Author

Subject: Light/noise

ben

23:01 23/11/2000 

I am asleep but when I try to wake up I can't. It's like I'm paralysed.

All as I can see is white light in my head and associated with this is a high-pitched loud noise. The noise sounds like the ringing you get in your ears but with added static.

I then get what feels like an enormous surge of energy into my mind and then I wake up.

This experience tends to be a little distressing as I feel that I am not in control and cannot stop what is happening. Is what I experience a common thing?

Dream edited for easier reading - JT, 2005

Lara

23:32 23/11/2000 

I have experienced this before, though not frequently. I've been given various interpretations, mostly along the lines of 'returning to your body after astral travelling' (however you want to define that)or an overload of psychic energy that you have built up overnight (perhaps through having precognitive dreams or dreams that are working on your higher self, which you may or may not remember). It is certainly distressing - like the 'lucid' dream state where you are in two worlds at once. I'll be interested in other people's views on this one!

Jane Anderson

11:05 26/11/2000 

Hi Ben and Lara,

Yes, this is a relatively common experience and it can be terrifying for many people.

There are three main approaches: the first one physiological, the second one symbolic and the third one quite different.

I'll outline all three. My feeling is that all occur, though you would need to work out which apply to you.

#1: Physiological:

The physiological one is the most common. While we sleep the relationship between our motor nerves and our muscles changes. A nerve that would normally 'tell' a leg muscle to contract, so that we can run, will send only a tiny 'run' message, if even that, while we dream. This is a system which protects us from getting up and acting out our dreams. Sometimes we twitch a little (dogs twitch much more while they dream), but mostly we are kept safely still.

The paralysis problem comes up if we begin to wake up (become conscious) while our nerves and muscles are still in sleeping and dreaming mode. We think we should be able to move, but we can't. We experience this emotionally and physically as paralysis. In reality we are half asleep, half awake: in a kind of twilight zone, but just a little out of phase with the best way to awaken. Sometimes we slip back into the dream and then dream all sorts of paralysis stories, including being held down or having someone sit on our chest or suffocate us.

#2: Symbolic:

Though you describe trying to wake up, Ben, many people dream of being paralysed. For them the paralysis is often a symbolic metaphor for feeling paralysed emotionally, or obstructed in some way, held back, in waking life. In these cases people can find themselves struggling to wake themselves up to escape the dream.

#3: Finally:

Ben, your reference to the light and the high-pitched noise is interesting. Combined these are experiences which can accompany the feeling of being out of the body.

There are many variations of what an 'out-of-the-body' experience is. Personally I thought I knew what an OBE was until I had one. I've experienced about six of these over the years and have been frightened by them all.

Common to my experiences was the high-pitched noise in my ears which sounded like a surging heart beat, even though my own heart beat was normal (I was awake and consious for each of my experiences). I didn't see white light, but this description matches the experiences of others.

(My own OBE experiences gave me a feeling of lifting out of my body and then physically existing several feet above what I used to consider to be my body. Sometimes one end of my body would lift out before the other - like a see saw. I kept my eyes closed and willed myself back down each time. The feeling was 100% that the real me was not the one in the body. Some people have associated this experience with a numbing of the nerves such that the brain no longer knows where your body is in space. For many reasons I discounted this particular theory for my own experiences.)

Food for thought!

Has anyone else had these kind of experiences, or similar?

Jane Anderson

Peta

09:28 27/11/2000 

Hi Ben, Lara and Jane,

I have had similar experiences in dreams, in a semi-awake state and in full consciousness. My experiences have not all been exactly the same, but there has been the ringing in the ears and the racing heart (my physical heart rate does actually rise dramatically). I have also experienced intense burning sensations all over. I think these experiences are to be welcomed as they are like doorways to a new awareness. I have usually found that any discomfort abates once I relax and LET GO!!!! When we are able to release our fears, these experiences become euphoric. William Buhlman's book 'Adventures beyond the Body' is very enlightening.

Yes, I agree Jane, the sensation of being out of your body, leaves not doubt of the fact. It also confirms absolutely that we are so much more than our physical bodies.

We stand teetering on the end on a springboard, just a dive away from knowing cousciously, the wonder of us.

Peta

ben

00:39 28/11/2000 

Lara, Peta and Jane.

Thank you all for your responses.

In reference to 'OBE' this thought had occured to me. In my case I can't say that I was out of my body but that it feels like I'm coming back into my body.

Jane's descripiton of the sound being like a surging heartbeat further clarifies my own experience. The ringing sound for myself is not a beat but is definatley a SURGE accompanied with a surge of energy into my head. I instictivley interprut this sensation as a 'change of the frequency level of concsiousness'. I use the word frequency for it relates to the sound and of the feeling of changing levels/channels.

I think Lara's thoughts of the experience comming from an overload of phsycic energry or even just energy are interesting.

Ben.