Posted on 03/07/2007 5:05:33 PM PST by LibWhacker
Sleep holds the key to understanding these mystical events, reports Roger Highfield
People who have out-of-body experiences near death, such as flying along a tunnel towards a heavenly light, are more likely to suffer a strange effect called sleep paralysis, according to a survey that adds to mounting evidence for a biological explanation for this mystical experience.
During sleep paralysis, people experience a kind of breakdown between states of consciousness which takes place on the fringe of slumber, either when falling asleep or awakening. Because the brain turns off the body's ability to move during dreaming, muscles can lose their tone, or tension, causing the paralysis. advertisement
The details of sleep paralysis vary from person to person. Some hear vague rustling sounds, indistinct voices and demonic gibberish. Others see hallucinations of humans, animals and supernatural creatures. There is a striking inability to move or to speak, or a weight on the chest. Also common are feelings of rising off the bed, flying, or hurtling through spiral tunnels. In addition, people report out of body experiences, sometimes accompanied by "autoscopy" when they look down on themselves. Not surprisingly, these bizarre experiences - called REM intrusions by scientists - are accompanied by fear and terror.
Throughout history, there have also been accounts of people experiencing visions on the brink of death, what are now called near-death experiences. Now the two odd effects are linked by a study that backs the idea that the near-death experience is a biological experience, rather than anything to do with a larger, spiritual dimension, a glimpse of heaven, or the existence of the soul.
People who have had near-death experiences are also likely to have suffered sleep paralysis, according to the survey published by a team in Neurology, led by Prof Kevin Nelson from the University of Kentucky, Lexington. "We found it surprising that out-of-body experience with sleep transition seemed very much like out-of-body experience during near death," Prof Nelson said.
In a survey of 55 people who had a "near death experience" - defined as a time during a life-threatening episode when a person experienced a variety of feelings, including unusual alertness, seeing an intense light, and a feeling of peace - he found that three quarters had an out of body experience and half of them had also felt they had left their body during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. "We found that 96% (24 of 25) of near death subjects having sleep paralysis also had an out-of-body experience either during sleep transition or near death," said Prof Nelson.
In a control group of 55 people, three reported that they had an out of body experience. Significantly, two of them also suffered sleep paralysis. Prof Nelson believes this suggests that the same brain circuitry plays a role, probably the amygdala, two almond shaped regions either side of the brain that play a role in emotions or the temporo-parietal junction on the surface of the brain. "I am a firm believer in biology," Prof Nelson said yesterday.
The temporo-parietal cortex is important for integrating information from the eyes, ears and body that contribute to the orientation and position of self in space. Prof Nelson points out that electrical stimulation of this region produces out of body experiences. Prof Olaf Blanke, and colleagues at Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland, used electrodes to stimulate the brain of a 43-year-old woman who had epilepsy for 11 years to find the origin of her seizures. Stimulating one spot - called the angular gyrus of her right cortex - repeatedly caused out-of-body experiences.
At low levels of stimulation, the patient felt as if she was sinking into the bed or falling. At high levels, "I see myself lying in bed, from above," she told them, adding that she felt as if she was levitating. Prof Blanke now at The Ecole Polytechnique De Lausanne, said that the angular gyrus and the adjacent region - the temporo-parietal cortex - may match information from the brain's visual system, which sees the body, with those that feel one's body, using touch and balance as well as movement information. When they become dissociated, an out-of-body experience might result.
This goes awry in near death experiences perhaps as a result of the brain being starved of oxygen, activating brain regions that are also active during the dream state to create the out of body experience. Two years ago, Prof Blanke also published work that suggested the temporo-parietal cortex is one of the first areas to suffer and be damaged when the brain is deprived of oxygen.
Tales of sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis survey site
The sleep paralysis that is linked with out of body experiences was once thought rare. But studies by Kazuhiko Fukuda, a professor at Fukushima University in Japan, suggest that it may strike between 40 percent and 60 percent of all people at least once.
Over the past decade, Allan Cheyne of the University of Waterloo in Canada has now collected around 30,000 tales of sleep paralysis. Many report sensations of floating, flying, falling, or leaving one's body.
Floating range from relatively tranquil experiences, during which one respondent reported, "I feel sort 'wrapped in cloud'," to (somewhat rarer) violent experiences in which one can "even feel the blow of wind across me as if traveling in air at high speed. Horrible sensations of falling or rising at high speed. Like a lift or driving down a hill. G- acceleration and deceleration. Almost makes you want to throw up."
Another told Dr Cheyne: " I've actually been floating above myself, and seeing myself in the bed... it was quite disturbing." And one remarked: "I experienced one 'out of body' episode where I floated around my bedroom and could clearly see myself sleeping. When I went back into my body, I felt like I was drifting down on a parachute. It was slow and pleasant. I re-entered my body abruptly and couldn't move for several seconds. On a couple of occasions I've felt that I was being sucked out of my body by my feet and struggled to resist it. I always try to wake up before it happens to me again. "
Unrelated to the above, once in a great while I will have a nightmarish experience where I feel that there is some evil presence that will "get" me if I don't wake up. I had that nightmare or whatever you want to call it frequently as a child and I still get it infrequently.
Many times I've left my senses, fought giant serpents, rats upon my bed
I've sometimes had the "Falling out of bed" sensation.
Have had that experience before. Also, would be really tired and fall asleep only to awake in about an hour and not be able to go back to sleep.
My problem was finally diagnosed as sleep apnea. You fall asleep and your air passages relax too much and your brain tells you that you are smothering. Hence, the adrenaline rush and not being able to fall back asleep. If anyone reading this has ever had it happen to them and feel tired all the time, I suggest that you get your doctor to prescribe a sleep test to determine what the cause is. It can be a life or death situation.
Yup, that's what happens to me. I'm pretty sure this is sleep paralysis. As I said above, when this happens, it's often accompanied by lots of noise, almost like there are voices, and sometimes a feeling of being sucked or pulled. Sound familiar???
About once a month I dream that there is someone standing over my bed, ready to do me harm. Sometimes I swear to God it's as real as anything I've ever seen. I jump out of bed, screaming every kind of profanity, desperately flailing to turn on the lights.
I understand. After several years of maybe three or four times each week. I would wake up screaming bloody murder. Scared me my wife and the kids. It went on so long that nobody woke up or heard me. I was later diagnosed with sleep apnea. Had one time that I was awake and could not move.
Tell him like it is. If I die tonight, and thats the last picture I saw and will remember, I'm gonna come back and haunt him through eternity.
Bump.....
it was indescribable
This has happened to me several times. I'm usually terrified I'll die before I can wake up.
Same sleep paralysis experience here.
Have also experienced rare light floating - nothing as described in the article however in which one can see his body from above.
It's very scary and so real, but I've managed to control it by saying to myself that this is only a dream. It works in that I can snap out of it and shorten the terrible experience.
"I have no idea. They could happen at any time and for no apparent reason. This article seems to suggest they only happen at times of great trauma, but that wasn't my experience at all -- thankfully!
Diet may have something to do with it.
One food additive I could think of is MSG in Chinese food.
"Just today in the news a woman woke from a 6 year coma and the doctors called it a Miracle, a Mystery.
Remember reading this story but don't remember reading about her experiencing spiritual healing, or anything spiritual for that matter.
"The first time I had it I was very young and remember being scared to death.
Very terrifying.
In almost all cases of the sleep paralysis I've experienced, it's about someone attempting to break into my house through a window or main entrance and my inability to stop them. During these expriences also I can "feel" the presence of an extraneous being near me as if preventing me from moving. Their presence is very real and scary.
What I am baffled about, however, is why the dream accompanying the paralysis is always a scary one - never a pleasant and enjoying one. Why?
My sister experienced this twice in 1981 when she suffered a brain aneurysm and was unconscious for 3 months. She survived and is now 85 and lives alone. My wife had to "reprogram her" to walk and other functions...
"Luckily I haven't had any in about 3 or 4 years.
Haven't had any in about the same number of years. However, when they come back they can recur within a few days or a week. They can recur two to three times and then they stop for years.
The major effect it has had on me is short term memory and to some degree long-term memory. There are times now that I have difficult time even signing my own name. Names aren't as easily remembered and unfortunately there are times I simply forget what my next task may be. Although this is an event I would like to put behind me there propably isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about the event.
Do you also experience this someone standing over the body is also holding/touching you and being responsible for your not being able to move? That is my experience.
I've been able to control and shorten the experience by saying to myself in my dream state that this is not real and is only a dream. It does help me tremendously.
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