the dream where I get shot IN THE EYE.

That really unnerved me, stan. Especially that bit about "aw. i'll be dead by then".

Sometimes I get sleep paralysis -- I haven't in a while now, but I used to a bit. If anyone doesn't know what sleep paralysis is, it's basically this: you wake up (for me it's always from a nap, never in the morning), and you can't move: can't twitch a limb, speak, or even open your eyes; all you can do is listen, and change your breathing, which increases in rapidity and shallowness because you start panicking. Anyway, after about ten seconds of sheer terror (scarier than Blair Witch, if that scares you -- scares the bejeezus out of me), it goes away. So credible references about sleep paralysis are rather spartan (on the Internet), but the simplest explanation is psychological: that it's just a really vivid half-concious dream -- you aren't actually paralysed, you only think you are.

Another explanation, offered by a friend of mine from less-than-credible Internet sources, is that sleep paralysis is a first stage in Astral Projection, the "theory" being that the paralysis is a result of your soul being halfway out of your body (which, if true, could really further the robustness of the dualism argument in the Problem of Interaction, and lay to waste the others, especially materialism and parallelism -- but that's something else entirely). Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, your soul is, allegedly, halfway to leaving your body. So, to astrally project, instead of panicking horribly because you can't freaking move, you will yourself to leave your body -- and voila, you've projected, until you think too hard about it and you snap back into your body.

Now, the last time I had sleep paralysis was two years ago: it wasn't routine by this point, but I was a little cooler with it whenever it happened (which is never very often). Anyway, one afternoon in rez I woke up to find myself immobile -- and my friend's words came to me: "Will your soul to completely leave your body". So by gum: I did. I simply said to myself: "Let's leave this body", and then I had the most bizarre feeling: not of floating up, nor of floating out, but just of leaving -- transcedence, perhaps? In any case, I suddenly thought, "Oh my god, is it working?!" and then the feeling, and paralysis, promptly disappeared.

All of this testimony, of course, only points to the psychological explanation.

It'd be pretty be crummy if you did die before the movie comes out, cos it's looking really good. Plus like, you'd be dead, and that would just suck.

About one sixth of my dreams have similar scenery and architecture. Some are 'Flying Dreams,' which are fun! One frustrating dream-type is that if I have a conflict dream, I sometimes feel as if I'm underwater and I start moving in slow-motion. In real-time, everything else is slo-mo, and I feel normal speed, but in the dreams it's reversed, putting me at a tremendous disadvantage! Sometimes I shout and wake myself up! After some of the 'Flying Dreams,' I wake-up in the top of a tree! One dream, I robbed a bank and got a big bag of money, but I got sent to Alcatraz where I worked in the bakery; they called me,
"The Breadman of Alcatraz!"

Okay, this is a two-years-ago Intro to Psych class talking, but isn't sleep paralysis caused by a hiccup in the mechanism that goes on in REM sleep so that when you're strangling someone in a dream, nine times out of ten you haven't actually strangled your SO? I was under the impression that sleep paralysis happened when for some reason you woke up, but your body control didn't get switched on for a little bit.

Ask Pop about the aliens/spirits/angels, too.

Annna, could you write about, or talk your Pop, Ben, into writing about firebreathing? I hope that you guys aren't worn-out with talking about it; the pictures are very impressive! At this point, I picture you riding a unicycle, playing the uke, and breathing fire at the same time!

hey, where do we see firebreathing pics? I missed that article, if it's mentioned. fire breathing is neat. my friend Patrick used to do that, but he stopped before I found out about it, because he was afraid of getting surprised and accidentally inhaling burning fuel.
oh, PS: this dream was also notable in the fact that I was a participating character, as opposed to a camera or a passerby, and that I looked like myself.

Most of my dreams are first person rather than observer

There's a pic of Ben belching flames
www.mailtribune.com/archive/98/oct98/102698n1.htm

I was under the impression that sleep paralysis happened when for
some reason you woke up, but your body control didn't get switched
on for a little bit.

That's another explanation, but for whatever reason it, to best of my recollection, was not as favourable as the psychological explanation, according to a university medical webpage (which one, I don't remember -- not good citing, but oh well).

Bear in mind, of course, that I know not of what I speak, cos I just don't remember. So it's probably best just to ignore, or at least acknowledge politely but non-commitally, anything I post.

"Garr... I don't know what I'm talking about."
- The Captain from The Simpsons

Leakage of artificial organ

He isn't the king for nothing, you know.

now I think he IS Mark Leyner.
then again, I suspect Annna and Sean are The Authors, and firmly believe that "glass" bottles (except the really expensive ones) are actually an impossible hybrid of glass and plastic. so I'm partial to flights of fancy.

I don't really remember my dreams anymore. Once though, I did dream about PoE. That was odd.

But.

I think I know someone who suffers from that sleep paralysis.

"Ernie is an angry man, and also a part-time cop"

He seemed much more interesting when I read that as
'also part time-cop'.

'Cause I love the future.

half-elf, half-Time Cop. actually he looks like a beefy version of Rowan Atkinson.

I got excited at a club music thing tonite, and yelled, "Bob"
Do not do that in a crowded club! They thought that I yelled, "Bomb!"
and the club cleared out and the band quit after the first set.
But it was still a good gig, and nobody got hurt, arrested, or pregnant, and they had "Meat is Murder!" grafitti in the necessary.
Film at 11! It's good to put Chinese Star Anise in with the espresso beans when you grind them.

Yeah I get that too but I usually find the cause to be dehydration...anyone else. its scary dying in dreams sometimes I cant breathe or wake up even though I consiously realise that its a dream.

I concur entirely with the 'connection to dehydration' theory. Only this very morning, I suffered from a bout of Sleep Paralysis ('SP'); and only had three glasses of orange juice to drink yesterday.

I ate as normal yesterday, but find that I hardly drink much on some days. Laziness I suppose.

Anyway, I have noted that usually, I endure 'SP' when I am somewhat dehydrated. I awoke this morning after the 'SP', to find that my mouth was extremely dry; and almost impossible to produce saliva- i.e. the effects of dehydration.

It also goes hand-in-hand with irregular sleeping patterns- but I am a firm believer that *dehydration* plays a principle role in Sleep Paralysis.