Ah, the incubus, a delightful monstrosity from simpler times responsible for all sorts of sexy night time mischief. The demon, it was said, would visit a sleeping woman and conduct sexual activities with them in an effort to father a child, as in some of the legends of Merlin. The female version of this creature, the succubus, would do the same with men so as to bear a demonic child. There are some versions of these entities that would have us believe that they are actually gender neutral and can assume the shape of a woman to accept the seed of man, and then become a man to deliver the now tainted child to a woman. Weirdly complicated, I know.
Incubi and Succubi have a long history in mythology and demonic lore, only later being co opted by the Catholic Church. The incubi of Mesopotamia were originally storm demons with a penchant for attempting sexual acts with people that slept near their place of residence. The demons would attempt to mate with humans, creating strange ghostly children that they would raise. Why? I’m not entirely sure, it’s difficult to find information about this particular bit of their history. Later, in ancient Greece, many individuals practiced what is known as incubation. Descending into pits or holes, people wishing to receive prophecy through their dreams, with the guidance of a priest, would sleep in hopes of receiving the spirit of prophecy. The spirit, or incubus, would hopefully visit and impart wisdom onto the dreamer.
It wasn’t until early in Christian history when the debate over night demons began and our demonic pals took the shape we know today. St. Augustine discussed them, mentioning the frequency and number of purported attacks as evidence that something was going on. Thomas Aquinas, many hundreds of years later, was responsible for the idea of the shape shifting gender-neutral demon. The whole point of the process, in his mind, was to spread chaos through the children that would surely be touched by evil. These children, though born by women, were thought to possess strange powers and witchcraft.
The strange part of all of this is that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of similar monsters in various cultures. Monsters that sit atop the sleeper and harass them or that sexually assault individuals in the night. We’re talking about cultures that had very little contact with one another all coming up with the same exact idea or something close to it. So what’s the deal? It would appear that the people being attacked by demons in the night were most likely suffering from sleep paralysis, a rather unusual condition that is more prevalent than most people think. You see, when you dream, your body goes into a mild state of paralysis so that you won’t hurt yourself thrashing about in the night while you see all those amazing things in your head. Occasionally, someone wakes up a bit while they’re in a deep sleep and dreaming. They’ll open their eyes and see something terrifying, maybe something they were dreaming about, and they can’t move! Terror sets in and when you panic it only gets worse. Eventually you fall back asleep or you wake up completely and, while some people brush it off and look for the logical explanation, others…take it in a different direction.
Personally, I’ve never suffered from sleep paralysis but I know a bunch of people that have and they’ve said it feels incredibly real. Nine times out of ten they suffer from nightmares, particularly nightmares where they see and feel someone next to them or on top of them, holding them down. Pretty scary.
Meanwhile, the demons that inhabited our imaginations that were responsible for these problems are out of work, I’d imagine. It must be hard to find a good woman so what’s an incubus to do? Why not try your luck on a dating show?
After all, women love a bad boy.
I have suffered from seep paralysis but I found a Tibetan technique to break it. Focus not on what you may see or hear, but on your hand. Try to get your thumb and forefinger to touch and gently rub. This awakens the hand, which in turn you can now grasp, clench and release your fist to awaken your arm. Once you have control of that and you are still feeling you are in the REM sleep, try hitting or touching that which is there and your conscious mind will snap out of it.
It’s… well, it’s just another cover-story for rape, right?
I lack the details off hand, but there’s a plethora of evidence/anecdotes of ‘demons’ infiltrating convents, assuming the guise of a priest or monk (basically: a male clergyman) and then raping a nun. It was very commonplace. Obviously, a pious man of god would never commit rape–so it were demons what done the deed.
I think the succubus/incubus myths, or at least their “modern” interpretation stems from the same basic impulse. When someone is raped by someone one trusts (ulgh… to many ‘ones’)… it’s hard a hard thing to accept, let alone reconcile. It’s far easier to blame the rape on some supernatural force.
Whoops. Forgot to qualify a bit in that first paragraph. Should be, “It was very commonplace throughout the middle ages.’
And I think it’s fair to say such practices were not limited exclusively to those few centuries.
I’ve actually read this as well, I wanted to include it in the blog post but I was already at a full page of text with what you see here. Great point though! There are a number of scientific and psychological theories on what these nighttime attacks really are and what they mean. Sleep paralysis just appears to be the most common one.
Don’t know about common, but it’s certainly pretty convenient.
Personally, given the sheer number of such cases… and considering that many of them likely are never reported or recorded… I’m more inclined to believe it’s the result of conscious, malicious action than simple sleep paralysis.
WINNER!!!!
Just thought I’d point out that the cross on the incubus’ (is that right?) forehead isn’t a satanic symbol, it’s St Peter’s cross, which has the exact opposite meaning. Guess the kid’s going through a rebellious phase, eh?
haha I’m going to say that as a demon, he is, by nature, a chaotic and rebellious creature. His presence on a dating show proves that he’s not really into doing what all the other demons are doing. He must be trying to show Satan how punk rock he really is or something.
i think my gf can relate to this. she is a militant catholic meanwhile im a militant atheist. she is always telling me i’m a hellspawn bent on confusing others faith. my romantic-kinky side keeps her from dumping me. i gess girls care less about eternal damnation this days!
Match made in heaven. Great username too haha
Tells a lot about how women pick their dates too XD Some guys could get away even with the horns and all, just because they take you to a wine tasting!
Glad you mentioned Merlin, that was the first that came to my mind. Wonder why they leave that part out when they talk about him in high school…
AH, Incubus and Succubus ~~<3
Nice, I like!
I’m absolutely certain the guy wearing glasses is the real incubus, and that the guy with horns is just an human with a really showy way to tell the world that he is a satanist.
Also as for the paralysis thingy, since I’m more on the scientific point of view, not that I’m a scientist of any sort but I like to think that everything can be explained throught science, I think that the paralysis thingy (such scientific words I know) come from the high belief of the phenomenom, thus acting in the subconcious to actually paralyse your body for whatever the cause of it may be, high stress, fear, etc. also to explain the number of cases that occured, it’s explained by the high number of persons that believes in ghost stories in the us (that’s what I heard, didn’t check thought) it create an effect of mass, if everyone believe it it must be true (while not necessarly the case) the more people believe in ghost stories, and the paralysis thingy the more people will believe in it! note that it’s also like this that religion spread…………
Oh by the way sorry about my english, I normally speak french and those kind of topic are still hard on me….
Now that’s what I call a date!
There is also the fact that birth control is a relatively new thing, or at least affective birth control. I imagine many tales where created to cover up some unexpected pregnancies. At least for the case of incubi. “I don’t know how I got pregnant, it must have been a demon in the night!” It seems to be a trend in our past, either knocked up by demons and now carrying a demonic child (if you don’t want to keep it) or knocked up by angels and carrying the son of God (if you do want to keep the child).
Animal skins only lasted so far. Who really wants to wrap their hard-on in animal intestine nowadays?
Ohhhhh, the Catholic Church. They really should’ve taken a stand on this one! “We do not believe in succumbi. Could you all please stop fucking around.” But sleep paralysis is terrifying gah, I need to stop thinking about it. I consider myself VERY lucky that it hasn’t happened to me.
Your comics are excellent, hilarious and educational. Why must you do this to us? WHY?!
You totally just made my day, thank you! This one is definitely in my top 5 of favorite comics ever. Seriously though, where does a girl have to go to get a date with that guy!
Sleep paralysis plus explanations for wet dreams from ashamed holy men.
Such is my answer on this. Also, I love the concept of the Succubus and Incubus.
I have to say, I’ve always been turned on by the idea of incubus. I would 100% go out with that guy! Mostly because, seriously, OMFG HORNS.
Great, thanks, I thought I had forgotten about that show about sleep paralysis. Now I can’t sleep. Is this how you increase views on your site, huh? Giving your readers insomnia?
I have a vague memory of a version which says that the succubi took sperm from the men, gave it to the incubus somehow, and that’s the sperm the incubus would impregnate human women with. Weird, huh?