I could not sleep!

[1magus]

No dude my theory anything happens for each action there are a infinite number of different outcomes. The Big Bang could of happened a billion different ways there by re writing the laws of a Universe and each Universe would be different. BUt they cannot be touched by the boundries of another.
Edit: I sent both my stories to you feel free to critque them or whatever.

[Kaileocomial]

I had an 'encounter' with something... I hesitate to call it a ghost, because I didn't see it & I don't know what it was. It was after spending the night at a friend's house. After we woke up the next day my friend went downstairs to have a shower, leaving me alone in his room on the top floor. I was sort of wandering about his room, looking at books & movies & stuff when I noticed a noise coming from his attic... it sounded very distinctively like footsteps. The noise stopped & I figured I must have been hearing things, or that it was just the wood creaking or something. So I continued wandering around his room. Then I noticed the footsteps again... they started where I had been standing, and they moved over to directly above my head. I started to get a little freaked out this time & tested it out by walking around the room & stopping. Each time I moved, the footsteps would follow me from where I had been to where I had gone. It was a very distinctive sound, I could hear it clear as day. I was wide awake & it was a bright sunny day outside.

I told my friend about it immediately after his shower was done and he told me that there was absolutely no way anyone could possibly be in the attic, because there was only a foot or two of space up there. The stepping sounds I heard were so heavy & distinct that there's no way it could have possibly been an animal or anything. And the fact that they followed me everywhere I went added to the sheer weirdness of the situation. My friend never saw or heard anything weird in that room before or after that incident.

This definately happened to me, though I have no idea what it was, and couldn't even begin to speculate.

[Ray_the_canadian]

thats very interesting

[Astro Forever]

I owe a lot to this thread!!!!

I had read it back in the time (well this one and this one). I had a sleep paralysis episode for the first time last night. I woke up and wanted to turn around in my bed. I couldn't. So I thought, okay, what do I do? For some reason I decided I should try to scream or something, and I couldn't do that either. I was just about to start panicking when I thought "wait, I've heard of this before", and it was on this forum, of course! So I decided to remain calm and wait a little, and sure enough, about two seconds later, I could move again, phew!!!

I'm amazed that I even thought of this thread and this forum at that point, just as I was waking up and while I was experiencing something like that for the first time. It would have been awful if I had never heard of that before.

[Strange Wings]

On a similar subject, fafner created a topic about Lucid Dreams, which gives a very interesting reading. It's kind of related to the sleep paralysis thing as some people actually developed a technique by using sleep paralyses to become lucid while dreaming.
Although I did a couple of attempts, it never worked with me. I guess I'm too inconsistent to get myself trained in this field.

Also, since sleep paralyses can turn out as pretty unpleasant to experience, I would dissociate from suggesting any of those techniques. It'd be wiser to use the common ones first, like the WILD-method (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) and similar ones more akin to LD-rookies.

[Astro Forever]

It's been a while since I had a nightmare, thankfully, but there were times when it could have been really helpful if I had been able to do so!

[Strange Wings]

Thankfully, I too haven't had any nightmares for a long time, I also can't remember experiencing any apparitions of ghost creatures.
The one thing I do remember however is the big hug of my mum in a short state of lucidity, 3 weeks ago after her passing.
I guess my consciousness went through a brief shift of focus.

1magus addressed the topic of the Multiverse Theory. It's a topic one could argue endlessly about, however looking at the world through the eyes of quantum mechanics might provoke the question: Is this really the 'real world' we experiencing or is it merely another state of dream - or rather - another state of consciousness?
Does concsciousness create its reality - or vice-versa?

[fafner]

Since I had sleep paralysis on a regular basis a few years ago (about 1-2 each month), I have been trying to pratice using them to enter lucid in dreams. I must say it would probably have succeeded if I hadn't stopped having them regularly.
The most difficult part was to avoid breaking free of the paralysis. For some reason, I can break free of them if I try hard enough for a few seconds. And because when paralysed it isn't possible to consciously breath (thus an illusion of suffocating), it induces a panic. I had to control this panic, otherwise it simply caused me to break free. Many other obstacles made the thing really difficult, such as feeling my heart beat faster and faster (to the point where running a sprint over 100 meters wouldn't had made it beat faster), but also my tinnitus (usually rather quiet) strangely reaching the intensity of a roaring jet plane (I'm not kidding here!).
On several occasions I felt myself on the border of dreams, feeling the alteration of my consciousness more than I had previously ever felt before. But ultimately sleep paralysis became more and more rare, to the point where when they occasionally happen, I am taken by surprise and break them before even thinking.

[Strange Wings]

As for breaking free of paralyses I found out it helps to close the eyes and to fall asleep again, given you stay calm enough to do so.

Many other obstacles made the thing really difficult, such as feeling my heart beat faster and faster (to the point where running a sprint over 100 meters wouldn't had made it beat faster), but also my tinnitus (usually rather quiet) strangely reaching the intensity of a roaring jet plane (I'm not kidding here!).

During a paralysis I've had a similar experience when the sound of my breathing got amplified 5 times as normal, similar to the feeling when sticking one's fingers into both ears, but with a breathing sound way more intense. (Hmmm, doesn't Astro stick his fingers into his ears to amplify sounds? Is he sure he doesn't just hear his own nuclear motor? )
It seems that sleep paralyses get the consciousness to amplify sound waves coming from inside the body as well as exterior sound sources.

On several occasions I felt myself on the border of dreams, feeling the alteration of my consciousness more than I had previously ever felt before. But ultimately sleep paralysis became more and more rare, to the point where when they occasionally happen, I am taken by surprise and break them before even thinking.

Same here. About 3 or 4 times I was very close to become lucid in a dream, but my overly excitement instantly kept blowing any chance. :d oh:
Oh well, I figure if having a lucid dream was so easy, everybody would dwell within a dream constantly.
Am I awake or dreaming now? Is this real? What actually is 'real'? ...Wait a minute...!

[fafner]

Am I awake or dreaming now? Is this real? What actually is 'real'? ...Wait a minute...!

I have always found so funny that when I am asking whether I am dreaming, 2 cases happen:
- I am not dreaming, I know it, and I am sure.
- I am actually dreaming, I am not sure but for some reason I think I am sure I am not dreaming. My mind is fogged, and only when the fog is gone I know I was dreaming (missed again!).

The second case has always baffled me
... as a fully awake person I mean.

I also have a million jokes about dreams within dreams and dreaming about not sleeping, but it is too late here to dump them all