In my last blog, “Deriving proof for mysteries of Life”, I had concluded that if there is rebirth, then there should also be soul and ghost. Scientific method dictates that any hypothesis should stand true for all observations. If observations do not agree with the hypothesis and inferences then the hypothesis and inferences need to be modified or completely discarded. This blog will focus on validation of these two concepts, “Soul” and “Ghost” based on my experience.

Experience : Once while sleeping along with friends, I felt one of my friend get on my chest and trying to suffocate me. I tried to say it’s not fun, get down from me. After trying for sometime I woke up and found my friend still sleeping on one side.

My friend later during the day told me that during sleep he felt two women talk beside him and a person standing beside me near my head. And I too narrated him what happened to me that night at the same time. We both were amazed as how both of us felt these things at the same time on same day.

N.B. : This is known as Sleep Apnea, a condition in sleep where a person is unable to breath properly and unable to wake himself up. It may also cause death in some cases.  It is also known as Sleep Paralysis, as the person is unable to move even after trying hard. Sleep Paralysis is probably a variation of Sleep Apnea.

Inference 1: Sleep paralysis involves factors beyond your body and mind. So it is not completely a mental or physical condition. (There are more observations to support this.)

Inference 2: It relates to a particular state of sleep – dream state. But there is difference – we see our house and objects and everything, only reality is altered – An ‘out of body experience’ as someone would say.

Justification for inference 1 –
From my experience above, It is more than a coincidence, as it never happened before and after that to me or anyone at same place. So this had to do with things outside me and my dreams.

There are few possible explanations for inference 2 –
(1) During sleep paralysis, we see everything with physical eyes, but are dreaming. OR
(2) We are ‘out of our body’ and don’t use physical eyes! OR
(3) We are out of our body and still use physical senses.
I have also had experience in complete consciousness and with eyes full open, which is another exception. So it is not always a dream state. Read more experiences below for further observations that support this.

Experience : My wife has more frequent incidents of sleep paralysis, usually when I am not with her. I will not narrate each incident but just summarize the observations:

• It happens whether it is day or night.
• Alone or when someone is with you or even in public places.
• Sometimes your eyes are open and sometimes closed.
• Usually the reality is altered, because we don’t see it with our eyes. We are partly dreaming and partly awake.
• It passes from one person to another. It happened to me and next to my wife. Another justification for inference 1, that it does not entirely relate to our body or mind.
• It repeats if you wake up and try to sleep again immediately, but will not occur the next day or any day. Yet another justification for inference 1, that it is outside us.

For a long time I believed that it was due to some hypnotic state/dream state/theta state between sleep and waking up, my second Inference. I know that hypnotism is a particular state of mind which can be induced and can make a person feel, believe and experience a lot of things, including being of another sex, being an animal, feeling cold or hot, etc. But one incident had me change my explanation.

Experience : Once, my friend told me this happened to him too. He did not sleep afterwards that night. His mother later asked him where he had been the previous day? She said, an old man was sitting on the tree below which he was sitting. The old man had followed him to his house. He suffocated my friend first and then his mother during the night. Only his mother knows how she communicated with the invisible old man, but he told his mother of how he had followed her son the previous day to their home.

I don’t expect anyone to believe it, but I know that he was not lying and I had to change my conclusion about hypnotism and hypnotic state. Though hypnotism/dream state explains our state of mind at the incident it does not explain events outside us.

Later I got many clues, that it was not entirely a mental condition, but some external being is involved. I will narrate just one such episode.

Experience : I try unusual things about mind that makes me curious. I was trying ‘Astral Travel’ or ‘Out of body experience (OOBE) ‘ after reading from a “Lobsang Rampa” book . I fell asleep and later during the night started dreaming. I suddenly realized that a person within the group I was enjoying was a ghost. I ‘returned back’ to my body, only to realize that the ‘ghost’ was also following me to my body. I tried to wake up, but as usual in sleep paralysis I couldn’t get up. I realized what happened and tried calling one of my friend for help. Then it dawn on me that I was at home beside my wife. I tried to rub my nose into my wife’s hairs to wake her up. She woke up and switched on the lights and I got rid of the ‘ghost’.

Inference 3: In dream we are ghosts! and don’t realize it. This incident clearly indicates correlation between dream, ghost and sleep paralysis. It also supports the inference that sleep paralysis is not entirely a mental or physical condition.

It starts as a dream, goes into partial dream state and then into conscious state, but the ‘attack’ lasts in all states. If we know how to differentiate between a dream and reality we can probably cure sleep paralysis. Like the movie ‘Inception’ we need a tool to bring ourselves back to reality from dream… We need a tool to bring us in beta state… fully awake state. Mantras, Counting from 10 to 1, multiplication tables, poems, etc that requires active use of brain are some tools we can use. If we are getting it wrong, we are still dreaming! I haven’t tried it yet. Will tell you if it works, if this happens again.r

Sleep Paralysis is one medical fact that can shed light on dreams, ghosts, souls and rebirth. It clearly supports our inference from last blog that ghost/soul must exist based on the fact that there is rebirth.

In my next part of this blog we will see yet another medical mystery M.P.D./D.I.D. which again supports our observations and draw more inferences. Mind really matters …..