I had my first migraine
in my teens then sporadically until my early 20’s when an acute period of
stress made them frequent and debilitating. Thankfully, I no longer have them as
bad. Over the years I’ve had some strange (paranormal) experiences in the prodrome
phase:
- Alterations to vision, depth/face perception, light anomalies (between attacks), movement in peripheral vision
- An out of body experience. The sensation I was sitting to the right of myself
- Not feeling in control of my arm(s)
- Someone else’s voice coming out of my mouth
- Talking gibberish when I thought I was talking normally
- Ringing in my ears, voices in my head
- Unable to control the recall of negative memories
- Music composition (which I can’t normally do)
- Numbness in limbs
Migraines are believed
to be a neurovascular disorder but the precise mechanisms are unknown. Both genetics and environment play their role.
As a woman with other family members with it (although not as severe) the environmental
stress triggered the condition. For many years I regularly had visual light anomalies,
sometimes up to 50 a day! Nothing will knock your faith in your own perception more than
seeing things you know aren’t there. I have the less common ‘classic’ migraine
with aura but it used to take a week before my vision got back to normal.
They have also been
linked to sleep paralysis, which I have. I’ve only had true sleep paralysis
twice – being fully conscious but unable to move. However, I do regularly have
the more common hypnagogia (going to
sleep) and hypnopompic (waking from sleep) hallucinations associated with
moving between different stages of sleep, i.e. alpha wave activity
associated with waking and paralysis of REM sleep. Here I ‘wake up’ and see things
in my room only to wake properly a few seconds later. I’ve had some unusual hallucinations:
- Spiders (most common). I once woke up having jumped out of bed!
- The rubber man from American Horror Story
- A UFO covered in tinfoil
- A ‘ghost’ woman floating above me
- A severed head
- Zombie face
- Auditory hallucinations: buzzing, screams
It’s easy to see how
some of the above could be interpreted as real paranormal phenomena. Particularly,
if it was the first time you had the experience and were unaware of what was
happening. In his excellent book on Migraine (1967) the late,
great Oliver Sacks also linked the condition to the religious visions of
Hildegarde of Bingen.
So be wary… the mind
can play tricks on you. What we perceive may not always be what is going on ‘out
there’.
*It is unusual for
these conditions to suddenly appear or start later in life so please consult your
doctor.
You can find out
more about Migraine and Sleep Paralysis at the following links:
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