Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sleep paralysis and alien abduction

One of the skeptical world's favorite alien abduction debunking devices is that of sleep paralysis, which all of you are probably quite aware of. If you don't know what sleep paralysis is however, the simplest explanation is that it is a malfunction in the dream cycle during sleep. More precisely it is a malfunction that occurs when you wake from a dream, but your body fails to fully leave the physical dream mode. Victims often wake up immobilized by a safety mechanism designed to keep you from acting out your dreams. People, although they may be conscious, will still experience some other dream like symptoms, such as feelings of someone being in the room, or bright lights that aren't really there.

Since it is similar in description to alien abductions, it's no wonder skeptics like to cling to this as a reason why abduction is not real. What if they were right, at least in the sense that the abduction phenomenon is connected to sleep paralysis, but in a totally different way then the skeptics believe.

It has been thought that while you dream you sometimes can have things happen to you physically. For instance, I've had dreams where I'm falling then suddenly find myself awake with and my leg jumps as if I've landed on it. A little bit more extreme is the idea that dreams can take you to other real worlds/dimensions. Perhaps the aliens committing the abductions only physically abduct people a few times and the rest of the time use dreams and/or sleep paralysis to their advantage, using the so called "implants" found in some abductees to initialize the abduction experiences and doing what they do in a dream world.

Throwing out the more far fetched ideas of that theory however, aliens could perhaps be aware of the sleep paralysis phenomenon and simply use it as a cover for abductions. Triggering it to make abductees believe they are simply experiencing this ordinary phenomenon when in fact they are unaware they are being taken by alien beings. Just another arsenal to hide their actions just like screen memories.

5 comments:

Regan Lee said...

You make good points Jason. I've never been at all satisfied with the sleep paralysis idea. My direct experience tells contradicts that: I've had dozens and dozens of sleep paralysis episodes throughout my life, and not once did I think I was seeing aliens or in a spaceship, etc. I've thought other things; people in the room, having conversations with them, etc. and turns out I didn't, but nothing alien or paranormal.

I have had OOBEs, and physical things happen there, for example, slamming back into my body and for two days afterward my stomach hurt like I'd been punched...

I think your thoughts about the aliens using the state of sleep in this mode as a convenient conduit make sense, very possible...

Trish and Rob MacGregor said...

Insightful post, Jason. It's too easy to dismiss this stuff. Skeptics find 5 million reason to doubt everything. Instead of exploring, they debunk. Too bad for them.

funny word verification here: metoo
Me too
A trickster, this one.

Sharon Day said...

I totally see how they assume that. I have sleep paralysis and night terrors. I get sleep paralysis, I am aware of the room and if the TV is on, I can see it and if someone walks by, I see them. Also, my vision is different and I see shapes that I make out in confusion as human-like. But, when I have night terrors, it is always the same scenario, a large gray face leaning over me, inches from my face and I scream at the top of my lungs and often times sit up and thrash around and am hard to control until I become fully conscious. My heart beats insanely and I get this feel of the most horrible terror that is beyond anything I've ever felt in my entire life. It's impossible to describe. Once I'm awake, I realize I was having a terror and I go right back to sleep, but it always starts with that pale gray face near mine.

Deirdre said...

Regarding non-physical abductions:

I read a book not long ago that talks about this -- 'Experiencer: Raised in Two Worlds' by Bill Konkolesky -- in which he claimed most of his abductions were more 'astral' in nature. I suppose it is plausible if we are willing to accept that aliens (or whoever) are actually abducting humans to any degree, but I find it hard to put a lot of faith in that. Not because I am giving hypnagogic states full responsibility for perceived abductions, but because it would be hard to differentiate OOB abductions from dreams in many cases -- at least enough to convince the public that they are actual happenings.

With those who have experienced both a physical and non-physical type abduction/contact experience, it may be easier for those individuals to realize what is a dream and what is not, but there' isn't much hope of providing any evidence for these.

I've often wondered if some of my experiences were only sleep paralysis and nothing more, but on a few occasions, I have had these nocturnal experiences with another person present. Particularly a few years ago in which i woke abruptly feeling like someone was in the room (besides me and my girlfriend) and witnessed a very bright green glow that slowly dissipated over the course of about 30 seconds. I woke my girlfriend up just as I noticed it and she saw it as well. The curtains were drawn and no other light was coming in the room -- but what was really strange is that the glow, while towards the foot of our bed, had no real distinguishable source. It was simply just there.

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