h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sure there must be more people out there, apart from just me, who have actually had the classic experience of the "Night Terror" and who (within the logic of the dream / NDE / OOBE / hallucination or whatever) have actually evolved ways of beating down and defeating the "entities" invading your personal space?

I mean, because of my own experience I'm reluctant to buy into the accepted logic which dictates that these things cannot be defeated, and the only thing you can do is to passively endure it and seek to remember as much as you can to share with other "victims" later. This has always seemed a bit defeatist to me!

It is important to say that I was every bit as $hit-scared as anyone else, and that a lot of "missing pieces" in creating a defensive strategy were gained not from my own wit or wisdom, but from working with people of an occult persuasion: for instance, a practicing witch showed me a few interesting defensive techniques that can still be applied even though the sufferer is unable to move a muscle. The trick is not to focus on what currently isn't available - physical movement - but to remember that the power of your MIND is still there and unimpaired and can be used as a weapon, both defensively and offensively.

(There is a certian amount of schadenfreude involved in laying a "psychic minefield" for anything you want to warn off from your physical space, for instance)

Oh, and you also have to be sure that anything you see is "hostile" before you start behaving like an American Marine and blazing off with all weapons: some "things" you can see in the sleep paralysis state are actually friendly and benevolent.

And the interesting thing is that you don't need to buy into any occult or religious philosophy (Christian prayer, intoned in the mind, can be VERY effective at dispersing night visitors, even if in waking life you consider yourself agnostic). Just treat it as an exercise in method acting!