howdy diana,
this is called 'sleep paralysis' in our western world but is a known and described phenomena in almost every culture. in an above post someone mentioned "old-Hag" syndrome, this is the Irish variant but there are related descriptions from the earliest human history. The succubus and incubus are the sexualized early greek (or sumarian) variants of this. The legend of Merlin of King Arthur mythology submits that Merlin was concieved by a human mother and a succubus.
I have experienced this twice. The first time I was doing pretty hard audio brain entrainment and I ascribe it to that practice but could be wrong. I was also doing SERIOUS vipassana at the time and fiddling with my brain / mind thingy.
In my case it began as a half sleep (hypnogogic) sexual 'approach' as if someone was snuggling into my back. Upon realizing that my wife was sleeping in another room I "woke up a notch". to find that I could not move despite serious willful attempts. Although I could see with my physical eyes I could not really move and saw only enough to deepen the certitude about where I was and that all was "real" in the normal sense.
I felt an intense "presence" of some kind of personality, meaning that whatever had "approached" me was still there and "lurking" just out of the periphery of my visual field. I was in a pretty bold state of mind generally so instead of allowing myself to slip into terror, which was a definite choice, I chose to "confront" the "presence". As mentioned above, I could pry my eyes open and look around but choosing to keep my eyes closed and to will my inner eye around the periphery of my visual field I discovered a being.
The being was made of pixelated light and the form of its head was V-Shaped with a pointed chin and large horns protuding from above its ears. The eyes were prominent and the brightest part of its face. It was "female" and appeared startled when I held it in my observation without flipping out. I chose to zoom in and did so. As I got very close it was obvious that the being was insettled and zipped away and dissappeared.
I soon regained full movement but never lost conciousness or went to sleep again. What I experienced was real. It was only afterward that I researched these things and was pretty startled to see the horned fugures in the internet matching very closely in many cases what I had seen.
Since then I have talked to may people who have had similar experiences but most of them fall into the category which you are describing. Some people are much more prone to these types of events than others to the point where they have these events more ofthen then weekly. the emotional range can be anything from curiosity to full on terror.
You are describing one of the most common forms, namely: A terrifying figure, usually sitting on the chest with various presumed evil motivations. My wife has had this three or four times and her mother as well.
There are various ways reccomended to avoid or to deal with this stuff.
There seems to be a correlation between lying on your back when you sleep and Sleep Paralysis occurance. Lying on the right side tends to diminish the phenomenon although this is just what I have read. My personal experiences (2) are so infrequent I have no statistical reference.
Some of the ways to deal with this are, like myself, to confront the situation with vigor, curiosity and fearlessly. The theory behind this is that these beings (even if you believe it is a psychological being) "feed" on sexual and negative (fear) energy. Being bold removes their interest.
Christians report success by calling Jesus to come and protect them. I have no experience in this but it may be due to the same reason, namely, removing your fear and trusting in a more powerful and reliable force.
Some people report having success by awakening and moving starting with their feet as apparently these are the easiest to bring out of the automatic paralytic state we all find ourselves in while sleeping. I also have no experience with this.
I know that some of what I wrote can sound crazy but a little youtubing will show you that you are not alone and that many people have dealt with this throughout history. If this has happenned only once to you and you are not curious about it count yourself lucky as most people are not prone to these attacks.
I find it really interesting and almost anticipate further occurences but I can understand your experience too.
Good luck and be well.
tom
