In all seriousness: I’ve actually finally decided that maybe not writing when I don’t feel like I can (whether it be due to feeling under the weather or just not really desiring it) is, in fact, a good idea. This has opened up a whole slew of new possibilities for me, like playing video games and enjoying some time to myself so I can recuperate from writing.
So in short, I’m making progress in living a healthier life!
Anyways, when it comes to video games, I’ve been playing a ton of Pokémon ROM Hacks, so I’ve been going through Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and even Unova (well, that is until the game froze and I couldn’t progress). It’s been a ton of fun, and quite frustrating. Though mostly fun.
At the same time, however, it’s also been kind of a bummer. While I’ve been having a lot of fun, I’ve found myself really unable to write. This is mostly because none of the stories I had in mind really struck the right chord with me. Sure, I wanted to write about them, but nothing I wrote really struck me as “worthwhile”. When I set out to cover something. I always want it to be entertaining and not flat, boring, and unengaging. So for a brief while, I found myself feeling really bummed out.
Well, that is, until I remember a certain story.
Just yesterday, I remembered something that I saw on the good old Paranormal World Wiki. It was a story involving Pokémon and I thought it fit with my recent bingeing of the series. So, let’s take a look at the Pokémon Incubus.
The Story
My original introduction to this story was at some point last year. When I first saw it, I immediately brushed it off because it sounds like a bad case of sleep paralysis. However, when I reviewed the story for this write-up, I found out there was actually a bit more to it than just “a woman saw a Pokémon on her”.
Our story takes place in August of 2016. Pokémon Go had recently been released and it was all the craze. Over in Moscow, Russia, a woman—whose name has never been released, and whose age I cannot find—had been playing the game prior to her going to sleep. After she was done and had drifted off, her life took a trip down one of the weirdest lanes I’ve ever seen.
At some point, she awoke and saw a “large Pokémon” on her. Which Pokémon this was, I don’t know, and I wouldn’t hazard a guess because “large Pokémon” is the equivalent of saying “muscular boxer”. I digress though. The woman said the creature was “raping her”. Upon realizing this, she leapt out of bed, and the being presumably vanished…
Except, it didn’t.
The woman went on to state that the app could still detect the creature’s presence in her room, specifically on her bed. Keep this in mind for later; anyways, the woman woke her husband up and informed him of what had happened. After this, he called the police and told them what had happened. Unsurprisingly, the cops thought the woman was having a mental episode and told her to see a psychiatrist. The woman’s husband was in agreement, having also not believed her.
The woman did, eventually, book an appointment with a psychiatrist, but not before she consulted a psychic. Said psychic was, apparently, unable to help with her dilemma.
The last thing of note is that the woman’s friend, a man by the name of Ivan Makarov, told the media the following:
She says there are too many Pokemon at her place and even the dog can sense them. She says the dog barks whenever she plays Pokémon Go.
The part of the dog is interesting as it’s one of two reasons that makes this story fall into the category of being “paranormal”. However, is that truly the case? Well, that’s something meant for the theories section. Which, fittingly, is where we’re off to next. You see, that’s all there really is to the story. This event happened once and only once, which admittedly really forces it into the “likely a nothing burger”. In spite of that, some people are in disagreement, so let’s go over the theories…
I just repeated myself.
Oh well. Let’s go!
Theories
1. An Incubus/Malevolent Entities
If you were to go into the comments section of the Daily Mail’s article on this story, you’d see that some people think this story is the work of demons—or at least a demon.
Given the unsavory nature of what happened to the woman, it’s likely that it was an Incubus—the male counterpart to the infamous Succubus. It’s a demon which preys upon women and rapes them in their sleep. This story fits the profile of that entity, but it doesn’t quite explain the dog barking at things that the woman cannot see.
Due to that factor, it’s also possible that there are a group of malevolent entities living in the woman’s apartment. However, since there are no other incidents on file (as far as I can tell), I’m inclined to believe that this isn’t the case. Still, an Incubus isn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of. Stories of them are by no means rare, but they usually can be explained away with our second theory.
2. Sleep paralysis
To say that sleep paralysis can cause you to see some weird things is like saying that getting drunk can make you lose your footing here and there. I’ve seen stories where people claim they’ve seen the Grim Reaper, felt a skeletal hand touch them, seen demonic looking figures, and more. I myself have seen the silhouette of my ex, a large, black rat, and a facehugger from the Alien franchise.
The idea that a person who has presumably been playing Pokémon Go a fair bit, and was playing it directly before bed, had an episode and saw a Pokémon is by no means weird. In fact, I’d say it’s perfectly reasonable. Your brain can be influenced by things you were reading, watching, or doing right before bed, so there’s no reason to think that this was something out of the ordinary.
However, what this theory fails to explain is the app picking up something that was on the bed. This is quite unusual, but it could be a coincidence. After all, the woman had stated her home was home to a plethora of Pokémon, so it’s possible that there just so happened to be a Pokémon at the worst possible time.
There’s also the fact that the woman managed to wake up almost immediately after her experience began. Of course, it’s possible it lasted longer than the article lets on. Though sleep paralysis tends to not last that long anyways; a few seconds to just a few minutes, Due to this, I’m kind of in the middle on how I feel/view this aspect. It can be explained away, however, with the third and final theory.
3. A nightmare
To say that lucid nightmares can be scary is… an understatement. Much like sleep paralysis, nightmares suck, but I’ve had a few which have helped me in the long run. Those are few and far between though, and we’re not here to talk about them. No, we’re here to discuss how a nightmare could explain away the story at hand.
To dream about sleeping isn’t something abnormal. I’ve had dreams where I was dreaming, which is really surreal. So the idea that this woman was dreaming of sleeping in her bed while something was on her doesn’t strike me as unusual.
Most of what I said in the sleep paralysis theory applies here; the app picking up a creature in the room/on the bed can be explained away as a coincidence. The fact she dreamt of a Pokémon is likely the product of her playing the game before going to bed.
All things considered, this theory is basically the sleep paralysis one, only she would’ve been asleep and bolted away due to her fear and thought it was real. Nothing more, nothing less.
My Take
I think the woman was either suffering from sleep paralysis or had a really bad nightmare. Given that she was playing Pokémon Go prior to falling asleep, I think it stands to reason that she would see a Pokémon in her dreams, or during an episode of sleep paralysis. I remember an instance when I had it and thought I saw my now ex-girlfriend. Immediately prior to that, I had a dream where she was a serial killer.
In simpler terms: sometimes, dreams carry over into real life when your brain is just starting to get going.
With that said, I also think the whole “seeing too many Pokémon in my house” thing is a bit of paranoia. When something seems a bit out there, you’ll start to think something is extraordinary, when it’s really just a bit of a coincidence. I don’t know the intricacies of Pokémon Go, but I imagine that sometimes, some places have more Pokémon than others. It’s probably just how the game goes and in this woman’s case, her place was a bit of a hotbed for them.
Now as for the dog barking at the Pokémon, that I can’t really explain. It’s possible the woman mistook the dog’s barking for seeing the creatures/demons/ghosts when in reality, the dog wanted to play with her. I know that whenever I wander around my house for fun, my dog usually tags alongside me and will sometimes bring a rubber ball so we can play.
Now if the dog was barking at a corner where there was precisely nothing, was growling, and got scared, I would honestly be inclined to take a step back and think that there may be something odd. However, I’d also stress that I’m a bit biased as I’ve had something similar happen to me in recent times where my dog barked at an empty dining room chair.
In short though, I believe this was likely a case of sleep paralysis, or simply a nightmare. I don’t really see anything here that points towards this being paranormal or demonic in nature. Though I still empathize with the woman. I can’t imagine how scary it must’ve been at first. I’ve always said that sleep paralysis is one of the scariest things ever, and to have something that intense happen is borderline traumatizing.
Conclusion
The Paranormal World Wiki is home to a plethora of stories and I really want to take a few more dives into it this year. However, for the time being, I have to get back to being the very best there ever was. I also want to find a story which I can do a longer write-up on (I had plans to cover “Go For A Punch”, but lost my motivation since I drew a really strong conclusion to it during the writing process).
Because of this, I’ve really confided in the fact I shouldn’t feel bad if I don’t post as often as I wish I did. I figure that there’s no point in forcing myself to do something that I don’t think will work as well as it should. I strive to deliver things that I—at the very least—think work to deliver what I want (which is something entertaining). If I fail to do that, then I view a write-up as a failure. However, if I do think it delivers on that, then it’s a great success.
Also, on one final note: I like how my idea of “self-improvement” is more or less, “instead of staring at a computer screen which has a blank document on it, I am now staring at a computer screen with flashy effects on it”. Never let me have a self-improvement television series, dear reader. Anyways, until next time, ciao!
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