This is a Glassbox Media Podcast.

Welcome to another episode of Strange Planet and as always thanks for sticking me in your ear.

Let's imagine you wake up to a pitch black bedroom. Suddenly you realize you can't move.

An aferious black shadow begins to walk slowly, ominously towards your bed.

You try to scream, but nothing comes out.

Has that ever happened to you? If it has, you're not alone.

Online statistics estimate anywhere from 17 to 50% of the population has reported experiencing sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime.

Most people describe the experience as terrifying and attribute it to some sort of paranormal or demonic experience.

But what most sufferers of sleep paralysis really want to know is, what is it really?

What are these entities targeting us? How can we stop it?

Well, Vicki Joy Anderson is here. She'll share her research and belief as she attempts to answer these questions and more.

Vicki graduated from the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota, majoring in Bible and English with a writing emphasis.

And after many years in corporate management, Vicki Joy stepped out in faith to become a full-time author and speaker in 2019.

And her book is, they only come out at night exposing the dark weapon of sleep paralysis. Vicki Joy, welcome. How are you?

Thank you. I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for having me on.

Well, let's start with an easy, an easy one. Why did you write? Maybe it's not so easy. Why write the book? Did you have an experience with sleep paralysis?

Many. And that did eventually lead to the writing of the book. It was never my intention to do so. But this is something that I struggled with for my pretty much my entire life.

It started to the best of my knowledge when I was around three years old. Perhaps it started earlier, but three years old was my first memory of it.

And it was fairly recurring. I'd say two, three nights a week. And then it would maybe go away for a week or a month. And then it would come back.

And this went on until I was 23 years old. And then I had a nice 15 year reprieve from it. And then it came back in a vengeance in 2012, 2013, which is a pretty stressful time in my life.

My mom was dying of cancer. I was had a very high stressful corporate management job. And I was living out of state and away from kind of my family circle. And so the climate was sort of the perfect storm for being vulnerable to attack. I guess I would say.

So yes, often on for over 40 years. And it was relentless. And while there are people that have had experiences that are far more terrifying than mine.

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