Hag Syndrome, the Horror that Strikes During Sleep
Hufford began to research this phenomenon by writing questionnaires and interviewing people. He talked to those who had experienced Old Hag as well as those who knew someone who had experienced this.
He found the primary definitive features to be a person's impression of being awake, paralysis, fear of moving or restraint, realistic perception of the environment and fear. Secondary features, reported more than once were lying on one's back, sensing a presence, feeling pressure, usually on one's chest and a supernatural presence, which were the most common and most people experienced one or more of these. The fear of dying was not as common.
Hufford found theoretical causes of Old Hag. One is calling the Hag. One case involved a romantic triangle between John, Robert and Jean. Jean and John were dating steadily, but Robert was trying to date her. About a month after he began this, he was being hagged. He felt pressure on his chest, as if he were being strangled. He was told to put a board over his chest and hold an open pocket knife. When he woke the next morning, the knife was impaled in the board. Had it not been for the board, he would have been killed.
Robert believed that John was the Hag and that his jealously was the cause of the hagging. He thought that maybe the Hag did not return because it thought it had killed him. He told people that the Hag was human. He could hear the footsteps and recognize it. He could not speak, just grunt. His throat was affected and his breath was taken away. The Hag appeared when he was sleeping, but its presence woke him. He was always lying on his back when this happened and, usually, he was also stressed. He believed the Hag was the result of a curse.
Later, Robert learned that according to lore, the way to call a hag is to recite the Lord's Prayer backwards in the devil's name. To avoid a Hag, one draws blood or uses the word of God and keeps a light on.
Another case is the hagging of a woman. The informant said he and his friends were in a bunkhouse and a pretty girl was there. One of the men wanted to kiss her, but she refused, so he said he would hag her. She did not believe he would do this. That night, she saw
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