Sleep paralysis causes – academic and spiritual research
In her book Sleep Paralysis: Night-mares, Nocebos and the Mind-Body Connection, Shelley Adler acknowledges that alternate explanations like SSRF’s are needed to understand sleep paralysis causes
Most of us study science when we go to school. Charts, graphs, weights and measures are all used to help us understand and relate to the world around us. We learn that what is testable and verifiable by our five senses, mind and intellect is real and proper science. Even at higher levels of academia, the methods of research used have been far removed from Spirituality or spiritual science.
However in recent years government and academic research facilities have begun exploring the impact of Spirituality and the spiritual dimension on the quality of life and their purpose in our life. One illustrative example of that is a publication by Rutgers University’s Studies in Medical Anthropology department (New Jersey, USA), Sleep Paralysis: Night-mares, Nocebos and the Mind-Body Connection by Shelley R. Adler, in which she has cited and used images obtained from Spiritual Science Research Foundation’s subtle-knowledge department about the causes of sleep paralysis.
The book acknowledges the limitations of modern scientific and academic research to sleep paralysis causes, saying, “the night-mare cannot be categorized using conventional mechanistic models. This challenge reveals yet another reason the experience has long resisted scientific study; it defies traditional categories and the division of academic disciplines. Because the night-mare does not respect the boundaries we have set—between science and religion or body and mind—our thinking must also defy conventional, reductionist models in order to understand the experience as fully as possible” (Adler, 136).
Such a conclusion has proven invaluable to readers, earning a 5-star rating on Amazon.com for her willingness to acknowledge and explore alternate explanations and models. Citing David Hufford’s 1982 book The Terror That Comes in the Night (Adler, p. 82), Adler notes that what is often debunked as myth and superstition is often later proven as true by scientific inquiry.
The above image was cited in Dr. Adler's book (p. 79) and was captioned: “4.1 Depiction of Immobilization (sic) during Sleep Paralysis. This illustration was provided by the Spiritual Science Research Foundation (SSRF), a nonprofit organization (sic) that, has conducted spiritual research since 1986. A representative of SSRF explained that the organization's intention is 'to demystify the spiritual realm and provide research that will help humanity to effectively alleviate difficulties in life and progress spiritually in a very practical manner.' The text circumscribing the illustration is a Sanskrit (sic) mantra. The chants are 'a subtle protective border which does not allow negative energies to spread their black energy onto anyone who is looking at the drawing. The visual drawing of a negative energy also carries its associated energy. So we kindly suggest that those chants remain.'”
While the book does not offer a definitive explanation for sleep paralysis and nightmares, it does recognize the need to utilize other methods of research, including that of the Spiritual Science Research Foundation.
SSRF has already written about the differences between modern research and spiritual research. As the spiritual dimension is infinite, so too are the possibilities for academic and modern scientific research to draw from it and find lasting solutions for a better quality of life.
By: Maya Jairam
Spiritual Science Research Foundation
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Read more:
- Sleep paralysis – spiritual research on causes and its treatment
- Addiction – spiritual research on causes and treatment
- Chants for health
- Why 70% of psychiatrists themselves suffer from mental illness
This I find very interesting, with my research studies, especially since as a kid I used to have a lot of sleep paralysis events. I can agree, that spirituality must have some sense of involvement, because since I started spiritual practice I have had significantly less sleep paralysis.
This is a great article Maya!
I can only speak for myself, but I have been dealing with this since a young child. It’s my belief that what wakes me up out of a deep sleep is the hairs standing up on the back of my head caused from the demon seething in my face to wake me up. It’s then that it attacks me. It wakes me up first so that I know whats coming. It wasn’t until a few months ago that it happened four times in the same night, and I was so scared that I couldn’t get it off my mind the following morning, did some research, and for the first time ever, found a name for what had puzzled me all my life. I don’t know how old I was when it started, probably around 13yo. But now that I think of it, I was terrified of the dark as a child. The fear of looking at my closet was excruciating. I may not have been able to process and verbalize what was going on. And my memory is poor. I have had incidents in every home I have ever lived as an adult. I’ve had the covers pulled off of me. I’ve had my bed creak as the demon crawled up over me and punched my pillow so hard it came back up and slapped me in the face. So many incidents it would be impossible to recall. I have had a special insight into the spiritual realm since I was thirteen, when I literally saw a shadowy demon exit my window in my bedroom. The heat coming from my bedroom drew me to it. As every hair on my body stood up I saw this shadowy figure by my window. That is the only time I ever saw a demon and I’ll never forget it. When I am attacked, I can’t talk, I can’t scream, I can’t move. I can sense something so wicked that I cry out to Jesus, and when my voice comes, command it to leave in the name of Jesus. And it leaves. Every time. It’s demonic. There was a time in my life when my husband would be working, that I would sleep on the couch with the tv on so I wouldn’t be attacked. The episodes come and go randomly. So bizarre to know that other people experience this. And no matter each persons own perception of the truth about the attacks, I can only attest to my own.
I’m not sure how something like this would be studied. It might be one of those things that we need to put on the list of questions to ask once we reach Heaven.
Dear R.E., please have a look around our site. In fact spiritual research does not have limitations of time and space and so it is able to study the intangible or subtle world with the help of advanced sixth sense. Perhaps we won’t need to wait till we reach heaven
I have myself experienced this and have heard many others who have gone through this. The explanation for it is really simple. I find it ironic that this isn’t mainstream by now.
There are other bodies subtler than the physical. When we sleep, we typically inhabit the astral body (emotional body, second body, psychosoma, etc.), temporarily leaving the physical body. Separate from the physical body, the astral body typically floats above it. You may have seen this depicted in pictures or movies.
Sleep paralysis occurs when there is discoincidence, or when the astral body don’t come into full alignment with the physical body even though we may feel like we’re back in our bodies. The non-alignment may be millimeters or even imperceptible to us. If you think of a hand entering a glove, think of the difficulty picking up a fine object if the glove isn’t on all the way. Same principle here. As a result, we can’t fully utilize the physical body and it feels paralyzed. We can’t use our arms if our arms are not in our arms.
I can assure you though, that this process is only temporary and you will soon come into coincidence or alignment with the physical body. Fear, panic or other such reactions are completely unnecessary when you understand the mechanics of this process and that it can be easily broken.
Since we are close to being in alignment with the physical body (like the hand that’s partially in the glove), we can break sleep paralysis by making small movements, as if we were wiggling a finger to pull a glove on more tightly. Any small movement can be effective, such as wiggling a toe, swallowing, blinking, taking deep breaths, etc. Don’t worry if you can’t do these things right away. Simply persist for a few moments (without fear or panic) and that should take care of things as you come back into alignment.
Physiological symptoms of sleep paralysis are the same with those of syncope. Thus, sleep paralysis is caused by syncope. For experts in cardiovascular diseases, sleep paralysis or syncope is a common symptoms of cardiovascular disease【1】.For a long time, due to the ignorance of physiological knowledge of syncope , ischemie cerebrale , slow beat, fast beat and so on, psychological illusion in people’s sleep generated by such physical symptoms i.e. the nightmare really has puzzled the psychologists, therefore they put forward a wide range of wrong even absurd views on the nightmares, which both have no scientific basis, and could not be confirmed, even more were not self-consistent.For example, a medical expert Debacke drew the correct conclusion that the anxiety-dream resulted from ischemie cerebrale according to the physiological symptoms of the anxiety-dream of a boy of thirteen. Freud called such view was a “medical mythology” in the book of Dream Psychology. Most important,the experiment confirmed the idea.For example, a place in country, there is a “haunted” bed which makes people have sleep paralysis or syncope every night, and it is this fact that the pillow in the bed is too high will reduce cerebral blood flow.
【1】http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Sleep-Disorders/Nocturnal-fainting/show/11612
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