The Old Hag

[dancin'hamster]

As someone who has suffered from Sleep Paralysis, I am very interested in 'The Hag' syndrome.......

Many people the World over report similar experiences, most of it being down to a sleeping problem (the brain wking up while the body is still asleep). The experience is very very vivid and utterly terrifying. I personally could feel 'waves' of evil radiating from my 'attacker', could actually smell it!

So, anyhoo, here's a little story about Sleep Paralysis tha seems to have a supernatural angle..........enjoy

'The following story is backed up by many sources, including testimony from the victim himself. For various legal reasons, the names of many people and places in the original story have been changed. Anyway, here's the story, and it's quite eerie.

In the early 1990s in a certain area of Louisiana, a group of property developers got permission to buy a parcel of land that was mostly a desolate eyesore. One narrow crumbling house stood at the end of the strip of land, and the landlord who owned this old dwelling, which was built way back in 1870, keenly accepted an substantial, but undisclosed sum from the developers. It was what is known as a compulsory purchase deal. There were two elderly people in the house, both of them were in very bad health, but the old house was their home, and they told the landlord they didn't want to move. The landlord warned them that a surveyor had condemned the house, and when the old people said they hadn't seen any surveyor, the landlord alerted the social services. Days later, the people were taken into care by two social workers and put into sheltered accommodation. But before this took place, something seemingly amusing took place. One of the old people saw the landlord talking to the one of the property developers, who was a 42-year-old man named David. The old white haired lady shouted: "Where's Agatha going to live now?"

"She's koo-koo." the landlord whispered to the property developer.

David asked the elderly eccentric woman who Agatha was.

The old woman said, "Aggie! The very old woman who's lived with us for years. We asked her to move with us but she doesn't like the area where we're going to, because there's a church right on top of us."

David didn't want to make a scene, and felt sorry for the old and apparently confused woman. He knew there was no woman named Agatha at the condemned house, but he said: "Ah, don't you worry lady. Agatha can stay with me if she wants."

The landlord turned away and his shoulders shook as he tried to stifle a chuckle.

"Are you sure?" the old woman said, and she smiled. She turned to face the old house and said, "Aggie! This man here says you can move in with him."

Then after a long pause, the old woman said: "She accepts your invitation, as long as you don't live near a church. She's a bit eccentric about churches you see."

That really cracked the landlord up. He said: "Aggie's eccentric?" and grinned at the irony of the old woman's remark.

But then something happened which wiped the grin off the landlord's face. The three people present heard laughter from the condemned house.

The property developer looked at the landlord with a puzzled expression. He said, "Did you hear that?"

The landlord nodded, then said he had to be going. He had to pick his kids up from school.

And so the nightmare began. The old woman went off to say goodbye to her old friends who lived around the corner, and the property developer David fastened his seatbelt and drove off, feeling quite uneasy all of a sudden.

He drove to his luxurious home, and as he got out of his Mercedes in the driveway, he distinctly felt something pat his bottom. He glanced around, but there was no one about.

David told his wife Emma about the weird laughter in the condemned house, but she said he was being silly. They had dinner that evening, and Emma went to visit her friend Kayleigh, who lived miles away. Kayleigh was involved in the preparations for a relative's wedding and Emma had promised to help out.

So David was alone for three hours that evening; at least he thought he was alone. He put on a few classical CDs and opened a bottle of wine. He inhaled the aroma of the perfumed candles Emma had lit, then relaxed on his chesterfield, lost in Mozart. Half an hour later he'd fallen into a light sleep.

Something was pressing down on his chest. At first he thought that Emma hads returned and was playing about. But David opened his eyes and saw something that chilled him to the bone. A hideous old woman with a long hooked nose was pinning him down. David couldn't move. He was paralysed. He tried to speak, but could only touch the roof of his mouth with his tongue, which felt dead. He couldn't cry out. The old hag smiled and revealed three decaying yellowed teeth. Saliva dripped from both ends of the woman's sickly sagging pink lips. Her face was a mass of wrinkles and her cheeks drooped down to her flabby jowls. Her watery eyes were yellow, and a mass of red veins encircled her faded bluish-grey irises. The old woman looked as if she was centuries old. Her claw-like hands undid the bun of greasy white hair and her locks fell down past her shoulder. In a horrible raspy voice she said: "You are a fine laddy." and she cackled. David's heart felt as if it was going to explode. He kept trying to wake up from the nightmare, but he slowly realised that this was no bad dream, it was something to do with the occult. The old crone licked his lips with her pink tongue which was mottled with white warts. She said, "Ooh, I'll stay with you as your wife if you desire."

David closed his eyes firmly for a few seconds then opened them.

The old hag was still there, still trying to molest him. From somewhere deep down, David managed to summon up the strength to move. He screamed out and the old woman screamed back in protest. David managed to lift his arm and he took a swipe at the gruesome figure, but it felt as if he was hitting a sack full of bones. Suddenly she was gone.

David got up and saw to his horror that the shadowy figure of the old woman was now at the other end of the lounge. She wet her fingers and began pinching the wicks of the perfumed candles, extinguishing them, one by one.

David turned up the light dimmer and saw the weird-looking old woman in the full light. She was crooked and bent over, and she grinned at him then disappeared.

David got into his Mercedes and drove non-stop to his friend Alec, who lived three miles away. Throughout the journey, the property developer continually felt something stroking his hair.

When David told Alec about being terrorised by the old hag, his friend assumed the wine had gone to his head. But David said he was sober and deadly serious. Alec asked him why the ghost of an old woman would choose to pester him, and David remembered something. Earlier that day, one of the old people who were being forced to move from the condemned house on the purchased land had told him and the landlord about her concern for a certain "Agatha." Now it all made sense. With his tongue in his cheek, David had jokingly suggested that Agatha could move in with him.

Alec said, "I see, and you unwittingly invited the ghost into your place. It is a bit of a coincidence I suppose."

David said: "Please believe me Alec; that thing is demonic. How do I get rid of her?"

Alec said: "I don't know. Tell her to pack her bags."

"Huh? How do you mean?" David asked his friend.

"Just tell her to beat it." Alec said.

David sighed and shook his head. He said, "I don't think it will work. Hey, wait; that woman today; she said something about Aggie not liking churches."

"Are you for real? Come on level,." Alec said and laughed nervously.

But David didn't laugh. He said, "Alec, have you got a Bible?"

"Oh don't start David." Alec said. He was getting a bit spooked by his friend's behaviour.

"Please, have you got a Bible?" David said, and he looked at the large mahogany bookcase behind his friend.

"Yeah, not that I ever read it. Here." Alec pulled a large leatherbound copy of the Holy Bible from the shelf and David snatched it off him.

"I hope to God this works. I'll ring you later." David said, and left.

That night, David sat in his lounge, watching TV. Then suddenly he saw something move out the corner of his eye. He turned and saw the old hag, cowering in the corner of the room. Emma was due back any minute, so he had to act now.

"Why don't you come here?" David asked the spinechilling apparition.

"Throw that blasted book away and I will!" the old woman said.

"Are you Agatha?" David said, and he picked up the book.

"Yes. Please be rid of that book ma dear. Go on, throw it on the fire." Agatha suggested, staring at the Bible with a transfixed gaze of dread.

"You're not wanted in here any more. Get out of this house." David said, plucking up enough courage to take the book over to Agatha.

"You don't mean it! I know you enjoyed my caresses." said the withered old crone.

"In the name of God, I order you to leave my home." David said, and noticed that the apparition seemed transparent.

"I thought you loved me." Agatha said, her voice becoming fainter.

David hurled the leather-bound Bible at the grotesque vision and it vanished before the book passed through it.

David never told Emma about his supernatural ordeal, but the girl was perplexed when David came home the next day with five copies of the Bible. The property developer placed the holy books in different rooms of the house and later visited the two old people he had forced into dilapidated accommodation. He asked them who Agatha was, but the old people refused to comment. The old woman just smiled and said, "So you met her then?".

David hasn't set eyes on the old hag since, but had graphic nightmares about her for over a year.

According to psychologists and psychical researchers, David's case is by no means an isolated one. For centuries, many people (mostly males) have reported being terrorised and assaulted by sinister entities like the witch that molested David. In fact, many psychologists have named the bizarre phenomenon 'Old Hag Syndrome', and have noted that the traumatic experience of being assaulted seems quite real to the victim and usually occurs shortly before sleep or just after the sleeper has awoken in the middle of the night. Involuntary catatonia (a sudden onset of paralysis) has been blamed, but this explanation does not explain why the victim sees and feels the presence of a hideous crone during the episodes. Furthermore, the Old Hag Syndrome is apparently on the increase...sweet dreams.'

Hammy x x x

[Benjo Koolzooie]

Thanks for typing that up Hammy!

Here is a picture, well a drawing from the gallery here that relates to the "Old Hag Syndrome"

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/galle...hp?image_id=400

[dancin'hamster]

thank you Benjo ....... that's quite an image *shudder*

Hammy x x x

[Cufflink]

Morning, Hammy!

Now I'm fully in agreement with the whole sleep paralysis thing, having suffered a bizarre case of it once. And I think the Hag syndrome is probably genuine. But that story...was that a treatment for Charmed?

Actually, that bit about ghosts following people home. I remember hearing an account by ghost hunter Anthony Shaeffer, of a ghost that latched onto him, and followed him home. Never did find out whether it's still got board and lodgings at his place.

PS. You a hag? Never!

A hamster, maybe, but never a hag.

[dancin'hamster]

"You a hag? Never!"

just thank your lucky stars you can't see me right now with my hair all sticky-uppy and sitting in a bath towel.......you may eat your words!

Sorry I had to take the old link out of here - it was defunct.

Can I suggest these instead?

http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/2002/l..._11302002.shtml

http://theshadowlands.net/ghost/sleep.htm

http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm358713.html

Hammy x x x

Edited May 30, 2004 by dancin'hamster

[Cufflink]

just thank your lucky stars you can't see me right now with my hair all sticky-uppy  and sitting in a bath towel.......you may eat your words!

I should be so lucky.

Bad Cufflink. Bad, bad Cufflink.

[dancin'hamster]

*gasp*

Cheeky Cuffy

Hammy x x x

[dancin'hamster]

No Sarky .......... she molests women as well............. or sometimes we get something far nastier (as in my experience)

Hammy x x x

*throws Sarky a big 'Anti-Hag Poking Stick'*

[Engulf]

I'm safe right?

She only only molests men right?

RIGHT?!!!

wait what am i laughing at,if it's true.......i'm in trouble......

[Phantom]

I got pinned down by an old hag once...

But in my defense: I was really, really drunk and the lights were dimmed...

[colorless]

How do you sleep at night hamster?

Anyway. I was pinned down by one too but I didn't know what it was and I didn't open my eyes. I'm keeping a bible under my pillow from now on.

[Agent_21]

Strewth! What a terrifying tale.

I've had the occasional sleep paralysis experience, but nothing ever appeared, thank God.

[Agent_21]

The story of Ignatius the bell ringer has an element of the Old Hag about it with - one major difference.

Briefly a Mrs Bradshaw, wife of the vicar of Elm, Cambridgeshire, discovered an affinity with the ghost of a monk who haunted the vicarage. She found she could converse with him and learned some of his history. He was Ignatius, had been a monk 700 years previously and had neglected his duties as bell-ringer with the result that a number of his brothers had perished in a flood. It was his penance to haunt the site of the monastry.

One night Mrs Bradshaw awoke to find herself physically assaulted by an invisible foe that picked her up and threw her across the bed. A black shape loomed over her. Hands clasped her neck, she tried to scream but no sound would come. Then Ignatius materialized in the bedroom. He advanced towards the hands and pulled them from Mrs Bradshaw's throat. She dropped back exhausted but had no time to draw breath when the assailent was at her again. He had a large head and a red face. The dog jumped onto the bed snarling and snapping at the entity. Mrs Bradshaw gathered all her strength and broke free running from the room.

The marks remained on the vicar's wife's neck for days. She heard from Ignatius that a man had been murdered in that room and that the monk's action in saving her had repaid part of his penance.

[Casper]

hmmm am i only the only one here that hasnt had some sleep paralysis experience?

[colorless]

Can sleeping on your side prevent this?

[Engulf]

Can sleeping on your side prevent this? 

i think yes....not sure though.....

[dancin'hamster]

I did have a list of statistics about the numbersof people world-wide who have suffered from Hynogogic what-sits..............but I have no clue where I put it - sorry!

I don't know if sleeping on your side would help - I think if it's gonna happen - it'll happen...........!!!!!!!!

Sleep tight -

Hammy x x x

[Starlyte]

I've only had one sleep paralysis episode, and upon opening my eyes the only thing I could see were two hands reaching out and then they began to choke me. I could only see the hands up to the elbows. After a bit of a struggle of trying to move or scream and couldn't I finally managed to close my eyes. When I opened them the hands were gone. This was one experience I hope I never have again.

[Kismit]

I got pinned down by an old hag once...

But in my defense: I was really, really drunk and the lights were dimmed...

really Phantom .....? just the one ?

[DarkSoul]

hmmm this sleep paralyzies.. sounds familair...

becuase my mom told me she.. was like half asleep... and half awake...

and she would see the Grim Reaper next 2 her....

i saw her scream.. so i had to wake her up...

Also... she said he would feel as if somebody would sit next to her on tha bed....

i dont know if it somthing to dowith the dreamin of tha mind..

or if its demons.....

either way its weird.....

persoanlly i never had this happen to me...

when i sleep.. i get into a deep sleep.... lol....

there could be a war outside.. and id still be sleepin... lol..

[molo]

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