ExMinister
RSL Acolyte
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2007
- Messages
- 2,982
Just curious - what type of ministry school are you going to?
I have been dealing with a combination of sleep paralysis/frightening lucid dreams since 2005. One night I thought I had awakened to the cat jumping on the bed. I got up out of bed and started to walk through the bedroom in the dark to carry him downstairs. I had gotten about halfway down the stairs when I heard a loud growling sound and turned to see a demon-type figure wearing a black cloak standing at the top of the stairs, who roared down at me in a voice that sounded like Darth Vader. Since this type of thing had happened so often, seeing him made me realize obviously I wasn't awake like I thought I was! I was terrified.
Other nights I will feel a crawling sensation in my lower back as I'm falling asleep and then feel as though something rushes at me, jolting me back awake, terrified.
Once I awoke to see the eerie face of a demon hovering within inches of my own face, a strange pointed demonic dark face, glowing sort of black and green - green slits for eyes. It lunged for my neck and chest, scared the **** out of me, but I was paralyzed. I struggled and tried to scream until finally I woke up, heart racing.
I've had this so often since 2005 I couldn't even begin to recount them all here.
I know you are a skeptic and don't believe the spiritual attack explanation, though you said you are unnerved by the experiences. I'd like to think I don't either, but it's been a real struggle for me at times too.
One thing I find interesting is that people in other cultures experience similar things, but depending on their religious beliefs, they deal with them differently, with different gods or protectors to call on. Some of my Christian friends told me that the only thing that would help me would be to call on Jesus Christ. Calling on Jesus Christ did in fact help. But then I found a Muslim web site describing sleep paralysis, where they said the only thing that helped was to sleep with the Koran under one's pillow. And lest one think that only non-Christians experience "attacks," evangelicals experience them, too.
Even more interesting to me is that what people "see" during these experiences varies so widely. Some people see gray aliens. Or reptilian creatures. I have never once seen an alien or reptilian. But in my former New Age belief system, aliens were good guys and I thought the whole gray alien/reptilian thing was silly. I see demons and dark entity type creatures - something I DID believe was possible. My demons don't necessarily look like other people's demons either. Other people see spiders or snakes or witches, which I don't see. To me this helps bolster the argument that the imagery we see is created within our own minds, drawing from our own imaginations and personal fears.
I have been dealing with a combination of sleep paralysis/frightening lucid dreams since 2005. One night I thought I had awakened to the cat jumping on the bed. I got up out of bed and started to walk through the bedroom in the dark to carry him downstairs. I had gotten about halfway down the stairs when I heard a loud growling sound and turned to see a demon-type figure wearing a black cloak standing at the top of the stairs, who roared down at me in a voice that sounded like Darth Vader. Since this type of thing had happened so often, seeing him made me realize obviously I wasn't awake like I thought I was! I was terrified.
Other nights I will feel a crawling sensation in my lower back as I'm falling asleep and then feel as though something rushes at me, jolting me back awake, terrified.
Once I awoke to see the eerie face of a demon hovering within inches of my own face, a strange pointed demonic dark face, glowing sort of black and green - green slits for eyes. It lunged for my neck and chest, scared the **** out of me, but I was paralyzed. I struggled and tried to scream until finally I woke up, heart racing.
I've had this so often since 2005 I couldn't even begin to recount them all here.
I know you are a skeptic and don't believe the spiritual attack explanation, though you said you are unnerved by the experiences. I'd like to think I don't either, but it's been a real struggle for me at times too.
One thing I find interesting is that people in other cultures experience similar things, but depending on their religious beliefs, they deal with them differently, with different gods or protectors to call on. Some of my Christian friends told me that the only thing that would help me would be to call on Jesus Christ. Calling on Jesus Christ did in fact help. But then I found a Muslim web site describing sleep paralysis, where they said the only thing that helped was to sleep with the Koran under one's pillow. And lest one think that only non-Christians experience "attacks," evangelicals experience them, too.
Even more interesting to me is that what people "see" during these experiences varies so widely. Some people see gray aliens. Or reptilian creatures. I have never once seen an alien or reptilian. But in my former New Age belief system, aliens were good guys and I thought the whole gray alien/reptilian thing was silly. I see demons and dark entity type creatures - something I DID believe was possible. My demons don't necessarily look like other people's demons either. Other people see spiders or snakes or witches, which I don't see. To me this helps bolster the argument that the imagery we see is created within our own minds, drawing from our own imaginations and personal fears.
