


Thursday, January 22, 2015

What REALLY happens when you see a ghost

  • Sleep paralysis occurs in rapid eye movement sleep, or dream sleep
  • It causes the sufferer to feel as though they are awake but can't move
  • They may also see vivid hallucinations, such as ghosts or demons
  • This is caused by mix-up in part of the brain dubbed the parietal lobes
  • The lobes holds a map of the 'self' which is distorted due to paralysis


Scientists at University of California, San Diego, say that one explanation is that there's a disturbance in the brain region that holds a neural map of the 'self.' The researchers suggest that this hardwired image could be located in the parietal lobes, the top-middle part of the brain (in yellow) 
Lying in her bed in the middle of the night, Elizabeth Earle woke suddenly to see a menacing shadow in her room. She tried to scream, but couldn't open her mouth.
What Ms Earle felt was 'sleep paralysis' – a terrifying phenomenon that 40 per cent of people experience at some point in their lives.

Now US researchers believe they know why this strange experience occurs, and it's all to do with a mix-up in an area of the brain that holds a neural map of the 'self'. 
| Daily Mail Online

