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Goodbye Jesus

Stopped Having Nightmares After Deconversion.


VahnBlue

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Since a kid up until now, as a young adult, I've had at least a hundred nightmares. Obviously, as an adult you don't get them as frequently but you still do get them on occasion. Anyway, my point is: since my deconversion, back in September, I stopped believing in demons, ghosts, and things of that nature. Now I'm able to walk through my place in the dark without a far of something breathing down my neck and being able to sleep peacefully. Haven't had a nightmare since. By nightmares, I mean the actual horror kind, and not the general kind that involve embarrassments, insecurities, etc. I also don't include the random sleep paralysis, because those takes a long time to master: not being afraid of having the disability to move.

 

Life after religion = freedom!

 

 

*random sidenote* I obviously wouldn't be able to live near a graveyard or in a murder home though. Even if I don't believe in ghosts, just knowing what happened and/or living next to the dead would keep it in my subconscious, which, would in turn let my mind play tricks on me.

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Life after religion = freedom!

 

 

 

Has a nice sound to it, doesn't it? 

 

I too have lost the fear of all that scary christian crap since i have deconverted as well. Glad your doing better vahnblue - peace

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Really good news.

 

I can certainly corroborate what you're saying. Once I fully didn't believe any of it anymore, some rather important nightmares went away. I mean these were affecting my daily life for decades. I was so accustomed to their existence I didn't even think about them during the time I was deconverting, but looking back I can see it's a result of deconversion. They all involved some kind of spiritual situation, often relating to my brother who had died, and now some entity was masquerading in his place as an undead representation. For the past 15 years of my Christianity I had grown more and more skeptical of the "spiritual" component, but they had still been there. I also get sleep paralysis and this is a particularly vulnerable situation for believers in spirits of any kind.

But in the case with my brother, the final one came as a triump when in the dream I realized it was no spirit at all, there was just a clay statue which crumbled into dust as I picked it up. I awoke from that knowing there was no chance of that dream ever coming back again.

 

The sleep paralysis, in my opinion, is a serious one. It seems I've heard a lot of "spiritual" experiences over the years which can be described as sleep paralysis. A very real, very scary experience. Which yes, causes goose bumps and terror. It does help to know that's what it is, and that knowledge lessens the fear.

 

 

But this has only strengthened my understanding that the "spiritual" is often a placeholder for the "not yet understood". A few hundred years ago, my seizure condition would be called a demon attack, not just a physical reaction to an electrical storm in the brain.

 

The experiences are very real; lots of skeptics get that one wrong in my opinion. The experiences are very real, the woo-ish explanations, not so much. Ironically, "the truth shall set you free." Or, "The objectively provable evidence will set you free." My greatest 'born again" experience I've ever had was this past April when I was liberated finally from all of that.

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Really good news.

 

I can certainly corroborate what you're saying. Once I fully didn't believe any of it anymore, some rather important nightmares went away. I mean these were affecting my daily life for decades. I was so accustomed to their existence I didn't even think about them during the time I was deconverting, but looking back I can see it's a result of deconversion. They all involved some kind of spiritual situation, often relating to my brother who had died, and now some entity was masquerading in his place as an undead representation. For the past 15 years of my Christianity I had grown more and more skeptical of the "spiritual" component, but they had still been there. I also get sleep paralysis and this is a particularly vulnerable situation for believers in spirits of any kind.

But in the case with my brother, the final one came as a triump when in the dream I realized it was no spirit at all, there was just a clay statue which crumbled into dust as I picked it up. I awoke from that knowing there was no chance of that dream ever coming back again.

 

The sleep paralysis, in my opinion, is a serious one. It seems I've heard a lot of "spiritual" experiences over the years which can be described as sleep paralysis. A very real, very scary experience. Which yes, causes goose bumps and terror. It does help to know that's what it is, and that knowledge lessens the fear.

 

 

But this has only strengthened my understanding that the "spiritual" is often a placeholder for the "not yet understood". A few hundred years ago, my seizure condition would be called a demon attack, not just a physical reaction to an electrical storm in the brain.

 

The experiences are very real; lots of skeptics get that one wrong in my opinion. The experiences are very real, the woo-ish explanations, not so much. Ironically, "the truth shall set you free." Or, "The objectively provable evidence will set you free." My greatest 'born again" experience I've ever had was this past April when I was liberated finally from all of that.

I'm delighted to hear that you are also on a better state, after your de-conversion! I've also done my research on sleep paralysis, and while I do know what's going on, it's hard not to automatically go in panic. Coincidentally, you guys, I had another sleep paralysis attack, last night. Once again, I started panicking and kept trying to calm myself down, whilst talking in my head, saying: "Alright, it'll be over soon. Just wait it out. Remember there is no such things as demons and ghost". Nothing ever did spawn in front of me to attack, thankfully, but the wait was a bit agonizing, I can't lie.
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Life after religion = freedom!

 

 

 

Has a nice sound to it, doesn't it?

 

I too have lost the fear of all that scary christian crap since i have deconverted as well. Glad your doing better vahnblue - peace

Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm also glad for you too and it shall be awesome to continue our journeys as free'd people =).

 

--Peace, peace! ✌️

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The panic is not you or I being weak, it's a natural response. Again, your body is trying to get out of that state. You did the right thing by talking to yourself in your head about this situation.

And if or when you can't, if the paralysis is too much at the time or causes a nightmare, that's just the body's response, uncomfortable as that may be. It does help me to understand it's actually the body's way of trying to fight the condition it's in.

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The panic is not you or I being weak, it's a natural response. Again, your body is trying to get out of that state. You did the right thing by talking to yourself in your head about this situation.

And if or when you can't, if the paralysis is too much at the time or causes a nightmare, that's just the body's response, uncomfortable as that may be. It does help me to understand it's actually the body's way of trying to fight the condition it's in.

Still trying to figure out how some can jump back into sleep or dream when it happens. I try to close my eyes and go back into REM sleep, but it never works lol
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I can't either. Don't feel bad.

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Still trying to figure out how some can jump back into sleep or dream when it happens. I try to close my eyes and go back into REM sleep, but it never works lol

 

 

Trying to go back to sleep immediately just causes it to happen again immediately. Don't risk it. Take a few minutes to get over it. Then go back to sleep in a different sleeping position. I find sleeping in the supine position is practically asking for the sleep paralysis demon to attack.

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Still trying to figure out how some can jump back into sleep or dream when it happens. I try to close my eyes and go back into REM sleep, but it never works lol

 

Trying to go back to sleep immediately just causes it to happen again immediately. Don't risk it. Take a few minutes to get over it. Then go back to sleep in a different sleeping position. I find sleeping in the supine position is practically asking for the sleep paralysis demon to attack.
No I'm not talking about after the fact. I meant DURING. The people who lucid dream will tell you that they get sleep paralysis and head back into their dream world. I was just saying that I'm not able to do that just yet. The reason why I'm saying this is because that is a mastering over it. If I get an attack, I don't try to go back to sleep for awhile -- I know how it works lol I also don't sleep on my back to prevent it as much as possible, but the fact of the matter is, is it can still catch you, just not nearly as frequent. I'm just trying to lucid dream now, to help master over the sleep paralysis, because I think that when that happens, whenever it DOES occur, it will no longer have power over me. If you get where I'm coming from.
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