I have always been drawn to the paranormal and the unknown. When I was a child I was tormented by something that would terrify me at night with rappings and some poltergeist activity. Also, when I was about 12 we moved into an old cabin in the woods. I came home from school one day soon after we had moved in and I felt an overwhelming presence upstairs in the loft. It was like a field of static electricity that circled around me and I felt a real heaviness and animosity. My dog was with me and he was cowering in the corner. I don't know where it came from or how I could have been so strong, but I demanded in my most authoritative voice ( granted, I was 12) that he leave this place and never return, that this was my house now and he was to be nowhere near me or my family. With that something stomped down the stairs and shook the whole cabin. After that I sensed something watching me from outside the bathroom window and the presence could still be felt very strongly in the woodshed. That is a brief summary of my first experiences with the paranormal.

Flash forward, I am now 22 and I am beginning to think I am either psychotic, have an over-active imagination, or I may be beginning to develop psychic abilities. I keep seeing things out of the corner of my eye, when i go anywhere. At night I sometimes wake up and feel a presence, remembering my success as a young girl I demand it to get away from me, but then I hear things moving around and falling oustide my bedroom.

Most recently, and much to my fright I have been experiencing something very strange at night that started with an extreme pressure on my chest. I once even felt the pressure unbearable on my chest become equalized when I felt two "paws" situate themselves, as if a gargoyle or animal just sat on me. These events came to fruition a few weeks ago when It seemed that I was drawn out of my body, I kept trying to fight it but anytime I tried to stand or grab my cell I could feel my eyes roll back into my head and fall heavily back onto the matress, at one point I thought I had gotten up, but when I walked into my living room it was a completely different room. There was a lanky older man dressed as a priest just standing there looking at me. I seemed to expect him, but there was another person, a young girl dressed modernly a ponytail and a columbia jacket facing a wall away from me, she was more frightened than I was because I was screaming and demanding to know what they were doing there and who they were. The same night during the same episode, I left my room again and found myself outside a house on a porch and there were all of these strange people gathered about, and I kept telling them to go away but they would only pretend to, and some just wouldn't budge at all. I finally got the courage to ask a tall black man who he was, he told there was something he needed to show or tell me and that I needed to go with him, I got a strong feeling that that wasn't a good idea. I started to get the feeling they were dead and they wanted something from me, one woman fell and was trampled a bit, when I looked at her, I realized she was hollow, just a shell of a woman, and someone turned to me and said, "she got what was comming to her". After what seemed like a battle with the darkness for my mind and soul I finally managed to call a friend in hysterics, absolutely terrified. The next morning the top of my head was extremely sore. Was this just a dream? How could it have been so physical, I know that I was awake, or half awake at least, conscious of something overpowering me. Also that same night I kept finding myself in a corner of my room and the clock stayed at 3 am no matter how much time went by.

What is going on, and is there anything anyone can tell me to make sense of all of this.
Lately I keep seeing/barely seeing a little dog running about me. I feel uncomfortable in my apartment as if I'm not alone. Am I going crazy? Is my interest in the paranormal just making my mind play tricks on me?

You may be what I call more intune with your "paranormal self" by this I mean you see things most people usually don't see, such as me I'm more emotionally intune with my paranormal self where as you might be more mentally intune with your paranormal self. Embrace your gift,but make sure you learn how to control it.

Those are all quite powerful experiences you describe, fire blossom. Interesting choice of username, too. Fitting.

You use the word "psychotic." I think many people who are psychotic are people with psychic gifts who were never able to find proper training, who were never able to control or contain the energies moving through them. Like in the last X-Men movie, where Patrick Stewart says, "Control the power, don't let it control you." The psychic ability can be real (in your case, I would say it almost certainly is), but it still can drive you mad, particularly when it is as powerful as what you describe.

You also ask about dreaming. Yes, dreaming is what you are doing, if by dreaming you mean entering a state of consciousness in which you are tuned into these other realities and the beings that live there. You might do it while asleep, or at the edge of sleep (what people call hypnagogia), or in a trance, or even while wide awake. The place you go in the dream is a real place that exists in the universe, and the beings you encounter are real, and yes, you are dreaming when you do it.

The experience of being paralyzed and having the "paws" of this creature on your chest is one which people have been having for hundreds of years. People have even drawn pictures of it, like this one: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/fleischmann/d_archsuse05/208_fuseli_nightmare.jpg

When someone shifts between states of consciousness with no control, in a way that disrupts her life, we call that crazy, psychotic.

When someone shifts between states of consciousness at will, doing intentional spiritual work to help herself and others, we call that person a mage or shaman (or many other names, like medicine worker--pick your cultural tradition).

I'm going to say to you what several people have said to me in my life: Had you been born into another culture, a tribal culture, the shamans or witch doctors of that culture probably would have noticed you at an early age. They would have taken you away, not to cure you, but to train you. In our culture, we have to grow up wondering, often getting no information or mis-information (being told we are crazy or possessed by the devil). Take heart. It's much better now than it was 20 or 40 years ago (I'm 42--take my word for it). You have the Internet, lots of metaphysical bookstores in every big city, various kinds of spiritual teachers, psychics, and people in the neo-shamanism movement who can guide you (just watch out for hucksters and ego-trippers).

Here are some things to work on:

1. Personal integrity. Being true to yourself, knowing yourself and not being afraid to just be yourself when you are alone or with others. This is huge. Honesty. As they used to say in the 70's, being "all together," and "working on your hang ups." We all suffer some psychological bruises (or even psychological compound fractures) as we grow up. If those are not healed constructively, they will cause trouble for you when you enter the spiritual realm. You've already seen how your fears and doubts and self-doubt can play tricks on you with this stuff. Wait until you start to get a little good at it. Then your pride can play tricks on you, which can be even more dangerous and disruptive (speaking from experience--I've screwed up bigtime acting out of pride and arrogance).

2. Learn to control your state of consciousness. Learn to ground yourself before you go flying off in dream. Learn to stand in the center of your circle of power, so no spirit can throw you out (it's kind of like sumo wrestling, sometimes). There are all kinds of meditation techniques from all over the world for this one. If you like, I'd be happy to share some I know that I like.

3. Find one or more good human teachers in the waking world. Make sure they are honest people; look for an open mind and a good sense of humor. Watch out for people who want to control you or take your money.

4. Find one or more good guides/teachers in the spirit world. Again, lots of techniques to do this. I'm a fan of being given one as a gift. If you were training with me, I would go on a shamanic journey to bring you back a power animal.

5. Get outside. Mother Nature has all the answers. The more time you spend with Her, the better.

Blessings, and by all means stay in touch if there is anything more we can do to help.

Those are all quite powerful experiences you describe, fire blossom. Interesting choice of username, too. Fitting.

You use the word "psychotic." I think many people who are psychotic are people with psychic gifts who were never able to find proper training, who were never able to control or contain the energies moving through them. Like in the last X-Men movie, where Patrick Stewart says, "Control the power, don't let it control you." The psychic ability can be real (in your case, I would say it almost certainly is), but it still can drive you mad, particularly when it is as powerful as what you describe.

You also ask about dreaming. Yes, dreaming is what you are doing, if by dreaming you mean entering a state of consciousness in which you are tuned into these other realities and the beings that live there. You might do it while asleep, or at the edge of sleep (what people call hypnagogia), or in a trance, or even while wide awake. The place you go in the dream is a real place that exists in the universe, and the beings you encounter are real, and yes, you are dreaming when you do it.

The experience of being paralyzed and having the "paws" of this creature on your chest is one which people have been having for hundreds of years. People have even drawn pictures of it, like this one: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/fleischmann/d_archsuse05/208_fuseli_nightmare.jpg

When someone shifts between states of consciousness with no control, in a way that disrupts her life, we call that crazy, psychotic.

When someone shifts between states of consciousness at will, doing intentional spiritual work to help herself and others, we call that person a mage or shaman (or many other names, like medicine worker--pick your cultural tradition).

I'm going to say to you what several people have said to me in my life: Had you been born into another culture, a tribal culture, the shamans or witch doctors of that culture probably would have noticed you at an early age. They would have taken you away, not to cure you, but to train you. In our culture, we have to grow up wondering, often getting no information or mis-information (being told we are crazy or possessed by the devil). Take heart. It's much better now than it was 20 or 40 years ago (I'm 42--take my word for it). You have the Internet, lots of metaphysical bookstores in every big city, various kinds of spiritual teachers, psychics, and people in the neo-shamanism movement who can guide you (just watch out for hucksters and ego-trippers).

Here are some things to work on:

1. Personal integrity. Being true to yourself, knowing yourself and not being afraid to just be yourself when you are alone or with others. This is huge. Honesty. As they used to say in the 70's, being "all together," and "working on your hang ups." We all suffer some psychological bruises (or even psychological compound fractures) as we grow up. If those are not healed constructively, they will cause trouble for you when you enter the spiritual realm. You've already seen how your fears and doubts and self-doubt can play tricks on you with this stuff. Wait until you start to get a little good at it. Then your pride can play tricks on you, which can be even more dangerous and disruptive (speaking from experience--I've screwed up bigtime acting out of pride and arrogance).

2. Learn to control your state of consciousness. Learn to ground yourself before you go flying off in dream. Learn to stand in the center of your circle of power, so no spirit can throw you out (it's kind of like sumo wrestling, sometimes). There are all kinds of meditation techniques from all over the world for this one. If you like, I'd be happy to share some I know that I like.

3. Find one or more good human teachers in the waking world. Make sure they are honest people; look for an open mind and a good sense of humor. Watch out for people who want to control you or take your money.

4. Find one or more good guides/teachers in the spirit world. Again, lots of techniques to do this. I'm a fan of being given one as a gift. If you were training with me, I would go on a shamanic journey to bring you back a power animal.

5. Get outside. Mother Nature has all the answers. The more time you spend with Her, the better.
Blessings, and by all means stay in touch if there is anything more we can do to help.

I agree with everything you said, as fire blossom descriibed these dream like vision are more or not like the emotional lapse I have we're I can see and fell the emotion of people going to from this world.

Thank you all so much for all of your input. It has helped me tremendously.

U aren't a psychic o-o
Psychics are people who can read minds and other stuff .
Not see the dead D< (thats what I think anyways)
This is a gift
You get to see the dead right? If yes it's a gift
If no then its probably Idk XD
But your very speacial to get this gift
You can help tons of souls !