From: spinaa@rpi.edu (Matt Garretson)
Subject: Re: Hypnopompia & "old hag" (longish)
Summary: More details of my experience 
Keywords: hypnopompia, sleep paralysis, hallucinations, old hag, oobe
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 16:57:06 GMT


On Mon, 25 Jan 93 gb250016@ccs.carleton.ca ( gb student 250016) wrote:

> I was very interested in your "Old Hag" report, and that it triggered
> an out of body experience. Myself and two other members of my lab are
> interested in this phenomena, and would appreciate it if you would post
> more detailed descriptions of these experiences in alt. dreams. 

Well, each time it happened (3 times so far, over the last year or so), I
was in the middle of a dream. Each time, the dreams seemed to become
increasingly lucid. I don't think any of them, however, reached full lucidity.
I was just lucid enough to be aware that I was making conscious decisions,
but not so much that I was able to perform reality tests or the like. 

In each dream, I had the strange feeling that there was another "presence"
there along with me. It was a very strong feeling, but hard to describe.
In all 3 cases, it seemed like the "presence" was connected with a ghost,
or at leat the memory of a dead person.

More specifically, the first time, the dream was of green glowing human figures
walking through a dark tunnel. In this dream, I was speaking to the "presence",
whose identity was unknown, and trying to convince it ("him", I think) that the
figures were ghosts. The "old hag" feeling sort of came out of nowhere this
time, and it was truly a surprise and very scary, since it was my first one.

In the second dream, I was wandering through a strange room, and came 
upon a circle of 5 or six people talking amongst themselves. I sort of moved
in to hear what they were saying, and then noticed that my grandmother
was in the bunch of people. In real life, she had died earlier that year.
When, in the dream, I realized that she should not have been there since she
was dead, the "old hag" feeling began. 

In the third dream, there were some people I vaguely knew in a hotel room
(I think), along with (don't laugh!) a pile of dog crap. I rememer thinking,
what the hell is this doing here? Then I saw or envisioned my collie Sally,
who had died a year or two ago. And, as in the second dream, when I realized
that she was dead and shouldn't "be" there, I felt the "old hag" starting up.

In all 3 cases, the "old hag" feeling starting out sort of like chills, or
shivers like you get when you're cold or have a fever. Then, there was a
feeling like I was bing grabbed by the shoulders and shaken (especially the
first 2 times, where I had very strong vibrations). In all 3 cases, I 
woke up out of the dream, and realized my situation. But, even though I
was (apparently) fully conscious, I could not budge a muscle. Then, the
feeling of leaving my body came. The first time, it was just my hands,
feeling as if they were floating away (in reality, I was lying on my back
with my hands in my sweatshirt pocket, so they couldn't have been moving).
It was more or less the same the second time. The third time, I was less
frightened since I had been reading the various newsgroups here, and I
consciously tried to "leave" my body. I used the roll-to-one-side technique
and was surprised to find that it seemed to work. I didn't stay "out" for long,
and I seemed to have no vision during the experience, but it was a strange,
very different sort of feeling.

Someone else on the net posted that the start of the "old hag" feeling was also
accompanied by a sort of slap-in-the-face feeling, or a sudden realization
of some kind. This was also the case for me. 

Also, in all three cases, after the experience, or rather, as it was subsiding,
the feeling that there was a "presence" in my dream carried over into
waking for a few seconds, so that I had a sense that I wasn't alone in
my room. This feeling faded quickly, and I suspect it was just a remnant from
the dream/experience. I should note that, unlike other people, I never saw
an old hag or dark figure, so maybe this really isn't the same as the 
"old hag" experiences others have had. But there certainly was a strange
feeling....

Well, I hope this was of some help. Feel free to ask me any questions. BTW,
I guess I should say that I don't necessarily "believe" in ghosts, spirits,
astral planes, etc., but I am willing to accept that my mind may have
many tricks up its sleeve that I don't know about!  :) 

-Matt, creepy and ookie, hopefully not kooky....
Newsgroups: alt.dreams