954: I Shit on You

[Keith]

"Are you gonna swear again, you stupid bitch?"


Dark Sided Since 1979 - Hell and Heartaches

[EllaMacFarlane]

about the ghost story - i want to remind people that mental illness is heredetary and that is why there are generations of women who are sure they can communicate with the dead, all over the world.

[Sparrow]

Most adults forget how to PLAY! There are pockets of us, I'm sure, out and about who still run barefoot and wonder at tree moss and bubbles. Underneath the weird we're all more well-adjusted than the rest of y'all.

[funnygurl1979]

I've seen too many unexplained phenomenon not to believe, maybe it's not ghosts but what the hell is it?

[spooky]

Originally Posted by funnygurl1979

I've seen too many unexplained phenomenon not to believe, maybe it's not ghosts but what the hell is it?

Simply a phenomenon you do not understand. Not understanding something should never be a basis for a belief, just an open mind. But I am a Dawkins fan.

[J!MMY]

does victor varnado count?

[Astigos]

Originally Posted by Sparrow

Most adults forget how to PLAY! There are pockets of us, I'm sure, out and about who still run barefoot and wonder at tree moss and bubbles. Underneath the weird we're all more well-adjusted than the rest of y'all.

Not everyone has a Wonderland in their backyard to be fair.


And I should point out I've stopped eating lamb on rice and have switched to chicken on rice. Still $2, tastes better and less fatty. I'm pretty sure that's why Keith's stomach couldn't agree with it: the greasily cooked lamb compounded with the naturally high fat content. I could hardly agree with it either which is why I switched.

[DaveNJ]

What the woman's talking about, with her ghost story, is sleep paralysis.

Sleep paralysis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As someone who suffers from the same condition I can say her symptoms are quite normal.

Sleep paralysis episodes are divided into the out of body and the inner episodes. The inner episodes are essentially like being in a coma. Your body's still asleep, but you aren't, so you try to wake yourself up. Scary, not particularly fun, but nobody would call it a ghostly episode.

However, the out of body experiences are weirder. When this happens it can feel like you're observing yourself sleeping, almost as if someone is sitting upon your chest. It is believed that the legends of the "haint" type of ghost, or the witch that sits upon one's chest while they sleep, came from this phenomenon. I've had instances where I've felt similar things. I never attributed it to a ghost, though. Her thing about being thrown across the room? These out of body experiences tend to be quite surreal. I've had times where I imagined my eyes were open and I was looking at my room. I would have sworn to you I could see my room, but of course I couldn't have. Ditto with other senses, especially hearing.

Her family's belief in ghosts, combined with sleep paralysis, a relatively common sleep disorder, combined to make this ex-fat Wiccan believe she was being attacked by a ghost.

[killallhumans]

Keith at 38min 30sec:

Then, she told a story where she's laying in bed and she felt a ghost sitting on her stomach, knees on her shoulders, hand choking her. She couldn't breathe. Then, the ghost threw her off the bed against the wall. Now, is this person crazy or could this be happening?

Now, my layman's diagnosis...

It's not actually happening but this doesn't mean she has some phychosis or personality disorder either. I think there are two things going on:

1. She was raised in a family that encouraged magical thinking. So, she readily accepts that supernatural causes can be responsible for certain things she sees in her every day life. For example: After feeling the one-time twitch of a face muscle, she might understand this as the touch of a ghost.
   
   
2. In telling that story about the ghost sitting on her, she was relating her personal interpretation of an episode of isolated sleep paralysis. The sensation of a weight on her chest and attributing this to a spirit is a classic symptom. Check out the Wikipedia article on Sleep Paralysis (note the accompanying image). A glance over the folklore section is interesting too.
   
   Some people experience sleep paralysis many times in their lives and other people only have it a few times. I had a girlfriend that experienced sleep paralysis only twice in her life--once when she was a little kid and later in her 20's. And it scared the hell out of her both times. It's very real and it occurs in a half-waking/half-dream state so the experiences are often accompanied by dream-elements/hallucinations and other freaky sensations.

OK, I'm done being a hard-on. Sorry I couldn't make it out for the April 15th show!

[killallhumans]

Damn you DaveNJ ... you sniped me!