If you’ve ever woken up at around three in the morning and felt like something wasn’t quite right, then you may actually be onto something.
It’s not just a case of middle-of-the-night jitters but you are slap bang in the middle of the Devil’s Hour – and, if you believe the myths, you may not be alone.
The 3am time slot is regarded by paranormal experts as a time when pure evil – either demons or entities from the spirit world – make their presence felt.
Many of us will wake up in the middle of the night, either from a bad dream or without any reason at all, feeling a chill in the air or a worrying feeling in your gut.
We might simply put this down to our brains not quite being in state that is able to think rationally – but there are also those who believe the reason is a lot more sinister.
The thinking behind the specific time of 3am is that it is a deliberate mocking of the death of Jesus Christ, who, according to ancient writing, died in the middle of the afternoon – at 3pm.
ust like the turning of the cross upside down is a deliberate lack of humility or respect to Christ, the inversion of 3pm to 3am is thought to be demons using the opposite hour to torment humans.
The number three is also synonymous with Christianity – the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Many horror films have used the Devil’s Hour as a pivotal moment – in The Conjuring, the clocks stop at 3:07am and events take a seriously bad turn.
Names being called and walls banged three times in succession, as seen in the movie, are seen as a direct insult to Christianity.
Ronald ‘Butch’ DeFeo Jr – the man who inspired The Amityville Horror – murdered six members of his own family at three in the morning, while multiple strange occurrences take place at around the same time in The Exorcism Of Emily Rose – another film supposedly based on true events.
But why would this particular time be the one part of the day we would be visited by the supernatural rather than when we’re not asleep?
Psychics believe that the veil between our world and the spirit world is lifted at this time and our relaxed state of minds – especially in a state of deep sleep – may be more susceptible to paranormal activity.
