Welcome to the Nightwalks…

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From meditation and martial arts to inventing methods of scanning the body for inflammation, studying electrical skin resistance, and hypnosis to teaching people to train their brainwaves, (all while dealing with two broken necks, diabetes, and a stroke) Maxwell Cade was quite the character.

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In 1969, a biophysicist and psychologist named Maxwell Cade arrived at the thing he wanted to spend his life studying: the altered states of consciousness capable of being experienced – or even induced – in the human brain.

In collaboration with Dr Ann Woolley-Hart at St Bartholomew’s Research Hospital in London, Maxwell Cade started off using an ESR (an electrical skin resistance monitor) to try to detect disease in patients before the symptoms of disease appeared. However, the two scientists realised the ESR was better at detecting temporary changes in emotions.

The ESR was used by the psychologist Carl Jung during some of his experiments into the unconscious mind, and the device passed from him to Dr Morton Whitby, who then passed it to Dr Woolley-Hart.

Cade and Woolley-Hart published a few papers on hypnosis and psychic phenomena in the 1960s (and some work on Transcendental Meditation in the 1970s, some practitioners of which had claimed to have lost touch with the physical plane, but were, in fact, catnapping).

Maxwell decided to use the ESR monitor in some of his experimental hypnosis studies, and found that gently guided hypnosis was similar in mental state to meditation. Woolley-Hart and Cade discovered that different readings on the ESR corresponded to different depths of relaxation. They claimed that there had to be a 50% relative change on the ESR before the subject could feel the first noticeable effects of a different state of consciousness, as the effect of the subject’s mental stress on his / her immune system had to be minimised.

By the early 1970s, Cade was working with people one-on-one, guiding them into states of deep relaxation and giving them empowering suggestions with a view to helping them heal themselves. It so happened that in 1973, Woolley-Hart was diagnosed with cancer, but she refused to undergo radiotherapy and instead got Cade to hypnotise her. Eventually, she said the cancer had disappeared. (She died 20 years later, from something that wasn’t cancer.)

Cade became a teacher of this ESR-hypnosis method, after using friends as relaxation subjects during trials. The meditation and “spiritual training” was improved by the usage of ESR, and further improved when combined with other technology like temperature sensors (ideally kept above 30 degrees centigrade).

At the end of 1973, Cade got hold of a single-channel EEG (electroencephalogram) machine, that could be switched to measure between either alpha, beta, or theta brainwaves. He found that alpha waves appeared during meditation, and gradually discovered the importance of alpha waves in certain Eastern mental techniques he had been familiar with since a young age. He thought that alpha waves weren’t the only requisite for meditation, as alpha waves appear during other states such as daydreaming and detachment from reality.

Cade’s Background

Cade was born on December 3rd, 1918 in Kensington, London, to a well-known actor mother and a postage-stamp-designer father. Before age ten, Maxwell was introduced to mind-training skills by his father, who would play memory games with him. During long walks together, his father taught him yoga and breathing exercises.

By age 12, Maxwell was practicing judo, kendo, and Zen at a Japanese martial arts centre in London. He studied meditation, yoga, and aikido while there, and earned a judo Black Belt in his twenties.

Maxwell had a calm, quiet demeanour, almost taciturn, and became a dedicated competitive swimmer. One day someone swam under him as he was diving and this caused him to break his neck. He spent a year in hospital, but once he got out he went back to competing and came close to swimming the English Channel.

One of Maxwell’s swimming friends introduced him to Sufi teachings.

He initially trained as a physicist and became a student at Guy’s Hospital Medical School in London, but seeing as medicine dismissed Eastern ideas and practices, he studied clinical psychology instead, then joined the RAF volunteer reserve in World War II and served as an air cadet navigator. He then transferred to the Royal Naval Scientific Service, working with radar, which was a new discovery at the time.

After the war, he wrote about infrared radiation physics and astronavigation and won national awards. He did some secret scientific stuff for the British government in the Cold War.

In the 1960s, he made a whole-body scanner that could find inflammation in body tissues using infrared heat radiation. The scanner went to market and Max co-authored a book about thermography. However, before he could finish that research, a hit-and-run driver drove into him in front of his office building, breaking his neck for a second time!

After that, Maxwell published about 150 scientific papers on navigation, radiation physics, and clinical psychology in journals, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine & Royal Society of Health, a Member of the Institute of Biology & the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and an honorary member of the British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis.

Maxwell’s interests were extremely varied. In the 1960s, he wrote a book on exobiology (possible life on other planets) titled Other Worlds Than Ours, and he co-authored a book about ball lightning.

Investigating Healers

Soon after Cade got hold of an EEG in the 70s, a healer named Jose Pogson joined his meditation classes, and Cade was pleasantly surprised to find the healer’s brain was simultaneously producing alpha, beta, and theta waves! This began many years of studying brain rhythms and the relationships between healers and their clients. Cade found that certain other people had multiple brain rhythms.

An electrical engineer named Geoffrey Blundell joined the classes and developed a “Mind Mirror EEG” device with Cade – a machine that showed EEGs from both the left and right hemispheres of the brain using sixteen light-emitting diodes (or LEDs), in real-time. The class was excited to see the patterns of a combination of different brainwaves, as the device could track multiple frequency bands at once, and found that meditation was actually a mixture of alpha and theta waves.

Cade’s findings validated ancient practices like meditation and energy healing by showing these neurological changes.

Cade also investigated phenomena such as telepathy, remote viewing, clairvoyance, out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences, and psychic healing. He found that in certain meditative states, two people could have oddly similar brainwave patterns, even if they were separated by distance. This supported theories of non-local consciousness, an idea often used in quantum physics and parapsychology.

During his investigations into OBEs and NDEs, Maxwell found that many people who had these experiences (seeing their bodies externally, entering a state of peace / unity with the universe, gaining knowledge or visions beyond normal understanding) had an “Evolved Mind State.”

Skeptics often attributed OBE and NDE experiences to brain chemistry and oxygen deprivation. However, Cade’s research suggested a neurological signature which was different to normal dream states or hallucinations.

Cade discovered that remote viewers (people able to “see” distant places or events without physically being there) displayed high levels of Theta wave activity, similar to states of meditation / trance. This aligned with research done by the American government’s “Stargate Project” which looked at the possible military applications of remote viewing.

Over time, Cade and his colleagues (including Blundell and Cade’s wife Isabel) correlated the Mind Mirror patterns with ESR readings, meditative states, and temperature readings. They invented a map of consciousness from this and began the Awakened Mind movement.

Cade named the combination of alpha, beta and theta waves the “State 5 pattern” or the pattern of an awakened mind. He split this into 5a, a temporary awakening or “Sabikalpa Samahdi” the Sanskrit for lucid awareness, and 5b, permanent awakening during daily life or “Nirbikalpa Samadhi” in Sanskrit. The Awakened Mind pattern 5a was present in people who were very competent and interested in what they were doing – artists, creative people, TV and radio producers – but 5b was uncommon.

Even less common was state 6 or Creativity / the Evolved Mind, which Cade claimed could be present in psychics, healers, and yoga practitioners.

The states of consciousness are:

Waking Consciousness – Mostly Beta waves (13–30 Hz), associated with logical thinking and problem-solving.

Meditative States – Increased Alpha waves (8–13 Hz), which are to do with relaxation and creativity.

Creative and Intuitive States – A combination of Alpha and Theta waves (4–8 Hz), often seen in artists, mystics, and those with psychic abilities.

The Awakened Mind State – An unusual balance of Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta waves (0.5–4 Hz), observed in experienced meditators, healers, and individuals who claimed psychic or paranormal abilities.

The Evolved Mind State – A state of deep transcendence where all brainwave frequencies synchronize, often associated with mystic experiences and peak states of consciousness.

Cade then went on to use the Mind Mirror to study psychic healers’ brainwaves and the brainwaves of their patients, both whilst in the same room and also whilst they were being healed remotely. The healers claimed to use chi, bioenergy, or prana, and according to the Mind Mirror these healers’ brains were producing Beta waves (conscious focus), Alpha waves (relaxation), Theta waves (intuition), and Delta waves (deep unconscious states). It was also revealed that the patients’ brainwaves synced up to match those of the healers’.

Most healers, including some Indian swamis, showed consistent “awakened mind” states, though one healer showed stage 6, which looked like an egg shape on the Mind Mirror with a little bit of beta and delta brainwaves thrown in.

Woolley-Hart wanted to try studying cancer patients using the Mind Mirror to see if certain mental states would help cure the disease, but her hospital colleagues declined on the basis that the device needed thorough evaluation. A computer programme was constructed to simulate a Mind Mirror, but there was no difference found between it and the hospital’s own EEG.

What Happened Next?

During the last 15 years of his existence, Maxwell Cade wrote many papers on such things as Zen, yoga, mystical states, and things to do with healing and consciousness. With the help of a student, he wrote The Awakened Mind: Biofeedback and the Development of Higher States of Awareness, co-written by Nona Coxhead. This influenced trusts and healing centres in England and got attention from the BBC, which filmed Maxwell Cade teaching with people hooked up to the Mind Mirror.

Cade not only had his neck broken twice, but he was diagnosed diabetic at 38 and exposure to radar beams during his work with the Navy caused his sight to fail. In the early 1970s, he suffered a stroke but forced himself to try to keep teaching, but his speech was too incomprehensible for the class to understand him. A healer visited him at his home the next morning and “laid hands on him” and 18 hours later, his speech had cleared, though he still had issues typing that persisted for a bit longer.

In March 1985, Cade went to hospital for a prostate operation and died of shock a few hours later.

Maxwell’s only regret was not being able to convince the public that brainwave changes represented alterations in consciousness. Decades later, other researchers cottoned on to the idea.

Cade’s work influenced many different fields, including neuroscience and the development of biofeedback (which is now used for anxiety and stress reduction and performance enhancement), meditation / the mindfulness movement being more accepted in the West, parapsychology, energy healing, and holistic medicine.

The Maxwell Cade Foundation was established in the UK after Maxwell died in 1985. The foundation organised information on the Mind Mirror EEG and consciousness, and handed out his papers to people interested in his work.

Papers written by Cade on a variety of subjects are available to download and read here: https://institutefortheawakenedmind.com/books-cds-and-videos/ if you scroll down to the bottom of the page.

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Sources:

https://www.mindmirrorportal.com/biography-of-max-cade/

https://occult-world.com/maxwell-cade/

https://themindmirror.com/pages/resources

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/feb/11/guardianobituaries

Last week we delved into the causes of sleep paralysis, what it is, its influence on literature and folklore, and how it was viewed in history. But how has it been portrayed visually?

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Welcome to the last part of “The Sleep Demon” trilogy of posts. You can find parts 1 and 2 here:

Throughout history, artists of different cultures and traditions have created works depicting their experiences with nightmares. There are medieval European paintings of incubi and sucubi and Japanese ukiyo-e prints of evil spirits, though sleep paralysis began to really be explored in Western art in the late 18th century, when more scientific interest in the human mind and sleep disorders started.

The hallucinations involved in sleep paralysis are fairly consistent across cultures and individual people, often consisting of shadowy figures or forms looming over the bed, a feeling of crushing or suffocation, or the sense of a malevolent entity in the room.

Some people report seeing demonic beings while others say they saw alien-like figures or ghosts. These hallucinations — along with the inability to move or cry out — have lead to the sort of terror that has inspired many works of art.

The most well-known painting is Henry Fuseli’s “The Nightmare” (1781), which portrays an unconscious woman sprawled over a bed, an incubus perching on her chest while a spectral horse’s head peers through the curtains in the background.

There is also Francisco Goya’s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” (1797-1799).

More recently, Nicolas Bruno, an artist who has had sleep paralysis since he was 15, makes photographic works that bring his nightly terrors to life. His art often depicts surreal landscapes peopled by faceless figures, symbolic objects, and bizarre juxtapositions.

https://www.nicolasbrunophotography.com/portfolio

The artist Shawn Coss made some work titled “Sleep Paralysis” here, using ink, copic markers, and watercolour:

http://www.shawncossart.com/sleepparalysis/

There is also Dariusz Zawadzki’s “Sleep Paralysis” series, which have contorted figures trapped in unsettling landscapes.

https://morpheusgallery.com/Dariusz+Zawadzki/#cnt

For more surreal nightmare art, go here: https://morpheusgallery.com/

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Sources:

https://neurolaunch.com/sleep-paralysis-painting/

https://morpheusgallery.com/Dariusz+Zawadzki/

https://morpheusgallery.com

http://www.shawncossart.com/sleepparalysis

http://www.nicolasbrunophotography.com/portfolio

Yesterday we took a look at what sleep paralysis is, its possible causes, and how to cope with it. Now let’s see how sleep paralysis was viewed in history and folklore, and its influence on literature. Because why not?

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Many types of hallucinations can be experienced during sleep paralysis, often involving an intruder or malevolent presence in the room. The intruder can take the form of an incubus or a succubus. There can also be an out-of-body sensation or OBE, (something which I have experienced a couple of times in the past). For more about this see part 1.

SP in History

From Mesopotamia in 2000 BC all the way up to the Roman Empire, a demon called the incubus (from the Latin for “to sit on”) was held responsible for bad dreams and physical immobility during sleep.

The earliest treatment recommended for the incubus / nightmares was put forward in the 7th century by Paulus Aegineta, a Byzantine physician. He said that the issue should be treated with “bleeding, drastic purgatives and friction of the extremities.” He reckoned the head was the source of the problem, and suggested that if the above treatment wasn’t successful, then cupping and scarification of the throat, a restricted diet, and shaving the head would work.

The 10th-century Persian Akhawayni Bokhari was the first person to view the disorder as a purely medical complaint without demonic cause. A believer of the old medical “humours” theory, he surmised that SP was caused by vapours of phlegm arising from the stomach into the head, suffocating the brain during sleep. However, his prescription wasn’t so different from earlier treatments – it involved bloodletting.

During the Christian era, SP was seen as a sign of demonic possession and those affected were given prayers and exorcisms.

In Old English, the incubus demons became mare or maere, which derives from the Old Norse word, mara. It comes from the verb merran or “crush”. These were not demons but supposedly people who used magical powers to “ride” their victims just for the thrill of doing evil.

Following that, the mara became the Old Hag or Night Hag myth in folklore. Shakespeare used this for his Queen Mab speech in Romeo & Juliet.

In 1664 a Dutch physician, Van Diemerbroeck, wrote a book, “Of the Night-Mare” detailing the nightly hallucinations of a 50 year old woman.

In the 1700s, SP was understood via the scientific method due to the Age of Enlightenment. Treatment of someone suffering an SP episode now involved shaking them awake, changing their body position, speaking loudly to them or pricking them with a pin.

In 1876, sleep paralysis was called “night palsy” by Silas Weir Mitchell, MD. In 1928, the term “sleep paralysis” was coined in the medical literature by Neurologist A.S.K. Wilson.

In the 19th century, sleep paralysis was often blamed on diet or sudden change in diet.

Samuel Johnson originally defined sleep paralysis as “nightmare” in his A Dictionary of the English Language, but as time went on the word “nightmare” was used for bad dreams in general.

These days, the sleep paralysis demon has likely morphed into the phenomena of alien abductions and other paranormal reports.

Depending on culture, time, and place, sleep paralysis or SP has been and can be experienced in different ways, some more negatively than others. Scientists have suggested that if sleep paralysis is feared in a certain culture, that conditioned fear can worsen the SP experience and lead to higher rates of people having SP.

For example, high rates and long durations of SP episodes have been reported in Egypt, where people have beliefs about SP involving evil spirits called jinn. Fifty percent of Egyptians with SP are extremely afraid of it and associate it with impending death.

In Folklore

Witches

Sleep paralysis has been blamed on “the night hag” in cultures around the world.

In Newfoundland, Eastern Canada, SP is called the Old Hag and sufferers of a “hagging” are said to be “hag-ridden” on waking. Despite the name, the hallucinatory assailant can be male or female, or even an animal that sits upon the sleeper’s chest. In some areas, the hag is believed to leave her physical body at night and her spirit is what is sitting on sleepers’ chests. The Old Hag is well-known enough here to appear in films, plays, and crafted objects, and according to folklore here the hag can be summoned to attack other people. Here they believe the Old Hag can be kept away by sleeping with a Bible under the pillow, calling the name of the sleeper backwards, or even sleeping with a “Hag Board” – a shingle or board with nails in it strapped to the chest.

In Italy, the Pandafeche is an evil witch or ghost – or a bizarre catlike thing – that sits on the victim’s chest and tries to cause harm. Here they believe that the best way to keep her away is to have a bag of beans or sand close by the bed. The witch is thought to stop and become distracted by counting the beans or sand grains. (Hello, Dracula?)

In North Italy, the Trud is also a witch that sits on sleeping chests, suffocating them. She has to be chased away by making the sign of the Cross (hmm, difficult to do if one cannot move!)

In Scandinavia, the hag or mare is related to incubi or succubi but is believed to be a “damned” woman, who is cursed and whose body is mysteriously transported during sleep without her knowledge. Her body is moved onto the chests of other sleeping people, causing them to have nightmares.

In the southern U.S., SP is known as “witch riding.” During the Salem witch trials, many people reported being attacked at night by witches, and these attacks may have been down to SP.

In Hungarian folklore, SP is either caused by a witch, a fairy, a wraith, or a demon lover.

In Brazil, the pisadeira or “she who steps” is a tall, spindly old woman with long, dirty nails, tangled white hair, a long nose, red staring eyes, green teeth and a sinister laugh. She lives over the roofs, waiting to step on the chests of anyone who goes to bed with a full stomach.

Demons / Jinni

In Sardinia, a being known as the Ammuntadore or Ammuttadori sits on people’s chests to give them nightmares, and this being shapeshifts, taking the form of the person’s fears. Sometimes he rips the person’s skin with his nails. Some parts of the island believe he wears seven red caps on his head, and anyone who can resist the pain and steal one of his caps will find a hidden treasure.

In Fiji, SP is known as kana tevoro or “being eaten” by a demon. In some cases the demon can be the spirit of a recently deceased relative.

In Nigeria, it’s known as “the Devil on your back” and is called Dannau by the Hausa people. The Yoruba people of Southwest Nigeria call it ogun oru or nocturnal warfare. The nightly problem is attributed to demonic invasion of the body and psyche while a person is dreaming. There is a perceived feud between the sufferer’s real-life spouse and a “spirit” spouse, and anyone who eats in their dream is bewitched. It is treated with Christian prayers or traditional rituals meant to remove the ingested demonic elements.

In Swahili-speaking areas of south-east Africa, SP is called jinamizi or “strangled by jinn.” It is thought to happen when one sleeps on their back.

In Egypt, SP is called Kaboos or “compressor” and is similar to Ja-thoom. The jinn in this instance may be doing it out of evil, accidentally, or for mischief.

In Turkey, SP is Karabasan or “the dark presser.” A supernatural being known as a jinn comes into a person’s room and holds them down, strangling them. To banish the jinn it is believed that you should recite passages from the Qur’an and pray to Allah.

In Malay, SP is kena tindih or “being pressed,” thought to be the work of demonic entities that occur in the blind spots of one’s vision.

In Pakistan, SP is seen as an encounter with Shaitan or Satan, evil jinns or demons who have taken over the body. The ghoul can be known as bakhtak or ifrit. It’s also thought that SP is caused by black magic performed by enemies or jealous people. Some buildings or places are believed to be haunted by satanic or other paranormal beings that attack people living in them, especially at night.

In Arab culture, SP is attributed to Ja-thoom or “what sits heavily on something,” a shaytan or ifrit that sits on top of a person and chokes them. To keep it at bay, you have to sleep on your right-hand side and recite the “throne verse” of the Qur’an.

In Kurdish folklore, SP is caused by the demon motakka who steals the breath of sleepers who breathe heavily, particularly young children.

In Greece and Cyprus, SP occurs because of a supposed ghost-like demon called Mora, Vrahnas, or Varypnas. It tries to steal the victim’s speech or tries to asphyxiate him or her by sitting on their chest.

Sprites / Goblins

In the Philippines, the Batibat or bangungot takes on the shape of an ancient, grotesque, tree-dwelling female spirit that sits on victims’ chests. She is believed to enter a house when the tree she was living in gets felled and turned into a support post for that house. In revenge, anyone she finds sleeping near the support post gets attacked by her suffocating them and invading their dreams.

In Iceland, Mara, a succubus or goblin, is believed to cause nightmares and SP.

Animals / Creatures

Someone mentioned that in East Chinese folklore, it’s believed that mice can steal human breath during the night and that human breath gives mice strength and a long life along with the ability to become human at night, in a similar way to fox spirits. The mouse supposedly sits close to the person’s face or under their nose. (I cannot vouch for the truth of this statement, but it’s an interesting idea all the same.)

In Kashmiri mythology, SP is caused by the Roch, an invisible creature that supposedly lives in every house and only attacks if the house hasn’t been cleaned or if the victim has been doing something satanic or getting happiness from the bad luck of others. The creature is also known as pasikdhar, sayaa or GharDivta by Kashmiri aboriginals of the Hindu faith.

In Catalonia, SP is caused by the Pesanta, a gigantic dog or cat that enters homes at night and lays itself on people’s chests, causing breathing difficulties and nightmares. The animal is hairy and black with steel paws, but it has holes so it can’t actually take anything.

Ghosts / Spirits

In Fiji, the instance of “being eaten by a demon” or SP is sometimes attributed to the ghost of a recently dead relative who has come back to complete something unfinished or to pass on an important message. Often, people close to the person experiencing SP say “kania, kania,” or “eat, eat!” to prolong the possession so they have a chance to talk to the spirit and ask it questions.

In Albania, SP is caused by a male spirit in a golden fez called Mokthi. He comes to women who are tired or suffering and stops them from moving. If they manage to take his fez, he grants them a wish but then keeps on visiting them, though he isn’t dangerous. There are talismans women here use to keep Mokthi away, or they put their husbands’ hats by their pillows while sleeping.

In Cambodia, Lao and Thailand, SP is caused by one or more ghosts known as Phi Am, and they can cause bruises.

In China, SP is called “ghost pressing on the body” or “ghost pressing on bed.”

In Korea, SP is gawi nulim and is thought to be caused by a ghost laying down on top of the sleeper.

In Hmong folklore, sleep paralysis is caused by a pressing spirit, dab tsog. Dab tsog attacks by sitting on people’s chests, sometimes trying to strangle them. Some people think dab tsog is responsible for SANDS (sudden arrhythmic death syndrome).

In Vietnam, SP is ma đè, (held down by a ghost) or bóng đè (held down by a shadow.)

In Persian belief, SP is caused by bakhtak, a ghost-type creature that sits on the victim’s chest and makes breathing difficult. It is thought that if the dreamer reaches out and holds his nose, he will tell them the location of a treasure.

In Pashtun culture, SP is attributed to khapasa, a ghost without thumbs. It tries to suffocate by sitting on the chest and pressing the throat, but without thumbs it cannot do this effectively.

In Ethiopia, dukak (depression) is used to describe SP, which is thought of as an evil spirit that possesses you in your sleep. Some folks think it’s a symptom of withdrawal from the stimulant khat. The dukak is an personification of the depression which often happens after stopping chewing khat. He often appears to khat-quitters in their hallucinations and gives them weird punishments for offending him by quitting. These punishments often take the form of unfeasable physical things (e.g. the dukak puts the victim inside a bottle and shakes it hard) or outrageous tasks like expecting the victim to swallow a bag of gravel.

In Latvia, SP is a torture or strangling by Lietuvēns, the soul of a person murdered by strangling, drowning, or hanging. It attacks people and domestic animals. If under attack, you have to move your left toe to get rid of the soul.

Magic and Shadow

In Mongolian culture, nightmares and sleep paralysis are referred to as khar darakh (written as “kara darahu”), meaning “to be pressed by the Black” or “when the Dark presses.” Kara means black and might refer to a personification of one’s dark side. Kharin buu means “shaman of the black” (shamans of the “dark side” exist in far-northern Mongolia while tsaghaan zugiin buu means “shaman of the white direction” (i.e. shamans who only invoke beneficent spirits). This compares to the Turkish ‘karabasan‘ or the dark presser, which could originate from pre-Islamic times when the Turks had the same religion and myths as the Mongols.

In Tibet, SP is called dip-non or dip-phok which means “oppressed / struck by dip.” Dip means “shadow,” referring to a sort of spiritual contamination.

Even in present-day Western belief, SP is sometimes attributed to beings known as “shadow people.” Victims often describe a shadowy man in a brimmed hat, an old hag, or a hooded figure.

The influence of SP in literature

Some writers appear to have had sleep paralysis and put their experiences into their books.

For example, Herman Melville described something very like sleep paralysis in chapter 4 of Moby Dick, where Ishmael recalls a childhood memory of “a supernatural hand placed in mine” but being unable to move.

J. M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, said that in his early childhood “a sheet… tried to choke me in the night” and there are passages in the Peter Pan stories that hint he was aware of the feeling of loss of muscle tone while in a dreaming state. Barrie described a few parasomnia and neurological symptoms in his books and used them to explore the nature of consciousness.

Other writers who are likely to have had SP include Guy de Maupassant, Erasmus Darwin, Thomas Hardy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway.

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Sources

https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/sleep-paralysis-a-brief-history-of-fear-treatment-and-artistic-creativity

https://academic.oup.com/book/24530/chapter-abstract/187681185?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://eachnight.com/sleep/sleep-paralysis-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_hag