Just recently I had one of the strangest experiences in my life. While I was asleep and half awake I felt paralyzed and felt a presence in my room, some sort of energy that covered me and that wanted me to fall back asleep. I was very intrigued and had discussed it with my best friend. Few months later he came back to me with stories of other people having a similar experience and how in their culture those were called demons or jins. I did not settle for such explanation and asked the all mighty Google what has happened to me. VIDEO->I read dozens of articles and forums where people were describing the exact same experience. Some talked about sleep paralysis or out of body experience (OBE) while others called it ghosts and god. I was getting very confused and scared of my experience even if it did not feel unpleasant to me as others would describe. To me it was more of an entity that was there to check up on me and was telling me not to move and to fall back asleep. But the stories of others were concerning as I heard more and more of them. It was all until I stumbled upon this documentary that talks about frontal lobes and epilepsy and how these can affect religious visions. With this scientifc theory I can relate to it and say that what happened to me was very likely a frontal lobe disturbance.
Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both have temporal lobe epilepsy. Like other forms of epilepsy, the condition causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations. Research into why people like Rudi and Gwen saw what they did has opened up a whole field of brain science: neurotheology. The connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and religious feeling has led one Canadian scientist to try stimulating them. (They are near your ears.) 80% of Dr Michael Persinger’s experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on those brain areas gives them a feeling of ‘not being alone’. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation. His work raises the prospect that we are programmed to believe in god, that faith is a mental ability humans have developed or been given. And temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) could help unlock the mystery.
The documentary is called “Biology, Psychology, Religion – “God on the brain”.
GOD EXIST THERE’S NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT!!!!
Oh yes I had the same experience 30 years ago. When I woke up during a nightsleep I could not move. Only my eyes. At that moment I thought my body is still in a sleep mode but my consience is awake. Normally during sleep they are disconnected. So let me fall asleep again and wake up later. May be the connection is made again. I never was afraid. The rest of my live was normal. Never thought about God, demons, a curse or so. Of course as you say the brain disconnect certain pathways during normal sleep. A nice brain experience.
@Crysec What do you think the word belief mean? It means:
# accept as true; take to be true; “I believed his report”; “We didn’t believe his stories from the War”; “She believes in spirits”
# think: judge or regard; look upon; judge; “I think he is very smart”; “I believe her to be very smart”; “I think that he is her boyfriend”; “The racist conceives such people to be inferior”
# be confident about something; “I believe that he will come back from the war”
# follow a credo; have a faith; be a believer; “When you hear his sermons, you will be able to believe, too”
# credit with veracity; “You cannot believe this man”; “Should we believe a publication like the National Enquirer?”
So, how can you not have any doubt? It’s what the word means. …….
I have had many similar experiences, both postive(divine) and negative.As human we perceive within our 5 senses because the mind is bounded by wordly material objects and thats all we know because we are limited; 6th sense we ignore because we don’t know what it is, we slip into that state and expereince things thats is extra-ordinary. This have assisted me to go to the spiritual path to understand a little more. Now I personally know for myself and have been enlightened to an extent that I don’t question anymore. I still enjoy my search because life is a journey.
The answer whether there is a God, whatever names we may refer to him as or call him supreme being or highest state of consciousness,etc ,is YES there is a GOD. It’s another state or dimension we enter into to have that experience, which is deep within.
i didnt have this experience in particular but i did recently become what i perceived as being ‘awake’ but every part of my body was still in paralysis as if i were still asleep.
it is a very freaky experience, you feel like you’re stuck and helpless. for me, it was frightening. i even tried to call for help because i was unable to rationally understand what i was feeling, or if i was even actually awake.
Im glad to hear that I am not alone to have had a similar experience. Thanks everyone.
What you have experience is something I have known and experienced many time in the past. It happened that I was hovering out of my body and looking at it from distance. disturbing was the fact that every time I thought about someone or something, I could have got myself close to that person. I was like a bird, but my motions were really rapid and in tenth of second I could travel long distances. I was sometimes afraid of that and thought about possession by demons. It is a frightening experience…it was possible during those experiences to read others peoples thoughts and enter in their bodies!!!life is strange , rationale behind all of that? Being from Africa I grew up with legends and magic…I believed nothing until I began experiencing what I have just witnessed…
GUS…
I can related to your experience as well bembuza, thank for sharing!
I have had so many experiences in this area its mind boggling i remember someone told me if you say the name Lord Jesus Christ that the presence would flee and guess what yep it sure did, I noticed when I got the pinning down feeling accompanied by someone or thing tryingd to cover my mouth so that I couldnt say His name but with some pesistance I said Lord Jesus Christ and you bet you it fleed as I started to read the bible and walked withe Lordh t these attacks are non existent….. there is a spirit world it is very real you should read Emmanuel Swedenborg a most knowledgeable scientist etc etc of the 18th century
who wrote exhaustingly of the other side.
May you have a blessed day
Lydia
Thanks Lydia for expressing your experience.
I have also experienced this feeling, but I also felt pinned down and only came round once I rationalised the situation, you are most likely in the deep stages of sleep when a little blip causes consciousness of the brain and you’re body is still a little behind. I think the religious element comes from peoples original waking beliefs, you rationalise the situation the best way you know how, using your own personal attitudes and beliefs. Everyones different and will seek their own explanation be it religious or otherwise. I studied psychology for years including the psychology of religion and sleep so its unsurprising my anaylsis tends towards the scientific.
Tracy, you are right it all depends on our previous beliefs if we are religious we will see religious images and if we are scientific we will understand it scientifically. Thanks for your input