Sleep Paralysis Vs. Astral Projection
 

Someone made a post wondering if what they experienced was sleep paralysis or astral projection, and I didn't want to hijack their thread with my experience so I thought I would make a new one.
I have never astral projected, and until last year I never experienced sleep paralysis. I don't know which of the two it was actually, initially I thought it was sleep paralysis but here is what happened.

I was having a really VIVID dream. It felt SO real, and in this dream I suddenly found myself in the upstairs bathroom of my parents home...I was washing my face in the sink it seemed...when I started wondering how I got there, I was confused because last thing I remembered was being home in bed. So I exit the bathroom and I don't feel like I am walking...more like gliding. I call out to my mother, no one is answering, the house seems empty. I glide to the stairs to head down, and all of a sudden I am WHISKED away and find myself back in my bed. Only I can't move, all I can move is my eyes so I look at the lock and it's time for me to get up and go for work, and I am thinking to myself "Ok, don't fight this, this is sleep paralaysis, you've read about this, the worst you can do is fight it" So I relax, wait a couple minutes and then wiggle my finger, when I am able to do so I was able to get up.

So the ending is the reason i thought it was sleep paralysis, and then I was talking to my cousin the other day and we were talking about astral projection, and I told her about my sleep paralysis and she said it sounds like astral projection...so Im wondering if anyone can help me figure out which of the two it was?

It was sp. You were not able to move so it was sp. You were close to ap it you wanted to ap. I used to get sp long ago then I would ap.

I feel sleep paralysis can sometimes happen in the in-between-state. That can be either when starting to go out of body, or when coming back.

I feel (though am open to others disagreeing with me) -that it's caused by a mental inability to fix in either one state or the other, so it's like being stuck for a few moments.

It could have been caused by not properly coming back to body and "locking in". That's just my term for "becoming earthed in physical state again."
When it happens going out, it can be caused by not committing to either leaving the body, or fixing in the physical, and kind of hanging around between this and that, undecided.

What you describe sounded like a partially conscious ap.
Which then became sleep paralysis on a re-entry which wasn't 100% committed for a few moments.

Wriggling a finger or toe etc heps loosen it all up and focus on the physical.

so i guess then it doesnt matter that i didnt experience fear, or a demononic presence or anything? because ive heard that with sleep paralysis there is a fear...

I did not have fear when I used to get sp. I never saw anything bad. You may see things that is not pleasant and if you can ignore it you are likely not to have any problems. You are likely to have a wonderful ap adventure.

I think fear is quite common when someone finds they suddenly can't move, and the "fight-or-flight" instinct starts. This makes fear on a deep level because nothing can be done with the fight-or-flight response.
No creature likes to feel trapped. It's natural.

Knowing exactly what it is, that it passes, and that it is just about possible to loosen up out of it , and how to do that, releases the fear.

I had SP once, the time I first went out of body, and though I was shocked by it and a little bit scared, I didn't hear or see anything bad either, just like astralsuzy said.

It's typical in the in between state, just entering the etheric state, to hear all sorts of things and sometimes see things, and sometimes they can give us a shock because they are not of our world, and not of our natural Soul world either (which are certain astral states suited to our own Soul development and deepest desires.).
But that coupled with that fear feedback loop going on, makes things worse.

I noticed that there are beings temporarily in that etheric world who have no concept at all of anything even remotely scary, and so are not troubled by them, but live in their own little "bubble" of reality!
Unfortunately that's not always the way with many humans. We know too much....yet not enough. We are also quite emotionally unstable as Creatures. Sometimes we are steady....sometimes not so much. I include myself in that!