Sleep paralysis and alien abductions - a new idea

Hi all,

Every now and then a book comes along which challenges your personal viewpoint. This post is about such a book. The subject is sleep paralysis, which some researchers say is the definitive answer for the cause of alien abductions. I have only had one episode which falls into the definition of sleep paralysis. I awoke paralysed, with an "evil" presence in the room. The event was extremely real to me at the time, and years later I can still vividly recall it.

This post looks at the now four year old book by Australian,Louis Proud titled "Dark Intrusions:An Investigation into the Paranormal Nature of Sleep Paralysis Experiences. Published by Anomalist Books. San Antonio. ISBN 1933 66 5440.

I came across the book some time ago but have not made time to thoroughly read it and make notes. Now, I have.

The starting point:

"This book is an attempt to make sense of the SP phenomenon from an alternative, non-mechanistic perspective. Those of a skeptical disposition, who have little or no time for the occult or the paranormal, will find nothing of value in this book...My hope is that SP sufferers like myself, who are fed up with the official explanations of SP, will find context within these pages and hopefully, some answers too.." (pp20-21.)

"I have to admit that much of what I've written herein has been coloured - though not dogmatically so - by my interest in spiritism, an offshoot of spiritualism..." (p. 21.)

"It would be accurate to say that this book, rather than being about SP, is essentially about the nature of incorporal beings and the interactions that take place between them and us."  (p.21.)

Experiences:

Louis' SP experiences began in 2001, when he was 17. In 2003 he noted that "Whenever I felt nervous, stressed or depressed, my SP experiences would become more frequent and more intense." (p.25.)

In 2007 he "...fully recognised the fact that I suffered from SP." (p.25.)

He writes "Instead of describing any single episode - of which there is only a handful that I remember with total clarity - I will attempt to shed light on what a typical episode involves." (p.26.)

His typical episode finds him trying to get to sleep, which he finds difficult. Finally he goes to sleep. He wakes up, but not fully. "I can't move a single muscle in my body...I can't even open my eyes...this thing attaches to my forehead with delicate, loving strokes...It then moves over to the left side of my body and proceeds to lie down beside me...it puts its arms around me...fear is what it feeds upon...I force myself to wake up by fighting the paralysis...When I open my eyes and gaze around the pitch black room I see the shadow swirling over me...I jump out of bed...it's nowhere to be found." (pp26-27.)

Research:

"My research seems to indicate that the majority of SP attacks occur on an astral level and that the SP state involves a partial dislocation of the astral body from the physical body." (p.29.)

"The entity responsible for SP episodes are, by the way, able to invade one's dreams, turning them into nightmares." (p.31.)

In 2003 some of his experiences "...were of a highly sexual nature. Unbelievable though this sounds, I had sexual intercourse with female spirits who visited me in the middle of the night. This happened on several occasions. These sexual encounters were generally very intense, in many ways more so than the real thing...These encounters would always take place in a quasi-SP state, slightly different from the normal SP state." (p.32.)

Relevance to Alien abductions:

Louis writes on page 33 "During one encounter, I manged to open my eyes ever so slightly...I was rather taken aback to discover that the female being on top of me had the appearance of a half human, half alien grey."

By 2004 Louis "...began to experience auditory hallucinations...during the SP state...generally experienced  in such a fashion as to give one the impression that the sound is coming from outside oneself..." (p.34.)

"In my case...I will usually hear voices and sounds during the final moment of an SP episode, never at the beginning, and rarely during the middle..." (p.36.)

"Most of the voices speak in such a way that it seems they're trying to tell me something of great importance, something that requires my full attention." (p.38.)

"I should mention at this point that elementary sounds, and sensations of vibration and the like, do not feature strongly in my SP episodes." (p.39.)

"The sound of footsteps - which is something I've heard during many an SP episode..." (p/40/)

"A search for answers"

In 2007 Louis found an article which mentioned SP and spirits. "Bower's article makes the mistake of implying that these experiences have a physiological basis and nothing more..." (p.50.)

Louis started to research SP and chapters 4 through 17 of the book document his findings and thoughts.

His report on his investigations start with the work of David Hufford, author of "The Terror That Comes In the Night" who had an SP experience himself, then went onto conduct indepth investigations. Louis explains Hufford's work and relates some interesting observations.

One individual in Hufford's book, Jack, had SP attacks in front of his brother. The brother "...would notice that Jack's eyes were open, just staring straight out into space," and that his breathing sounded heavy and unusual. During these occasions, Jack's brother noticed nothing of a paranormal nature. (p.65.) (For Hufford's book, click here.)

"It would appear that the mind of the SP sufferer plays a role in giving shape to the entities you see," (p.66.)

Chapters 5-8:

Through chapter 5 "The Ghost of Bowling Green;" chapter 6 "The Poltergeist according to spiritism;" and chapter 7 "The Enfield Poltergeist" Louis describes his hypothesis that the poltergeist is "...an energy vampire," "as are most of the spirits responsible for SP attacks." (p.100.)

Exploring the story of Joe Fisher, a Canadian journalist and best selling author, in chapter 8, Louis states "That Fisher's death was caused by a group of malevolent disincarnate entities - who perhaps influenced his mind - might sound far-fetched and sensational..." (p.104.) (Click here for more on Fisher.)

Stan Gooch:

Stan Gooch was an English psychologist who penned a book "Creatures From Inner Space" and told, among other things, about the SP experiences of others and  himself, involving episodes of a sexual nature. (Click here for more on Gooch.)

Chapters 10, "Chico Xavier: The Pope of Spiritism" and 11, "Dion Fortune On Psychic Attacks," develops the relationship between humans and spirits.

As the SP phenomenon is inherently tied up with sleep, Louis looks at what is currently known about this topic, in chapter 14. He reports on the work of Kazuhiko Fukuda who showed that in an SP attack the brain indicated activity typical of REM sleep. There is also an explanation of the work of Persinger and Budden.

Robert Monroe:

Monroe and his work are closely examined in chapter 15. "What we have here is a definite link between the SP phenomenon and the realm of the paranormal - more specifically, contact and communication with spirits." (p.225.) (Click here for more on Monroe's work.)

"It should be clear by now that SP episode occur on an astral level, including in some cases, a partial dislocation of the astral body from the physical body..." (p.228.)

"Assuming that the astral body leaves the physical body every time we fall asleep, and that the SP state involves little more than being awake and aware during REM sleep, it would not be unreasonable to state that the only difference between an SP sufferer and a non-SP sufferer is that the former has some awareness of these astral experiences..." (p226.)

The UAP connection:

Louis explains the UAP connection in chapter 16 "Whitley Strieber and the Visitors." "...it would not be a stretch to classify him as a kind of shaman, and intermediary between this world and the world of the gods..." (p.229.) (For more on Strieber, click here.)

Louis's perspective is that "SP attacks occur on an astral level...on the other hand, alien abduction episodes occur on a physical level, or quasi-physical level." (p.240.)

"These experiences seem to suggest that the so called hallucinations experienced by SP sufferers are, in fact "astral perceptions" and therefore possess a high degree of objectivity." (p.246.)

"We have found yet more evidence to support the central hypothesis of this book - that some SP attacks are caused by, and involve contact with discarnate entities." (p.246.)

The penultimate chapter concerns Trevor James Constable, who "...claims to have photographed etheric organisms of many different varieties..." (p.254.) (Click here.)

After examining the works of Constable, Boccone and Gheorghita, Louis writes "No doubt the reader will have recognised by now that an explicit overlap exists between the UFO phenomenon and what one might term the "discarnate entity phenomenon." (p.258.)

Finally, in chapter 18 "Postscript" Louis relates his successful experiment to induce SP and experience an out of body experience or a lucid dream.

"I remain convinced that these particular SP attacks are an attempt at possession by malevolent discarnate entities and could possibly lead to other types of paranormal phenomena..." (p.265.)

"The same rule applies to SP attacks. Some of them could be caused by thought-forms, others by malicious earth-bound spirits, while others may result from a consciousness  split "between our astral and physical bodies..." (p.266.)

Conclusion:

"The findings in this book demonstrate that there exists another reality -  a 'spirit realm'- impinging upon our own, whose inhabitants influence us profoundly and play a much larger role in our lives than we come to imagine - or are able to comprehend." (p.268.)

Comments:

Of relevance here to the UAP abduction phenomenon is a note on page 32 by Louis that "According to folklore, when a succubus or incubus wishes to seduce someone, they alter their appearance in such a way as to appear more sexually appealing and more human." I recall reading a number of references in the UAP abduction literature in which someone believes that they had sex with a human being, only to realise that the being is in fact more reptilian than human.

Could it be that a constant core phenomenon, over hundreds of years, is at work here using cultural expectations and a particular periods in time, to provide a convenient explanation? I recall here, a note in  post by my former co-blogger, Pauline Wilson, (29 Dec 2010) when writing about Vallee and Aubeck's book "Wonders in the Sky." (Click here.) In that book Vallee "...recognised the difference between the core phenomenology of reports and the local language and interpretation that clothes that core in traditional accounts." (p.2.)

If you haven't read Louis' book I would recommend you track down a copy and study it.