In the Middle East, where the lines of science were blurred with Islamic cultural tradition and ancient mythology, sleep paralysis was most often blamed on jinn. The jinn are believed to be invisible creatures, made of “smokeless fire” that live parallel to humans, but in the spiritual domain. They can be mischievous, malevolent, or benign according to their species and mood. As averse to jinn as his faith was, the jinn were understood as spirits, and to be roused at night and confronted by a spirit that had taken leave of its senses or was moving between corporeal and incorporeal states was a common experience. This explanation was perfectly reasonable in that cultural context, for people were already convinced that spirits could secretly affect everyday life. For these people living in these times, this was simply a rational explanation.
