Scary Experience I Had During Sleep in 1965

I will always remember a very scary and strange experience I had when I fell asleep in my dorm room in 1965.  I had just fallen asleep when I awoke to hear the door to my room open followed by the most malevolent laugh.  I could hear footsteps coming to my side with the laughter that sounded awful.  I felt hands around my throat and I thought I am going to be strangled.  To my amazement I could not move.  I wanted to scream but I could not scream.  I could not move a muscle.  I just knew that I was dying.  After a bit the "creature" withdrew their hands and walked out of the room.  It was then that I could move.

To my surprise I found out by reading an article a few years later that others have this exact same experience.  It is called the "old hag syndrome".

Thought.co.com on the internet describes it this way:

"The name of the phenomenon comes from the superstitious belief that a witch - or an old hag - sits or "rides" the chest of the victims, rendering them immobile. Although that explanation isn't taken very seriously nowadays, the perplexing and often very frightening nature of the phenomenon leads many people to believe that there are supernatural forces at work - ghosts or demons.

The experience is so frightening because the victims, although paralyzed, seem to have full use of their senses.

In fact, it is often accompanied by strange smells, the sound of approaching footsteps, apparitions of weird shadows or glowing eyes, and the oppressive weight on the chest, making breathing difficult if not impossible. All of the body's senses are telling the victims that something real and unusual is happening to them.

The phenomenon occurs to both men and women of various ages and seems to happen to about 15 percent of the population at least once in a lifetime. It can occur while the victim is sleeping during the day or night, and it is a worldwide phenomenon that has been documented since ancient times."

I have never had that experience since.  The article explains that this phenomena happens in the time between waking and sleeping.  In meditation we know that there is what we call the "gap" between breaths where insight can come.  I am wondering now if the gap between waking and sleeping is an entrance into another dimension.  My late husband used to go into what he called "another world" which was as real to him as this world if not more so.  I will write about this experience in another blog.

Sleep time is a fascinating experience in which we can learn about ourselves.  I will be talking about this in my talk at Unity Spiritual Center of Denton on July 8th followed by a seminar at 1:00 PM.