You may be experiencing “night terror”:
Lots of good responses here, especially from Trigonal Planar, Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor, Bongmaster, moriah and ccwaterback.
I had forgotten about “night terrors,” even though I experienced it once myself. I was napping on a couch. While still asleep (or in a state much like it) I opened my eyes. I never sleep with my eyes open. I had a sharp sensation of something being wrong, and I couldn’t move. And though my eyes were open and I was looking at the room around me, I was still somehow dreaming, so that images of the dream state overlapped with the visual stimulus from my eyes. The sensation was quite alarming, so that I “snapped out of it” after a short while.
As for my not being able to move, I think that there is some mechanism of motor disconnection at work, so that we do not injure ourselves while moving “in our dreams.”
Of course, other conditions such as breathing problems like Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor mentioned could give you a feeling of something being very wrong.
Some of the other theories here I hold in lesser regard. There is no scientific basis for saying that dreams of losing teeth have the same meaning when different people dream them. Someone might say “Wow, that interpretation works for me, exactly.” Doesn’t mean it applies to everyone. As for the realm of the supernatural, I won’t bother to venture there.
Sorry - I didn’t mean to have a row with anyone.
I also didn’t realise that oppression wasn’t a correct Catholic doctrine - hopefully there was a better link among the page of links. I originally read about oppression (as opposed to possession) in an article written by a Catholic priest, which I couldn’t refind. If it’s not an official doctrine, my apologies.
Either way, the OP spoke of a feeling of great “evil”. I realise GD is factual - so religious/paranormal explanations are perhaps not appropriate to offer here - but I found the idea interesting so thought it worth including.
Thanks for the warning about religioustolerance.org anyway - I’ll take it with a pinch of salt in future.
It’s not your fault. One woult think that with all the training and formation that Catholic priests get that they’d all be on the same page, and the ones that weren’t would be straightened out. And yet, as the current scandal showed, there are plenty of loose canons (no pun intended).
Rather than simply trust whatever priests (or the looneys at the ultra-right wing EWTN) say, make sure they’re backing up their claims with citations to official church documents such as the Catechism linked above or to Code of Canon Law or to official Church documents from Documents of Vatican Council II (1962) or later.
Most priests ‘into’ demonic stuff and writing about it a self-appointed experts and are nutjobs. The priests that get appointed as a diocesan exorcists, however, are normally well grounded individuals who keep a very low profile.
Peace.
‘Mornin’ ma’am. I’m collecting for a demon drive. Anyone in the household possessed by demons and willing to spare a few for charity?
Satisfying Andy Licious: What you describe sounds exactly like sleep paralysis. Feeling paralysed, combined with the hallucinations of dreaming, it can be quite frightening to those who aren’t aware of what’s happening.
I too wonder if you didn’t really wake up when you thought you had. I’ve had that happen twice- once at “the end” of a bad nightmare, and once when I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep.
The second instance was actually more scary, because it took longer to know it wasn’t real. I had a dream that was exactly like being awake- in the dream I was still lying in the same position as when I apparently drifted off- and someone broke into my dorm room, and was wandering around, going through my things. I don’t know if I could have moved or not, because it seemed like that turning to look at whoever it was would be a huge mistake(perhaps my brain decided to convince me not to move so I wouldn’t know I couldn’t, who knows.) Whoever it was seemed really, well, evil. After what seemed like forever I actually woke up and nothing was disturbed. It was only that everything was exactly as I’d left it that fully convinced me that it all had been a bad dream.
I had never heard of that state before it happened to me, and so I thought it was very weird and curious. Later on I read about it and said, “Aha, that’s exactly what happened to me once.” But you’re right – if you don’t know what it is or that it happens to others, it can be a scary experience.
I had a similar dream sensation around the same time that Sisenor posted this thread. The only thing I can really remember was lying on my stomach getting a huge satanic looking being tatooed across my back. I don’t rememeber how I was able to view it, maybe I looked at it in a mirror in the dream or something, but the beastly thing was glowing orange and I remember getting a strong sence that I was staring pure evil in the face. The being looked a lot like the beast in the first Lord of the Rings that grabed Gandolf into the pit. It was really wicked looking and the feeling stuck with me the remainder of the day.
Or maybe I am just excited about LOTR II coming out on video soon… who knows?