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Sleep Paralysis


Loonboy

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I just watched a programme covering the subject of entities which plague people all over the world when they are sleeping or on the cusp of sleep.

It seems a common experience is:

1. feeling someone/something is in the room

2. seeing a shadowy form/old woman

3. being physically attacked by this entitiy

One solution put forward was the idea of sleep paralysis in which the body is alseep and the mind virtually awake (to put it basically), when the mind creates its own scenario which the body in turn translates as actual bodily sensations.

However, it also seems that this explanation does not sufficiently explain the entire phenomenon, especially when the same thing is witnessed by other parties, as detailed on the programme.

I could believe that such a similar experience by so many people could be interpreted as a generic psychological quirk, but does this pull the scientific wool over our eyes when we should be paying more attention and studying this phenomenon more carefuly?

???

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Over the years both myself and my family where the subject of an entity attack. It wasn't sleep paralysis or a trick of the mind. It happend.

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Hey there  :) which programme was it that you watched Loonboy, I'd be really interested in watching it myself

take care

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Entity attack during sleep sound's pretty much like a type of spirit I have came across on a couple of occasions, but there is a difference between the two. With an entity the attack appears to be a full on physical attack, whilst the spirit is more psychological.

The spirit Im refering to feed's from the fear of the occupants of a home. It often appears as a dark unrecognisable shape, more often than enough in a  darkened room (to describe it,it is jet black against the dark). It moves like a cloud of smoke and grows in size, this has more of a impact on you because it remains shapeless. It has a tendancy of giving a feeling of dread during the daylight hours usually when at the top of a staircase (the feeling that you are about to be pushed). The spirit rarelly manifests as a human shape because it may take away some of the fear once it becomes recognisable.

THEORY - Given these spirit's gather energy from fear, could the physical attack's described during sleep paralasis be the next stage for these spirit's?  ::)

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Sleep paralysis definately exists, but i agree i doesn't explain all reported phenomena of that kind.

The symptoms of sleep paralysis only cover the awake but can't move sensation (often accompanied by the feeling of a weight on your chest) and your vision is impaired in such a way that a blur or a light is seen, which the brain often pattern matches to a familiar shape, be it a face or figure (In the past this was often thought to be ghosts or visions of yourself, present day occurances tend to be translated as Gray Aliens). If you don't understand what is happening the fear caused by this may cause you to believe that there is a presense in the room but anything beyond that is something else entirely...

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:)

[blue]The programme was called: The Entity and was aired on Channel 5 (UK) some time in December. I will try to find out more details.

I think the truth of this phenomenon, as with so many others, is that a number of different experiences with different causes have been lumped together under one umbrella because of their similarities. Maybe it is a psychological phenomenon for the most part. But maybe some people are ACTUALLY being harassed by spirits.

My own sister has told me that she had similar experiences a few years ago and that thankfully they stopped after a period of time. She also reported flashing of a light in the room (not at the same time) and thumping sounds from behind the walls.

I'm still no wiser.[/blue]  ???

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Well the addition of sound means that it wasn't SP.

Unless it was a combination of SP and noisey neighbours  ;D

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[blue]The accompaniment of sound in that particular instance does not preclude the idea that it may have been sleep paralysis. In fact, we know so little about this phenomenon, its causes, its capabilities and parameters that to begin to select and reject reports based upon what we know already seems like trying to fit the facts to the theory rather than the theory to the facts.[/blue] ;D

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  • 2 weeks later...

[blue]

Actually it was Channel 4 that the programme was aired on (my mistake).

One guy claimed that he had been attacked during the night by an unseen but definitely male entity which raped him on a number of occasions. He checked with his brother, who used to sleep in that room, and he also had experiences in there.

He also said that the entity withdrew to the corner of the room and although he could not see anything, he knew it was there because of creaking and noises emanating from that area.

I have heard from a few people that their homes and buildings have been infested by spirits that can not be seen nor heard nor interact with them, but they know that they are present by the creakings and noises from certain areas. As if the temperature is changing quickly in that area.

Another guy was advised to turn to the Catholic faith and re-establish his faith, and by not doing so he risked the explosion of violence from this spirit which was repeatedly attacking him. (Sounds like the old medieval interpretations and solutions)

:-/

[/blue]

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Sorry, i wasn't making sense - i mean't to say that the thumping on the wall wasn't caused by SP. We can be pretty much positive about this as SP is pretty much understood, as to causes and symptoms, which are those i posted above.

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:)

[blue]I am no expert in this subject but from the documentary and from various other sources the general consensus is that sleep paralysis seems to be recorded and various cases documented and although a number of theories abound, nobody has claimed to understand it.

If sleep paralysis causes the body to remain inactive while the mind plays out a delusional scenario which is interpreted as a real event, then it is possible that the thumping on the wall experienced by my sister was a part of the illusion.

However if sleep paralysis is caused by the domination of the body by an external entity, then the thumping on the wall can be attributed to another cause (more than likely the entity itself).

But, as far as I can find out, the actual phenomenon of sleep paralysis has not been adequately explained by science yet.

???[/blue]

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I thought it was quite well understood - Sleep Paralysis is caused (goes a bit vague here) i think by a chemical that the body produces when you sleep, to stop you moving and acting out what you dream. When not enough of this is produced you get the opposite effect of sleepwalking etc. There was one study i remember seeing a film on were they had removed the gland that produced it from a cat and while it slept it would 'Sleep-pounce' on imaginary(dreamt) prey. What we are calling Sleep paralysis is caused by a person waking up whilst still under the influence of this and therefore he/she cannot move, experiences blurred vision (often pattern matched by a tired witness as a white or grey figure) - the paralysis making it feel like there is a dead weight on your chest. I have never heard of accompanying sounds with this sort of experience. What isn't so well understood is what sort of percentage of Ghostly/alien accounts can be explained by this. I personally believe that at least 80% of accounts can be explained in this way - but there are many which can't and those involving physical atacks or noise count amoung those.

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u said that this spirit feeds on fear and the entity attcaks physically?what kind of physically?punch?kick?but the entity might be an "evolution" of the fear eating spirit that has enough energy from all of your fears to physically hurt you.i've seen wierd stuff,but this sounds really wierd.sounds like you guys are big time ghost hunters.

         -ghostboo

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i'm not sure if this is on subject,but i think i was attacked by a ghost.i was in the shower one day and i heard a sound.something like a quick wind blowing sound.just then i felt heat coming up my body.then i felt my face.blood!a freash wound on my face!but from what?

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[blue] :sg

Does anyone else think that 'Ghostboo' is the paranormal equivalent of a hypochondriac?

(I mean that in a 'caring' way)

[/blue]

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  • 3 years later...

this is a good one. Anyone have new stories on Incubus/ Sucubus subject?

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I think I used to get very mild forms of SP when I was small. I would wake up but not be able to move. I would be frightened even though I couldnt really tell why. After a few minutes I would return to normal. It wasnt as severe as some other cases with visions of people in the room etc but it was still pretty scary.

My uncle claims a ghost tried to strangle him when he was living in England. It sounded like a typical SP case. He woke up not being able to move, then he felt as if someone was in the room. Then he said a ghost jumped on his chest and tried to strangle him.

Normal sleep paralysis is thought to be due to mechanisms in the brain stem, particularly the reticular, vestibular, and oculomotor neurons, which prevent bodily movements, block sensory input and provide the forebrain with the internally generated activity that characterises brain activity during REM sleep. This is thought to be necessary to prevent the body from moving in response to dream stimuli. Eyes however are not paralyzed by this system, and this exception was used to prove that lucid dreaming was an objectively verifiable phenomenon

[edit]

Awareness during sleep paralysis

The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be one of the classic depictions of awareness during sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.The disorder known as "sleep paralysis" occurs when the brain is awakened from a REM state into essentially a normal fully awake state, but with the bodily paralysis still occurring. This causes the person to be fully aware, but unable to move. In addition, this state is usually accompanied by certain specific kinds of hallucinations. This state usually lasts no more than two minutes before a person is able to either return to full REM sleep or to become fully awake, though the sense of how much time has gone by is often distorted during sleep paralysis.

[edit]

Accompanying hallucinations

Many report hallucinations during these episodes. The features of these hallucinations generally vary by individual, but some are more common to the experience than others:

Most common

Vividness

Fear

Common

Sensing a "presence" (often malevolent)

Pressure/weight on body (especially the chest)

Impending sense of doom/death

Fairly common

Auditory hallucinations (often footsteps or indistinct voices, or pulsing noises)

Visual hallucinations such as people or shadows walking around the room

Less common

Floating sensation (sometimes associated with out-of-body experiences)

Tactile hallucinations (such as a hand touching or grabbing)

Rare

Falling sensation

Vibration

[edit]

Possible causes

Little is known about the physiology of awareness during sleep paralysis. However, some have suggested that it may be linked to post synaptic inhibition of motor neurons in the pons region of the brain. In particular, low levels of melatonin may stop the depolarisation current in the nerves, which prevents the stimulation of the muscles.

Im of the opinion that it is chemical imbalances occuring during sleep. I havent heard anything to be honest which would make me think spirits were involved altho it was pretty frightening when it happens.

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Holy crap this happened to me! I was laying in the bed, and was not aware of having fallen asleep, maybe I did? Any way sudenly I felt very cold, and I could no longer move or breath. There wasn't a weight on my chest, I simply couldn't take a breath. I sensed a female presense that reached out and touched me. She didn't mean any harm, as soon as she touched me I could move and breath again. I quickly jumped into the offensive, always having wanted an encounter such as this, and chased it. She retreated to the back of the closet where it disapeared. I turned on the lights and found nothing. She had no physical form other than a white hazy light not even a mist really, but was definately female. I had no idea that sleep paralysis existed until now. Maybe thats the reason, however, why was she still visable after I had regained my mobility?

The next morning I walked the entire perimiter of the apartment with some burning sage and reasured her that everything was alright, and urged her to be at ease. I never had another occurace again. I must admit that the whole burning sage thing was my wifes idea..but it seemed to work. thumbsup.gif

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hey loonboy,

FEAR plays am important role in sleep paralysis,

S.P a stituation where our body gets locked ,

we try to speak out loud ..but no body hears ..except me (or us)

my question , who is it that screams inside our body , and why he screams,

have u ever had an experience of S.P?

I frequently experience sleep paralysis (as sicence say)

and haunting (as religion says)

mystery_haunted

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When it happened to me people tried to tell me how pyschological is was, but to this day I am not convinced it was all "in my head".

I attended a private christian college and lived in an all girls dorm. It was Christmas break and I had to work at the college. Most of the people went home for vacation including my roommate. That left a handful of people staying on campus.

One night I went to sleep on the top bunk like usual and I heard some russeling near my door. Naturally I thought it was my roommate coming back because sometimes her family drives her crazy. So she'd usually cut her vacation short and come back to stay with me at the dorm. Something didn't feel right though. I looked at my alarm clock and it was 3 something am. She never comes back that late/early, however you want to look at it. Then for some reason I couldn't breath and my heart was beating the fastest it's ever beaten. It was like I had just finished running a race. I can't move and off to my right there is a dark shadow looking at me. I'm guessing it was male and it wasn't giving off friendly vibes. I don't know why, but I asked it what it wanted and told it to go away. I couldn't stop myself and kept saying, "go away". I could barely gasp out the words. What I should have been saying was the Lord's prayer and casting it out in Jesus name. I eventually fell asleep.

The next morning I thought it was all a dream and couldn't wait to tell my roommate about it. I leaned down to look at her in the bottom of the bunk and her bed hadn't been slept in.

People can tell me how my mind tricked me, it was all mental, and no body believes it was more. Considering how everything happened, I know there was more to it than that. Not to mention there had been some strange stuff happening in that dorm.

Blessings to all.

Edited by Cendari
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I want to warn you about what can happen. I was told by a Doctor who helps in these cases: A person thinks "this is great" at first but soon finds that other entitys came along for the fun. Once the door to the living is open with real sensations happening the attraction is so great for spirits who just want to feel that again. There has been many cases of a man sleeping and this female is there giving great sensations, then brutal men entitys take over the situation resulting in a person not able to "wake up"! This has been documented. Many men who this happened to never come forward but some have. One case was a poor Man repeadedly raped every night by these brutal entitys. He must have been very embarased to talk about it but he needed help!!!! NiteNite, Pleasent dreams. Crotchity Ol Debunker

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Hi Loon

I posted this a while ago ~

'For anyone who has ever suffered from Sleep Paralysis ~

‘The lilting tones of the Scottish narrator informs us that “there is a nightmare more terrifying than any other….a nightmare that has haunted people all over the world. A presence comes into the room, paralyses it’s victim, then it leaps onto their body and assaults them.

“Sometimes it’s a shadowy figure. Sometimes an old hag. Sometimes a Demon. But whatever shape it takes, the Entity as it is often called, has concrete effects, leaving its victim battered and exhausted, their life in ruins. Sufferers are sure that when they see it they are awake and it is real. Science, psychology and religion have all grappled with this phenomena.

“Can anyone explain The Entity?”

The first eye-witness account comes form a suburb of Houston, Texas, where one woman has been suffering from Entity attacks for most of her life. They began when she was just 5 years old.

During an interview, Jamie Jackson, 32, relates her personal history of the attacks.

“The first thing I remember as a child was one night, when my mother had just put me to bed, and I could see the lights on in the living room. I just lay down and could hear my parents and I could hear the TV….and I looked up, and to my right I saw a couple, very shadowy, very dark in my bedroom.

It was a man and a woman and they started to walk towards me. It was very frightening. I couldn’t speak. I wanted to call out to my mother but I couldn’t call out to her – I was just terrified. And around that time my mother walked into the room and it appeared that she walked right through the two people who were standing in my room, and I began asking “Who are the people? What’s happening?”. She kept saying it was just a dream and to go back to sleep. I told her it wasn’t a dream and that I hadn’t been asleep and could hear to TV in the other room”

As Jamie grew older, the Entities that stalked her grew more vivid and more violent. In a chilling reconstruction that begins with a woman alone in her bed in the middle of the night we hear Jamie tell us: “As soon as I become aware that there’s someone in the room I’ll go into a paralysis. I can’t move and I can’t shout out. I’m unable to call for help and I’m unable to ward off any attack. It feels like you’ve been drugged somehow.

We then glimpse a slightly out of focus, stick-man like figure slowly unwinding itself in the far corner of the room. Jamie calls him The Shadowman for obvious reasons. In a sudden blur of movement, this sinister figure races over to the side of the bed and begins throttling the woman as she lies helpless on the bed. “He’s very violent. He doesn’t use any caution whatsoever. He couldn’t care less if my neck was broken”.

The Shadowman is then joined by an even more frightening entity: The Old Hag, standing at the edge of the bed draped in many layers of clothing, with dirty white hair poking out from beneath an ill-fitting white bonnet, she crawls onto the bed and sits astride her victim’s chest.

“She’s not extremely heavy bit she’s heavy enough to make it hard to breathe. I can’t get my lungs to expand. And the attack becomes two-fold. The Shadowman will have hold of the base of my neck and the old woman will be choking me near the top part so violently that I think my voice-box is going to collapse. I can’t move. He’s got my arms down usually, or the old lady’s sitting on my chest and there’s nothing I can do”.

As stated earlier, Jamie is convinced that she is awake during these attacks: ”The fear is extremely real. You’re looking around the room. I can see my clock, I can see my curtains. I can see everything in the room, and that tells me that this is real. That this is happening to me. And I’m wondering why my husband cant hear them. Why he cant hear the struggle, the fight. And beyond that, I’m wondering what’s gonna happen after they kill me? Who’s next?

“Your mind and your body thinks you’ve been through it. But to everyone you associate with, your workmates, your friends, your family, your doctor…………….they say it’s just a dream, get over it”

The narrator then tells us that during research for the programme, there were literally hundreds of calls from people who claimed to have encountered similar Entities and undergone remarkably similar experiences.

We hear a series of tape-recorded commentaries of Night Hag experiences courtesy of Matt Watkins, 25, from Wiltshire.

In the recordings, Matt, who is a psychology student at the University of The West of England, describes in suitably terrified tones how the Hag appeared in his room. “I just remember she was old. She looked me in the eyes. And then she ran right up to my face. She stopped literally two inches away from my nose, looked me right in the eyes, and she had what I would describe as black eye-liner running down her face.”

Not surprisingly, these visitations have had a profound effect on Matt. “It’s made me question the nature of reality. It’s made me look into many different areas: psychiatry, parapsychology, all these different areas. I realise that there could be other explanations for this and started looking into it a bit more. I’ve decided to make The Entity the focus of my degree. Searching through old records I found evidence of these attacks dating back over 2,000 years.”

“When doomed to death I will attend you as a Nocturnal Fury: I will attack your faces and brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose by terror”

Horace – 1st century BC

During the Middle Ages, the Entity was often represented as a horned beast that preyed on sleeping women and was sometimes thought to rape them (Incubi and Succubi). Why are so many accounts of The Entity and why are they so similar? We return to Jamie Jackson.

“Every time I’m attacked like this, I don’t really repeat a lot of it, I try to forget it, and I’m having a very hard time describing how intense it is. I’ve woken up with cuts on my hands from my fingernails clenching my fists. I’ve cracked teeth in my sleep just from the intensity of everything. Clenching my jaws. “

“I did think a few times about taking my own life…..you just don’t see any way out of it. You get to the point where you’re so tired……… and so tired of fighting, and every night when you go to bed you know it’s gonna be another fight, another struggle, and you’re scared to go to sleep”.

In the search for a logical, scientific explanation, we are introduced to Dr J Allen Cheyne, a bearded professor of psychology from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

“When we are dreaming, a mechanism in the brain paralyses us to prevent us acting out our dreams. Some people get trapped in the state between wakefulness and dreaming called ‘Sleep Paralysis’. I have studied over 9,000 cases, and I believe it may have been experienced in mild form by up to 30% of the population”.

“Sleep Paralysis, as I view it, is a type of dream, a waking dream. Or perhaps more accurately, a waking nightmare. Imagine, if you will, there are two mechanisms deep in the brain stem. One if these mechanisms we’ll call The Wake-Up mechanism and the other we’ll call The Dream On mechanism. They are linked to one another. The Wake-Up mechanism inhibits the Dream On mechanism. So when this one is turned on you’re awake, alert, conscious of your surroundings, able to respond to your surroundings. Imagine that as your Wake-Up system turns down, if there’s a problem, particularly with neuro-transmitters, it may not be inhibiting the other system so this one may turn on before the other turns off. So, you have two systems on now – you’re awake and you’re dreaming”.

But sometimes we have look for an explanation as to why, sometimes, there is a shared scenario.

We travel next to Glasgow and the horrifying story related by Mark Dillon, 33.

Despite a normal childhood, Mark has been the alleged victim of a particularly vicious series of nocturnal attacks since entering his teenage years.

“I was only about 17 when this first happened to me. I went to bed as normal. Fell asleep, enjoying a good sleep when during the middle of the night I was awaken by the feeling that someone was in the room. I didn’t know who it was. I then felt totally paralysed. I could not move. It was as if the power that was there, the energy, was able to control my body. I was being held face down on my front. I could feel his hands on me. I could feel that it was a man. I could feel the size of him – it was a fully grown man. What happened next was a sexual act (we see disturbing images of him being pushed up & down as if violent anal intercourse were taking place) it was as if I could feel him pushing on top of me. I thought I was going to die. I thought the demon was gonna kill me.

“When the paralysis eventually went away I felt as if the presence had withdrawn to a corner of the room. There was a creaking sound as if someone was there”.

Marks’ attacks have been so horrifyingly real to him that his relationship with is fiancé has suffered as a result. But don’t worry ‘cos here’s Dr Cheyne to drum up another explanation.

“Sexual assaults are not common but they certainly do occur. Our dreams have a sexual content because our sexual organs and sexual areas of the brain are still being activated. So it’s not surprising that the combination of sex and fear leads to the sexual assault scenario”.

BUT how does this account for the fact that Marks’ bedroom, where the assaults allegedly took place, once belonged to his elder brother, and he underwent similar experiences, unbeknownst to Mark?

“A couple of years before this happened my brother was staying in that bedroom. I started to tell him what had happened to me in that room and he said that he had very similar experiences, such as being strangled and feeling a presence in there”

“Is it just a coincidence that these attacks took place in the same bedroom?”

Next up for interview is David Hufford. He has made it his life’s work to study and evaluate Night Terrors. He begins telling us of his own encounter, years before he became interested in studying the subject.

"I once had a Sleep Paralysis attack of my own. I’d never heard of anything like it. It had all the details that I later found in traditions all over the world. I heard footsteps, I sensed a terrifying presence. I saw it climb up on the bed. I couldn’t move – I thought I was being killed. It was terrifying. I never told anyone about it ‘cos I didn’t want anyone to think I was crazy”.

“And then, years later, when I got to Newfoundland and I came across The Old Hag experience I thought “What’s going on here? How can these people have a tradition about what happened to me in a completely different country?”. I just had to follow it”

Hufford discovered that whilst Sleep Paralysis (SP) could account for people who felt pressure on their chest, it could not account for those who felt it on other parts of their body.

“It’s common during SP for people to report pressure on the chest. This could be caused by the paralysis of the volunry muscles involved in breathing. But sometimes this pressure is felt another places. I’ve heard people say they ‘ve felt their head being pushed into the bed. Others say that pressure on their feet has caused them to believe that their legs would break. I would like these explanations, if we’re going to buy them, to really line up with the data. So far, these don’t”

To deal with these attacks, not just on individuals but on whole communities, we travel to the exotic climes of Pemba Island, off the east coast of Africa. Residents here claim they have been plagued by a mysterious Entity they call Popabowa for more than a decade. They look to pages from the Koran for protection.

One witness, an elderly man in his 70’s recollects: ” I was asleep but I felt something in the room with me. All the doors in my house were locked. I don’t know how it got into my house. It wanted to rape me. When I awoke, I found semen on my back. I think it was Shaatan. A bad spirit – a devil.”

Another much younger man relates: “The shadow came through the wall. It was walking towards me. It was threatening.”

A third witness, a nearly toothless individual in his mid- 50’s: “The Entity came into my house. It came to me…….I was paralysed. It tried to squeeze my throat, I couldn’t breathe. The villagers began to complain. We went to catch the Popabowa, we could not find it anywhere”.

Perhaps it has taken refuge in the East Village area of New York City…..

Ted Fillpone, 25, has been attacked by a viscous Entity and witnessed by independent observers. Ted has been so affected by these attacks that he is unable to hold down a regular job, and as the visitations occur on an almost nightly basis he’s unable to sleep most of the time, terrified of what he might see emerging from the darkness at the side of his bed. With no one else to turn to, Ted decided to go to the Catholic Church and seek refuge in the hostel run by Father Pat Maloney, who claims to have witnessed the phenomena himself.

“There was one particular time Ted seemed to be very upset. Not so much agitated as fearful. He said “Look at me – it’s at me again. It’s bothering me”. I said “What’s bothering you?”. I sat in the corner of the room, about a foot away. Then I got a little closer and I felt an immediate type of vibration. A physical presence of some kind. And yet I didn’t feel that whatever was bothering Ted was malevolent. It was if he was attracting some force, something outside our dimension”

Ted’s girlfriend, Ines, relates the following:

“I was sitting on the coach watching TV, and I was facing the bathroom door, the bathroom door was open and I saw some type of greyish silhouette walking out of the bathroom. You couldn’t really define a shape, male or female. It was just a silhouette, but very tall, cloudy and greyish, and it was walking toward Ted’s’ bedroom”.

David Hufford – “ In a way, every case is short of remarkable and highly strange. The ones that really just AMAZE me are the ones where more than one person is involved. Where on person is having the SP – hearing & seeing something, and somebody else in the house sees or hears the same thing even though they do not suffer from SP. How do you account for that? I’m baffled”

Equally perplexed is Father Maloney who calls in (with the help of the programme-makers) a ‘professional Demonologist’ named Lou Gentille. A practising Catholic, Lou claims to have helped thousands of people like Ted.

“Demonology is the study of fallen angels, the study of things that are evil”, Lou informs us (yeah – that’ll help then). “I come across cases that are evil or demonic on a monthly basis. In a month I may get 5 or 6 cases that can only be described as Evil”.

Lou and his assistant meet Ted at the hostel and interview him extensively in a bid to determine whether the attacks are supernatural or psychological in origin. Lou asks if Ted has ever taken any drugs of any kind including hallucinogens, and whether he’s suffered from Tourette’s Syndrome, personality disorders, narcolepsy etc. To all of these questions Ted answers in the negative – well he’s hardly gonna admit to any illegal drug taking on telly is he?

Lou is convinced, after a gruelling two-hour interview, that Ted’s case warrants further investigation. Along with his colleague he sets up various sophisticated audio and video equipment in Ted’s room. Darkness falls. Lots of POV shots of Ted lying motionless on his bed. Nothing happens. After what seems like an eternity, Ted starts to kick out at an invisible ‘something’. He appears to be awake, raising his head from the pillow, shouting that something has hold of his leg. Lou springs into action. Lou speaks directly into the infa-red camera: “Since Ted’s claiming that something touched him, I’m going to sit with him. I’m going to be asking some questions, let’s see what we get.”

While we wait the scene is inter-cut with an interview with Ted in daylight. “I’ve tried communicating with it, but nit only did I not receive an answer, the attacks got more intensified a few minutes afterward”.

Lou Gentille: “Beginning of EVP, July 30th, 2001, at precisely 02:45am-

If there is a spirit around us now please tell us your name on the recorder.

Are you a spirit out of the light of God?

Please release whatever has been performed on Ted.

I ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour.

End of recording”

There is no audible response to any of these questions, but this doesn’t surprise Lou. It is only when the tape is played back that we hear something unusual and chilling. In the wake of each of Lou’s’ questions, the tape seems to admit a series of strange noises. In response o the query “If there is a spirit around us now……….?” we can discern what sounds unnervingly like scratching – or worse – the grunting of some sort of wild animal. This increase in volume with the question “Are you a spirit out of the light of God?”, and with repeated listening, it seems as if a voice is saying “LEAVE” or “READ THE TAPE” followed by a burst of demonic (and I mean Demonic) sounding laughter, whilst another voice whispers “read the tape”.

And finally, when Gentille intones the name of Jesus, he is all but drowned out by what can only be described as the strangled, ear-splitting roar of the completely insane………………

Lou is remarkably calm about the bowl-loosening recording, claiming that “to some people’s minds this could be explained by static discharge. To me that’s ridiculous because I’ve heard things scream blasphemies in peoples’ houses, and they’ve called peoples’ names, people who aren’t even involved in the case.”

“What you heard is as real as it gets”

The tape is analysed by the experts. They suggest that the only way to creating sounds similar to this would be to interfere with the microphone or to use a remote receiver. Neither of these were seen/present at Lou’s’ recording. When the morning arrives, Lou tells Ted his opinion about what he believes is taking place. Lou believes that this Entity is trying to drive a wedge between Ted and his faith in God.

“You need to re-affirm your faith. It’s scare tactics. They’re gonna prod you, they’re gonna hit you, they’re gonna get violent because you have faith in your heart”.

“Oh great”, Ted responds. “If I loose my faith they’ll get more violent? All I want is to sleep peacefully. Why is this happening? Why can’t it just stop?”.

Lou believes that only the church can put an end to this torment.

Whether or not science will one day be in a position to offer an acceptable, all-parties explanation for these attacks is unclear. What IS clear is that those suffering will continue to live in fear of what lurks in the darkness on the other side of sleep…..’

Reviewed by lee Walker

Dead Of Night , May 2002

Abridged by Hammy x x x'

PS ~ phew! It's a biggy innit?

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