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Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis

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Jonny
Post subject: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 2:28 pm
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Anyone experience this, ever? I thought I'd share my story :D

Back in the beginning of 2010 stresses started to pile up (broke up with significant other and he was going nutso on me, added another job, school stuff, lack of sleep).

I fell asleep one night and then woke up about 30 minutes later. I couldn't move and felt this heavy weight on top of me! But I was awake and could look around my room. And guess what. THERE WAS A PERSON SITTING ON MY CHEST. It was only "humanoid," I would say. I couldn't see a face, just this dark presence with smoke and sh*t coming off of it. It was all very cinematic. I had the direct impression that it was a demon who was there to punish me. This went on for about a full minute, unable to move and just this dude sitting on top of me. Then slowly the weight lifted and I was able to bring myself up to a sitting position, and the "demon" slipped away.

But there was no moment where I woke up. I just sat up. Know what I mean? I was awake from the very beginning. It was a hallucination. And apparently, not entirely uncommon.

I did some googling and found out about it, and ran across this picture. When I did, I yelled out, "That's it! That's it!" It completely captured the moment.

I wasn't totally scared, it was more of an "um wow, um wow, um wow" moment.

Throughout the rest of 2010 similar things happened but not to that full of a degree. I would wake up and there would be things floating around my room. One creepy time I woke up and there was a head sticking out of my wall, it was gold and red and it turned to look at me. All these times I had "woken up" but parts of my brain were still asleep.

From the light research that I've done, this stuff happens when your mind wakes up before your body does, or your body wakes up before your mind does. Add an element of stress/nightmares to the mix and you've got demonic visitations! I don't believe that it was actually a demon but I was telling my Catholic friend about it and she gave me a crucifix to hang on my bedpost. Which I did. Better safe than sorry huh? Those things seem to work in the movies. ;)

Honestly I think the whole thing is pretty neat and really interesting.

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“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”


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vison
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 2:50 pm
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My word. :Q

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 2:56 pm
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Does the stuff floating around the room end up in new places? Or do they return to where they were before?

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Jonny
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 3:01 pm
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The one time that happened Maria, they floated around and ended up in new places. I don't even remember what exactly was floating around.

I felt like I was on drugs or something, lol. But then after googling and finding out that it's actually a worldwide phenomenon... each country has its own mythos as to why it happens... I felt better. My best friend and I actually named the demon Gerald.

Thankfully Gerald hasn't come back to visit me since that first night. Weird sleep things have happened since (the head, the floating weirdo things) but they seem to be slowly ebbing away.

I didn't mention that sleep disorders run in my family. My mom suffers from "extreme sleepwalking" you might say. I guess I've just never been stressed enough until last year to manifest symptoms myself.

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“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”


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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 6:20 pm
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Well, if it were me experiencing those things, I'd favor telekinesis as the explanation for the floating things, and being able to see into an alternate dimension or universe for the other stuff. Especially a head peaking through a wall! :Q That can't be part of *our* reality, therefore it must be part of some other reality- whether you are just accidently perceiving it or causing a weakness between the realities.

The fact that the entity sitting on your chest seems to see you is worrisome, though. That implies that the contact is two ways. :scratch: If it isn't known to cause harm, maybe it can't do anything but peer at you? Maybe it's just as scared of you as you are of it. Or maybe it's just curious. :shrug:

Or maybe it's all in your head. Which doesn't explain anything and isn't helpful, so is pretty useless as a theory.

If it were me, and it happened again, I'd work on trying to attach myself more firmly to *this* world and shore up the barriers in my mind so if it's me causing the bleedover from the other reality, that would stop it. That kind of defect in reality probably isn't a good thing. :uhoh: If it still happened again, I think I'd try to communicate with it- and if it seemed unfriendly, try to push it away with my mind.

Not that I have any experience with this sort of major glitch in the system of our world, but ... well.... that's what occurs to me when reading your account. Maybe I watch too much fantasy and sci fi- but evidences of rifts between worlds should not to be taken lightly. Hopefully it's a self healing phenomena. :neutral:

Or maybe it's scientists or mages on their side trying to open a way between worlds. :Q

At least the thing looking at you didn't look like the stereotypical bug eyed grey humanoid alien so many victims of sleep paralysis report seeing. That would almost be embarrassing to report, I think.


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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 6:28 pm
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I think the crucifix is a good idea. :Q

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Jonny
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 6:30 pm
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Maria, thank you for your thoughts! That's very interesting to me. To be honest there wasn't really a point where I thought that it was anything other than my mind being VERY wonky.

But I must not entirely believe that, because I still have the cross hanging on my bedpost.

What intrigues me is how the "old hag" is so universal. The experience changes by minute details worldwide, but the jist of the story is the same. A negative presence/ghost/demon/alien/whatever sitting on the chest of the sleeper. I mean, check this out. This has always been happening.

What is in our minds that commonly creates this experience? And why is it almost always a negative figure? Our bodies can't move. That's happening because your mind wakes up before the paralysis of sleep has gone away. So our mind needs to create a REASON as to why our bodies can't move... something holding us down is obviously the first choice. But why an old hag? Why a demon? Why not a giant puppy. Or a panda. Or even a boulder.

I think it speaks to the inherent darkness of the human psyche.

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“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”


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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 8:18 pm
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It's kind of like how people who have migraines see the same
sort of "fortified" visual disturbance in their vision sometimes.

[ img ]

When I got that weird "C" shaped thing in my vision once, it was fascinating, scary and later-- when I found out that almost everyone sees the same kind of thing-- very, very strange! It definitely made me wonder if migraines are caused by some kind of alien that is out of phase with our reality, but if they get close enough, you can see just a little bit of them (weird!) and it causes a migraine.

Not in the league of seeing a hairy humanoid- :shock: - but it's kinda sorta the same thing.


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Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 8:58 pm
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I've had some very intense hypnogogic hallucinations, but they've all been about as benign as it gets: having a conversation with someone in the room or getting up, getting dressed, and going to work...only to wake up for real in bed. That part, the waking up, always startles me because the hallucination was so real. But I've never seen anything terrifying. I'm sorry it can't be like that for you. :(

I've also had that thing where my mind wakes up but my body really hasn't and I'm paralyzed, but for some reason I've always known what was happening and so it's never scared me. It's a freaky phenomenon though, when I think about it - I even breath like I'm sleeping, but I'm not.

Getting in and out of the REM stage is a glitchy process, I guess.

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 9:22 pm
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Maybe the hairy humanoid is so universal because it's some kind of ancestral memory. Maybe it's one of the early pre humans?

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 10:05 pm
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River's post reminded me of this Calvin & Hobbes episode:

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Jonny
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Fri 13 May , 2011 11:15 pm
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Jude, Calvin & Hobbes is always, ALWAYS relevant.

River, hypnogogic, is that the proper term for it? OOooooh. *googles*

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“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”


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elfshadow
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Sat 14 May , 2011 5:24 am
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I get sleep paralysis sometimes, and didn't know what it was until I took a psychology class and discovered that it is a fairly common phenomenon. Scared the crap out of me! Part of it is a glitch where your conscious becomes aware before your acetylcholine receptors "wake up" and start transmitting motor signals. I've never seen the "Old Hag" but I'm guessing it has something to do with a common way in which our brains are wired, with sleep paralysis causing a certain specific visual trigger.


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yovargas
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Sat 14 May , 2011 12:37 pm
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I used to have a friend who experienced this same thing regularly but she was terrified of them. We were roommates for a while and on several occasions she woke me up sobbing because she was afraid to go back to her room or be alone. It was really, really awful. :neutral:


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laureanna
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Sun 15 May , 2011 2:37 am
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I've had the sleep paralysis but it seemed to be due to heavy blankets in my case. I guess my brain is not as creative when half awake.:D I used to "wake up" and find I couldn't move, so I'd close my eyes and try really hard to get up, and after a great deal of struggle I'd feel like I was upright, then open my eyes and find myself still in bed. This would go on for what seemed like quite a while, then I'd really wake up, and find I could get out of bed easily. I notice that when I did finally wake up for real, the light and shadows in the room were at a different angle, so I supposed that it must have all been a dream, albeit a very realistic one.

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Alatar
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Sun 15 May , 2011 9:45 am
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Looking at that photo, I find it a bit worrisome that your mind chooses to put Ghan-buri-ghan on your chest.... ;)

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Mon 16 May , 2011 1:45 pm
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Sometimes when I wake up, I'm tingling all over in the same way that happens when I'm moving chi energy around when conscious. I usually lie still until it fades, because I'm pretty sure that when I sleep, my mind/body lets down barriers and "recharges" itself with fresh energy. If it's still doing that as I wake up, the process isn't complete yet- so I try to stay quiet and let it continue as long as it will. It usually winds down within about 20 seconds or so, so I surmise that energy recharging is much easier when unconscious.

Ever since the first time I caught my body doing that on automatic, so to speak, I haven't bothered much with conscious level chi energy manipulation. Since my unconscious mind seems to handle the daily recharge just fine by itself there's really no reason for me to meddle.

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Dave_LF
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Tue 17 May , 2011 1:17 pm
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The "dude on my chest" aspect may be because you are having trouble breathing at the time (I think that's what Carl Sagan argued; he talked about this phenomenon in The Demon Haunted World).


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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Mon 27 Jun , 2011 9:03 pm
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Here's an article about a drug that the author warns can cause sleep paralysis as a side effect: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1ljsfP/dr ... ming-pill/
It uses the same painting you did earlier to illustrate "the stranger".


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Jonny
Post subject: Re: Old Hag Syndrome / Sleep Paralysis
Posted: Tue 28 Jun , 2011 4:04 am
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Quote:
Fear makes the sensations worse, and can spin into intensely real waking-dreams that may involve the presence of “the Stranger” which is pretty much the scariest thing you can personally imagine.
:LMAO: Thanks, Maria! I like how they put that. I'll look forward to reading the rest of that article in the morning. I find lucid dreaming fascinating.

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“And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”


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