There’s a great new podcast by the Guardian’s Science Weekly just published on the topic of sleep paralysis.
In the studio are sleep paralysis researcher Christopher French and filmmaker Carla MacKinnon discussing the science and cultural history of sleep paralysis night-mares, as well as techniques for preventing it and how to deal with it when the shadows show up in your doorway.
At the center of the discussion is MacKinnon’s new documentary Devil in the Room, which is just now being screened at film festivals in the UK.
MacKinnon herself is a sleep paralysis sufferer, and she combines her personal experience with current research to depict this fascinating and sometimes horrifying state of consciousness on film.
And she does this with the help of really creepy puppetry art, by the way.
Here’s the link to the podcast. It’s about 23 minutes.
You can find out more about MacKinnon’s new documentary and her related Sleep Paralysis project here.
PS Here’s one of my favorites stills from the movie:
It’s probably a bit dumb at this point for me to continue being so amazed and gratified whenever new items like this Guardian podcast inject SP awareness into the mainstream media consciousness, since the trend has become so well established over the past several years. But amazed and gratified I continue to be. Thank you much for the link, Ryan! Your roving eye for these kinds of things is a wonderful resource.
thanks Matt! Carla’s work is really amazing. I’m looking forward to this documentary being available in the states.