The Devil On Your Chest

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare

Has this ever happened to you?

You're asleep one minute, dreaming or not, and suddenly you become aware that you can't move, can barely breathe, like something is sitting on your chest.

Ever opened your eyes and seen a guy like this sitting on you?

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (v2)

It's terrifying, obviously. You feel helpless. I have a few friends who have once or regularly experience these, so I want to shed a little light on what this phenomenon may be. The following is taken from a letter I wrote to one of these friends:

Dear Traveler,

There's a lot of information out there about what exactly is going on physically with this experience. One interesting thing is that this seems to occur most frequently in people with narcolepsy as well as more prevalent in those of African descent. It also occurs in people with abnormal sleep habits, daily stress, or generalized anxiety disorder. In these cases, it's a physical symptom, and presumably not "real," in terms of something that could actually harm you. Basically, your REM is still going but you're awake. It's a disruption of sleep for the usual reasons, stress, weird schedules, etc.

That said, I think this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of explaining what those experiences are and how to avoid them.

 Early in college I was experimenting a lot with astral projection, the  experience of accessing the dream dimension while still awake. People have lucid dreams, and that's where this takes place. Your mind travels. There is really amazing evidence of the reality of this place as a literal dimension. It is believed that this is where you travel when you die. You can make plans to meet someone else (in waking life) in the astral, and you can find them, do stuff together there, and then in waking life discuss the events and you will have both experienced the same thing. Through minds. This is crazy shit, and I have totally experienced it. There's no expectation that anyone would believe this if you don't experience it firsthand, but there's my two cents. 

After doing some research around astral projection sites, I realized that your red devil is an archetype of what they call "evil entities." These are the evil things and people who you encounter in dreams, you try to run away from, they drag you down when you're trying to astral project, they threaten you, etc. You may even experience a superimposition of their physical image in the waking world if you open your eyes and yet you are still in the astral dimension. They may sit on your chest, preventing you from traveling back upward to your astral body. This is so common and recognizable that I think it may give you some answers about your experiences. Check it: http://astralprojectionguides.com/outer-body-experience-obe-symptoms/

What are these things? 

They are all around us, trying to intimidate and bully us out of attaining greater consciousness. They occur in the real world as well as the astral. The difference is, in the astral, you may see them as archetypical images of evil that we have absorbed from fairy tales, movies, and religion. Heres's some information from that same site: http://astralprojectionguides.com/dealing-with-evil-astral-beings/

That show you liked is back in style.

There's information that links them to the Dark Lodge, which if you're a fan of Twin Peaks, you may dismiss as Lynchian lore. But the dude did his research. On the fantastic revelatory tool known as Wikepedia I learned that he may have mined these terms Dark/Black/White Lodge from Bill Burrough's novel, Cities of the Red Night, part of which takes place in Tibet, where we know there is fathoms more knowledge un-mined by the majority of Western culture. So there's some good reading for you, and food for thought.

How do you get rid of them?

There are mantras you can recite, actions you can take like calling on your spirit guides, but the most important thing is to get in the habit of remembering that your astral body is eternal and cannot be harmed, and neither will your physical body. They're cheeky assholes, but full of baseness. Their weakness is light, love, and good humor. So one way is to imagine yourself full of blinding white light that radiates outward. This will immediately repel them. Or you can shoot a white laser beam out of your eyes or whatever, the important thing is to remember the glowing white light.

The most effective battle tactic for these jerks is to practice during your waking life. The habit of awareness on this level translates to your dream state. Like the dreams where you're doing something you do everyday, the pattern of repetition is fertile. So get in the habit of whenever someone seems threatening to you in waking life, think immediately of the ball of white light surrounding you and pulsing outward. If you can suspend disbelief and just do this over and over you'll be able to banish the devils.

Anyway, sorry for the long weird random email, but I think this shit's fascinating. You have a very complex and inventive mind which is what makes your art so awesome. Don't let shit like this make you worry about the state of your mind, don't let it produce more fear which ruins EVERYTHING. It's really lame, and you are a fucking machete wielding, gun slinging warrior with the intelligence and discipline to engage your consciousness on this level and defeat these guys. 

Peace,

JG