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Letter in The American Fate-Magazine for May 1954 - Mrs Thomas Doan of Long Beach, California

I wonder if any of your readers have experienced the dreams, or visions, which I have, and if they could explain them.

For years I have experienced a peculiar sensation when asleep. It happens eight or ten times a year. When sound asleep, I suddenly become completely numb and have a feeling like electricity in my body. I try to move and can't. I also feel the presence of someone beside my bed. I get petrified and cannot speak.

About two years ago I had this experience for two nights in succession. I was so frightened on the third night that I left a light burning in my bedroom.

That night the tingling feeling came over me and, by the greatest effort, I opened my eyes. To my horror, I saw a hand. I feel at those times that I am half awake and half asleep. Another time I had one of these spells l felt as if someone were pulling me off the bed. I could see myself lying in bed and at the same time I was lying across a pair of bare shoulders, and spinning as a wrestler spins another wrestler. I prayed for whatever it was to go away, and when I opened my eyes I found I hadn't moved at all.

On the first anniversary of my mother's death in 1946 I saw her above my son's crib next to my bed. There was no room to stand so she floated in a horizontal position. She wore the dress in which she was buried ... I concentrated on the thought, 'Please go away, mother ! I'm so frightened !' She answered, 'I won't hurt you ! I just want to see your baby !'

Once I dreamed I was trying to float away from my body. I saw myself in bed with a smoky string  connecting the two of me. Then I snapped back into my body.

"My son, who is seven years old, tells me that occasionally he dreams when awake and floats out of the window to the back yard ...I wish to find out, if possible, if I'm dreaming or if the visions I see are actually there.