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    Moderator (on Sabbatical) Cara's Avatar
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    Default Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    I came across a reference to some Cambodian refugees experiencing such terrifying nightmares that they died...

    Quote [Wes] Craven apparently got the idea for Nightmare [on Elm Street] after reading a series of articles describing a group of Cambodian men that were terrified of sleeping after fleeing from Pol Pot's regime. These men suffered severe nightmares to the point that several died shortly after falling asleep.
    from https://visupview.blogspot.ae/2010/1...loody-elm.html

    Here is a press article from the Orlando Sentinal about this:
    Quote Nightmare Death: When Dreams Kill
    January 11, 1987|By Larry Doyle , United Press International

    CHICAGO — Since April 1983 at least 130 Southeast Asian refugees have died in essentially the same way: They cried out in their sleep and then died.

    Medical authorities call this Asian death syndrome. The refugees have various names for it, one of them being night terror.

    As a deputy Cook County medical examiner, Dr. Robert Kirschner has investigated five night terror deaths, which also is called nightmare death.

    Kirschner, an associate professor of pathology at the University of Chicago, undertook a systematic study of the problem. His results, based on data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and autopsies of 18 night terror victims, were recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The victims had much in common, Kirschner found, first and foremost that nothing seemed to be wrong with them before they died suddenly. The average age of the victims was 33, and the deaths occurred only in men and only during sleep.

    Standard autopsies revealed little about the deaths, other than they were caused by a sudden heart stoppage. ...

    But detailed examinations of the victims' hearts turned up something strange: All of the 18 hearts were slightly enlarged, and 17 showed defects in their conduction systems, the array of fibers that carries electronic impulses from the brain to the heart. The fibers were frayed and curled as if, Kirschner said, ''their hearts just shorted out.''

    Kirschner theorizes that something at night, perhaps a random electronic discharge, and yes, perhaps a nightmare, overloaded these defective hearts, causing the sudden deaths.
    ...
    So - I looked for further information on this strange phenomenon...

    From Wikipedia, where it's called Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome:

    Quote Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS), also known as sudden adult death syndrome or sudden unexpected death syndrome (SUDS), is sudden unexpected death of adolescents and adults, mainly during sleep.[1][2] Sudden unexpected death syndrome is rare in most areas around the world. ... Sudden unexplained death syndrome was first noted in 1977 among Hmong refugees in the US.[3][4] The disease was again noted in Singapore, when a retrospective survey of records showed that 230 otherwise healthy Thai men died suddenly of unexplained causes between 1982 and 1990:[5] ...

    A Tokyo Medical Examiner reported that every year several hundred evidently healthy men are found dead in their beds in the Tokyo District alone. These observations indicate that the recent sudden deaths of Southeast Asian refugees are not a new occurrence, but rather an ongoing pattern of sudden deaths that appears in mainland Southeast Asia. Sudden unexpected death syndrome once caused more deaths among males than car accidents in Southeast Asia.[6] Most of those affected are young males.[7] ...
    There is some detail given about it in the context of society, which seems to indicate that some cultures view it as a SPIRITUAL phenomenon:

    Quote Some say that the Hmong who died were killed by their own beliefs in the spiritual world, otherwise known as, “Nocturnal Pressing Spirit Attacks”. In Indonesia it is called digeuton, which translates to “pressed on” in English.[9] In China it is called bei gui ya which translates to “crushed by a ghost” in English.[9] The Dutch call the presence a nachtmerrie, the night-mare.[9] The “merrie” comes from the Middle Dutch mare, an incubus who “lies on people`s chests, suffocating them”. This phenomenon is well known among the Hmong people of Laos,[19] who ascribe these deaths to a malign spirit, dab tsuam (pronounced "da cho"), said to take the form of a jealous woman. Hmong men may even go to sleep dressed as women so as to avoid the attentions of this spirit.

    During the 1970`s and 1980`s when an outbreak of this syndrome began, many of the Southeast Asian`s were not able to worship properly due to the guerrilla war against the government of Laos with the United States. When the Hmong people do not worship properly, do not perform religious ritual properly or forget to sacrifice, the ancestor spirits or the village spirits do not protect them, thus allowing the evil spirit to reach them. These attacks induce a nightmare that leads to sleep paralysis when the victim is conscious and experiencing pressure on the chest.[9] It is also common to have a REM state that is out of sequence where there is a mix of brain states that are normally held separate.[9] ...Once these nightmare visitations began, a shaman was recommended for psychic protection from the spirits of their sleep.[9] ...

    Hmong people believed that rejecting the role of becoming a shaman, they are taken into the spirit world.

    Bangungot is depicted in the Philippines as a mythological creature called batibat or bangungot. This hag-like creature sits on the victim's face or chest so as to immobilize and suffocate him. When this occurs, the victim usually experiences paralysis. It's said that one should bite their tongue and wiggle their toes to try to get out of this paralysis or they may die from suffocation.
    The Wikipedia article includes a helpful list of the names referring to it in different languages:
    • bangungot or urom - Filipino - The term originated from the Tagalog word meaning "to rise and moan in sleep". It is also the Tagalog word for nightmare.
    • dab tsog - Hmong
    • lai tai - Thai (Thai: ใหลตาย; meaning "sleep and die")
    • dolyeonsa - Korean
    • pokkuri disease - Japanese
    • ya thoom - Arabic
    • albarsty (Kyrgyz: албарсты) - Kyrgyz

    I have very vivid dreams and sometimes terrifying presences visit me at night. (Things have gotten better since I started putting up protection around myself and my husband before I go to sleep at night - I mostly use pyramids of white light). So, naturally, I am interested and curious to find out more about this.

    Have any Avalon members come across this "nightmare death" phenomenon?

    Perhaps someone from South East Asia has some more cultural context and information about it that they could share?

    I have seen the phenomena of night time "hag attacks" mentioned in a couple of different places (and in fact it is mentioned in the Wikipedia article above) but I have never looked into or investigated this.

    Is this the same thing?

    What do you think of this phenomenon? The spiritual aspect of it seems very real to me as an experiencer of vivid dreams and night terrors.
    Last edited by Cara; 19th December 2016 at 12:20.
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Yes I think this is valid
    As a four year old I experienced horrific dream over and over--chariots of fire dark angels fighting white angels in the sky.
    I was scared to go to sleep--then eyes open or shut the vision was there the moment I turned of the light to sleep.
    I had to sleep with the light on and even then they occurred.

    My parents were going to get a child psychiatrist--then suddenly they stopped.

    The dreams were so vivid--cant see why--I knew nothing of angels, good or evil,--I was not in a religious family.

    Chris
    Be kind to all life, including your own, no matter what!!

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    I used to have some of these night experiences. One of them specially frightening. I put a SCAP symbol on the bedhead, and from then on I've felt only a dark presence once, but not as active. Maybe suggestion power? I don't not. But good enough if it works...

    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle (Plato)

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Oh man, this is my bread and butter.


    I've never heard these instances of individuals within Pol Pot's regime being attacked and killed in their sleep, but I will bite.


    For those who do not know, Pol Pot was one of the most ruthless mother@ckers who ever walked the earth. This dude was molded of the same ilk as Stalin and Hitler. Pol Pot was a vegetarian and an environmentalist, who thought his country would be much better off without a few million of his citizens, so he began committing genocide. But, he did not have the facilities of the Germans, nor the Russians so he used what he did have, labor and machetes.
    Pol Pot would have people go into the field, where they would be worked to the bone, no food or water, and after the days work was over with, he would have the foremen unsheathe their machete's and begin butchering the poor folks.
    This would be a horrible death, made all the more gruesome because it was as if you had to stand in line and wait your turn while you watched your family members, friends and comrads being butchered before you.
    An excellent way to aquaint yourself with this is through the first hand account of Arn Chorn-Pond. Skip to 5:58
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uHeCzSM_PI




    Now back to the issue at hand.
    The night terror that is associated with pressure on the chest is indeed caused by a ghost or ghosts.
    The maneuver is this.
    While you are dreaming you leave your body and go into the astral plane, the ghost who wishes to disturb you inflicts a maneuver on you so as to steal some of your vital essence and or Chi, the maneuver is amplified when your soul returns to your body but finds it is in a state of immobility, an extreme state of terror insues and this terror is then amplified, because your soul for some reason is able to somewhat see the assailaints, and this in turn causes panic.
    So how is this accomplished?
    It goes like this.
    Think of Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity with his kite, key and kite string.
    The soul leaves the body in order to seek out the essense of God and rejuvenate itself, and while it leaves the body it is still connected by a silver strand or cord.
    The soul is like a kite, flying in the sky of God and conducting God energy and transmitting that God energy back to the body via the silver strand or cord that is attached between the two.
    Ghosts cannot delve into the area where God's energy provides rejuvenating energy, house rules, so some of them perform this maneuver where they act as the metal key on Benjamin Franklin's kit string, preventing the bolt of electricity from passing all the way through the string and stifling the flow of energy. Thus stealing the rejuvenating energy for themselves.
    These guys are bastards, right?
    Anyway now here is where it gets really interesting.
    The soul goes to reintegrate itself back into the body, but the disturbing energy stealing ghost performs a maneuver that prevents the soul from completely reintegrating back into the body.
    The result is paralysis, you feel as if you are in your body but you can't move.
    And further more you still have your etheric vision because youf consciousness is still within your astral body versus being rooted in the physical body.
    This is an important aspect to understand because under these circumstances you can now SEE the individual or individuals now doing this.
    And the result is usually not very pretty.
    As such you are paralyzed, you see a dark scary figure standing beside you pressing on your chest. Terror is the result. And now what you have is a person who has just been recharged via his astral visit to God energy now bleeding off that energy while being terrified and the troubling parasitic ghost just laps it up like a cat with a bowl of cream.


    Now on to the details of this specific scenario.


    These individuals who have committed these horrible crimes via mass murder and such may have been besieged by hundreds if not thousands of gruesomely murdered individuals who are hell bent on revenge.
    It would be easy to understand how these folks may not have passed over, and it would be easy to understand these folks following their murderers and seeking revenge.


    Here is the rub.
    If this is the case there should be other such cases one can find throughout history.
    Are there any stories of mass murderers dying in their sleep? There have been plenty through history, if this is a possible thing then it would have happened before and as such it would be mentioned somewhere in historic literature.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Ah yes. I had a friend who was involved with shutting down Pol Pot, perhaps one of the few justifiable U. S. military operations.

    The nightmare, incubus/succubus, by any other name seems to be known world wide. As a vampiric sort of activity, it would not seem to be in their interest to really kill anyone, but after witnessing a litter of kittens wiped out by flea anemia, I would have to say not all parasites know their limits or how to keep their hosts going.

    For good sleep, you're supposed to enter a phase of paralysis. Studies on dogs and rats have been done to find that there is a "partial sleep"--more or less, if the dog's foot moves while he sleeps, he's not getting the full paralysis. His dream involves that foot, not his whole body. Same thing happens to people, this kind of sleep leaves you drained and irritable. More common, but a different problem. I've had a lot of "partial sleeps", but never a full on succubus nightmare.

    So you are supposed to get fully paralyzed, but not wake up during that phase. It's not a real nightmare unless you do. Nightmare is neither merely a bad dream, nor a bad dream that wakes you up and you can think or react to it. However, a creature could probably leech on to you for quite some time before you experience it in that terrifying clarity.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    I see the spiritual element but also the mind-body connection. People can experience spontaneous transient arrhythmia's translating in the mind and thus the dream. Now what came first, the dream or the physical event seems like a chicken and the egg story.

    I am not privy to the mechanism of dream attacks not connected to mind-body but it seems plausible.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Thank you everyone for all the responses - fascinating.

    Quote Posted by Unicorn (here)
    I used to have some of these night experiences. One of them specially frightening. I put a SCAP symbol on the bedhead, and from then on I've felt only a dark presence once, but not as active. Maybe suggestion power? I don't not. But good enough if it works...

    @unicorn - do you have any more information about the SCAP symbol? I looked it up on the web but could only find one or two articles in Spanish and French which Google Translate didn't make much sense of. Do you have a link to more information on this? Thank you.
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Thank you @DNA for your detailed post.

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Oh man, this is my bread and butter.

    I've never heard these instances of individuals within Pol Pot's regime being attacked and killed in their sleep, but I will bite.

    For those who do not know, Pol Pot was one of the most ruthless mother@ckers who ever walked the earth.
    ...
    I was somewhat aware of the horror of the Cambodian Pol Pot regime but had not looked into the details - simply evil.

    When you say night terrors, etc. is your "bread and butter", are you saying that you deal with these as your main occupation - i.e. you have a spiritual service / help that you provide others in this field? Or are you speaking more metaphorically, in that this topic is one you're really interested in and therefore know a lot about? Or both perhaps? This is just for context - perhaps some might like to consult with you for their night terrors.


    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Now back to the issue at hand.
    The night terror that is associated with pressure on the chest is indeed caused by a ghost or ghosts.
    The maneuver is this.
    While you are dreaming you leave your body and go into the astral plane, the ghost who wishes to disturb you inflicts a maneuver on you so as to steal some of your vital essence and or Chi, the maneuver is amplified when your soul returns to your body but finds it is in a state of immobility, an extreme state of terror insues and this terror is then amplified, because your soul for some reason is able to somewhat see the assailaints, and this in turn causes panic.
    So how is this accomplished?
    It goes like this.
    Think of Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity with his kite, key and kite string.
    The soul leaves the body in order to seek out the essense of God and rejuvenate itself, and while it leaves the body it is still connected by a silver strand or cord.
    The soul is like a kite, flying in the sky of God and conducting God energy and transmitting that God energy back to the body via the silver strand or cord that is attached between the two.
    Ghosts cannot delve into the area where God's energy provides rejuvenating energy, house rules, so some of them perform this maneuver where they act as the metal key on Benjamin Franklin's kit string, preventing the bolt of electricity from passing all the way through the string and stifling the flow of energy. Thus stealing the rejuvenating energy for themselves.
    These guys are bastards, right?
    Anyway now here is where it gets really interesting.
    The soul goes to reintegrate itself back into the body, but the disturbing energy stealing ghost performs a maneuver that prevents the soul from completely reintegrating back into the body.
    The result is paralysis, you feel as if you are in your body but you can't move.
    And further more you still have your etheric vision because youf consciousness is still within your astral body versus being rooted in the physical body.
    This is an important aspect to understand because under these circumstances you can now SEE the individual or individuals now doing this.
    And the result is usually not very pretty.
    As such you are paralyzed, you see a dark scary figure standing beside you pressing on your chest. Terror is the result. And now what you have is a person who has just been recharged via his astral visit to God energy now bleeding off that energy while being terrified and the troubling parasitic ghost just laps it up like a cat with a bowl of cream.
    Thank you for the detailed outline of the mechanism of this phenomena.

    I find it interesting that one can see one's "attacker" at a point in the attack.

    If one knows what or who this entity is, does that allow one to address the attack / react in a life-preserving / soul-preserving way?


    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Now on to the details of this specific scenario.

    These individuals who have committed these horrible crimes via mass murder and such may have been besieged by hundreds if not thousands of gruesomely murdered individuals who are hell bent on revenge.
    It would be easy to understand how these folks may not have passed over, and it would be easy to understand these folks following their murderers and seeking revenge.
    Okay - this makes a kind of sense to me in an "eye for an eye" way.

    Does this logic also extend to people who are NOT mass murderers and despots, who also experience attacks of this type? If reincarnation is correct, then perhaps they are experiencing attacks from souls they harmed in another life?

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Here is the rub.
    If this is the case there should be other such cases one can find throughout history.
    Are there any stories of mass murderers dying in their sleep? There have been plenty through history, if this is a possible thing then it would have happened before and as such it would be mentioned somewhere in historic literature.
    Good question! More grist for the mill.
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Thank you @shaberon

    Quote Posted by shaberon (here)
    ...

    The nightmare, incubus/succubus, by any other name seems to be known world wide. As a vampiric sort of activity, it would not seem to be in their interest to really kill anyone, but after witnessing a litter of kittens wiped out by flea anemia, I would have to say not all parasites know their limits or how to keep their hosts going.
    So, once again - as seems so pervasive across all aspects of our world - we have a parasite mechanism operating. This time it is energy parasitism but its all the same in the end: some entities choose to / can only live off the life forces of other entities. I wonder if this parasitic aspect is "baked into" our world or something added afterwards?

    Quote Posted by shaberon (here)
    For good sleep, you're supposed to enter a phase of paralysis. Studies on dogs and rats have been done to find that there is a "partial sleep"--more or less, if the dog's foot moves while he sleeps, he's not getting the full paralysis. His dream involves that foot, not his whole body. Same thing happens to people, this kind of sleep leaves you drained and irritable. More common, but a different problem. I've had a lot of "partial sleeps", but never a full on succubus nightmare.

    So you are supposed to get fully paralyzed, but not wake up during that phase. It's not a real nightmare unless you do. Nightmare is neither merely a bad dream, nor a bad dream that wakes you up and you can think or react to it. However, a creature could probably leech on to you for quite some time before you experience it in that terrifying clarity.
    Interesting about the need for full paralysis to ensure a proper rest. I wonder if that is why people are so grouchy after sleeping in airplanes and such - no proper sleep paralysis is possible under that scenario.
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    In doing some more research on this topic I found an article interviewing Dr Patrick McNamara of the Boston Medical School. He studies sleep, dreams and religion from a cognitive neurological perspective and seems a little more open-minded about things than many mainstream academics.

    From Bostonia, Spring 2009 issue: http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/spring09/nightmares/

    //
    Unholy Spirits
    The author of a new book on nightmares talks about monsters, demons, and the fragility of the self
    | From Perspectives | By Art Jahnke


    Illustration by Yuko Shimizu

    Patrick McNamara knows nightmares. The neurocognitive scientist and School of Medicine associate professor of neurology and psychiatry spent ten years researching and writing about them. The result of his efforts, Nightmares: The Science and Solution of Those Frightening Visions During Sleep, was published last year by Praeger. McNamara’s book covers a lot of ground, from cultural interpretations to biology to horror films inspired by our most disturbing dreams.

    Bostonia editors, nervous types themselves, had a few questions for the author, who is also director of the Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory at MED and the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare System.

    Bostonia: What makes a nightmare a nightmare?
    McNamara: The official criteria define a nightmare as a frightening dream that occurs in REM sleep, causes the dreamer to awaken, and creates emotional distress. Many scientists who study nightmares (me among them) argue that that official criteria need revision. Many nightmares do not cause you to awaken. Another distinguishing mark of the nightmare — besides the level of terror involved — is its content. Nightmares very often involve supernatural characters that attack or target the dreamer in some way. I mean monsters, creatures, demons, spirits, unusual animals, and the like. From a cognitive point of view, one interesting aspect of the presence of the supernatural being in a nightmare is that the dreamer cannot read the mind of the supernatural being. All we can do is understand that the monster’s intentions are malevolent.

    Nightmares also often involve the dreamer, or self. Interestingly, the self responds to the monster with a wide range of feeling, from terror to awe and fascination. The self escapes unscathed only if it refuses to look at or speak to or in any way engage the monster. When the self engages the monster, all kinds of ill effects ensue, including, in ancestral cultures, demonic or spirit possession.

    You write about the possession theme of nightmares. Why is that particularly disturbing?
    There is a danger involved in the encounter with spirit beings; you may not psychically survive the encounter. Instead, the malevolent spirit will take up residence in your consciousness and control your actions. You become possessed. It is an interesting clinical fact that, even today, most cases of involuntary spirit possession across the world occur overnight. The person wakes up possessed. Traditional cultures have developed ways to identify the demon-possessed people. They are usually self-destructive, they have chronic physical pains and physical distress, they are irreverent toward the culture’s religious rituals, they are restless, and they have recurrent nightmares.

    We in modern university settings do not realize how widespread spirit possession phenomena are throughout the world and throughout history. It is a universal human experience. For people who encounter a possessed person, it is an uncanny experience. It is a terrifying experience if the possessing spirit is demonic.


    Patrick McNamara. Photo by Vernon Doucette

    What time of life are we most likely to have nightmares?
    Nightmare frequency is high in childhood and in adolescence and young adulthood. Young girls tend to experience nightmares more frequently than boys.

    Is there a certain type of person who is more likely than others to have nightmares?
    In adults, recurrent nightmares occur in people with so-called thin boundaries. These are people who are especially sensitive to sensory impressions. Creative people, like artists, writers, musicians, and so forth, also report more nightmares than others. A different form of nightmare, heavily influenced by memory, occurs frequently in people who have experienced trauma of one kind or another.

    What about recurrent nightmares? Are they really recurrent, or do we just think they are?
    In about 2 percent of the adult population, nightmares occur frequently. They do not recur in the sense that the same scene is replayed night after night, but they do recur insofar as the individual experiences frequent nightmares. Post-traumatic nightmares, on the other hand, do recur with the same scene, with minor variations, being replayed over and over again.

    If a person feels plagued by nightmares, is there something to do to inhibit their recurrence?
    Yes. Scientists have found that various forms of cognitive restructuring of the imagery associated with a nightmare can reduce the distress associated with nightmares. In cognitive restructuring, you take a central image from the nightmare and literally redraw it, on paper or in imagination, so that it is less threatening or frightening. You can also do this with the use of stories. Take the nightmare story and retell it, with less frightening themes and a less frightening outcome.

    What can we learn about ourselves from the details of our nightmares?
    The traditional answer to your question is something along the following lines: our dreams and nightmares reflect unconscious conflicts and fears. So, examining images and themes of dreams and nightmares can tell us something important about our unconscious fears and conflicts. I doubt that this is true.

    Instead, nightmares appear to be about the strength of the ego, or the “I,” the self. It is always the self that is under attack in a nightmare. On the surface it appears that people who suffer frequent nightmares have more fragile egos than the rest of us, but when you look deeper, these people very likely have the strongest egos, or sense of self, on the planet. Nightmare images stay with us for hours or days, haunting our awareness for days. But frequent nightmare sufferers cope with this stuff on a regular basis. They handle the frightening images on a daily basis. They are very strong individuals.

    How have nightmares influenced culture: visual arts, literature, movies?
    The horror story/novel/movie. The most reliably best-selling novels tend to be horror stories, like those of Stephen King. The visual artists, like painters, tend to display a profound understanding of nightmares, perhaps because they experience nightmares themselves. You might say that a whole industry has been built on the nightmare.
    //

    Article at: http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/spring09/nightmares/
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    I would have to split a lot of hairs with this McNamara guy. I mean, obviously dreams only occur in REM, isn't that fairly redundant? And, he's only talking about bad dreams. Did he autopsy 17 short-circuited hearts? And what he calls possession, I might call obsession...two totally different levels. I don't dispute his findings so much as I'm saying...he only skimmed the surface.

    I bet after this thread is up for a while, there will be an Avalonian who *has* experienced the full blown thing.

    If one has perfected their "sleep skills", you could be done with it in a matter of minutes. Lie down, and boom! Instant full paralysis and REM state and then you're recharged. But this is beyond most of us.

    Concerning the beings that may pounce on the body and siphon its energy, maybe that's just like them smoking crack. They could live without it, but it's so tempting and powerful...once they do it, they're hooked, and, having a relatively immortal lifespan and utter freedom of movement, it's no problem to feed the habit. The incubus-succubus is actually the same thing, it takes something from a man and then goes to a woman, and, like the fey folk, its appearance is mostly our own mental projection onto it. They are a natural and normal part of the world, and, as a fire may be somewhat inconvenient to us if it is in our house or on our clothes, so are they--but the fire is neither itself inherently evil, nor is it something that we cannot learn to control. Fear is certainly a state that prevents this, and I won't say it's either easy, or a laughing matter to overcome a deep seated fear, but it is possible.

    Humans can only digest plants and animals, so it certainly isn't a case where we're innocent of consuming someone else's life force. We often do it on a mental/emotional basis as well. If you merely pick blueberries in a cold, selfish manner, that plant will suffer emotionally...but if you ask it nicely and respectfully, it will be glad to make an offering. The incubus-succubus lacks an equivalent of your free will to make such a choice, and all it can do is take--therefor they have to be commanded. The nature of this command is by will, by which is meant a power as deep as the motor force, which again, the average person has no real control of, so the heart is more likely to fail, than it is to repel the incubus-succubus.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Quote Posted by Searcher (here)
    Thank you everyone for all the responses - fascinating.

    Quote Posted by Unicorn (here)
    I used to have some of these night experiences. One of them specially frightening. I put a SCAP symbol on the bedhead, and from then on I've felt only a dark presence once, but not as active. Maybe suggestion power? I don't not. But good enough if it works...

    @unicorn - do you have any more information about the SCAP symbol? I looked it up on the web but could only find one or two articles in Spanish and French which Google Translate didn't make much sense of. Do you have a link to more information on this? Thank you.

    Pleased to help, Searcher :-)

    This symbol was created by André Philippe, an engineer and radionics expert.

    This is a symbol to neutralize harmful energies of any kind. It extends its influence in a relatively small area (room, inside of a car, etc.). In this case, size matters, and the bigger the symbol, the stronger the effect. This one I included is just right for many purposes (but even smaller is also useful). In case of a very malignant influence it could be necessary to use two symbols to cover the whole area (usually, in opposing walls).

    Its effect goes through any material, so you can put it under a picture, mirror, etc. (if you prefer to hide it for any esthetic reason).

    You can measure its operational range with a pendulum or with rods (if you feel curious).

    Over a geopathogenic line crossing (Hartmann grid), it cancels the damaging effect.

    Its emissions are simultaneously at a physical, vital and spiritual level. Automatically regulates the quantity of energy as it is necessary for the perfect equilibrium of an area, food, plant, animal or person.

    You can put your photo over the graphic, at the central point. It balances acid/alkaline values in your body, as it is a colour compensator. In this case, assuming you are using the symbol over a horizontal surface, the yod letter must be facing North.

    You can put also a glass of water over the graphic, and drink the water some 10 minutes later.

    Over /under a TV or computer, neutralizes its negative emissions (I have one under my computer right now).

    Under your bed or on the bedhead, provides for a comforting and quiet sleeping time.

    Use always facing the printed side up, and with the yod letter pointing up (just as shown).
    Last edited by Unicorn; 20th December 2016 at 15:50.
    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle (Plato)

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Quote Posted by Searcher (here)
    When you say night terrors, etc. is your "bread and butter", are you saying that you deal with these as your main occupation - i.e. you have a spiritual service / help that you provide others in this field? Or are you speaking more metaphorically, in that this topic is one you're really interested in and therefore know a lot about? Or both perhaps? This is just for context - perhaps some might like to consult with you for their night terrors.

    Searcher you are the man, being a thread shepherd is a lost art.
    90% of folks who post a thread here treat it like once made their job is done. Bam. Their thread was a one night stand.
    This is not how it should be in my opinion.
    Why open a thread if you are not interested in engaging folks and entering a dialogue on a given subject?
    Anyway Searcher let me just say I appreciate your response and as such I will almost assuredly enter a thread you have started to now see what is going on.
    I get you Searcher.


    Okay to answer your question, I'm just a fan of all things paranormal, ufo and cryptid.
    If I can answer any questions to help folks dealing with something I'm more than happy to do so, even if it is just so as they feel like someone has heard their story out.




    Quote Posted by Searcher (here)
    Thank you for the detailed outline of the mechanism of this phenomena.

    I find it interesting that one can see one's "attacker" at a point in the attack.

    If one knows what or who this entity is, does that allow one to address the attack / react in a life-preserving / soul-preserving way?

    Let me just state this. I can talk about this phenomenon from a general sense, compiling the experience of others, and I can talk about in a personal sense, having experienced this situation many many times.
    Seeing the attacker doesn't always help, it probably does more harm than good.
    It gives you the feeling that you are at someone's mercy, furthermore you do not always get the full view of them, and even if you did the being is often otherworldly.




    Quote Posted by Searcher (here)
    Okay - this makes a kind of sense to me in an "eye for an eye" way.

    Does this logic also extend to people who are NOT mass murderers and despots, who also experience attacks of this type? If reincarnation is correct, then perhaps they are experiencing attacks from souls they harmed in another life?

    From what I've experienced you cannot be truly hurt by a ghost. No way no how. And certainly not killed.
    That being said I'm not a mass murderer who has thousands of angry ghosts willing to do anything to me in order to end me.
    Ghosts can affect you by standing next to you while you sleep, but ghosts can also follow you into the astral plane and become a conscious part of your dream that you do not control. A ghost can appear to you as a lover, a close friend and confident, as a monster or an axe wielding maniac. What would happen if one were in the astral plane and hundreds of ghosts had followed you there and manifested in the most malign way they knew was possible?
    Normally I would tell you that a ghost could not harm you, not really, and that there was absolutely nothing to fear.
    But,,,,
    The idea of a large group of ghosts, who acted in concert with one another and coordinated some kind of astral attack leaves me scratching my head. I've got to be honest I have no idea what those effects would be.


    So to answer your question about regular folks having to worry about this the answer would be no, absolutely not they would have nothing to worry about.
    And to answer your second question, I don't think so.
    I'm with you on reincarnation, but it is my opinion that inbetween every death and rebirth there is a cleansing and healing that takes place in the heaven worlds. One lives in heaven just as one incarnates on earth, and there is time taken out between lives for your soul to do it's own thing.
    It is very unlikely to me you have anything to worry about from past wrongs except the karma incurred, and we all have that.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    I had a similar experience with what I think is called the old hag. I was sleeping beside my wife and was attacked by this old hag that was on top of me choking me with her bare hands. My wife woke up as this was happening and had to physically shake me because she said I sounded like I was choking.At other times i have felt and seen dark shadows/ people and became instantly terrified with sleep paralysis. Not a fun thing to have happen to you, luckily it has not for a long time

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    One of the sleep hag occurrences happened to me. A sleep potion had been put into the water at my bedside unknown to me. I believe it almost gave me a heart attack because I experienced the sensation of some creature sitting on my chest. Simultaneously, I had a vision. I was on a stretcher type bed in a strange place and a pleasant looking woman, wearing glasses was leaning over me as though to help me out of some sort of distress. Somehow, I recognized her as being a close relative; but I do not know who she was. She looked somewhat like me. The experience ended and I was alive in this life still.

    I wondered whether I was in fact having a dream, this life, while existing in another location to the one I think I am in now. The idea occurred to me that we could all be on a life long, boring space journey; and the only way to endure it and keep our brains alive was to experience alternate realities in the form of realistic dreams.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    I do not think the incubus-succubus is a ghost. A ghost is more like a fading ember that can start to glow again if the wind blows right. As DNA said they are mostly harmless, give or take you possibly being afraid of them.

    The folks reporting hag experiences certainly give me the impression that there is weight and a fairly solid force involved.

    If you have a "true" enough sensation in the astral plane, regardless of the source, it can definitely injure you physically, causing cuts, slashes, bruises, etc., leading up to actually choking or a heart problem. But if the source is a hag, an incubus-succubus, you aren't in any kind of position to say hey, maybe this isn't real, ghosts are harmless, there's no such thing as a ghost, or anything like that, because it never was human.

    Also, one can encounter ghosts while awake, but I am not aware of the night hag doing anything other than waking one from sleep (assumption is they have been visiting a few times before striking hard). I'd guess after they attack, they simply move to the next time zone to the next victim, and just keep travelling the world mostly on the night side repeating the procedure, as such a thing does not, itself, sleep, or die. Ghosts are mortal (if relatively long-lived), and if they think they need to sleep, they will; a hag probably cannot think as we understand the term, but it must have some form of consciousness, maybe like a tick.

    Ticks respond primarily to sweat. One study kept a tick on a stick for seventeen years until it was so dried out and flat it just looked like a chip of the stick, and as soon as it was exposed to a drop of sweat, it jumped.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Oh man, this is my bread and butter.


    I've never heard these instances of individuals within Pol Pot's regime being attacked and killed in their sleep, but I will bite.


    For those who do not know, Pol Pot was one of the most ruthless mother@ckers who ever walked the earth. This dude was molded of the same ilk as Stalin and Hitler. Pol Pot was a vegetarian and an environmentalist, who thought his country would be much better off without a few million of his citizens, so he began committing genocide. But, he did not have the facilities of the Germans, nor the Russians so he used what he did have, labor and machetes.
    Pol Pot would have people go into the field, where they would be worked to the bone, no food or water, and after the days work was over with, he would have the foremen unsheathe their machete's and begin butchering the poor folks.
    This would be a horrible death, made all the more gruesome because it was as if you had to stand in line and wait your turn while you watched your family members, friends and comrads being butchered before you.
    An excellent way to aquaint yourself with this is through the first hand account of Arn Chorn-Pond. Skip to 5:58
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uHeCzSM_PI




    Now back to the issue at hand.
    The night terror that is associated with pressure on the chest is indeed caused by a ghost or ghosts.
    The maneuver is this.
    While you are dreaming you leave your body and go into the astral plane, the ghost who wishes to disturb you inflicts a maneuver on you so as to steal some of your vital essence and or Chi, the maneuver is amplified when your soul returns to your body but finds it is in a state of immobility, an extreme state of terror insues and this terror is then amplified, because your soul for some reason is able to somewhat see the assailaints, and this in turn causes panic.
    So how is this accomplished?
    It goes like this.
    Think of Benjamin Franklin discovering electricity with his kite, key and kite string.
    The soul leaves the body in order to seek out the essense of God and rejuvenate itself, and while it leaves the body it is still connected by a silver strand or cord.
    The soul is like a kite, flying in the sky of God and conducting God energy and transmitting that God energy back to the body via the silver strand or cord that is attached between the two.
    Ghosts cannot delve into the area where God's energy provides rejuvenating energy, house rules, so some of them perform this maneuver where they act as the metal key on Benjamin Franklin's kit string, preventing the bolt of electricity from passing all the way through the string and stifling the flow of energy. Thus stealing the rejuvenating energy for themselves.
    These guys are bastards, right?
    Anyway now here is where it gets really interesting.
    The soul goes to reintegrate itself back into the body, but the disturbing energy stealing ghost performs a maneuver that prevents the soul from completely reintegrating back into the body.
    The result is paralysis, you feel as if you are in your body but you can't move.
    And further more you still have your etheric vision because youf consciousness is still within your astral body versus being rooted in the physical body.
    This is an important aspect to understand because under these circumstances you can now SEE the individual or individuals now doing this.
    And the result is usually not very pretty.
    As such you are paralyzed, you see a dark scary figure standing beside you pressing on your chest. Terror is the result. And now what you have is a person who has just been recharged via his astral visit to God energy now bleeding off that energy while being terrified and the troubling parasitic ghost just laps it up like a cat with a bowl of cream.


    Now on to the details of this specific scenario.


    These individuals who have committed these horrible crimes via mass murder and such may have been besieged by hundreds if not thousands of gruesomely murdered individuals who are hell bent on revenge.
    It would be easy to understand how these folks may not have passed over, and it would be easy to understand these folks following their murderers and seeking revenge.


    Here is the rub.
    If this is the case there should be other such cases one can find throughout history.
    Are there any stories of mass murderers dying in their sleep? There have been plenty through history, if this is a possible thing then it would have happened before and as such it would be mentioned somewhere in historic literature.
    Interesting. I read about this many years ago, was aware of the deaths. I would be careful about assigning culpability to those who died from apparent night terrors though. There is no way of knowing whether thousands of ghosts of those they killed, came back from the grave for revenge. It seems unlikely.

    Ruthless killers, with little remorse and hardened boundaries and reality filters are probably less prone to being scared to death.

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Thank you @unicorn for this information. I am most intrigued and am going to try using this symbol around my home... thank you for the gift of this knowledge.

    Quote Posted by Unicorn (here)
    Pleased to help, Searcher :-)

    This symbol was created by André Philippe, an engineer and radionics expert.

    This is a symbol to neutralize harmful energies of any kind. It extends its influence in a relatively small area (room, inside of a car, etc.). In this case, size matters, and the bigger the symbol, the stronger the effect. This one I included is just right for many purposes (but even smaller is also useful). In case of a very malignant influence it could be necessary to use two symbols to cover the whole area (usually, in opposing walls).

    Its effect goes through any material, so you can put it under a picture, mirror, etc. (if you prefer to hide it for any esthetic reason).

    You can measure its operational range with a pendulum or with rods (if you feel curious).

    Over a geopathogenic line crossing (Hartmann grid), it cancels the damaging effect.

    Its emissions are simultaneously at a physical, vital and spiritual level. Automatically regulates the quantity of energy as it is necessary for the perfect equilibrium of an area, food, plant, animal or person.

    You can put your photo over the graphic, at the central point. It balances acid/alkaline values in your body, as it is a colour compensator. In this case, assuming you are using the symbol over a horizontal surface, the yod letter must be facing North.

    You can put also a glass of water over the graphic, and drink the water some 10 minutes later.

    Over /under a TV or computer, neutralizes its negative emissions (I have one under my computer right now).

    Under your bed or on the bedhead, provides for a comforting and quiet sleeping time.

    Use always facing the printed side up, and with the yod letter pointing up (just as shown).
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Searcher you are the man, being a thread shepherd is a lost art.
    90% of folks who post a thread here treat it like once made their job is done. Bam. Their thread was a one night stand.
    This is not how it should be in my opinion.
    Why open a thread if you are not interested in engaging folks and entering a dialogue on a given subject?
    Anyway Searcher let me just say I appreciate your response and as such I will almost assuredly enter a thread you have started to now see what is going on.
    I get you Searcher.
    Well, thank you @DNA, I appreciate being appreciated. Thank you for the acknowledgement!

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Okay to answer your question, I'm just a fan of all things paranormal, ufo and cryptid.
    If I can answer any questions to help folks dealing with something I'm more than happy to do so, even if it is just so as they feel like someone has heard their story out.
    Great - I have had some terrifying nightmares and would value some help in softening their effects. Here is one:

    In Johannesburg, there is a jumping cricket, grasshopper, locust type creature called a Parktown Prawn. Really ugly... from Wikipedia:
    Quote "Parktown prawn" is a common name for Libanasidus vittatus, a species of king cricket endemic to Southern Africa.


    They are the subject of many urban legends and stories about their abilty to survive just about most forms of death - insect sprays, being flushed down the toilet, etc. A true Lazarus of the insect world. In fact, the film District 9, made by a South African director, probably got its inspiration for the alien invaders from these bugs.

    Anyway, every now and then, I have these terrifying nightmares where these parktown prawns are in my personal space. They always seem close to my neck and shoulders, just behind me and in my peripheral sight.... there is a malevolent incomprehensibility to them, they are busy, twitching and moving - horrible! I am paralysed and terrified. I often wake my husband up while having this extremely terrifying experience.

    I have had this off and on ever since my childhood and even now where I live in Dubai. It's like I am haunted by it. Any ideas?

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Quote Posted by Searcher (here)
    I find it interesting that one can see one's "attacker" at a point in the attack.

    If one knows what or who this entity is, does that allow one to address the attack / react in a life-preserving / soul-preserving way?
    ...
    Seeing the attacker doesn't always help, it probably does more harm than good.
    It gives you the feeling that you are at someone's mercy, furthermore you do not always get the full view of them, and even if you did the being is often otherworldly.
    I most definitely can relate to this feeling. In all of my night terrors, I can see or peripherally see the attacker and it makes it worse: I always feel like a "deer caught in the headlights", pinned by the gaze and intent of the attacker. Looking at them I always get a sense of relentless intent.


    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Quote Posted by Searcher (here)
    Does this logic also extend to people who are NOT mass murderers and despots, who also experience attacks of this type? If reincarnation is correct, then perhaps they are experiencing attacks from souls they harmed in another life?
    From what I've experienced you cannot be truly hurt by a ghost. No way no how. And certainly not killed.
    I've seen ghosts, or "people without bodies" as I call them, a few times and I would agree they do not seem threatening in general. To me there has always been a surprise and a little shock involved but the last time I saw a ghost, I just woke up, said to my husband "there's someone in the room" and went back to sleep. Poor guy - he then was awake and had to spend the next little while, all alone in the middle of the night, thinking about it!


    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    Ghosts can affect you by standing next to you while you sleep, but ghosts can also follow you into the astral plane and become a conscious part of your dream that you do not control. A ghost can appear to you as a lover, a close friend and confident, as a monster or an axe wielding maniac.
    That is interesting - I have recently had a couple of half awake, half asleep kind of dreams / visions where I am interacting with Neptune (yes - the sea god). His presence seems kind of caring but mildly amused in a way.

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    What would happen if one were in the astral plane and hundreds of ghosts had followed you there and manifested in the most malign way they knew was possible?
    Normally I would tell you that a ghost could not harm you, not really, and that there was absolutely nothing to fear.
    But,,,,
    The idea of a large group of ghosts, who acted in concert with one another and coordinated some kind of astral attack leaves me scratching my head. I've got to be honest I have no idea what those effects would be.
    I see @shaberon has posted some commentary on this. I'll comment there.

    Quote Posted by DNA (here)
    I'm with you on reincarnation, but it is my opinion that in between every death and rebirth there is a cleansing and healing that takes place in the heaven worlds. One lives in heaven just as one incarnates on earth, and there is time taken out between lives for your soul to do it's own thing.
    It is very unlikely to me you have anything to worry about from past wrongs except the karma incurred, and we all have that.
    Okay, so I think you're saying that the karma you carry from life to life does not necessarily manifest in night terrors and attacks from wronged beings / souls. Is that correct?

    I have not looked into the details of different models of reincarnation but my current view is that I see no real limit to the time frame or mechanism through which a being or soul might specifically target one in some way... However, this is just speculation on my part.
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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    Default Re: Night terrors, nightmares, night time attacks, sudden death while sleeping...

    Quote Posted by frodo13 (here)
    I had a similar experience with what I think is called the old hag. I was sleeping beside my wife and was attacked by this old hag that was on top of me choking me with her bare hands. My wife woke up as this was happening and had to physically shake me because she said I sounded like I was choking.At other times i have felt and seen dark shadows/ people and became instantly terrified with sleep paralysis. Not a fun thing to have happen to you, luckily it has not for a long time
    Thank you @frodo13 for sharing your experience - it sounds terrible and must have been awful for your wife as well. As far as I have read, this sounds like the "classic" hag attack.

    Here is a disturbing artist's visualisation of one. Was your experience anything like this?




    I am interested that you have not experienced these dark shadows/people for a while. Do you know what you did or what changed in your life that might have caused them to stop?
    *I have loved the stars too dearly to be fearful of the night*

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