"It all seems very real and it's very, very frightening," French says. "But what is happening is that people are still in a kind of REM sleep - the kind associated with dreams - which is coming through into consciousness."
Most people who experience sleep paralysis shrug it off, but a fraction are more concerned about the experience. In some cultures, the phenomenon has been thought of as a sign that evil spirits or other nasties have taken over your body.
Nothing you haven't heard before, but it gives me an excuse to reiterate my exasperation with "bedroom visitations." Obviously, I can't prove some of them aren't genuine visits from nonhumans, but I find the venue highly suspect; I think most, if not all, bedroom "abductions" are instigated by little-understood psychological phenomena. Some of my conviction stems from my having experienced "weird" sensations while asleep or half-asleep. (Strange noises? Check. Sense of presence? Check. Temporary paralysis? Check.)
Of course, some readers will assume that I'm an "abductee" in denial. Or, worse, out to belittle people who've endured truly inexplicable episodes. There's a seldom-spoken suspicion within the paranormal community that interest in the strange and unusual directly implies a history of (or predisposition to) reality-bending experiences. Since I'm working on a book that postulates nothing less than aliens in our midst, maybe I should issue some sort of cautionary statement.
I'll leave it at this: I've never had a run-in with aliens. Alas, not even a nocturnal light. However, given the opportunity, I'd love to meet representatives of these "cryptoterrestrials" I've been writing about. (Given, of course, they're friendly.)
3 comments:
This is the big quandry - while it is all interesting data it might not all be data for the same thing.
Leave in too much suspect data and people can dismiss you to readily.
Take out too much and there is no story to tell.
I would quibble though about "little-understood" - its pretty well understood. Hufford's "The Terror That Comes in the Night" is the classic text. "Wrestling With Ghosts" is interesting. I have dozens of other references to scientific papers on it (including a special issue of Transpersonl Psychiatry - I think thats right I'd need to check details).
The is not widely circulated which is a great pity. When I had my experience (black dog transforming into a black insect/alien with false awakenings and physical injuries) I at least knew about SP and was able to put it in context. Granted it wouldn't comfortably fit in any "literal" model either but at least I knew I wasn't going mad. There are a lot of people who can't do that and end up telling their stories to the few people who are prepared to listen and they tend to be Ufologists who might suggest a visit to a friendly hypnotist which adds a whole new level of confusion and false data.
Some in the paranormal field have a difficulty with removing faulty data but then again if you are clear why and you set out your criteria then you are covering your bases. The people who get nervous about this tend to be extraterrstralists who are subconciously filtering out anomalous/weird data amking their approach fundametally flawed ;)
emperor -- Just a small point here: because I experience the Archangel Gabriel (say) delivering an angelic message to me in a way that others might deem hallucinatory, does this necessarily mean that I am NOT experiencing the Archangel Gabriel? Think about it.
Well I don't know enough about your experience.
I'd never rule it out though even if I thought the probability was low.
You don't know its the Archangel Gabriel though - even within the same cosmology it could be a demon masquerading as him in some cunning plan.
I've been in a discussion about whether it is possible to know if entities encountered in altered states are internal or external. I'm sure there must be a way but haven't come up with a way yet - my best stab is if th relay information to you that you didn't already know. This has been done using LSD:
In The Adventures of Self Discovery, Grof describes "One particularly unnerving session [in which] a young man suffering from depression found himself in what seemed to be another dimension. It had an eerie luminescence and although he could not see anyone he sensed that it was crowded with discarnate beings. Suddenly he sensed a presence very close to him, and to his surprise it began to communicate with him telepathically. It asked him to please contact a couple who lived in the Moravian city of Kromeriz and let them know that their son Ladislav was well taken care of and doing all right. It then gave him the couple's name, address, and telephone number" (Talbot).
In The Adventures of Self Discovery, Dr. Stanislov Grof goes on to say that "I went to the telephone, dialed the number in Kromeriz, and asked if I could speak with Ladislav. To my astonishment, the woman on the other side of the line started to cry. When she calmed down, she told me with a broken voice: 'our son is not with us any more, he passed away, we lost him three seeks ago" (Grof). In the context of a non-local universe, connections like this mean that there are tremendous possibilities for conscious sharing telepathy in our universe. Religious and drug-induced experiences of 'super-consciousness' may be accessible to any well-trained, compassionate mind.
Source
But it has been pointed this could be down to something like remote viewing - it certianly shows something odd is going on at the very least.