What I thought before death

[Chistian-ity]

Sorry if it’s in the wrong category I just had a story to share.

So last night I was sitting in bed trying to sleep and not having very much luck when I started to have an odd OBE/sleep paralysis experience. I wasn’t really near sleep when it happened so that was abnormal. And I didn’t notice it happening it was kind of a transition. So I start to try to roll over but my body won’t go, only my soul. Amazed, I reached under my bed to see if I could phase through matter and stuff. I could! So my initial reaction was to try and keep going and see what happens, but that thought was a big no-no to my mind. I’d rather not be in a horror movie. Then I started thinking, wait am I dead!? I was kind of shocked at first because I didn’t feel any joy as I expected to, or a heavenly presence (probably because I wasn’t dead ) I started to go into panic mode, asking questions like can this really be my time? I haven’t gone to confession yet! Have I really achieved perfect contrition? Would God allow me to be slain before achieving any of the things in his name as I’d hoped? Then I just became at peace with myself thinking If it’s The Father’s will then I will give up my life after this my soul started ascending upwards, but as it got higher and higher it hit a bump and returned to my body. Stopping me short. This happened for a while before I came back to myself.

So I guess that was my thought process when I thought I was dying, any thoughts?

 

[Socrates92]

That sounds like quite the dream.

 

[Chistian-ity]

I’ve had lots of strange sleep paralysis episodes. I think the first was the worst, especially because I didn’t know what it was and the hallucination was very frightening. Somehow I never realize that it is sleep paralysis while it’s happening. If I do, the visions trick me otherwise because they are so vivid and real. The message I got from this one is that I need to hurry up and follow Christ completely. Never making an excuse or delaying it. Hopefully I can apply it

 

[tafan2]

Any mushrooms for dinner? .

It’s just a joke, no offense intended. Good idea on the following Christ completely.

 

[Chistian-ity]

With sleep paralysis you get all the effects of mushrooms for dinner without the mushrooms! :^)

 

[JanR]

Isn’t sleep paralysis meant to keep one from thrashing around while dreaming? It’s supposed to be temporary. If sleep paralysis ever becomes permanent (and you’re still alive inside of your body) it means you’ve suffered a paralyzing stroke or something. I recall someone describing, some time back, on another forum, that he woke up paralyzed and has been paralyzed ever since, and nobody could explain why. That would be scarier than death!

 

[Chistian-ity]

No, but I should probably soon because they are getting worse and more frequent. It wasn’t a big problem before.

 

[Chistian-ity]

Thanks for the anxiety lol. Just kidding, I like to take the “anything from God gives me joy” idea. Hopefully in some way I would retain my faith in such a situation and learn to suffer it for him.

 

[Chistian-ity]

Yeah, probably staying up late to pray after pushing it off 'till after I finish homework or you know, bad sleeping habits in general

 

[thistle]

Sorry if it’s in the wrong category I just had a story to share.

So last night I was sitting in bed trying to sleep and not having very much luck when I started to have an odd OBE/sleep paralysis experience. I wasn’t really near sleep when it happened so that was abnormal. And I didn’t notice it happening it was kind of a transition. So I start to try to roll over but my body won’t go, only my soul. Amazed, I reached under my bed to see if I could phase through matter and stuff. I could! So my initial reaction was to try and keep going and see what happens, but that thought was a big no-no to my mind. I’d rather not be in a horror movie. Then I started thinking, wait am I dead!? I was kind of shocked at first because I didn’t feel any joy as I expected to, or a heavenly presence (probably because I wasn’t dead ) I started to go into panic mode, asking questions like can this really be my time? I haven’t gone to confession yet! Have I really achieved perfect contrition? Would God allow me to be slain before achieving any of the things in his name as I’d hoped? Then I just became at peace with myself thinking If it’s The Father’s will then I will give up my life after this my soul started ascending upwards, but as it got higher and higher it hit a bump and returned to my body. Stopping me short. This happened for a while before I came back to myself.

So I guess that was my thought process when I thought I was dying, any thoughts?

What you describe contradicts Church teaching that states the soul only leaves the body at death.
It does not leave the body at any other time.

 

[Chistian-ity]

Yes, my mind somehow didn’t know where my body was so that’s what caused it I think? It’s a weird phenomenon, it’s called an out of body experience.

 

[thistle]

Yes, my mind somehow didn’t know where my body was so that’s what caused it I think? It’s a weird phenomenon, it’s called an out of body experience.

I do not believe out of body experiences are real. They are simply in the mind of the person or dreams or imagination.

 

[Pat_Albertson]

any thoughts?

I think of the things I experience during sleep paralysis as dreams. I remember checking to see if I could fly. I could, but found that in order to do so, I had to do a frog stroke, as if I was swimming under water. Mostly I don’t like sleep paralysis though, and I struggle to get all the way awake so I can go back to sleep properly. Sometimes I fall or slide out of bed while trying to wake up. Usually I find out that my hands are totally worthless, but that I can move my feet a bit or open my mouth and make mindless groans and other noises.

I think the frequency of such experiences is once every few months or sometimes maybe once a year. They are infrequent but unwanted experiences. I dislike lying there paralyzed with my eyes open in the dark.

A couple of times during my life the experience has seemed nightmarish and demonic, but mostly it’s just unpleasant. I wouldn’t mind if I was just violating the laws of physics, but I’m always too awake and I always know that I’m either in a dream or that I’m actually lying there paralyzed.

There have only been a couple of times in my life that I found the experience pleasant.

 

[Chistian-ity]

Sleep paralysis is a type of lucid dream in which the dreamer is generally not aware they are dreaming but rather they perceive themselves to be awake and in their bed. They also feel paralyzed, have difficulty breathing, feel pressure on the chest and often sense the presence of a being in the room with them. Additionally, they sometimes feel themselves floating, flying, falling, or leaving their body, with an emotional component that includes an element of terror, but sometimes also excitement, exhilaration, rapture, or sexual arousal.

Close enough

 

[JanR]

Then, what about people who have out-of-body experiences? I think this is what the OP is describing.

 

[thistle]

Then, what about people who have out-of-body experiences? I think this is what the OP is describing.

I don’t believe any of them had such an experience.
First the Church teaches that the soul only leaves the body at death.
Second the only “proof” is the word of such people.

How many people have claimed to have seen aliens?

 

[Chistian-ity]

I think it’s just where your mind is disoriented so it thinks you are somewhere you’re not. It is at least noticeably different than a dream

 

[Chistian-ity]

“Moving” yourself is so hard during sleep paralysis. It’s really sluggish, more like swimming in cement! As for me, I have them like once every week, and they get really crazy too! I need to learn to not panic and to think reasonably. Has there been any time where you actually thought you were dying? I’ve thought so twice. The other time scarred me for like a year and a half lol, that was my first sleep paralysis experience.

 

[Pat_Albertson]

Has there been any time where you actually thought you were dying?

No, but I once thought a doppelganger demon had come to take my body away from me. I had just gotten up out of my body and was standing beside it. I was looking down at myself when an exact copy of me in my very same clothes walked into my room from the hallway. Counting myself, there were three* of me: the body on the bed, me, and the doppelganger demon. The doppelganger demon was horribly angry at me, and filled with hate, rage, and utter contempt. Without any exchange of words, I understood that he was there to take my body and possess me, and I was so terrified that I jumped back into my body and suddenly came up off the bed in a startled bounce. In my mind, to the best of my understanding, I screamed at the top of my lungs. When I recovered a bit, I went in to the front room where my mom and little brother were watching TV. I apologized for screaming but they both said that they had heard nothing. My younger brother, who was very interested in the occult, was envious. He had wanted to do astral traveling for a long time but was never able to do so. I, on the other hand, now thought that astral travel was both foul and terrifying, and hoped never to do anything like that again, not that I had ever contemplated doing anything like that in the first place.

That was the first and last time I ever did anything remotely like astral traveling, and it was the only time I ever stood beside my body and looked down at it. To this day I think of it as a particularly vile and ugly dream, and it might also have been the single most frightening dream, or perhaps nightmare, that I’ve ever had in my life.

Not exactly sleep paralysis, but in a way it was sort of close to death, or at least that is the way I think of it.

*I was part of a triplet; this still strikes me as one of the most astonishing features of this experience.