COLIN HIGGINS WRITES

Hi Jon,

Just wanted to express my sympathy for Mike's condition. He and I spoke at WW 2008. I too suffer from sleep paralysis, once every couple of months on average and it's no fun. SP is quite hard to imagine and fortunately I don't suffer from the hypnopompic hallucinations that sometimes accompany it, but your own body is as remote from you as another person's while your mind is fully conscious and alert. It's never less than scary and until you're used to it is utterly terrifying. Getting a finger to move can be an epic battle of will that takes minutes.

Sleep paralysis often takes place during shallow breathing; fine when you're unconscious but like being suffocated when you are awake. Combined with Mike's other symptoms, he has my sympathy and prayers.

I was interested in Lindsay Selby's big eel report. Even known anguilla in New Zealand are much larger than our specimens and it isn't stretching credibility too far to imagine the Aussie trout farm monster. With the decimation of eel stocks in recent decades for reasons unknown, if large, sterile individuals are behind lake monster phenomena those sightings may be fewer in future.

My bait tip for the hunters? Rabbit, or perhaps whole chicken. Large eels have often been reported round food processing plants with offal being a favourite meal. Australia is heading towards those dark, thundery, mild nights when predatory eels are most active. Maybe this time they'll nab the evidence?

Best Wishes,

Colin