it is called 'waking dreams' or 'paralyzing dreams' and is common to individuals who share another unique early experience. As young children they each can recall being able to 'astral project' or 'leave their bodies' at will or spontaneously. The 'out of body' experience is something in which zen buddhists and other eastern philosophies embrace as an achievement or transcendence in conciousness that is very difficult to accomplish, requiring a highly disciplined and meditative state of conciousness, in which all thoughts are purged from the mind but one... a mantra that affirms the illusion of reality. is repeated constantly My mother astral projected regularly as a child until about the age of six. She said she would do it every sunday at church, she would stare at the crucifix and repeat under her breath: 'i think i'm here, i think i'm here...' when all at once she would feel herself lift up out of her body and then hover high above where she sat, near the ceiling . She never told anyone because she sensed this wasnt normal, and then around the age of six she just didn't do it anymore, that was when the 'paralyzing dreams' began. She feared these half wake/sleep dreams terribly, and unfortunately they were frequent, In them she would wake up paralyzed, trying desperately to scream but unable to move her mouth or produce any other kind of sound or movement. this lasted for what she felt was eternities. Another freind of mine, who also as a child could 'leave her body' explained a paralyzing dream she once had, where she was frozen stiff and although her husband lay inces away she could not stir enough to wake him. The idea is that as these gifted children developed, it became increasingly more difficult for them to reconcile these two dissparate realities, this is when the astral projecting ceased, but every now and again when they are crossing over to/from sleep to wakefullness they involuntarily attempt to project but are denied by thier newly formed reality. The presence you describe could be a psychological representation of the rigidity of this reality and its determination to suppress the previous reality from reemerging, since most waking dreams leave the dreamer uncomfortably aware of but unable to participate in their enviornmrnt reality, itself is no longer real... I think it is important to also mention, an older freind of ours would frequently astral project and he would travel out of his apartment, through neighbors rooms and even to other cities. One night while he was lifting out of his body he was shocked to see two unknown individuals hovering in his room, apparently astral projecting too, And they left through the wall when they were discovered. It is also possible that the figure is then another person on the astral plane. i think some soul searching will identify more, but don't worry, just try to remember your early astral experiences, you may learn something very important