Transfered From Suscitatio Forum
Posted By: Merticus
On: February 03, 2008, 04:00:20 PM
How many of you have read "The Terror That Comes In The Night" by David J. Hufford?
http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Publications-American-Folklore-Society/dp/081221305X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202072342&sr=1-1The Terror That comes in the Night is based on supernatural tales about nightmares, night terrors, and possession by entities suchas witches, succubae and, primarily, an entity called "The Old Hag."
The book runs the gamut from scientific tome to supernatural thriller reminiscent of Jay Anson's Amityville Horror. Yet, it is all based on fact, research, and the folklore of isolated spots like Newfoundland in eastern Canada.
Hufford discusses such disparate topics as nightmares, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucination and out of body experiences. But he also talks about the supernatural -- about ghosts, witches and UFOs. This is a fascinating book and makes one wonder what other tales from folklore, previously called myths, might actually be based on real events.
The Terror that Comes in the Night is a publication of the American Folklore Society. It is filled with excerpts from interviews conducted by Hufford and his colleagues.
David Hufford, Ph.D., is professor of medical humanities at the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania with joint appointments in behavioral sciences and family and community medicine. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, for which he also writes a column on ethical and social issues. He has published widely and lectures at universities and medical schools around the country on the topics of spirituality and alternative and folk medicine. Dr. Hufford's work is grounded in the experience-centered study of belief and spirituality.
"I felt this pressing down all over me. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move," reports one interviewee. And this is indeed the case for many of the people Hufford talked to. These people range from uneducated laborers from isolated communities to college students and graduates.
Similar elements exist in all of these stories - usually a noise such as footsteps or a door slamming, the sense of a presence in the room, pressure, inability to move or even breathe. Sometimes the person detects a shadowy figure. These visitations or hallucinations are often accompanied by the feeling one is being drawn from the body, and some people have even reported a full- blown out of body experience.
Although other elements may also be present, there are so many similarities Hufford draws the conclusion that these stories, many passed down orally from earlier generations, as all somehow connected. For want of a better name, he calls it "The Old Hag Tradition."
Although much of this book is written from an academic viewpoint, I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in nightmares, sleep terrors or sleep paralysis. I would also recommend it to anyone interested in trying to disentangle the tangled threads of folklore.
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