Alien Abductions: The Difference Between Bad Dreams and the Real Thing

I've often asked myself if the plethora of alien abduction accounts are nothing more than overactive imaginations, bad dreams, having had too much bad reefer, sleep paralysis or simple nightmares. Are all of these who have been abducted by aliens wound a bit too tight and in need of a major overhaul of their psychotropic medications? It is a curious dilemma and one I had to confront when I decided to "out myself" about my alien abduction experience.

Another question that one has got to confront is why are there those who regard their alien abduction experience as something quite malevolent while others have an almost euphoric attitude about it and wish the little Grays would make a return visit? Not only is that a peculiar aspect of this phenomenon, but the so-called Ufologists, those who study the scientific aspect of flying saucers, also tend to distance themselves from the Abduction sect in this entire issue. Though I've yet to hear on UFO television shows or read online of the Ufologists hurling insults and epithets at the abductees, I get the impression that many would like to do just that.

In the abductee aspect of this question, there seems to be a competing faction. One group says that not only are these aliens who are abducting humans mean, rotten, and underhanded, but they also have a very evil intent. This side of the alien abduction fence is composed of those who not only are convinced that the alien abductions are very, very real, but also that the motive for taking you is for a very nefarious purpose. The other side of the fence tends to think that these aliens are just plain old "folks." You know, good ol' alien boys that love us and want to help us out. They believe these are good and benevolent aliens that want to help us out in the area of something called, "spiritual development."

Some of the major players in this phenomenon take extreme issue with one another. One will say that the malevolence is nonsense and is actually being spearheaded by the hawks within the U.S. government. They claim that those in the government are the ones who "abduct" us and give us hideous experiences in order to make us think the aliens are doing it. This is so, so the party line goes, so that they can bomb the hell out of the aliens when the time comes. The public will accept the planted experiences as coming from the evil Grey aliens and thus will wholeheartedly support the U.S. military shooting at the aliens.

Another version is that there is an evil sect of aliens. It is alleged that there are several races of Grey aliens with one of two of them being real stinkers. The allegation claims that these bad Greys are indeed working with the U.S. military to kidnap us, do terrible things to us, then release us with tracking devices rammed up our noses so they can keep track of our whereabouts. Not only are they implanting tracking devices in us, but they are also taking our genetic material for breeding human-alien hybrids.

The third major view is that they are not malevolent but our dear, dear interstellar brothers and have nothing but good intentions toward us.

In the literature, you can find many variations on the main theme but it seems to me to boil down to the three. Some of the names in these groups who write in support of these various theories of why the aliens are among us are:

Budd Hopkins - a central figure in abduction phenomenon and related UFO research. He is also a painter and sculptor. Hopkins has written several very compelling books, his most famous being Missing Time, Ballantine Books (1988). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Hopkins]

David M. Jacobs, Ph.D - The THREAT: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda, Simon & Schuster (1999). Jacobs does not mince words when it comes to this issue being just a bunch of really nice aliens wanting to get together and have a campfire and roast some marshmallows-he doesn't buy it. He believes there is a threat to the human race.

John Mack, M.D. - A Harvard man, Mack presents an image that "something" is happening on a grand scale with the reports of abductions. Though in interviews he tries to dance around the question of aliens being absolutely real in a material sense, he does believe, as a practioner, that those who have been abducted are not insane and do not necessarily come away from their experiences with negative emotions, and believe the aliens are sent to abduct them on almost a divine predestination.

John Mack makes an excellent point that our approach to the question of alien abduction, whether it is really happening or not, tends to be swayed to one side or the other based on our world view. Those who do not have a world view that accepts the possibility that something could indeed exist outside some preconceived presuppositions that we cannot see or feel, tend to reject out of hand the reports of extraterrestrials abducting humans. They are so bound by their anthropomorphism, anthropocentrism, that they cannot even discuss, even for the sake of argument, the possibility of the existence of this phenomenon.

A good example is the "sleep paralysis" theory. Certain researchers are convinced that the existence of aliens piloting their UFOs down to your backyard, beaming into your house, taking you for a cosmic joy ride is explained this way:

"Sleep paralysis is a condition characterized by temporary paralysis of the body shortly after waking up (known as hypnopompic paralysis) or, less often, shortly before falling asleep...Sleep paralysis occurs during REM sleep, thus preventing the body from manifesting movements made in the subject's dreams. Very little is known about the physiology of sleep paralysis." - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis]

Harvard University's Susan Clancy, psychology researcher, is an expert in memory. She is one who rejects out of hand the explanation that alien-manned spacecraft are full of little Grey men who are taking humans from their beds and doing unspeakable things to them before returning them to their homes. Her approach was from her field of expertise, memory, and if the claims of abductions could be explained through the recovered memory movement. In other words, does hypnotic regression work? Her predictable results in the studies she conducted were, of course, that false memories are at work here and are combined with sleep paralysis.

What is hardly known and seldom publicized and never explained is:

Maybe 30% of abduction cases researched have been done without the use of hypnosis. This obliterates false memory planting through hypnosis.

Many abductions occur outside the bedroom and sometimes even outside the home. Those who have been abducted were driving or were somewhere in the house engaged in domestic activities when they were abducted. Many abductions occurred in groups of three or more individuals. This also obliterates the theory of sleep paralysis.

There are scores and scores of example of trace, physical, and, in one case, DNA evidence. One researcher, a surgeon, routinely removes "implants" from abductees. Some of the material removed defies analysis.

The issue of the bad use of hypnosis is a good one. Hypnosis cannot only be misused but has also been misused in the past. Poorly trained practitioners, those with questionable motives, can work to screw up the minds and emotions of patients. However, as one researcher points out, just because questionable motives by the questionable hypnosis therapist do exist, it does not mean they have to exist. In other words, just because things can go bad using hypnosis clinically doesn't necessarily mean they have to. There should not be a blanket assumption that because a competent clinician uses hypnosis correctly and produced an alien abduction story out of the patient, that the therapist "led" the patient or made "hypnotic suggestions" to the one alleging an abduction.

And, it is from the use of hypnosis, in some cases done well and in others done badly, which has produced about 70% of what exists in the literature of alien abductions.

Budd Hopkins has invited several leading psychology experts to observe his hypnotic sessions with patients claiming alien abductions. Theoretical psychologists from Cambridge and Oxford Universities, the director of research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and professor of psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, sat in on Hopkin's sessions.

"None of these visitors ... have reported anything that suggested I was attempting to lead the subjects." (Hopkins, 238-239)

SOURCES:

Missing Time, Ballantine Books (1988) - Budd Hopkins

The THREAT: Revealing the Secret Alien Agenda, Simon & Schuster (1999) - David M. Jacobs, Ph.D

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6583/abduct015.html

http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/09.22/11-alien.html

http://www.rense.com/general63/bfd.htm