The CE4 Corner
The Cosmic Bridge, Close Encounters and Human Destiny
by Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist
Hypnotic Growth, Exploration and Healing for Mind, Body, Spirit and Beyond
Brooklyn Center, MN 763-257-7334 e-mail: craig@craigrlang.com
November/December, 2006: It can all be explained as...
©2006 by Craig R Lang, MS CHt
What is UFO abduction? I have begun many an article with this question. I believe it is one of the fundamental questions of UFO studies. Over the last few months, I have heard several people give me what they were certain was the answer to this question. Whenever I hear "the answer" from someone, my discernment filter kicks into high gear and these cases were no exception. Thus, in this month's The CE4 Corner, let's examine some of these "certainties" and evaluate their validity.
Earthlights
One "certainty" that recently raised its head once
again was the "earthlights" theory.
I heard this theory again broached at the Area 61 UFO Convention, on
October 21, in
The Earthlights theory is supported with research by Michael Persinger, in which he has demonstrated psychological results in test subjects that are somewhat similar to those described by close encounter experiencers. From these results, the earthlights theory makes the leap that this can explain UFO abduction. In particular, one researcher, Albert Budden,[i] claims that electrical effects on the human brain result in the experience of the close encounter - and that this is the explanation for UFO abduction.
Does this explain some of the abduction phenomenon? I don't know, but perhaps it can help us to understand mechanisms by which the brain can undergo paralysis effects and perceive anomalous stimuli. Yet I doubt that it can account for anomalous surgical scars, the experience of lying on the examining table and the host of complex, deeply experiential phenomena that comprise abduction.
False Memory
The next "certainty" we will examine is our old friend the "False Memory" hypothesis.
A few days prior to writing this, I received an e-mail from a friend, calling my attention to an article in Skeptical Inquirer [http://www.csicop.org/si/2006-05/si.html]. In it, the author wrote:
...Another
area of importance was the critical evaluation of the use of hypnosis by UFO
investigators, who believed they were uncovering repressed memories that
depicted alleged abductions. John Mack, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard,
used hypnosis to probe the unconscious minds of certain troubled people who
thought they had been abducted aboard UFOs by extraterrestrials. There was a
similar pattern in such cases, he said, which was repeated time and time again
by his patients: a sense of lost time, flashing lights, out-of-body
experiences, etc. Mack thought this provided strong evidence for the claim;
skeptics maintained that these evidences were not corroborated by independent
testimony. At one point, Carl Sagan wrote to us, urging CSICOP to undertake an
investigation of these claims, which by then were proliferating everywhere. We
invited John Mack to a CSICOP conference in
“The Amazing” Kreskin,
who used hypnosis in his act, appeared at one of CSICOP’s conferences
expressing doubt that hypnosis was a genuine “trance state” or a source of
truth—it seemed to work in suggestible patients because they followed the
bidding of the hypnotist. (Incidentally, many skeptics were highly critical of
Kreskin for suggesting that he possessed ESP.)
I used to subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer for many years. I dropped my subscription when they became too strident - almost religious in their proclamation that there is nothing paranormal, etc. CSICOP's view of UFO abduction appears closed to any possibility of it being real. They subscribe to the "False Memory" hypothesis - blindly, in my view, and state that the proliferation of UFO abduction reports is due to the propagation of the belief in alien encounters.
Could they be right? Could the whole UFO abduction experience be due to memories inadvertently implanted by well-meaning hypnotherapists, reinforced by "new age" cultural beliefs? We do have to grant that the human subconscious - accessible during hypnosis - is very suggestible. In addition, I have no doubt that at least some of the memories of the encounter experience are symbolic, or otherwise non-biographical. Yet what does this imply? To me it merely suggests we cannot treat the human mind as a tape recorder.
I have tested the "false memory" hypothesis with "false lead" types of questions, suggesting "swamp gas and weather balloons" explanations. I have found that experiencers fervently resist tugs in that direction. I have also found cases where what the person thought was an alien encounter was actually awareness during sleep paralysis (ASP), highway hypnosis, or simply mis-accounted-for time - i.e. nothing UFOlogical happened. Thus, claims that all UFO abduction narratives during hypnotic regression are the result of leading by the therapist are, in my view, invalid.
I do not believe that we can necessarily take everything described while in hypnotic state as objectively biographical. However, with clean regression techniques, meaningful material can result that truly gives one pause for reflection. On occasion, accounts from one abductee correlate with that from other abductees[ii]. This suggests that there is objective verifiability to at least some material emerging from hypnotic regression. I have also found cases where abduction accounts have correlated with physical evidence.[iii]
In my view, the most important factor is that material emerging during hypnosis is usually deeply meaningful to the experiencer. To me this is mostly what counts. I consider hypnosis to be a healing tool, at least as much as a tool for objective research. As my hypnotherapy instructor stated during my certification training, "Good research is good therapy." Today, I believe this more than ever.
While complex dynamics may be in play within the consciousness of the abductee, one thing we cannot do is invalidate either the experience or the experiencer. Whatever the close encounter experience may be, it does not appear simply to be implanted memories from the therapist.
Other Explanations
Once one accepts that some UFO abductions are unexplained, a host of additional possible "anomaly" theories emerges. The ones I have heard most often are:
- Religious views: That UFO abduction is either angelic or demonic: One group of Christian UFO enthusiasts at the last MUFON conference expressed this theory to me as a "certainty." They claimed that no one with sufficient religious faith would be abducted. I suspect that a lot of very-religious abductees would disagree.
- Nuts-and-bolts ET hypotheses: That "they" are alien beings from another star system, visiting Earth for reasons that only they know: This is probably the most common explanation/hypothesis within the UFO community. I suspect that it is, at least in part, accurate. Yet in other articles we have seen that the number of abductions is apparently very large. This would require a tremendous number of UFO flights to the earth, and a vast alien infrastructure to support them.
- The Jungian or paranormal view: That the entities behind the phenomenon are in some way metaphysical, having a nature that our current understanding of reality cannot fully explain. This hypothesis goes a long way towards addressing the paranormal nature of many UFO sightings and encounters. At least in part, I suspect that it is valid.
Which explanation...
Which (if any) of the explanations we have discussed in this article comes closest to explaining UFO abduction? I believe that none fully covers the truth, yet I suspect that each might account for at least some cases. I am skeptical of claims that any currently available explanation, either mundane or extraordinary, applies to all close encounters.
As I stated above, I do not know what the close encounter is. But I believe that it represents one of the greatest mysteries of our time, one in which we have only begun to scratch the surface of the truth. I believe that we do not even begin to understand the true nature of the phenomenon of UFO abduction.
