Might your eerie, ghostly encounter be sleep paralysis?

Neil Faulkner has told more than a few ghost stories. In fact, he swears he used to live in a haunted house in Williston.

Perhaps his most vivid - and terrifying - experience took place several times in 1984, when he was living in the house in rural Levy County. The experience had all the elements of a nightmare.

Of course, Faulkner insists he wasn't sleeping. For him, the experience was quite real.

"I would wake up in the early hours of the morning, before dawn," says Faulkner. "And I couldn't move at all. Something, or someone, was pressing down on me, and there was some kind of presence in the room, I could feel it.

"Sometimes I could see it hovering or standing over me. It was scary, because I was totally helpless. It was like I was pinned down. And I could sense this feeling of evil."

The house had a bad vibe about it from the start, he says.

"That place definitely had some sort of poltergeist," Faulkner says. "We would hear it rattling around in the attic, and we would hear footsteps in the middle of the night.

"It definitely wasn't any sort of wild animal. It was something else. Something didn't want me there."

An internationally known parapsychologist based in Gainesville says Faulkner's story is very common.

"What happened to Neil is a classic example of the 'old hag' experience, or sleep paralysis syndrome," says Dr. Andrew Nichols, founder and executive director of the American Institute of Parapsychology, a Gainesville-based outfit that specializes in research into the paranormal.

"Neil's experience fits the pattern of supernatural phenomenon that has been well-documented, but not really studied in the actual environment in which they occur," Nichols says. "This is what I want to do with my new research - take equipment to the site and gather data while it takes place."

Nichols hopes that by hooking up his instruments, such as an EKG device and other physiological monitors, to a subject in the actual environment in which they occur, rather than in a laboratory, he will be better able to observe what takes place.

"We want to catch one in progress," he says. "I'm interested in the 'hag experience' because of its relationship to subjective paranormal experiences in general.

"I am also interested in determining whether certain environmental conditions, such as electromagnetic field disturbances, may trigger or facilitate such experiences."

The "old hag" experience, also known as "riding the witch," has been around for thousands of years, Nichols says.

It was written about by the ancient Greeks, who blamed it on indigestion, and was the impetus for tales of incubi and succubi - demons and vampires who attack helpless sleeping victims - during the Middle Ages.

"It's also responsible for the word 'nightmare,' " Nichols says. "Mare was an old English word for a demon, and a 'night-mare' originally meant a demon that comes to assault one in the night."

Most scientists classify the experience as a dream, Nichols says.

According to much of the scientific literature, including the work of UCLA psychologist Ronald K. Siegel, the brain shuts down the body's muscles during sleep.

If our brains didn't do this, Siegel writes, we would physically act out everything that happens in our dreams. Usually, when we awaken, this brain-body connection is re-established simultaneously.

We never realize that the disconnection occurred. But once in a while, some people experience awakening while the connection is still "broken."

This is what causes sleep paralysis, according to Siegel. Our brain is "awake," but our body is still "asleep." We are paralyzed until the connection is re-established.

In his book "Fire in the Brain," Siegel described his own richly detailed "old hag" experience:

The more I struggled, the more I was unable to move. My heart was pounding.

I strained to breathe. The presence got closer, and I caught a whiff of a dusty odor. The smell seemed old, like something that had been kept in an attic too long.

The air itself was dry and cool, reminding me of the inside of a cave. I signaled my muscles to move, but the presence immediately exerted all its weight on my chest . . . The weight spread through my body, gluing me to the bed. I was paralyzed.

This was definitely my bedroom and it looked normal. I was aware of my surroundings, oriented, and awake . . . Then part of the mattress next to me caved in. Someone climbed onto the bed!

The presence shifted its weight and straddled my body, folding itself along the curve of my back. I heard the bed start to creak. There was a texture of sexual intoxication and terror in the room . . .

Siegel decided that he had had a sleep paralysis experience and a hypnopompic hallucination, or in other words a hallucination that occurs just after waking up.

Of course, Faulkner bristles when the word hallucination is used in reference to his experience.

"You can call it that if you want to, but to me it was real," he says. "I moved out of that house, and the whole business stopped."

"Hag experiences are typically reported by witnesses as being completely real, rather than dream-like," Nichols says. "It is this ambiguity that characterizes most subjective paranormal experiences. Reality is a slippery thing in these states, and it is this melding of mental reality with so-called physical reality that makes these phenomena so interesting."

Nichols says researchers generally divide the phenomenon into two categories - Sleep Paralysis (SP), and Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis (HSP).

"Neil's experience falls into the HSP category, of course, because he could see and hear apparitions," Nichols explains. "This is especially interesting, because we often find that these events are associated with haunted places, or places where supernatural events take place on a regular basis.

"Such experiences usually occur when the witness is in a hypnagogic (just falling asleep) or hypnopompic (just awakening) state. These states seem to be conducive to hallucinatory experiences, but interestingly also conducive to genuine ESP.

"This is why we want to go to the actual location for our studies, and study the environment as well as the subject's physiology."

Nichols hopes to discover through his research whether the experiences are purely psychological (imagined), psycho-physiological (a result of some physiological effect on the brain), or genuinely paranormal - or some combination of all three.

"My feeling is that most such experiences are psycho-physiological, due to factors such as sleeping on your back, lack of sleep, etc., and psychological factors like stress, unresolved conflicts, etc.

"This is in keeping with the views of most researchers, who use the term hallucinatory sleep paralysis (HSP) to describe the phenomenon. However, I do think that there may be a genuine paranormal component to a small number of cases."

Either way, Nichols says, he's interested.

"Whether such experiences are bizarre artifacts of the human psyche, or a bridge to an alternate reality, they are deserving of study."

Douglas Jordan can be reached at douwiljor.com.

Want to participate?

Anyone interested in participating in Dr. Andrew Nichols' study of the "hag experience" should contact him at the American Institute of Parapsychology at (352) 384-0057, or by e-mail at anichols@citycollege.edu.

What is the 'hag experience'?

Also known as "riding the witch," the "hag experience" has been with us for thousands of years, dating back to prehistoric lore.

Typically, someone experiencing this phenomenon is in the state in between sleep and consciousness, usually just waking up.

The victim is unable to move for several minutes, and often feels an overwhelming pressure on the chest. This is usually accompanied by strong feelings of dread or fear.

In many cases, the victim sees or hears something - or someone - in the room, which appears as normal otherwise. In most cases, it does not feel like a dream.

Extreme instances may result in an "attack" by the unknown entity.

The scientific term for this phenomenon is Sleep Paralysis, or Hallucinatory Sleep Paralysis. Parapsychologist Andrew Nichols has noted that a significant portion of these attacks occur in locations known for paranormal activity, and he hopes to study them on-site.

More about Andrew Nichols

Dr. Andrew Nichols is one of the world's foremost investigators of ghosts, hauntings and other paranormal phenomena.

He holds a doctorate in psychology and is currently professor of Psychology at City College here in Gainesville, where he teaches accredited courses in parapsychology and psychology. He is also an adjunct instructor in parapsychology at Santa Fe Community College.

During his 25-year career, Dr. Nichols has investigated more than 600 cases of ghosts, hauntings and poltergeists, and has conducted extensive studies in telepathy, precognition and paranormal dream experiences.

He has written numerous articles on hauntings for popular magazines, and his scientific papers on the paranormal have been published in several well-known journals.

Nichols has presented lectures and workshops on parapsychological topics at colleges and conferences throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, and is the author of "Haunted Minds: A Psychological Investigation of Spirit Possession."

His work has also been featured in many books on the paranormal, such as "Mind over Matter" by Loyd Auerbach and "Haunt Hunters Guide to Florida" by Joyce Elson Moore.

If you're an avid watcher of documentaries related to the paranormal on television, you've likely seen Nichols many times. He has appeared on "Unsolved Mysteries"; "48 Hours"; "Sightings"; "Encounters"; "The Extraordinary"; and "Inside America's Courts" (as a consultant on the famous East Nyack, N.Y., haunted house lawsuit case).

He was also a recurring guest on NBC's "The Other Side." Several television specials have featured his work, such as "Haunted America" and "Hauntings: A Journey into the Unknown."

His recent appearances include an ABC special, "The World's Scariest Ghosts"; The Discovery Channel's "Real Ghosthunters"; and A&E's "Beyond Death."

In February 2001, he completed a pilot for a new television series, "Ghost Detectives," which aired April 19 on the Discovery Channel.

Nichols has also consulted for government, business, and law enforcement, including The U.S. Army, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Daytona Beach Police Department. In 1999 he was co-recipient of a $137,000 grant to study haunting and poltergeist cases, the first grant of its kind in the history of psychic research.