Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/591015
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2015 16 H alloween is soon upon us. Although the holiday has by now officially been shorn of its spiritual power for the majority of the world populace – barring a neo-pagan niche, perhaps – its appeal remains enduring. This could be attributed to a variety of factors, of course, the most obvious of which are somewhat superficial: an indulgence in sweets (for kids) and an excuse to dress up and play the fool much in the same way we do for Carnival (for both kids and grown-ups). To say nothing of nerds like me, who enjoy the license to indulge in – now internet-boosted – re-watches and re-reads of their favourite horror classics. But nerdy pleasure and tacky commodification aside, perhaps there's something more legitimate in our commitment to celebrate Halloween and all of its trappings, year in and year out. An ac- ceptance of ghouls, monster and demons into the 'surface world' not only adds a dash of colour – either red or deep black – to our predominantly beige day-to-day existence… it speaks to primor- dial fears about the unknown and the ineffable, about the things we can barely recognize as hu- man or earthly, let alone deal with. There's a reason why pagan cultures continue to be associated with the milieu of Halloween on the one hand, and with 'nature cults' and 'hippies' on the other. Unlike the more politically ingrained and staunchly hierarchical world religions of to- day, paganism in all its forms – at least going by the interpretation fomented by popular culture – appears to be more 'in tune' with supernatural forces underlying our lives. Supernatural forces which are, of course, an embodiment of the an- cient, powerful and non-negotiable structures of the natural world. It's no surprise that today's post-Enlight- enment world has rel- egated such beliefs and rituals to the fringes, since belief in the su- pernatural is all but abolished and natural phenomena can be an- alysed and understood through biological processes. But isn't it even more significant, then, that such beliefs still linger? The author and cultural critic Marina Warner in fact dedicat- ed a pretty thorough volume on this phenomenon – Phantasmagoria (2006) – in which she asks this very question and scans the history of art – from writing to visual art to photography and cinema – to pinpoint how we cling on to the supernatural even when we don't want to. Because if we believe in the subconscious, then this is the perfect arena in which these forces can play out. And what better, more vivid, and more common manifestation of the subconscious is available to us, than that of the world of dream? Sleep paralysis Dreams, of course, vary in shape, texture and – apparent – longevity. But a recent documentary has taken to explor- ing a particularly un- nerving variant, which leaves its sufferers baffled, stunned and sometimes, sadly, dam- aged for life. Directed by Rodney Ascher, 'The Nightmare' explores the phenomenon of what is dubbed 'sleep paraly- sis' – a kind of nightmare that leaves the sufferer rooted to their bed, de- spite apparently external stimuli telling them that they should move. These stimuli could be anything from a simple pressure on one's body, to shadowy presences sneaking into the bedroom to threaten, admonish or torture the dreamer. When we asked suffer- ers of sleep paralysis to describe their own experi- ence, we saw the same commonality of experience, that somehow still feels strange: an upsetting in- trusion into your consciousness that nonetheless happens quite often, and to a lot of people. "I actually remember the onset of it – how it would start each time," one sufferer, Matthew, told me. "I would always fall asleep with the radio on, and at one point, the sound would always slip into a loop. And then, it would get distorted…" It would be at this point, Matthew says, that he would start feeling the pressure that ultimately pins him down to the bed. "Then I would sense one of my hands lock into position, and my breathing would become la- boured. I would then start sensing the bed inclin- ing, as if this 'pres- ence' is clambering onto the bed…" Ironically enough, despite not being re- ligious, Matthew re- vealed that the only thing that made the sleep paralysis stop was "saying the ro- sary". 'The Nightmare' - an illustration by Daniela Attard of Stephan D. Mifsud's interpretation of the 'heddiela', a creature in Maltese folklore which he details in his book The Maltese Bestiary. 'The heddiela leaves the dreamer unable to move or breathe because it sits on the sleeping person's chest and tries to throttle her victim. However the Heddiela has no thumbs and cannot complete the task easily, so her prey usually manages to wake up gasping for air and in a state of panic. It is said that keeping a piece of silver under the pillow keeps the Heddiela away.' In Northern countries the creature was called a '(night) mare', mara or moroi. In Latin-speaking countries it was called an incubus or succubus (the female equivalent). In Arabic countries it is called a kaboos and is a type of jinn. The sweet terror dreams Is the dream phenomenon of sleep paralysis one of the last legitimate ways we can experience the supernatural? With Halloween on the way, TEODOR RELJIC investigates this often horrifying subset of dreams 'The horror is quite indescribable... there's always somebody forcing me down, while I was doing my best to break through…' News 'You feel as though you're pinned down and can't move despite otherwise feeling like this is the one thing you must do.'