[junokat]

In Japan, there is a word called Kanashibari....
It occurs mostly when you are lying in bed either going into sleep or coming out of sleep....
You suddenly get the feeling of a body weight on top of you...as if some person sat or lay down on top of you...you then feel the sensation being held down...you try to move but you can't...you try to scream bu you have no voice....
it is too scary to open your eyes....
you sometmes hear very high pits sound or sound of scratching.....
the room feels very cold...it all last for about few minutes but feels like for hours....
You body feels totally paralysed....
then you are released....
But if you open your eyes?...some people see eyes or even a face!!!

I personally experienced a momentary paralysis....its not dreamy....the senses all hightened because of fear...it vey very real!!
Has anyone experienced something similar?

[Nat]

That is sleep paralysis and has nothing to do with ghosts.

Nat xxx

[junokat]

No Nat...many of those who has experienced ghosts in this way...especially in Japan, swears that this is not sleep induced.
I have not seen any ghost but had this experience.
I was fully awake and allert...
I was just lying there unable to sleep...
I then heard something sounded like someone gently scatching the wall....
then I swear I heard whispering voices.
I tried to listen...then I felt someone sit on the end of my bed!!
The room was dark so I tried to get up and switch on the bedside lamp...that is when it happened!!!
I could not move...
it felt like my body was tightly tied up with something...I tried to speak but my voice will not come out...
it was truely frightening experience...
It seemed to have lasted for ages...
I can move my head but I cannot move my body as if it is held down by something that felt very heavy...
I could not breathe very well....
Then the air became suddenly light at it finished...
I quickly switched on the light...It would have been cool to see an indentation of body on my douvet, but sadly there was nothing....But I truly experienced this though!!!!

[Nat]

Sorry, ..it is sleep paralysis. One does not have to actually go to sleep first to enter in to that state. I suggest you read up on it, coz everythig you have said is very classic of people's experiences, ....but ghosts are not responsible for it.

Nat xxx

[noreen]

[b]junokat.........
the same thing happend to me,and it scared the living hell out of me and i was deepley depressed days after it happend,to me i thought it was a warning and i listerned to 'him' and im glad i took notice.... people have different belives,
i can see spirit when they come to me, or when i call for them. sometimes it happens, sometimes dont..but mine was brought on by stress and insomnia, sleep paralysis is common and it happens to people all over the world, god bless , noreen xxxx

[noreen]

What is sleep paralysis?

Sleep paralysis consists of a period of inability to perform voluntary movements either at sleep onset (called hypnogogic or predormital form) or upon awakening (called hypnopompic or postdormtal form).

Sleep paralysis may also be referred to as isolated sleep paralysis, familial sleep paralysis, hynogogic or hypnopompic paralysis, predormital or postdormital paralysis

What are the symptoms?


A complaint of inability to move the trunk or limbs at sleep onset or upon awakening
Presence of brief episodes of partial or complete skeletal muscle paralysis
Episodes can be associated with hypnagogic hallucinations or dream-like mentation (act or use of the brain)
Polysomnography (a sleep recording) shows at least one of the following:


suppression of skeletal muscle tone
a sleep onset REM period
dissociated REM sleep
Is it harmful?

Sleep paralysis is most often associated with narcolepsy, a neurological condition in which the person has uncontrollable naps. However, there are many people who experience sleep paralysis without having signs of narcolepsy. Sometimes it runs in families. There is no known explanation why some people experience this paralysis. It is not harmful, although most people report feeling very afraid because they do not know what is happening, and within minutes they gradually or abruptly are able to move again; the episode is often terminated by a sound or a touch on the body.

In some cases, when hypnogogic hallucinations are present, people feel that someone is in the room with them, some experience the feeling that someone or something is sitting on their chest and they feel impending death and suffocation. That has been called the ?Hag Phenomena? and has been happening to people over the centuries. These things cause people much anxiety and terror, but there is no physical harm.

What else can you tell me about sleep paralysis?


Some people with disrupted sleep schedules or circadian rhythm disturbances experience sleep paralysis
A study found that 35% of subjects with isolated sleep paralysis also reported a history of wake panic attacks unrelated to the experience of paralysis
Sixteen percent of these persons with isolated sleep paralysis met the criteria for panic disorder
How can I stop the sleep paralysis?

In severe cases, where episodes take place at least once a week for 6 months, medication may be used.

You may be able to minimize the episodes by following good sleep hygiene:


getting enough sleep
reduce stress
exercise regularly (but not too close to bedtime)
keep a regular sleep schedule
xx noreen xx

[stargemmer]

I can't agree with you Nat. I'm not saying you are wrong either, but the thing is, there is nothing proven about "sleep paralysis", this is just one theory regarding this phenomon. One theory. Just because a psychiatrist or psychologist says what it is, doesn't make it fact. I don't even consider any of them scientists, but pseudo scientists. They have no proven or reliable axioms regarding their theories. And truthfully that is the source of this material.
The fact is, No one can be dogmatic about this. Or anything else on this forum actually. It's about experiences and what you feel is correct.
What I say is : what is true for you is true for you. What is real to you is real.

[palimpsest]

In the Philippines, we call that bangungot (both "ng"s are together, it's the most incongruously nasal word in the language.) It's often said it has no English equivalent, but because the folklore involves a hag rather than a ghost, I believe it can be considered the equivalent of an incubus. Shakespeare mentions it in Romeo and Juliet: "This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, / That presses them, and learns them first to bear, / Making them women of good carriage."

But, I'm not saying it's a hag instead of a ghost. I also think it's sleep paralysis, presenting itself in a common mental pattern that is overlaid with cultural influences.

The usual experience of this (not being able to move, sensations of weight, lethargy, the sense of "something" being there,) happens to me a lot, too, but I personally don't presume that I'm so special and attractive to ghosts and incubi that they must prey on me as if they have nothing else to do. Sleep paralysis is a decent explanation to most of these experiences I've had throughout my life. I say most, because I have run across entities and can compare them to my usual sleep paralysis experiences -- and I can say, sleep paralysis is in part just that. It's a feature of the brain that prevents sleeping people from moving their limbs as they would if they were acting out their dreams. Our senses have a tendency to link together, so if we feel "something is there" like a weight on us then the other senses feel a need to fill things in: seeing a face, hearing scratchings.

That's the judgment I've made with the information I have, and Nat and I may be wrong with your particular experience but there seems to be an almost desperate rejection of the alternative! I think we can all better progress with our psychic senses by considering, rather than refusing mention of, the mechanics of our physical ones.

[Nat]

Originally Posted by stargemmer

I can't agree with you Nat. I'm not saying you are wrong either, but the thing is, there is nothing proven about "sleep paralysis", this is just one theory regarding this phenomon. One theory. Just because a psychiatrist or psychologist says what it is, doesn't make it fact. I don't even consider any of them scientists, but pseudo scientists. They have no proven or reliable axioms regarding their theories. And truthfully that is the source of this material.
The fact is, No one can be dogmatic about this. Or anything else on this forum actually. It's about experiences and what you feel is correct.
What I say is : what is true for you is true for you. What is real to you is real.

Well more pity to those who are going to entertain such notions as ghosts strangling them, sitting on them, paralysing them, etc,etc. :roll: Sometimes things can not be correct just because someone want's them to be, and ghosts (who don't even have consciousness by the way), strangling people, etc, is way removed from any logic.

I don't think such fear inducing nonsense should be encouraged, ...enough people come on this forum afraid of things they don't understand and others in general (in society) condoning such possibilities is the reason why people get these idea's in their head's in the first place. I for one will try to dispell such nonsense and alleviate such fears at any opportunity because there is no need for people to be afraid of known biological/physiological experiences by adding ghosts and other unknow speculation in to the frey.

Nat xxx

Palimpsest - I think your wrote your response to the wrong person. I am clearly advocating it is non paranormal sleep paralysis. Despite others being in agreement and in far more detail, I am actually the one comments have been directed to for rejecting it. I wonder why that is? :wink: I think you might have confused me with either Junokat or Stargemmer :?:

[palimpsest]

I was responding to Junokat... but yes, sorry, shouldn't have presumed to speak for you :-#

re: edit
Erm, I think I just phrased it badly.

That's the judgment I've made with the information I have, and Nat and I may be wrong with your particular experience

So, "Nat and I" are used in conjuction. Not, "...with the information I have, Nat, and I may be..." but "...with the information I have, and (Nat and I) may be wrong with your--" referring to Junokat's "--particular experience, but..."

Still sorry for the mix-up!