Men’s Health journalist, Mark Hay, shared his experience in dealing with sleep paralysis, which may be of interest to many lucid dreaming practitioners. After all, his main “cure” was based on methods of phase state induction.
Mark had his first experience of sleep paralysis at the age of 16, when he woke up one night and realized he could not move. Panicking, he noticed a shadowy figure at the side of his bed. Over his ten-year battle with this “intruder,” Mark had not made any significant progress using the meditation and sleep hygiene treatments his doctors had advised him. With every instance of stress, the attacks of paralysis intensified and their frequency went up to several times a week, until the journalist’s friend advised him to look his “demon” in the eye.
Mark reached out to well-known researcher Denholm Aspy from the University of Adelaide, who has been helping people overcome recurring nightmares for many years. Aspy suggested that Mark try to slip out of the state of sleep paralysis into a lucid dream using a very simple technique – asking his “demon” a few questions, such as, “why are you here? What do you want to teach me? What do you need? How can I make peace with you?”
According to the researcher, once people start a dialogue or make a decision in a dream, they no longer have nightmares. This is because they can overcome their fear in the dream or during sleep paralysis through awareness, that is, direct induction into lucid dreaming. It took Mark several tries, however, in the end, the method was remarkably successful.
The article was published in November 2020.
