When Science and Myth Collide: Protection from the Incubus
In the middle of the night I was awakened by banging in the basement accompanied by the distinct voices of two men. I was frozen by terror and couldn’t move. Was this real or a dream? My eyes were open and I could see everything in my room, illuminated by the light of the moon coming through my windows.
Then footfalls in the hallway approaching my door – purposeful thud after thud. With each step my heart beat furiously and dread washed over me. A dark figure loomed in the doorway, then walked over to my side of the bed and sat down. I could see it, I could hear it - I could feel the weight shift on my mattress. It leaned over and climbed on top of me. It BREATHED on me and started whispering gently, “I want your soul. I love you.” I was paralyzed.
Similar occurrences have happened to me before.
This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real, WAKE UP!
A low, slow moan made its way out of my mouth and turned into a shout as the figure disappeared, leaving behind smoky wisps throughout my room. I reached over and turned on my lamp, breathing hard.
Science calls this phenomenon “sleep paralysis” and it happens to approximately 10% of the population. People have reported the sense that there was a presence in the room, or a crushing sensation on their chest, or even out of body episodes. It has to do with disruption of the sleep cycle and usually is experienced when one is either falling asleep or waking up, most often while one is lying on one’s back. While you are dreaming, your nervous system shuts off your body’s ability to move to keep you from acting out your dreams. Sometimes when the sleep cycle is interrupted we end up caught between consciousness and unconsciousness and may experience a frightening inability to move whilst still dreaming and at the same time receiving visual or auditory input. This can last for mere seconds or extend to a few minutes. It is more likely to occur when an individual is under stress or suffering from an anxiety disorder, and if it happens to an individual once, it is likely that they will experience it again. Sounds fun right?
At first the scientific explanation brought me a measure of comfort: oh good, there’s a biological reason for this, I’m not actually under attack by some unknown dark presence. Whew!
But then I started thinking, and digging a little deeper.
Throughout history there have been reports of incubus (and succubus) attacks, at least since the medieval period, and these reports are cross cultural. Basically an incubus is a male demon that visits female humans while they are sleeping and attempt to have sex with them (the succubus is the female demon counterpart to the incubus). The offspring of incubus and woman are deformed, or have super human abilities; in mythology, the sorcerer Merlin was said to be fathered by an incubus. Repeated visits from an incubus can result in pregnancy or even death.
Today it is generally accepted that those historical incubus or succubus attacks were not demonic at all, but were instead episodes of sleep paralysis. Looking at the two explanations side by side, it does make sense – immobilization and the crushing or suffocating feeling of a presence on your chest is due to the nervous system. Ok, I’ll buy that. Caught in a dream while your eyes are open and having the two mix together to form some sort of hallucination? I’ll buy that too. However, unless you’ve had an experience like this yourself, there’s no way that I can communicate to you how very real this was. I heard it. I saw it. I felt it – not just the crushing weight on my chest, but the sinking of my mattress as it sat down and the blow of its breath on my face.
Two nights later I had another visitor.
This time there was a female dressed in rags with long hair floating in my doorway looking in. She then let out a scream and flew on top of me, pressing me down. Her stay was much briefer, and she vanished in wispy smoke once I started shouting out, “No demon!”
I don’t know what the truth is. I don’t know if my mind and nervous system were playing tricks on me as I was caught between consciousness and unconsciousness. I don’t know if they were actual demons making themselves known to me. I don’t know if there was some negative energy lingering about manifesting itself. What I do know is that the whole thing was deeply unsettling, and that I needed to do something about it.
I wasn’t overly anxious about anything, or under any more stress than normal. Prior to the visit from these dark entities I hadn’t had any sleep disturbances and slept like a rock (though afterwards it was admittedly difficult for me to fall asleep, and I was terrified as soon as I laid down in my bed that it would happen again), so it seemed that there was little I could do to address the issue by adjusting my bedtime habits or psycho-emotional state. Instead I approached the problem from a spiritual perspective.
I began by doing the obvious – cleansing the entire house with sage and palo santo. I went from room to room, waving the sweet smoke into every corner and every doorway while thinking to myself, “Negative energy is not welcome here, only positive energy shall enter into my home. Only good things.” After that, it was time to double down on protection, and I find crystals and stones to be quite effective for this purpose. I placed black onyx, tiger’s eye, and rose quartz on my alter to charge them with my own positive energy and played my favorite calming song. When the stones were ready, I put the tiger’s eye, rose quartz, and an onyx into a small pouch and tucked it under my pillow to keep me grounded and safe while I slept. The remaining two onyx I put on top of the doorframe to my bedroom, to bar any malevolent energy or beings from entry.
This all went down about a year ago, and fortunately I haven’t had any unwanted nighttime visitors since. I’d be lying if I said that I go to bed every night completely at ease, but just knowing that my protection spell is in place helps - so in my book that means it’s served its purpose. Will it happen again? Maybe. Probably. But if it does I’m prepared to deal with it.
For more on the incubus and sleep paralysis: