David Hufford

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David J. Hufford is an American folklorist and ethnographer known for his research on paranormal phenomena and sleep paralysis. He is professor emeritus of Humanities and Psychiatry at Penn State University College of Medicine, and the former chair of Medical Humanities.

Contents

Career

Hufford attributed his interest in sleep paralysis to a personal experience he had with it as a student in 1963. He later went to study at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he became fascinated with the local belief in the "Old Hag", which mirrored his earlier sleep paralysis experience. This led him to question whether the folkloric belief was based solely in cultural beliefs, or whether it was informed by personal experiences. In 1974, he joined the faculty of Penn State University College of Medicine. [1]

Hufford is credited with pioneering "an experience-centered approach to supernatural belief" in ethnographic study. [2] He took the position that the dismissal of folkloric traditions as inherently irrational was ethnocentric. He was a proponent of the idea that any distinction between objective knowledge and subjective "beliefs" should be understood as a value judgement. He described this bias towards folklore in the formula: "What I know I know, what you know you only believe." [3]

His research in the 1970s reassessed previous positions on sleep paralysis and explored its relation to reported paranormal phenomenon. [4] He theorized that the "Old Hag" archetype common to folklore around the world was based on common experiences of sleep paralysis, which tended to manifest in similar ways. [5] In 1983, he published The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. [6] The book was well received, with praise for Hufford's approach to the ethnography of folklore. [7] [8]

At Penn State, Hufford became chair of Medical Humanities, and professor of Neural & Behavioral Science, and Family & Community Medicine. He left this position in 2007, becoming professor emeritus of Humanities and Psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine. [9] He is also director of the Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine. [10] Hufford is a fellow of the American Folklore Society. [11]

List of works

Books

Pamphlets and book chapters

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folklore</span> Expressive culture shared by particular groups

Folklore is the whole of oral traditions shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes tales, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. They include material culture, such as traditional building styles common to the group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jinn</span> Invisible beings in Arabic culture

Jinn – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies – are invisible creatures in early religion in pre-Islamic Arabia and later in Islamic culture and beliefs. Like humans, they are accountable for their deeds and can be either believers (Muslims) or disbelievers (kafir), depending on whether they accept God's guidance. Since jinn are neither innately evil nor innately good, Islam acknowledged spirits from other religions and was able to adapt them during its expansion. Jinn are not a strictly Islamic concept; they may represent several pagan beliefs integrated into Islam. To assert a strict monotheism and the Islamic concept of tawhid, Islam denies all affinities between the jinn and God, thus placing the jinn parallel to humans, also subject to God's judgment and afterlife. The Quran condemns the pre-Islamic Arabian practice of worshipping or seeking protection from them.

A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations of discomfort, psychological or physical terror, or panic. After a nightmare, a person will often awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a short period of time. Recurrent nightmares may require medical help, as they can interfere with sleeping patterns and cause insomnia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep disorder</span> Medical disorder of a persons sleep patterns

A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of an individual's sleep patterns. Some sleep disorders are severe enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional functioning. Sleep disorders are frequent and can have serious consequences on patients’ health and quality of life. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for diagnosing sleep disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleep paralysis</span> Sleeping disorder

Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which one is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis. During an episode, one may hallucinate, which often results in fear. Episodes generally last no more than a few minutes. It can recur multiple times or occur as a single episode.

In Slavic mythology, notsnitsa, often referred in plural, is a nightmare spirit or demon that torments people and especially children at night. Other names for notsnitsa in East Slavic languages include kriksy, plaksy, plachky, plaksivicy, kriksy-varaksy, kriksy-plaksy, night hag, night maiden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night terror</span> Sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread

Night terror, also called sleep terror, is a sleep disorder causing feelings of panic or dread and typically occurring during the first hours of stage 3–4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and lasting for 1 to 10 minutes. It can last longer, especially in children. Sleep terror is classified in the category of NREM-related parasomnias in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. There are two other categories: REM-related parasomnias and other parasomnias. Parasomnias are qualified as undesirable physical events or experiences that occur during entry into sleep, during sleep, or during arousal from sleep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incubus</span> Mythological demon that seduces women

An incubus is a demon in male form in folklore that seeks to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women; the corresponding spirit in female form is called a succubus. Parallels exist in many cultures.

A shadow person is the perception of a patch of shadow as a living species, humanoid figure, sometimes interpreted as the presence of a spirit or other entity by believers in the paranormal or supernatural.

Popobawa, also Popo Bawa, is the name of an evil spirit or shetani, which is believed by residents of Zanzibar to have first appeared on the Tanzanian island of Pemba. In 1995, it was the focus of a major outbreak of mass hysteria or panic which spread from Pemba to Unguja, the main island of the Zanzibar Archipelago, and across to Dar es Salaam and other urban centres on the East African coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilian mythology</span>

Brazilian mythology is the subset of Brazilian folklore with cultural elements of diverse origin found in Brazil, comprising folk tales, traditions, characters and beliefs regarding places, people, and entities. The category was originally restricted to indigenous elements, but has been extended to include:

Hypnopompia is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep, a term coined by the psychical researcher Frederic Myers. Its mirror is the hypnagogic state at sleep onset; though often conflated, the two states are not identical and have a different phenomenological character. Hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations are frequently accompanied by sleep paralysis, which is a state wherein one is consciously aware of one's surroundings but unable to move or speak.

Perspectives on the abduction phenomenon are explanations that are intended to explain claims of abduction and examination by apparently otherworldly beings. The main differences between these perspectives lie in the credence ascribed to the claims. Perspectives range from the assertion that all abductions are hoaxes to the belief that the claims are of objective happenings and separate from the consciousness of the claimants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hag</span> Stock character; a wizened old woman, often a malicious witch

A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as "Hansel and Gretel". Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as The Morrígan or Badb, who are seen as neither wholly benevolent nor malevolent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ephialtes (illness)</span>

Ephialtes is an anxiety disorder identified as such by John Bond in 1753, along with other authors of those times, in his treatise "An Essay on the Incubus, or Nightmare". The famous Greek physician Galen in the 2nd century AD had already named nightmares "Ephialtes". Throughout history, sleep paralysis and the similar term nightmare have been widely accompanied by mythological creatures with paranormal powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome</span> Medical condition

Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) is a sudden unexpected death of adolescents and adults caused by, as the name implies, a cardiac arrest. However, the exact cause of the cardiac arrest, and thus the exact cause of death, may not be found. These deaths occur mainly during sleep or at rest. One type of conduction defect known as Brugada syndrome can be responsible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spectrophilia</span> Type of sexual hallucination

Spectrophilia, also known as Phasmophilia, is sexual attraction to either ghosts or sexual arousal from images in mirrors, as well as the alleged phenomenon of sexual encounters between ghosts and humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night hag</span> Supernatural night creature

The night hag or old hag is the name given to a supernatural creature, commonly associated with the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. It is a phenomenon which a person feels during a presence of a supernatural malevolent being which immobilizes the person as if sitting on their chest or the foot of their bed. The word "night-mare" or "nightmare" was used to describe this phenomenon before the word received its modern, more general meaning. Various cultures have various names for this phenomenon and supernatural character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witching hour</span> Time of night associated with supernatural events

In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immediately after midnight, and the time between 3:00 am and 4:00 am. The term now has a widespread colloquial and idiomatic usage that is associated with human physiology and behaviour to more superstitious phenomena such as luck.

Sylvia Ann Grider is an American folklorist, noted for her research into such topics as ghosts, child lore and the memorialization of tragic events.

References

  1. ↑ Morehead, John W. (2013). "From Sleep Paralysis to Spiritual Experience: An Interview with David Hufford". Paranthropology. 4 (3). Archived from the original on 2022-02-27. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  2. ↑ David, Jonathan C (2001). "Fire in My Bones: Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel (review)". Journal of American Folklore. 114 (454): 499–500. doi:10.1353/jaf.2001.0028. ISSN   1535-1882. S2CID   161959276. Archived from the original on 2016-05-28. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  3. ↑ Gatling, Benjamin (2020-07-01). "There Isn't Belief, Just Believing: Rethinking Belief as a Keyword of Folklore Studies". Journal of American Folklore. 133 (529): 307–328. doi:10.5406/jamerfolk.133.529.0307. ISSN   0021-8715. S2CID   226607481. Archived from the original on 2022-02-27. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  4. ↑ Hurd, Ryan (2010-09-17). Sleep Paralysis: A Guide to Hypnagogic Visions & Visitors of the Night. Hyena Press. p. 70. ISBN   978-0-9842239-1-6. Archived from the original on 2022-02-27. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  5. ↑ Hufford, David J. (1995). "Beings Without Bodies: An Experience-Centered Theory of the Belief in Spirits". In Walker, Barbara (ed.). Out Of The Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural. University Press of Colorado. pp. 11–45. doi:10.2307/j.ctt46nwn8.6. ISBN   978-0-87421-191-7. JSTOR   j.ctt46nwn8.6. Archived from the original on 2021-09-09. Retrieved 2022-02-27. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  6. ↑ Harrison, Phyllis (1983). "Review of 'The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions' by David J. Hufford". Folklore Forum. ISSN   0015-5926. Archived from the original on 2020-07-19. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  7. ↑ Ward, Donald; Hufford, David J. (October 1984). "The Terror That Comes in the Night". Western Folklore. 43 (4): 274. doi:10.2307/1500115. ISSN   0043-373X. JSTOR   1500115 . Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  8. ↑ Wattanagun, Kanya (2017). "Book Review The Terror That Comes in the Night: An Experience-Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions". Manusya: Journal of Humanities. 20 (1): 93–94. doi: 10.1163/26659077-02401011 . S2CID   237867447.
  9. ↑ "David Hufford". The Religious Studies Project. Archived from the original on 2021-04-12. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  10. ↑ "University of Pennsylvania – Folklore and Folklife". www.sas.upenn.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  11. ↑ "AFS Fellows". The American Folklore Society. Archived from the original on 2022-02-15. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
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