🚀 go-pugleaf

  Again, this is exactly what I'd expect from that kind of problem. Take a
look at my long post on this subject awhile back, ("The Old Hag" phenomenon,
or I will repost it for you.)
  Though I must say, I am surprised that you are still having these episodes
at your age. Mostly I've seen it in younger children or people under
considerable emotional stress. Me, I had it until I was about 12 or so, and
then I managed to teach myself out of it. (Very distressing it was!) The
interesting thing was, was that learning that it wasn't dangerous and that
lots of people had the problem was KEY to getting over it. When it wasn't
scary anymore it stopped coming.

   Hope this helps alittle!


-- 
      /| ________________   |probe@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu|  Lord of the Flies 
O|===|* >________________>  |probe@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu|  1st MPC Division
      \|                    | nandy@scivax.stsci.edu |  Colony Mechworks
  Velox - Durus - Infestus  |  nandy@fos.stsci.edu   |  Colony World Myops

In article <1jt3n0INN5aq@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu> probe@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Prabal Nandy) writes:
>  Again, this is exactly what I'd expect from that kind of problem. Take a
>look at my long post on this subject awhile back, ("The Old Hag" phenomenon,
>or I will repost it for you.)
>  Though I must say, I am surprised that you are still having these episodes
>at your age. Mostly I've seen it in younger children or people under
>considerable emotional stress. Me, I had it until I was about 12 or so, and
>then I managed to teach myself out of it. (Very distressing it was!) The
>interesting thing was, was that learning that it wasn't dangerous and that
>lots of people had the problem was KEY to getting over it. When it wasn't
>scary anymore it stopped coming.
>
>   Hope this helps alittle!
>
>
>-- 
>      /| ________________   |probe@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu|  Lord of the Flies 
>O|===|* >________________>  |probe@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu|  1st MPC Division
>      \|                    | nandy@scivax.stsci.edu |  Colony Mechworks
>  Velox - Durus - Infestus  |  nandy@fos.stsci.edu   |  Colony World Myops


I don't know how often "often" is, but Ed seems to get into this state roughly
once a month to six weeks. Perhaps it has something to do with his having been
a fairly successful wrestler in college, and retaining a dislike of being
pinned, or something. It happens to me much more seldom, maybe 4 times or less
in a year. I had no idea it was unusual in older people. (I wonder if it's
just one of those statistical artifacts, where older people accept it, so it
doesn't get reported...?) He also is much more succeptible to insomnia, 
although I actually have it more often, ie, he is more upset by it. When I
first started seeing him ten years ago, he was so upset by a week of insomnia
that he was in a real state, and went to the emergency room. I, being a night
person, look upon insomnia as just one of those things, and if I can't get my
*mind* asleep, just make sure I take plenty of rest for the remainder. He used
to get quite frantic. (He was so used to sleeping really well that it seemed
like the end of the world! :-) Now that he's seen that I get along without a
really peaceful sleep, and come to bed at all hours, he's become less upset by
the idea.

But we are getting way off the subject of dreams themselves....  :-)

And further off the subject of ghosts...

I have been wondering how often "ghosts" and dreams are influenced by our
hearing something without being conscious of it. I know I once thought our
campsite was being attacked by aliens or something... there was this amazing
throbbing sound right out of a good S-F movie, and I was even afraid to go
look outside the trailer... The next day I discovered, quite by accident, that
it was the sound of a passing diesel train a couple of miles away, filtered
through the sound of a large, active waterfall near our camp. Amazing noise.
The greatest fear I have ever felt... It sounded HUGE, and right on top of us,
but during the day when there were other sounds to mask it, it was hardly
audible until you got to the falls themselves.

I know the sleeping mind can manufacture interesting dreams from ordinary
sounds, and I sometimes wonder if it can manufacture images when we are awake
if we are in a vulnerable position mentally...

Suze

Your "deja vu" sounds like you are beginning to be able to have "lucid" dreams.
This is a dream that you can influence semi-consciously, without completely
waking up. I've learned to do that, as a hedge against those nightmares I
mentioned having as a child. This is a new discovery of sleep science, maybe
you ought to get on one of the related newsgroups...

Suze

(May be "new", but I did it years ago...  ;-)

   I think what you hear influences perception alot more than most people
are apt to realize. A matter of fact, (and it has been discussed here a
couple of times in the past) alot of things that go "bump in the night" and
things that also go "bump in the day" but are just inaudible under normal
circumstances. I would also hypothesize that Ghost are so often heard in old
houses primarily due to the groaning and settling of boards and windows and
such things... When have ghosts ever been seen in a modern cement and
plaster office building? It's a well known fact, also, that the tired human
mind is especially apt at producing images that mimic what we're
subconsciously afraid of... ex: "Old hag night terrors", Ghosts in the
night, Monsters... My father tells me a story of Morgue Guards found dead at
an English Hospital before he moved there... all fairly healthy, dead of
heart attacks... Thought to be victims of Ghosts.
   Sensory deprivation, as you might have heard is a great medium for
hallucinations of this sort... The human mind is not designed to produced
rational output under these conditions, hence, it produces its own set of
perceptions. (You must have heard about some of these experiments.) In the
end, on a quiet day, you can hear anything you want to hear....

								-Probe

-- 
      /| ________________   |probe@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu|  Lord of the Flies 
O|===|* >________________>  |probe@jhuvms.hcf.jhu.edu|  1st MPC Division
      \|                    | nandy@scivax.stsci.edu |  Colony Mechworks
  Velox - Durus - Infestus  |  nandy@fos.stsci.edu   |  Colony World Myops