Oh, and speaking of dreams

[beige_alert]

Speaking of dreams, the other morning I had the strongest, clearest sleep paralysis / hypnopompic illusion I’ve had in a long time. This is the sensation of waking up yet being paralyzed, accompanied by various dreamed sensations. People who don’t understand that this is just a weird dream state can be terrified by it (and think that they are being abducted by aliens/molested by demons), but I’ve had some lucid dreams and welcome weird dream phenomena as a gateway to lucid dreams. It was definitely a more intense experience than usual, and there was a moment of confusion and concern before I realized what it was, at which point I started hoping I could get some fun out of it, but as so often happens with these moments of lucidity, I woke up for real very soon.

Comments

[aryana-filker.livejournal.com]

Sounds... weird!
I remember a friend of mine telling me about a dream she had as we shared a room in our first term at university.
I left early in the morning and she told me later she dreamt that a person was standing by her bed and threatened her and she wasn't able to wake up. Uhhh, scary. I hated her for telling me the story at nights.

Night Terrors

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I had a dream like that once--and maybe something similar on an earlier occasion. I found it horrible and terrifying. Once I was awake, and realized there was no malevolent being out in the hallway looking in at me, I didn't have any sense that anything external had happened, but boy, was it nasty internally. I don't think I could have had fun with it, though your suggestion that one could have fun with that state actually moderates the recollection for me.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I've never had the experience of someone else being present, but I have had the experience of feeling normally conscious but being unable to move. It doesn't seem like a dream, and overcoming it doesn't feel like waking up, it feels like regaining control of my movements. It's quite unpleasant; I haven't had it in a while and I hope it doesn't come back.