Spiritual Fire That Doesn't Burn

A few short months ago I found myself unusually tired and decided to hit the sack early. After falling asleep I became aware that I was dreaming. I had a feeling that I had had the dream before, all I can remember of the dream was me running down a spiraled set of stairs in dim lighting. Most of the time during dreams I'm right there in the action--feeling emotions and reacting as if they were real, but in this dream I had a strange sense of detachment. Then in my dream my perception changed and it was like I was watching myself run down the stairs, it was like I was watching what was happening as if it were on tv.

Then suddenly I felt myself being pulled away from my dream and watched as the dream sort of evaporated before my eyes and became acutely aware that I was now laying in my bed on my side near the edge of the bed with my arms slightly outstretched in front of me. My eyes were closed and a golden light sort of shined through my eyelids (like when someone waves a flashlight in front of you when you have your eyes closed) and moved from left to right.

I then had the most amazing and sensation I've ever experienced. I felt a surge of hot/warm energy surge from the tips of my toes all the way up my entire body. The energy was sort of like a wind too because when the energy reached up to my head it blew my bangs up from my face. The best way I can describe it is it was like a fire that didn't burn but raged within and about me. The feeling was really intense and I was terrified and confused and I tried to open my eyes but found that I couldn't, then I became even more scared because I couldn't even see what was happening. In fear I instinctively tried to pull my hands closer to my body but when I tried to pull I felt a pair of slightly bigger hands holding mine.

During this whole time the surge was still going on and I squeezed the hands holding mine and felt great reassurance that they wouldn't let me go. I remember having this brief notion that there was an angel holding my hands and reassuring me seemingly without words. It felt like if whoever was holding my hands could have easily pulled me right out of my body into some otherworldly place and found myself wishing they would.

Then my perception changed and I found myself looking down at myself on the bed struggling to stop whatever was happening. As I was looking at myself I had this strong thought pop into my head that said, "Have faith" and as soon as the thought popped into my head I saw myself relax and stop struggling then I was back in my body again, still unable to open my eyes.

Then the hot energy seemed to intensify and I could feel a warm like wind travel up my entire body. It felt hot yet it didn't burn and I found that very strange. A final wave of it traveled up my body and forcefully blew more of my hair away from my face and then it stopped. Immediately I opened my eyes with my heart pounding a million miles a minute and saw that no one was there. What scared me the most was the feeling that I was completely alone, I felt abandoned.

I glanced at my clock and realized that I had only been sleeping for an two hours. I was so scared and confused by it that I searched the web for anyone who might have had a similar experience and came across this site and it made me feel greatly relieved. I have come to terms with what happened and view it as real and not what some people would call sleep paralysis. But feedback and comments, anything at all, would be greatly appreciated.