I suppose as a phenomenon demonic activity can’t be ruled out all the time, but in 99.9% of cases it’s a trick your mind is playing on you when you are in that state between waking up and not yet fully awake.
Is sleep paralysis demonic? I experienced it last year and it was during which time I had a scary dream of my dead Grandpa…plus I woke up and couldn’t move.
No, I think in general sleep paralysis is not demonic. In can be explained phsyiologically that your brain is more fully awake and conscious and your body hasn’t quite gotten the signal to wake up yet or move.
Yes, shadow people exist. They are a form of demon/unclean spirit/supernatural entity and there have been reports about them from all over the world for a while now.
I think “shadow people” are typically understood to be hallucinatios people have. It usually occurs when people are in that state of awakening when they are conscious of being awake but not yet able to move. They report seeing or sensing a presence in the room with them and sometimes it’s accompanied by noises or other sounds.
Ah. I think I had just such an experience.
i experienced something silmilar but mine didnt happen when awakening…mine happened within a minute of getting in to bed…i felt as though something dropped hard on to my bed and was moving up the blanket pressing it down on me, then i felt my shoulder and chest being pressed so hard that it hurt and i had bruises there the next day…i prayed…but it did happen nightly for a while
)That is interesting. The Wikipedia article mentions that stimulating the left temporoparietal junction can create the illusion of a shadow person. It also mentions other possible natural causes of hallucinations, among other things. What interests me most is that I am sure you can stimulate parts of my brain that will bring on hallucinations of my mother, my dog, and the Grand Canyon. Despite this, those things are real. So I don’t see how finding areas of the brain that can produce hallucinations rules out the possibility that shadow people are real.
I don’t see why shadow people couldn’t be real also and I don’t discount that possibility, however, I suspect in 99.9% of all instances there is a rational and scientific explanation. One that can be explained by that period of being not yet fully awake and not yet being fully asleep. I’d search there for an explanation before insisting that what was experienced was supernatural or demonic.
I agree with that assessment. It seems to me that demons would choose to show themselves and attack in ways that don’t definitively rule out natural explanations. If they revealed themselves in some undeniable way, they would, by extension, provide powerful evidence for God. I don’t think they’d want to do that.
I agree with you, but I would point out that you have made a slight contradiction. The assessment that activity has been influenced by the demonic can be scientific and rational… especially since angelic beings have been recorded to have the ability to manipulate natural phenomena (like sleep paralysis).
Thank you for pointing that out, what I meant is that most occurences of shadow people have a physiological and natural explanation behind it and not supernatural or paranormal or not associated with a more natural explanation.