Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations during sleep paralysis: Neurological and cultural construction of the night-Mare
Consciousness and Cognition 8 (3):319-337 (1999)
| Abstract | Hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences (HHEs) accompanying sleep paralysis (SP) are often cited as sources of accounts of supernatural nocturnal assaults and paranormal experiences. Descriptions of such experiences are remarkably consistent across time and cultures and consistent also with known mechanisms of REM states. A three-factor structural model of HHEs based on their relations both to cultural narratives and REM neurophysiology is developed and tested with several large samples. One factor, labeled Intruder, consisting of sensed presence, fear, and auditory and visual hallucinations, is conjectured to originate in a hypervigilant state initiated in the midbrain. Another factor, Incubus, comprising pressure on the chest, breathing difficulties, and pain, is attributed to effects of hyperpolarization of motoneurons on perceptions of respiration. These two factors have in common an implied alien ''other'' consistent with occult narratives identified in numerous contemporary and historical cultures. A third factor, labeled Unusual Bodily Experiences, consisting of floating/flying sensations, out-of-body experiences, and feelings of bliss, is related to physically impossible experiences generated by conflicts of endogenous and exogenous activation related to body position, orientation, and movement. Implications of this last factor for understanding of orientational primacy in self-consciousness are considered. Central features of the model developed here are consistent with recent work on hallucinations associated with hypnosis and schizophrenia. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesTore A. Nielsen (2000). Covert Rem Sleep Effects on Rem Mentation: Further Methodological Considerations and Supporting Evidence. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (6):1040-1057.
Edward F. Pace-Schott (2005). Complex Hallucinations in Waking Suggest Mechanisms of Dream Construction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (6):771-772.
Timothy Lane & C. M. Yang (2010). The Threshold of Wakefulness, the Experience of Control, and Theory Development. Consciousness and Cognition 19 (4):1095-1096.
Olaf Blanke & Christine Mohr (2005). Out-of-Body Experience, Heautoscopy, and Autoscopic Hallucination of Neurological Origin. Implications for Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Corporeal Awareness and Self Consciousness. Brain Research Reviews 50 (1):184-199.
Simon R. Jones, Charles Fernyhough & Frank Larøi (2010). A Phenomenological Survey of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in the Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic States. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9 (2).
J. T. Rowley, R. Stickgold & J. Allan Hobson (1998). Eyelid Movements and Mental Activity at Sleep Onset. Consciousness and Cognition 7 (1):67-84.
Aaron L. Mishara (2010). Kafka, Paranoic Doubles and the Brain: Hypnagogic Vs. Hyper-Reflexive Models of Disrupted Self in Neuropsychiatric Disorders and Anomalous Conscious States. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 5 (1):1-37.
Jennifer M. Windt (2010). The Immersive Spatiotemporal Hallucination Model of Dreaming. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9 (2).
J. Cheyne & T. Girard (2007). Paranoid Delusions and Threatening Hallucinations: A Prospective Study of Sleep Paralysis Experiences☆. Consciousness and Cognition 16 (4):959-974.
J. A. Cheyne (2000). Play, Dreams, and Simulation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (6):918-919.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads12 ( #93,265 of 548,984 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,327 of 548,984 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
