I am intuitive. I am in touch with the spirits. I am psychic.
At least, that’s how I feel, and that’s what people tell me. Whilst it can manifest in tarot cards and meditations, there’s a darker side to this spiritualism that people tend to forget about.
I remember the first time I had true sleep paralysis. I say true because for a while I thought I had experienced it, but they turned out to be bad nightmares. I was at my Grandad’s house. Before I went to bed, I had a horrible gut feeling, and had an intense urge to turn away the mirror facing my bed and close the ensuite door. I’ve always had a strange feeling about sleeping with my door open. And the more I tune into my psyche, I realise how significant it actually is for your soul. I had gone to sleep without closing the door or turning the mirror away. In the middle of the night, I awoke unable to move, yet seeing all that was in front of me. I felt pressure on my ankle, before seeing a skinny, dark, shadow figure — very slenderman-esque — crawling up on my bed. I screamed, but nothing physically came out. I felt its needle arms on every crevice of my body, yet when it almost reached my face, I actually woke up. I could still feel the pressure of where it grabbed me. The ensuite door was facing me, darkness behind it. I turned on my lamp, closed the door, turned away the mirror. I have never ignored my intuition since.
While many believe that sleep paralysis is simply a bad dream, it is so much more. By definition, sleep paralysis is a temporary awakeness with which you are aware of your surroundings, but unable to move or speak. By experience, it can be said that this definition is relatively reductive. There are emotional and physical impacts that come after. The fear and, at times, pain can result in feelings of anxiety and stress. While science has adopted sleep depravity and irregular sleeping schedules as the core explanations for sleep paralysis, this becomes a less likely answer to the experience when you begin having it every night.
As a spiritual person, I began to notice the patterns. When my door was open, I would have either a strangely vivid dream or a short period of sleep paralysis. When the door was closed, my sleep was peaceful. Either way, my dreams often consisted of unidentifiable men, older spirits, or the typical shadow man. There have been many times where these dreams have eventuated into real life scenarios. For instance, there was the notable time where, in my dream, a shadow man came through my front door, and stood at my bedroom watching me. I woke up and checked my front door was locked. At 7am the next morning, a stranger knocked on my door. Eventually, he walked away. It became clear to me that dreams were not simply the imagination of the unconscious mind, but were warnings from some higher power.
After dreams about floods two days before storms and tidal waves before tsunami warnings were announced, I have ensured to take protective measures before and after every dream. I trust my dreams to warn me. I trust my dreams to give me the knowledge I need to protect myself — and you should too. Tap into your psyche, but make sure to practise safely.
Here’s some tips on how to ensure you’re keeping your soul and spirit safe at night:
- Close your doors
- Turn away your mirrors
- Never leave a chair completely empty
- Cleanse your space before bed
- Follow whatever your belief system or religion tells you to do to protect yourself
And, why should you trust me?
I am intuitive. I am in touch with the spirits. I am psychic.
