an out of body experience



before i go on any futher, there is a tidbit you need to know about REM sleep and how it affects the body. The more known fact is that during REM sleep the brain is actually awake and the brain waves resemble patterns it gives off when you are awake, explaning why dreams feel so real sometimes. What you might not know is that before your body goes into REM sleep, the brain sends enelectric signals to the spine paralyzing the body. This way you don't run the risk of actually trying to fly off your balcony while you're having one of those interesting dreams. But this mechanism doesn't work perfectly. When the body doesn't get paralyzed, you sleepwalk. What I experience however is much less common. I can give my brain the go ahead to paralyze my body, without actually going into REM sleep. I can't do this any any given time. I can sometimes sense that I'll be given the option to do this to my body a few minutes in advance. What does it feel like?



Well, it feels like you're swirling around a tornado being pulled in all directions. You feel great pressure on every square inch of your body. the amount of pressure isn't overwhelming, but the fact that it is everywhere on your body is. its definitely not a good feeling. it feels demonic, like you've been posessed, and lost the control of your body and once paralyzed every cell in your body wants to break out. then why do i do it? the same reasons we put both ends of the 9 volt batteries to our tongues when we were growing up. it never felt good. but for some reason or another, you just wanted to try it again. so it's kinda like trying to alter reality without doing anything illegal or damaging to the body (hopefully).



so today, on my new matress that got delivered today, i felt it was one of those days that i can do this. during this time i have the option to fully wake up or go into this temporary paralysis. so without much thought i thought why not. and damn, it was pretty violent this time. for the duration that i was in this state (probably around 3 seconds or so) my body felt like i was grabbing a high voltage wire and not letting go. so i freaked out and tried to break free, and actually half way got up from my bed. then i just couldn't make it out because of the sensation of high voltage, so i just gave up. i saw my room vividly, that the lamp was on and the TV was displaying my computer's desktop. a second or two later i woke up, realizing i hadn't moved an inch. so in my opinion, an out of body experience doesn't get more vivid than this. would i do it again? probably.



after i woke up for a minute or two, i slept really well and had really lucid dreams. lucid dreams being being in REM sleep but also consciously knowing that i was dreaming. and if you do it carefully, what happens in your dream is liimted only by your imagination. unfortunately someone called me and woke me up. oh well. next time.



I thnk by the end of this weekend I would have finished all of Simpsons (~10 eps left), futurama (15 eps left) and family guy (6 eps left). now that I've caught up, I can move onto other shows. still got 3/4 of seinfeld to finish. 1/5 of the twiight zone. then maybe after that, I'll start on friends and outer limits (old and new).