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Sleep paralysis can lead to ghost sightings


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The terrifying phenomenon may account for numerous sightings of ghosts, monsters, demons and more.

Most people will have experienced sleep paralysis at least once at some point in their lives - that disconcerting sensation of waking up in bed yet being unable to move or call for help.

Read More: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/277101/sleep-paralysis-can-lead-to-ghost-sightings

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Or maybe being in an altered state allows us a glimpse into a world that we normally don't have access to.

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ive usually seen figures in black robes w/ hoods. no faces.

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Or perhaps apparitions, dark figures, demons or other entities account for incidents of sleep paralysis. They can't prove their hypothesis anymore than I can prove mine.

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While I don't think I've ever experienced sleep paralysis, I'm sure some grant will be made to look into it. It's not like money couldn't be better spent on curing cancer and other diseases.

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I can say that as someone who has had a fair amount of shadow being experiences, they don't always occur in and around sleep, and they can be verified by other people in the same household who are not asleep. People who have seen shadow beings also tend to have other paranormal experiences, and those are often verified by other people living in the same household.

Edited by ChaosRose
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While I don't think I've ever experienced sleep paralysis, I'm sure some grant will be made to look into it. It's not like money couldn't be better spent on curing cancer and other diseases.

There are people who have chronic conditions that actually do have a huge impact on their lives. There are also people with night terrors who can literally be a danger to themselves and others. Just because it isn't cancer doesn't mean it doesn't warrant study.

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Or perhaps apparitions, dark figures, demons or other entities account for incidents of sleep paralysis. They can't prove their hypothesis anymore than I can prove mine.

They can prove that there are mechanisms that can glitch and cause us to be awake, yet unable to move. They can try to explain away the encounters with entities as hypnagogic hallucination. The only problem is that it falls short if people see the things while they are awake, or if more than one person experiences the same entity (sometimes the very same night). I believe that there are people who are just experiencing something that isn't paranormal, but I don't think that is always the case.

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David J. Hufford is a Professor at Penn State who is an expert on sleep paralysis. He has sort of made it his life's work to study it, and he believes that there's something more to the claims of supernatural entities.

There are a couple of really great documentaries on the subject.

http://youtu.be/81FB00rQITo

If the subject interests you, I recommend them.

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And also comparing demon abduction with alien abduction.

Except that alien abductions do not only occur at night in a bed. It can happen in your car, somewhere alongside the road ect. This has been underlined by the research of John E. Mack. Let alone, far from every abductees actually feel paralyzed when their experiences occur!

I do think that many experiences of being pinned down in a bed at night, followed by strange apparitions can be explained by the medical condition of sleep paralysis. However, I am not convinced that it can explain everything. This condition obviously involves a paralysis or near paralysis of the limbs, yet many claims of such apparitions at night are experienced by individuals perfectly able to move.

Edited by sam_comm
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This used to happen to me as a kid. I don't think I've experienced it in 40 years or so but back then it was terrifying.

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When it happened to me as a child, I saw the black hooded figures of what I took to be ghosts, but they all had the snout sticking out like Anubis, a figure that, at that time, I'd never seen before.

My first glimpse of Anubis was in the movie "The Ten Commandments," which I saw in the theater a couple of years after the incident.

Harte

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Hypnopompic visions/developments can of course be utterly lucid but you eventually nod out of them and can usually discern between the states, this can certainly be listed for many many paranormal occurrences, though not every single experience is caused by it, the same as not every sleep encounter is down to the between states of consciousness. In some cases one might 'access' something via this blurry route, who knows. Then the aside, encounters that occur outside of the vague sleep descent/ascent can not be ascribed to mere hallucinations although in some instances, daydreams/loose thoughts coalescing could certainly be the origin of supposed sightings. Welcome to the wonderful realm of case by case basis where nobody can ever truly hold the keys to the riddle, this is the heart of the paranormal conundrum.

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Like many others I've experienced this as a kid and I did see something that I chalked up to being half in and half out of a dream state... Thank you for posting the documentaries on the subject I will check those out.

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I'm 22 and I've probably experienced this around 50 times. I remember the first time like it was yesterday. A dark figure standing over my bed with my shotgun, I tried to scream, tried to move, tried to call for my mom, and could't move. It was horrifying. I have visual as well as sound effects a lot of the time. Lately, as in the last 5 or 6 months, I've been able to control it. I am aware of what is happening, while still having hallucinations. It's mind blowing to me, really. I try to move, try to roll, tell myself what is going on and eventually I will snap out of it and be able to move. Something I can't control is the time it occurs. I don;t know if I'm fighting my way out of it for 30 seconds or 30 minutes. I'm thankful I have gained the ability to control this horrifying occurrence though, it is truly something I wish wouldn't happen to anyone. I've never gone to a doctor, but I think I'd make n interesting case with being able to really control my mind in such an altered state.

What interests (or scares) me the most is even when I am consciously aware of what is happening, the hallucinations don't stop - I just fight through them.

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I'm 22 and I've probably experienced this around 50 times. I remember the first time like it was yesterday. A dark figure standing over my bed with my shotgun, I tried to scream, tried to move, tried to call for my mom, and could't move. It was horrifying. I have visual as well as sound effects a lot of the time. Lately, as in the last 5 or 6 months, I've been able to control it. I am aware of what is happening, while still having hallucinations. It's mind blowing to me, really. I try to move, try to roll, tell myself what is going on and eventually I will snap out of it and be able to move. Something I can't control is the time it occurs. I don;t know if I'm fighting my way out of it for 30 seconds or 30 minutes. I'm thankful I have gained the ability to control this horrifying occurrence though, it is truly something I wish wouldn't happen to anyone. I've never gone to a doctor, but I think I'd make n interesting case with being able to really control my mind in such an altered state.

What interests (or scares) me the most is even when I am consciously aware of what is happening, the hallucinations don't stop - I just fight through them.

Have you told your parents what is happening ? .. have you mentioned it to a doctor , because there might be another reason for the hallucinations . There might be no other reason , other then sleep paralysis , but it is something I would mention to a doctor .
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The painting above the story is a Henry Fuseli painting . One of his most famous paintings , The Nightmare .

It is a classic interpretation of the subject matter, Sleep Paralysis .

When I first saw this painting , it reminded me of the time in the late 80s I woke up but could not move and something was sitting on my chest suffocating me .

The painting is beautiful and makes interesting reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare

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This is old old news. I first heard about it some 15 years ago and I always wanted to experience it to see what it was like. Like some of you are saying, one cannot blame all ghost sightings on sleep paralysis as most sightings don't even occur when people are sleeping/trying to sleep, whatever. Sleep paralysis may account for those sightings that do, but what about the fully awake people who are watching TV, cooking in the kitchen, reading a book, etc, who experience something?

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This is old old news. I first heard about it some 15 years ago and I always wanted to experience it to see what it was like. Like some of you are saying, one cannot blame all ghost sightings on sleep paralysis as most sightings don't even occur when people are sleeping/trying to sleep, whatever. Sleep paralysis may account for those sightings that do, but what about the fully awake people who are watching TV, cooking in the kitchen, reading a book, etc, who experience something?

It was a real ghost or their just nutts! hahaha :w00t:

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There are people who have chronic conditions that actually do have a huge impact on their lives. There are also people with night terrors who can literally be a danger to themselves and others. Just because it isn't cancer doesn't mean it doesn't warrant study.

I wasn't being callous to the people with the condition. I was referring to studying the ghost aspect of the condition. I've had a couple of shadow being incidents, but these were at night, outside when I was letting my dog out. She knew something was there and I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye. After shining my flashlight down that way a few times, something zoomed past me. Then the dog was fine. What it was, who knows. My imagination? I would have thought so except for the way my dog was acting.
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a experienced sleep paralysis age 21 , didnt see any figures or ghosts but the first thing i thought was it was something holding is down and a couldnt breathe.. as soon as could move which seemed like ages but was probably seconds a legged it as fast a could downstairs trying not to freak-out to tell me dad something had just been holding is down to which he replied .. its probably just sleep paralysis hahaha..

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i have had this lots and its controversial ... but in my opinion there's some connection in the altered state !!

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Or perhaps apparitions, dark figures, demons or other entities account for incidents of sleep paralysis. They can't prove their hypothesis anymore than I can prove mine.

I think that if I can manipulate my sleep paralysis episodes, it's more a byproduct of the mind. Not a supernatural being. And I've actually done this once. So while I can't prove it, I know from experience that they are just hallucinations. No ghosts and demons involved.

Edited by UFO_Monster
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