SLEEP PARALYSIS – WHAT IF IT’S NOT! MY PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION – A TRUE STORY.
By MoonJoey
We’ve all heard from the “experts” that claim that this is all part of a troubling dream the subject is having. It is attributed to the inability of the body to transition properly through the various stages of sleep, occurring near awakening. Rarely is sleep paralysis linked to deep underlying psychiatric problems. Even more rare or non-existent is the claim that it could be real! While it is true that claims of the paranormal, demons etc. have not been empirically proven, the negative proof fallacy (if something cannot be proven true, the premise must be false) should not be applied to this type of event or any for that matter .
The following happens to be a “true” event, because I can empirically state that I was involved in IT.
A resident in Orange Park, FL, U.S.A. reached out to me due to some disturbing and unexplained events happening in their home. The family was being disturbed by noises, banging on walls & floors and shadows being noticed. The event that caused them to contact me was the mother of two daughters claiming to wake up one morning with a gruesome, scarey looking creature sitting on her, preventing her from getting up out of bed. She did a drawing of the entity which appears with this article.
Her statement to me is as follows:
“It started with being touched, followed by waking with bruises.” The mother states definitely being awake when referring to the pictured entity. “This thing was on my chest. It looked like it came out of a tree, it looked like it was made out of a tree. I froze as I looked at it and it just disappeared. Things coming out of it were like little branches, twigs, sticks. They were like hair, but thick.” The daughter last slept in that same room and had a episode of what she described as sleep paralysis, stating “it was like a black fog suffocating me, and I couldn’t breathe or move. It was making my mouth wide open and I couldn’t close it.” The daughter at that moment revealed that previous to her mother’s experience, she had been getting random thoughts & dreams about a creature like the one her mother described but with leaves. She feels there is something ancient there. The cat at times in this same room would suddenly act jumpy with its tail getting bushy. The dog at times chases something unseen into corners of another room downstairs.
It is interesting to note this reported creature doesn’t suggest a gender as do many ghost reportings. It wasn’t dressed in clothing as ghosts are commonly reported to appear. What is to be made of this particular entity reporting? Furthermore, the comments of the daughter about her dreaming of an entity similar to the experiencer, her mom, matches independent data from one particular scientific study into the paranormal. It concerns two friends and their simultaneous experience of a malign presence. One woke to see an unusually tall male figure, largely shadowed but with visible highlights in his eyes. His partner slept through this, but spoke of a vivid dream about the same thing with the figure being unusually tall and disapproving. Sleep Paralysis interestingly enough was mentioned by most later contributors to this study discussion (just as the daughter has done so).
So what is really going on here? Are all such events simply to be written off as sleep paralysis or is there something paranormal about at least some of these? The stalemate continues as some pro-paranormal commentators treat any questioning of belief as hostile, while some scientific commentators refuse to acknowledge cultural complexities around beliefs.
Science will offer one explanation as a “hypnagogic experience.” This describes the time period immediately before falling asleep or at the instant of awakening, but before full awareness upon being awake, where hallucinations, both visual and auditory are possible to happen, and are not considered unusual. Science even goes as far as to offer as explanation that this isn’t necesarrily related to sleep, but can happen to a person doing something dull, repetitive or boring.
But there is enough contrary events that just do not fit the scientific explanation. Yes, they can be categorized as unexplained, however take a few moments to examine the facts. The event that I investigated didn’t fit any stereotype of a haunting with no evident stimuli present to effect a specific interpretation. It also could not be supported anecdotally. My investigation revealed no known documentary accounts that could have fed my client’s interpretative process.
I spent several nights in that vacated bedroom of the client where the disturbing events were being reported. I have a video of an unexplained anomaly consisting of white, wispy cloud-like wing movements behind me ascending from the floor up and thru the ceiling. In addition another static camera positioned downstairs captured a white blur moving up the stairs toward the room I was in. As I walked about outside the door of the bedroom my POV video even captured a dark, irregularly shaped anomaly the size of a golf ball floating around the hall and lingering at the bedroom door before disappearing, as I commented in astonishment as to what it could be. There was an incredible dark, heavy and almost evil-like feeling in that room with me. The only form of provocation that I used to elicit a response was to immerse myself in prayer & reading my bible aloud…. for hours. I am providing a link to an evp that was captured with me alone in the room that contains vocal tone. What is being said cannot be distinguished, but if you listen to it I am certain you will agree it sounds nothing short of evil!!! Here is the link on my soundcloud account (turn your volume up).
I don’t do the usual ‘ghost gadget’ investigations popular with todays paranormal TV shows. Instead I combined observation with basic temperature and audio capture/documentation in 96 khz/24-bit WAV format. There were no anomalous EMF fluctuations outside of my original baseline sweep to eliminate household electrical sources, yet I could constantly “feel” something wasn’t right. I ruled out infrasound as being an affecting influence. My scientific approach included spectrogram analysis of the curious soundbite captured on audio having five unintelligible syllables. These show as “voiced sounds,” which in the study of speech and phonetics includes all vowels and half the consonants. There is a base formant band along with F1, F2 and F3 formant instances. In addition, there are signs of fricatives and voiced stops. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE WITH A NON-PHYSICAL ENTITY?!!!
Due to the grandfather, a Catholic residing in this home & who had experienced nothing negative, I consulted with and enlisted the aid of a Roman Catholic priest friend of mine. He returned to the residence with me and performed a ritual house blessing which I assisted in as his “altar boy.” After that, there was still a presence, but it was no longer of a negative nature. Moreover, both mother and daughter have not reported more instances of sleep paralysis. Of interesting note, the priest stated afterward, having been given no prior knowledge of the residence, that he had felt something different in the very bedroom that was the source of the negativity.
None of this is proof of demons or the paranormal itself. The continuing question remains concerning the topic of spirits, demons etc… are they only as real as we make them…. or are they truly real?
Sleep Paralysis – What If It’s Not! My Paranormal Investigation – A True Story
Gail Hodson Shirk
SLEEP PARALYSIS – WHAT IF IT’S NOT! MY PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION – A TRUE STORY.
By MoonJoey
We’ve all heard from the “experts” that claim that this is all part of a troubling dream the subject is having. It is attributed to the inability of the body to transition properly through the various stages of sleep, occurring near awakening. Rarely is sleep paralysis linked to deep underlying psychiatric problems. Even more rare or non-existent is the claim that it could be real! While it is true that claims of the paranormal, demons etc. have not been empirically proven, the negative proof fallacy (if something cannot be proven true, the premise must be false) should not be applied to this type of event or any for that matter .
The following happens to be a “true” event, because I can empirically state that I was involved in IT.
A resident in Orange Park, FL, U.S.A. reached out to me due to some disturbing and unexplained events happening in their home. The family was being disturbed by noises, banging on walls & floors and shadows being noticed. The event that caused them to contact me was the mother of two daughters claiming to wake up one morning with a gruesome, scarey looking creature sitting on her, preventing her from getting up out of bed. She did a drawing of the entity which appears with this article.
Her statement to me is as follows:
“It started with being touched, followed by waking with bruises.” The mother states definitely being awake when referring to the pictured entity. “This thing was on my chest. It looked like it came out of a tree, it looked like it was made out of a tree. I froze as I looked at it and it just disappeared. Things coming out of it were like little branches, twigs, sticks. They were like hair, but thick.” The daughter last slept in that same room and had a episode of what she described as sleep paralysis, stating “it was like a black fog suffocating me, and I couldn’t breathe or move. It was making my mouth wide open and I couldn’t close it.” The daughter at that moment revealed that previous to her mother’s experience, she had been getting random thoughts & dreams about a creature like the one her mother described but with leaves. She feels there is something ancient there. The cat at times in this same room would suddenly act jumpy with its tail getting bushy. The dog at times chases something unseen into corners of another room downstairs.
It is interesting to note this reported creature doesn’t suggest a gender as do many ghost reportings. It wasn’t dressed in clothing as ghosts are commonly reported to appear. What is to be made of this particular entity reporting? Furthermore, the comments of the daughter about her dreaming of an entity similar to the experiencer, her mom, matches independent data from one particular scientific study into the paranormal. It concerns two friends and their simultaneous experience of a malign presence. One woke to see an unusually tall male figure, largely shadowed but with visible highlights in his eyes. His partner slept through this, but spoke of a vivid dream about the same thing with the figure being unusually tall and disapproving. Sleep Paralysis interestingly enough was mentioned by most later contributors to this study discussion (just as the daughter has done so).
So what is really going on here? Are all such events simply to be written off as sleep paralysis or is there something paranormal about at least some of these? The stalemate continues as some pro-paranormal commentators treat any questioning of belief as hostile, while some scientific commentators refuse to acknowledge cultural complexities around beliefs.
Science will offer one explanation as a “hypnagogic experience.” This describes the time period immediately before falling asleep or at the instant of awakening, but before full awareness upon being awake, where hallucinations, both visual and auditory are possible to happen, and are not considered unusual. Science even goes as far as to offer as explanation that this isn’t necesarrily related to sleep, but can happen to a person doing something dull, repetitive or boring.
But there is enough contrary events that just do not fit the scientific explanation. Yes, they can be categorized as unexplained, however take a few moments to examine the facts. The event that I investigated didn’t fit any stereotype of a haunting with no evident stimuli present to effect a specific interpretation. It also could not be supported anecdotally. My investigation revealed no known documentary accounts that could have fed my client’s interpretative process.
I spent several nights in that vacated bedroom of the client where the disturbing events were being reported. I have a video of an unexplained anomaly consisting of white, wispy cloud-like wing movements behind me ascending from the floor up and thru the ceiling. In addition another static camera positioned downstairs captured a white blur moving up the stairs toward the room I was in. As I walked about outside the door of the bedroom my POV video even captured a dark, irregularly shaped anomaly the size of a golf ball floating around the hall and lingering at the bedroom door before disappearing, as I commented in astonishment as to what it could be. There was an incredible dark, heavy and almost evil-like feeling in that room with me. The only form of provocation that I used to elicit a response was to immerse myself in prayer & reading my bible aloud…. for hours. I am providing a link to an evp that was captured with me alone in the room that contains vocal tone. What is being said cannot be distinguished, but if you listen to it I am certain you will agree it sounds nothing short of evil!!! Here is the link on my soundcloud account (turn your volume up).
I don’t do the usual ‘ghost gadget’ investigations popular with todays paranormal TV shows. Instead I combined observation with basic temperature and audio capture/documentation in 96 khz/24-bit WAV format. There were no anomalous EMF fluctuations outside of my original baseline sweep to eliminate household electrical sources, yet I could constantly “feel” something wasn’t right. I ruled out infrasound as being an affecting influence. My scientific approach included spectrogram analysis of the curious soundbite captured on audio having five unintelligible syllables. These show as “voiced sounds,” which in the study of speech and phonetics includes all vowels and half the consonants. There is a base formant band along with F1, F2 and F3 formant instances. In addition, there are signs of fricatives and voiced stops. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE WITH A NON-PHYSICAL ENTITY?!!!
Due to the grandfather, a Catholic residing in this home & who had experienced nothing negative, I consulted with and enlisted the aid of a Roman Catholic priest friend of mine. He returned to the residence with me and performed a ritual house blessing which I assisted in as his “altar boy.” After that, there was still a presence, but it was no longer of a negative nature. Moreover, both mother and daughter have not reported more instances of sleep paralysis. Of interesting note, the priest stated afterward, having been given no prior knowledge of the residence, that he had felt something different in the very bedroom that was the source of the negativity.
None of this is proof of demons or the paranormal itself. The continuing question remains concerning the topic of spirits, demons etc… are they only as real as we make them…. or are they truly real?