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. "
After my experience (see post #58) I have absolutely no fear in dying.
I had a triple bypass in mid 04 and was warned that I may experience the same thing due to slowing and stopping the heart. It did not occur but it was a big worry to me and my family...
Most wifes can say more in a look than they can in a book.
My wife? When I talk, she listens -- to the radio, TV set, record player.
Is she like mine and has to have the last word?
My sternum was pretty well screwed up in the ordeal. Still hasn't healed with instability problems. Have to have surgery again next moth to have sternal plating done.
Same thing happened to my nephew, He was in a coma from a car acident and in pvs state/coma for almost 3 years, Docs said he would never come out of it, He is now eating on his own and leg pressing over 110 lbs, and teaching himself how to talk again,communicates with everyone around him. Never underestimate the Power of Spiritual Healing. He says his recovery was spiritual. I believe Him. The Doctors still can't seem to explain how he is alive, and until a few months ago were not even willing to give him any rehab.
Good question. I never heard any guys who had sleep paralysis being held down by some benevolent force so a beautiful woman could get to them or someone could present them with the winning lottery ticket!
Interesting...thanks for posting your experience. I'm sure that some of the near death experience stories are sort of like UFO sightings. However, there are others that have been described by people who are fairly credible and documented by physicians. While an experience like this would clearly be impossible to investigate with a double blind trial, we do know enough to given what the amygdala does, it is not responsible for them. If I had to propose a biological explanation, it would be mediated by cortical hypoxia. Though in your case, given the lasting neurological deficits you are experiencing, it seems as if you suffered at least some degree of cortical hypoxia and did not have an near death experience.
That's my thinking. That's why I differentiated "near-death" vs "death". There is no doubt that there are hypoxic changes in my situation even though pa02 monitoring during my event never dropped below 92%.
...and therefore will seek and accept only naturalistic explanations for these phenomena. Nothing supernatural is possible.
Seeing angels would be a frightening experience, and perhaps unwelcomed. In the Bible they never appear as cute, chubby infants; they appear as adults. When people in the Bible saw an angel, their typical response was to fall on their faces in fear and awe. Not a lot is known about angels. But it is safe to explain the things that they are not.
When the Bible speaks of flying angels, we assume this means angels have wings. But many scholars suspect that isn't the case. In fact they chose an easier explanation... that angels can miraculously move about. And that isn't a far-fetched concept, given the mysteries in the Bible.
No, they're usually just standing, or sometimes walking into the room and then standing and looking over the bed.
"Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; thay have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better, God only knows." - Socrates, The Apology.
#4, Have a link handy on how you view this in neuroscience?
Just curious.
When I see "near death", I'm curious.
I disagree that all of these experiences must be terrible.
I have had about 4 of them over the years.
The first was when I was 11 and living in Georgia. I am in bed asleep on my back, felt like falling down cliff facing upward, ringing in my ears, my eyes were open and I saw my room, I cannot move, totally paralyzed, I am fully aware, I see at the foot of bed an outline of a small (two feet tall) evil entity like a goblin, screeching and laughing, I yell and scream, but nothing comes out, I wake up and nothing is there.
I am 15, living in New England, asleep in bedroom, happens at least once, if not twice, same falling and ringing, this time I see black shadow forms in room, they are scary, evil, however, I relax and the experience becomes, ahem, a wet dream of sorts while conscious and paralyzed.
Hypnogogic - body is paralyzed --- people mistake aliens.
In the same house, two years later, probably 16, same expereince, this time, I am sharing a room with another person who is also asleep, that person does not see any shadow figures per our talks the next day.
I moved back south, about 24 years old, asleep on back. After briefly falling asleep, I am floating above body in bed, looking at the ceiling. I become aware of this and fall quickly back into my body when I realize it.
After doing some research about the paralysis, I learn that sleep has several states every night. One state is called the hypnagogic state in which the body is totally paralyzed. Usually you are not conscious during this, but when you are you get expereinces like the above ones (not the out of body one). I am convinced that all of these UFO abductees have merely expereinced this hypnagogic state and confused it with a "real" waking life event.
Re the out of body floating, who knows.
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