Science can normally provide an explanation for why things occur such as a phenomenon known as the old hag syndrome (paranormal) known as sleep paralysis (medical field).
Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking.
But then something happens that completely stuns the medical professionals.
What happen to The Hmong Men?
At the end of the Vietnam war many allies were brought to the US, this included a group of people known as Hmong, what happened next was a medical mystery.
They died in their sleep one by one, thousands of miles from home. Their median age was 33. All but one – 116 of the 117 – were healthy men. Immigrants from southeast Asia, you could count the time most had spent on American soil in just months.
Something was killing Hmong men in their sleep, and no one could figure out what it was. There was no obvious cause of death. None of them had been sick, physically. The men weren’t clustered all that tightly, geographically speaking. They were united by dislocation from Laos and a shared culture, but little else.
Doctors gave the problem a name, the kind that reeks of defeat, Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome. SUNDS. It didn’t do much in terms of diagnosis or treatment.
According to the Hmong people they are vulnerable to paranormal attack by what is described as pressure demons, known to them as tsog tsuam, and according to paranormal researchers the description of these entities are eerily similar to what has been termed shadow people. Non-descript dark shadowy figures that are devoid of facial features and other details. Reported to be able to just appear and move through solid objects such as doors and walls, victims are unable to move and feel fear and a great pressure on their chests.
Sleep paralysis is known to just about all cultures
Fascinatingly, sleep paralysis is known to just about all cultures, and it is almost always associated with nocturnal evil. In Indonesia, it’s called digeunton (“pressed on”). In China, it’s bei gui ya (“held by a ghost”). The Hungarians know it as boszorkany-nyomas, “witches’ pressure.” In Newfoundland, the spirit that comes is called the Old Hag, and the experience of sleep paralysis, ag rog, “hag ridden.” The Dutch name comes closest to what English speakers know. They call the presence nachtmerrie, the night-mare. The “mare” in question comes from the German mahr or Old Norse mara, which denoted a generally female supernatural being who, “lay on people’s chests, suffocating them.”
And then there is the weird stuff, the Old Hag part, the night-mare. People who have an experience of sleep paralysis tend to feel some horrible, evil being is near them. “I just knew this presence was there. An ominous presence … not only could I not see it, but I couldn’t defend myself, I couldn’t do anything.” Reported one victim This feeling is consistent across cultures, even if it goes by different names.
But there is a one big difference between sleep paralysis, which impacts a substantial percentage of the global population at least once, and what the Hmong immigrants experienced in the 1970s. The Old Hag was terrifying but harmless; whatever happened in the night to the Hmong killed them.
