August 31, 2023 • 30 mins
The mysterious realms of sleep paralysis, explore the chilling tales of the night hag, boo hag, and other entities that have haunted cultures worldwide. But the eerie journey doesn't stop there – we'll also shed light on the phenomenon of Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome that leaves us questioning the thin veil between the realms of sleep and the unknown. Get ready to unravel the secrets that lurk in the darkness of the night, as we navigate through these haunting tales that blur the line between dreams and reality.
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(00:16):
Deep within the heart of a mist covered forest.
An age old legend whispered tales of the dreaded boo hag.
The story began with a woman whose vanity knew no bounds,
her obsession with her own beauty,
driving her to strike a sinister bargain with the very devil himself longing for unending youth and beauty.
(00:44):
The woman vowed her firstborn child to the devil in exchange for the fleeting promise that she sought.
The wicked pact was sealed with shadows and secrets marking her descent into darkness.
The years passed and the woman reveled in her perpetual beauty.
(01:05):
She disregarded the ominous debt that loomed over her head.
She basked in the admiration of all who beheld her.
She was intoxicated by the power her looks bestowed upon her as the embodiment of malevolence draped in a cloak of Impenetrable darkness.
(01:28):
The devil resurfaced to exact his demanded price in the wake of his reappearance.
The woman's heart danced a fearful rhythm.
Her very core quivering with an unsettling mixture of anxiety and dread.
Yet her greed outmatched her fear and she defied the bargain,
(01:51):
breaking her promise with a heart as cold as stone memories of the haunting deal struck in her pursuit of endless beauty danced before her eyes,
but her thirst for the superficial proved stronger than her fear and she dared to defy the sinister bargain in the wake of her defiance.
(02:14):
The devil's wrath erupted like a volcano.
A torrent of darkness and malevolence.
His retribution took shape in the form of a curse.
A curse that would forever cast her as the boo hag,
a harbinger of doom,
a vengeful apparition that haunted the shadows.
(02:36):
The very beauty that had been her most prized possession,
twisted and distorted,
rendering her up grotesque and repugnant figure that instilled terror in any who crossed her path.
Thus condemned to an existence of ceaseless yearning and insatiable cravings.
(03:00):
The hag materialized a creature forged from her own folly and the devil's vindictive fury.
Her ethereal presence became a haunting reminder of the abysmal depths of vanity and the catastrophic toll of deceit.
Her mournful whales reverberated through the eerie silence of the night.
(03:24):
A melancholic requiem laced with the weight of promises shattered and curses unbreakable in her cursed state.
The boo hag did not merely prey on the living through her insatiable hunger.
No,
she weaved a malevolent tapestry of fear,
(03:46):
her desires extending to the realm of dreams with a malicious,
she wove tendrils of sleep paralysis in snaring the minds of the innocent in a web of immobilizing dread.
She reveled in their terror savoring the helpless struggles that her spectral presence inspired as they lay frozen caught between wakefulness and nightmares.
(04:40):
Welcome to Psychology of The Strange,
the podcast that delves into the depths of human psychology to explore the obscure and mysterious aspects of the human mind.
I'm your host Tara Perreau.
And together we'll embark on a journey behind the strange and unexplained phenomena that captivate our imagination.
(05:17):
Have you ever woken up eyes wide open?
Only to discover that your body seems to be trapped,
unable to move your arms legs or even your head.
It's an unnerving experience that's been reported by people across cultures and time periods.
(05:39):
What's most unsettling is what accompanies this sensation during those fleeting moments when you're immobilized,
but your mind remains sharp emotions,
run wild fear,
anxiety and panic grip you like icy tendrils around your heart.
(06:00):
Your surroundings once familiar suddenly transform into a landscape of unease,
but perhaps the most eerie element is that lurking feeling a presence just beyond the reach of your senses.
This phenomenon has a name one that is echoed through history.
(06:23):
The night Hag,
the Mara Boo Dab Tsog to name a few.
It's a term that has been used to describe the sensation of sleep paralysis accompanied by vivid and often terrifying hallucinations while modern science offers explanations rooted in neuroscience and sleep patterns.
(06:49):
The night hag has deep roots in folklore and mythology in various cultures.
The night hag is believed to be a malevolent spirit or entity that visits individuals while they sleep pressing down on their chests and rendering them immobile.
(07:10):
These encounters are often marked by feelings of dread and a suffocating weight on their chest as if an other worldly presence is trying to steal their very breath.
Historically,
the night hag has been linked to tales of witches,
demons and even extraterrestrial visitors.
(07:33):
Stories abound of people waking up to find a shadowy figure lurking at the foot of their bed or perched on their chest,
leaving them paralyzed with fear.
But what's more terrifying is that these experiences while often attributed to sleep paralysis,
(07:53):
feel hauntingly real to those who endure them as we ponder the night hags existence.
We're left with questions that straddle the realms of science and the supernatural.
Is it purely a product of our brain's mysterious workings during sleep?
Or is there something more to these chilling encounters that transcends our understanding of reality?
(08:27):
A surge of panic ran through me,
the remnants of a nightmare.
Possibly my eyes flew open at the sound of the familiar creek of the floorboards in my bedroom.
And while my surroundings were familiar,
the feeling of a presence close by did not ease the panic.
I felt I tried to sit up but I couldn't move.
(08:51):
I wanted to scream for help.
I could hear my boyfriend laying next to me peacefully snoring softly.
If only I could call out to him,
I tried with all my might to make a sound,
a pitiful sound escaped my lips barely more than a whispered squeak in the doorway.
(09:14):
There was a dark figure staring at me with glowing eyes.
I willed my body to move,
but I felt as if I were made from stone.
The figure was getting closer.
Finally,
I moved my fingers and the spell was broken.
I gasped for air finally able to breathe in my panic.
(09:38):
I hadn't realized I wasn't breathing or wasn't breathing fully.
After a few hours,
I was finally able to drift back to sleep,
convincing myself.
It was only a nightmare.
As I awoke the next morning,
I could fully remember my experience,
but there was a clawing feeling at the back of my mind.
(10:02):
I knew I was awake.
I knew it hadn't been a dream.
But still I went about my day that evening,
I went to sleep and awoke again.
I could feel eyes on me.
I could feel a presence behind me.
I knew there was someone there.
I was so close to my boyfriend.
(10:24):
This time facing him.
I needed him to wake me all the way up.
I tried to reach out but still I couldn't move.
I could hear footsteps getting closer again.
I tried to scream to yell.
Only that pitiful sound of my strained voice were heard.
(10:47):
I could hear breathing.
Now behind me,
this is it I thought to myself,
this is the end.
I broke free of the trance and was able to move.
I shot up in bed and searched all around.
There was no one there.
I looked in the closet and feeling like a terrified child.
(11:08):
I even looked under the bed.
My panic this night was so strong.
There was no more sleep left to have the cycle continued for days.
Each time felt longer.
Each time the figure would get closer.
I dreaded sleeping and would try to stay awake.
(11:31):
But the human body can only go so long before sleep is medically necessary.
I told myself that it can't hurt me.
It's all in my imagination.
It's not real.
That night when I awoke,
paralyzed,
unable to move.
I remembered my mantra and said it over and over and over again in my head as the figure got closer.
(11:57):
It's not real,
it's not real.
It's not real.
My panic started to fade.
It was almost becoming familiar.
But this night as the panic faded,
the figure got closer than ever before she climbed onto the bed.
I felt the bed shift from her weight.
(12:18):
This was something new.
I could feel her weight on my legs.
I could make out the features of her face.
Fresh white hot panic surged through me.
An actual scream escaped my lips but this broke the spell.
My legs hurt from where she had kneeled on me.
(12:41):
My boyfriend for the first time was also awoken and turned on the lights and tried to convince me that it was all a nightmare.
I looked at my leg just below the knee where she had put her weight on me and there was a fresh bruise forming.
My boyfriend brushed it off.
(13:02):
I must have gotten it earlier in the day and not have realized,
reminding me of how accident prone I had been lately from lack of sleep to say I was shook was an understatement.
I now had proof that what was happening was real.
I had a bruise to prove it.
(13:22):
The visits continued.
It was the following night I woke up paralyzed.
Yet again,
I scanned the room and there she was right by the bed.
I could hear her raspy breathing.
I could feel her presence stifling and heavy.
It's not real.
(13:43):
It's not real.
I said in my head,
I tried yet again to break through the paralysis.
She started moving towards me.
I felt the bed sink as she climbed on.
I felt her jerky movements as she straddled me.
I could feel her breath.
My heart was pounding so hard and fast.
(14:05):
But it seemed that that was the only part of me that was able to move.
I felt her icy fingers on my throat as she choked me.
I couldn't breathe at all.
Terror flooded me like ice in my veins.
It seemed as if time around me had stopped and all there was,
(14:25):
was this horrifying moment that seemed as if it would never end except with my death.
And soon I regained my functions and I was able to move once more.
It was an eerie sight.
It was as if she was sucked out of the room with a vacuum the way she disappeared.
(14:48):
This was the longest experience I had with it.
I moved out of my house right after that final experience,
the night terrors stopped.
It was as if it never happened.
But still I have the memories.
I can still recall the feel of her bony fingers on my throat stories.
(15:17):
Like these are truly terrifying.
It sounds more like an idea for a horror movie than a true account of an experience with the night Hag.
This experience was so absolutely horrifying to this individual that she moved out of her house.
She shared with me that at the time she had never heard of sleep paralysis or old hag syndrome as it's sometimes known.
(15:45):
Although the strange thing is that the sleep paralysis and the supernatural visions stopped when she wasn't sleeping at her home.
But what exactly is it about the night hag that has transcended cultures and time?
It's fascinating how nearly every society has its own version of this eerie phenomenon.
(16:10):
For instance,
in Egypt,
they refer to this malevolent being as a djinn in China.
It's known as the compression ghost.
One common thread that ties the accounts together is the overwhelming sense of a presence,
a presence that strikes fear and leaves an indelible mark on those who have experienced it from the to the nightmare.
(16:38):
Each culture has its own interpretation of the phenomenon,
a reflection of our collective fascination with the unknown.
But it's all just a dream,
right?
It's not really a dark evil presence.
But what happens when sleep paralysis and supernatural apparitions actually kill during the early 19 eighties,
(17:12):
a haunting series of inexplicable deaths involving over 100 and 17 Hmong refugees sent ripples of intrigue through society.
Ultimately serving as the inspirational underpinning for Wes Craven's cinematic creation,
(17:32):
a nightmare on Elm Street.
The mysterious saga had its origins as far back as 1977.
When the first instance of sudden unexpected death syndrome sons was meticulously documented.
However,
it wasn't until the years,
(17:52):
1981 to 1982 that the fatalities reached a crescendo with an alarming rate of 92 per 100,000 individuals.
Amid this grim story,
news articles detailing the tragic deaths permeated across the nation,
(18:13):
capturing the collective attention of medical practitioners and community leaders.
The harrowing phenomenon urged these experts to plunge into a collective quest driven by an urgency to unravel the mystery shrouding these nocturnal fatalities.
Their shared determination was to discern the underlying cause between the tragic slumber induced demise of these refugees.
(18:41):
A conundrum that both baffled and gripped the nation fleeing the war ravaged landscape of Laos.
The mong people embarked on a journey to the West only to encounter a fresh set of challenges in their new environment for those who sought refuge in the United States.
(19:02):
Their lives now hung suspended between two worlds.
Grappling with the disorienting effects of their religion,
language and skills,
losing context and their weakening of their once robust social support system.
The mong immigrants found themselves in an intricate predicament once where their traditional belief systems underwent a profound transformation.
(19:32):
The move to the United States marked a turning point for many mong signaling,
the fading of their long standing religious practices and beliefs that had been deeply embedded in their lives.
In the hmongs traditional cosmology,
the natural world teams with spirits,
spirits inhabited trees,
(19:54):
mountains,
rivers,
rocks,
even lightning infusing each facet of their environment with distinct life forces.
The spirits of ancestors didn't merely depart with death.
Instead,
they remained intertwined with the living,
participating in elaborate rituals of reciprocity that bound them to their living descendants.
(20:20):
Central to the mong perspective was the celebration of humanity as an important component of their broader natural order rather than isolating themselves as separate entities.
They embraced their place within the intricate cycle of life that encompassed all creation.
(20:41):
This connection was woven intricately into the ebb and flow of seasons,
profoundly entwined with the contours of mountains and reverberated through the concept of life's transmigration across generations and even species.
The essence of life in all its diverse manifestations found expressions through the interplay of souls and spirits.
(21:06):
In the mong world view.
Doctor Shelley Adler conducted extensive fieldwork,
looking for answers.
When talking to refugees in interviews,
it became clear to her that many people were worried.
They thought that the spirits of their ancestors who believed protected them back in Laos might not be able to come with them across the ocean to the United States.
(21:34):
This meant that the spirits might not be able to keep them safe from spiritual dangers in their new home.
But there was some comfort in the idea that the many evil spirits that cause problems for the mong back in Laos might not be able to follow them to the United States.
One of these troublesome spirits was in mong language is their word for spirit and it often means a bad or evil.
(22:05):
One.
Tsog is the specific name for the nightmare spirit.
And it's also part of the phrase they use to describe a nightmare attack.
Chocha means to crush,
to press or to smother.
They believe they had left the spirit back behind them.
(22:27):
Unfortunately,
it turned out that this scary spirit had also made the journey to America all in all over 100 Southeast Asians living in the United States have lost their lives to a mysterious condition.
Now identified as sons.
This puzzling disorder has shown an unusually high occurrence among Laotian individuals,
(22:53):
especially male mong refugees.
What makes these deaths even more perplexing is that they are predominantly affecting men.
Only one victim was not male.
The typical age of those affected is around 33 years old and they've lived in the United States for about 17 months before passing away.
(23:19):
Strangely,
all these individuals appear to be healthy and passed away.
Sleeping,
a 33 year old mong man that had recently arrived to the United States,
recounted his experience to Dr Adler in one of her interviews saying at first I was surprised,
(23:43):
but then I got really scared.
I was lying in bed,
feeling exhausted from working so hard.
I wanted to go to school,
but I didn't have any money.
I kept waking up because I was thinking a lot about my problems.
I heard a noise but when I tried to turn or move,
I couldn't,
my room looked the same,
(24:05):
but I could see something dark coming towards me from the corner.
It reached my bed moving over my feet and legs.
It was heavy like a big weight over my whole body pressing down on my legs and chest.
My chest felt frozen and I couldn't breathe like I was drowning and had no air.
(24:26):
I tried to yell.
So the person sleeping near me could hear.
I tried to move with all my strength.
I thought what if I die?
After a long time?
It went away.
It just left.
I got up and turned on all the lights.
I was too scared to go back to sleep.
(24:52):
Sleep paralysis is essentially a glitch in your natural sleep wake cycle where you wake up,
unable to move or speak.
This is usually accompanied by feelings ranging from mild anxiety to outright terror.
This causes a psycho biological effect that adds in hallucinations that to some feel outright supernatural.
(25:19):
When you are sleeping,
you cycle through various stages of sleep,
non rapid eye movement,
sleep or nrem and one rem cycle which is rapid eye movement.
During rem sleep,
brain activity increases,
causing us to dream in order to keep ourselves safe while going through this portion of sleep cycle,
(25:46):
our body experiences Atonia,
which is a temporary paralysis of muscles.
With the exception of the eyes and the muscles that control breathing.
Even with the eyes closed,
they can be seen moving very fast,
which is how rem got its name at times.
(26:07):
The paralysis even hinders your ability to speak or cry out as the phase of rem sleep subsides your brain revives your muscles.
Yet on occasion,
the rhythm of the wake sleep cycle fails to align seamlessly within the realm between wakefulness and slumber,
(26:28):
your mind awakens while your body remains unresponsive.
This state allows you to perceive remnants of your dream sights and sounds persisting giving rise to the phenomenon of hallucinations.
According to several studies,
approximately 30% of the population has encountered at least one instance of sleep paralysis.
(26:54):
The phenomenon has a long history with records dating back centuries.
A notable incident occurred in 16 64 when a Dutch doctor recorded a distressing case of sleep paralysis.
In a patient.
In this historical account,
the patient's experience was described vividly,
(27:14):
she described feeling as though a malevolent force akin to the devil himself was pressing down on her or as if a massive dog were resting on her chest.
Despite her efforts to rid herself of this sensation,
she found herself immobilized,
unable to move or free herself from the invisible weight.
(27:39):
So what's up with old hag syndrome?
Sleep paralysis is a shared experience that transcends cultures worldwide,
diverse societies have woven their own tales to explain this eerie phenomenon.
For instance,
in Newfoundland Canada,
it's often referred to as Old Hag syndrome,
(28:00):
evoking the sensation of a witch like entity perched menacingly on the chest.
Drawing from a similar tradition in Nigeria,
there's a belief in a demon woman who pounces within the realm of dreams rendering victims utterly immobile.
In Japan sleep paralysis is attributed to a vengeful spirit that seeks to smother the sleeper.
(28:26):
Meanwhile,
in Brazil,
a mysterious figure known as residing atop roofs is thought to assail those who slumber on their backs with full stomachs.
In a painting from 17 81 titled The Nightmare Swiss English artist,
(28:47):
Henry FSI captured this essence.
The artwork portrays a young woman sprawled on her back,
an eerie gremlin crouching upon her abdomen.
Despite the diversity in these cultural narratives,
they all share a common thread fear.
(29:10):
This stems from the deeply unsettling experience of being trapped in immobility,
devoid of the ability to communicate.
This fear is exasperated by the undeniable sensation that an external force,
be it someone or something is holding you captive,
(29:31):
preventing your escape from a nightmarish reality.
So the next time you wake up in the dead of night,
frozen in place and surrounded by an atmosphere of dread.
Remember you are not alone the night hag with all its history and enigma continues to cast its shadow over the realms of dreams and wakefulness.
(29:56):
Leaving us to wonder about the mysteries that shroud our slumber.
Thank you for tuning into psychology of the strange.
(30:16):
Make sure you subscribe to wherever you stream your podcast so that you never miss an episode until next time.
This is your host,
Tara Perro signing off.
Deep within the heart of a mist covered forest.
An age old legend whispered tales of the dreaded boo hag.
The story began with a woman whose vanity knew no bounds,
her obsession with her own beauty,
driving her to strike a sinister bargain with the very devil himself longing for unending youth and beauty.
(00:44):
The woman vowed her firstborn child to the devil in exchange for the fleeting promise that she sought.
The wicked pact was sealed with shadows and secrets marking her descent into darkness.
The years passed and the woman reveled in her perpetual beauty.
(01:05):
She disregarded the ominous debt that loomed over her head.
She basked in the admiration of all who beheld her.
She was intoxicated by the power her looks bestowed upon her as the embodiment of malevolence draped in a cloak of Impenetrable darkness.
(01:28):
The devil resurfaced to exact his demanded price in the wake of his reappearance.
The woman's heart danced a fearful rhythm.
Her very core quivering with an unsettling mixture of anxiety and dread.
Yet her greed outmatched her fear and she defied the bargain,
(01:51):
breaking her promise with a heart as cold as stone memories of the haunting deal struck in her pursuit of endless beauty danced before her eyes,
but her thirst for the superficial proved stronger than her fear and she dared to defy the sinister bargain in the wake of her defiance.
(02:14):
The devil's wrath erupted like a volcano.
A torrent of darkness and malevolence.
His retribution took shape in the form of a curse.
A curse that would forever cast her as the boo hag,
a harbinger of doom,
a vengeful apparition that haunted the shadows.
(02:36):
The very beauty that had been her most prized possession,
twisted and distorted,
rendering her up grotesque and repugnant figure that instilled terror in any who crossed her path.
Thus condemned to an existence of ceaseless yearning and insatiable cravings.
(03:00):
The hag materialized a creature forged from her own folly and the devil's vindictive fury.
Her ethereal presence became a haunting reminder of the abysmal depths of vanity and the catastrophic toll of deceit.
Her mournful whales reverberated through the eerie silence of the night.
(03:24):
A melancholic requiem laced with the weight of promises shattered and curses unbreakable in her cursed state.
The boo hag did not merely prey on the living through her insatiable hunger.
No,
she weaved a malevolent tapestry of fear,
(03:46):
her desires extending to the realm of dreams with a malicious,
she wove tendrils of sleep paralysis in snaring the minds of the innocent in a web of immobilizing dread.
She reveled in their terror savoring the helpless struggles that her spectral presence inspired as they lay frozen caught between wakefulness and nightmares.
(04:40):
Welcome to Psychology of The Strange,
the podcast that delves into the depths of human psychology to explore the obscure and mysterious aspects of the human mind.
I'm your host Tara Perreau.
And together we'll embark on a journey behind the strange and unexplained phenomena that captivate our imagination.
(05:17):
Have you ever woken up eyes wide open?
Only to discover that your body seems to be trapped,
unable to move your arms legs or even your head.
It's an unnerving experience that's been reported by people across cultures and time periods.
(05:39):
What's most unsettling is what accompanies this sensation during those fleeting moments when you're immobilized,
but your mind remains sharp emotions,
run wild fear,
anxiety and panic grip you like icy tendrils around your heart.
(06:00):
Your surroundings once familiar suddenly transform into a landscape of unease,
but perhaps the most eerie element is that lurking feeling a presence just beyond the reach of your senses.
This phenomenon has a name one that is echoed through history.
(06:23):
The night Hag,
the Mara Boo Dab Tsog to name a few.
It's a term that has been used to describe the sensation of sleep paralysis accompanied by vivid and often terrifying hallucinations while modern science offers explanations rooted in neuroscience and sleep patterns.
(06:49):
The night hag has deep roots in folklore and mythology in various cultures.
The night hag is believed to be a malevolent spirit or entity that visits individuals while they sleep pressing down on their chests and rendering them immobile.
(07:10):
These encounters are often marked by feelings of dread and a suffocating weight on their chest as if an other worldly presence is trying to steal their very breath.
Historically,
the night hag has been linked to tales of witches,
demons and even extraterrestrial visitors.
(07:33):
Stories abound of people waking up to find a shadowy figure lurking at the foot of their bed or perched on their chest,
leaving them paralyzed with fear.
But what's more terrifying is that these experiences while often attributed to sleep paralysis,
(07:53):
feel hauntingly real to those who endure them as we ponder the night hags existence.
We're left with questions that straddle the realms of science and the supernatural.
Is it purely a product of our brain's mysterious workings during sleep?
Or is there something more to these chilling encounters that transcends our understanding of reality?
(08:27):
A surge of panic ran through me,
the remnants of a nightmare.
Possibly my eyes flew open at the sound of the familiar creek of the floorboards in my bedroom.
And while my surroundings were familiar,
the feeling of a presence close by did not ease the panic.
I felt I tried to sit up but I couldn't move.
(08:51):
I wanted to scream for help.
I could hear my boyfriend laying next to me peacefully snoring softly.
If only I could call out to him,
I tried with all my might to make a sound,
a pitiful sound escaped my lips barely more than a whispered squeak in the doorway.
(09:14):
There was a dark figure staring at me with glowing eyes.
I willed my body to move,
but I felt as if I were made from stone.
The figure was getting closer.
Finally,
I moved my fingers and the spell was broken.
I gasped for air finally able to breathe in my panic.
(09:38):
I hadn't realized I wasn't breathing or wasn't breathing fully.
After a few hours,
I was finally able to drift back to sleep,
convincing myself.
It was only a nightmare.
As I awoke the next morning,
I could fully remember my experience,
but there was a clawing feeling at the back of my mind.
(10:02):
I knew I was awake.
I knew it hadn't been a dream.
But still I went about my day that evening,
I went to sleep and awoke again.
I could feel eyes on me.
I could feel a presence behind me.
I knew there was someone there.
I was so close to my boyfriend.
(10:24):
This time facing him.
I needed him to wake me all the way up.
I tried to reach out but still I couldn't move.
I could hear footsteps getting closer again.
I tried to scream to yell.
Only that pitiful sound of my strained voice were heard.
(10:47):
I could hear breathing.
Now behind me,
this is it I thought to myself,
this is the end.
I broke free of the trance and was able to move.
I shot up in bed and searched all around.
There was no one there.
I looked in the closet and feeling like a terrified child.
(11:08):
I even looked under the bed.
My panic this night was so strong.
There was no more sleep left to have the cycle continued for days.
Each time felt longer.
Each time the figure would get closer.
I dreaded sleeping and would try to stay awake.
(11:31):
But the human body can only go so long before sleep is medically necessary.
I told myself that it can't hurt me.
It's all in my imagination.
It's not real.
That night when I awoke,
paralyzed,
unable to move.
I remembered my mantra and said it over and over and over again in my head as the figure got closer.
(11:57):
It's not real,
it's not real.
It's not real.
My panic started to fade.
It was almost becoming familiar.
But this night as the panic faded,
the figure got closer than ever before she climbed onto the bed.
I felt the bed shift from her weight.
(12:18):
This was something new.
I could feel her weight on my legs.
I could make out the features of her face.
Fresh white hot panic surged through me.
An actual scream escaped my lips but this broke the spell.
My legs hurt from where she had kneeled on me.
(12:41):
My boyfriend for the first time was also awoken and turned on the lights and tried to convince me that it was all a nightmare.
I looked at my leg just below the knee where she had put her weight on me and there was a fresh bruise forming.
My boyfriend brushed it off.
(13:02):
I must have gotten it earlier in the day and not have realized,
reminding me of how accident prone I had been lately from lack of sleep to say I was shook was an understatement.
I now had proof that what was happening was real.
I had a bruise to prove it.
(13:22):
The visits continued.
It was the following night I woke up paralyzed.
Yet again,
I scanned the room and there she was right by the bed.
I could hear her raspy breathing.
I could feel her presence stifling and heavy.
It's not real.
(13:43):
It's not real.
I said in my head,
I tried yet again to break through the paralysis.
She started moving towards me.
I felt the bed sink as she climbed on.
I felt her jerky movements as she straddled me.
I could feel her breath.
My heart was pounding so hard and fast.
(14:05):
But it seemed that that was the only part of me that was able to move.
I felt her icy fingers on my throat as she choked me.
I couldn't breathe at all.
Terror flooded me like ice in my veins.
It seemed as if time around me had stopped and all there was,
(14:25):
was this horrifying moment that seemed as if it would never end except with my death.
And soon I regained my functions and I was able to move once more.
It was an eerie sight.
It was as if she was sucked out of the room with a vacuum the way she disappeared.
(14:48):
This was the longest experience I had with it.
I moved out of my house right after that final experience,
the night terrors stopped.
It was as if it never happened.
But still I have the memories.
I can still recall the feel of her bony fingers on my throat stories.
(15:17):
Like these are truly terrifying.
It sounds more like an idea for a horror movie than a true account of an experience with the night Hag.
This experience was so absolutely horrifying to this individual that she moved out of her house.
She shared with me that at the time she had never heard of sleep paralysis or old hag syndrome as it's sometimes known.
(15:45):
Although the strange thing is that the sleep paralysis and the supernatural visions stopped when she wasn't sleeping at her home.
But what exactly is it about the night hag that has transcended cultures and time?
It's fascinating how nearly every society has its own version of this eerie phenomenon.
(16:10):
For instance,
in Egypt,
they refer to this malevolent being as a djinn in China.
It's known as the compression ghost.
One common thread that ties the accounts together is the overwhelming sense of a presence,
a presence that strikes fear and leaves an indelible mark on those who have experienced it from the to the nightmare.
(16:38):
Each culture has its own interpretation of the phenomenon,
a reflection of our collective fascination with the unknown.
But it's all just a dream,
right?
It's not really a dark evil presence.
But what happens when sleep paralysis and supernatural apparitions actually kill during the early 19 eighties,
(17:12):
a haunting series of inexplicable deaths involving over 100 and 17 Hmong refugees sent ripples of intrigue through society.
Ultimately serving as the inspirational underpinning for Wes Craven's cinematic creation,
(17:32):
a nightmare on Elm Street.
The mysterious saga had its origins as far back as 1977.
When the first instance of sudden unexpected death syndrome sons was meticulously documented.
However,
it wasn't until the years,
(17:52):
1981 to 1982 that the fatalities reached a crescendo with an alarming rate of 92 per 100,000 individuals.
Amid this grim story,
news articles detailing the tragic deaths permeated across the nation,
(18:13):
capturing the collective attention of medical practitioners and community leaders.
The harrowing phenomenon urged these experts to plunge into a collective quest driven by an urgency to unravel the mystery shrouding these nocturnal fatalities.
Their shared determination was to discern the underlying cause between the tragic slumber induced demise of these refugees.
(18:41):
A conundrum that both baffled and gripped the nation fleeing the war ravaged landscape of Laos.
The mong people embarked on a journey to the West only to encounter a fresh set of challenges in their new environment for those who sought refuge in the United States.
(19:02):
Their lives now hung suspended between two worlds.
Grappling with the disorienting effects of their religion,
language and skills,
losing context and their weakening of their once robust social support system.
The mong immigrants found themselves in an intricate predicament once where their traditional belief systems underwent a profound transformation.
(19:32):
The move to the United States marked a turning point for many mong signaling,
the fading of their long standing religious practices and beliefs that had been deeply embedded in their lives.
In the hmongs traditional cosmology,
the natural world teams with spirits,
spirits inhabited trees,
(19:54):
mountains,
rivers,
rocks,
even lightning infusing each facet of their environment with distinct life forces.
The spirits of ancestors didn't merely depart with death.
Instead,
they remained intertwined with the living,
participating in elaborate rituals of reciprocity that bound them to their living descendants.
(20:20):
Central to the mong perspective was the celebration of humanity as an important component of their broader natural order rather than isolating themselves as separate entities.
They embraced their place within the intricate cycle of life that encompassed all creation.
(20:41):
This connection was woven intricately into the ebb and flow of seasons,
profoundly entwined with the contours of mountains and reverberated through the concept of life's transmigration across generations and even species.
The essence of life in all its diverse manifestations found expressions through the interplay of souls and spirits.
(21:06):
In the mong world view.
Doctor Shelley Adler conducted extensive fieldwork,
looking for answers.
When talking to refugees in interviews,
it became clear to her that many people were worried.
They thought that the spirits of their ancestors who believed protected them back in Laos might not be able to come with them across the ocean to the United States.
(21:34):
This meant that the spirits might not be able to keep them safe from spiritual dangers in their new home.
But there was some comfort in the idea that the many evil spirits that cause problems for the mong back in Laos might not be able to follow them to the United States.
One of these troublesome spirits was in mong language is their word for spirit and it often means a bad or evil.
(22:05):
One.
Tsog is the specific name for the nightmare spirit.
And it's also part of the phrase they use to describe a nightmare attack.
Chocha means to crush,
to press or to smother.
They believe they had left the spirit back behind them.
(22:27):
Unfortunately,
it turned out that this scary spirit had also made the journey to America all in all over 100 Southeast Asians living in the United States have lost their lives to a mysterious condition.
Now identified as sons.
This puzzling disorder has shown an unusually high occurrence among Laotian individuals,
(22:53):
especially male mong refugees.
What makes these deaths even more perplexing is that they are predominantly affecting men.
Only one victim was not male.
The typical age of those affected is around 33 years old and they've lived in the United States for about 17 months before passing away.
(23:19):
Strangely,
all these individuals appear to be healthy and passed away.
Sleeping,
a 33 year old mong man that had recently arrived to the United States,
recounted his experience to Dr Adler in one of her interviews saying at first I was surprised,
(23:43):
but then I got really scared.
I was lying in bed,
feeling exhausted from working so hard.
I wanted to go to school,
but I didn't have any money.
I kept waking up because I was thinking a lot about my problems.
I heard a noise but when I tried to turn or move,
I couldn't,
my room looked the same,
(24:05):
but I could see something dark coming towards me from the corner.
It reached my bed moving over my feet and legs.
It was heavy like a big weight over my whole body pressing down on my legs and chest.
My chest felt frozen and I couldn't breathe like I was drowning and had no air.
(24:26):
I tried to yell.
So the person sleeping near me could hear.
I tried to move with all my strength.
I thought what if I die?
After a long time?
It went away.
It just left.
I got up and turned on all the lights.
I was too scared to go back to sleep.
(24:52):
Sleep paralysis is essentially a glitch in your natural sleep wake cycle where you wake up,
unable to move or speak.
This is usually accompanied by feelings ranging from mild anxiety to outright terror.
This causes a psycho biological effect that adds in hallucinations that to some feel outright supernatural.
(25:19):
When you are sleeping,
you cycle through various stages of sleep,
non rapid eye movement,
sleep or nrem and one rem cycle which is rapid eye movement.
During rem sleep,
brain activity increases,
causing us to dream in order to keep ourselves safe while going through this portion of sleep cycle,
(25:46):
our body experiences Atonia,
which is a temporary paralysis of muscles.
With the exception of the eyes and the muscles that control breathing.
Even with the eyes closed,
they can be seen moving very fast,
which is how rem got its name at times.
(26:07):
The paralysis even hinders your ability to speak or cry out as the phase of rem sleep subsides your brain revives your muscles.
Yet on occasion,
the rhythm of the wake sleep cycle fails to align seamlessly within the realm between wakefulness and slumber,
(26:28):
your mind awakens while your body remains unresponsive.
This state allows you to perceive remnants of your dream sights and sounds persisting giving rise to the phenomenon of hallucinations.
According to several studies,
approximately 30% of the population has encountered at least one instance of sleep paralysis.
(26:54):
The phenomenon has a long history with records dating back centuries.
A notable incident occurred in 16 64 when a Dutch doctor recorded a distressing case of sleep paralysis.
In a patient.
In this historical account,
the patient's experience was described vividly,
(27:14):
she described feeling as though a malevolent force akin to the devil himself was pressing down on her or as if a massive dog were resting on her chest.
Despite her efforts to rid herself of this sensation,
she found herself immobilized,
unable to move or free herself from the invisible weight.
(27:39):
So what's up with old hag syndrome?
Sleep paralysis is a shared experience that transcends cultures worldwide,
diverse societies have woven their own tales to explain this eerie phenomenon.
For instance,
in Newfoundland Canada,
it's often referred to as Old Hag syndrome,
(28:00):
evoking the sensation of a witch like entity perched menacingly on the chest.
Drawing from a similar tradition in Nigeria,
there's a belief in a demon woman who pounces within the realm of dreams rendering victims utterly immobile.
In Japan sleep paralysis is attributed to a vengeful spirit that seeks to smother the sleeper.
(28:26):
Meanwhile,
in Brazil,
a mysterious figure known as residing atop roofs is thought to assail those who slumber on their backs with full stomachs.
In a painting from 17 81 titled The Nightmare Swiss English artist,
(28:47):
Henry FSI captured this essence.
The artwork portrays a young woman sprawled on her back,
an eerie gremlin crouching upon her abdomen.
Despite the diversity in these cultural narratives,
they all share a common thread fear.
(29:10):
This stems from the deeply unsettling experience of being trapped in immobility,
devoid of the ability to communicate.
This fear is exasperated by the undeniable sensation that an external force,
be it someone or something is holding you captive,
(29:31):
preventing your escape from a nightmarish reality.
So the next time you wake up in the dead of night,
frozen in place and surrounded by an atmosphere of dread.
Remember you are not alone the night hag with all its history and enigma continues to cast its shadow over the realms of dreams and wakefulness.
(29:56):
Leaving us to wonder about the mysteries that shroud our slumber.
Thank you for tuning into psychology of the strange.
(30:16):
Make sure you subscribe to wherever you stream your podcast so that you never miss an episode until next time.
This is your host,
Tara Perro signing off.
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