Last night I awoke gripped with fear. My partner laying next to me started to whisper my name feverishly, repeatedly with all of the anxiety of a child 'AAAL...AAAAL...'. Just like a dog dreaming of a good cat chase while laying in front of the fireplace he started to twitch, first his foot, but then his whole body just started wracking. His jaw convulsed so much my name came out as a series of breathy interrupted vowels, like someone perfecting their english while being exorcised.
He has this thing called 'sleep paralysis' also known as 'old hag syndrome', which has been documented throughout history as pretty much paralyzed or choked by an evil presence while essentially being awake. Various previous accounts have detailed an old hag screaming or wailing in the person's ear or while sitting on their chest just as they either fall into sleep or wake up. He claims that this episode was the particularly harrowing in that i was laughing maniacally at him while a huge looming black presence sulked in the corner of our bedroom. ha.
I am not by any means a superstitious person. When i was young like most girls living out in the sticks of Vermont I would get freaked out by the occassional pack of coyotes howling their mournful song miles off in the dead of winter. That was spooky as hell, however I have never taken stock in actual spirits paralyzing you so that they can suck your sad little soul dry. If you do believe in spirits here is why that is lame.
After he fell back asleep snoring heavily I couldn't get my mind off the vast power of the brain and it's trick of turning off the body while dreaming. I take the approach that dreams are a way of telling your body to just shut up, lay down and don't move. So accustomed are we to alertful productivity that should we happen to be physically jarred awake while our brain is desperately trying to comply with the need for reconstitution, our conscious selves start to freak out imagining spirits that aren't there, which is in actuality our sympathetic system responding to the body's perfectly normal inability to wake itself up so that the brain can have a little time off, romping around in a graveyard or something. That our body is paralyzed while dreaming is evolutionary genius- it gives the brain that much needed chance to reprogram and enhance memories of our little lives so as to increase chances of survival. It is not surprising that sleep also affects our mood and vice versa. If we do not allow our bodies to just stew and bubble while the brain whirls around imagining whatever it wants for hours on end we inevitably become stressed and in time mad. Insanity and it's close cousin spiritual piety really is not sexy because it shows that someone is unable to properly receive information and cope. Why creationism is still popular vs. evolution is that the religiously spiritual want to keep people crazily mystified. If there is belief in spirits people will still need god in the most irrational way. If we have our own control over life there is no god. Thus i have no respect for anyone who is superstitious and offer much props to the very nerdy. If you cannot differentiate between the supernatural and the biological you have no real faith in yourself and will start to weaken the human race by allocating responsibility onto another's shoulders, making them egotistical and similarly misaligned. Like, why in my partner's fit of madness was I the one laughing like a crazed old hag? ANSWER: because he cannot handle that I am better than him which questions his manliness and subsequent tolerance of stress. The cycle continues. One more reason why it is good to be single and more fit than your ex.
He has this thing called 'sleep paralysis' also known as 'old hag syndrome', which has been documented throughout history as pretty much paralyzed or choked by an evil presence while essentially being awake. Various previous accounts have detailed an old hag screaming or wailing in the person's ear or while sitting on their chest just as they either fall into sleep or wake up. He claims that this episode was the particularly harrowing in that i was laughing maniacally at him while a huge looming black presence sulked in the corner of our bedroom. ha.
I am not by any means a superstitious person. When i was young like most girls living out in the sticks of Vermont I would get freaked out by the occassional pack of coyotes howling their mournful song miles off in the dead of winter. That was spooky as hell, however I have never taken stock in actual spirits paralyzing you so that they can suck your sad little soul dry. If you do believe in spirits here is why that is lame.
After he fell back asleep snoring heavily I couldn't get my mind off the vast power of the brain and it's trick of turning off the body while dreaming. I take the approach that dreams are a way of telling your body to just shut up, lay down and don't move. So accustomed are we to alertful productivity that should we happen to be physically jarred awake while our brain is desperately trying to comply with the need for reconstitution, our conscious selves start to freak out imagining spirits that aren't there, which is in actuality our sympathetic system responding to the body's perfectly normal inability to wake itself up so that the brain can have a little time off, romping around in a graveyard or something. That our body is paralyzed while dreaming is evolutionary genius- it gives the brain that much needed chance to reprogram and enhance memories of our little lives so as to increase chances of survival. It is not surprising that sleep also affects our mood and vice versa. If we do not allow our bodies to just stew and bubble while the brain whirls around imagining whatever it wants for hours on end we inevitably become stressed and in time mad. Insanity and it's close cousin spiritual piety really is not sexy because it shows that someone is unable to properly receive information and cope. Why creationism is still popular vs. evolution is that the religiously spiritual want to keep people crazily mystified. If there is belief in spirits people will still need god in the most irrational way. If we have our own control over life there is no god. Thus i have no respect for anyone who is superstitious and offer much props to the very nerdy. If you cannot differentiate between the supernatural and the biological you have no real faith in yourself and will start to weaken the human race by allocating responsibility onto another's shoulders, making them egotistical and similarly misaligned. Like, why in my partner's fit of madness was I the one laughing like a crazed old hag? ANSWER: because he cannot handle that I am better than him which questions his manliness and subsequent tolerance of stress. The cycle continues. One more reason why it is good to be single and more fit than your ex.