Experiencers and "exploding head syndrome."

Hi all,

Some background:

Over the years, I have interviewed dozens of experiencers. Some of them have mentioned unusual events which occur on the sleep/awake interface. They will be lying in bed, and suddenly hear a tremendously loud sound; or see a flash of light in their darkened room, or occasionally feel a wave of heat pass through their bodies.

These events then become integrated into other unusual events, which happen to them, which they may interpret as being part of their UAP/alien experiences. However, there may just be a conventional explanation for these kind of events.

In the July/August 2015 (vol. 36, no.6) issue of the magazine "Australasian Science," writer Tim Hannon, on page 40, reports on  "Exploding Head Syndrome."

The article:

In part the article reads:

"In recent years the neuropsychological literature has been awash with reports of people describing strange experiences when going to sleep. Many of those have described hearing sudden inexplicable noises; such as unseen bombs exploding nearby, thunderclaps on cloud-free nights, or a gun fired in their bedroom by an invisible intruder. At times these sounds are accompanied by flashes of light, or by physical sensations such as intense heat."

"While some people are convinced that these explosions are real, most others acknowledge that, since they are not heard by others, the sounds must have occurred inside their own heads.

"Some have concluded that these noises must be the work of invisible agents such as aliens or poltergeists, or a government agency testing mind-control weapons...neurological investigation suggest that the episodes are symptoms of a condition labelled exploding head syndrome which may be more common than previously assumed...The neurological mechanisms responsible for exploding head syndrome are not well understood...The dominant theory implicates the reticular formation, a set of connected nuclei distributed through the brainstem, which is one of several neural systems regulating the body's transition between sleep and wakefulness..."

Hannon's article cites the recent work of Brian Sharpless, Department of Psychology, Washington State University as published in J. Sleep Res. (2015 - click here.)

Knowledge researchers need:

I have long maintained, that UAP researchers who work with experiencers need to have a basic knowledge of a number of areas of abnormal psychology (click here) , physiology (click here) and neurology (click here.). These include the topics of hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery (click here); sleep paralysis (click here;) and fantasy prone personality (click here ); and false awakenings (click here.)

Pauline Wilson's blog posts:

For the background to the possible relationship between UAP experiencers and fantasy-prone personality by Adelaide based researcher, Pauline Wilson, please click here. For citations to seven published scientific studies on the topic, and further discussion click here.

For Pauline's take on hypnagogic imagery click here.

In summary:

I am not saying that these areas explain the totality of experiencer's accounts, but that parts of experiencers' stories are so similar to these areas of existing knowledge, that researchers need to take current scientific research into account, when trying to interpret the accounts of an experiencer.

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.

"A time to remember"

Dear readers,

The English magazine "Fortean Times" is always a source of articles which make me think. Another fascinating article appears in the March 2012 issue (pp56-57) penned (or typed) by one Rob Gandy.

A management consultant, Gandy, had an unusual experience in December 2006, which he shares with us. After working on bicycle repairs, then talking to his wife, he lost a portion of his memory for recent events. At first, his wife thought he had experienced a stroke. However, the diagnosis was Transient Global Amnesia (for more click here.) His memory slowly returned.

Gandy points out that a FT contributor, Gail-Nina Anderson, who also had a TGA episode, joked that "...if she had been on a dark lonely road when she experienced TGA, she would have been able to attribute the time lapse to aliens."

Gandy then writes "A stereotypical; event in ufology is that someone is driving through the countryside at night when their car enters a luminous cloud, or similar; then the driver finds himself miles down the road with half an hour missing."

"A number of commentators have argued that many, if not all, perceived UFOs are actually forms of a rare meteorological phenomena. Therefore, my speculative interpretation of these events is that they do involve rare meteorological phenomena and these phenomena can induce TGA in humans who get too close to them."

What is the frequency of TGA?

"Estimates...varies from a minimum of 2.9 cases per  100,000 population (Spain) and 5.2 per 100,000 (USA); but among people aged over 50, the rate of TGA incidence is reported to range from approximately 23 per 1000,000 (in a US population) to 32 per 100,000 (in a population in Scandinavia.)"

Gandy argues that some people who have a TGA episode, might arrive at an interpretation of an alien abduction, in their world view.

Lost time:

"I surmise that most, if not all, reported episodes of lost time are not, "lost time: but "lost memory," and suggest that there are rare meteorological phenomena that can induce memory loss on a temporary basis."

Comments:

I find the meteorological part of Gandy's hypothesis a bit of a stretch. Why do we need a rare meteorological phenomena to cause a TGA? TGA's happen to some people, in a variety of circumstances.

I do however, think that TGAs may have an involvement in some UFO encounters. Just as hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery; (click here);  fantasy proneness; (click here) sleep paralysis (click here for a detailed article by Keith Basterfield) ; migraines (click here); false awakenings (click here)  and other conditions seem to be involved in some encounters. TGAs may account for element of some such events. Perhaps, many abduction accounts may involve one, or a combination of these triggers?

False awakenings

Hi

Another topic which appears to have relevance to UFO abductions is the subject of "false awakenings."

Definition:

False awakenings are episodes in which a person believes they wake up from sleep, in their normal surroundings, e.g. their bedroom. They might then get out of bed, visit the bathroom, have breakfast or carry out other everyday activities. However, they then really wake up. The preceding recollections had in fact occurred while they were still asleep. Hence the name "false awakening."

Celia Green:

False awakenings can occur after both lucid dreams (dreams where you realise that you are dreaming) and non-lucid dreams. False awakenings seem to occur more among individuals who frequently have lucid dreams. (Click here for more on Lucid dreams.)

Celia Green (Green. 1968. Lucid Dreaming. London. Hamish Hamilton) described a type-2 false awakening. These are instances in which a person appears to wake up normally and finds themselves in bed. The surroundings may at first seem normal, but then the environment becomes unusual or uncanny, and a "funny" atmosphere sets in. Alternatively, the person may awake immediately to a "stressed" or "stormy" feeling. In either case, the individual can experience fear and panic, or hallucinatory or apparitional effects are noticed. This may be accompanied by an apparent paralysis or out-of-body experience. (Click here for more on Green.)

To an outsider, a person undergoing any one of these experiences would appear to be asleep, lying with eyes closed.

Peter McKellar:

These false awakenings can seem very real. Peter McKellar, a psychologist, wrote a book titled "Experience and behaviour" (Penguin. London. 1968) and cites the following example. (Click here for more on McKellar.)

A young couple had a routine of the wife getting breakfast for her husband, then seeing him off to work, before preparing for work herself. One morning, the woman recalled waking up, getting out of bed, washing, dressing, making breakfast and finally being in the process of kissing goodbye to her husband. Then she really woke up to find she was still in bed. Her husband was leaning over her kissing goodbye to her.

Her husband told her that he had woken up that morning, to find her still asleep in the bed so he left her there sleeping. He made himself breakfast and was kissing her goodbye when she woke up.

The woman had experienced a false awakening, where her recollections of being awake and doing a number of things, occurred while she was still asleep. These recollections were "as real as real." Yet it was all created within her own mind.

Relevance to abductions?:

Imagine someone waking up during the night. A grey figure in in their bedroom. The being communicates with them via telepathy. The alien disappears through the wall. The witness then wakes up to find themselves in bed. They feel that the alien episode was real, but it actually was a false awakening with the imagery of the figure derived from their mind's recollections of a film, a book or any other manner of data infeed from previous real life.

Falling sleep:

One of the odd things about accounts of UFO abductions which has always puzzled me, is the way that an event happens and then the abductee/experiencer says that at the end of the experience they simply either find themselves in their bed, or simply fall asleep. It is something that is mentioned time and time again in the UFO literature.

You would think that after such an extraordinary event, an alien abduction, that the last thing a person would do, is fall asleep. Yet this is what is repeatedly described.

Examples of this may be found in John Mack's book "Abduction" page 158 where abductee Catherine, at the end of the experience says "So I went back and got into bed and went to sleep."

Abductee Paul (Mack p221) "He had been coming out of a dreaming sleep when he heard a loud buzzing...went back to sleep..."

Other Mack abductees speak of finding themselves in bed at the end of their abduction.

Abductee Scott (Mack pp99-100( "After this Scott remembered being "dropped in bed" in his room feeling very frightened and also angry, but had no recollection of how he was returned."

Abductee Jerry (Mack p126) "The next thing I was back in bed, waking up."

Abductee Eve (Mack p241) "...dreams of beings in her room that are still there when she wakes up..."

Abductee dave (Mack p274) "At this point Dave said that he 'blacked out' or lost consciousness or something...The next thing I knew I was lying in bed on my side."

My comments:

My thoughts are that what if the "abduction" event occurred in the state of a "false awakening?" Then believing that you fell asleep at the end of the event, would be quite normal, given that you were never awake at the time.

I think that false awakenings have real relevance to some UFO abductions. Perhaps this is another entry point to an abduction experience as has previously been suggested for sleep paralysis; migraine auras and prodromes; hypnagogic/hypnopompic imagery; fantasy-proneness, and courtesy of Jenny Randles, vasovagal syncope.

Sleep paralysis and false awakening:

What is the difference between sleep paralysis and false awakening? Both experiences occur on the boundary between sleep and awake.

With sleep paralysis, you wake up from rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep where you are dreaming, and can't move, apart from your eyes. Hypnopompic imagery may occur at this point.

With a false awakening, you remain asleep but believe you are awake, and can recall undertaking everyday items such as getting out of bed etc which seems "as real as real." Finally, you really wake up, know you are in consensus reality but can vividly recall your experiences you have just had. When fully awake the false awakening memories remain with you and still feel "as real as real."

An early article on this topic:

I first came across the topic of false awakenings way back in 1978 and wrote an article about its possible relevance to other UFO cases - click here to read it.

Over to you readers for comments.