“An estimate of up to 40 percent of the general population has experienced sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime... In the Abruzzo region of Italy, east of Rome, an evil witch called a pandafeche was thought to be responsible. In Egypt, it was a vicious spirit creature called a jinn. In China, a visitation by a ghost. Among the Inuit, a shamanistic attack on the dreamer’s vulnerable soul. The eighteenth- century Swiss- born artist Johann Heinrich Füssli depicted sleep paralysis as a goblin-like demon perched on the chest of a sleeping woman. More recently, space aliens bent on abduction have been blamed... The most common element of sleep paralysis, reported across peoples and cultures, is the sensation of a lurking intruder... It seems likely that the shadow figure that is a central aspect of sleep paralysis is the result of some sort of electrical disturbance in this part of the brain, creating a creepy or malevolent “other” at the blurry edge of our imagined body.” SleepingSleep Paralysis Author:Rahul Jandial MD PhD
“For instance, despite massive changes in the way we live, the content of dreams has changed little through the ages, from millennium to millennium and generation to generation. Many common dreams today are no different than those dreamed in Egypt in the time of the pharaohs, or Rome in the time of Caesar.” DreamsDreaming Author:Rahul Jandial MD PhD
“No dreams serve to reinforce the sense of self more than nightmares. In a nightmare, the self is typically under attack or facing some other kind of existential threat. A nightmare is essentially a battle of self versus other.” DreamsDreamingNightmares Author:Rahul Jandial MD PhD
“The researchers found that the nightmare sufferers showed greater artistic and creative tendencies than the other groups. In other words, the same minds that can imagine evil or threatening forces in their dreams can use their fertile imaginations for creative purposes in their waking lives.” SleepCreativityDreamingNightmares Author:Rahul Jandial MD PhD
“If you think you’re in a lucid dream, focus on your hands. For some reason, hands look strange in dreams. Count the fingers—there may be too many, or too few, or the number of fingers may change. Lucid dreamers report counting and recounting the number of fingers and getting different numbers each time, or fingers appearing rubbery as though they had no bones, or that they had fingers growing out of fingers. This strange phenomenon has been reported by lucid dreamers around the world and across cultures... Lucid dreaming experts suggest you can push on a solid object to see if your hand goes through it, or check your reflection in a mirror to see if it looks normal. Another clue can be found in watches or clocks. They, too, seem to be off in dreams. Digital watches and clocks may have no numbers, or the numbers may be hard to read, or they may morph in strange ways.” SleepDreamingLucid Dreaming Author:Rahul Jandial MD PhD