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Is alien abduction real—or a creation of Hollywood?

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:35 am
by Believer
Beam Me Up, Godly Being
Is alien abduction real—or a creation of Hollywood?

By Karen Olsson
Posted Monday, Oct. 31, 2005, at 2:07 PM ET

Image Image

A few years ago, Harvard University could claim not one but two sets of researchers studying, of all things, alien abduction. Naturally—this being academia—a sharp divide separated the two camps. As chronicled by the New York Times Magazine and Psychology Today, members of the psychology department alleged that people's memories of extraterrestrial transport and unsavory probing could be explained by normal science—i.e., that controlled experiments were able to come up with a list of terrestrial factors that added up to an "abduction experience." Over at Harvard Medical School, meanwhile, maverick psychiatrist John Mack had interviewed abductees and concluded that their experiences belonged to a mystical realm that science couldn't explain. Abductees' stories had convinced him that a "universal intelligence" resides in the cosmos, as he wrote in his 1994 best seller Abduction. The dispute at Harvard was a reflection, however baroque, of a long-standing divide within psychology, one dating back at least to the days of another Harvard professor interested in the supernatural, William James. On the one side you had the experimentalists who designed tests to support their claims about mind and memory; on the other, a clinical researcher primarily interested in interpreting subjects' narratives rather than the results of lab experiments.

It seems the aliens have since left the campus: Mack died last year, while Susan Clancy, the psychology department researcher who originally interviewed and tested abductees, accepted a fellowship in Nicaragua. Now, though, Clancy has published a short, popular account of her research, Abducted: How People Come To Believe They Were Kidnapped By Aliens. The funny thing about Clancy's book is that it begins by trumpeting the virtues of science over superstition but ends up veering into Mack territory. Not that she thinks her subjects were truly nabbed by diminutive intergalactic sex researchers—far from it. But in trying to make sense of their experiences, she ultimately relies on their personal narratives more than on the results of her laboratory tests, and she credits those narratives as meaningful, even if not literally true. Finally, she wants to say something general about the nature of belief. Abduction memories reflect peoples' desire to find the purpose of life: "Being abducted may be a baptism in the new religion of this millennium." E.T., meet Rick Warren.

Is there any consensus about the psychology of alien abduction? Prior research has yielded a few insights, some of which are hardly surprising: People who believe they've been abducted tend to be fantasy-prone and eccentric, for one. On the other hand, they don't tend to be crazy. Most abductees are regular Joes, with decent jobs; though they have varying levels of education, they are predominantly white and middle class. In addition to an appetite for fantasy, researchers have identified several mental phenomena that often accompany a person's belief that she's been abducted: One is sleep paralysis, a relatively common experience during which the brain and the body desynchronize briefly before waking up. The body remains paralyzed (as it is during REM sleep) while the mind enters a state between sleeping and waking, in which some people hallucinate. The theory goes that a subset of the hallucinators, primed by popular culture to believe in visits from otherworldly kidnappers, interpret their experiences as abductions.

The second contributing factor is the mind's capacity to create false memories, particularly under hypnosis—which is how many abduction "memories" have been retrieved. In fact, it was the study of false memory and trauma that led Clancy to the aliens. She started graduate school in the mid-'90s, as psychologists were duking it out over the validity of "recovered" memories, and signed on to assist two professors with a study of sexual-abuse victims. The professors gave subjects lists of words to memorize—"sugar," "candy," "sour," "bitter"—that were all related to another word, "sweet," that was not on the list. People who had allegedly recovered memories of sexual abuse while in therapy, it turned out, were more likely than a control group to remember "sweet" as having been on the list—that is, to produce false memories in the lab.

Of course, this did nothing to prove whether the women's abuse memories were themselves false, and Clancy and her colleagues were roundly attacked by victims' advocates and other scientists. So, the researchers went looking for another set of subjects—people whose memories were assumed by most people to be false—and they wound up with alien abductees. Again, their work revealed that abductees were also more likely to misremember words than a control group. Alas, they were attacked on the same grounds: How dare you question the veracity of other people's firsthand experiences?

It's impossible to disprove these experiences. But what's interesting is how many seem to have been largely shaped by popular culture. Speculation about extraterrestrial beings is ancient, but "alien abduction" as we know it originated in the 1960s, after a New Hampshire couple named Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have been kidnapped by extraterrestrials. Betty was a fan of movies like Invaders From Mars. Her story inspired a best-selling book, a TV movie, and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Many more people began to report abductions, which in turn led to more books and movies, which led to more people claiming to have been abducted—in a sense, it was Hollywood that had abducted them.

In a chapter of The Varieties of Religious Experience called "The Reality of the Unseen," William James attested to the existence of a "sense of reality" distinct from the other senses, in which "the person affected will feel a 'presence' in the room, definitely localized, facing in one particular way, real in the most emphatic sense of the word, often coming suddenly, and as suddenly gone; and yet neither seen, heard, touched, nor cognized in any of the usual 'sensible' ways." As evidence, James produces several firsthand accounts from people who were visited by "presences" late at night. These have a familiar ring: They sound just like stories from alien abductees, minus the aliens. Objects of belief, James says, may be "quasi-sensible realities directly apprehended."

Clancy doesn't quite grant reality status to aliens, but on the other hand, Abducted devotes much more space to abductees' stories than to her lab results. That's probably at least in part because the stories—both those that the abductees tell and the ones she tells about her research—are much more entertaining than research protocols; this is a book aimed at a general audience. But it's also because narrative is a better vehicle for understanding why people believe what they do than a set of lab results is. When it comes to the ambitious project of explaining the why and wherefore of "weird beliefs," Clancy's book doesn't tell us too much more than James did: People believe in this stuff because it seems real to them, more real than any reasoning about sleep paralysis or the unreliability of memories produced during hypnosis.

But Clancy goes on to assert, muddily, that people conjure up aliens to satisfy religious desires (unlike James, who did not grant religion status to perception of "presences"). People's imagined contacts with aliens, she speculates, arise from "ordinary emotional needs and desires. ... We want to believe there's something bigger and better than us out there. And we want to believe that whatever it is cares about us, or at least is paying attention to us. ... Being abducted by aliens is a culturally shaped manifestation of a universal human need." To conclude that alien abduction is a religious experience seems a stretch. (Admittedly, I have not yet been contacted.) And it also seems a cop-out, since Clancy is not religious and didn't study the religious tendencies of her subjects. Instead, her research hints at—but does not ultimately tell us much about—the way in which pop culture permeates even our subconscious minds. However you want to categorize alien abduction, the fact that pop culture schlock fills our dreams may be the eeriest part of all.

Karen Olsson lives in Austin, Texas. Her novel Waterloo has just been published.

Illustration by Mark Alan Stamaty.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2129111/

RE:

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:45 am
by Ark~Magic
Personally, I think alot of UFO experiences are faked or a result of demonic possession. Many involved in the UFO experience have or are involved in the occult and often times these religions come to lead people away from God. The message is always anti-christian. But then again, there's been alot of propaganda thrown in like I've seen websites explaining how the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill was fake, and if I recall it was admitted to be a hoax.

Try this book called "Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at Ufos and Extraterrestrials" by Hugh Ross, Kenneth R. Samples, Mark Clark

And claims about finding fragments of metal in people which are actually pieces of untensils stuck in their body from past surgeries and there was even one instance when a woman believed she had an abduction during an aftereffect from anaethesia (it was the chemical's fault, plus the fragment thing)

Alien abduction

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 7:53 am
by Jbuza
I think it is real enough. We struggle with powers, and this world is under the influence of Lucifer. I don't find any teaching that says Satan is sitting waiting fo rthe last day. I can assure you, Thinker, that he is preparing himself and his fellows for the last days.

The Bible clearly states that in the last days those who know and trust Jesus as their Saviour will be caught up in the clouds, there will be a rapture, a glorious resurrection.

It seems to me that Satan is preparing the lie he will tell to explain where all the people went. As you say it is being studied and some beleive it, so what better thing could he tell the world than Aliens have abducted all the missing people. It will go to proove evolution and convince man that he is the gods of the earth, and prepare him to worship antichrist as god.

So while I don't beleive in aliens, I think the world will see an alien abduction someday.

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:06 pm
by SpaceCase
I definitely agree that anything that leads people astray is most likely the work of the devil, so I group alien abduction in with paranormal things like ghosts and spirit guides.

We believe the human mind is so complex, but we have proven, as the first article said, that hypnosis can create false memories. Well if we can do it, I'm sure demons can too (create false memories). Do any abductees have memories that were not recovered through hypnosis?

Ark said, many abductees are involved in the occult, but more interesting would be that none of them are Christian.

The Anti-Christ may use ET's in his deception, but he isn't going to have to explain a mass disappearance. Why would The Bible tell us to keep watch for him if we weren't going to be here? Many Christians will die for their faith, but many will be deceived and take the mark... we are in the last days... be prepared.

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:16 am
by norman619
SpaceCase wrote: .... Stuff Deleted....


Ark said, many abductees are involved in the occult, but more interesting would be that none of them are Christian.

The Anti-Christ may use ET's in his deception, but he isn't going to have to explain a mass disappearance. Why would The Bible tell us to keep watch for him if we weren't going to be here? Many Christians will die for their faith, but many will be deceived and take the mark... we are in the last days... be prepared.
This is a very simplistic view of the world in my opinion. And by world I mean the universe as a whole. The guy who wrote the first article is full of BS. The line that none of them are christian is 100% lie. If you bother to do your own research you fill find the answers to your own questions. Don't rely on someone that seems to have an agenda to push. And don't just believe them because they happen to have your own beliefs. There are quite a few "abductees" who have spontaneous recollection of being abducted. Hypnosis is HIGHLY questionable and should not be trusted. These people usually go to a hypnosis expert with a preconceived idea of what they will uncover. And it's very easy to guide the person under hypnosis to memories the hypnotist expects them to uncover as well.

Now how does the belief that you are being abducted by aliens "lead you astray?" The belief in intelligent life other than our own is not wholly incompatible with the Christian at all. Now it does bring up some uncomfortable questions for some people but it should not equate to "it's of the devil" just because it makes you uncomfortable. The universe is so emmence that it is beyond our ability to truly comprehend. To believe in this emmence world/universe of our that we are the only sentient biological beings that inhabit it is a product of human arrogance and ego.

Now having said all this I am unsure either way about the whole abduction phenomena. A friend and I both have a 24hr period of missing time. His father can testify that we were gone for that time. As far as he and I know we went to sleep one day and woke up 2 days later unaware anything odd happened. To this day we haven't a clue as to what happened and where we were. The UFO believers we know tell us we were abducted by aliens and should do hypnosis. A small handful of the religious folks we know share your opinion that we were under attack by the devil or demons. We remain unsure what happened and do not jump to crazy conclusions w/o any real evidence. Were we abducted? Haven't a clue. Were we physically missing? Yes. People tend to explain the unexplainable in terms of their own personal beliefs. It would be nice if people were more comfortable with being honest and admitting "I don't know." Just my 2 cents. :-)

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 10:46 am
by SpaceCase
If you will recall, my statement about hypnosis was a question...
I would love to see some testimony from so-called abductees who have not been under hypnosis.
Post some links...

As far as 'none of them are christian'... I haven't heard of a Christian abductee...
If you have, please share...

I've looked at your other posts, so I understand that you are sitting on the fence with a lot of issues, I know, I've been there, but just because you haven't made up your mind, doesn't change the truth. Just because you don't want to believe in GOD or the devil, does not mean they are not fighting for your soul.

There is a lot of good info on this website, I hope you will be able to find some answers here.

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 1:00 pm
by norman619
I'm at work right now so can't do the digging for the christian abduction reports but I personally wouldn't trust any modern (post 1970) reports. Simply because it was around this time that the whole "abduction" thing started to take off. Anyone in the modern western world knows the basics of an alien abduction report. It's become part of pop culture. So it's far too easy for someone to fabricate one. I would look for reports from people dated before alien abduction became well known.
Another example is cattle mutilations. Well known but there is a something most people are not aware of about this. The very same has been done to people. Not very well known which makes it interesting. No one trying to gain notoriety or simply wants to see their actions make the evening news. It's pretty gruesome and disturbing. When I get home tonight I will post some links for you.
SpaceCase wrote:If you will recall, my statement about hypnosis was a question...
I would love to see some testimony from so-called abductees who have not been under hypnosis.
Post some links...

As far as 'none of them are christian'... I haven't heard of a Christian abductee...
If you have, please share...

I've looked at your other posts, so I understand that you are sitting on the fence with a lot of issues, I know, I've been there, but just because you haven't made up your mind, doesn't change the truth. Just because you don't want to believe in GOD or the devil, does not mean they are not fighting for your soul.

There is a lot of good info on this website, I hope you will be able to find some answers here.