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A Psychological Case Study of 'Demon and 'Alien' Visitation
Skeptical Inquirer, March, 2001 by Andrew D. Reisner
A clinical psychologist discusses a case of a depressed individual who misinterpreted hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations as visitations by demons and aliens. He came close to suicide, and even considered killing his family.
As Carl Sagan suggested, we humans are never far from the realm of the irrational despite the buffer of science and reason. Normal people can come uncomfortably close to this irrational realm when they are either half awake or half asleep, and experience either hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations. In these relatively common and normal experiences, a person may be temporarily unable to move, a state known as sleep paralysis, and may experience vivid hallucinations either when first falling asleep (hypnagogic hallucinations), or upon awakening (hypnopompic hallucinations) (Baker 1992, 1987; Fukuda et al. 1987; Penn et al. 1981; Liddon 1967).
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It can be a terrifying experience, leaving the person wondering not only about the reality of what they have seen, but also about their own sanity. The hallucinations seem very real. This phenomenon is thought to occur due to a benign but abnormal transition between sleep and wakefulness. The victim is essentially experiencing a dream phenomenon while awake, and is unable to move, because during sleep, the bady's movement is partially inhibited in order to prevent people from getting up and acting out their dreams (Liddon 1967; Dement 1976; Baker 1992). Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are thought to be the culprit in many paranormal phenomena, including nocturnal visits from aliens (Baker 1987; Klass 1989; Blackmore 1998; Nickell 1998) and ghosts and demons (Baker 1992; Baker and Nickell 1992; Sagan 1996).
John's Case History
Ignorance of, and misunderstandings about, these types of normal hallucinations may cause unnecessary anxiety, or even play a significant role in the onset and progress of severe psychiatric symptoms, as in the case of John, a 36-year-old employed, married man. John's difficulties started innocently enough. When he was five or six years old, while trying to get to sleep, he saw a little man in his room who was about six inches tall. John saw the little man go in and out of a door in the room. Later, at age twenty-six, after reading a popular book on UFO abduction (Strieber 1987), John woke up, unable to move, and saw a four-foot-tall, gray visitor, resembling the prototypic alien described in Strieber's book. This led to some speculation on John's part that he may have been abducted by aliens, perhaps more than once. The only adverse social or psychological consequence of this experience was that when he told others about it, and his speculations, he endured some teasing.
Under stress a few years later, John had more experiences of awakening in a paralyzed state and seeing a taller, dark and menacing visitor--one so tall it reached the top of a doorway. The apparition, moreover, wore a wide-brimmed black hat and black cloak, resembling characters from movies he had recently seen depicting "Zorro" and "The Shadow." John considered, however, that the apparition "might be a demon."
Some years later things took a turn for the worse when, despite his marriage of fourteen years, John began an affair with one of his old female friends. For John this was a storybook romance. It fulfilled fantasies left over from his adolescent years. John had never been popular with women, and having a woman fawning all over him was much too great a temptation. The affair almost led to divorce, but John's wife finally talked him into breaking it off. John agreed, but shortly thereafter reconsidered and asked his lover to return. When she refused, John fell into a deep depression and seriously considered suicide.
John developed a friendship with Judy, a devotee of Wicca, a religion involving the worship of nature and the practice of "white magic." After long talks and the exchange of personal paranormal experiences, the two friends became convinced that John's recent visitor was a demon. Walking home late one night after one of their talks, the woman felt the sinister presence of a "demon" following her. This woman's spiritual teacher had given her two special stones, and Judy ordered the "demon" into one of the stones. Giving the stones--one white and one black--to John, she told him to send his negative feelings into the black stone, where the "demon" now resided. Not wanting "a woman to do a man's job," however, John decided to release the demon from the stone, ostensibly so he could conquer it himself. Depressed over his marital problems, and drinking excessively, John's judgment was slipping. One night he went to bed holding the stone, and on awakening, the black stone had turned green. To John this signified th e possible release of the demon from the stone. He had shown his wife the black stone earlier, and she agreed that, yes indeed, the stone had turned colors. When he handed his wife the green stone and she held it momentarily, it started turning black again. This frightened her so much she gave it back to John.
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