Incubus: The Night Demon

I have inserted many of my own true life experiences into my novel “In Our Image” as well as the sequel “Abode of the Clouds”. Among these experiences were sleep paralysis episodes. I have experienced terror as my body, awoken from sleep, was unable to move and an all pervasive feeling of evil surrounded me. Although I never saw a being during these episodes, I could hear the breathing, heavy labored breathing very near.

Like me, there are Rh negative readers of this blog who have had similar experiences. I wonder if the preponderance of sleep paralysis episodes occur to Rh negative individuals? It is my understanding that the majority of alien abductions occurs to Rh negative individuals; does sleep paralysis follow that same trend? But I’m jumping the gun here.

Researching this subject on the internet, I found articles on the “incubus” (plural, “incubi”) which I found very interesting. Following are excerpts from Wikipedia:

An incubus (from the Latin, incubo, or nightmare; plural incubi) is a demon in male form who, according to a number of mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have sex with them. Its female counterpart is the succubus. Medieval legend claims that demons both male and female sexually prey on human beings, generally during the night when the victim is sleeping.

Debate about the demons began early in the Christian tradition. St. Augustine touched on the topic in “De Civitate Dei” (The City of God), admitting that there were too many attacks by incubi to deny them. He stated, “There is, too, a very general rumor, which many have verified by their own experience, or which trustworthy persons who have heard the experience of others corroborate, that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called incubi, had often made wicked assaults upon women.” [8] However, despite this affirmation, questions continued about the reproductive capabilities of the demons. 800 years later Thomas Aquinas would lend himself to the ongoing discussion, stating, “Still if some are occasionally begotten from demons, it is not from the seed of such demons, nor from their assumed bodies, but from the seed of men taken for the purpose; as when the demon assumes first the form of a woman, and afterwards of a man; just as they take the seed of other things for other generating purposes.” [9] Thus it became generally accepted that incubi and succubi were the same demon, but able to switch between male and female forms.[10] A succubus would be able to sleep with a man and collect his sperm, and then transform into an incubus and use that seed on women. Their offspring were thought to be supernatural in many cases, even if the sperm and egg originally came from humans.

Incubi are sometimes said to be able to conceive children. The half-human offspring of such a union is sometimes referred to as a cambion. The most famous legend of such a case includes that of Merlin, the famous wizard from Arthurian legend.

On the other hand, the Franciscan friar Ludovico Maria Sinistrari stated that incubi “do not obey exorcists, have no dread of exorcisms, show no reverence for holy things, at the approach of which they are not in the least overawed.”[4]

“There are a number of variations on the incubus theme around the world. The alp of Teutonic or German folklore is one of the better known. In Zanzibar, Popo Bawa primarly attacks men… The Trauco, according to the traditional mythology of the Chiloe Province of Chile, is a hideous deformed dwarf who lulls nubile young woen and seduces them. The Trauco is said to be responsible for unwanted pregnancies, especially in unmarried women. Perhaps another v ariation of this conception is the “Tintin” in Ecuador, a dwarf who is fond of abundant haired women and seduces them at night by playing the guitar outside their windows… In Hungary, a liderc can be a satanic lover that flies at night and appears in a fiery light or in its more benign form as a featherless chicken.

“In Brazil and the rain forests of the Amazon Basin, the Boto is a combination of siren and incubus, a very charming and beautiful man who seduces young women and takes them into the river.[17] It is said to be responsible for disappearances and unwanted pregnancies,[18] and it can never be seen by daylight, because it metamorphoses into that kind of river dolphin during those hours. According to legend the boto always wears a hat to disguise the breathing hole at the top of its head.[19]

“The Southern African incubus demon is the Tokolosh. Chaste women place their beds upon bricks to deter the rather short fellows from attaining their sleeping forms. They also share the hole in the head detail and water dwelling habits of the Boto.”

From this Wikipedia article we learn that humans have encountered incubi for centuries and these encounters have occurred around the world. What exactly are these “night demons”? I will continue with my speculative thoughts on this subject in my next posting.