Book Review: Dark Intrusions by Louis Proud

Dark Intrusions by Louis Proud is a much needed investigation into the paranormal aspects of sleep paralysis visions. Proud digs deep and views SP within the philosophical and literary traditions of spiritualism, mediumship, ghost hauntings and channeling. Hands down, it’s pretty much the spookiest book I’ve read this year.

Proud is a sleep paralysis experiencer himself, so his narrative is grounded in his first-hand knowledge of what it feels like to be held down while you sleep by various unsavory entities. This is the classic sleep paralysis encounter, recounted by millions around the world in many cultures as the old hag, the incubus effect, and being ridden by the witch. Proud uses his experience as a touchstone as he reviews the connecting threads of SP with the fortean literature.

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Inception: A Lucid Dreamer’s Review

Inception came out over the weekend and I was not disappointed. The movie felt like a dizzy sci-fi lucid dream and I stumbled out of the theater afterward like I has just crawled out of a hall of mirrors. Don’t worry, there’s no big spoilers in this review.

I have already covered the actual possibilities of mutual lucid dreaming as well as the clever use of real dream researchers to create the impression of government dream research in the film’s viral marketing campaign. In this article,  I am focusing on how the film portrayed dreaming well, and where it fell flat.

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5 Most Effective Herbs for Sleep and Relaxation

The sleep aid industry has a powerful grip on the world, but even the most effective prescription drugs have their downsides: side-effects, limited access and prohibitive costs.  That’s why countless people turn to herbs, which have been tested for hundreds of years by herbalists and naturopaths –versus the standard 6 months of testing for the average pharmaceutical.

Folk medicine was suppressed in Europe thanks to the cultural forces from Rome, and many herbalists were burned at the stake for their uncanny knowledge of the natural world. Much of this suppression was due to women herbalists’  promotion of safe and effective birth control through the use of herbs, as well as their wisdom in procuring altered states of consciousness for healing and shamanic information retrieval. Western culture sent these healing methods underground and repressed all kinds of herbal knowledge along with it.

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