Observations placeholder
Professor David H Hufford and the Sitting ghost
Identifier
011241
Type of Spiritual Experience
Inter composer communication
Hallucination
Background
A description of the experience
Opening Heaven's Door - Patricia Pearson
David J Hufford, professor at Penn State College of Medicine, is the world's leading expert on this [sitting ghosts] phenomenon. Hufford discovered it through his own out-of-the-blue experience in the 1960s.
"I was a sophomore in college. I'd gone to bed early after my last final exam. I was very tired. Being sleep deprived makes this more likely. I woke up hearing the door of my apartment open, and I thought it's probably somebody coming to see if I want to go for dinner. I heard footsteps coming across the room. And then I found I couldn't move, and that was very frightening. Then I felt the bed press down as if somebody was climbing up on it; then I felt what felt like someone kneeling on my chest, and then I felt hands on my throat. I thought I was being killed. It was horrible. I had a feeling of revulsion and terror about this thing on my chest, not just because it was trying to kill me, but also because it seemed evil. I struggled to move, and when I did move it was gone. I leaped out of bed and nothing was there.
That is a very typical sleep paralysis experience".