Sleep Paralysis @ Dihimpit Ketika Tidur BY Inara

Have you experienced sleep paralysis? It's when you suddenly woke up and you find you can't move. For people who has never experienced it, it's a terrifying experience (at least for me).

I cannot remember the first time I experienced sleep paralysis. It was either in 2005 or 2006. But what I remember is that it was Thursday night. As usual, I stayed up late to listen to Kristal Mistik, a radio programme where callers call in to share their ghostly encounters. I'm quite brave now (compared to when I was younger) so usually I don't get scared easily. But that night felt a bit different. I felt more nervous and scared while listening to the stories. As soon as the show ended, I got ready for bed. I fell asleep and was dreaming about driving. My siblings were in the back seat and I was driving. Suddenly, the car seemed very heavy. I pressed down the accelerator, willing the car to move forward. It felt heavier by the second. It puzzled me and scared me a little. And then it happened! I felt like my legs were lifted off the bed for a second or two. Then it felt like it was released and suddenly it feels like there's this thing pressing down on me. I can't seemed to move. I can't even open my eyes. It was like I'm trapped and helpless. I tried reading Ayat Kursi but everytime I almost finished, I just forgot the words. It happened many times. And at last i felt really annoyed. I summoned all the strength I have and I screamed ALLAHUAKBAR and I pushed with all energy that I have inside of me and poof! Just like that, it was gone. I was able to move and open my eyes. I switched on my table lamp. I sat up on my bed, pulling the covers over my body. I looked at the window and I thought I saw the window area started to be covered in fog. I ran to the light switch and switched on the light. I hid under cover and texted a friend whom I know is an insomniac. I tried falling back to sleep but I still feel its presence where I slept. Maybe I was just being paranoid, I don't know. It was only after I switched to the middle of the bed, closer to my sister that I was able to finally fall asleep. The whole time, my sister was oblivious to what had happened to me. However, it was my sister who first experienced sleep paralysis. In her case, the first time she experienced it, after that "thing" lifted off her, she felt it moved or rather flew to the left side, where I was sleeping.

I had many many more episodes of sleep paralysis but it was not so severe. So did my sister who was sleeping next to me. Once, she was able to force her eyes open and she saw a black thing on top of her when she looked in the mirror while having sleep paralysis.

Another memorable sleep paralysis episode happened one dusk on a Sunday. I just got back from my grandparents house and was feeling very tired and sleepy. It was probably close to maghrib. I lay down on the bed and not long after I fell asleep, something heavy was pressing down on me. I could hardly breathe! I couldn't open my eyes. And then I saw a women with her long black hair falling down covering her face except her eyes. A second or two after I saw those evil, angry eyes, suddenly the face was just inches away from my face. "It" was on top of me. At that moment, the weight on top of me became heavier and I felt like I was going to suffocate. Once again, I summoned all the strength I had inside me and just pushed! And just like that it was gone and I woke up gasping.

Alhamdulillah, I no longer had those episodes since I went abroad for a year. I either heard or read somewhere that if the disturbance happened repeatedly, it might be deliberate, that somebody may be sending "those" to you. Wallahualam. - Inara

An Encounter with a Toyol BY Inara

I'm sure you've got moments when you thought you saw someone passing you by from the corner of your eye. I've had many of those experience when I was younger. If it's once or twice maybe you could reason that it's just your imagination but when it happened multiple times...and it's accompanied by goosebumps, it does make you wonder whether something is really there.

I get easily spooked when I was little. I guess that's why I was able to see all those things. Like this one instance, I can't remember how old I was but I was still in primary school. It was early evening, around 5 45 or so and it happened to be 'hari kuning'. I was alone upstairs doing my homework and it was quite dark. While I was doing my homework, I kept seeing someone from the corner of my eye, peeking over my shoulders as if trying to see what I was doing. It happened probably about 5 times before I got spooked enough and ran downstairs to my maid.

This next story I wanna share is also one of those moments when you see "something" from the corner of your eyes. What was different this time is I did not turn towards that "thing" immediately but rather stay and observed for a few more seconds. I believed it was my first encounter with a TOYOL.

I was young, probably around 8 or 9. It was a very quiet friday morning around 10-11 am. I was alone in the tv room upstairs reaching out to a local malay newspaper. There's usually a weekly ghost story published in the paper and that week happened to be about toyol. If I'm not mistaken, a week or two before that my parents have suspected presence of toyol around our area because my parents keep on losing money. For e.g. my dad pun five $10 notes on the bed, when out to get something for a short while and came back to find only three $10 notes on the bed. Nobody entered the room during that period of time. So, back to my story, I brought the paper to the sofa, kneeled down on the floor and used the sofa as my table. I used my left hand to hold the left edge of the paper down as the fan kept on lifting the page up. As I was reading, I was something from the corner of my eye. I froze up and just observed that thing. It was like a small kid but grotesque looking. It was darkish, with evil but also mischievous grin which showed its small, sharp, pointed teeth. And I also has a bald head. Still grinning, it suddenly extended its dark hand towards my hand and as it get closer, I panicked and turned. It was gone! I got up and ran down immediately. Nothing happened after that. That was the last time I saw it. My dad complained to my late great grandfather about always losing money and my great grandfather gave my dad something to put in his wallet (didn't thought of asking what that was). My dad no longer lose money unexpectedly after that.

Scurry Bruneian Places Week .

BY Inara

we went to belalong for field ecology 2, he said "watch what u are saying when you are in the forest. You are not alone." Heran kami cos before this he didn't believe in supernatural things. Then a couple of weeks later we heard that when he was in belalong, ia tidur seorang kan tu as usual... kalinya ia kana cangak. iatah takut ia tidur sorang pas atu di belalong. Ani ok kali ia udah. Iatah tu nah awal2 ucap urg penakut. I remember a fren, dulunya for her final yr project, her supervisor was dr charles. I think she did primate study. Ia kana suruh leh Dr Charles masuk utan sorang2 from 9-10 pm. I kno its not that late yet but sorang2 bah ke utan mlm2 scary jua tu. Kesian ia... Baik jua ia nda jumpa apa2. About 2 yrs back kali masa ia di belalong, i think it was for the outward bound thingy... masa ia kuar tent kali ia ternampak ada pontianak wah atas pokok right dpn tentnya. Jara plang ia ke belalong. bariijap eh.

When I was in belalong for the field ecology nda plang ku terasa or terjumpa apa2. Once when we were in the forest without our supervisor (Dr Segun fell ill and had to go back to BSB early) my fren terasa belakangnya ada urg. Tym atu andangnya lainlah cos ahir dah and we couldn't find our way home. Baik jua ahirnya tertulus. But masa ku dengani my fren buat his project in Belalong, we had to go to this one plot yg v. jauh (jauh dri the normal plot that UBD used for field eco 2) that urg jarang go there. Balik from that plot (about 6 ish), I felt kambang bulu berabis. It was hari kuning lagi. Like there's somebody watching my back, like somebody's following me back. Nda ku peduli, I just kept talking with the guy from Belalong. Then aku selalu mcm nampak2 urg pas atu (while i'm at belalong lah). Like when I'm in the dining hall, ku ternampak mcm ada urg melintas tpinya nada urg. Then that nite ku kan get ready to sleep. My fren went to the toilet so kirakan ku soranglah dlm bilik atu then ku ternampak ada bini2 rambut panjang bajunya biru meliat mcm marah arah ku. Ia berdiri di ujung bilik between my bed and my fren's bed. so ku tutup tarus mataku... then ku buka perlahan2 my eyes.... Phew! baik jua ilang. Tarus ku tidur eh pas atu. Kes takut lah tu.

Scurry Bruneian Areas Week .

BY inara

Eh, UBD FOS pun berhantu jua. Found that out when we did our final year project. My coursemates and I often stayed till late working in the labs and in the Biology dept. final yr project room. Macam-macam cerita tu.

Once, during ramadan, we stayed late to do some work so we broke our fast in the project room. 2 of my friends went to the lab to check on their experiment. My friend and I stayed in the project room to clean up bagas kami makan. Then I saw my friend (yg tdi ke lab) duduk2 di luar and I said to my friend yg dlm project room atu "eh, sapa di luar atu? c ****?". My friend gave me the weird look and said "Apa eh?" She didn't see him outside. Dengan confident sekali ku berkata " Banar... tu cuba ko liat tu c **** diluar tu duduk2. Ia kai apa kan tdi? Baju putih kah?" My friend diam sja... nda ia mau balas. Then ku kan buang sampah diluar so nampak trus bench tampat I saw "him" duduk. Kosong... Nyamankan ati ku ckap "eh reflection kali... ku salah liat kali" But the thing is solid... bukan reflection. Then masa siang bru kami realise, whoever yg duduk sana must be really tall cos kalau urg biasa, nda nampak shouldernya tu rah jendela kami kalau ia duduk.

To UBD bio students, kalau working in the postgrad/research labs... my advice is kalau malam, pasang radio mengaji kah or berdangan.