The terrifying images we see during paralysis are taken from our memory every scary depiction is something we have been told of, or seen in a movie etc. That is why all accounts are very similar. They involve things that society has deemed scary. These lie in wait in our subconscious so when we are scared our mind plays them out.
If we look down the timeline then a lot of sense can be made certain phenomenon.
Witches?
During the early 18th century people blamed every bad thing on witches. They depicted the witch as a great evil as shown below.
Scary? Sticks in the mind?
The had a huge effect on the people of the time. None more so than those that suffered from undiagnosed sleep paralysis, this terror meant while paralysed they visualised what was scary to them witches. A lack of understanding led people to blame these experiences on the meddling witch, in turn leading to more innocent young women being burned at the stake.
Notice that no one at this time was being abducted by aliens?
Alien Abductions.
This is BECAUSE the idea of an alien had yet to be invented.
Sleep paralysis is the reason why people started to get abducted shorty after a succession of alien films.
This created a new fear in our subconscious.
Alien abductions are simply dreams! made real by the basic simp tons of sleep paralysis
The above video explains the cultural influences and how the symptoms of sleep paralysis can be misinterpreted as abductions etc.
