Horla

Has anyone any experience about this phenomena? I was reading this story by Guy De Maupassant "The Horla /Le Horla" and I have to say it was kinda freaky!

It has been compared to sleep paralysis, is he describing that or is he being visited by a vampire of somesort?

Please read this:

www.eastoftheweb.com...

I know that this may sound weird (if possible here) but a few years ago, my grandmothers sister passed away and soon after that her husband. This old man was as mean as they come, beating his wife and so sorth. Anyways, he always hated my grandmother. When he died strange things started to happen in her house. First, her bed started to rock. As if someone was under the bed kicking it. Like in the "Exorcist" She didn't think much of that.. But then one night, she felt someone holding her hands down. Someone was sitting on her chest and strangling her. She did manage to get up and there was no-one to be seen.

These do indicate sleep paralysis or then the Horla, right? What makes this interesting also is that she was watching tv, and a huge black moth was on the wall. It was huge, not like bigger than normal but huge! (got it? ) She started to say a prair (dunno what it is in English "our father" or something" and then a low voice said "You know you don't believe in that yourself!!. After she said it a while a light came and the moth was gone.

Now, I have no reason to quiestion her. She is in an excellent shape both mentally and physically. She told this a year ago 'cause she was afraid no one would believe her.. On my mothers side there has been a lot of unexplained things happening.. but as I read the Horla, I tought that there might be a connection..

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That is so weird you mention that.

This is a post I made concerning something that happened to me.

It was one of the worst experiences of my life, and happened often to me.
I would wake up paralized, able to move a finger or hand and open my eyes slightly. A black robed figure would aproach the bed, lean over me and strangle me. The first time it happened I heard a guide or something say to me, count from 10 backwards and then it would stop... it worked everytime but it was an awful thing to go through.
I also use to see this little troll guy when I was a child... looked just like this one in the Fuseli painting "The Nightmare"



My parents always thought it was just bad dreams but I only met my biological family when I was 25 and my grandfather had the same experiences, others in the family too, so it must be hereditary.

What you are describing is a nightmare. (Be sure to check the 2 paintings, the later one is quite scary)

Doing a quick search, I came up with this link that actually draws a link between horla and nightmare (And even aliens, as being the modern day nightmare!)

[edit on 21/8/07 by Thain Esh Kelch]

The site's titled "Short stories" For a reason....

[edit on (8/22/0707 by Hexidecimal]

This is quite interesting and in Scandinavia in Northern Europe, where I come from this is called a "Mara" (our word for nightmare is actually "mardröm", which would be "mare-dream" in English.

The following I have taken from the Swedish Wikipedia and I have taken the liberty to translate some of it for your benefit, since I gather not many people is fluent in Swedish on this board.

Any strange english wording then is probably caused by me...

From sv.wikipedia.org...

"...Mara (unknown origin, Danish: "mare", German: "mahr" or more common "alp" or "alpdrücken", English: "nightmare", French "cauchemar", Italian "incubo, Spanish "pesadilla", Latin "i’ncubus, asthma nocturnum", Greek "efialtes") was at least in earlier times a desciption for a feeling of suffocation or a pressing weight on the chest that comes during sleeping. This often lead to a sudden and violent awakening with a feeling of anxiety and worry.

The reason behind this can probably be manyfold, sometimes as severe as certain heart-conditions and digestion disorders, but sometimes this could be stressrelated and was seen at least in earlier times for what was called neurasteni. [My comment: This seems to be a somatic heartproblem with some symtoms common with what is described above]

Of the term "mara" the folklore created very early a sort of being or creature, that is mentioned already in the ancient Icelandic epic sagas and was called the "Nattmaran" [My comment: Translated to English this is actually "Nightmare"]

In the Nordic region one thought of the "mara" as in the form of a woman, that sneak into the bedroom in the night, through the keyhole or the slighest crack in the door or windows. The creature then sits on the chest of the sleeping person. This process was called "to be ridden by the mare". [My comment: According to the folklore, the person ridden, woke up in the morning totally wasted and really tired]

Sometimes people said that this was in fact Lilit which was [My comment: in the Nordic folklore at least!] the mother of the "Skogsrå", [My comment: this creature doesnt really have an equivalent in other parts of the world that I know of except in Japan. The "Skogsrå" was a sort of Queen of the forrest and ruled over the animals. She was known to be very hot and sexy viewed from the frontside and was said to seduce men that was out working in the forrest. However, if you saw the "skogsrå" from behind she had a hollow back and a foxtail]

Sometimes oridnary women could be unwillingly and unknowingly be temporarily transformed to "mares" during the night and thus haunt men in their sleep. [My comment: I would think that this was to explain mens wet dreams about certain women, where they could claim that they had been ridden by the woman in question and thus it wasnt "their fault" of dreaming sex-related dreams. But that is just my opinion...]

It was also said that the "mara" could not climb into bed to the sleeping person without first stepping into his shoes - that usually was placed just beside the bed since the house and floor were usually cold in the morning. To counter this the folklore stated that the shoes should be placed *under* the bed with the shoes pointing outward. [My comment: To make it pretty hard for the "mara" to get into the shoes. Why the "mara" couldnt bend down and just get the shoes out doesnt folklore tell you...]

The "mara" was also said to be riding the horses in the stable and in the morning you would find the horses manes in a disorder..."

// k

There is a name for it out here and in Newfoundland as well... it is called, "The Old Hag", it is a common experience actually. What really freaked me out was meeting other people who also saw the cloaked figure and had the same experience, I even saw a show about it once on TV... for years I thought it was just me.

in croatia and the rest of ex-yugoslavia we call it mora, and 'nocna mora' is nightmare. Go figure .

anyway, i have 2 stories about Mora from 2 friends of mine.

a friend served the army in more rural parts of croatia, he used to sleep in some village near the base on his days off (some 500 000 km from home, he didn't wantt to bother with the buses). anyway, one night he woke up with the feeling of heavy load upon his chest and like something or someone tried to choke him. he managed to turn on the light and the feeling subsided. he swears he heard the laughter when the load completely went away.
he wrote it as magic mushroom side effect (he tried those for the first time that evening).
15 days after that he slept again in the same room and everything happened again. this time without the mushroom. the owner of the house (some old lady) didn't know anything about it or didn't want to tell anything.

another friend has a house in the country with the room where similar thing happens every time someone sleeps there (only without the laughter). it happened ti her mom, uncles, grandma and her grandfather choked in his sleep in that same room. anyway, no one sleeps there any more.