WEBVTT - How Sleep Paralysis Works, or The Worst Thing That Can Happen While You're Sleeping 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.160 Make your business official with Google and Squarespace. When you 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.160 create a custom domain and a beautiful business website with 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.320 squares Space, you'll receive a free year of business email 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.360 and professional tools from Google. It's the simplest way to 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.560 look professional online. Visit squarespace dot com slash Google to 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.439 start your free trial. Use the offer code works for 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:23.280 ten percent off your first purchase Google in Squarespace, Make 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.800 it professional, make it beautiful. Welcome to you Stuff you 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:37.080 should Know Frondhouse Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.559 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:45.160 and Jerry is over there. So the stuff you should 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:52.400 know the podcast. Something large on my chest. It's the devil. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.440 It's the devil is hey, Chuck, you okay, what happened? Uh? 0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:02.200 You were just having what's known sleep paralysis, buddy, whoa, 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.160 it was close to it, but my touch, my gentle touch, 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:10.880 broke you out of it. That actually sees me. I'm 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:15.440 just kidding people. I was acting. That was stagecraft. Yeah, 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:19.440 and we were well, we weren't debating because I was wrong, 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.080 but we were talking about whether or not we had 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.240 done this yet we have not. Uh like I said 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.720 it was wrong. We've bitten around the edges of it 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.600 so much they feel like, yeah, I feel like if 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.480 you pulled every little bit of sleep paralysis out Of 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.560 all the episodes where we've talked at it, talked at it, 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.480 we talked at it, not about it, you go away 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:43.160 sleep paralysis. Well, the most recent one was either Exploding 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:49.279 Head or night terrors, um, and we specifically stopped talking 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.680 about sleep paralysis so that we could save it for 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.440 the actual episode. Those are always good ones. So finally 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:56.360 here it is like we'll be on an interesting train 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:58.520 of thought and say no, no, no no, no stop. Yeah, 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.240 that's exactly what we did too. I remember the first 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.360 time this came up was in trans magnetic stimulation, the 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:09.680 thinking cap one. Yeah. Well, it's pretty interesting stuff and 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.760 it's been around a while. You know. UM, the word nightmare, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.360 we use that to describe like bad dreams. It's actually 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:23.040 incorrect usage. Nightmare was originally intended specifically to describe sleep 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:28.720 paralysis because night means night, then mar a or mayor 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.399 and may e r e. That extra e in there 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.400 really messes it up. But it's old English, so I 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:37.640 don't know if I pronounced it correctly. Or not. Neither 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.440 does anyone else alive, so it doesn't matter. But that 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:45.040 um that specifically means an incubus, and an incubus was 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.600 a type of devil, like the one that was just 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.480 sitting on your chest, A male, a sex craze male 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:55.359 demon who would well, I'm just making assumptions here, who 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.560 would come to you while you were sleeping and sit 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.799 on your chest and maybe kill you, try to kill 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.080 you and you couldn't do anything about it. Uh. Yeah, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.880 I'm into I'm into the succubus and the incubus. I'm 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.519 I'm open minded. But that's exactly right. The incubus is 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.520 the male version of the succubus, or the old sex 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.120 crazed tag that sits on your chest. So this, this 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.000 whole idea of of this has been around for a 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.400 very long time. It's steeped in the supernatural, and we're 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:25.680 only just now starting to figure out what sleep paralysis is. 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.000 And to me, it's even more interesting now that we 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.639 understand it a little more. Yeah, I did not know 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.320 the exact definition of incubus until this research, and now 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.240 I hate that band even more. Yeah, I think sex 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.520 mail demons. I wonder if that's what they were going forth. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.360 They were just like that sounds cool. No, I'm sure 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:53.320 they knew well. I'm hats off to them for realizing that. Yeah, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:59.080 you know, making a medieval era. Nod In might have 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.160 just thought it sounded cool. Who knows whom you're thinking? 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.680 You're right, I clearly know nothing about good band names. 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:07.840 That's not true. I thought you always come up with 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:12.280 good bad names. I don't know if other people agree 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.320 they're good to me? Has someone been No? Okay, no, 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:21.240 no one's talking no, no, no I should say about that. No. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.320 But my own band name is not No, I like it. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:27.799 But El Cheapo we're named after a gas station. Where 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.320 El Cheapos are I know, in the South, like South 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:36.600 Carolina and like I've seen him in Savannah coastal Southeast. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.080 I thought that was a coincidence, they're l cheap. No, no, 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.400 it is. It is a coincidence, it is, But people 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.119 send me pictures of El cheap out gas stations. Okay, 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.599 the light in So you're not named after a gas 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:51.600 station because then we would be x on Mobile because 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:56.880 that's a great band. Everybody loves. What have they ever done? Nothing? 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.200 All right? So, um, the the strict definition. I guess 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.599 it's not strict, but the definition we're going to give. 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:06.520 And where did you get this article? This is good? 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:08.920 Oh yeah, we better shout this out. This is straight 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.360 out of the British Psychological Society's journal. I could tell 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.120 it was British it was, yeah, because they say Wildston 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.640 stuff like that. Way off. Um, but it was written 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:23.400 by Julia Santamorrow and Christopher Cee French, and I believe 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:27.400 they're both sleep paralysis experts. I know for sure Professor 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.360 French is because I also saw a video of him 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.680 on vimeo, UM, just basically talking about this and he 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:39.000 had a sweater on. This said expert pretty much. Uh 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.239 So sleep paralysis how they define it, and I agree, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:45.960 it's it's a period of transient, consciously experienced paralysis, either 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.719 when going to sleep or waking up. And um, I 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.880 think I was under the misguided notion that it was 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.000 almost always in the transition of waking up. And it 0:05:56.080 --> 0:06:00.520 sounds like it's even more common when you're going uh 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:05.000 into sleep and that is the hypnagogic stage as opposed 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:10.200 to the hypno pompic stage coming out. So I think 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.440 I don't know, Well, I got that impression, but I 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.680 think I was wrong. I had the same impression. Yeah, 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.800 probably came from us each other. So have you ever 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.960 had sleep paralysis? No? Um, but I did want to 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.960 mention that I did. I told you I had an 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.480 exploding head syndrome experience. After we did that show, like 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:33.440 two or three nights later, it happened to me for 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.200 the first time ever. Yeah, I was worried about getting 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:40.040 this last night. I don't want this. Well that that's 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:41.720 a bad way to go about it. Yeah, because I 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.480 will get it in your head. We should say it's actually, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.599 like you said, it's kind of common, right. Well, I 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.440 mean it depends on who you ask. I've seen everywhere 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.760 from a third a half of people that might experience 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.080 this at least once. But I think as far as 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:03.880 chronic uh, chronically, it's not nearly that common. No, it's 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.880 something like, um, do we have stats on that. Yeah, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.640 they're in here somewhere something like three percent, three to 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:17.160 six percent of the general population experience what's called isolated 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.840 sleep paralysis. And that's if you don't have an arcalepsy. Yeah. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:22.640 That was the big thing I didn't realize is that 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:27.080 sleep paralysis is a major symptom of narcolepsy, which we 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.800 should do. And that came up and I was like, well, 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.000 let's just replaced sleep paralysis as the show we gotta do. Yeah. 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.480 I had a great aunt, great aunt Laura from Mississippi 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.320 that had an arcolepsy No really, Yeah, and I didn't 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.200 get to see her a lot in life. This was 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:48.200 my father's mother's sister. Um, but I remember very specifically, 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.440 my brother and I go in like one time to Jackson, 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.320 Mississippi or Tupelow, I think where she lived when I 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:57.560 was like twelve, and she would do that, you know, 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:00.360 she would nod off while talking to us and back 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.960 up and finish her sentence. So it was like she 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:07.000 wasn't even aware that she doted off. No, And um, 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:08.440 of course, you know, I thought it was funny at 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:10.640 the time. It was a little kid, But I'm sure 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:12.400 there's a lot more to it than that. Sure, it 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.280 can probably be quite dangerous, I imagine. So yeah, I 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.680 would guess kind of hard to come by a driver's 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.880 license if you are diagnosed with narcolepsy. I don't think 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.800 Laura drove. Yeah, she was one of those that probably 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.480 wouldn't have driven anyway. You know, she's like like a 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.920 Strickland type. You know, I don't want to drive, Come 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.400 pick me up. She was just like we had to 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.640 take the keys for my grandmother, that kind of thing 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.320 when she was drinking. No, when she was when she 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.520 was got to an age where she could drive safely. Yeah, 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.040 it was she was were like, Grandma can't drive anymore. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.320 You know. In Japan they have these very prominent like 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.760 magnets or stickers that you put on a car. Um. 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:53.800 One's like a triangle. I can't remember what the other 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:58.080 one is, but one means kind of um, but no, 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.160 not at all. It's UM. One me this is a 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.720 new driver, like usually a teen driver, so everybody steer clear. 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:07.640 And then the other means this is a very elderly driver, 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.760 so everybody's steer clear. I would love one of those 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.120 in my car. It's like, I don't understand why this 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.440 isn't universal. Yeah, you know, it makes perfect sense. I 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:18.160 would like one just to keep people away from me, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:23.040 just to leave you alone. Yeah, you put on like, like, uh, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.840 what was the guy's name from Phantasm? I don't know, 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:30.319 Angus something. Yeah, you put on a little wig like his. 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.040 It's a little skull cap while you're driving, just to 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.760 really drive at home. H that was a an accidental pun. 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:41.440 Just now. I didn't catch it. I said, you put 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.360 it on while you're driving just to drive it home, 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.960 to drive the point home. Yeah, And I made a 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.600 really good accidental pun when we were talking about hunting 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.040 and I said, my dad didn't hunt. I said, it's 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.679 not like he wasn't he was trying to take a stand, 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:57.480 or he wasn't trying to take a stand as in 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:01.000 a deer stand. Totally miss that, all right. So the 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.840 deal with sleep paralysis is how you know that you're 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:09.199 experiencing it is, uh, you can open your eyes, you're conscious, 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.000 but you are aware that you can't you can't move, 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.080 you can't move your body. I mean, it kind of 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:20.520 varies between severity and individual experience, but the common thing 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.960 is is that you can't move. You feel paralyzed. Sometimes 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:26.280 you can't even make a noise. It's that bad. And 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.200 and the problem with not being able to make a 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.720 noise is that it particularly sucks in instances like this 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.480 because you want to scream. Because most of the time 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.880 when you are experiencing sleep paralysis, you are in the 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.160 grips of terror like you wouldn't ever normally experience. You're 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.840 scared out of your mind. You have an impending sense 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.520 of death. Um. And you have all sorts of hallucinations, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.920 basically of every every sense could conceivably hallucinate. Right. You 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.800 have auditory hallucinations where you hear something in the room 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.880 with you. There's I should say, there's also like a 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.480 sense of presence, like another thing. Yeah, there's something in 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.560 the room. Usually it's something that means you harm, so 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.160 you sentence presents. You might also hear it. You probably 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.600 also see it, and it can be anything from like 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.720 that succubus or incubus sitting on your chest, um, both 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:20.360 the things. You're getting a little kinky, right, You're like, 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.320 you're both here. I didn't think you'd find out about 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.360 each other. And you'll let me wake my wife. But 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.079 I can't move right, So you're just sitting there laying 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.199 like this is getting weird. She's gonna be so mad. 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:37.600 Uh uh. And then uh, you can smell them, you 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:42.480 can taste them. There's something called gustatory hallucinations. Um. And 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:46.440 then also the sense of feeling like moving and um 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.360 of pressure on your chest, like you feel all this 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.600 stuff like you're experiencing it. Yeah, and um, I think 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:57.000 pressure is one of the big ones, like someone sitting 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:01.000 on you, uh and not allowing you to move so 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.760 um our own. Robert Lamb wrote an article about this 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.600 oner site too, not about the full thing, but about 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.120 like why is it? Uh, why are they demons usually? 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.800 And that was kind of one of my questions, that 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.800 why is it usually a malevolent spirit? And why isn't it, 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:23.800 you know whatever, some fantasy which is like a rod 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:26.440 saying like hey, you want to go play cats or 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:31.600 something like that, that would be yours? No, okay, isn't 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:33.600 he like the most hated man on the planet now 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.960 for some reason? Oh? I mean he kind of went 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.440 his end of his career. He was not very well 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.360 Like why what did you do? I didn't pick up 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.120 on that he did a lot of steroids and lied 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.439 about it for years. Oh gotcha, Yeah, gotcha. He was 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.719 like a repeat offender that consistently was like doing steroids. 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.120 I see, I don't know why these drug testers saying 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:57.480 I did. They're like you have a syringe in your arm, um, 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.920 Robert said. And you know, he didn't like make the 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:05.920 U up, but his research indicated that um, someone's beliefs 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.040 going into it might conjure up these negative connotations. And 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:14.720 when the experience itself is marked by like a pulse 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.760 rate increase in labored breathing sometimes and these, it doesn't 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:22.480 lend itself to like a good experience, right right, because 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.400 um so, Professor French concurs with Robert right. He's he 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:31.280 was saying, like the fear being usually a hallmark of 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:36.800 the sleep paralysis. Paralysis experience is not just you're afraid 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.520 because you can't move and there's something in the room 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.679 with you, that's part of it. But he's saying, you're 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.160 a migdala is also hyperactive, right then, So you're experiencing 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.880 fear on like its own terms. It's like its own 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:54.160 freestanding symptom that that even if like this, even if 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:57.200 it was lucky the lepre Con, you'd still be super 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.200 afraid that he was in the room with you kind 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.480 of thing, because you're you're like that region of your 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.280 brain that's that's delivering these jolts of fear to you 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:09.240 is working over time. Then it becomes that bad leprechn movie. 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.240 Yeah yeah, I was she in that. Yeah, yeah, I 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.439 never saw those I never did either. Um. Well, it 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.560 also said speaking of movies that like your own, like 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.680 what kind of pop culture you're into, Like all this 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.400 stuff can play into it because they are. It's sort 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.800 of like an extension of a dream. So, um, if 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.200 it's you know, agitated by like labored breathing and rapid 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.120 pulse rate and a nightmare, then it's not going to 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.280 be uh, you know, a rod floating in onto your 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.960 chick with the baseball, unless you're super scared of him, 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.440 then it might be. So let's take a break, man, 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.040 then we'll come back and talk about some of like 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.280 the cultural interpretations of what the heck is going on here. Okay, 0:14:50.640 --> 0:15:18.400 it sounds good. Yeah, so Chuck, remember we were talking 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.040 about like how nightmare is like an old English term 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.360 for sleep paralysis. It's been around for a while and 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.880 there's and it's basically it seems to be universal and 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:34.880 so since it's an interpreted by the person based on 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.840 like what their culture believes in. Um, there's been like 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:44.400 different interpretations of sleep paralysis throughout history and cultures around 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.200 the world, and they're pretty interesting. Yeah, and I and 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.240 most of them the common thread here is that ah, 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.600 and even in modern terms, they're described this way sometimes, 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.600 but definitely in the olden days, it's almost always some 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:03.600 sort of supernatural thing like a witch or norwe I'm sorry. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:07.600 Newfoundland they called it the old Hag, which is creepy 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:13.400 just hearing that. Uh. And China the ghost oppression because 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.240 apparently the Chinese believe that you're you're very vulnerable your 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:21.520 soul is when you're asleep. So I think that's sort 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.200 of the common thread here there all these countries. There 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.720 was I took an anthropology class and I can't remember 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.880 what it was talking about in general, but one of 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.120 the things that seemed to pop up around the world 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.800 was something called spirit intrusion, Like when you were sleeping, 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.200 your spirit got up and walked around, and if like 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.880 the tether between your spirit and your body was severed, 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:45.800 you were like anybody could come and possess you. And 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:47.520 it was a big like that. That was a big 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.000 explanation for mental illness in cultures around the world. So 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.960 I thought that was interesting that that was also an 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.840 explanation for um, for sleep paralysis too. Yeah. I think 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.240 it kind of depends on whatever the the leading ghoul 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.959 is in your country in region, because in Europe. Of 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:09.280 course in the fifteen hundreds through the seventeen hundreds, it's 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:13.240 gonna be witches. You were witch ridden. Uh. That was 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:17.280 at one of the witch trials in seventy seven. Uh. 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.320 This woman testified her about her husband in bed and 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.119 he said he was laying there stiff, barely drawing breath, 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:25.320 and he woke up and he said, my Lord Jesus 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.520 helped me, Oh fiery, which is took me to Mara 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.520 Maros and they put six hundred weight of salt on me, 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.160 which we're laughing at. But if you break it down, 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.720 that has all the hallmarks of all the different hallucinations, 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:43.200 whether it's traveling or the weight on your chest or 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:48.840 you know, the all these tactics. Yeah, hallucinations like wrapped 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:53.480 up into one nightmare with exclamation points. Yeah, there weren't 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:58.720 in Uh. I thought this is pretty interesting. In um St. Lucia, 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.639 the Caribbean island, they have a term called Cookema and 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.200 they think that it's a little unbaptized babies who are 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:11.560 haunting the area that are that are causing sleep paralysis 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:13.720 or doing all sorts of horrible things to you while 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.359 you're sleeping. But you're not sleeping, we should be. I 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.320 want to restate this again because it's a little confusing. Yeah, 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.000 when you're experiencing sleep paralysis, you're laying there and your 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.280 eyes are open, and you know that something's in the 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.639 room with you. Maybe it comes over and climbs on 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.080 your chest. When it does, you can feel its breath 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:35.240 in your face. You can smell and taste its rank breath. 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.119 You can feel the pressure of it laying on your chest. 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.960 It's staring you in the eyes, and you cannot move. 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.639 Not only can you not move, you can't make a 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.280 sound as much as you're trying to scream your head 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.080 off because you were scared out of your mind. And 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.720 this experience can last from a few seconds to I've 0:18:55.760 --> 0:19:01.120 seen up to ten minutes, and from anecdotally, each second 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.280 of those ten minutes feels like a decade because you're 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:07.880 just so scared and it's just going on and on 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.719 and on. So um, it makes total sense that you 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:14.720 would say, ah, there was a spirit in my room 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.360 last night. Yeah, because if not, you're you think I'm 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.080 losing my mind, right, So let's blame it on. I mean, 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.400 we'll get into some of the other reasons, but blame 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.240 it on something else, right, Like in in Japan kind 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.480 of shabari um is now they believe that it's evil 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.520 spirits messing with you. Same thing in Korea with how 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:39.639 we knew Alita, how we Nulita? Yeah, I thought that 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.679 was pretty good pronunciation. And like we said, though, these 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:45.640 are all sort of versions of the same thing, um, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.520 no matter where you go, which I always find interesting, 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.640 like these sort of universal regional things. And then most 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.439 recently though the and this is where I think we 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.879 first came into sleep paralysis with the trans cranial me 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:06.040 that stimulation episode. Was that, um, it's to blame for 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.480 basically every UFO abduction account. Oh yeah, was that where 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.640 we talked about it? For sure? Um, they have done 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:19.160 studies and they found that if you, ah, I think, 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.800 if you believe in alien abductions, if that's part of 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.280 your belief system, then you're more or did they do 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:29.400 the study of people that experienced sleep paralysis and all 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.160 of them believed you know, maybe in UFOs. I think 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.640 they did the reverse of people who have report having 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.200 been abducted by UFOs they experienced sleep paralysis. Okay, they 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.080 have a higher frequency of experiencing sleep paralysis so they 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.199 just the people study this and they just fold their 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.960 arms again. Okay, right, yeah it was an alien but there, 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:54.520 I mean apparently in the UFO lore, the sleep paralysis 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.639 has been accounted for. So like you when you're abducted, 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:02.320 you remember being paralyzed before and after. Um, but you 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.080 they wipe your memory of the actual like abduction out, 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:09.639 but they leave the sleep paralysis. And like I remember 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:12.600 an X files. I think when Fox Moulder's sister was taken, 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.000 like she was levitated off the bed and like just 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:19.160 stiff as a board, floats out the window. That's classic 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.760 sleep paralysis symptoms where you can't move and yet you 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.560 still feel like you're floating and you're moving your levitating, 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.240 or that there's six hundredweight of salt being put on 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:32.439 your chest. Um, I love salt, so that might not 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:35.159 be a bad thing. He'd be like, this is delicious 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.800 and terrifying. It up towards my tongue, that that'd be 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:41.320 the part that was making you crazy. I couldn't get 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:47.080 to it. Uh. They say it usually occurs when you 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.760 are lying on your back in bed, although it can 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.679 occur in any position at all. Because one of the 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:56.720 accounts this article is school because they have first hand accounts. 0:21:57.080 --> 0:21:59.240 One of the guys was laying on his stomach and 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.800 he felt the de and the incubus I think on 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.320 his back um or maybe it was a succubus. I'm 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:10.320 not sure. Um. And you can break it. Sometimes it 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:14.400 happens on its own. Sometimes, Uh, you can break it 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.440 on your own on purpose, they recommend, and this is 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:20.399 a good idea. I think they recommend to try and 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.360 like instead of saying I gotta get up and run 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.239 out of here, they say to try to like just 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:29.640 blink or like lift your little finger or just any 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.320 conscious movement that you can get can break that thing. Yeah, 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:37.280 And apparently the moment you do that, the spell is broken. Yeah. 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:41.600 Um is how it's been put forever. Um. Herman Melville 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.040 was the first, I think to write about this, and 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:49.280 Mobi dick Ishmael recounts sleep paralysis again. Yeah. And then 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:53.320 I think twenty five or fifty years later, the first time, 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.240 um it shows up in the medical literature. Silas Weir Mitchell, 0:22:57.480 --> 0:22:59.840 who we know from The Exploding Heads and right. He 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.520 also he also described that for the first time to 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.560 this guy was like knocking out the paras omnia is 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.960 left and right, um, but they both used this terminology 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:12.520 that the spell is broken. All it takes is just 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.719 the slightest stir and and the sleep prowsis is over with. 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.800 But the problem is you can't move, you can't make 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:22.720 a sound. Um. They said to even try to clearing 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.679 your throat. Yeah, but even that can be challenging. But 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.240 supposedly if you can even get just a little bit 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:31.359 going you you wake yourself up a little bit, and 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:32.920 then you can do it a little more and more 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:34.800 and more, and then all of a sudden you're screaming 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.480 and you've woken yourself up. Or if you can make 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.440 a sound or a signal or something to get your 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:45.879 partner help, something to notice that you are in the 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:47.639 midst of sleep prowesses, all they have to do is 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:50.000