If you ask my family members, they would tell you that I'm not someone that's overly dramatic or given to superstitious rumination. I have always preferred logical, rational explanation to occurrences and personally, I have never seen a phantom that I could not explain with the help of natural laws. But how do you explain a phantom seen by another person through a natural law? This was the case with Macy ten years ago.
If you are from my part of the world, you must have heard it said that someone was "pressed" by some evil force. As most of such things, the victims are not able to specify what exactly happens to them or what causes it. One thing is for sure, those that have experienced it would give a great deal not to experience it ever again. Not having experienced any such thing before in my life, I can only attempt to describe what I have been told concerning it as accurately as I can.
The story invariably goes this way: A person may wake up and find himself unable to move or speak as if he is frozen. Most times they say it feels like they hear footsteps, see a ghost-like creature, or feel someone sitting on his chest. Often, the victim would try to raise an alarm by shouting. They would get a sense that they were shouting but at the same time they would be aware too that no sound escaped their vocal cords. The people who have experienced this describe it as a very frustrating experience similar to being choked to imminent death with your hands literally tied such that you are unable to defend yourself against the assailant that has invaded the privacy of your room. No wonder people named it "pressing". It must be because the victims feel that the force was pressing the life out of them.
As I mentioned earlier, Macy was a girl I knew years ago. She had this experience numerous times but she always kept the information to herself because she felt as a good Christian, admittance of being "pressed" by an "evil spirit" was nothing to be proud of. However she decided to let me on the problem.
It was a Saturday morning. She had come to visit me in my accommodation outside the university campus the night before. She woke up that morning physically shaken. On enquiry, she told me she was pressed.
"Emm, sorry. What's that?"
She was surprised. Having experienced that most of her life, she could not have imagined there are people who did not know what it was. Patiently, she tried to explain it to me, all the while showing her surprise that I did not know what she meant.
"How many times have you experienced this?", I asked.
"I've lost count the number of times but what I noticed is that I don't experience it when I pray before sleeping and when I sleep next to you".
That last bit had me feeling like a super man. My uncle would scream, "My jumping Jerusalem, imagine the likeness!" I never really understood the meaning of that exclamation but that's what I wanted to shout. Evil spirits run when I'm around!
As with most things I did not understand those days, I went to my mom. Mom said she had not experienced it before but she remembered vividly of a college roommate who consistently paid her hostel accommodation fees to ensure they were roommates every year because that ensured that she (her roommate) never have such attacks. But apart from that, mom did not really understand how it happens. Well, at least my super power is hereditary and that must count for something!
However the problem wasn't solved because I was there when this attack happened so what does that mean? I asked her if there was any other set of conditions that would exist to ensure she sleeps without being "pressed" and she said yes. She would not be pressed if she prayed.
"Well then, why don't you pray every night before sleep? Surely that would keep the evil spirits at bay."
She did not find it funny but she admitted that sometimes she forgets to pray. I made it a point to remind her to pray every night before sleeping and that solved that problem for the next few months.
Fast forward four months later, we travelled together to my state where I grew up and the attack happened again. Back then I had a friend that was a kind of encyclopedia on all things esoteric and metaphysical. His name is Abel. I narrated the story to Abel and his recommendation was immediate, "She is a Christian, isn't she? Let her pray".
Well that's not the answer I was gunning for but that shut me up for the time being. But further attacks necessitated another visit to Abel. "The prayer thing doesn't seem to be working anymore".
"The problem is, being a Christian, would she be willing to do the little ritual I would recommend?"
"Just tell me what it is and I will pass on the information. Based on the severity of her problem and how desperate she is to solve it, she can decide if she wants to do the ritual or not. Yours is to tell. Mine is to deliver. Hers is to decide," I said.
"Well, she is going to need nine needles, a sewing thread, and one fresh egg", he said.
"What kind of egg," I asked.
"Just normal chicken egg. When she is ready, she should arrange the needles on the palm of her hand such that they are all pointing in the same direction. She should hold the needles like that in one hand and the egg in the other hand then she should say a prayer."
I had to interrupt him at that point, "Please what kind of prayer is that?"
"You said she is a Christian so it has to be a normal prayer in Jesus name and all that. She should say that she has not done anything to deserve the attack from unknown evil forces and therefore she is canceling their hold on her and sending them back where they came from. After that, she should break the eggs on top of the needles and tie the needles together with the thread then bury the bunch where no one can exhume it".
"Is that it?", I asked. He nodded.
As I said, mine was to deliver the message and I did. Macy said she would do no such thing. I told her I understand her decision. Afterall we were all of the same faith. But there were needles, eggs and thread in the house so my part was done.
One morning, I woke up and saw Macy sitting in the kitchen. I asked why she was up so early and she informed me that she had done it. I was speechless but I could understand. Whatever it was that was happening to her was making her unhappy. She wanted to know where to bury the bunch.
I have always had a distaste for irreversible events so I advised her that instead of burying the tied needles, she should hide it under the rug in the living room. That way it would stay undisturbed but could be easily retrieved if there was a need. So that's what she did.
I don't know what the attack was but that was the end of it at least for the next two years. We hadn't seen each other for the last one year when she called and asked, "Did you remove that stuff?"
"Which stuff?"
Well it turned out that there were renovations in the living room and everything was removed for a new floor to be made.
"How did you know that someone removed it?"
"Because I just had an attack this morning."
"In that case then, you better repeat the experiment"
This was a surprising twist that I was not expecting. I went back to my friend Able and asked how it was that she was just attacked. He tried to explain it. According to him there were soul-less spirits called elementals. He said they were the lowest form of spirits that do not inhabit any body and has no souls. Apparently some ill-disposed individuals that know how could assign a bunch of these little spirits to make someone's life uncomfortable while they sleep. Because they are very low level spirits, they feed on fear and that is why a prayer which does nothing but increase the courage of the person who said it can keep away these spirits. Well, I don't know much about these things but I never heard about any attack after Macy did her thing again.
However over the years I have found conflicting evidence describing the same phenomenon scientifically. It is called Sleep Paralysis.
A Sleep Paralysis is possibly a hereditary disorder in which one experiences very frightening seconds or minutes of total body paralysis with little respiration and eye movements. A victim in this state feels awake, but he cannot move or speak. With this immobility comes such common symptoms as choked or suffocated, hearing strange noises like footsteps and voices, seeing beings or dark shadows, and feeling an existance of someone in the room. According to the research, if the victim comes into consciousness before the brain sends signals to activate muscle contraction, he cannot move his body, and consequently, feels paralysed.
This does not explain why Macy was able to resolve her problem with some arcane ritual but it feels good to know that there is a scientific explanation to "pressing" or attack as many people like to call it where I'm from. So next time you feel like you are being "pressed" don't worry. It is just a temporary paralysis induced by your brain. Relax and allow your whole body to wake up. But if you like to take a crazy walk on the wild side, well you have the formula :)
Thank you for reading and have a great day!