In popular folklore, malevolent spirits are incapable of moving objects without the aid of a spirit medium. The thing is, those legends aren’t true. I can attest to the fact they can exert a tangible amount of physical force against things if the desire is strong enough. Angry spirits are the most motivated. Some have claimed to witness poltergeist activity but the degree of influence over the physical world is usually very minor. That’s why even the most compelling video evidence of real-world paranormal activity has been largely underwhelming.
Seeing a baseball roll off a staircase could be caused by a shaky floor or minor earthquake. If captured evidence on film was as compelling as it is in the movies, it would be a very different story. That understandably breeds skepticism in people. I was a skeptic too. That’s putting it mildly. I didn’t believe in the supernatural realm at all. I had no reason to. I’d never experienced anything that could be considered paranormal whatsoever. I was convinced once you’re dead, you are dead and there is nothing else out there. End of story.
Recently my mother gave me a couple of weighted blankets. The idea behind this new fad is that the added weight creates a primal sense of comfort, like you are newborn baby protected from the ills of the world. In practice it was a bit hard getting used to. Feeling heavy bedcovers on a cold night can legitimately be a source of calm and contentment but too much of anything can negate that security effect. Know what I mean? That first night I felt like I had a concrete sidewalk lying on top of me! It was just too much ‘comfort’. I certainly couldn’t imagine anyone who could use more than one of them at a time so I put the other one away in the closet. Since I’d left it sealed in the box, I figured my mom could either return it or give it to someone else.
Little by little I adjusted somewhat to the one I was using. She’d paid a lot for them and had warned me they required a few nights to adjust to the sensation. I am not one who gives up easily but the transition was difficult. There’s a fine line between secure and smothered I suppose. I might’ve thrown in the towel but I didn’t want to disappoint her. I knew Mom was going to ask me about my experience the next time we talked. She’d raved to everyone she knew how great it felt to be enveloped in them. I didn’t want to lie to her, and honestly, I was a bit envious of how amazing they were in her mind.
If you’ve heard of sleep paralysis, or ‘the night hag’ you know the troubling condition is fairly commonplace. A lot of people have experienced it. While it does have unique symptoms for each person, there are common elements which affect most sufferers. Some people see demons. Some witness aliens. Some feel an undefined, malevolent presence lurking in the bedroom as they sleep; but they all experience an oppressed feeling of being held down against their will.
Frankly it’s a terrifying condition but easily explained by researchers and neurological scientists. They say the central nervous system shuts off our ability to move while we sleep. That’s to protect ourselves from physically reacting to dreams and getting hurt. The condition occurs because someone partially awakens but their nervous system still hasn’t reengaged their voluntary muscles.
In this twilight state of pseudo consciousness, they are just ‘awake’ enough to know they can’t move. The person suffering from sleep paralysis begins to freak out and imagines something malignant holding them down. Doctors explain it’s just our unconscious mind’s explanation for why we can’t move. The unique ‘boogeyman’ every person creates within their runaway imagination is what haunts and holds them down against the mattress.
I bet you can see where this is going, can’t you? I’ve experienced ‘the ol’ night hag’ a few times myself, but not for several years. That is, before last night. When it first happens, you’d swear you are fully awake and feel a menacing presence nearby. My prior experiences were definitely spooky but they were nothing compared to this. Not even close. I don’t know if I’ll ever be the same again. I saw ‘it’ out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn my head to face the specter directly.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this ungodly thing haunting my bedroom, but I felt certain it was impossible to look directly at it anyway. Perhaps that was self-preservation protecting me from seeing the accursed entity too clearly. When you sense your evil captor has full control of your body, you lie there helplessly. Realizing it has that much power over you only adds to the depths of fear. I shook violently in my resting spot on the bed trying the wrestle free of its powerful telekinetic grip. A hoarse cry tried to escape my paralyzed lips but that too was stifled by the demonic phantom invading my domicile.
In that moment, you panic. You want to scream. You want to flee or at least defend yourself but the supernatural thing tormenting you has the upper hand. There appears to be no escape. I twitched violently. From within my heaving chest a terrified scream tried to escape but my diaphragm wouldn’t let it free. I couldn’t do anything but writhe and contort within my unresponsive body. It hovered nearby and taunted me, while mentally pressing down on my bound torso from the other side of the room. I could barely even flinch at this unholy invasion. All the while there was a strange, ethereal buzz hissing in my ear.
Just before my heart exploded from the unbearable terror, I forced myself to calm down and try to relax. It went against every defensive reflex a person would attempt in real life. Thankfully I remembered my previous gritty encounters with sleep paralysis. The faintest glimmer of hope washed over me as I tried to remind myself it was possibly just a particularly vivid nightmare. The more I clung to that tiny sliver of logic, the less menacing my supernatural tormenter became. Slowly it faded away until I was able to turn my head in that direction, ever-so-slightly. In the darkened corner it once enveloped, were now only the final lingering shadows of dawn.
Finally I could move again! Immense relief washed over me. My skin tingled and burned with the last vestiges of the harrowing experience. As if my personal testimony wasn’t enough, the drenched bedsheets would’ve attested to anyone how real it felt at the time. Then it occurred to me that the weighted blanket was still pressed against my chest, slowly suffocating me. The damned thing provided the infernal fuel for this nightmare. My imagination inspired my subconscious to explain why the burden on my heaving body was so oppressive.
It all made perfect sense. That is, until I realized the other weighted blanket was now also lying on top of me! My heart flip-flopped frantically at the realization of what it meant. Over in the corner beyond where my phantom tormenter had loomed, my closet door was flung wide-open. Multiple things were strewn around in disarray! Numerous pieces of Mom’s blanket packaging were all over the floor. It was as if a rabid animal had ripped into it. The cardboard scraps bore the undeniable signs of being burned or incinerated around the edges.
There’s no doubt in my mind what actually happened last night as I slept. The second blanket was maliciously placed over my body to magnify the specter’s influence. It’s chilling, first hand proof of an evil, supernatural realm. Obviously I could throw away the weighted blankets but what is the point? Could you fall sleep knowing a malevolent force has targeted you for murder? Would you ever feel safe once it has mastered the ability to physically influence objects to this deadly degree? It’s three hours to darkness again. There’s no place to run. What can I do?