I recently had a dream that seemed to awaken more clarity towards the nature of both sleep paralysis and astral projection. Yet, it's a lot to wrap my mind around. I had been reading, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, briefly before a comfortable sleep. I found myself waking up, and getting out of bed and going to the door but I couldn't open it. Ironically, it was locked from the inside in the physical world. I couldn't turn on the light. I have tried this method a thousand times, over and over in various aspects of the sleep state, I can never turn on a light-switch. I've also read online that it's not possible.

Then I was able to walk through the door, through the ceiling, etc. All of this was much like you would imagine a ghost would experience. I saw my family, though it was in the past. Then, I looked in my mirror, and saw a vivid reflection of someone. I grabbed hold of the mirror and began to rise up through the floor. It was an amazing feeling, to feel yourself slip through the ceiling, up to the roof and into the dark sky full of stars and keep rising till you can look down and hover over the house.

Then I encountered this "shadowy spirit" who was seeming to say "you're all mine now" and this is what it's like when you die. You are trapped, you can see everyone but not communicate with them unless they are shamans. You cannot touch the ground or leave a mark. It doesn't last forever though.
He began really aggravating me, and enjoyed it it seemed. I called up some guardian angel, I heard a female voice say "Oh no you dont! stop pestering her."
And soon I woke up, wrote it all down. It's hard to capture the clarity and detail in words, all I can say is that the shock was it was just as clear as real life, when I got up- everything seemed completely real. Completely. It only became faded and more distorted as time went on after I wrote it down.

Tibetan Buddhists consider this a between state: between sleeping and waking, a certain realm just like between birth and death and also...trance and something else. I'm just so happy I finally had another one of my OBE dreams, I haven't been able to in years. It's always terrible paralysis. I've learned a few methods to combat whoever spirit of darkness is. I've used evocation, and Solar Cross Ritual...performed in my make-shift astral temple.

I'm still a little skeptical about the mechanism, and I would like to read anyone's input or thoughts on the "in between" states. Is it just a biological wonderland, or does it stretch further? Maybe I'm only beginning on my journey.