The Haunting of...

She was just on the show The Haunting of... with that Long Island Medium who told her that she had been haunted by a spirit who felt he had the right to harm her or touch her because at the time she was being molested so the spirit thought if someone else was touching her he could, too. What a crock of beep. Nadine clearly described having sleep paralysis.

(Don't let her blame you, Nadine. It's just a psychological or neurological phenomenon; there's nothing spiritual about it, and telling you so was a horrible thing to do, as if you are to blame or if you don't behave properly spiritually an evil spirit is right there to get you. That's crap. You don't need a psychic. You need counseling, comforting, and probably a sleep specialist. Also, restless legs can make you think someone is crawling on your bed just as you're about to fall asleep. Dopamine is involved in that problem, but in the past it's been explained by evil spirits or entities, as well. No spirits, just need the same sort of help with counselors who understand the problem and possibly the right medication. Just knowing what it is can help because then you no longer have to explain it in a supernatural way.)

There is a mention of abuse on this page only in the notes, but having this type of sleep disruption is one indication of possible abuse because the victim does have their sleep disrupted due to immense stress: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis


Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which people, either when falling asleep or wakening, temporarily experience an inability to move. More formally, it is a transition state between wakefulness and rest characterized by complete muscle atonia (muscle weakness). It can occur at sleep onset or upon awakening, and it is often associated with terrifying visions (e.g. an intruder in the room), to which one is unable to react due to paralysis. It is believed a result of disrupted REM sleep, which is normally characterized by complete muscle atonia that prevents individuals from acting out their dreams. Sleep paralysis has been linked to disorders such as narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea; however, it can also occur in isolation.[1][2] When linked to another disorder, sleep paralysis commonly occurs in association with the neuromuscular disorder narcolepsy.[2]



Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are symptoms commonly experienced during episodes of sleep paralysis. Some scientists have proposed this condition as an explanation for reports of alien abductions and ghostly encounters.[13] A study by Susan Blackmore and Marcus Cox (the Blackmore-Cox study) of the University of the West of England supports the suggestion that reports of alien abductions are related to sleep paralysis rather than to temporal lobe lability.[14] There are three main types of these hallucinations that can be linked to pathologic neurophysiology.[7] These include the belief that there is an intruder in the room, the incubus, and vestibular motor sensations.[15]

Many people that experience sleep paralysis are struck with a deep sense of terror, because they sense a menacing presence in the room while paralyzed—hereafter referred to as the intruder. This phenomenon is believed to be the result of a hyper vigilant state created in the midbrain.[7] More specifically, the emergency response activates in the brain when individuals wake up paralyzed and feel vulnerable to attack.[15] This helplessness can intensify the effects of the threat response well above the level typical to normal dreams; this could explain why hallucinations during sleep paralysis are so vivid.[15] Normally the threat activated vigilance system is a protective mechanism the body uses to differentiate between dangerous situations and determine whether the fear response is appropriate.[15] This threat vigilance system is evolutionarily biased to interpret ambiguous stimuli as dangerous, because "erring on the side of caution" increases survival chances.[15] This could explain why those who experience sleep paralysis generally believe the presence they sense is evil.[15] The amygdala is heavily involved in the threat activation response mechanism, which is implicated in both intruder and incubus SP hallucinations.[3] The specific pathway the threat-activated vigilance system acts through is not perfectly understood. It is believed that either the thalamus receives sensory information and sends it on the amygdala, which regulates emotional experience—or that the amygdaloid complex, anterior cingulate, and the structures in the pontine tegmentum interact to create the hallucination.[7] It is also highly possible that SP hallucinations could result from a combination of these. The anterior cingulate has an extensive array of cortical connections to other cortical area, which lets it integrate the different sensations and emotions we experience.[7] The amygdaloid complex helps us interpret emotional experience and act appropriately.[16] Most importantly, it helps us direct our attention to the most pertinent stimuli in a potentially dangerous situation and act appropriately.[16] Proper amygdaloid complex function requires input from the thalamus. This creates a thalamoamygdala pathway capable of bypassing intense scrutiny of incoming stimuli, which allows for quick responses in a potentially life-threatening situation.[7][16]

Typically these pathways let us quickly disregard non-threatening situations. In sleep paralysis, however, these pathways become over-excited and move into a state of hypervigilance where the mind perceives every external stimulus as a threat. The individual can create endogenous stimuli that contribute to the perceived threat.[7] A similar process occurs in the incubus hallucination, with slight variations.

The incubus hallucination is associated with the subject's belief that an intruder is attempting to suffocate them, usually by strangulation.[15] It is believed that the incubus hallucination is a combination of the threat vigilance activation system and the muscle paralysis associated with sleep paralysis that removes voluntary control of breathing.[15] Several features of REM breathing patterns exacerbate the feeling of suffocation.[15] These include shallow rapid breathing, hypercapnia, and slight blockage of the airway, a symptom prevalent in sleep apnea patients.[7] Attempts at breathing deeply fail, and give the individual a sense of resistance, which the threat-activated vigilance system interprets as someone sitting on their chest, suffocating them.[7] The sensation of entrapment causes a feedback loop that involves the threat-activated vigilance system: fear of suffocation increases as a result of continued helplessness, which makes the individual struggle to end the SP episode.[15] The intruder and incubus hallucinations highly correlate with one another, and moderately correlate with the third type of hallucination, vestibular-motor hallucination, also known as out-of-body experiences.[15]

The third hallucination type differs from the other two in that it involves the brainstem, cerebellar, and cortical vestibular centers—not the threat activation vigilance system.[3] Under normal conditions, medial and vestibular nuclei, cortical, thalamic, and cerebellar centers coordinate things such as head and eye movement, and orientation in space.[7] In sleep paralysis, these mechanisms—which usually coordinate body movement and provide information on body position—activate and, because there is no actual movement, become confused and induce a floating sensation.[15] The vestibular nuclei in particular has been identified as being closely related to dreaming during the REM stage of sleep.[7] Unlike the other two types of hallucinations, vestibular-motor experiences arise from completely endogenous sources of stimuli.[15]



Some people say Henry Fuseli's painting titled The Nightmare represents sleep paralysis, as many people who experience it will "fill in" an actual creature sitting on them (it usually happens when someone is sleeping on their back) because it feels like someone is holding them down: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare


The perfect human being is uninteresting. -Joseph Campbell

{Ignore phone posting errors.}