For more than 2,000 years, people from all parts of the globe and cultures have been reporting a similar phenomenon.
In the ancient Hebrew traditions, the Lilim. In the Slavic nations of Iceland, Denmark and Sweden, the Mora. In Newfoundland, the Ag Roc. The Greeks called it Pnigalion, the Sumerians Ekimmu, and in Japan almost 40% of a university group polled reported experiencing the Kanashibara.
If you stay in the West Indies, you may have a dream of the Kokma, a sinister presence that attacks just as an individual is falling asleep or waking. The victim is unable to move and is terrified as this entity approaches and jumps on the bed or on the sleeper's chest. This is attributed to the spirits of dead infants, and the notion that similar incidents are caused by the same type of restless soul is held in Northern Ireland.
Many of you will have heard of the folkloric tradition of Old Hags, and the horrors that they can inflict on the unlucky sleeper.
In modern research, these types of extremely vivid dreams are documented and recognized by yet another set of names. Sleep Paralysis, Night Terrors, Hypnagogic or Hypnopompic Hallucinations, all add up to a lot of individuals all over the world waking up screaming, convinced they have just encountered... something. In a study conducted by Dr. David J. Hufford, a behavioral scientist at the Pennsylvania College of Medicine, it was concluded that one American in six has had a dream of this type on one or more occasions.
Sleep Paralysis is the current darling of the Skeptic's Ball, a supposed explanation for UFO and abduction beliefs, as well as many other "mythic" entities such as vampires, demons and ghosts. This would be a much better theory if only Sleep Paralysis were a more flexible type of experience, one in which many different types of dream scenarios manifested in a lucid way, leading to all these various belief systems. It is not.
Sleep Paralysis experiencers report a very similar pattern, in which a presence is usually sensed and the dreamer is helpless and petrified with fear, unable to move, with crushing weight to the chest or difficulty breathing. Footsteps approaching the bed or dark shapes or shadows are routine. |
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Artists in many times have recorded these visions.
Most Sleep Paralysis victims knew the experience was a dream, or at least an encounter that took place in Dreamspace. This does not jibe well with UFO abductee's accounts, at least not with any that don't begin with the scenario "I was laying in my bed, and then it happened."
It would also be a better theory if Sleep Paralysis were not such a mysterious occurrence in and of itself.
On a first approach to the question of Sleep Paralysis, hereinafter referred to as SP, one would be led to think that science understood the problem. Discussions of hormone levels, anxiety and sleep disruption being common factors in most cases seem to indicate that this is a disorder well on its way to being controlled and dispelled with the drop of a pill and a few trips to your counselor.
This does not actually appear to be the case. In fact, researchers have as yet only hypotheses as to what is actually happening during SP, with theories ranging from those mentioned above to some that propose it is an effect of the earth's magnetic fields. All serious authorities on the subject agree that SP is a phenomenon long on questions and short on answers. Little if any treatment is offered or thought to have much value.
Currently SP appears to be better understood in the circles of ritual and magic, discussions of the occult, and paranormal investigators. For some, there is little question as to what these experiences represent. They are exactly what they appear to be, an invasion by an entity that is motivated to frighten people and feed off that fear, a psychic predator that lurks near the edges of the gap between waking and dreaming reality.
As one experiencer points out, sleep, like water, is something that everyone must have to survive. It has long been noted that hunters will stalk a watering hole, knowing the area's wildlife must eventually come to it, or die. The idea of such a creature lingering near the edges of sleep is consistent with Natural Law.
The depression, anxiety attacks and suicidal tendencies reported by those badly afflicted with SP are perhaps understandable under the circumstances. |
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Science may not have much to recommend by way of abating these attacks, but folklore certainly does. Ritual banishments, exorcism, the chanting of the Lord's Prayer, or pretty much any manifestation of the Will of the person beset by these dream visions appears to have merit. If the victim can summon his courage and shout the astral equivalent of OUT OUT DAMNED THING in either the waking or sleeping state, these creatures are reported to run for whatever passes for hills in their existence.
They seem to be more inclined to the Dishing It Out side than to the Taking It.
Perhaps the reality of SP, and the dramatic encounters of the dark and lurking aspects of Nether Realities they afford modern people, may someday be a ticket for a true synthesis of understanding between medical science and the paranormal. After all, recording the symptoms of these manifestations does not in any way disprove or explain them, their widespread presence in human history, or what any of it actually means to the psyche of the individual who has such an encounter.
Meanwhile, the Modern Mantra of "It was just a dream, it was only a dream" appears to be of small comfort to many.
—Disher X
More:
Stanford University Center of Excellence for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Disorders
Sleep Paralysis and Associated Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences
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