Sleep paralysis is so scary! Luckily it doesn't really affect me *knocks on wood*, it's only happened to me a couple times and since I knew what it was and I'm somewhat a lucid dreamer I was able to pull myself out of it. But it wasn't accompanied by scary hallucinations, it just sounded like I was underwater.
The first I ever heard of sleep paralysis was when I was a teenager and it happened to my best friend. I woke up with a text she had sent at like 3am saying "something really scary just happened to me" She went on to tell me she woke up unable to move and saw a dark presence at her feet that started moving upward towards her and since she was paralyzed she couldn't close her eyes. It started happening to her more frequently and she'd hear voices screaming or repeating weird things over and over. It happened to her so much I went to a store that sells things that have to do with the psyche and the supernatural and I bought her some herbs/leaves that are supposed to help you sleep if you put them under your pillow. I think they were lotus leaves or something. She used them and the sleep paralysis stopped.
My sister used to get it a lot too. She would wake up and feel an "evil presence" pressing on her chest. Sometimes she would wake up and see a boy's face staring at hers from like an inch away from her face, while paralyzed, so she couldn't just close her eyes.
There's an oil painting by Henry Fuseli that depicts elements of sleep paralysis (except that the woman in the painting is sleeping). The piece is actually here at the Detroit Institute of Art. It's one of my favorite pieces there. Whenever I go to the DIA I always visit that painting!




" She went on to tell me she woke up unable to move and saw a dark presence at her feet that started moving upward towards her and since she was paralyzed she couldn't close her eyes. It started happening to her more frequently and she'd hear voices screaming or repeating weird things over and over. It happened to her so much I went to a store that sells things that have to do with the psyche and the supernatural and I bought her some herbs/leaves that are supposed to help you sleep if you put them under your pillow. I think they were lotus leaves or something. She used them and the sleep paralysis stopped.
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