Location: East West Bookshop, 6407 12th Ave NE., Seattle, WA
Date: Sunday, October 11, 2015
Time: 3-5 pm
Cost: $15 Register Now! or sign up at the event

Many extraordinary and paranormal phenomena take place during the sleep and dream states. Night time and the twilight state are especially conducive to these experiences. While some dreams are about psychological processing, other dreams and experiences are beyond this, taking us into the realm of the spiritual and metaphysical.

In this event we will explore some of these experiences including: precognitive, telepathic, clairvoyant and shared dreams, visitations from departed loved ones, sleep paralysis empathic telepathy and pre-death dreams and visions. Seattle dream expert Mimi Pettibone hosts dream groups, workshops and offers private consultations at East West Bookshop as well as by phone.

East West Bookshop is now located above Whole Foods grocery store (65th & Roosevelt). Free parking upstairs, enter from 12th Ave NE and head up the ramp to park near the shop.

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon that happens during the transition between sleep and waking. During R.E.M. (dreaming) sleep the body becomes paralyzed, in order to keep us from physically acting out our dreams. Normally, the paralysis stops before we wake up. However occasionally there is a ‘glitch in the system’, and our mind wakes up before our body is released from the state of paralysis. While many people may experience an upsetting (though soon to pass) case of sleep paralysis, others report an even more terrifying occurrence that happens while in the paralyzed state: the sensation of being visited by some kind of entity. Coined ‘Paralysis Attacks’ by David Hufford, Professor of Behavioral Science at Penn State University, these experiences are described by those who experience it as a visitation by an negative presence.  Hufford has done extensive research, and has been able to identify over 30 common elements to these attacks.

The prevailing common denominators are:
•    Waking up in bed and realizing one can’t move
•    The person can move their eyes, but the body is paralyzed
•    Hearing footsteps
•    A figure enters the room (often described as dark, not human, intent to harm, some sort of presence but not sure what)
•    Incredible sense of fear
•    A feeling of weight or pressure upon the chest (sometimes other areas of the body, most commonly the chest)
•    A sense that if the person just laid there, they would die.
•    The experience feels very real, different than a normal dream or nightmare.

The frequently reported sensation of pressure on the chest, combined with the sensing of some sort of negative presence, cause us to believe that Fuseli’s painting ‘The Nightmare’ (above) is a depiction of a sleep paralysis attack. Accounts of this phenomenon are documented in art and literature as far back as we have historical records, and in fact, Hufford doesn’t know of any culture, anywhere, that doesn’t have a tradition describing it. Known by different names around the world: ‘The Old Hag’, ‘Popabawa’, ‘Demon’, ‘Witch’, or just a dark figure or shadow, the description of the experience is the same.
People in this state are able to accurately describe their environment, indicating a state of being awake, yet brain wave recordings taken during attacks show elements of both wakefulness and REM sleep. Victims are usually convinced they are awake and that this was not a dream. They are actually in a mixed state of consciousness between wakefulness and dreaming, also known as a hypnopompic state (when a person is falling asleep, as opposed to waking up, the same mixed state is known as the hypnogogic state).
It would be easy enough to attribute the whole description to a bad dream or nightmare; but that doesn’t explain why so many people – including many who have never heard of this phenomenon – report such similarities in their accounts. While there are variations in individual reports, the similarities cannot be ignored. In fact, the descriptions bear uncanny similarity to alien visitation reports, and Hufford believes these are actually cases of sleep paralysis attacks.
Science as of yet does not have a sufficient explanation for this baffling phenomenon, which does not reduce the suffering of those who experience this terrifying occurance. For more information, check out Hufford’s book: The Terror That Comes In The Night

Also check out Ryan Hurd’s book: Sleep Paralysis: A Guide to Hypnagogic Visions and Visitors of the Night

And I wish you all SWEET DREAMS tonight!

DREAMS & the PARANORMAL

Date: Wednessday, Oct. 15^th

Time: 7-8:30pm   Cost: $12

Location: East West Bookshop, 6500 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115

Register Here: http://www.eastwestbookshop.com/events/6986

Many extraordinary and paranormal phenomena take place during the sleep and dream states.  Night time and the twilight state are also especially conducive to these experiences. While some dreams may be more about psychological processing, others undoubtedly include experiences beyond this, into the realm of the spiritual and metaphysical.

This workshop will explore some of these phenomena, including: visitations from departed loved ones, telepathic, precognitive, clairvoyant and shared dreams, sleep paralysis, and empathic telepathy dreams. This talk will be presented by Seattle dream expert Mimi Pettibone. She offers workshops, groups and private consultations related to dreams, intuition, and conscious and subconscious communication.

Register Here: http://www.eastwestbookshop.com/events/6986

While many people may experience an upsetting but soon to pass case of sleep paralysis, others report an even more terrifying occurrence that happens while in this paralyzed state: the sensation of being visited by some kind of entity. Coined ‘Paralysis Attacks’ by David Hufford, Professor of Behavioral Science at Penn State University, these experiences are described by those who experience it as a visitation by an negative presence.  Hufford has done extensive research, and has been able to identify over 30 common elements to these attacks. The prevailing common denominators are:

• Waking up in bed and realizing one can’t move
• The person can move their eyes, but the body is paralyzed
• Hearing footsteps
• A figure enters the room (often described as dark, not human, intent to harm, some sort of presence but not sure what)
• Incredible sense of fear
• A feeling of weight or pressure upon the chest (sometimes other areas of the body, most commonly the chest)
• A sense that if the person just laid there, they would die.
• The experience feels very real, different than a normal dream or nightmare.

Accounts of this phenomenon are documented in art and literature as far back as we have historical records, and in fact, Hufford doesn’t know of any culture, anywhere, that doesn’t have a tradition describing it. Known by different names around the world: ‘The Old Hag’, ‘Popabawa’, ‘Demon’, ‘Witch’, or just a dark figure or shadow, the description of the experience is the same.

People in this state are able to accurately describe their environment, indicating a state of being awake, yet brain wave recordings taken during attacks show elements of both wakefulness and REM sleep. Victims are usually convinced they are awake and that this was not a dream. They are actually in a mixed state of consciousness between wakefulness and dreaming, also known as a hypnopompic state (when a person is falling asleep, as opposed to waking up, the same mixed state is known as the hypnogogic state).

It would be easy enough to attribute the whole description to a bad dream or nightmare; but that doesn’t explain why so many people – including many who have never heard of this phenomenon – report such similarities in their accounts. While there are variations in individual reports, the similarities cannot be ignored. In fact, the descriptions bear uncanny similarity to alien visitation reports, and Hufford believes these are actually cases of sleep paralysis attacks.

Science as of yet does not have a sufficient explanation for this baffling phenomenon, which does not reduce the suffering of those who experience this terrifying occurance. For more information, check out Hufford’s book: ‘The Terror That Comes In The Night’

http://www.amazon.com/Terror-That-Comes-Night-Experience-Centered/dp/081221305X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321738406&sr=8-1

During REM sleep, an interesting thing happens to our body: we become physically paralyzed. Most of the time we are unaware of it, because we are asleep and in the dream state. But occasionally a person will wake up and become consciously aware of the fact that they cannot move their body, and a state of fear and panic sets in. They are still able to move their eyes around, just as they do in REM sleep, but the body is paralyzed.  It usually lasts anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, but that time can feel like a terrifying eternity.

It is believed that sleep paralysis is a protective mechanism so that we don’t physically act out our dreams; imagine the mess, bumps and bruises we would wake up to if we did!  While most of the time the transition between sleeping and waking goes smoothly, it is estimated that anywhere from 20-30% of the world’s population will at some time experience the phenomenon of sleep paralysis.

The causes are generally unknown.  For some people it may be triggered by factors such as increased stress, lack of sleep, a changing sleep schedule, sudden changes in lifestyle, use of certain medications, or substance abuse.  For others, it can be associated with narcolepsy, or night time leg cramps. For most people there is no determining explanation.

While scary, it is only temporary, and for the majority of people it may happen once or twice in a lifetime and is nothing to worry about.