5.17.2008

Sleep Paralysis, or a Pressing Ghost?

Informant: Male/22/Hawaiian-Filipino ancestry
Location: Kahala, Oahu

This actually happened to me a week ago and I'm still trying to make sense of it.

Ever since I was a kid I'd get what most people refer to as "sleep paralysis," along with hearing loud ringing sound that always wakes me up but leaves me helpless for minutes. What usually happens is, I'll be in deep sleep and in the middle of a dream when all of a sudden the ringing sound screeches in my head and I'm awake but unable to move any part of my body. I usually say prayers until it goes away and try to convince myself that it was just a dream.

Anyway, a little over a week ago I slept over at my girlfriend's house in Kahala. While sleeping, I had another "sleep paralysis" episode, but this time I felt the presence of someone next to me, as if someone walked into the room and stopped beside me. Despite the fact that I was unable to move my body, I was just able to open my left eye ever so slightly. I was glad I had some control of my body but I was hoping I wouldn't see anything.

What I saw still haunts me.

I saw a skinny black figure that looked almost like TV static in the sense that it didn't look solid. It was there just for a moment then it backed away and was gone. The craziest thing is that I swear I heard it hit my girlfriend's plastic shelf as it left my range of vision. As soon as it left I was able to get up and was in shock. I didn't even wake up my girlfriend to tell her. I spent over half an hour trying to convince myself that it was just a dream, but I know it happened and I know it's not my imagination.

I'm seriously considering therapy or at least getting my girlfriend's house blessed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

holy crap! That EXACT same thing happened to me back many years back in Kahala as well. My girlfriend at the time lived behind Diamond Head Cemetary.

I could hear the screaming that turned into ringing in my ears and I could open both eyes and breath. All I could do was breath heavily to communicate to my girlfriend that I was being "pressed" by this shadow. When she awoke and saw what has happening to me, she immediately got up and turned on the lights and I could move again.

The screwed up part was that instead of consoling me, she described to me exactly what had happened to me and then said, "that's odd, we haven't seen it around the house for years since we've had the house blessed, but it usually likes to pick on strangers...it used to chase me around the house when I was a little girl."

WTF?!?!?!

So the thing is, I'm all freaked out and trying to convince myself that it was just some sort of sleep paralysis. She suggests we get back to bed. But then only 10 seconds after she shuts off the lights, it happens AGAIN. This time I KNOW I'm up and experiencing this.

She got up and turned on the lights again and that was all I needed to excuse myself and go home.

Needless to say, the relationship didn't last long.

I'll never forget it and what freaks me out is someone else describing it to a "T".

Anonymous said...

This nightmarcher stuff is catching my interest. I'm being serious though. My family members from the islands always say that spirits always roam the islands and sometimes pick on people. And that's hella scary. I'm not really sure if ghosts or spirits like that are real but I'm curios. Hmm... I'm just gonna keep searching ghost stories from hawaii and stuff, but it would be cool to believe.

Anonymous said...

I was living in Kihei behind a church in a cul de sac called sleepy hollow, perfect right? Our place was about 2 feet up so when you walked you felt the house shake a little. A few times I felt the house shaking at 3/4am along with full awake paralysis. Felt like I was on the bottom of a dog pile. Auntie I work with said there’s a sacred path warriors would walk to battle and we lived on that path…