Why did medieval nuns sometimes hallucinate that the devil was visiting them in their bed at night to suck the life out of them and/or rape them?

While waiting for that, here is what sugarb has said previously here. Here are the only prior two posts of sugarb's in which she mentions Bigfoot...
This one from the roadkill thread is the most interesting to me...
That was Feb 2009. I'm confused as to why sugarb made such a specific reference to thinking Bigfoot's would often use roads when oh, BTW, I forgot to mention me and my husband saw Bigfoot in 2006 running towards us down the opposite lane of our truck. That would seem like a pertinent detail to mention.
Sugarb, why no mention then?
footies said:TXBIGFOOT, I am not entirely sure that this will be at all helpful, but here goes. It was almost a year ago now, December of 2006, it was the 22nd or 23rd, I could check my gas receipts to be certain of the date. I was in unfamiliar territory, as a companion and I were going to Arkansas to see my sister, who had been in the hospital and was being released that day. It was just a quick trip, one day down, back the next day. We had come through TN on 40, and turned onto 79, heading toward Marianna. I'm pretty sure we were already in Lee County, on 79. It was fairly early in the evening, around 7, 7:30 perhaps, and we had just passed a prison of some kind. I had never been in this part of Arkansas before, and was struck by how few cars we did see. In fact, I was sure we were lost. We stopped at a gas station (I can't remember the name of it, but somewhere I do have all the papers with scribbled directions. I saved them in case I had to go back by myself.) Anyway, we continued on 79 after being assured we weren't lost yet (lol), and it was on this long stretch of road, with open areas on either side, that we saw "it" coming toward us, in our headlights, up from a short ditch to the left (driver's side). "It" ran in the other lane, toward us, until reaching the front of our vehicle and veering back down the same ditch line.
This left me more unsure than I ever had been in my thoughts about what a bigfoot was--because I suppose in truth, I was guilty of humanizing something that I hadn't even seen before, which isn't all that surprising. We humans have a tendency to do that, I think. At the closest, from my perspective in the passenger side, it was probably 10 feet (somewhere there about--whatever the distance would be figuring the length of the hood of the truck plus a couple of feet). Human-like qualities though? Aside from running upright and basic shape, I can't say I felt any kind of kinship with this creature, if that's how we define human-like. It didn't even run like people run. You know how people run with their arms up, bent at the elbow? This creature didn't do that. It's arms were at it's sides. They appeared to only sway--and although it was running upright, it appeared to lean more forward than a person would. In thinking about that lean, perhaps it is propelling it's arms, even though it didn't look like it (because of how I'm familiar with running upright) and balance would dictate leaving them down instead of raising them--I don't know, but for some reason that is something I find interesting and think about quite often. Particularly on such flat ground. And I can't imagine a person getting so close to a moving vehicle, either. I was actually left with the impression that, even with headlamps on, it wasn't fully aware of a vehicle in the road. Kind of like how rabbits will run out in the road and immediately veer away (hopefully in time) before impact. Or squirrels. Not at all like deer, which tend to freeze in lights or run directly into vehicles.
It didn't stop to look at us, didn't turn it's head in our direction at all that I could notice, and it scared me to death. I tried to find ways to explain what I saw..."well, maybe it was a deer", "deer don't run upright and aren't covered in hair" "maybe it was an inmate", "inmates have clothes on and aren't covered in hair, and would run like other humans run--and surely wouldn't be running BACK to prison (lol)"...and I did this, I think, because to say it was "bigfoot" didn't seem to fit the idea I had of a reclusive creature living under the cover of deep woods.
I do not know how to classify this animal. I do not know what to compare it to. I don't know how apes run. I don't know if they run distances upright or on all fours. I know how people run, but the way this creature was running didn't fit that, either. And I don't know what falls between ape and person. I'm not that knowledgeable. All I do know was that it left me with more questions, and it defied everything I had previously thought I knew. Humanoid, I'd feel comfortable saying, because of it's body structure (shape) and locomotion (bi-pedal). Beyond that, I just don't know. I just honestly don't know. I will say, though, that I've felt for quite some time in my adult life that we spend more time trying to distance "humans" from animals than is realistic. As someone else said in this thread, humans act more on instincts than they perhaps care to acknowledge. We're just animals, too, really...only animals that for some reason are incapable (or believe ourselves incapable) of surviving as our wild friends do. We need cars and houses and grocery stores--and call that "superior". I'm not at all sure anymore that I agree with that. Nonetheless, that's irrelevant to the topic.
I fear this may be the exact opposite of what you were looking for. In my own mind, prior to this, as I said, I was thinking that whatever "bigfoot" was, it was close to "human". After this, though...after seeing it, or at least some version of it, since I don't know what "it" is, really, I'm no longer comfortable with the "human" idea. For myself, that is. Other people's experiences and perceptions may be totally different, and my own could have been a result of the fear that I did experience. It was just so strange that the truth is, I can't even say I'm comfortable talking about it. Weird, because, when I had it in my head that "bigfoot" was something close to human, I would talk about it constantly, to my friends, family...but now I just can't seem to do it. I felt so sure when I hadn't seen it and never honestly expected to...and seeing it took all that certainty away, if that makes any sense.
sugarb on JREF said:What I mean is, absence of "road kill" doesn't necessarily mean absence of bigfoot, although granted, "road kill" would certainly be something people determined to prove bigfoot's existence should look forward to.
Thanks. Your name on BFF is "footie".
The absence of Bigfoot roadkill is extremely powerful evidence that Bigfoot does not exist. Folks have been driving cars and other vehicles across North America for a very long time now. Trains have not produced Bigfoot railkill either.
I don't know if what we saw was "bigfoot". Initially, I learned of this forum from the other forum, so I came here to read the threads and still the descriptions were so different, I frankly thought that there must have been some other explanation. In other words, Kitakaze, I felt foolish, which should be understandable. I still do, actually.
It's a little more of a challenge to find your BFF posts when I don't have a membership there. I used Google to find other threads you posted in (besides the one KKZ just posted).
Four Categories of Bigfoot
Any Smart Guys Here?
Well, don't feel foolish. So you found the JREF via the BFF, made two posts about Bigfoot, mentioned that you don't think Bigfoots often use roadways but not that you may have seen something that could have been Bigfoot, and went on to become a regular JREF member that never discussed Bigfoot again until now? That seems a little weird to me that you would talk about Bigfoot and how you think they wouldn't often use roadways but sit on the giant whopper of a story you have. I'm not saying I don't believe you, just that that's strange.
I've read along...but I cannot help but feel foolish, kitakaze. This past year, I've been dealing with some deaths and then some anxiety and panic disorders, so...it may sound strange, but I really couldn't afford to let my mind get too deep into this. I'm handling things better now, and I've been following along on this thread and others, and really your posts are why I finally worked the nerve up to bring this up. I *do* want it resolved in my mind, and really I *do* hope there is an animal it could have been. If there is, then it seems to me that this will be the place to find out. If there isn't, then I don't have to feel "crazy" about this particular thing anymore. Seems a win/win, even if it makes me feel dumb.
My condolences for your losses. I hope you get feeling better real soon.
I also hope that these claims of yours are true because what I am now seeing is classic behavior from hoaxers.
You made a claim forgetting about your original posts or thought no-one would go to the trouble of finding them. Then - when you are asked to explain some time-line issues as to why you made no previous mention of your sighting - you hit the oft repeated excuses like deaths and panic attacks causing you to not be able to think clearly at the time you made your original posts.
Like I said - I hope you are not hoaxing us; However, my spidey senses are tingling
SugarB I presume you are taking anti anxiety medication.
Do you have any other neurological disorders or sleep-disorders?
Again, I'm not even "sure" that what we saw was a "bigfoot". It really wasn't as big as everything I've read has indicated, nor did it look as though it ever would be, you know? I have wondered from time to time about the "wildman" reports I've read, but even at that...I don't know. I just have no idea.
sugarb said:I did join another website about a year later but made only a few posts before I realized that what other people were seeing and describing didn't at all seem like the thing we saw.
I've condensed your description of this thing...
About 7', maybe a few inches taller.
It was covered in longish hair.
Plain head covered in hair.
Didn't appear to have a neck.
Didn't appear proportioned much differently than a person.
Wasn't "massive".
Arms longer than a human that swung down at its sides as it ran, not bent at the elbow like a person.
It was running with a kind of forward slant.
Actually, your description is not much different from many of the reported descriptions. Quite a few describe something a lot like a human form but covered in hair. Some witnesses say the Bigfoot was slender or not "body builder massive". I noticed in the BFF thread that you did not get into the appearance details that you did yesterday here. No mention of the height on BFF. Also nobody over there seemed skeptical or dismissive of your sighting, and some may have wondered why you suddenly stopped posting.
Sugarb, may I ask whether you've considered the following mundane explanations for what you saw?:
A hunter in a gilly/ghille suit:
[qimg]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2562/3722758387_aa30bb2935.jpg[/qimg]
An intentional hoaxer in a costume:
[qimg]http://www.mcavenedesigns.com/Bigfoot/bigfoot_photo2.jpg[/qimg]
A bear up on two feet:
[qimg]http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/932/bear.jpg[/qimg]
A hallucination, which is a known, studied and documented phenomenon of the human mind, which sometimes occurs in situations precisely like you've described: driving on a lonely road late at night. (There are several first-hand examples of this given by JREF skeptics in the preceding pages of this thread.)
Hypnagogia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogic_hallucination
... Any or all of which might phenomena have been enhanced or distorted through the known and studied phenomenon of confabulation (the confusion of imagination with memory): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation