My colleague, VS Ramachandran, and I argue that these vivid visions actually result from straight forward brain mechanisms.ĭuring sleep paralysis disturbances to your sense of self (or “body image”) can occur. Sleepers even report being sexually molested by this demonic figure. The shadow-like “creatures” typically lurk in the corner of the bedroom, slowly approaching in on the sleeper, before violently choking and suffocating him and crushing his chest. These often include seeing terrifying ghosts. ![]() You can see yourself from a third-person perspective (like a Netflix movie), yet other times you’re catapulted into another person’s body.īut more horrifying than becoming a “ghost” is encountering one! According to our research around 40% of all sleep paralysis experiencers report hallucinating during the episode. This area helps build your “body image” and is important for your ability to distinguish between “self” and “other.” Normally it is turned off during REM sleep, which is why your sense of self is loosened up during dreams. We simply disrupt a brain region called the “temporoparietal junction” in the parietal lobes (top-middle part). But out-of-body experiences can reliably be reproduced in the laboratory. Out-of-body experiences are often described as a type of “astral travel” where the self leaves the physical body journeying into a parallel dimension. Many cultures like in Egypt and some parts of Italy, believe sleep paralysis to be supernatural in nature. Sleep paralysis can cause spooky sensations of floating outside your body or gazing down upon yourself from the bedroom ceiling. Phenomena like this provide penetrating insights into how your sense of self comes about and how fragile this can be. This sense of embodiment arises in the brain. ![]() I feel firmly grounded in my own flesh and bone and not someone else’s body (I feel my arm belongs to me and not you, say). ![]() Instead of epic encounters with otherworldly entities, these visions reflect natural disruptions to your brain’s ability to generate a unified sense of self the feeling we all have of being anchored here and now in our bodies. Based on over a decade of research, we’ve developed a theory to explain how your brain conjures up these compelling images.
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