Attacked in my dreams?

[Hipster_Doofus]

Margita, I have noticed that when I go through really bad periods in my life (and yes, I do suffer from depression), the dreams get whole lot more interesting.

One of my greatest regrets is I can’t show others the beautiful things I see i my dreams, and am not a good enough artist to approximate what they look like.

My mom used to have prophetic dreams–nothing historical in scope–just scores in school contests and such.

 

[Cari]

Actually Cari, I just learned they’ve moved the TLM in my diocese from a church that was hard for me to get to to the Cathedral downtown. I hope to go Sunday.

Would I just bring along a big container of Morton’s Salt or a salt shaker?

Heehee…I’ve heard of people going to one of those warehouse clubs and buying giant economy-sized bags to be blessed.

I’d just stick some in a sealable container- a little bit goes a long way. Of course, if you’re being called to bless your entire city, you might want to be prepared.

 

[Margita]

Margita, I have noticed that when I go through really bad periods in my life (and yes, I do suffer from depression), the dreams get whole lot more interesting.

One of my greatest regrets is I can’t show others the beautiful things I see i my dreams, and am not a good enough artist to approximate what they look like.

My mom used to have prophetic dreams–nothing historical in scope–just scores in school contests and such.

Well, mine are really scary, not quite so interesting…
But dreams are actually purging your mind from the unprocessed worries, tensions, suppressed anxieties that accumulate while you are awake. They are, in a way, beneficial.

Well, it’s past midnight here, so I am going to my own cinema now…

I hope you will get better soon.

 

[Antegin]

I have been having a bad experience for the last year. I wake up paralyzed unable to move, speak or breath. There is what looks like a renaissance depiction of a demon sitting on my chest keeping me from breathing. When I call on the name of Jesus or use the prayer to St. Michael, it has absolutely no effect. A sound or the feel of my cat jumping on me wakes me out of this state, but unlike my other dreams which I forget soon after waking up, I remember every detail of these experiences like a real memory.

I tried ignoring them, but a recent sleep studied showed that during REM sleep (when dreams occur) I really am experiencing central apnea and my blood-oxygen level is being reduced by 20%This is having serious effects on blood pressure, weight, and all the rest.

I really did not believe I was being attacked because

• The name of Jesus/Leonine Prayer to St. Michaels would always have an effect on a demon
• I don’t dabble in the occult or invite evil in
• I am too much of a whiner and nowhere near holy enough to be a victim soul. Demons are too busy wreaking real havok to mess with me.

As this keeps going on with no end in sight and my doctor has no answers, I am begining to wonder if I should be seeing my priest instead of a shrink.

 

[Hipster_Doofus]

Now I’m finding I don’t so much get attacked in my sleep, but I dream of committing clear-cut mortal sins, then being disappointed in myself and thinking, “Man, but I was trying so HARD!” then I wake and realize I’d not really done anything.

 

[ora_pro_nobis]

Hipster, what you have described is a known medical disorder known as hypnagogic sleep disorder. Basically, when we are asleep and dreaming, the brain induces paralysis to stop us moving about and acting out our dreams. In the disorder, this paralysis comes at a time when you are either drifting off to sleep or coming out of sleep. Feeling or hearing someone in the room, something sitting on your chest or back is a very commonly reported symptom. The most common sensation is one of falling, even though you know you are safe in bed. If this condition becomes such that you are losing sleep, and getting overtired during the day, you should see your doctor, as the condition can be treated.
Of course prayer helps as well!
Hope this helps.

 

[anthony022071]

Now I’m finding I don’t so much get attacked in my sleep, but I dream of committing clear-cut mortal sins, then being disappointed in myself and thinking, “Man, but I was trying so HARD!” then I wake and realize I’d not really done anything.

It’s clear to me you are being spiritually attacked in your most vulnerable moment – that moment between sleep and waking.
Not long ago,I was plagued with suicidal depression and was further bogged down with overwhelming guilt for all the stupid things I had done. False “memories” would pop into my mind which made me feel even worse,more discouraged. One of these memories
was of me at the age of 20 or so, dropping bricks or slabs of concrete off of the side of a bridge over the expressway onto passing cars underneath,hearing the crash of a glass windshield
and seeing the car crash to the side. When I “remembered” this “suppressed” memory,I was horrified by it for a day or two. Then I remembered that it was something I had seen several years earlier in a movie – Kalifornia. It was as if some demon was planting “memories” in my head to bog me down with despair and dicouragement.
Later on, when I was emerging from my overwhelming sense of guilt,I had a waking dream whereby I was 20 or so, breaking into people’s homes in the neighborhood when nobody was home and
stealing things. In that instance,I knew upon waking that the memory was not real.

 

[Greg27]

The monastic writers had a good understanding of dreams. Evagrius of Pontus, a great monk and psychologist, gave a insightful spiritual analysis of dreams. Evagrius argued that demons attempt to excite thoughts and dreams (logosmi in his terms) which tempt us into sinning against the various commandments. The aim of monks was to internalise the commandments and to make their entire life a prayer to God. God allows these thoughts and temptations to happen to see how we will respond, and to strengthen our faith through trials.

The type of dream or temptation will match the commandment it is trying to break. For example, a sin against chastity will be tempted by thoughts of sensuality or sex (especially if the Christian has given themself to a single life), one against charity by hatred and anger, one against faith by despair and depression, and one against hope by tempting thoughts to vainglory and avarice.

The reward for beating a temptation, as Evagrius and other monastic writers, was God’s loving and healing prescence in some way, either illumining the heart and mind with his light, the gift of tears, spiritual joy and peace, love and charity being infused, compassion, and even a vision of God himself.

 

[Hipster_Doofus]

Well, I have been going through a rough patch for quite some time. I have clinical depression. I’ve had job and money woes for about 6 years. A very dear loved one died last year.

My relationship with my mom, my only surviving relative, has been getting worse and worse. Plus I think she may have psychological problems, as one day she might be really nasty to me, saying she wants nothing more to do with me ever, then a few days later she’ll send me a sweet e-card.

I’ve really stepped up my religious life. I’ve been praying all the mysteries of the rosary daily and engaging in religious devotion and readings up to 2-3 hours every day. Yet nothing seems to be working. The words give me no comfort. I feel like I’m just going through the motions. And when I go to sleep at night I often pray for God to take me in my sleep, because I really hate everything about my life.

Then two weeks ago my mom, in a fit of paranoia, decided to “google-stalk” me, looking for everything I’ve posted online under my own name. And she found a good deal of stuff I wrote in past years complaining about her and my late father. None of this was stuff I hadn’t already tried to tell her in person, but she would ignore me when I tried to tell her. So now she’s very hurt and angry to read “what you really think of us.” I think our relationship, which was once so close, yet which was severely damaged in the last 6 years, may be ruined permanently now.

So yes, I’m probably in a very vulnerable position while asleep.

 

[holly_potter]

hmm…I think we’ve all been attacked at one time or another…I’ve been hit by lightning and hail, several times each, in my dreams, and felt physical reprecussions for a few minutes after waking. So I know exactly what you’re talking about. I hadn’t realized it until this thread, but I had also been “attacked” when I was mostly asleep, but partially awake, in a different way. For this second kind of attack, I prayed to God the following night to protect me from such things, and haven’t had the problem since. But most likely you’ve already tried this . Keep trying with various prayers. Rosary helps me alot for difficult problems. Here’s something I wrote elsewhere, if it gives you encouragement.

---

One time, I had a dream like yours.[someone else had a demon dream] It wasn’t a demon per se, I can’t remember what it was, but I knew someone was bad. They tried to make me scared enough to listen to them, to do what they said, but also I knew if I said some prayers, I’d be all right. It took a while, too, to say the words, so instead I thought them. I started saying “Our Father” and then sang the Hail Mary song (you know, “quiet light, morning star, shining bright, Gentle Mother, peaceful dove…”). Then I felt braver for standing up to the bad person, to evil, and I wasn’t scared at all of what that person was going to do to me when I stood up for my beliefs and morals. I can’t remember if I died, but I woke up, feeling really peaceful. I felt glad. I haven’t had that dream since.

---

 

[child_of_God85]

I went through something similar last year. I would also have dreams where I felt attacked. One time I was almost awake, I could see the room, hear my family doing stuff around the house, but I couldn’t move or speak. I felt hands holding my arms and legs down. I started saying the prayer to St Michael, which was a struggle in itself because I felt like I couldn’t form the words in my head. As soon as I started praying I woke up compltely. The creepy part was that my hands and legs were tingly for about an hour.
Another time I was also in the half awake state and I heard a very unearthly voice (I couldn’t understand what it was saying). Again I started praying to St Michael and i woke up.
I’ve also felt and heard a presence on occasion when I was awake. I would be locking up at night and wold feel like something was watching me, something that was evil. I would hear what sounded like whispering, barely audable.
After I was confirmed back in march these ‘attacks’ pretty much stopped. I still will sence something on occasion, but not like before.

 

[Techno2000]

This may not be the forum for this, but here goes–

Last night I was sleeping on my belly and was close to waking up.

I dreamt of a young woman, not many years out of high school. She was fairly well-to-do, short, petite, with short hair. She had attended a private high school and had been asked to organize the school’s next dance.

She asked me if I would accompany her to the dance and also serve as a chaperone. The implication was that we were going as more than just friends but less than as a couple.

I also had some pre-dance responsibilities I was supposed to attend to as well.

A few days before the dance I was in a huge room–maybe a ballroom–trying to grab a nap. I was on a narrow bed on one side of the room, sleeping on my belly, though I was actually about half-awake. The band that had been hired for the dance was rehearsing across the room. I had met these guys and they seemed to like me okay. But I heard them talking, and for some reason these guys were speaking ill of Christians. They got really worked up and angry and one of them said I was a Christian.

Next I hear them crossing the room and three fists slam into the middle of my back simultaneously. It was very loud and the sound was quite realistic.

I woke up immediately, feeling I had indeed been hit in my back, and for a few seconds looked around the room, convinced someone had broken into my apartment and assaulted me. I immediately prayed for St. Michael, the Virgin, and Christ to come to my protection.

A friends’s interpretation was that I must feel I’m undergoing religious persecution (possibly from him, since he’s vocally anti-Catholic with me), or failing that, that my lousy diet is making chemical imbalances which are making for nightmares.

Last week I was drifting off in the morning and was almost fully asleep when I was awakened by the loud and clear voice of a man in his 20s or 30s saying, “Hmm.” I woke up and sat bolt upright, sure the apartment management had let themselves in and someone was commenting on the mess in my apartment. But no one was there.

And two nights ago I had all sorts of odd dreams. In one I was in a bedroom formerly occupied by my parents and felt I was under attack by demons. I heard all these spooky “Omen”-like chants in the background, and called for the protection of St.Michael. (I’m not one to think too much about demonic attack. I try not to be paranoid.)

I hope I don’t sound like a wacko here. I went through a long period of deep depression, stress, and anxiety and just got back into serious religious practice again recently, though I’ve still not shaken off certain habitual sins and am at this writing in a state of mortal sin. But I’ve been devoting about two to three hours or more a day to my prayers, devotions, Bible reading, rosary, Divine Mercy chaplet, etc.

Anyone care to weigh on on this?

You can start saying this for more fire power.:
angelfire.com/ca3/rafaelmarie/ThePieta/zdchaptlet.html

 

[Greg27]

Well, I have been going through a rough patch for quite some time. I have clinical depression. I’ve had job and money woes for about 6 years. A very dear loved one died last year.

My relationship with my mom, my only surviving relative, has been getting worse and worse. Plus I think she may have psychological problems, as one day she might be really nasty to me, saying she wants nothing more to do with me ever, then a few days later she’ll send me a sweet e-card.

I’ve really stepped up my religious life. I’ve been praying all the mysteries of the rosary daily and engaging in religious devotion and readings up to 2-3 hours every day. Yet nothing seems to be working. The words give me no comfort. I feel like I’m just going through the motions. And when I go to sleep at night I often pray for God to take me in my sleep, because I really hate everything about my life.

Then two weeks ago my mom, in a fit of paranoia, decided to “google-stalk” me, looking for everything I’ve posted online under my own name. And she found a good deal of stuff I wrote in past years complaining about her and my late father. None of this was stuff I hadn’t already tried to tell her in person, but she would ignore me when I tried to tell her. So now she’s very hurt and angry to read “what you really think of us.” I think our relationship, which was once so close, yet which was severely damaged in the last 6 years, may be ruined permanently now.

So yes, I’m probably in a very vulnerable position while asleep.

Sometimes we need to be careful with our spiritual practices. If we become too absorbed in our ‘own’ path of seeking God, we don’t leave enough room in ourselves for God because we are wrapped up in our self will, which can disguise itself in our devotions. We need sometimes to wait very patiently for God to come to us, to answer our prayers, to ‘be still and know that I am your God’ as one Psalm puts it. Augustine said to hear the Word we need to move away from what we perceive with the senses, quieten the inner chatter of our thoughts, and still the soul from its agitations, and wait patiently for God to mercifully come.

Devotions are good if they help bring us to God, but sometimes we also need to put devotions aside and let God come into us through his grace.

 

[AndyF]

Hipster Doofus:

I usually have no control in my dreams. In my dreams the words are usually garbled or mispronounced or have no meaning, and the messages are metaphoric in nature and I can never understand them.

One day I received a very vivid intrusive message from a deep male voice. It said “You will not succeed”. I recall that day I was planning to go to confession and was thinking that it will be a war using that weapon but I will eventually prevail. I immediatly started to pray the Our Father, and the thing just vanished. I do this automatically and not by own will or choice. It is a just something I knew was the remedy, a sort of a matter of fact, “salt to the fries” reaction.

So that works and I suppose you can condition yourself to pray in your dreams.

AndyF

 

[Hipster_Doofus]

*"Sometimes we need to be careful with our spiritual practices. If we become too absorbed in our ‘own’ path of seeking God, we don’t leave enough room in ourselves for God because we are wrapped up in our self will, which can disguise itself in our devotions. We need sometimes to wait very patiently for God to come to us, to answer our prayers, to ‘be still and know that I am your God’ as one Psalm puts it. Augustine said to hear the Word we need to move away from what we perceive with the senses, quieten the inner chatter of our thoughts, and still the soul from its agitations, and wait patiently for God to mercifully come.

“Devotions are good if they help bring us to God, but sometimes we also need to put devotions aside and let God come into us through his grace.”*

I’m not sure I follow you completely. Aren’t devotions about God? (I do admit I’ve stepped them up as an attempted panacea to fix my messed-up life.) Should I cut down on them? Pray only 5 decades instead of 20 for the rosary?

Then again, I’ve never understood the expression, “Let go and let God” either.

 

[Greg27]

"Sometimes we need to be careful with our spiritual practices. If we become too absorbed in our ‘own’ path of seeking God, we don’t leave enough room in ourselves for God because we are wrapped up in our self will, which can disguise itself in our devotions. We need sometimes to wait very patiently for God to come to us, to answer our prayers, to ‘be still and know that I am your God’ as one Psalm puts it. Augustine said to hear the Word we need to move away from what we perceive with the senses, quieten the inner chatter of our thoughts, and still the soul from its agitations, and wait patiently for God to mercifully come.

“Devotions are good if they help bring us to God, but sometimes we also need to put devotions aside and let God come into us through his grace.”

I’m not sure I follow you completely. Aren’t devotions about God? (I do admit I’ve stepped them up as an attempted panacea to fix my messed-up life.) Should I cut down on them? Pray only 5 decades instead of 20 for the rosary?

Then again, I’ve never understood the expression, “Let go and let God” either.

This is something you should discuss with a priest/spiritual director. Sometimes our devotions can help, but sometimes they also won’t bring us to God’s prescence. It is a careful matter of spiritual discernment on the part of our own faith journey and also our priest/confessor/director as to what devotions are appropriate, and at what level we do them. If you are finding your devotions aren’t helping you spiritually, you might need to think about them and discuss it with the appropriate person. I certainly wouldn’t recommend suddenly changing them or dropping them.

 

[Ravyn_Guiliani]

being a narcoleptic, my first guess is you are suffering from a sleep disorder probably as a result of your recent depression. there is a period of time before waking and before falling asleep in which your body prepares for dreaming by becoming paralyzed and slowing everything down—so you don’t hurt yourself or die in your dreams. It is very easy when the sleep patterns are messed up for the circuits to cross at this time and you actually hallucinate, especially auditory hallucinations, and have nightmares. That being said—this does not preclude that demons can take advantage of such a vulnerability and actually use the situation to their advantage.
I would try a mild sleep enhancer–over the counter–like tylenol pm or one of the other brands, or even some benadryl, just until your sleep patterns even out. If they don’t after a few weeks you might need to see a doctor about it.
and I would also go to confession and speak to the priest and do all the other suggestions like Holy Water, getting your apartment blessed and Holy Salt. Hang your rosary on your bedpost. Say the St. Michael prayer.
I strongly suspect this has physical origins, but demons are lazy and rarely create new situations–they just take advantage of existing ones and then take all the credit.
Ravyn
PS another reason I suspect a sleep disorder is because in the dream–you dreamed of trying to take a nap–dreams tend to repeat to us in symbol what we have experienced recently awake–and to dream of trying to take a nap tells me your body is not getting the proper sleep.

 

[Hipster_Doofus]

This is something you should discuss with a priest/spiritual director. Sometimes our devotions can help, but sometimes they also won’t bring us to God’s prescence. It is a careful matter of spiritual discernment on the part of our own faith journey and also our priest/confessor/director as to what devotions are appropriate, and at what level we do them. If you are finding your devotions aren’t helping you spiritually, you might need to think about them and discuss it with the appropriate person. I certainly wouldn’t recommend suddenly changing them or dropping them.

Actually when I was at confession last month I rambled on so much with so many involved matters the priest suggested I call the diocese and arrange for a spiritual director who is a priest who can also serve as my confessor. The diocese gave me four names.One is just now getting transferred out of town, two are in parishes that I as a non-driver probably couldn’t get to easily, and the fourth is located at the chancery downtown–though that priest is out of town through early July!

So I’m kind of on hold, waiting to get a spiritual director.

Of course, considering the very severe level of my depression, I don’t know as any devotions will help much right now. But I’ve had bad luck with medications too. Some seem to handle the symptoms okay, but create side-effects that I can’t live with.

 

[mommyof4]

This is something you should discuss with a priest/spiritual director. Sometimes our devotions can help, but sometimes they also won’t bring us to God’s prescence. It is a careful matter of spiritual discernment on the part of our own faith journey and also our priest/confessor/director as to what devotions are appropriate, and at what level we do them. If you are finding your devotions aren’t helping you spiritually, you might need to think about them and discuss it with the appropriate person. I certainly wouldn’t recommend suddenly changing them or dropping them.

Actually when I was at confession last month I rambled on so much with so many involved matters the priest suggested I call the diocese and arrange for a spiritual director who is a priest who can also serve as my confessor. The diocese gave me four names.One is just now getting transferred out of town, two are in parishes that I as a non-driver probably couldn’t get to easily, and the fourth is located at the chancery downtown–though that priest is out of town through early July!

So I’m kind of on hold, waiting to get a spiritual director.

Of course, considering the very severe level of my depression, I don’t know as any devotions will help much right now. But I’ve had bad luck with medications too. Some seem to handle the symptoms okay, but create side-effects that I can’t live with.

Hipster, I’ll pray that you get a good spiritual director, and that you get help for your depression.

 

[Hipster_Doofus]

*being a narcoleptic, my first guess is you are suffering from a sleep disorder probably as a result of your recent depression.

By “recent” do you mean 1983 to the present?! Of course it’s been very acute since late 2006.

I would try a mild sleep enhancer–over the counter–like tylenol pm or one of the other brands, or even some benadryl, just until your sleep patterns even out. If they don’t after a few weeks you might need to see a doctor about it.

**A few years ago a psychiatrist prescribed me Clonazepam for occasional use. I’d explained that some nights before I have appointments or jobs or important engagements for which I must set an alarm clock I get so worked up, knowing I have a limited time frame to get to sleep and that if I don’t sleep within that time I’ll have to face work exhausted all day, that I’m too tense to be able to sleep. **

**Well, I was on a mood stabilizer at the time–which wasn’t helping. I landed a lousy PT job that I really didn’t want and that really stressed me out. I dreaded going there. The long commute made it feel like a FT job. No matter how early I got up, I was always late to catch the bus and would often have to take a pricey cab to get to work.

I wolfed down unhealthy food for breakfast. At lunch I had only 20-30 minutes to get up to the 4th floor break room, gobble down junk food,** **go to the bathroom, and get back downstairs, while my hastily-eaten meal gave me digestive distress. In 5 months I gained 50 lbs. I hated the job so much, was so stressed out by the duties and dealing with the public that I spent all my free time at home, asleep, avoiding people. I wouldn’t even go to mass on Sundays because I couldn’t bear being around people.

It got to the point I was so wound up about the job I started abusing the Clonazepam, taking one whole pill every night just to relax enough to get to sleep, and another in the morning to calm ****down enough to face the job. I was constantly having panic attacks.

I inherited some money, quit that job, and was fine for about a year, blew the money in a spending frenzy, and had about the same reaction with the next job I landed. That also lasted about 5 months. More panic attacks, more gluttony, suicidal despair–you name it. I felt as if God was a sadist, getting a sick kick out of making my life more and more miserable.

And I’ve been pretty much alienating myself from everyone who ever liked or loved me–either because I’ve pushed them away or because they really don’t understand what’s wrong with me and back away on their own. I won’t allow people in my house and generally refuse invitations to go to the homes of others. My mother may never speak to me again, for all I can tell. And I despair of finding work in my actual career field. **

and I would also go to confession and speak to the priest and do all the other suggestions like Holy Water, getting your apartment blessed and Holy Salt. Hang your rosary on your bedpost. Say the St. Michael prayer.

Maybe I should schedule a confession, because during regular confession times the priests often seem to be in a hurry. i do have Holy Water in my house in strategic spots. I got my crucifixes blessed Sunday and plan to read a blessing service myself here pretty soon. I do have rosaries hanging by my bed, and just started the St. Michael chaplet, though I’ve not been able to find the actual beads for that.

PS another reason I suspect a sleep disorder is because in the dream–you dreamed of trying to take a nap–dreams tend to repeat to us in symbol what we have experienced recently awake–and to dream of trying to take a nap tells me your body is not getting the proper sleep.
**
Hmm. Sleep tends to be my drug of choice. I seek escape from the world through sleep the way an alcoholic does with the bottle and the junkie does with the needle. 12 hours is not uncommon for me on a day off. And it has stretched to 14, 16, even 21 hours before.***