A dark figure. It does not speak. Most of the time it is alone, and sometimes it appears accompanied. Its face and skin color are hidden. The only clear detail is that it wears a hat. And the rest… terror. Vulnerability. Suffocation. Around the world, people describe the same nightmare. The Hat Man is a vision that often manifests moments before falling into sleep paralysis. Why always him? What is the common factor? How does it manage to transcend languages and borders?
Sleep paralysis is hard to describe even for those who suffer it. Words are insufficient when it comes to explaining the horror, the helplessness, the desperation. In January of last year we shared a short film called Paralys, which presents a disturbing visual reference to sleep paralysis. Add to this the documentary The Nightmare from 2015, which includes interviews and recreations with professional actors (available on Netflix). Many people out there are trying to escape sleep paralysis. Some managed on their own, and others with professional help. But there are additional elements behind it. Common aspects, recurring details. One in particular stands far above the rest: The Hat Man.
The Cultural Layer Behind the Vision
According to psychologist Christopher French of the University of London, who specializes in beliefs and experiences associated with the paranormal, people who talk about The Hat Man are not lying. The vision is real, and the fear they feel is real. The essential experience is always the same, but there is a kind of 'cultural layer' in each case. Assyria, Babylon, ancient Greece... in all these regions there were reports of evil spirits that visited people while they slept, pressing on their chests. The art of the last 250 years represented them as incubi, succubi, or harpies. Demons, ghosts, and witches continue the list. Sleep paralysis in the twentieth century gave rise to aliens and abductions.
https://old.neoteo.com/el-perturbador-arte-de-trevor-henderson/Confronting the Fear
The Hat Man, in French's opinion, is nothing more than an extension of that cultural influence, and a man with a hat in the darkness is very similar to one of the fundamental icons of modern horror, Freddy Krueger. A very important tool to combat sleep paralysis is to relive those experiences while awake, and imagine that they turn into something positive. That is what the photographer Nicolas Bruno did. Each dream recorded in his diary became a scene to reproduce, a photo to develop. At the end of the day, The Hat Man and all its variants, are in our heads.
