Can Abduction Experiences by Linked to Sleep Related Phenomena?
Question:
During the peak year of my narcolepsy symptoms, when I was collapsing from cataplexy up to 30 times per day, I could roar into space and visit equisitely detailed alien worlds almost at will. These experiences were so exhilarating that I regretted their passing when my narcolepsy symptoms began to abate. I classified these excursions as hypnogogic hallucinations that accompanied severe cataplexy attacks. -**** Posted from RemarQ, http://www.remarq.com/?a ****- Search and Read Usenet Discussions in your Browser – FREE –
Response:
IMHO, this all makes a great deal of sense. On several occasions in my life, I have had very intense false awakenings, sometimes half a dozen in a row in the same morning without ever actually awakening. These experiences are extremely vivid and utterly convincing. In some cases, I have dreamed that I am knocking on walls, poking myself with sharp objects or taking cold showers to convince myself that I was "really awake." The sensations were quite vivid. I was sound asleep the whole time. What I dream about at such times is quite ordinary, and it tends to happen in the morning, but if I experienced this kind of thing in the middle of the night and the content of the dreams happened to include alien abduction, the experience could be pretty persuasive. Tim Miller
Response:
In article <c536N2RlscoukP9MEQShoZY2W…@4ax.com>, hlh_NOS…@excite.com wrote: > Daddio <daddi…@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > >She said she had never noticed them before. I told her it must have > >been from the alien abduction the night before. > Tee hee 
> Just remember, reality is that which doesn’t go away just because you > stop believing in it.
Vaguely related: one of my earliest memories is of being held down on a cold metal table while huge beings with no facial features except eyes focused painfully bright lights into my eyes. If I hadn’t learned that when I was 18 months old I had been taken to the emergency room after I had cut my eyeball on my father’s watch crown, I’d probably be babbling about my experience with aliens.
Response:
Is it possible that the Alien Abduction Experience, AAE, is linked to sleep-related phenomena? If so, which phenomena? There are three possibilities, each having their own pluses and minuses: 1. Awareness during Sleep Paralysis; 2. Night Terrors; and, 3. False Awakenings 1. Awareness during Sleep Paralysis. Everyone has sleep paralysis 4 – 6 times every night. It happens each time we cycle into REM sleep so that we don’t hurt ourselves or others while acting out our dreams. Of course, we ususally don’t notice these episodes of sleep paralysis. When we *do* we have Awareness during Sleep Paralysis or ASP. During an ASP episode, the experiencer may feel extreme fear, may experience sensations of choking or suffocating, may feel a weight on the chest, may see or otherwise sense the presence of other beings and may find themselves in an Out-of-Body state. All of these phenomena are present in AAEs. Moreover, the techniques that are used by ASP experiencers to break the grip of the paralysis or to banish bothersome entities are strikingly similar to the techniques advocated by Ann Druffel in _How to Defend Yourself Against Alien Abduction_. However, an ASPer’s memory of the experience is acute while many AAErs report periods of time for which they lack consciously accessible memories, memory blocks, screen memories and so on. 2. Night Terrors While ASP is associated with REM sleep, NTE, the Night Terrors Experience, occurs during nonREM sleep (Stage 4 or Delta sleep). Unlike ASPers, Night Terrors experiencers often have only a vague recall. Moreover, NTErs can flail about and sometimes sleepwalk. While the sounds ASPrs make are barely audible to others. The screams of NTrs are often heard by others. ASPers can be awakened by the touch of another, whereas parents report great difficulty awakening a child from an NTE. OTOH … Some people have a sleep state that has a mixture of REM and nonREM features. This is the so-called Alpha in Delta sleep disorder where alpha brain waves usually associated with REM sleep appear in Delta sleep. This seems to rob the experiencer of restorative sleep and they often feel chronically exhausted. Some fibromyalgia sufferers have this alpha-delta anomaly, for example, and associate the condition with their abduction experiences. [Note that the fatigue associated with fibromyalgia is linked to insufficient Delta sleep and is sometimes treated with melatonin which is thought to restore a normal sleep architecture.] Both ASP and NTs can be promoted by stress. Van de Castle, in "Our Dreaming Mind", writes about Night Terrors: <<If any recall exists, it generally involves a single frightening image such as "I was choking" or "There was something on my chest.">> These points make the contrast between ASP and NTE less stark. One might theorize that ASP and NTE can be somewhat similar experientially, but, because they occur during different neurological states (sleep stages), there is a difference in the ability to recall the content of the experience. It’s worth noting in this regard that one may dream in any sleep stage, but recall is easier for REM-state dreams. Speculating further, one might wonder if differences in recall ability AAErs display can be related to these ASP/NTE differences. Assuming that hypnosis is reliable, it’s often been noted that the accounts given by hypnotically regressed experiencers are very similar to those who have conscious, unassisted recall. An experiment suggests itself. What if a group of NTErs who have poor recall of the experiences were to be regressed? Would they report an experience at all similar to those reported by ASPrs? Would the number of recognizable AAE accounts obtained this way be statistically significant? 3. False Awakenings An individual may come to a self-conscious state after having been asleep in which they believe that they are awake and that they go about various activities in the waking world … only to awaken again later. This phenomenon has an obvious similarity to that class of AAE in which the experiencer reports awakening from sleep to find a bright light in the room and then encounters aliens and so on. A false awakening can often turn into a Lucid Dream if the experiencer notices something incongruous and realizes that s/he is dreaming. So, attempting to explain AAEs as false awakenings would require a good reason why abduction by aliens from Zeta Reticuli is not considered incongrous in the proto-lucid state. Also, cases where the AAE was not consciously remembered would beg the question as to whether there can be an unremembered false awakening or an unrecognized lucid dream. Joseph Polanik ***************************************************** Joseph Polanik, jpola…@mindspring.com Trionic Research Institute, http://trionica.com
Response:
what is hypnogogoc sleep and might this be related? = = = = = For information and humor re: A Tracheostomy and the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea please visit http://members.aol.com/citylinc/osa/index.htm = = = = = A great sleep forum http://www.sleepedu.net/forums/apnea/apneainf.html
Response:
HFC, holy farting cows, I have been wondering about this TRBS, totally ridiculous bull shit, for a while my self. My massage therapist noticed some strange marks on my back last week that appeared to her to be healed scars. She said she had never noticed them before. I told her it must have been from the alien abduction the night before. They tried to do surgery to heal my Fibromyalgia, but it must not have worked, because I still needed the massage. SO, it just proves that they don’t have a higher intelligence, and now I have to suffer the indignity of scars. > Daddio – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Joseph Polanik wrote: > Is it possible that the Alien Abduction Experience, AAE, is linked to > sleep-related phenomena? If so, which phenomena? > There are three possibilities, each having their own pluses and minuses: > 1. Awareness during Sleep Paralysis; > 2. Night Terrors; and, > 3. False Awakenings > 1. Awareness during Sleep Paralysis. > Everyone has sleep paralysis 4 – 6 times every night. It happens each > time we cycle into REM sleep so that we don’t hurt ourselves or others > while acting out our dreams. > Of course, we ususally don’t notice these episodes of sleep paralysis. > When we *do* we have Awareness during Sleep Paralysis or ASP. > During an ASP episode, the experiencer may feel extreme fear, may > experience sensations of choking or suffocating, may feel a weight on > the chest, may see or otherwise sense the presence of other beings and > may find themselves in an Out-of-Body state. > All of these phenomena are present in AAEs. Moreover, the techniques > that are used by ASP experiencers to break the grip of the paralysis or > to banish bothersome entities are strikingly similar to the techniques > advocated by Ann Druffel in _How to Defend Yourself Against Alien > Abduction_. > However, an ASPer’s memory of the experience is acute while many AAErs > report periods of time for which they lack consciously accessible > memories, memory blocks, screen memories and so on. > 2. Night Terrors > While ASP is associated with REM sleep, NTE, the Night Terrors > Experience, occurs during nonREM sleep (Stage 4 or Delta sleep). > Unlike ASPers, Night Terrors experiencers often have only a vague > recall. Moreover, NTErs can flail about and sometimes sleepwalk. > While the sounds ASPrs make are barely audible to others. The screams of > NTrs are often heard by others. > ASPers can be awakened by the touch of another, whereas parents report > great difficulty awakening a child from an NTE. > OTOH … > Some people have a sleep state that has a mixture of REM and nonREM > features. This is the so-called Alpha in Delta sleep disorder where > alpha brain waves usually associated with REM sleep appear in Delta > sleep. This seems to rob the experiencer of restorative sleep and they > often feel chronically exhausted. Some fibromyalgia sufferers have this > alpha-delta anomaly, for example, and associate the condition with their > abduction experiences. > [Note that the fatigue associated with fibromyalgia is linked to > insufficient Delta sleep and is sometimes treated with melatonin which > is thought to restore a normal sleep architecture.] > Both ASP and NTs can be promoted by stress. > Van de Castle, in "Our Dreaming Mind", writes about Night Terrors: > <<If any recall exists, it generally involves a single frightening image > such as "I was choking" or "There was something on my chest.">> > These points make the contrast between ASP and NTE less stark. > One might theorize that ASP and NTE can be somewhat similar > experientially, but, because they occur during different neurological > states (sleep stages), there is a difference in the ability to recall > the content of the experience. It’s worth noting in this regard that one > may dream in any sleep stage, but recall is easier for REM-state dreams. > Speculating further, one might wonder if differences in recall ability > AAErs display can be related to these ASP/NTE differences. Assuming that > hypnosis is reliable, it’s often been noted that the accounts given by > hypnotically regressed experiencers are very similar to those who have > conscious, unassisted recall. > An experiment suggests itself. What if a group of NTErs who have poor > recall of the experiences were to be regressed? Would they report an > experience at all similar to those reported by ASPrs? Would the number > of recognizable AAE accounts obtained this way be statistically > significant? > 3. False Awakenings > An individual may come to a self-conscious state after having been > asleep in which they believe that they are awake and that they go about > various activities in the waking world … only to awaken again later. > This phenomenon has an obvious similarity to that class of AAE in which > the experiencer reports awakening from sleep to find a bright light in > the room and then encounters aliens and so on. > A false awakening can often turn into a Lucid Dream if the experiencer > notices something incongruous and realizes that s/he is dreaming. So, > attempting to explain AAEs as false awakenings would require a good > reason why abduction by aliens from Zeta Reticuli is not considered > incongrous in the proto-lucid state. > Also, cases where the AAE was not consciously remembered would beg the > question as to whether there can be an unremembered false awakening or > an unrecognized lucid dream. > Joseph Polanik > ***************************************************** > Joseph Polanik, jpola…@mindspring.com > Trionic Research Institute, http://trionica.com
Response:
Interesting theory, but I notice that you didn’t cross-post it to alt.support.psychosis. * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
