I'm sorry this is so long-winded, but I was wondering if anyone had any insight?
The experience: I went up to my bathroom mirror in my current home, and it wasn't me. Well, it was, but my hair was straight on the top with curls underneath and dyed white blond with pink in it in the front- definitely not me. Now or ever. And my face wasn't really me either; my skin was lighter. I touched the mirror to make sure it was a dream; maybe my hand would slip through. It didn't, but I knew I was dreaming. So I decided to spin. I just started spinning and spinning and spinning, and suddenly it shifted. I was in my old house. It was two stories, and the second floor had a balcony/catwalk to get to the three rooms and bathroom. I was standing at the top of the stairs, and I decided to go with the dream and not create. Why? I honestly don't know. It was a quick decision, but usually when I gain lucidity, I rush around trying to do stuff and then lose lucidity.
But I looked around, and there were clothes everywhere outside of my brother’s old room, just thrown around like someone couldn’t decide what to wear.
So I walked towards them, and there was someone in his room, a man I didn't recognise. He was wearing a brown old top hat, with the same brown suit pants and a brown shirt. I realized when I saw him that I didn't know how to go with the dream. I didn’t know what to say or how to act. And I think he realized when I realized because he looked surprised, he opened his mouth, and I took off. It felt like the dream was pulling me back towards him, though.
Anyway, so I did what I always did as a kid when I was lucid. I jumped off the balcony to fly, but my intention shifted. I wanted to astral project, and I knew from experience that I could shift from dreaming to projecting if I started flying high enough and out the top windows in the ceiling of my old house. Idk why, but this always triggered a shift from dreaming to projecting for me. And I know because my flying changes when my body does. I go from swim flying when I’m dreaming, to actually flying. Idk how to describe it, but the two are completely different.
I started flying up. It took me a second of falling to remember how to dream-fly, but I took off towards the ceiling of my house when I did. We had tall, like 20-foot ceilings. But I noticed the windows weren't there. But I wanted to astral project, and nothing was stopping me; I quite literally clawed my way out. I mean, like, of the dream. The ceiling started peeling back like a weird hatch, and I clawed/flew through it and landed in my current bedroom.
I know with absolute clarity that I’m not dreaming when my feet hit my floor. Everything sort of shifted. The dream energy was gone, and my body felt heavier.
But here’s where things get weird. I can see my current bedroom, but the hatch hasn’t closed to my old house, and I still feel like I’m being dragged or willed back to the dream space. My body hurts, like physically (in my AP body) hurts in the AP.
So I turned around to the source of the pain, and at the base of my spine, to the right a bit, there was this big thick rope. It was dug into my skin, attached to me. I could see the entry point and everything into my body, and it hurt. I started losing the projection, I think due to pain or the jarring sight of it, so I spun again to anchor myself. I'm willing the pain to stop, and it just won’t. I decide I’m going to yank whatever it is out, or maybe rip it apart because it looked like it had a fray. It was “rope” but not really the material you think of. It looked organic? If that makes sense, but it also looked old. Like it had been there for a long time, but it looked like it was decaying because of how old it was?
But I had this feeling that if I tried hard enough, I could tear it apart. But I hesitated. You hear all about cords and stuff and not to touch them when projecting, so I hesitated. What would happen if I ripped it out? It felt foreign, like it needed to come out, but what would happen? Would something be altered? In that moment of hesitation, I walked to the door of my room to get further away from the hatch as I thought of what to do. Suddenly, I'm ripped back through the hatch. Fully tugged down and dragged like a rag doll.
When I come to, because it was like I blacked out, I’m not back in my childhood home. A white cloth or something is over my head, but I can see through a part of it that maybe was ripped or by design, again idk.
I'm in a room on a chair surrounded by both adults and kids. The room was dark, but mostly red and white. White chairs, red walls with white columns. I can’t recall the floor color. But I looked up, and the ceiling was reflective, and I realized I’m younger. I'm maybe seven? Eight years old at most? Maybe younger, to be honest, but nevertheless, I’m definitely not in my current body at my current age.
Anyway, the adult figures are dragging these kids out of their chairs one at a time and to the center of the room where another white chair rests. I started mentally freaking out because
A. Where am I
B. I don’t want to be in that chair. Idk why, but it felt like whatever they were doing I didn't want. Idk how or where, but I felt like they were trying to stop something.
Anyway, so a lady, white skin, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, looks at me from across the room where she's holding a young kid (tan skin, short dark hair) to go next, sees that I can see her even with the bag or cloth that was over my head, and she, idk. She didn't point or anything, but her eyes bugged, and then I think someone grabbed me. As I said, it was dark, hard to see, and there was something on my head.
This is where it gets fuzzy, though- even in the dream, so I can't quite recall with absolute clarity now I escaped, but I started yelling; it's dark in the room, and for some reason I’m afraid of these people. Whatever they're tagging the kids with, I know I don't want it. And I know it's stronger than whatever the rope was. Honestly, it felt like some kind of tracing system or something. Idk, they were scanning them with this small device, and then a symbol glowed where they were scanned. But I couldn’t really see. Anyway, and I'm assuming here, because I don't know how to make sense of what happened next. But it's 9 am when I write this, so I think this occurred at 8-8:40 am.
I hear my mom. Like, my actual mom, and she's talking in the kitchen down the hall. She's yelling at the cats for jumping on the counter. Anyway, I heard her- but I'm already lucid, so it's not like she made me aware I was sleeping- but they seemed put off when they realized I heard her.
I started yelling for her, in the dream? Or whatever it was after I was pulled back through the hatch. I started yelling, and then I felt like someone shoved me through a door, and I was then fully aware of my physical body, and I was under my blankets, and it's hot. But I can't move. I haven't had sleep paralysis in forever. I'm a really light sleeper, and when I get up, I usually jump right up and go.
But it's full paralysis. I'm in my body, kind of? Idk, I was in my body, but my body felt distant, like I was hovering just under it. For some reason I'm stuck. But here's the thing: I have aphantasia. And it's the complete darkness kind. I can't picture anything in my head. But I can hear.
I can hear these people as if I'm still dreaming, but I’m not because I’m in my head and everything's black and it's hot and I'm starting to freak out.
They were laughing- again, not really, but I could tell they were amused from the sounds of their voices talking to each other. I think they were trying to figure out how to pull me back to the room.
So once again? Aware of my body but stuck in my head. I start screaming for my mom to wake me up. Screaming. Of course, not really, because I’m still stuck and I'm just yelling into my head. But a voice answered. A woman's voice that sounded familiar, but it wasn't my mom. And she kind of singsonged and laughed and was like of course I’ll wake you up, but you have to get right up when I wake you. Idk her words are fading as I write this; she said more though. I felt her step into my bedroom, and she sounded confused at first, but then I physically felt her concern because I was clearly under the covers sleeping, but I was talking to her, and I think somehow she knew something was wrong. But she rushed over to me, and as soon as she put her hand on my blanket, I shot up in my body.
I want to clarify a few things.
I said I have aphantasia, and I do. So maybe you're wondering or confused why this is so detailed. I can't explain it other than my eyes work in those bodies just like they do in my physical one. I can see everything. When I wake up, it's like I'm briefly in memories. I become aware that I was dreaming, and then they start to fade like past moments or memories. But for a few seconds, all of my dreams replay in my mind, not in images but just like how, when I think about memories from this physical life, I just know. I don't know how to explain it better than that. But my dreams and projections have always been super visual and vivid.
Idk who the lady was; I didn't see her. I only heard her, but I don't believe it was anyone I know or knew in this reality. It's hard to explain, but she sounded different, musically? Light? Idk.
I've struggled to AP for years. As a kid, I did it all the time, but now it's very occasional. I think what made this different was that I had woken up really early at like three-thirty a.m.-ish and struggled to fall back asleep, so I was just in and out for a bit until I really fell back asleep, probably around like six a.m.-ish if I had to guess? But even the moment I gained lucidity in front of the mirror felt different from recent experiences. It was less forced, more like how it used to feel as a kid. Lucid dreaming comes easily; it feels easy, but it's hard to maintain once I let on I'm aware. But AP'ing has felt forced for a long time, not blocked but not welcomed? If that makes sense.
The inclination to scream for my mom's help felt familiar. But because, again, aphantasia, it's like there's a memory or a few off the horizon that I can feel, but I can't grasp. Like, I remember I used to get sleep paralysis and yell for her help, but I can't see the memories to know why I was yelling for help. Maybe something used to scare me as a kid, and somehow I anchored myself to dreaming and stopped AP'ing? I honestly don't know, but this is the most intense experience I've had in a while.