Author and researcher Vicki Joy Anderson specializes in exploring the fringe and paranormal. In the first half, she discussed her own decades-long struggle with terrifying sleep paralysis from the perspectives of both the scientific and the supernatural. The physical symptoms of sleep paralysis typically include sensations of being crushed, strangled, or suffocated, without the ability to escape them or awaken. Auditory or visual hallucinations are also commonly experienced, she continued. But there's also a darker supernatural dimension to sleep paralysis for many people.

Many subjects of Anderson's research reported a feeling of an evil presence in the room during sleep paralysis, along with visions of glowing eyes, humanoid creatures, or alien grays. "It's a gateway into an astral classroom," she explained, calling the state of sleep paralysis "a laboratory where a mind control experiment of cosmic proportions is playing itself out." In this realm, subjects may be thrown about the room, slammed into walls, or even sexually assaulted, Anderson claimed. Although rebuking these entities in the name of Jesus Christ will repel them temporarily, the more permanent remedy is to go to their "point of entrance" and block access to it, she said. This is usually related to a subject's involvement with the occult or drugs but can also be traced to an ancestor's activities that have led to the evil being passed down through generations, she added.

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In the latter half, Michael Brein, aka "The Travel Psychologist," shared true stories of travelers around the world. As a student of psychology, Brein realized that he preferred travel, so he briefly paused finishing his PhD, and soon became fascinated with the psychological benefits of seeing the world. In addition, he was able to identify the ways in which travel touches upon different aspects of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, which include safety and security on the one hand, and more sophisticated conditions like self-actualization on the other.

As an active member and leader of organizations like MUFON, Brein recalled, he had many occasions to hear from others around the world who, like himself, were suddenly faced with unexplained and the unusual on their travels. The new experiences and interactions that come with travel promote opportunities for such phenomena, some of which Brein recounted. On one of these journeys, he happened to pass through a city he remembered as being the hometown of a classmate of his from 40 years earlier. Upon returning to his own home, Brein discovered an order for one of his guidebooks —purchased by this same classmate. In another story, a subject of one of his books told of going hiking in Oregon, when he broke off from the rest of his party, only to encounter a Bigfoot-like creature.

News Segment guests: Lauren Weinstein / Steve Kates