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laboratory experiments in Japan show that sometimes people experiencing sleep paralysis do not even open their eyes. Aside from witchcraft and alien abduction, sleep paralysis is also some- times mentioned as a possible link to shamanism and to dream interpretation and even to near- death experiences. But for many sufferers, the growing research in the field is reassuring simply because it demonstrates that they are not alone in their terrifying nighttime paralysis and hallucinations. “Sometimes I’m just glad that I didn’t live a long time ago,” said Terrillon, the Canadian physicist in Japan. “Because maybe people who had this in the olden days were put in madhouses.” 78