135 posts shown.
maxur said:About fifteen minutes ago, I was sharing my experiences on another forum, did a little Googling, and stumbled upon this place. I figured I’d share what I just wrote here, so I'll just c/p my previous post 😉
I actually came to this forum specifically hoping to start this exact thread, but it looks like someone beat me to it. 😁
I experience this phenomenon quite frequently. I started looking into it online a few months back and realized that other people's stories align almost perfectly with mine. It usually goes something like this...
First off, this happens to me pretty often when I take a nap during the day and then try to go back to sleep at night, usually while lying on my back. Occasionally, I get that sensation of falling right before I drift off, which can be a bit startling 😁. But anyway... so I'm slowly drifting toward sleep. The best way to describe it is being stuck in that gray area between sleep and wakefulness; instead of slipping into a dream, my brain stays completely alert and I become hyper-aware of everything. Basically, my body has physically fallen asleep, but my mind is wide awake. Sleep paralysis is a known thing—it's supposed to be a defense mechanism so we don't actually act out our dreams and hurt ourselves. So, I'm fully aware of my own body and the fact that I'm paralyzed. But that's when the "old hag" phenomenon kicks in. I get hit with this intense wave of fear and feel a presence—the best word for it would be an entity. It sounds silly, I know, but no matter how many times it happens, the feeling is identical: I sense something else is there, and it feels overwhelmingly negative, like something malicious that wants to cause harm. For some reason, in those moments, my first instinct is always to try and open my eyes, though I've never had a witness to confirm if I actually succeeded. But that's where things get really intense. As soon as I try to force my eyes open, there's this buzzing sound—it's terrifying because it amplifies the fear and feels like an electric current running through my body. That sensation feels like actual pain; it's incredibly intense and seems to surge along with the volume of the buzzing and my struggle to open my eyes. I'd describe the pain as a kind of energy coursing through me, straining my nerves. In those moments, I always get the same feeling—that if I keep fighting the paralysis, I might actually cause physical or mental damage to myself. It's hard to put into words, but I'm trying to use terms that come close to what I felt. Essentially, any attempt to move (shifting my arms, legs, or especially trying to open my eyes) results in that electric pain and buzzing, making it feel like I'm hurting myself. Again, I am completely conscious of my surroundings and this isn't a dream. At one point (though I'm not sure if it actually happened physically), I manage to crack my eyes open just enough to see hallucinations. Instead of seeing my room (or rather, the ceiling since I'm on my back), various images start overlaying the view—true hallucinations. Sometimes they are objects, sometimes faces, but the strangest part is how perfectly they blend into the actual scenery of the room. Throughout the whole ordeal, I feel something that, in traditional religious terms, I might call a possession, because alongside the pain, there's this sense of a negative identity trying to control me. This might all sound like a very vivid dream, but the incredible part is that when I read accounts from people all over the world, the descriptions, feelings, and visions are almost identical! The only real difference seems to be the cultural lens used to describe the entity. In some places, they call it the "old hag" who sits on your chest and prevents you from moving. Since my perspective is shaped by a more traditional religious upbringing, I'd describe it similarly to a demonic encounter, though I don't necessarily believe it's literal—it's just how the sensation feels.😁
Overall, this can last several minutes while you deal with waves of pain, and I guess any attempt to fight against it just makes things worse. So, how do you actually break free?
When I first went through this, I was completely caught off guard, and my reaction was pretty much bordering on panic. Since I have quite a bit of experience with it now, I tend to handle it much more calmly, though all those symptoms mentioned above are inevitable. I think anyone who has experienced this has had one overwhelming desire: to wake up as fast as possible! The thing is, you won't be able to wake yourself up by straining, "fighting the sensation," or trying to force yourself awake.
The trick, I suppose, is to squeeze your eyes shut even tighter, fully surrender, and relax both your body and mind. You should try not to dwell on what's happening and instead aim to actually fall back asleep during that hazy space between being awake and dreaming. If we can manage to relax enough to let go of all thoughts and drift back into sleep, then in a few moments, we'll wake up, and the pain and buzzing will stop immediately. As for the fear, when you're going through this for the first time, you might feel totally shocked and hesitant to fall back asleep. It actually happened to me where the situation repeated itself just as I was drifting off again. Once you gain some "experience," I think the fear fades away as you wake up.
I tried my best to describe everything here. I hope someone finds this relatable and doesn't feel like they're losing their mind if they've been feeling this way—just as I was until a few months ago 😁. It seems to me that this is a fairly widespread phenomenon that still hasn't really been explained 😁
Nathan Vaughn20 said:The original question was whether you can change it an unlimited number of times. I suppose the answer is no. If Meta decides it can't be changed anymore, you might be able to get through via support in an absolute worst-case scenario, though I doubt they would allow multiple requests like that. 😉
Larry Ortiz5 said:I actually ended up deleting my profile a few months back because I couldn't figure out how to change my name on Meta. I wanted to use my actual first and last name, but I think I hit the limit for how many times you can update it. Either that, or maybe Meta updated their settings recently and now it's easier, or perhaps your friends are just magicians.
Larry Ortiz5 said:You can't just change your name on Meta indefinitely; I think you're limited to maybe three or four times before they lock it down.
Nathan Moore6 said:Well, hope isn't going anywhere until this whole forum finally shuts down. 😁
rowdyviper14 said:So yeah, looks like we aren't getting any more smileys after all 😢
Jerry Bishop4 said:No luck there. Al maybe they could at least toss in some new ones? 😢
Arthur Thomas said:Just give driftingbear29 a :vans: emoji and we can finally call this thread closed. Problem solved. 🤣
driftingbear29 said:loneraven25, you seem to misinterpret everything we discuss on this thread 😬 🤣 😂
Is there some kind of conspiracy going on here? 🙂 Neva 🙂 🙂
driftingbear29 said:Haha 😍 😂 🤣 🙏
I honestly think the opening post just a tiny bit better than what we have going on in this thread 🙂 😂
😁
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLXt3yh2g0s 🙂 🙂