Evil Spirits or Old Hag?
May 17th, 2007 by Glenn
I had a dream one night when I was in the MTC. I dreamt that I was walking by a baseball stadium, and it was night and no one was around. I turned to walk down a long alleyway and all of a sudden I realized that Satan and his angels had lined up on both ends to trap me in. It was dark and they were closing in menacingly. In my sleep, I struggled to raise my arm to the square to cast them out, but I couldn’t move. I tried to speak, but I could not move my mouth. I panicked and found it difficult to breath. I gathered all my strength and finally raised my arm and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave.” Immediately I was free and able to open my eyes. The other missionaries in my room were gathered around my bed. They had seen me struggling and watched me raise my arm and heard me slur the words. As I came to consciousness, I felt a tangible weight being lifted off the top of me. It was a frightening experience – one I did not want to forget – so I recorded it in my journal.
My dad had a similar experience when he was on his mission in England. He remembers seeing actual shadows fleeing the room as he awoke. I have heard that many others have had similar experiences as well. This was all very faith affirming while I was a missionary. Then I came home and started studying folklore. Guess what? There is a name for this. It is called “the Old Hag syndrome” – or, more anciently, a “night-mare.” It is a cross-cultural phenomenon. I borrowed (and slightly edited) the following list from Wikipedia:
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• In Chinese folk culture, it is referred as “Ghost press bed”: The belief is that a spirit or ghost is sitting or lying on top of the sleeping individual, causing the sleep paralysis. This is thought to be a minor body possession by the forces from the dead which doesn’t usually cause any harm to the victim.
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• In Thailand, this condition is said to be caused by a spirit or “pee um” which sits or lie atop of the victim causing him or her to be immobile. The spirit causes no harm to the victim and is said to only be playing pranks.
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• In Scandinavian mythology, sleep paralysis was caused by a Mara, or mare - a kind of malignant female wraith who can also cause nightmares. She appears as early as in the Norse Ynglinga saga, but the belief itself is probably even older. “Mara” is the Old Norse, Swedish and Icelandic name, “mare” is Norwegian and Danish.
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• In Newfoundland, as a visit from the “old hag”.
• In Mexico, as subida del muerto (the dead climbing on top).
• In German as Hexendrücken (witch pressing).
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• In medieval times of Europe, attacks of sleep paralysis may have given rise to the belief in mara, incubi, succubi, other demons and witchcraft. People in England believed that witches or hags rode on men’s chests as they slept, and the feeling of being unable to breathe was attributed to a hag. This is why people who have had very little sleep may be described as looking “hag-ridden”.
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• Traditional Islamic cultures would usually interpret this as an encounter with a Jinn (or “djinn”); a race of beings, similar to humans which inhabit the earth. The word “jinn” literally means anything which has the connotation of concealment, invisibility, seclusion and remoteness, and is one of the two beings (the other being Human) addressed directly in the Quran. In Islamic text, and scholarship, Jinns are considered beings, which like humans are accountable for their deeds and thus have free will. They are considered to have life and death, society, culture and religion.
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• New-age practitioners have argued that sleep paralysis might be the point of separation of the “dream body” from the physical body and out-of-body travel then begins.
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• Scientists believe that many supposed occurrences of alien abduction, out-of-body travel, and other seemingly paranormal events may actually be due to misinterpreting the sensory effects of sleep paralysis.
So where do we fit into this group as Mormons? Was my experience really caused by evil spirits? Is it something that can really be remedied by invoking the name of Jesus? Are non-LDS explanations of this phenomenon only partially correct because they do not have a fullness of the revealed truth? Please someone help me out with this, because I’m getting ready to go to bed, and I just saw a picture of Captain Howdy – it’s all just a little too freaky.
Glenn, I have heard a lot of stories of such occurrences in the MTC. A related tale (I have heard it told in the first person by two people, and in the third person from a number) is about the missionary who hears a voice saying “get out of bed and catch your companion.” Most of the time the missionary fails to respond and then suddenly his/her companion comes crashing to the floor from an upper bunk, having been cast down by a demon. In most of the variants I have heard, the missionary who has been cast down suffers some sort of minor injury that plagues them with pain for the rest of the mission. I have heard this told by both the missionary cast down and the missionary who failed to respond to the warning. While it is possible that this occurrence happens repeatedly, I know of missionaries telling the same story in Hungary, Brazil, and Missouri, which tells me that there is a formulaic component to it.
Superficially, the message seems to be that if only the poor companion had listened to the spirit, Elder or Sister X would not be bothered by back pain/leg pain/a broken coccyx. I think that is part of the message, but it is not just a “listen to the spirit, dummy” message either. It provides a way for a missionary to escape blame for a condition that affects his/her ability to work by placing it on devils and/or other missionaries. In the two cases where I heard it first person from the missionary who was cast down, it was used as a justification for why that missionary was in no shape to go out that day: “if only Sister X had listened to the spirit, I wouldn’t be stuck here like a turnip all day…” It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the legitimizing mechanism for a missionary to take it easy.
What has always struck me about those stories, however, is that there are other stories about spirit Lamanite warriors (I think a GA even told one of these in conference once, but I don’t remember when or who) that guard the MTC and keep out all evil spirits. It would seem that these stories of devils in the MTC and the Lamanite warriors are mutually exclusive, unless they are quietly pulling the “let’s give them some drugged wine” trick from the Book of Mormon on each other…
Finally, when my wife with in the MTC, some Elders played a prank that ended up involving the evil spirits legend. They hid an alarm clock set to go off at some random time behind some other elders’ mirror(the other elders did not know about the space behind the mirror). After a week of the alarm going off, the victims were convinced that their room was posessed and prepared to exorcise the spirits that were making the sounds at night. At that point the pranksters fessed up, fearing that an exorcism in vain was a Bad Thing. The fact that the victims turned so readily to evil spirits (rather than a prank) as an explanation for what was obviously an alarm clock sound shows that they were primed to see spirits in eveything at the MTC.
Clearly this is evidence that the Adversary is tirelessly trying to thwart this great and marvelous work. The fact that it happens to so many missionaries in so many places only proves that it is real. And once you are able to prove that the Adversary is real, you also know by default that the gospel is real and God is real – although that is a very dangerous way to gain a testimony (which is a “test” to determine whether we will choose the great I AM or money).
There was a missionary on my mission who experienced this first hand just before I went AP. He had been companions with a missionary before I got to the mission who had decided that he wanted to know for sure that God existed, but he knew that God would not appear to him because God does not usually work like that. But he thought that if he prayed to the devil, the devil would be prideful enough and foolish enough to appear to him, thus proving the existence of God. He was careful to keep this all to himself because he knew his companions would try to stop him (and if he had been my companion I can tell you that I would have figured it out anyway through the spiritual gift of discernment).
So one night he locked himself in his bedroom and began praying to the devil. It didn’t take long before he felt a dark presence in his room. He was lifted off of the floor and slammed into the ceiling multiple times. His companion heard the noise and rushed into the room. To his utter horror he saw his companion laying dead in a broken heap on the floor, his face was deathly white and his hair had turned completely white and his eyes were frozen wide open in horror. And as the companion looked around the room he heard the sound from the window of horse hoofs galloping away, and when he went to the window he saw a red rider on black horse fading off into the distance.
Wow, Stephen, they made you AP while you were a greeny? I knew you were spiritual, but I had no idea that others saw it even then.
My seminary teacher told me that they are called “pee- um” in Thailand from the roots “pee” (to urinate) and “um” (on, as in one’s pants). He said he got it from Hugh Nibley.
That is quite a revelation. Now if only we could get some conclusive evidence that the lost tribes ever peed on or in their, or any one else’s, pants.
I’m pretty sure that topic was going to be covered in the book that Nibley was working on for the last ten years of his life. It turns out that the Joseph Smith Hypocephalus is all about that. Nibley’s working title was “Facsimile #2, all about #1″.
I think it’s really interesting that so many cultures have history of this specific kind of nightmare involving paralysis. My 4 yr old has been complaining of nightmares lately and I don’t know what to tell him. He doesn’t cry, which makes me wonder if they’re really that bad. I wonder if these same dreams can happen to children as well?
Jess,
Does he describe symptoms of paralysis or a weight on his chest? I know that my kids have explained bad dreams like this without really knowing what they were describing. I think that as they grow and become more acculturated they learn the traditional ways to describe experiences like this — although I did have one very strange experience with my daughter who, at the time, was three. That didn’t quite fit in the acculturation model. Hmmm, I’ll have to start a new post about this.
The phenomenon seems quite well-known in Japan too, where it’s called “kanashibari” (金縛り).
i jose been haveing attacks from evil spirits it feel like i have no more power over them when i try to save my self i just cant its scray to actually prove it to let some one know of it but i just keep trying it feel like some one is holding me down with power so when its happeing i try to screem for help but no one hears me i cant even talk or move at all but n my mind ask or say n the name of jesus save me and it actually works i dont no how it work but it does.people maybe think i am crazy its true.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
I ave had real experiences with evil spirits,thgis is one of them.This one time i was lurred out of bed wrapped in my bedsheet,i screamed my lungs out and by the time my mom and aunt got to me i was almost at the door.When it was removed i saw the door was wide open and there was a strong wind breezing,evryone was so terrified we couldnt sleep that night and we jst prayed.
why do you think that was an evil spirit? not just sleep walking or a bad dream?
malignant female wraith
I have been trying to find answers for these evil occurrences for a while now. Reason being is that, I experience a lot of every thing that has been mentioned on this site on a daily basis. However the thing is with me, it doesn’t really matter if it’s during the day or at night. A lot of times at night, while falling asleep I feel either one set or a few hands touching me around my legs or back. Also while going to bed, I have to sleep with some type of music on a medium like level if not, what ever it is then seizes the opportunity to do a lot of whispering in my ear. It’s been times to where it sounds like a thousand people whispering at one time, but when you wake up it’s gone. I have even heard this thing imitate the voice of my girlfriend that I sleep with, only to wake up and see her facing the other direction in a deep sleep. That’s not cool.
I have experienced a lot of times feeling to where your sleep but not sleep, meaning your body is sleep and you know you are, but you can still see the television playing and are aware of everything as though you are still awake. During this time is where I get attacked the most or see different things the normal eye would not along with hearing things the normal physical ear would not too. There has not been a time I have been wide awake and something happens. During this state of sleep, I have also seen people walking throughout my apartment. Some of the people I see just go along with their business, then you have some that tries to get your attention by poking you or standing in front of you waving their hands saying “hey wake up, can you hear me, can you see me, I need your help please, I know you hear me.” It’s almost like some people on the other side are still trying to be heard and recognized. Also during this time is where I can feel another human like shape lye down next to me. Just yesterday while on the couch I felt tired and fail asleep watching television. While in this sleeping state I am still watching television but, at the same time I thought I had woke up. So I reach my arm out to grab the remote and I saw my physical arm still lying on my stomach and a faint white clear arm was reaching for the remote. So I bring my spiritual state arm in front of my face waving it back in forth, and I noticed my movement then is not as fast as my physical arm.
Another experience that I hate is when you’re in that spiritual sleep, I have had something that feels like a human climb on top of me or on my back. Even though I am a strong person, this is something that you can’t just shake off trust me. I sleep with a cross on my gold chain, and at times while sleeping on my stomach, something has sat on my back strangling me. I have found the constant call on Jesus repeatedly makes the pressure from the force stronger and tighter, but it then releases itself and lifts off. Something else I hate is when my girlfriend gets out of bed for work, there is a presence at the foot of the bed but you can’t see anything. Then when I least expect it, I feel someone taking their time crawling up from the foot of the bed like its trying not to wake me. Like if I move it will stop and wait a few seconds continuing making its way up next to me and lay down in my girlfriends spot. When it does speak it’s a whisper always of a female. Since I am in this sleeping but awake state of mind, when I speak back the physical mouth does not move at all, so it’s like you speak or communicate through your thoughts. When I tell this thing to leave it always says “no I am staying here with you” or “you should leave her so we can be together.” I have noticed though when I grab my bible and hold it or open it placing it on my chest or in my girlfriend spot on the bed it will not come near me, it retreats.
At times while in that state I have even experienced I guess you can say some alien like experience. What I mean by that is, when I have been in that state of sleep, I have felt 3 different life forms of some sort taking samples of my body. My girlfriend was sitting at the end of the same sofa with me, and I can see hear but she could not hear my screams for help. When I came out of it, I told her about it and explain to her that’s why I kept twitching real badly with my leg on her. I explained to her to always wake me up when that happens, because she can’t hear me screaming. Now during this time I noticed a smell while what ever it was working on me and it smells like swamp water. I know I am not crazy because a lot of other people I have found on the net have had the same experiences and can’t explain it.
I don’t know what’s going on in this world but I do believe in bible very strongly, and I do believe in the spiritual warfare that’s taking place on this earth today with the good verse the bad. I believe very strongly in the mighty name of Jesus as well, and I know he wouldn’t put or allow me to go through more than I can’t bear. I just don’t understand what makes certain people more venerable to see and hear things that a lot of other people that never experiences any of this? Can someone help me? M/27