Why can not you photograph the sleeping ones?

For all the time of the existence of mankind, so many different superstitions have accumulated, that if an attempt were made to systematize all superstitions, such work would never be realized in view of the grandiose nature of the problem.

Every day there are new superstitions. One of the new superstitions says that you can not photograph people who are asleep. How this new superstition happened, why it is impossible to photograph the sleeping ones is thoroughly unknown, but each of the superstitions existing today has some historical justification, which was lost somewhere in the history of the rational man.

Maybe this superstition has a new secret some sense, or is it just a new reading of the old superstition that it's just impossible not to wake a sleeping person? The fact is that people have long been interested in problems of sleep. Our ancestors, trying to explain a little incomprehensible state in which a person falls into a time, believed that during sleep the person's soul leaves his body and travels, and if he is accidentally and quickly awakened, the soul may well not be able to return, and then the person is no longer Will never wake up.

Thus, the ancestors believed in the fact that a sleeping person, especially a child, is vulnerable and helpless during sleep. Maybe this is the basis for superstition, that you can not photograph sleeping people? It seems that the flash of the camera or the sound of the shutter can scare the Guardian Angel, so no one else can protect this person's dream?

Here is more likely another version: a person asleep can simply be greatly scared by an unexpected outbreak, which is likely to lead to the development of stuttering and fear of darkness.

There is one more version of the explanation of why you can not photograph the sleeping ones. This is due to certain "Books of the Dead", who came to Russia from Europe at the end of the XIX century. In this case we are talking about the whole rite.

The deceased person was well dressed, put at the table and photographed him in a close circle of relatives at dinner, or "reading" the morning newspaper and other ordinary affairs. Thus created the illusion that a person is still among the living, just "blinked" during the release of the shutter.

Especially often photographed dead children, which, by the way, quite clearly points to a rather high infant mortality at that time. The child who died, dressed up and photographed among his favorite toys and flowers. Such pictures served as a comfort to parents and a reminder of the child at the same time. Later photos from the "Books of the Dead" became collectibles.

A sleeping person somewhat resembles a deceased person, so this hypothesis may even be in favor of this new superstition that it is impossible to photograph people who are asleep.

Another version, explaining why you can not photograph the sleeping. This is a widespread belief in the evil eye or spoilage, which are sent at the request of enemies or envious sorcerers and magicians. Many are sure that the photo shows not only the person himself, but also his biofield. And since in a dream a person, as the beliefs of his ancestors say, is vulnerable, it will be much easier for him to cause some harm through photography.

It is possible that at least one of these hypotheses, explaining why it is impossible to photograph sleeping ones, is correct. Or maybe the root cause of the belief that you can not photograph sleeping people was some fear of the camera? There are also currently tribes in which it is believed that photographing takes away part of the soul.

To believe or not in the new superstition considered is an individual question, and everyone can solve it for themselves in the way the heart tells them. Some in these superstitions sometimes reach the point of absurdity, mercilessly removing even those pictures on which a person turned out with their eyes closed just because he blinked while the shutter was being released, while others did not hesitate to post photos of their sleeping children on the Net - and nothing, "a whole generation Has grown "...

Well, in general, photographing a sleeper without his permission is simply unethical.