Well it works for me, I can't speak for everybody obviously. Anyways the trick is to go to sleep while it is still light out, possibly as early as late afternoon or early evening. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but some of my best dreams I have had after going to bed in this way. Have I touched on a well-known astral technique? Or is this just an anomaly?

I've heard of many people who do as you do and start with imagination and then apparently, a guide will use what you imagined and speak helpful advice through it.  It's really kind of mind blowing when you think about it.  I've received the helpful advice but I never start with imagination.--probably because I've never been very imaginative!  LOL!

Wow, that's good to know. I've heard other people say that if I was the one who manifested something resembling a spirit guide, then that "guide" is just a part of me and nothing else, so it really means nothing, because apparently spirit guides have to be "met" and can't be "manifested." But I happen to be an artist, with a very visual brain and mind, so it is very spiritual and therapeutic for me to draw stuff I come up with (my dream job is either that of a concept artist, or a video game designer...I am majoring in Applied Computer Graphics.) But I guess it makes perfect sense how a spiritual being would choose to manifest as one of my drawings or designs in order to appear in a form that is most reassuring to me. Hell, even weirder is the fact that I have a whole personal mythology going (and have since I was a kid) with my own gods and goddesses I have come up with myself...sometimes I would pray to these "constructed" deities in addition to praying to "established" deities and ascended masters, and half the time I feel my prayers are answered just the same. I am not saying that makes them real, literal gods and goddesses, but there must be some sort of being out there like God or whomever, who answers my prayers through a constructed deity.

Ha Ha! about the soarin pony!  I didn't know about the pony connection.  I chose the name because I just love flying (soaring) in the astral so much!  I have to say, though, that I have 3 horses and 2 ponies at home.  I've always loved riding and I think horses are some of the most amazing spirits there are!  The way they can connect to you and respond to you seemingly by you just thinking a thought!  They're so amazing .  I can see why you would want to dream about them!  Maybe I'll try that.  Thanks for inspiring me!

You're welcome. Thanks for actually replying to my longwinded posts :3

Thank you for your kind words, everyone.

its all bad--Yes, it was when i felt the love that I knew it was him.  Although as soon as he entered the room and began to teach I became aware that I was in the presence of a most special and beautiful spirit.  Because the dream wasn't lucid, I actually had no memory of praying to meet with Jesus at all.

DASH-- I'm glad you mentioned that because I actually did see my cat "The Mewer" in two APs.  In the first, before bed I phased directly to seeing her in the room.  I was overjoyed to see her and began petting her and checking her body to make sure there was no more injury.  She was in perfect shape, just like her old self.  After we visited a while she disappeared into thin air.  I then heard happy sounds coming from my daughter's room.  I could hear my daughter talking to The Mewer and visiting with her.  I was happy that she had gone to visit my daughter too. The next morning I asked my daughter if she had dreamed about the Mewer that night but unfortunately she said that she couldn't remember any of her dreams.  I noted, though, that after that night her spirits lifted and she stopped her daily bouts of crying over the loss. Maybe she did dream about her?? It made me wonder about how dreams affect us even if we don't remember them.

In the second AP, I was walking in a very pretty wooded area when I saw the Mewer walking toward me.  She was very happy to see me and purred and rubbed against my legs.  The visit was really a beautiful one in which our spirits really bonded.  I was also glad to see her in such a beautiful place.  It struck me later that this was the only AP I've ever had where I actually walked somewhere.  Flying (soarin') has always been my only mode of transportation.  I guess I needed to walk because cats aren't really into flying lol!

That's wonderful that you managed to see her in your APs...I have had only two or three fully-successful or memorable OOBEs to this day, so I have not encountered any deceased loved ones or pets just yet, unlike my normal dreams where my dad and sometimes my stepmom frequently appear. I guess the fact that you've seen The Mewer twice in your OOBEs is proof that she is in a better place.

With regards to your Jesus dream, I'm glad I am not the only one who has a dream about a person or a place or a thing, where even though the dream doesn't explicitly introduce them to you and they are never referred to in name, you just know who or what they are. I find that in the world of dreams and OOBEs, you do not need to be "introduced" to a person or concept, you just know deeply in yourself who they are.

Very nice dream, and good to know that even Christians like yourself can be spiritual and allowed to pursue other ways of knowing, such as AP/OOBE...I really wish I knew more Christians in real life who were like you, because most of the ones I met think anything spiritual, or even any religion that isn't evangelical, non-denominational Protestantism, is false and of the Devil. They were the ones who gave me that constant, cancerous, nagging fear. But I won't cover that here because it's not positive at all.

Anyways, you aren't the only one whose prayers are answered through a dream. That has happened to me at least twice before, though I mostly just pray for having epic, awesome dreams that affirm my faith in the spirit world. Actually, my second or third "real" AP experience (back in late April) occurred after I said a prayer to one of my deities that I would enter the spirit world in my dream. That night I was suffering fairly intensely from my fear of damnation, and I wanted to experience an OOBE to get even one step closer to realizing that the spirit world is not as I fear, and so sure enough I experienced just that.

That amazing, healing love you felt...I want to someday experience that in a dream. And I know, if I persist with my AP/OOBE practices, I probably will someday. And I know your cat is in a better place now. Maybe you'll even see her in future dreams and AP sessions, the same way I tend to have recurring dreams about my beloved dad, who passed away in early 2009, but in the dreams he is alive and well.

And I see you have already found my dream thread 

I read about your Jesus dream too, it sounded very amazing and profound.

To see a pony in your dream signifies the playful aspects of your life. It is representative of your unexplored, underdeveloped, or undisciplined power.

Wow, fascinating! I presume this applies to cartoon ponies as well as real ponies. This is good to know. Although I kinda more pictured the ponies in my dream as being spirit animals or guides or something, at least for some of the dreams I mentioned. But still, this is good information to have.

The ponies don't make the dream less valid at all.  They may well have been there to comfort you.  Dreams/projections are very often symbolic in nature.  If it doesn't mean anything to you now, write it in your journal and in time some things may be revealed to you.  Once I had a projection that meant nothing to me at the time, then 1 week later the exact scene I saw in the projection happened in real life. --a precognition.  So you never know what you'll eventually get out of it.  You say you had a gut feeling about what the message meant. --In my opinion when you have that feeling, go with it!  That is what is being conveyed to you.  Our spirits just know things immediately and intuitively even if our minds are sometimes confused by the imagery.

Oh don't worry, I definitely keep record of all my major dreams in my dream journal...I create a new one for each year, and archive the old ones as PDF documents. They don't go back too far, unfortunately, I only started recording my dreams in fall of 2010, but I do have a way older paper dream journal from my childhood, where my mom used to write dreams that I would dictate to her...some of those go back to 1991 or even 1990, when I was only two or three. Sadly I currently do not know the location of this old journal, though I intend to someday archive it digitally and preserve it forever.

Anyways, yes, I do believe I had a gut feeling with some of these dreams, especially the AP one with Princess Cadence and the kung-fu master guy back in mid-December 2012. Others just felt overwhelmingly positive, like the one in November 2011 with Pinkie Pie, or the flying one in March 2012 with Rainbow Dash. Now tell me, in your experience does a dream that just feels really positive, amazing and deeply satisfying have any kind of spiritual significance? Because I occasionally have dreams like those, even if they are not "lifting out" or AP/OOBE-related experiences.

The message "I am all that once was and all that ever will be" reminds me of many bible quotes depicting God.  Such as "I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and end."  and "I AM that I AM".  Also the white light (in ponies eyes) is always seen as divine.   Maybe God/Source/the universe or what ever name tag you prefer is reaching out to you to show you that he/she is all expansive, never ending, everything and all. --and "ALL" of course includes your consciousness and thus you will survive death. --your greatest fear.     Just a thought.  I don't mean to read too much in!!

Hmm...the "alpha and omega" quote is from Revelation, right? I may not be a Christian, but I do have a Bible, which I enjoy reading some of sometimes. On that note, maybe God chose to take the form of Princess Cadence to appear to me in that dream and tell me that I do not need to fear death...pretty fascinating when you think about it. Personally the thing she said immediately brought to mind some of the lyrics in the Metallica song "Through the Never," but that's just me. I like your more mystical interpretation better 

Finally, while this does not really have much to do with dreams, but it does have to do with ponies and their relation to my spirituality. I remember back in November 2012 I came up with an idea for what I thought was just an imaginary character, though thinking of her comforted me in the face of my biggest fear at the time, which was the December 21st Mayan doomsday prediction. Resembling a MLP:FiM-style cartoon pony, she was called the Lightmare, and took the form of a white, winged unicorn-like creature dressed in white and gold armor, with a pink and lavender mane and tail. Now initially I didn't really believe she was real at any level, but then in February she appeared in a vision my friend had while meditating, and later that month, when my current worst fear (my fear of going to hell for not being an evangelical Protestant) got so bad that it caused me to manifest demonic thoughtforms even with my eyes open, I actually heard her speaking to me and giving me systematic instructions on how to get rid of the demons...I followed these instructions and within one week they were gone for good. She has since proven herself to be a very useful thoughtform...her name is a play on the word "nightmare" in that she is the opposite of that, and also that she is a literal mare of light.

Oh man, these replies are really long...sorry about that. Also, I can't help but notice your username, 'soarin12'...there is a pony called Soarin in the actual show. What a coincidence!

I became a brony in late June 2011, a week or two after a terrifying psychic experience triggered by my obsessive fear of the (now-failed) May 21st Rapture prediction that everyone talked about back then, even though looking back, it was incredibly stupid. Watching the first two episodes of MLP: FiM comforted me at a very deep and spiritual level and helped to get rid of the last of the fear-induced visions I was having. And starting in early September that same year, cartoon ponies quickly became one of the most widely-recurring themes in my dreams...I still dream about ponies on a regular basis, though not as ridiculously frequent as they were in late 2011, but some (if not most) of these dreams left me with a very positive, profound and comforting feeling, and I will only cover the relevant ones here.

My first "profound" pony dream was a night or two after Thanksgiving 2011 and involved me going on a fun adventure with a young woman who kept alternating between being a human, and being Pinkie Pie (more specifically, Pinkie with her mane straightened, which due to the infamy of the "Cupcakes" fanfic most fans call her "Pinkamena" when her mane/tail is this way...though unlike in those grimdark fics she was still happy, upbeat and friendly like this.) We went for a summer hike along a dried creek, then ate a cherry jello parfait afterwards. And somehow, this dream felt profound, deeply comforting, and like something from my happy childhood...for those mysterious reasons it was arguably my favorite dream of 2011.

I would have other pony-related dreams all through 2012 (including another profound and fun dream in early March where I was "flying" with Rainbow Dash over a magnificent dream landscape with floating continents that had lush forests, meadows and flowering fruit trees on them,) but my final two pony-related dreams for December 2012 were instrumental in my overcoming my fear of the Mayan doomsday prediction for December 21st, which we all lived through luckily.

My first dream of this sort was where I was staying over at my mom's house on the morning of December 21st, and Twilight Sparkle was next to me. I told her I was concerned that the reason "2012 doomsday" and similar results stopped being among the top searches on Google in the final months of 2012 was because of the world governments "covering up" the fact that the world will end, in order to prevent mass panic. Twilight replied by saying how it "means nothing," and how people are just momentarily "sick" of Mayan doomsday searches after years of hype about it, so as a result such searches just aren't that popular anymore. Rather interestingly, a few days after December 21st came and went with no doomsday, I did some research and found that Twilight's words may very well have been the truth.

Finally, later in December I had what was arguably one of my first "real" AP experiences, and yes, it too involved ponies. I felt myself experiencing sleep paralysis, followed by my lifting out of my bed, taking on the form of an "ideal" astral body I had started drawing a few days prior (this astral body looks like a cross between knight/samurai armor, and SPARTAN-III armor from Halo) and floating through the night. I found myself able to "phase" through walls, and eventually found myself in someone's backyard in the middle of the night...I phased through the wall and found myself in the middle of what looked like a traditional Japanese-style living room. There was a little old man wearing a rice farmer's hat and carrying a walking stick, looking like a stereotypical kung-fu master. He told me I had passed some kind of test, and then I looked over and saw Princess Cadence (another pony) next to me. She looked at me, her eyes started glowing with white light, and she told me the mysterious message, "I am all that once was, and all that ever will be!" And after that, I returned to my bed and woke up, leaving me with a mysterious but awesome and "epic" feeling after I awoke. I didn't QUITE know what to make of this last dream, but my gut told me Cadence's message was one of reassurance, and how the dream meant I needed to face my fears of the unknown.

So what do you think this all means? Because these ponies are fictional characters, does that make my dream experiences with them less valid, or did I in fact meet up with helpful astral beings who chose to take the form of My Little Ponies just because it was a familiar and comforting form to me? Any feedback would be extremely appreciated, since ponies are still among my most dreamed-about thing to this day. :3

Remember that in the astral your thoughts manifest to one degree or another.  So if you are thinking about hell and are afraid of it you will probably experience it.  Same goes for your positive thoughts so try to think positive!  As for if you're visiting a literal hell or for that matter if any place or anyone you visit in the astral is literal/real vs. a figment of your imagination---we all have to try to determine that for ourselves.  I have had many projections that I'm convinced were "real" and others where I really have no idea.

I've also seen and felt the presence of my deceased dad.  It was very reassuring and healing for me.  I feel like many of those kinds of experiences are true visitations.

As for your fear about going to hell if you don't accept Jesus, ask yourself this--What does it REALLY mean to accept Jesus?  What did he stand for? What did he teach?  I'll some it up in 3 words --love, humility, forgiveness.  A person that rejects these 3 qualities from their life for long enough is doing damage to their soul and probably will end up in a hell realm.  You attract to you what you are.  So accept love, humility, forgiveness = accept Jesus.  Reject the same qualities = reject Jesus.  To me it's just that simple.  Now if you're a person who embodies love, forgiveness and humility but you can't bring yourself to believe that Jesus actually existed, so what?  Would a loving God really condemn you for that?  This is the point where bible Christians go off the deep end.  They get ultra literal with scriptures that were obviously never meant to be taken as such.  The authors of the bible were at times divinely inspired and were at times offering up their own opinions and perceptions.

I am a Christian who thinks for myself and doesn't follow the crowd.  Just thought I would offer my opinion to you on the subject.  Good luck to you in your astral travels!

Thanks for the very in-depth reply, and sorry I took so long to reply to this thread. I kinda forgot about it lol.

Yeah I am not a Christian, but I do believe in Jesus, and that he possessed some very positive qualities. I guess you're right, "accepting Jesus" doesn't necessarily mean converting to evangelical Protestantism, does it? I am spiritual, not religious, and thanks for your words.

With regards to the astral plane being a place where my thoughts can manifest as some form of "reality" instantly, that again makes perfect sense why I would experience stuff like that when the thought occurs to me. Now the real trick is just to control it...and that's pretty difficult, but obviously not impossible.

I actually had a much better "lifting out" experience back in December, before my fear of damnation resurfaced (at the time my main obsessive paranoid thought was the Mayan doomsday prediction, which is thankfully over now,) but it was extremely cryptic. However, it was extremely memorable, and for months was THE dream I had that affirmed my faith in the spirit world. Should I cover it here, or in a separate thread under "Dreams"?

All of your answers lie in this one Sticky here.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/welcome_to_out_of_body_experiences/everything_you_could_ever_want_to_know_about_sleep_paralysis-t38734.0.html

Whether it's a Dream or a Astral Experience. Answer me this, what is a Dream?

I just downloaded and saved the article as a PDF...I will get to reading it whenever I have time.

As for dreams also being astral experiences, I'm gonna have to agree with you on that one. Just, some dreams leave me with a profound feeling, others don't. I especially love the ones that do. I also notice that I am more likely to have a profound or at least more memorable and vivid dream if I go to sleep while it's still light out, then sleep longer than normal and ideally wake up before sunrise. Am I the only one who experiences this?

Finally, I wanna say that my deceased dad would frequently appear in my dreams. I like to believe that means his spirit is visiting me, since in many of those dreams my encounters with him are extremely positive, as if he never died to begin with, and is alive and well. Tell me what you all think.

Not sure if this goes under "Dreams" or "Astral Projection Experiences," so feel free to move it if necessary.

I have been experiencing a mysterious "rumbling" which is possibly sleep paralysis for almost three years now, where I would feel my body shaking all over, hearing nothing but the rumbling of my own body shivering (but sometimes accompanied by other mysterious sounds like muffled voices or unearthly laughter) and being unable to move or open my eyes at all for several moments. When I finally wake up, I sometimes realize that the version of my bedroom I found myself in while experiencing the paralysis was a slightly different "dream" version of my bedroom in the physical world. Interesting. Also, these experiences used to be accompanied by seeing a skeletal gray zombie-like spectral entity or sometimes another figure which would "paralyze" me with its gaze or something else spooky, though this "spectre" has not appeared consistently for months, even though the paralysis persists. Regardless, I sometimes feel fear or "thrill" after experiencing this, prompting me to hide under my covers.

But ever since about six months ago, said "rumbling" has sometimes come with a sensation of "lifting out," "sliding" or "floating" around or outside of my bed...the first time this happened back in late October 2012 (I think,) I felt myself "sliding" as if being carried by some unseen force slowly off of my bed, then falling to the floor and sliding along the floor, still on my back. There was a limited sense of being able to control it, though not as much as during later, similar experiences. Other times I would feel myself floating above my bed, although unlike other reported instances of similar events, I looked down and didn't find my sleeping body, only a vague shadow in its place.

My latest "lifting out" experiences seem to involve genuine flight, though sometimes I sink through the floor and travel through what vaguely looks like a stereotypical depiction of Hell, only without demons and people suffering, and no terrible feeling of dread at all. I suffer from a recurring phobia of damnation (because I am not a Christian and have a constant, nagging fear that goes "what if the Christians are right and you'll go to Hell for not accepting Jesus?") and usually, I only go there if I think to myself whilst floating "I hope I won't visit Hell." But usually after floating through that spot I go out on another floating adventure to somewhere completely different. Still, I am a little tiny bit concerned that I am genuinely visiting a literal Hell, and I will go there when I die. But that seems unlikely.

Finally, I will say that these "lifting out" experiences are only slightly interactive...most of the time I feel like I am on "rails," as if the whole thing is like a roller coaster ride or something. Does that mean it is just a dream? Or is it a genuine astral experience, and I just need to learn to control it? Please tell me your thoughts...