I was in bed a couple of nights ago & thought I heard a noise out on the landing outside my bedroom door. I thought one of my children had got up in the night so called out but got no reply. I suddenly became very frightened when I realized they were all still asleep in bed and tried to block it out, telling myself i didnt really hear anything out there. I had this intense feeling that I should not fall asleep and kept seeing these bright 'flashes' as I was drifting off and it was a struggle to stay awake but I felt I was in danger if I fell asleep. Then I felt this strange jolt in my stomach..it is really hard to describe but it was not a nice feeling. I must have fallen asleep then but when I woke I told myself I must have been dreaming..possibly with my eyes open (never done that before but it all felt so real)
Now though I cant shake the feeling that something happened.

Am i going mad?

If you have the mental capacity to ask whether you are going mad, then you are definitely NOT going mad.

All this is normal stuff that happens on the edge of sleep. Especially the response in your stomach, which is from your third chakra / solar plexus chakra. You read about all this stuff happening to people trying to learn astral projection. They hear strange sounds and even their own name being called. And I have heard that being on the edge of sleep it is a good time to try to look at your own aura. The mind awake / body asleep condition is extremely useful, but there are a lot of strange things that can happen especially at first. Eventually, it gets to be hard to tell if you are focused physically on nonphysically. People even step out of their bodies without realizing it. Going to sleep and coming out several times in a row makes it really easy to slip into that mind awake / body asleep condition. Your strong motivation to stay awake would have kept you on edge better than any technique. I'm just surprised you didn't get vibrations or waking sleep paralysis. And if you do find you can't move, you can tell your body you are awake (and break the paralysis) by changing your breathing pattern.

When I saw the subject line, I thought it was going to be something that should be in the adult section. But I used to have lots of times even into High School when I would go to bed and have the experience that it was turning over and dropping me into a bottomless pit. I felt the bed roll and the vivid sense of falling in the dark. It was a deeper darkness than the room, with the outside lights coming in the window. I just wish I knew when I was a very little kid what I know now so I could have developed all those weird things instead of being afraid of them.

One last thing. I haven't ever had the seeing through closed eyelids thing, but that's a thing, too. It is actually common.

Meant to say physically or nonphysically, not on nonphysically. The edit button is gone.

Inedible wrote:All this is normal stuff that happens on the edge of sleep. Especially the response in your stomach, which is from your third chakra / solar plexus chakra. You read about all this stuff happening to people trying to learn astral projection. They hear strange sounds and even their own name being called. And I have heard that being on the edge of sleep it is a good time to try to look at your own aura. The mind awake / body asleep condition is extremely useful, but there are a lot of strange things that can happen especially at first. Eventually, it gets to be hard to tell if you are focused physically on nonphysically. People even step out of their bodies without realizing it. Going to sleep and coming out several times in a row makes it really easy to slip into that mind awake / body asleep condition. Your strong motivation to stay awake would have kept you on edge better than any technique. I'm just surprised you didn't get vibrations or waking sleep paralysis. And if you do find you can't move, you can tell your body you are awake (and break the paralysis) by changing your breathing pattern.

When I saw the subject line, I thought it was going to be something that should be in the adult section. But I used to have lots of times even into High School when I would go to bed and have the experience that it was turning over and dropping me into a bottomless pit. I felt the bed roll and the vivid sense of falling in the dark. It was a deeper darkness than the room, with the outside lights coming in the window. I just wish I knew when I was a very little kid what I know now so I could have developed all those weird things instead of being afraid of them.

One last thing. I haven't ever had the seeing through closed eyelids thing, but that's a thing, too. It is actually common.

Thanks for taking the time to reply So your'e saying it could have been the start-up of a *possible* astral projection? Have you ever done it? I was absolutely petrified. Is it possible to AP with the fear? How would one go about losing that? I will have to look into this more. Of course I've heard of Astral projection but always thought it was something far more advanced than I would be capable of. I was convinced something paranormal was going on, it did not feel safe, almost like something wanted to 'take over'.

I wonder if rather than looking for you could be shown your aura accidently in this state. The bright flashes of white/yellow came more than once.

conxtion wrote:If you have the mental capacity to ask whether you are going mad, then you are definitely NOT going mad.

I made the mistake of mentioning my experience to family, who of course are not interested in trying to understand these things and automatically think i'm dreaming or plain crazy when I insisted it was real. Just wanted some back up

There are definitely "things out there". Feelings are a good indication of this, as not everything can be "seen" with the eyes alone. You have come to the right place to discuss this.

Knowing what is going on - and that it is normal - goes a long way to help with fear. Reading anything you can get on astral projection and lucid dreams is good. Mostly when I was a kid I didn't have anyone to talk with and no one to ask. The books weren't as good as they are now. Here you have lots of people to talk with and compare notes. I ended up building so much resistance to my successes that I am having to really work at it to get my abilities back. But now seems to be the time.