Monday, February 25, 2013

Old Hag Syndrome: A Look at Sleep Paralysis (video)

By Bryce Baker

Many people have suffered from Sleep Paralysis at some point in their life and never realize there is a name for it. Others suffer from Sleep Paralysis regularly and research it, struggling to find a cause of Sleep Paralysis.

For those who dont know, Sleep Paralysis is the inability to move voluntarily that some people experience either right before going to sleep or directly after waking up.

There are two types of Sleep Paralysis,Common Sleep Paralysis CSP, and Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis (HSP). The major difference between the two types of Sleep Paralysis is that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis is accompanied by frightening hallucinations, feelings of intense fear, and the strong feeling of an evil presence. Almost all cases of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis occur when victims are sleeping on their backs.

Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis has been documented all through human history and almost every culture has its own legends behind it. Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis is often called Old Hag Syndrome, due to the common accounts of seeing or sensing the presence of an Old Hag often putting pressure on the chest or choking the victims.

Some accounts of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis describe a small gremlin or demonic being sitting on the chest. There are still quite a few incidents of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis that report a black cat on top of the victim stealing their breath, this may be the source of many of the superstitious beliefs in some countries that cause people to be afraid of cats and keep them away from their houses.

A particularly interesting thing to note about Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, is evidence shows that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis will often effect an area like an epidemic. Many cases will be reported in a short period of time when no cases had been reported prior. Studies show that some areas can remain affected for years, but most only weeks or months. This is something science has not yet been able to explain. Old Hag Syndrome also seems to run in families, I can say this is true for my own family.

Sleep Paralysis is just a sleep disorder in the eyes of the medical community. But many who have experienced Sleep Paralysis. particularly Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis find it hard to convince themselves that an outside force is not at work, this is including myself.

In my own case this is mainly because my particular experiences with intense Old Hag Syndrome were sometimes shared; meaning others that were close to me would report similiar Sleep Paralysis experiences on the same nights without me ever mention anything about Sleep Paralysis to them before. Shared experiences are sometimes occurs with Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, and this is a fact even the medical community acknowledges and cannot explain. And aside from that, my episodes of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis subsided and were immediately followed by paranormal activity in my house. This paranormal activity was particularly severe and it is my belief that it was directly linked to my prior episodes of Sleep Paralysis. The paranormal activity eventually went away, and I wont go off the subject of Sleep Paralysis entirely by going into too much detail. But I will say that some of the worst examples of this paranormal activity involved physical attacks by unseen things while wide awake, consisting of slapping, and scratching.]

I am not dismissive of scientific, rational explanations of things. I would have loved to comfort myself by believing that Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis was simply a sleep disorder. But the nature of these attacks and the events surrounding them forced me to doubt that. I didn't necessarily believe that ghosts or demons were behind it, although at times I seriously considered it, all I really knew is that some outside influence had to be the source of my sleep paralysis. It is perhaps needless to say that I have since been eager to learn the real cause of Old Hag Syndrome.

Some of the things the medical community claims are likely causes of Sleep Paralysis are going long periods of time without sleep, insomnia, stress in daily life, irregular sleeping schedules and even lack of exercise.

While I am sure this is true for Common Sleep Paralysis, I doubt these are the causes of Old Hag Syndrome, maybe contributing factors at most. But if you are suffering from any form of Sleep Paralysis, it may be worth it trying to address these issues to see if it will act as your cure for Sleep Paralysis.

Recent scientific studies on Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis has suggested that most reports of Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis occur in areas when there is little to no geomagnetic activity. The absence of geomagnetic activity has also been linked with reports of paranormal activity. As well as infrasonic sound waves in other studies, that are sometimes created by geological activity. This could explain why HSP seems to occur geographically, and people having shared experiences. And given the fact it could also have something to do with paranormal activity, I find this an interesting and highly possible explanation.

Its obvious to me there is alot to be learned about Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis and undoubtedly the effects subsonic vibrations and geophysical activity has on us. But regardless of what you think causes Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, be it the Old Hag, medical disorders, genetics or geomagnetic fields.

One thing is undeniable, Sleep Paralysis is a strange and horrifying occurence that leaves many questions unanswered.



Source: Yahoo Voices

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I had a weird experience with the old hag. I have had undiagnosed sleep paralysis since I was a young child I never knew what it was until I just recently looked it up after the other night. I had another episode and this time I felt a darkness an evil like it says on ur webpage and then an old women a parted next to my bed not on me but it was like she was fading in and out twitching and jerking and with its hand reaching out to me it felt like it was trying to attack me but something was stopping it. Not like others I usually can move a lil bit but this time it lasted for almost 30 mins like I was fighting my body to move and fighting it I'm not trying to sound like a tough guy but at the time when I was slightly moving I didn't know how to react and I gave her the finger which was very hard to do. Ever since I can't shake this weird feeling I knew nothing about this or anything until it happened and I did some research. I don't understand this I don't want to sound stupid but I almost feel like I can still feel it y do these go together what's there association. And I have the biggest feeling like there is more to this story I mean my eyes were open I was awake I could barely move and could barley squeak BC I couldn't talk like I said I've had this sleep paralysis happen to me a lot and I mean a lot since I was a child but this just felt wrong it looked like a cross between that horror movie momma and the ring I just can't wrap my head around it if you can send me any info so I can do some more research it would be greatly appreciated. Scarred847@gmail.com

Ton Rock said...

I read what you said on the National Paranormal Association Web site.   I had a problem with this around 15 years ago.   I might have gotten it by taking a mirror and spray painting it black. I had found out later that these were used in black magic.
I thought it looked cool and hung it in my house.  Soon after that the old hag started to appear.  I was told that cats can git rid of these things.  I got a cat that needed a home. A tuxedo young female  cat.  She was a very nice cat and i really liked her.  One night when  I was sleeping she was really acting up and it appeared she was fighting the old hag in my place while i could not move. I can't say for sure that the cat was responsible for getting rid of her.  But something was going between the 2 of them and now no more old hag. It's kind of funny the cat died and I got another one real fast. If you do not like cats maybe you can borrow one. I saw the movie “The Entity “ and it was very scary. I do not know what the old hag is. If I was going to guess. It is an evil spirit.

Unknown said...

I had the same problem it happen to me about 5am the first time and few months later happen again as soon I lay down its weird how accours I also have a cat and seems like the cat ist been there on every occasion I personally don't believe this to be an sleeping disorder you almost have too experienced for your self to understand the feeling other wise you can't