ABDUCTED BY ALIENS... Or Sleep Paralysis?

[hazzard]

The condition is characterized by being unable to move or speak. It is often associated with a feeling that there is some sort of presence, a feeling which often arouses fear but is also accompanied by an inability to cry out. The paralysis may last only a few seconds.

Sleep paralysis is a condition that occurs in the state just before dropping off to sleep (the hypnagogic state) or just before fully awakening from sleep (the hypnopompic state).
The paralysis may last only a few seconds.

The description of the symptoms of sleep paralysis is similar to the description many Ghost encounters or alien abductees give in recounting their abduction experiences and also other delusions involving other paranormal or supernatural experiences.

Sleep paralysis is something many people experience once or twice in a lifetime but it is a frequent occurrence of those suffering from narcolepsy.

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/narco.html

Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
If you believe one set of claims, nearly four million Americans have been abducted by aliens. This figure has been widely publicized and is often assumed to mean that millions of people have been visited by members of an alien species and, in some cases, physically taken from their beds, cars, or homes to an alien craft or planet.

The question is, Have these people really been abducted?
The alternative is that they simply have had a number of interesting psychological experiences, the most obviously relevant being sleep paralysis.


(Move to UFO thread?)

[I Am He]

Nice to see you Hazzard.

I only experienced sleep paralysis once in my life, and that was many years ago. I can tell you one thing about it.....I scared the living shit out of me. I did see something white, the closest I can come to describing it would be Casper the Ghost. I woke up but could not move at all, except for my eyes. I couldn't even holler. I couldn't even poke my wife, who was only inches from me.

But after it went away I just passed it off as a nightmare not as an Alien abduction. And believe me, at that time I was a big Science Fiction fan. I would never want to go threw that experience again.

[teri tait]

I experienced the classic sleep paralysis (as described in this forum) once. It was peculiar but not scarey in my opinion. I routinely experience the sensation of waking up standing on my head or seeing through the bottom of my feet and other oddish things like that. One time I woke up from the wall dripping onto my knee. I still wonder how that happened as the wall was about a yard away and I could see it drip and feel it hit my knee. I just chalk it up to random strangeness, which is pretty common in my life.
It doesn't scare me and I rarely even mention such things to anyone as it is hard to believe/prove. I know it happened and that's good enough for me.

[pmcolt]

I've experienced sleep paralysis a few times. In bed, unable to move, with some sort of 'fearful dark presence' at the foot of the bed, where I cannot see it. Once I realize what's going on, it stops being scary.

Quite frequently I have dreams just before I wake up wherein I'm still in the middle of whatever dream I'm having, but my eyes are suddenly closed, everything is black, and I can't move very fast or pry my eyes open to see anything. Then I wake up. I can't decide if it's a variant of sleep paralysis as I'm waking up, or just a weird dream.

[teri tait]

When I dream 95% of the time its in the third person, where I see myself as if I am an onlooker. The other 5% of the time is like looking through my own eyes at my hands or other closeup things.
Is this how most people dream? I only ask because my mother does not dream in this fashion and I wonder which is most common.

[pmcolt]

That's interesting. I dream in the first person, except I never seem to be wearing glasses, and I seldom see my hands, or any part of my body.

Now that I think about it, I take that back. On very rare occasions, I do dream in the third person. Usually in such a case, I'm in the air, looking down at myself, but nothing is happening.

[teri tait]

That's interesting. I dream in the first person, except I never seem to be wearing glasses, and I seldom see my hands, or any part of my body.

Now that I think about it, I take that back. On very rare occasions, I do dream in the third person. Usually in such a case, I'm in the air, looking down at myself, but nothing is happening.

Maybe you're wearing contacts in your dreams. Do you dream in color? Do you see people you actually know when you're awake, or people you've heard of but never met in person, or people you have never met/heard of but you know them and they know you?!? Me, I dream all three types of people (and sometimes they're not even people)
One time I found a huge wad of $12 bills which I remembered when I woke up because there is no such bill in American tender. Then later on I dreamed another dream where this youngish boy was trying to convince me it was his wad of $12 bills. I was pretty sure he was lying but I gave it to him anyway. Weird how dreams continue like that, like a freakin' mini series. Do yours ever do that?

[pmcolt]

Maybe you're wearing contacts in your dreams. Do you dream in color?

*snipped because I don't think it's necessary to quote the entire post just to establish that I'm replying to it*

(Has this become the dream thread?)

I dream in very dull, unsaturated colors. Also, like I said before, a lot of my dreams end with me stumbling around the dream landscape in total blackness for awhile as I try to open my eyes.

I only rarely see people that I actually know. Often I see people who don't exist, but I 'know' in the context of the dream. (For some odd reason, Lila McCann, my favorite singer, often shows up in my dreams. She never actually sings in my dreams, but she's pretty cool. Except when she tries to kill me.)

I get the mini-series dreams, too. Occasionally I have dreams that repeat every so often. I don't think I've ever had a dream about $12 bills.

[umop ap!sdn]

I can think of one, maybe two times when I had sleep paralysis - once when I was about 9-10 and could see around the inside of the room but not move or scream. Even though it was fairly dark, objects that were white appeared to be glowing vividly.

The second experience was when I was 13, and in my sleep my hands were waving around underneath the blanket. (Back then, I used to sleep with the covers pulled up over my head. ) This was a light blanket, like a sheet. Suddenly, something gently slammed against both my palms simultaneusly. I froze, and found myself unable to move except to open my right eye and look to my side. There was a light, the color of an incandescent, and at first I thought it was the hall light, but you know how when something is right up close to your eye it has an orange outline to it? From the chromatic aberration. Well that's what this light looked like. So I closed my eye and tried to go back to sleep - and then somehow I came to (was I ever out?) and found that my heavy blanket was tucked in neatly and where I had seen the yellowish white light before I now saw the blue glow of predawn through my window.

I've also had "astral projection" type experiences where I seem to be floating out of body - these are accompanied by a most horrific roaring sound. Although I'm sure these are all unusual mental states, they're very weird and frightening when they happen and I can see why some people would attribute them to aliens etc.

[umop ap!sdn]

(Posting twice in case the thread gets split...)

When I dream 95% of the time its in the third person, where I see myself as if I am an onlooker. <snip> Is this how most people dream?

Not me - I always dream in the first person, In fact, when dreaming I rarely have the sense of self image that I have while awake.

[teri tait]

Well that caps it...I am a superfreak dreamer, probably dangerous if provoked while dreaming and a legendary snorer too. :)
Maybe I can get on Montel or even Springer if I can find some disgruntled relatives...

[Lonewulf]

I usually dream in first-person. I haven't been remembering dreams that well recently. They're usually surreal and strange, though.

[umop ap!sdn]

Well that caps it...I am a superfreak dreamer

No you ain't, and life would be boring if we didn't have some variety. :)

[teri tait]

Rodger That!
Still, I don't believe in alien abduction occurring during sleep of any sort. If it happens at all, I think it would be during waking hours.

[pmcolt]

I don't know. If I were trying to abduct people in secret to perform bizarre experiments on them before returning them to their lives, I'd definitely do it while they sleep. Less of a fight when you take them, no missing hours to explain, and easy to write off any memory of the event as a superfreaky bad dream.

Not that I think it's happening. Just seems easier to take people while they're asleep than when they're awake. In any event, I'm not under any circumstances going to provoke teri tait in the middle of a dream, just in case...

[teri tait]

Cool! I have succeeded in intimidating someone (finally, jeez)
Some believe the waking world is the actual dream world an we delude ourselves believing it is real. Me, I'm undecided on that point but perhaps the aliens who are supposedly bagging and tagging everyone follow that belief system?
Either way I have the classic scar on the back of my knee which, according to my mother, means I have been tagged by some interstellar Marlin Perkins ;)

(This opinion brought to you by Mutual of Omaha, people you can count on when the going's rough ;) )

[Lonewulf]

I was abducted by aliens. Sexy aliens. Very sexy. Then I had to leave Mexico. :(

[teri tait]

Ahhh, but did they violate you AND leave you with a big grin on your face? Those are the best alien abductions ;)

[Lonewulf]

Ahhh, but did they violate you AND leave you with a big grin on your face? Those are the best alien abductions ;)

They could've at least given me their number. Hmpf.

[teri tait]

They probably implanted in your brain with a subliminal trigger like a certain word. So one day you're just walking along minding your own business and someone says, "Greasemonkey" & next thing you know you're right there with the aliens again for violation duty, Round 2.

[umop ap!sdn]

...no missing hours to explain...

Forgot to add there were missing hours in my experience. I had gone to bed, nodded off, then the sensation against my palms woke me up.... then my memory is a blank... then all of a sudden I've calmed down and it's 6:00 in the morning.

They probably implanted in your brain with a subliminal trigger like a certain word. So one day you're just walking along minding your own business and someone says, "Greasemonkey" & next thing you know you're right there with the aliens again for violation duty, Round 2.

Why "greasemonkey", I thought that's what "fnord" was for. Or is that too ubiquitous now? :D

[teri tait]

Just thinking about saying the word "fnord" out loud makes me dizzy... And the word ubiquitus just makes me want to say marsupial...
Greasemonkey is a fairly common word easily worked into a conversation and yet not commonly used, hence, a perfect trigger word :)

Not that it matters, since I don't believe in alien abduction.

[Мастер]

Not that it matters, since I don't believe in alien abduction.

Aliens everywhere can breath a sigh of relief...

[teri tait]

Well yes and no, I mean any alien is more than welcome to study me as long as they follow the groundrules.

1. I hate to be late and I hate to be kept waiting.
2. If they're going to be harvesting my eggs, they should take me for a cruise in their starship and let me steer for awhile.

They're pretty accommodating little guys, not nearly as creepy as they are made out to be by the media.

[Мастер]

Well yes and no, I mean any alien is more than welcome to study me as long as they follow the groundrules.

1. I hate to be late and I hate to be kept waiting.
2. If they're going to be harvesting my eggs, they should take me for a cruise in their starship and let me steer for awhile.

They're pretty accommodating little guys, not nearly as creepy as they are made out to be by the media.

Ah, OK, I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about abducting the aliens.