by KIY » May 27th, 2012, 6:52 pm
[quote="ftslave67"]It's a dream--i.e. all in your head.[/quote]
The real issue is, in my opinion, not so much whether or not it is in your head, but how you deal with it-- i.e. the method, the tools, etc.
Anything which can be achieved via hypnosis is all in your head, but what are the exact limits of "all in your head"? Defining those limits is actually very tricky. (The same is true of defining Life and Death. Try to come up with an exact, all inclusive definition of each-- without the definitions being "death is the absence of life" and "life is the opposite of death.")
Sleep paralysis is quite possibly some biological process malfunctioning. The body is paralyzed when you are asleep so that you don't do things like go for a walk and walk off of a cliff. Sleep walking (as well as driving and any number of other activities normally performed while awake) is a side effect of some sleep medicines. (I had a co-worker who was on one of these, and she shaved her eyebrows while asleep.) Even though sleep walking is the opposite phenomena, I would guess it involves the same mechanism. The mechanism may or may not be in the brain. And how much of "us" is the brain-- and is the mind and the brain the same thing? (Some religions and/or philosophies claim everything is an illusion. Quantum Mechanics seems, as near as I can tell, to be saying everything comes down to vibrations [And does THAT mean that people who claim that the key to everything lies in music are correct :? ]).
In any event demons and angels could be defined any number of ways, and I am not ready to rule out that something very much like either or both really do exist. Apparently the existence of parallel universes is becoming more accepted as real, and if everything is connected, maybe something from other realities does bleed over. Rather like the vibration of one guitar string may make another vibrate ever so slightly.
For better or worse the mathematics and such are beyond me. (It might actually be for the better-- apparently H.P. Lovecraft wasn't too far off with regards to higher mathematics adversely effecting ones mental health-- trying to understand some of the higher math can actually make some people crack.)
This has been, I suppose, my long winded way of saying I think it all comes down to one's perspective on whether or not something is "all in the mind"-- and ultimately in the case of something like sleep paralysis it does not actually matter. Finding an effective way to deal with it is what matters-- and if one person needs a hypnosis file to become a "sissy maid" (a change which is "all in the mind"), what's to say someone else doesn't need call out to Jesus to banish sleep paralysis? Using hypnosis to quit smoking is using an "its all in the mind" approach to overcome a physical addiction! (Although that doesn't work for everyone-- and if someone were to determine exactly why that is, we might learn a lot about the human mind.)
Sorry this was so long. I suppose statements like "it is all in the mind" are one of my "buttons". They tend to annoy me since, in my analysis, they generally aren't actually saying anything.