Perhaps people that have only experienced it once or twice in their lifetime cannot be assured of this, but speaking for myself, I know exactly what will undoubtly bring it on.
Firstly though, I am now 41 years of age, I have experienced SP/OBE (they go hand in hand) since I was about 8 or 9 years of age never having the occurances cease for any amount of time. The occurances are frequent and although the sleep paralysis is a very scary and uncomfortable undescribable feeling, the OBE is extremely interesting to me. In my older years I have come to experiment while in this state...yes I am lucid, I know exactly what is happening and what is to come, so when the OBE happens, I try different antics such as, going up, down, backward, forward, faster slower...anything I can think of while this experience lasts.
Some people report a feeling of a presence, evil or otherwise. I have never felt any melevolance, evil, goodness, love, light or anything as such, but I would agree that I have always felt that I am not alone, I have never questioned that much further.
I have suffered approximately the same amount of years with SEVERE migrane headaches which I swear will be the death of me yet, and I wonder very much if these headaches have anything to do with my experiences? That is part one of what I wanted to ask/say. The other is that, I have had reconstructive knee surgery and other medical mishaps that caused the doctor to give me Tylonol 3 for the pain. Now, I can gaurantee you that all it requires for me to have SP/OBE is to simply take two of these and lay down, it will happen every time. Needless to say, I take them as little as possible!!

This experience has also happened in a waking state, but only once, and it scared the living hell out of me. One minute I was taking my socks off the next I was in SP.
During OBE, I generally stay in my home exploring but I have left the house once only to find myself at a friends house obeserving them visiting with people I had never met before. When I questioned my friend the next day they had received unexpected out of town company the night before and she wondered how I knew. I wanted to tell her what they looked like and what the were wearing, but dropped the subject because I would have had to explain myself to her, and I did not want her to think me crazy, as it was she was sure I was out late snooping around her house!! Oh well.

	H.L.

It is late here, could not seem to get to sleep so I decided to give you what you requested, which was more info.
My experiences have been so many, for so long I guess the best way to start is to describe to you...the best I can what it is that happens to me.
Firstly, sleep paralysis.
If this should keep occurring for the rest of my life I shall never get used to...or like the beginning phase for what is to me OBE. As I stated for me those go hand in hand, one does not occur without the other.
Sleep paralysis occurs for me either right as I am entering the sleep, or dream phase, or can occur when I am deep into sleep and dreaming already, usually the first though. Although I have experienced the sensations a hundred thousand times, I hate it just as much as the first time. I immediately feel a very strong "electrical" current in my head, as soon as this happens I start trying to wake myself up. I try to call out, I try to kick, to slap, to somehow get the attention of my husband beside me, and although in my sleep I am doing this I always know that I am actually laying very still and that my husband has no idea of what is happening to me. As I stated before, I know for fact that I can move my head because I have awoken myself banging my head agains't the head board. This is the most unpleasant feeling I have ever known, worse than the worst pain I have ever felt, or any other feeling for that matter. To be quite frank that feeling scares the hell out of me, and why wouldn't it, I don't know why it happens to me. I doubt that I will ever quit trying to wake myself out of this state, to not do so would be abnormal I think.

After this feeling starts to subside I immediately start to float upward. When this first started to happen to me as a girl I used to pay close attention to my surroundings, notice every little detail of were things were placed, etc. and tell my mother in the morning. I used to look down on my body and think what a great dream I was having. I was so young, and after the initial scary part, the rest was just to facinating to be afraid anymore. My mother and family have been aware of these dreams since they began, and although it concerned my mom, she was always very curious to hear about them and I know she looked into dream centres and such....but nothing ever came of it. I include the information of my families knowledge of these dreams as assurance to you that if you ever cared to confirm my information....they know.

After the occurance of S/P happening to me while I was still wide awake (about 11 yrs. old) I indeed became frightened of the whole ordeal and really began fighting it. Not long after the waking incident, I remember one night just coming out of the S/P part of it and beginning to float, but in my mind telling myself I wasn't going to do it, I did not want to do it, but as soon as my body started floating I panicked and decided to go with it. To this day, it felt almost as though I was being punished for my insubordination, because once out of the body...I could not open my eyes. I was floating around the bedroom and bumping into walls. I couldn't tell after awhile if I were going up or down or back and forth, I was totally disorientated, and totally in terror. Needless to say I woke up in quite a state. That has never happened to me since.

In short, the S/P is a very disturbing, very undesirable, uncomfortable, unnatural feeling, one nobody would "want" to go through. I would do anything to never go through it again...even if it meant never floating again. It seems however that this is not to be, that this phenomena that has been with me most of my life will continue.

As for the OBE,
I must admit that is a different story. It is not scary, there is no physical uncomfort, no electrical shock feeling...just the feeling of rising from the body and floating.
As mentioned, at first I was very aware of things around me and myself on the bed...but not so much anymore. Its like I know where everything is and I am surrounded by the things I am surrounded by in my waking state...but I am no longer interested in it. Now, I am interested in just how much I can control. I don't look at my body on the bed anymore, I don't look at everything that is on my dresser or hanging in the closet....I just keep trying to see if I can at all control my movements. Sometimes, I am quite pleased with myself. As I said, I seem to have more control getting myself to go up and down....but when I try to get myself to...lets say....go clockwise around the room...I can do it but I always lose control of my speed and end up racing around out of control. Makes me damn mad. Sometimes even when I am attempting to control the up and down, I will come too far and end up back in my body and awake...that also frustrates me. I will leave my bedroom and roam around the house. I have been outside the home once...but I don't like that and when I am going around the house...and come to the door, I quickly chicken out...I am afraid I will go to far and not be able to come back...to wake up, that I will get lost...or scared out there as it is always night and with the night comes the dark. I dont like being outside in the dark alone even when I am awake!

So, through the OBE I am lucid...no doubt about that, and anything I "see" does not appear hazy or disjointed or backward or anything like that....but it appears since I have realized lucidity, I just simply do not pay attention anymore to what is around me. However, this will be my next experiment, when the next OBE occurs, I will make a point of really looking at my surroundings. You mentioned NDE, and from what I have read on the subject....I feel that when I die this is what I will go through....I think that is what people who have been clinically pronounced dead...go through. Perhaps that is why death no longer really frightens me...not death itself....how I might die tends to scare me...but death itself does not. I suppose you may wonder what it is that I think is happening, how I might explain it to myself. Well, I can tell you that I don't believe this has anything to do with "God" or "Satan". I do believe in God....but I guess you woud say that I am not a "religious" person. I do not believe this has anything to do with aliens, like abduction, or contol for observation....I have read that people have attributed this to that cause.

I am not sure what I believe. I know that I am asleep when this occurs, I will not argue that...but that which floats around the house does not feel like a dream. It is a very real, very conscious, very aware happening. When I dream, I often realize I am dreaming, but just as quickly I am back dreaming again forgetting that I just realized I was dreaming....if that makes sence. I cannot hold lucidity while I dream. But throughout S/P and OBE I am lucid from beginning to end...explain that one to me.

Anyhow, I hope that this letter has been interesting if nothing else for you. It is tough to write about this as there is...so much, remember, this has been going on for 30 some years. It is not something I speak openly about with friends or colleauges, but has been something shared only with my family and my husband... I'm sure you can understand that. This is why I looked on the internet...first to see if anyone else spoke of it, and another to find out if there were any scientific experiments happening on the subject. I tell you true, if there were I truly feel I would be a most interesting candidate!

Regardless, I hope you will read this with an open mind. I am just an everyday normal middleclass person. My life is....normal...or as normal as a person can be in this day and age. There is nothing mysterious about me, I am not a fanatic of any kind...about anything...I am just a person who has had "these dreams" almost my whole entire life...I would love to understand it, know why it happens, but I see no answers forthcoming now or in the near future. So...I shall just keep on experimenting!

      Denis

© 2002 Aura-Oasis vzw - Denis Dhondt