My Encounter With “The Night Hag”

This will be my very first post on this blog. I figured it would be best to start with a personal experience of mine. Particularly, the encounter I had with, what is referred to as, “the night hag.” As cliché as it sounds, it still haunts me to this day.

I’ve entertained just about every logical explanation for this experience that I could fathom. I’ve come to realize, however, that the “logical” explanations seem just as much of a stretch, or even more of a stretch, than the apparent explanation itself. That apparent explanation being that something otherworldly had paid me a visit.

Without further ado, here’s what happened…

The Encounter

The exact age that I was, at the time of this event, eludes me as the memory is still somewhat “foggy” to me. I just remember that I was between 5-7 years old when this occurred. I remember it being spring and the daylight pouring in through the curtains on my bedroom window. For context, I feel it’s important to mention that the head of my bed was about a foot or two away from the wall. Just enough room for someone to be able to stand in the narrow gap.

I woke up at roughly 7-8 am, in the morning, and had this very eerie feeling. It felt as though I was being watched by someone standing right behind my bed, in the narrow gap between the head of my bed and the wall. I turned around and saw something that would genuinely haunt me in the years to come.

It was a horrific looking woman resting her hands on my bedframe, leaning towards me. Even though her appearance was human-like, she was certainly anything but human. She gave off a strong uncanny valley effect. Her skin had a bluish-gray hue, not unlike a corpse, her teeth were badly stained and almost seemed rotten, her hair was black, tattered, and extremely unkempt. One of the most unnerving aspects of her was her eyes. Although I can’t remember the color or much about their appearance, I remember them being psychotic or hungry in nature. She had a wide, ear-to-ear, grin across her face, as if she was receiving a sort of sick pleasure from my terror.

I only saw her for presumably 5 seconds, before my terror reached an apex, and then I woke up. I immediately thought that it was just a nightmare. I felt a mixture of residual terror and relief upon waking. I immediately swung around to check behind my bed. There was nothing there. I then turned my head to face the foot of my bed and there she was again, still smiling ear to ear with even more intensity than before. I woke up again.

This “dream within a dream” sequence iterated two to three more times. None of these “dreams” had any distinguishing dream-like qualities or even felt like a dream. They all felt as real as can be.

In one instance, I recall waking up with my head at the foot of my bed and my feet at the head of my bed. In other words, I woke up the wrong way around in my bed.

After this sequence of recursive dreams finally concluded, and I woke up, for real, I was in an extremely paranoid state. I was flinching, expecting to witness this “monster” once more. I remember being afraid to open my bedroom door to go out to the living room because I thought she’d be waiting for me just outside the door.

Regardless, I eventually opened the door and got on with my morning. I chalked it up to a bad dream.

I had a dentist appointment that morning before school so I had some breakfast, watched some TV, and then brushed my teeth before getting ready for my dentist appointment. When it was time to go, my mother was by the front door waiting for me to get my shoes on.

As I was putting my shoes on, I glanced down the hallway to my bedroom, the door of which was open. Standing in my room was the same figure that appeared in my supposed nightmare. This time, she simply had a smug grin on her face with closed lips, as opposed to the ear-to-ear, toothy grin she had before.

I stood there, perplexed and shocked for a split second, before I blinked and she disappeared.

I told my mother about the whole ordeal. She simply claimed that my mind was playing tricks on me and that I just had a bad nightmare. I simply accepted that as an explanation because, when you experience something like this, you don’t want it to be real. Not when you are a 5-7 year old kid who has to sleep in that same room every night.

Fortunately, after that encounter, I don’t recall seeing the “hag” again.

I had plenty of other strange incidents that seemed to isolate me throughout my childhood, but nothing again including this particular being.

Debunking The “Logical” Explanations that I’ve Received And Used To Dismiss The Encounter

Explanation 1: Sleep-Paralysis

So, I firstly want to mention that I don’t think this was something that can be explained away by sleep-paralysis or similar conditions.

During the “nightmares,” I was fully capable of moving. I was able to sit up in my bed and turn, so there were no typical sleep-paralysis symptoms present. This alone rules out sleep-paralysis as an explanation. Insisting it doesn’t is, both, ignorant of what sleep-paralysis is and usually indicative that one is looking for ways to dismiss the encounter based on personal bias.

Additionally, I saw the “hag” standing in my bedroom, down the hallway, after I was well awake and going about my day. This further clarifies how sleep-paralysis is not a plausible explanation for what unfolded.

Lastly, I’d just like to point out that the exact reason why sleep-paralysis even occurs is largely unknown. It’s a rather ambiguous condition. Some go as far to suggest that it is the result of supernatural attacks from succubi. My current stance is that I simply don’t know why it occurs or what the true mechanism behind its prevalence is. I do know, however, that hypnogogic states (or in-between states), much like sleep-paralysis induced states, are commonly where most people will encounter discarnate beings. That’s for another post though.

Explanation 2: Tricks Of The Mind (Whatever That’s Supposed To Mean)

As for the idea that it was just, “my mind playing tricks,” I disagree. Thinking you saw something that wasn’t there can be your mind playing tricks. Actively seeing something with your own eyes is not…

Whatever this thing is, appeared to me CRYSTAL CLEAR. It was as if I was staring at another person. It seemed tangible and real. Otherwise, I doubt I would’ve even remembered this ordeal well into adulthood.

Explanation 3: Pesticide/Fumigation Induced Hallucinations

This explanation is actually pretty fascinating. Supposedly, exposure to a certain pesticide, commonly used in fumigations, (I can’t quite remember or find which one) is notorious for causing hallucinations. Specifically, hallucinations, such as the hat-man and night hag, are common when exposed to this pesticide.

The issue here is that the house I was in, when the event took place, had never been fumigated, nor had I been exposed to any pesticides that would’ve caused any hallucinations. Once again, this explanation has been ruled out.

I’d heard about one relevant case, previously, that specifically includes the night hag and exposure to pesticides used in fumigations. It involved a father, after hearing his young daughter crying and screaming, barging into her room only to see a ghastly and disheveled, hag-like woman, on top of his daughter, attacking her. He pulled the woman off of her only for the woman to completely vanish into thin air.

In this specific case, he confirmed that the house they were in had been fumigated and thus, both him and his daughter, had likely had some exposure to the pesticide used in the fumigation process.

The one thing that doesn’t make sense, and that makes this story seem supernatural despite the apparent logical explanation, is that both him and the daughter were hallucinating the “hag” attacking his daughter. In other words, they both had the exact same hallucination…

Strange…

My Personal Theory On What Happened During My Encounter

I mentioned earlier that I was having a “dream within a dream” or a recursive dream sequence, as I like to put it. I no longer believe this to be the case.

The “dreams” or “nightmares” that I was having seemed way too real. I felt exactly as I do now while typing this. The supposed dreams were beyond vivid and life-like. I realize that this is not a very compelling argument but I feel it’s important to mention.

There are two primary reasons why I believe I wasn’t actually dreaming:

1. I saw the “night hag” or woman standing in my room when I was already well awake and going about my day.
2. There is evidence that suggests I’d been fainting from the sheer terror I was experiencing…

The second reason explains why I was “waking up” iteratively. I wasn’t waking up from a dream each time. I was simply passing out from the absolute horror of what I was witnessing and waking up again. This would explain why in one “dream” iteration, I woke up the wrong way around in my bed. I must’ve turned and seen the night hag at the head of my bed and fell backwards upon fainting, causing me to have been lying with my head at the foot of my bed and feet at the head of my bed.

To my surprise, upon further research into the night hag and encounters with it, I learned that it’s not uncommon for people to feel a tingle at the base of their spine, before fainting upon seeing it. This further solidified my belief that I must have been fainting.

Keep in mind, this is only my theory on what was happening. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way for me to know, exactly, what happened for sure. This is simply the conclusion I’ve come to through reflection on my own experience, as well as research into the phenomenon with this particular entity.

My Take On What The Night Hag Could Be

Although I’ve heard that demons such as Lilith and Hecate can appear in the form of a “crone” or “hag,” I don’t believe this to be a demon appearing to me in my childhood. Instead, I believe it could be either a succubus (which technically is classified as a demon although not necessarily one that can be named) or discarnate human dead.

I’d wager that it is likely the latter as I’ve heard compelling theories of discarnate human dead behaving as succubi in order to prevent a sort of astral decomposition of their energy body.

In conclusion, aside from what I’ve already suggested, I can’t be sure what, precisely, it was that I encountered as a child. All I know is that it seemed menacing in nature and of ill-intent. Its seeming pleasure and excitement from my terror leads me to believe there must’ve been some component of psychic vampirism taking place during the ordeal.

If you have any similar experiences or thoughts, feel free to comment below and share.

Cheers.