title: Dark Intrusions: An Investigation into the Paranormal Nature of Sleep Paralysis Experiences
author:  Louis Proud 
description: "Louis Proud has demonstrated with this book that he is one of the most acute commentators on the paranormal to appear in recent years... It gives me immense pleasure to be allowed to introduce a writer who will, I suspect, become widely admired for his enviable brilliance and clarity." -- Colin Wilson, author of <i>The Occult</i> <P> "This insider's account of his own sleep paralysis experiences, in detail, is of great value. Then for that insider to knowledgeably place the experience in the broad paranormal context is unique. It provides a badly needed view of the cultural/interpretive framework that this experience naturally suggests. Louis Proud has been bold and thoughtful in providing this." -- David Hufford, Ph.D., author of <i>The Terror That Comes in the Night</i>
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  # The Haunted Mind
  
  
  ### Nathaniel Hawthorne
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online.
  
  
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  What a singular moment is the first one, when you have hardly begun
  
  
  to recollect yourself, after starting from slumber! By unclosing your
  
  
  eyes so suddenly, you seem to have surprised the personages of your
  
  
  dream in full convocation round your bed, and catch one broad glance at
  
  
  them before they can flit into obscurity. Or, to vary the metaphor, you
  
  
  find yourself, for a single instant, wide awake in that realm of
  
  
  illusions, whither sleep has been the passport, and behold its ghostly
  
  
  inhabitants and wondrous scenery, with a perception of their
  
  
  strangeness, such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed.
  
  
  The distant sound of a church clock is borne faintly on the wind. You
  
  
  question with yourself, half seriously, whether it has stolen to your
  
  
  waking ear from some gray tower, that stood within the precincts of
  