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January 1988, Karkhiv, Karkhiv, Ukraine, Irina Subbotina:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

A ufology group in Ukraine reported at an unknown date that in Kharkov, on January 1988, late in the night, Irina Subbotina had fallen into a lethargic sleep next to her husband when she was suddenly awakened by a circle of light in the bedroom, in front of the bed, near the ceiling.

Within the circle of light, she saw a dark haired man in profile that suddenly turned and looked at her, staring intently, apparently examining her.

Then two more figures appeared within the circle, one was a bearded man, the second a child wearing "old time" clothing and appearing to be swinging on an invisible swing.

Terrified, Irina Subbotina attempted to shout but could not utter a word. Suddenly the vision disappeared and she felt a small hand grabbing her wrist. She also saw what appears to be an invisible body moving under the covers near her.

She was suddenly able to pull her hand and began to cry. Everything then disappeared. She would have a further "encounter" in the summer.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Kharkov, Ukraine, on January 1988, late in the night, Irina Subbotina had fallen into a lethargic sleep next to her husband when she was suddenly awakened by a circle of light in the bedroom in front of the bed near the ceiling.

Within the circle of light she saw a dark haired man in profile that suddenly turned and looked at her. He stares at her intently, apparently examining her. Then two more figures appear within the circle, one a bearded man, the second a child wearing "old time" clothing. Curiously the child appears to be swinging on an invisible swing.

Terrified, Irina attempted to shout but could not utter a word. Suddenly the vision disappears and she felt a small hand grabbing her wrist she also sees what appears to be an invisible body moving under the covers near her.

She was suddenly able to pull her hand and began to cry. Everything then disappeared. She would have a further "encounter" in the summer.

Rosales indicates that the source is UFO Ukraine.

Points to consider:

The case is so very obviously a rather ordinary hypnagogic hallucination episode, with no UFO sighted and no extraterrestrial beings sighted, commonly referred to as "sleep paralysis" and also as the "Old Hag" syndrome that I probably do not need to comment further.

I provide a few references among dozens about the topic of hypnagogic hallucination and sleep paralysis:

• "The Old Hag phenomenon as sleep paralysis: a biocultural interpretation", paper by R.C. Ness, in Cultural and Medical Psychiatry, vol. 2 #1, pp 15-39, March 1978.
• "Lucid Dreaming: The Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep", book by Celia Green and Charles McCreery, Routledge publisher, U-K., 1994.
• "Wrestling With Ghosts: A Personal And Scientific Account Of Sleep Paralysis", book by Jorge Conesa Sevilla, Xlibris Corporation publishers, U-K., 2004.
• "Hallucinations and pathological visual perceptions in Maupassant's fantastical short stories - a neurological approach", by L.C. Alvaro, in Journal of the History of Neuroscience, vol 14, #2, pp 100-115, June 2005.
• "Effects of hypnagogic imagery on the event-related potential to external tone stimuli", paper by N. Michida, M. Hayashi, T. Hori, in Sleep, Vol. 28 #7, pp 813-818, July 2005.
• "Sleep and Society: Ventures into the (Un)Known", book by Simon A. Williams, Routledge publisher, 2005.
• "Mental representation of space: Insights from an oblique distribution of hallucinations", paper by T.A Girard, D.L. Martius, J.A. Cheyne in Neuropsychologia, vol. 45 #6, pp 1257-1269, 2007.
• "Parasomnias", paper by D.T. Plante, J.W. Winkelman, in The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Vol. 29 #4, pp 969-987, December 2006.
• "Paranoid delusions and threatening hallucinations: A prospective study of sleep paralysis experiences", paper preview by J.A. Cheyne, T.A. Girard, scheduled in Consciousness and Cognition for April 2007.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Hypnagogic hallucination with sleep paralysis.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? UFO Ukraine.
• [ar1] * "1988 Humanoid Sightings", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2001, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1988.shtml

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This page was last updated on May 28, 2012.