Welcome to an intriguing exploration of sleep paralysis, a complex and fascinating phenomenon viewed through the lenses of science, culture and anthropology. This in-depth review will unravel the rich pattern of subjective experiences associated with sleep paralysis, characterized by its profound impact on the individuals affected.
Many perceive sleep paralysis as a form of spiritual encounter, often due to the commonly experienced sense of an intangible ‘threatening presence’. In fact, this perception transcends cultural boundaries, featuring in societies from around the world, even those like contemporary mainstream America which lacks a widely known tradition about sleep paralysis. This contradicts the conventional ‘Cultural Source Hypothesis’, challenging traditional interpretations of such ‘direct’ spiritual experiences.
During the 20th century, societal norms, medical views, and religious doctrines stigmatized ‘direct’ spiritual experiences, including those linked with sleep paralysis, labelling them as potential signs of mental disorders or religious heresy. This resulted in under-reporting and misinterpretation of these experiences, leading to confusion about the true nature, prevalence, and core characteristics of sleep paralysis.
So, come on! Let’s uncover some of the scientific studies on sleep paralysis to then dive deeper into a specific research paper that explores sleep paralysis as a spiritual experience.
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Hello symposiast, I’m Dr Angela Puca – Religious Studies PhD and this is your online resource for the academic study of magic, esotericism, Paganism, shamanism and all things occult.
Sleep paralysis is a condition that is fairly widespread in the population at large and tends to be more prevalent among students and individuals with psychiatric disorders.
A synthesis of various studies (comprising a total of 36,533 subjects) revealed that 7.6% of the general public, 28.3% of students, and 31.9% of individuals with psychiatric illnesses have experienced at least a single episode of sleep paralysis. Among psychiatric patients diagnosed with panic disorder, 34.6% reported experiencing sleep paralysis at some point in their lives. The data also indicate that minority groups tend to report instances of lifetime sleep paralysis at a higher rate compared to Caucasians. (Sharpless and Barber, 2011)
An article from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine by Mainieri et al aimed to determine the polysomnography characteristics during sleep paralysis, false awakenings and lucid dreaming to help us understand if these phenomena occur during a waking or a sleeping state. The study found that the predominant theta EEG rhythm during sleep paralysis and false awakenings (with rare and lower alpha rhythm) suggests that the brain during sleep paralysis is not in an awake but in a dreaming state.
Polysomnography is a diagnostic tool used to evaluate sleep disorders. (Mainieri et al., 2021)
Additionally, a clinical review article by Denis et al discusses a systematic review of the available literature regarding variables associated with both the frequency and intensity of sleep paralysis episodes. The authors found that a large number of variables were associated with sleep paralysis and several themes emerged including substance use, stress and trauma, genetic influences, physical illness, personality, intelligence, anomalous beliefs, sleep problems and disorders, symptoms of psychiatric illness in non-clinical samples (particularly anxiety symptoms), and psychiatric disorders. Sleep paralysis appears to be particularly prevalent in post-traumatic stress disorder and to a lesser degree, panic disorder. The authors also discuss the limitations of the current literature and suggest directions for future research and implications for clinical practice. (Denis et al., 2018)
Now that we know what the literature in Natural Science says on the matter, let’s dive into a super intriguing study, that aims to clarify misconceptions around sleep paralysis, placing it within the broader context of ‘direct’ spiritual experiences, and clarifying what might be some bias of the current quantitative literature that we have just presented.
The following research findings and arguments are by David J Hufford and I thank Professor Sabina Magliocco for suggesting I’d look into his work.
Sleep paralysis is a significant distressing experience for many individuals, but its prevalence was largely underestimated until recently. Those who sought help for sleep paralysis often received either no assistance or incorrect treatment due to misdiagnosis, and many still struggle to find informed medical professionals who can recognize and treat their condition effectively.
Sleep paralysis is often perceived as a spiritual experience, creating tension between modern medicine and spirituality. The secular perspective that emerged from the Enlightenment holds that spiritual belief is essentially metaphysical, lacking empirical evidence. This belief has seeped into modern theology where faith supersedes reason, marking a distinction between religion and science.
Hufford critiques the Cultural Source Hypothesis, which proposes that spiritual experiences are shaped by the cultural and social beliefs of the experiencer. He argues that experiences such as sleep paralysis are not prompted by a certain religious or cultural framework but it is rather the opposite. These experiences are universal and transcultural and each different culture will translate them into its own context, yet still conveying the core significance of an experience that is described very similarly across cultures. This is further substantiated by the author’s own surveys conducted in the mid-1980s, where he found a significant portion of respondents experiencing sleep paralysis in a community with no prior cultural knowledge of the phenomenon.
For instance, we find the belief in “the Old Hag” in Newfoundland, which is an old English word for witch. In Newfoundland, they claim that bad people with the right skills can harm others. When a person is paralysed, they are ‘hag rid,’ which is where the term “haggard” comes from. When this happens repeatedly, the person will eventually start to look haggard! The hag on you is what is putting pressure on your chest, which can occasionally feel like crushing. In older English, they called it the mare, from the Anglo-Saxon root merran, ‘to crush.’ And eventually became nightmare, the crusher who comes in the night.
In the modern era, we refer to it as sleep paralysis.
We find different names of spirits from different cultures associated with what we call sleep paralysis.
From the sitting ghost or bei Guai chaak (being pressed by a ghost), da chor, poj ntxoog, or dab tsog in Southeast Asia, kana-shibari in Japan, the Mara in Sweden, and many others from across the globe and throughout history refer to the same event characterised by paralysis and the conviction of wakefulness before or emerging from sleep. These terms and their accompanying cultural frames include a variety of other details such as the ‘awful presence,’ soft shuffling footsteps, the ‘dark man’ or misty presence, as well as ways of preventing these attacks with prayers and sacred substances. But the cultural frame constructed in the world of modern sleep research has been different, at least until the recent development of culturally aware studies.
Hufford focuses on the possibility that psychologically typical individuals may rely on dramatic spiritual experiences to form reasoned spiritual beliefs, challenging the existing theories on spiritual and religious beliefs. Hence, the study of sleep paralysis may provide vital insights into spiritual experiences in general. Sleep paralysis offers an excellent case study due to its universality, cultural variation, and relatively well-understood neurophysiology.
But how does sleep paralysis manifest?
In an interview, a woman named Jane recounts her experience with sleep paralysis. She describes waking up around 3:30 a.m. to the sound of her apartment door slamming, even though it was locked. She could hear her friend Steve sleeping on the floor nearby but was unable to move to confirm his presence. Jane mentions an intense feeling of an otherworldly presence moving around the room, which felt far more powerful than simply knowing Steve was there. She describes the entity as a four-foot-tall sepia-coloured blob that appeared to be near Steve’s feet at one point.
Jane experienced intense fear and attempted to appear asleep as the entity moved toward her. She felt a pressure on her shoulder and back, which moved down to her feet in a slow, heavy caress as if the entity was examining her. This happened twice, and she emphasizes there was nothing sexual or comforting about the experience. After examining her, the entity moved back towards Steve, remaining there for about 15 minutes before disappearing.
Jane’s experience, particularly the powerful sense of an unseen presence, is typical of sleep paralysis episodes. These experiences, despite sounding like pre-modern tales of evil spirits, are common across cultures and throughout history, from 19th-century Boston to 21st-century Rome.
The relationship between sleep paralysis and out-of-body experiences is another crucial aspect of sleep paralysis as a spiritual experience. According to our source, sleep paralysis longer than a few seconds can develop into out-of-body experiences.
Indeed, Hufford discovered that out-of-body experiences are comparatively common in prolonged aware sleep paralysis experiences and that many people have offered strategies for using the aware sleep paralysis experience as a “gate” for those who can endure the terror. The similarity between the sleep paralysis experienced by modern Americans and those reported from other cultures becomes now even more pronounced.
The experience we’re describing here is reminiscent of some shamanic techniques noted in the anthropological record and other spirit-related ideas associated with sleep paralysis in other cultures. The subject may or may not see a spirit while in the out-of-body experience state, but they definitely appear to have the experience of being a spirit.
Out-of-body experience perceptions, however, are scarcely discussed in sleep paralysis literature. They are usually researched and understood as a different experiential phenomenon but it would be interesting to see more studies conducted on the relationship between sleep paralysis and out-of-body experience.
Sleep Paralysis has often been associated with ‘alien abduction,’ especially after the idea of alien abduction was popularized. This is partly because sleep paralysis sometimes transitions into an out-of-body experience, as we explained earlier, a phenomenon widely understudied and hence not fully understood yet.
At an MIT conference reported by our source, many investigators studying alien abduction objected to the linking of sleep paralysis with abduction experiences because they saw that as an attempt to debunk those experiences. This sparked controversy, with some, like Carl Sagan, using research findings on sleep paralysis to do exactly that and debunk alien abduction theories. However, neither the investigators nor the debunkers fully understood the issue, according to Hufford.
The oversimplified theory suggesting that sleep paralysis arises due to cultural expectations isn’t plausible, especially considering individuals who’ve experienced sleep paralysis without having any prior awareness of it, which essentially negates the possibility of expectation being a contributing factor.
Moreover, there are individuals who, based solely on their encounters with sleep paralysis, have independently concluded they’ve undergone experiences as drastic as alien abduction or sexual abuse.
This is because they believe the simple explanations just don’t explain what they’ve experienced. This situation shows that investigators and people trying to debunk these claims have created a false choice or an either/or dichotomy, which could be harmful to those struggling with these upsetting experiences. By understanding that sleep paralysis is a complex and mysterious event, we can avoid making these misleading choices.
Still, in the discussion surrounding alien abduction, sleep paralysis plays a significant role. It serves both as a key piece of evidence and a point of contention, with many elements of reported abduction experiences resembling sleep paralysis episodes. The intricacy of distinguishing these experiences, however, has often been overlooked and needs more research.
Speaking of research on the topic, the stigma and pathologizing of sleep paralysis experiences – which is not present in certain cultures – has led to reluctance among individuals to share their experiences due to fear of being labelled as mentally ill. This can hinder or skew scientific investigation as people might be reluctant to participate in a study that implies that they experience such a phenomenon.
Overall, Hufford argues that sleep paralysis is a significant experience and can be a useful research area for understanding the complexity of these experiences and how the latter give rise to spirit beliefs.
In conclusion, the author argues that scientific knowledge of sleep paralysis doesn’t necessarily undermine belief in its spiritual significance. He stresses that it’s important to reconcile the neurophysiological aspects of sleep paralysis with the perception of it as a spiritual experience. He urges a re-evaluation of assumptions about the irrationality of spirit beliefs and emphasizes the need to acknowledge cultural variations of sleep paralysis experiences without dismissing them as delusions.
This is it for today’s video. If you watched up until this point leave me a sleeping emoji in the comments. Also, let me know if you have ever experienced sleep paralysis. What was your experience of it? Was it threatening? Was it a gate towards out-of-body experiences? I’m honestly and anthropologically curious about it. And if you’re more interested in the scholarly side I would also be quite interested in knowing, what do you think about the current literature on sleep analysis. I think that it’s quite interesting that, as you have seen in the first part of the video where I covered the neurophysiological research on sleep paralysis, you see that there is a trend towards what Hufford suggests in terms of the potential of that kind of research being skewed by the stigma around sleep paralysis and whether people will be willing to admit they’ve had any.
So hopefully as the stigma wanes around sleep paralysis we may find that also research in Natural Science and neurophysiology might provide data that is less biased by societal pressure.
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REFERENCES:
Denis, D., French, C. C. and Gregory, A. M. (2018) ‘A systematic review of variables associated with sleep paralysis’, Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 38, pp. 141–157 [Online]. DOI: 10.1016/j.smrv.2017.05.005.
Hufford, D. J. (2005) ‘Sleep Paralysis as Spiritual Experience’, Transcultural Psychiatry, SAGE Publications Ltd, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 11–45 [Online]. DOI: 10.1177/1363461505050709.
Mainieri, G., Maranci, J.-B., Champetier, P., Leu, -Semenescu Smaranda, Gales, A., Dodet, P. and Arnulf, I. (2021) ‘Are sleep paralysis and false awakenings different from REM sleep and from lucid REM sleep? A spectral EEG analysis’, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 719–727 [Online]. DOI: 10.5664/jcsm.9056.
Sharpless, B. A. and Barber, J. P. (2011) ‘Lifetime prevalence rates of sleep paralysis: A systematic review’, Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 311–315 [Online]. DOI: 10.1016/j.smrv.2011.01.007.
First uploaded 14 Jun 2023