The True
Night-Mare: SP in Myth and Legend
Nightmares and nocturnal attacks have been closely
connected to myths and monsters across time a nd cultures. It has even been
even suggested that the night-mare is the origin of all mythology (see Kirby,
1901). Although few modern scholars would be quite so bold or sweeping in
their claims the pervasiveness of the nocturnal attack in mythology,
religion, and legend is quite striking. Ardat lili or Lilitu, an evil
Sumerian spirit, is one of the earliest Hag-demons. She was capable of
flying, which she preferred to do at night, at which time she frequently
attacked men in their sleep. She is thought to constitute the prototype for
the Hebrew Lilith and the Roman Lamia (Russell, 1995). All these female
spirits or demons have in common an association with nocturnal attacks.
Moreover there are a number of related spirits described in Middle Eastern
and European lore with connotations of leaping upon, oppressing, or crushing,
supine individuals as they attempt to sleep at night. Some of the
better-known spirits of this sort are; Greek ephialtes (one who leaps upon)
and mora (the night "mare" or monster, ogre, spirit, etc.), Roman
incubus (one who presses or crushes), German mar/mare, nachtmahr,
Hexendrücken (witch pressing), and Alpdruck (elf pressure); Czech muera,
Polish zmora, Russian Kikimora, French cauchmar (trampling ogre), Old English
maere (mab, mair, mare-hag), hagge, (evil spirit or the night-mare--also
hegge, haegtesse, haehtisse, haegte); Old Norse mara, Old Irish mar/more,
Newfoundland Ag Rog (Old Hag), and the Spanish pesadilla ( Keissling, 1977;
Hufford, 1982; OED, Roscher, 1900/1979; Sebald, 1978; Thompson, 1957; Ward,
1981). In addition, the Greeks also had the pnigalion (the choker) and the
barychnas (the heavy breather)troubling would-be sleepers (Keissling, 1977).
In addition to attacking helpless humans at night these creatures were
shape-shifters, able to take on various forms during these attacks
(Keissling, 1977).
Among the writers of European antiquity, Herodotus provides an early account
of an ephialtes who appeared to the wife of King Ariston of Sparta
in the form of the King himself, although it was itself the spirit of the deceased
hero Astrobacus. Horace makes a reference to a threat whereby a boy claims
that if he is killed he "will attend you as a nocturnal fury; and, a
ghost, I will attack your faces with my hooked talons (for such is the power
of those divines, the Manes), and brooding upon your restless breasts, I will
deprive you of repose by terror." In Greece
and Rome, the ephialtes and the
incubus were identified with gods and demons of the forest and woodland, such
as, the god Pan (Roman = Faunus), as well as Satyrs, Sirens, and Silvani
(Kiessling, 1977), and even with the goddess Diana (Russell, 1995). Many of
these creatures were depicted as resembling humans in the upper portions of
their bodies and beasts, usually goats or fauns, in the lower extremities.
This association was evidently still quite strong by the time of Augustine
who explicitly associated Pan with the incubus. Pan was particularly
associated with shepherds and goatherds and one may well imagine that the
isolated and rigorous life of such individuals predisposed them to many
nocturnal visitations. Similarly, the succubus Lilith was to be typically to
be found in the remote regions of the desert (Isaiah, 34:12). Pan's attacks
were of course associated with panic. Pan was also more generally seen as the
instigator of "dreams and visions, especially those that produced
sudden, violent terror" (Kiessling, 1977, p. 5).
There is also certain classes of angels, "watchers" and
"fallen angels," referred to in the Judeo-Christian traditions,
associated with the incubus. Some were sent to watch over humans, and
sometimes became enamored of h uman women. The progeny of such encounters
were, however, monsters and demons who further molested and assaulted
helpless sleepers (Kiessling, 1977). Augustine doubted that angels were the
source of incubi, though he had no doubt that the latter existed. "There
is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own
experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of
others corroborate, that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called
"incubi," had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied
their lust upon them; and that certain devils, called Duses by the Gauls, are
constantly attempting and effecting this impurity is so generally affirmed,
that it were impudent to deny it" (ch. 23). Martin Luther was
unequivocal in asserting that, "sunt incubi et succubi daemonis . .
."
In some traditions these monsters are the descendents of Adam and his first
wife, none other than Lilith herself (Kiesling, 1977). Certain midrashic
stories allege that Cain is an offspring of such a union, in this case
between Eve and the ultimate fallen angel, the devil himself. It is not
surprising, therefore, that Beowulf's foe, the monster Grendel (referred to
at least once n that famous poem by the term maere--Kiessling, 1977) is
described in the poem as a descendent of Cain. Grendel, a cannibalistic
devourer of men invariably carries out his attacks in the dead of night on
sleeping men. Prior to Beowulf's confrontation with Grendel, Hrothgar tells
him how previous heroes have been defeated, apparently because they were
unable to remain awake. It is also worth noting that Beowulf eschews arming
himself for the confrontation with Grendal on the grounds that Grendel does
not bear arms. He destroys Grendal as Grendal destroyed men, by ripping a
limb from its socket.
These experiences and their ensuing personification and elaboration are by no
means limited to western culture. In St. Lucia,
West Indies, an attack of kokma comes at a time that
the individual is just falling asleep or just waking up. The sensations
include pressure on the chest, inability to move, and anxiety. The kokma is
the spirit of a dead baby that haunts an area, attacking people in their beds.
In a familiar pattern, they jump on the victim’s chest and clutch at
the throat. The victim attempts to cry out, or in some other way to get
another’s attention, someone that might scare off the kokma. Informants
described the babies clutching at their throats. The notion that the attacks
are thought to be initiated by dead, unbaptized babies is also found in Ireland.
"The kokma cannot be controlled, they grab people just for the hell of
it" (Dressler, 1977, cited in Ness, 1978). In Thailand
experiences referred to as Phi um (ghost covered) and phi kau (ghost
possessed) involve pressure, immobility, and something black covering the
body. In Japan
kanashibara ("to tie with an iron rope") is a common and widely
known experience (Fukuda, 1993). In Korea,
people are afflicted by ka wi nulita ("scissors pressed"), an
experience felt to be brought on by fear. In the Far North one speaks of
agumangia (Inupik) or ukomiarik (Yupik) in which "a soul" tries to
take possession of the paralyzed victim. In Laos, (Lemoine & Mounge,
1983) da chor is described as follows: "You want to listen, you can’t
hear; you want to speak, you are dumb; you want to call out, you cannot; you
feel you are dying, dying; you want to run away. You piss with fear in your
sleep " (cited in Firestone, 1985, p. 61). In the Philippines
people are afflicted with urum, ngarat (Simons & Hughes, 1985). Among the
Hmong of Laos the nightmare spirit is referred to as dab (nightmare) tsog
(evil spirit) or tsog tsuam (evil spirit who crushes, smothers, or presses
upon) (Adler, 1994).
As Hufford (1976) noted almost a quarter-century ago, of the SP
night-mare, " (1) the experience is wide-spread, at least in Western
culture; (2) it has been regularly reported for more than two thousand years;
(3) it has been attached to a variety of narrative frameworks . . . , but
regardless of the framework, the experiential features have remained
basically the same; (4) this consistency of detail, apparently rather
independent of tradition, is the most surprising and difficult to account
for" (p. 78). These experiences appear to be widely known in traditional
cultures, in marked contrast to industrialized society. Hufford (1976) found
that, among his Newfoundland
participants who had been hagged, half did not know the Old Hag tradition.
This is the same proportion of the entire sample who had not heard of the
tradition. This, of course, quite inconsistent with the cultural source
hypothesis that such experiences are induced by knowledge of cultural
traditions. Subsequent research has made clear that these experiences are by
no means limited to Western cultures. Also striking in this connection is the
similarity of the descriptions of the SP experiences across all cultures,
including industrialized culture which appears to have no commonly accepted
popular myths to offer cognitive support to the experiences. Hufford (1976)
makes a fairly convincing connection between sleep paralysis and
"bedroom" alien abductions as described by Keel (1970). Many others
have made this connection since (Baker, 1994, Blackmore, 1998; Spanos, 1994).
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