Paranormal Paralysis

"One night in August 2002, after I had gone to bed, I had an extremely curious encounter. It was around 4.00 a.m. and I was awake and yet not awake. And I couldn’t move. I was suddenly aware that something was slowly heading down the corridor that linked the bedroom to the living room. That something, even though I couldn’t see it, I knew was a humanoid figure with the head of a wolf and attired in a long, flowing black cape. It emitted strange and rapid growling noises that seemed to be an unintelligible language, and the creature, whatever its origin was, seemed mightily pissed off about something.

"As it closed in on the room, I made a supreme effort to move my rigid, paralyzed form and finally succeeded, just as the beast entered the bedroom. In an instant it was gone and I was wide-awake. Psychologists call this “sleep paralysis” and would say that the incident was purely a product of my subconscious. The official term for such a state is hypnagogia."

The words above are the opening two paragraphs of my latest Mysterious Universe article, on a phenomenon that many have experienced, but that still remains shrouded in mystery...