Hello!
My name is Kamila, and I'm here to ask few things. My questions are directed at people who have more experience with out of body experiences / lucid dreams.

About a year ago, I have been woken up in the middle of the night by sleep paralysis - it was a terrifying experience for me, and as I was lying in bed freaking out I could hear my dad walking around the house downstairs (I lived with my parents at the time). With all my strength I managed to lift my upper body off the bed, look around and seconds later wake up lying down in bed. This opened my eyes to astral projection, however I found the experience really traumatic (back then I was struggling with depression and anxiety disorder).

Since that time i have been doing a lot of research about obe, however it comes and goes. Sometimes I will be waken up at night feeling vibrations all over my body, feeling like my head is going to explode as well having the feeling of my legs drifting away on me. I'm not sure why this happens - I never tried to leave my body on purpose, and whenever something like that happens I force myself to open my eyes and wake up - Am i totally aware of whats going on with my body when the described accident happens. I am not even sure if what I'm feeling are 'stages' of leaving my body. Did anyone go through something like that?

As I wrote again the first time I experienced obe was truamtic to me and I associated it with fear. If i did try to go through exiting my body what are the chances that my fear will take over and take me somewhere I won't enjoy? I have read a lot about people meeting shadow people while they are out of their bodies, what are they?

The main reason why I want an answer to them questions is - Few times before I had the vibrations and all this I would dream of very particular things. Once it would an animal that followed me everywhere I went, another time It would be an old man I kept seeing in my dream, and other stuff too. However every time that has happened I would so terrified by whatever it was. I'm not sure if my dreams have any meanings to them, however after talking to a friend of mine which was very interested in obe he said that it can be someone trying to contact me - which could lead to the other experiences at night. He also mention that everyone has a 'guard spirit' or whatever you wanna call them - entity that looks out for us and protect us. Did you ever come across such a thing? Could my dreams really mean someone is trying to contact me?

Please let me know if you every went through something similar. I feel like spirituality and astral projection is a part of me and there is nothing I can do about it. I have memories from when I was a child, places I visited so many times, yet don't know where they are. I would like to get over my fear and discover other dimensions , however I am not sure if I'm emotionally ready for it.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.
-Kamilka