THE SUCCUBUS - DANGEROUS NOCTURNAL FEMALE VISITOR

While the vampire per se often is seen as strictly an eastern European figure, descriptions of nocturnal assaults are amazingly consistent across time and place. Victims first sense a presence, which may be accompanied by a feeling of pressure and difficulty in breathing. They are overcome by a temporary paralysis, aware but unable to move or cry out. They awake fatigued and drained of energy. Often there is a lingering fear and foreboding. If these assaults continue, the victims eventually waste away, declining into death. Explanations for "the terror that comes in the night" are tied closely to prevailing conventions. While a medical doctor might classify such experiences as "sleep paralysis" and a psychoanalyst may interpret them as a "symptom of pathologically repressed sexuality", traditional societies view them as nightmares or other supernatural assaults.