SLEEP PARALYSIS, ALIEN ABDUCTION and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: WHAT'S the CONNECTION?

Lately, while watching several programs on television about the paranormal, including a couple on alleged ghost activity and one on possession, I was interested to hear several people describing incidences which were obviously sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis is a frightening phenomenon in which a person wakes from sleep to find that he or she is frozen; eyes open and aware of everything that is happening but unable to move a single muscle or even blink. It can last for a few minutes or several days. It is accepted as a condition having nothing to do with the paranormal by the medical community.

In an article for Associated Content written in 2007,"Paranormal Activity or Sleep Paralysis," Nannette Richford recounts a two-year period of time while living in a college dorm when she experienced sleep paralysis frequently. On one occasion, she awoke to see a very bright light in the room, for which she had no later explanation. She was frozen at that time just like in the other incidences, and the only difference was the light. She dismissed all paranormal connections at the time, but when she wrote the article in 2007, she was wondering why sleep paralysis only occurred to her in that room, at that time, and her dorm mate down the hall was experiencing very similar phenomena!

Psychologists explain that some people who believe they have been abducted by aliens actually have suffered from sleep paralysis, and when you understand the symptoms, this makes sense.

What causes sleep paralysis to occur? According to MedicineNet, it is a temporary disconnect between the brain and the body. During REM sleep, when most of our dreaming occurs, our body is usually mostly disconnected from our brain, so that we don't sleepwalk or act out our dreams. On rare occasions, when one awakens from REM sleep, that disconnect lingers for a period of time, usually short. During that time, the body is still frozen, but the mind is caught between waking and sleeping. The brain is receiving information as though the body was awake, but it is warping it the way information is warped in a dream.

"The symptoms of sleep paralysis," according to MedicineNet, "include sensations of noises, smells, levitation, paralysis, terror, and images of frightening intruders. Once considered very rare, about half of all people are now believed to experience sleep paralysis sometime during their life." It goes on to explain that while the episodes are usually very brief, the memory of the terror and the visions can linger. And, as in a dream, the sense of time is distorted.

Many psychologists and scientists believe that sleep paralysis was the basis for some of the historical claims of attacks by witches as well as more recent claims of alien abduction. And, of course, there are obvious parallels to myths and related ghost encounters.

In mythology, there are many stories in various cultures of ghosts who sit on people's chests and seem to steal their breath or press them down in the bed so hard that they can not move. Sleep Paralysis is often called "Old Hag Syndrome" because that myth appears in so many cultures. The original "Old Hag" dates all the way back to the ancient Sumerians, in fact, predating Old Testament mythology. Lilitu was a hag-demon who flew in and attacked men in their sleep at night.

But very similar myths exist all over the world, not only in Europe, but in Thailand, Japan, the Hawaiian Islands, and many other cultures. All people with an interest in ghosts have also heard people recount these experiences. We all know of people who were staying in haunted hotels or other seemingly haunted locations and woke to feel someone pressing them down in the bed, unable to move or speak. Can sleep paralysis be the answer?

The disconnect between body and brain makes sense; but could it be that being in that state might also open one up to more real paranormal experience as well?

Some evidence concerning sleep paralysis seems to support such a possibility, A fact that science cannot explain, for instance, according to Bryce Baker in "Old Hag Syndrome: A Look at Sleep Paralysis," is that there is evidence that often sleep paralysis will suddenly occur in one area like an epidemic, with many cases being reported in a short period of time when there were no cases reported in that area before. This is also reflected in Ms. Richford's report that she and her friend down the hall had episodes of sleep paralysis at the same time. What could be the reason for this? Can paranormal energies cause sleep paralysis to occur? Or could increases in geophysical or electromagnetic energy result in both?

Even more strangely, medical evidence shows, according to Baker, that often those experiencing sleep paralysis share common "hallucinations." What medical reason could there be for this?

Some recent evidence also shows that sleep paralysis is particularly common in geographical areas that have intense geophysical activity, such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and so on. Mexico and Hawaii, for instance, have volumes of folklore containing ghosts who choke or paralyze their victims. Increased paranormal activity is also often believed to be linked to increases in geophysical activity.

Could geophysical activity or electromagnetic activity be responsible for both increased instances of sleep paralysis and increased instances of paranormal activity? Imagine the impact if the two occur simultaneously!

In the case of possession, people who claim to have been possessed and observers have reported incidents of seeming "trance" or inability to move before the alleged possession takes place. In the Booth Brothers' documentary, "The Possessed," the historical case of Lurancey Vennum and Mary Roff, known as "The Watseka Wonder," is discussed. Overwhelming evidence exists that the spirit of Mary Roff did,indeed, take over Lurancey Vennum's body for a period of time. Before that happened, Lurancey had experienced protracted periods of time when she fell into what was described as a trance, in which she was seemingly awake but unable to move. One of the modern-day victims of alleged possession, a young man named Michael, also described long periods of time in which he was awake and aware but unable to move which occurred before and between incidents of apparent possession.

The very idea that during sleep our bodies separate from our minds is intriguing. If our minds and bodies operate separately during deep sleep, so that our minds experience things but our bodies don't, then why can not the same thing happen during Astral Projection, or Out of Body Experiences? Can that part of our consciousness that becomes spirit disconnect from our bodies the same way the mind does during sleep?

Certainly, Sleep Paralysis does not explain every paranormal or alien experience, many of which do not happen during sleep at all. It explains no phenomena which is captured on film or tape or by other investigative techniques. It explains only some incidences of personal experience in which there is no external physical evidence, and is another reason why these accounts should not be accepted as evidence without other evidence to back them up, no matter how real they may appear.

Nevertheless, that leaves the question of why certain locations and certain hotel rooms have these accounts reported over and over, by many people over many years. Why would a medical condition involving a disconnect between the brain and the body occur in these places multiple times? If the answer is sleep paralysis, and there is other evidence in these places that indicates probable paranormal activity, such as EVPs or figures caught on film or tape, what are the factors which cause both?

The connection between this condition and anomalous occurrences is one that is certainly deserving of much more study.