I know this is a repost. But I first learned about Sleep Paralysis on NS years ago, and right now I'm to spinny to find the thred.
At Bestival I had the best trip of my life. I was in my tent, after seeing the most incredible music and living in a dream world for 4 days. It was the end. Finally. I was ready for my brain to shut off. Well, that doesn't really work at a festival, everyone is loud you're living with a thousand people within 100 yards of you (very very very rough estimate). I couldn't sleep, so I decided to try something I'd known about for a long time, tried before, but never experienced. Sleep Paralysis.
Basically, if you can not move for half an hour your body will convince it's brain you're asleep. Sounds pretty easy but it is incredibly hard. At about three minutes you start to itch, at ten you tickle. At 15 you start to see things but you'll jerk and move (if you an move it isn't sleep paralysis...) I can't remember what it was like when I made it at Bestival I just remember meditating and breathing, and knowing everything would be alright.
As soon as my body switched off I felt it. My brain completely disengaged from my body, complete spiritual consciousness. Or so I thought (maybe still think). It wasn't like lucid dreaming, where you have control. It was the exact opposite, I had no control. Lying face down was a bad choice I put my light up juggling balls around my head and the pillowcases we brought were very trippy. The visuals were unlike anything I've ever seen before, the changing colors from the balls would create shadows for my brain to fill in. My brain, which was going crazy while I was trying to stay still (a good crazy, but crazy nonetheless) completely shut off. It wasn't that I wasn't thinking, it was that the thought processes were too complex for my inner thought process to understand. I couldn't tell you what it felt like when I first felt the disconnection, but it was intense.
Once I got used to the disconnection, after closing my eyes and slowly my brain starting to catch up, I thought I was done, so I tried to roll over to go to sleep, ya know, give me girlfriend a kiss on the cheek and wake up tomorrow to tell her about it. Then I couldn't move. At first I thought I was faking it myself, like there were two people inside me and one was trying to trick the other. Then, I just concentrated on moving my hands. Couldn't do it with my eyes closed. Opened my eyes, everything seemed completely normal, looked like my tent, no tripping. I thought 'great, it's finally over,' and then I tried to move my hands. That's when it hit me really really hard. I heard loud laughing people screaming at me calling me names and with my eyes open all those shapes and things that didn't make sense suddenly did. They were binding my whole body together, tying it to the ground while I felt my head being pulled to the heavens.
After what felt like a lifetime the other carload of people in our campsite woke up. Hearing voices of people I knew talking about things I understood cleared everything up. I rolled over, and slept really really hard. For 2 hours...And since then...
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