Off; Roswell Fest 96

[Paul Mather]

On Wed, 10 Jul 1996, M Holmes wrote:

> >   There were also alot of people who claim to have been abducted by aliens.
>
> There are a lot of people who claim to have been visited by
> Jesus/fairies/Men in Black and Noggin The Nog.

There was even a man who mistook his wife for a hat. :-)

> > I need to see hard facts and findings recarding abductions.
>
> Don't wait up.

There was a very interesting Nova (a.k.a. Horizon(?)) documentary about
"UFO abductions."  The main thesis they put forward was that the
eyewitness testimony was likely the recounting of hypnogogic (sp?)
dreams---basically, very lucid dreams.  Couple with that the false
memories (unwittingly) implanted by many all-too-eager "UFO abduction
researchers" through leading questions when the subject is under hypnosis,
and you have a phenomenon which is, literally, all in the mind, so it
seems.

Experiments conducted showed that the thematic content of hypnogogic
dreaming could be affected by the subject's environment prior to the
episode.  In one experiment, they managed to get a subject to "see"
various archetypal icons such as the Earth, a cross, etc. just by subtly
altering the background music during the experiment.  They noted that
several prominent "UFO abductions" occurred in close proximity to, e.g. TV
broadcasts featuring aliens.  (One famous one took place around the
screening of an episode of The Outer Limits; apparently there were points
of similarity between the episode and the account.)

The apparent "detail" of many "eyewitness testimonies" says more for the
power of the human mind than anything else.  In one experiment, they set
out deliberately to implant a false memory in a woman under hypnosis.
They chose to implant the memory that she had become lost in a shopping
mall as a young child, and had been "rescued" by a kind old lady who took
her to the information desk and eventually reunited her with her mother.
None of this had actually happened to the woman, and it was amazing how
easily the hypnotist planted the false memory through leading questions.
What was more amazing was the rich detail which the woman created in her
own mind once the seed of the memory was planted.  (And that detail tended
towards the archetypal in many cases.)  The important point was that the
memory was entirely "real" for the woman, even though it never actually
happened; I'm sure she could have passed any number of lie detectors and
such.

The program also touched on the gullibility and willingness to believe of
many of the "UFO researchers," including a part in which that guy from
Harvard(?) (the one involved in the freedom of research flap) was duped by
a psychologist posing as an abductee, and who was "encouraged" by the
Harvard guy to ever more outlandish revelations under hypnosis, all of
which he seemed to lap up.

All in all, the documentary was very interesting; recommended viewing.

Cheers,

Paul.

obSong, Frank Zappa, "Inca Roads"

e-mail: paul at csgrad.cs.vt.edu                    A stranger in a strange land.