On social networks, you can see many photos of sleeping babies. The images of the child and his father dozing side by side evoke special affection. It would seem that one can only admire such pictures, but there are completely different points of view, according to which photographing people during sleep is very bad. It is interesting to know where such judgements came from and how they are reasoned.
There are several versions of the emergence of a negative attitude towards photographing sleeping people. They can be conditionally divided into moral and ethical, religious, mystical. There is also a more realistic explanation. Let's consider all versions in order.
Version 1 - Moral and ethical
Everything is clear here because every person understands that in a dream he may not look very attractive. When you don’t control facial expression and body position, you can get funny and even offensive photos for a person. If they are made without the permission of the sleeper and are laid out for everyone to see, it is understandable that he has a negative attitude to this situation.
Version 2 - Religious and Bioenergy
According to religious teachings, every person has a soul. Bioenergetics believe that there is an energetic protective field around the human body. A waking person is surrounded by a protective aura at a distance of about one meter, but in a dream it weakens significantly.
Our ancestors were sure that when a person falls asleep, his soul leaves the body and goes on unknown journeys. Adherents of religion argue that during sleep a person is deprived of the protection of his guardian angel and can be exposed to evil spirits.
No matter how we call a person's biosecurity - a soul or a bioenergetic field, but in a dream it weakens. The mental state and health of the sleeper may be at risk.
Version 3 - Mystical
For a long time, people were afraid of the evil eye and damage. It is believed that sorcerers and sorcerers can easily spoil a photograph. If a person is photographed during sleep, it is much easier to do this, because the sleeper is weakened energetically. A sleeping child has much weaker protection than an adult, therefore bioenergetics are not advised to post pictures of children while sleeping on social networks.
Another superstition is also related to the soul. Superstitious people believed that if you photograph a person during sleep, while his soul soars somewhere in other worlds, irreparable things can happen. Suddenly waking up from the click of the camera, without a soul, a person will die.
Another superstitious version is related to the dark and strange traditions of the 19th century. At the dawn of the emergence of photography, wealthy people not only photographed the dead, but also took joint family photos with them. Of course, this action may seem blasphemous, but there is an explanation for it - in this way the relatives of the deceased wanted to preserve the memory of him. And today, some people consider it necessary to capture the face of a deceased loved one.
It was the gloomy associations with the faces of the dead that gave rise to superstitions according to which one should not photograph people with their eyes closed. A sleeping person in a fuzzy picture often looks like a deceased person, and this may indicate a possible illness and even an imminent death.
More realistic versions
The most logical explanation why it is better not to photograph sleeping people is the possible fright of a person, especially a child, waking up from the click of a camera or flash. In addition, a person's sleep will be disturbed, and the body will not be able to rest normally.
Conclusion: we are modern people who do not believe in superstition. And yet, after considering all the versions, it can be concluded that photographing sleeping adults without their consent is unethical. If you want to photograph a sleeping child, then it is better to leave such a photo in the family archive, and not put it up for public viewing.
