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Spirit-ual experience?
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Not too long ago, Terry recently put up on his Facebook status “Freaky! Woke up at 5am and could not move. Could not lift my arms or legs. Felt like someone heavy was lying on top of me. Opened my eyes but no one was there. I think in Malay it's called 'Kena Hempit'. FREAKY!!!”
Turns out that I’ve had this experience when I was 15 – twice. Exact same thing – was nicely sleeping in bed when I suddenly awoke to find that I had this heavy sensation on top – couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move and there was nothing physical on top of me. But after thinking of God, the heavy feeling disappeared. Next time it happened, I was napping on the couch in the living room. Freaky indeed.
That same year, another incident occurred. It was in the middle of the night when I woke up in bed for no apparent reason. I was lying on my side and my eyes just suddenly flew open and as soon as they did, I felt a presence in the room. It felt like it was growing and getting stronger and the more that it did so, the more my heart started beating faster and I could gradually hear loud, whispering voices. I remember thinking to myself, why was I feeling so afraid suddenly? But whatever it was, I somehow knew that it was an evil presence and it was deliberately feeding on my fear.
So I reached for my little book of doas under my pillow but then my arm couldn’t move. In fact I felt my whole body start freezing up! So I tried to recite a prayer but even before I could say anything, my throat constricted and nothing came out! I was completely paralyzed! And I could feel that Thing growing stronger and stronger as I grew more and more afraid.
“What else can I do???” I thought frantically. And then it struck me, if I can’t say anything, I can still think of Him. So I did. I thought “God is Great… God is Great” and the more I thought it, the angrier I got that some… Being.. was trying to scare the hell out of me.
And gradually, I found to my relief that the angrier I got, the strength of the presence waned. My voice struggled to get out… I croaked at first but then finally I was able to cry out “God is Great!” and when I did, I felt as if the paralyzing feeling was escaping from the top of my head out through the tips of my toes and I could move again.
Not only that, the Presence was gone. I slowly turned around and sure enough, it wasn’t there…
But according to scientists, what I experienced has a logical explanation – sleep paralysis.
Personally, I like the supernatural explanation. Makes for a better story!
