Diary entry - 10:43 AM, 19th July 2008
-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------
I am not making this up, I am home alone at the moment since my parents are on a vacation in Chennai and my sis is doing her PhD from Chandigarh.
Something really strange happened to me just now... I woke up at around 7AM or something and came online, replied to all of my scraps and decided that I was too tiered to be up so I called it quits and went to bed again around 8:30ish. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I was just resting in bed with my eyes closed...
At around 9:30AM, I was thinking about a friend I met a couple of days back and then suddenly my concentration was broken by the fluttering of a Lord Ganesha poster. I realized that the wind from the window might be the reason for it but this was the first time I saw it happen, I closed my eyes again. This time I started thinking about a video game I have in my mobile and the mechanical voice which used to come out of it. "Start... turn" and I was having a chuckle.... Suddenly I heard a voice "Stop" (sounding from distance/low volume) from outside my thought process. Subconsciously I realized that the game didn't have anything related to the word "Stop" in it. Then I heard another voice "Go" coming from closer region (louder then the last voice) and soon after another "Stop" followed in lower volume. Then the last word I heard was "RUN" coming from the closer voice (loud one).
Then what happens is amazing, I still had my eyes closed and my body started to become paralyzed as in millions of ants were crawling all over me. I tried to open my eyes and I couldn't, I tried opening my palm but it was too difficult. The most affected part was my face, as in something is pulling each cell in my face backwards. I couldn't move at all! Then I felt someone touching my hips (I was sleeping side ways), with lots of effort I turned my head but I still couldn't open my eyes! I tried with all my strength to shout but couldn't. For about half a minute, I tried to wriggle out of the grips but I was not able to. I was dead scared at that moment!
Those half a minute felt like ages to me and I was having trouble breathing at the moment. But soon after my phone right next to me started to ring. Everything which was going through me stopped happening and I was able to pick up the phone rather quickly. It was my mum, she said that they were about to leave Chennai and they can't wait to come back home and meet me. Every vein in my body felt happy to hear those words and I asked her about what did she bought for me
. We had a happy conversation and all the tension I had (with this episode) just evaporated.
For a brief while after I kept the phone I sat on my bed and kept thinking about a logical explanation for all this. I am an Atheist and I don't believe in gods or ghosts! The conclusion I have come to is that I might be actually in a state of deep sleep and all of the things that went on with me was just my imagination acting up. But there is something in my head which doesn't agree with these statements. I am a very practical guy and I will never give into the theory of ghosts and spirits. But this episode really made me wonder!!!
Any of you have any suggestions/ideas on what exactly went on with me? One thing is for certain, it was another turning point in my life!!
Update (20th July 2008)
I did some research over the issue and I was infact under a psychological impression that those things were happening (told you there is science behind everything and god is just a hulahoo :P).
I was suffering from Sleep Paralysis, it is a state where your brain is awaken but your body is still sleeping. It usually happens when you are woken up all of a sudden (the flutter of the Ganesha calender), you start hallucinating as your mind wants to go back to dream state but it's awake and you cannot move your body as it's sleeping. The following link can explain better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
Something really strange happened to me just now... I woke up at around 7AM or something and came online, replied to all of my scraps and decided that I was too tiered to be up so I called it quits and went to bed again around 8:30ish. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I was just resting in bed with my eyes closed...
At around 9:30AM, I was thinking about a friend I met a couple of days back and then suddenly my concentration was broken by the fluttering of a Lord Ganesha poster. I realized that the wind from the window might be the reason for it but this was the first time I saw it happen, I closed my eyes again. This time I started thinking about a video game I have in my mobile and the mechanical voice which used to come out of it. "Start... turn" and I was having a chuckle.... Suddenly I heard a voice "Stop" (sounding from distance/low volume) from outside my thought process. Subconsciously I realized that the game didn't have anything related to the word "Stop" in it. Then I heard another voice "Go" coming from closer region (louder then the last voice) and soon after another "Stop" followed in lower volume. Then the last word I heard was "RUN" coming from the closer voice (loud one).
Then what happens is amazing, I still had my eyes closed and my body started to become paralyzed as in millions of ants were crawling all over me. I tried to open my eyes and I couldn't, I tried opening my palm but it was too difficult. The most affected part was my face, as in something is pulling each cell in my face backwards. I couldn't move at all! Then I felt someone touching my hips (I was sleeping side ways), with lots of effort I turned my head but I still couldn't open my eyes! I tried with all my strength to shout but couldn't. For about half a minute, I tried to wriggle out of the grips but I was not able to. I was dead scared at that moment!
Those half a minute felt like ages to me and I was having trouble breathing at the moment. But soon after my phone right next to me started to ring. Everything which was going through me stopped happening and I was able to pick up the phone rather quickly. It was my mum, she said that they were about to leave Chennai and they can't wait to come back home and meet me. Every vein in my body felt happy to hear those words and I asked her about what did she bought for me
. We had a happy conversation and all the tension I had (with this episode) just evaporated.For a brief while after I kept the phone I sat on my bed and kept thinking about a logical explanation for all this. I am an Atheist and I don't believe in gods or ghosts! The conclusion I have come to is that I might be actually in a state of deep sleep and all of the things that went on with me was just my imagination acting up. But there is something in my head which doesn't agree with these statements. I am a very practical guy and I will never give into the theory of ghosts and spirits. But this episode really made me wonder!!!
Any of you have any suggestions/ideas on what exactly went on with me? One thing is for certain, it was another turning point in my life!!
Update (20th July 2008)
I did some research over the issue and I was infact under a psychological impression that those things were happening (told you there is science behind everything and god is just a hulahoo :P).
I was suffering from Sleep Paralysis, it is a state where your brain is awaken but your body is still sleeping. It usually happens when you are woken up all of a sudden (the flutter of the Ganesha calender), you start hallucinating as your mind wants to go back to dream state but it's awake and you cannot move your body as it's sleeping. The following link can explain better:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
1 comment:
Sleep paralysis is a common condition characterized by transient partial or total paralysis of skeletal muscles and areflexia that occurs upon awakening from sleep or less often while falling asleep. Stimuli such as touch or sound may terminate the episode, which usually has a duration of seconds to minutes. This condition may occur in normal subjects or be associated with narcolepsy, cataplexy, and hypnagogic hallucinations. The pathophysiology of this condition is closely related to the normal hypotonia that occur during REM sleep[1]. When considered to be a disease, isolated sleep paralysis is classified as MeSH D020188.[2]
Physiologically, it is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the bodily paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. In addition, the state may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger [3]. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual due to the vividness of such hallucinations[4]. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful, or dream-like, objects may appear in the room alongside one's normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as a theory for alien abductions and ghostly encounters.[5]
The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes "after which the individual may experience panic symptoms and the realization that the distorted perceptions were false" [6]. When there is an absence of narcolepsy, sleep paralysis is referred to as isolated sleep paralysis (ISP) [7]. "ISP appears to be far more common and recurrent among African Americans than among White Americans or Nigerian Blacks" [8], and is often referred to within African American communities as "the witch riding your back
Post a Comment