Have You Been Abducted?
There are numerous symptoms attributed to the phenomenon of alien abduction. They’re pretty much the same everywhere you look, but in the lists below from Melinda Leslie and Mark Williams of InChelsea.com, psychic Ellie Crystal, and other sources. I’ve pretty much divvied these up into four categories.
Honestly, how many times did you answer “yes” to one of these questions? What was the breakdown per category? What might account for your positive responses?
Category 1
(a) Have you ever had unexplainable missing or lost time of one hour or more?
(b) Have you ever seen balls of light or flashes of light in your home or other locations?
(c) Do you have a memory of flying through the air which could not be a dream, or many dreams involving flying?
(d) Do you have a strong "marker memory" that will not go away (i.e.: an alien face, an examination, a needle, a table, a strange skinny baby, etc.)?
(e) Do you have a secret feeling that you are "special" or "chosen," somehow?
(f) Do you have inexplicably strong fears or phobias. (i.e. heights, snakes, spiders, large insects, certain sounds, bright lights, your personal security or being alone)?
(g) Have you experienced self-esteem problem much of your life?
(h) Have you ever seen anyone with you become paralyzed, motionless, or frozen in time, especially someone you sleep with?
(i) Do you have a memory of a special place with spiritual significance, when you were a youngster?
(j) Have you felt suddenly compelled to drive or walk to an out of the way or unknown area?
(k) Have ever had the feeling of being watched much of the time, especially at night?
(l) Have you ever seen a strange fog or haze that should not be there?
(m) Have you ever heard strange humming or pulsing sounds, the source of which you could not identify?
(n) Have you seen a hooded figure in or near your home, especially next to your bed?
(o) Do you have an unusual fear of doctors, or tend to avoid medical treatment?
(p) Do you sometimes feel that you are going crazy for even thinking about these sorts of things?
(q) Do you have insomnia or sleep disorders which are puzzling to you?
(r) Do you have frequent or sporadic headaches, especially in the sinus, behind one eye, or in one ear?
(s) Are you prone to compulsive or addictive behavior?
(t) Have you ever channeled telepathic messages from extraterrestrials?
(u) Have you simply heard an external voice in your head, speaking to you, perhaps instructing or guiding you?
(v) Have you ever been afraid of your closet, now or as a child?
(w) Have you had sexual or relationship problems (such as an odd "feeling" that you must not become involved in a relationship because it would interfere with "something")?
(x) Do you feel that you must be very vigilant, or risk getting taken away by "someone"?
(y) Do you have a difficult time trusting other people, especially authority figures?
(z) Do you recall your children or parents speaking of similar experiences on occasion?
(aa) Have you tried to resolve these types of problems with little or no success?
(ab) Do you Have many of these traits but can't remember anything about an abduction or alien encounter?
Category 2
(a) Have you ever been paralyzed in bed with a being or presence in your room?
(b) Do you have unusual scars or marks, but don’t remember how you received them
(c) Have you ever had false pregnancy or spontaneous abortion?
(d) Have you ever left blood or strange stains on your sheet or pillow without any sign or memory of physical injury?
(e) Have you ever had unusual nose bleeds at any time in your life, especially upon waking?
(f) Have you awoken with inexplicable soreness in your genitals?
(g) Have you had back or neck problems (especially T-3 vertebrae), or awoken with an unusual stiffness in any part of the body?
(h) Do you suffer from chronic sinusitis or nasal problems?
(i) Have you experienced sporadic ringing in your ears, especially in one ear?
(j) Has your doctor ever discovered strange or foreign objects inside your body upon examination or x-ray?
Category 3
(a) Have you seen beams of light outside your home, or come into your room through a window?
(b) Have you had many dreams of UFOs, beams of light, or alien beings?
(c) Have you ever had psychic experiences - such as knowing that something is going to happen before it happens?
(d) Have you ever awoken in another place than where you went to sleep, or don't remember ever going to sleep?
(e) Have strong reaction to cover of Whitley Strieber's Communion, or pictures of aliens (either a strong aversion or attraction)?
(f) Do electronics around you go haywire, or oddly malfunction with no explanation?
Category 4
(a) Have you ever had a shocking UFO sighting or multiple sightings in your life?
(b) Do you posses a cosmic awareness, an interest in ecology, environment, vegetarianism, or profound social consciousness?
(c) Do you feel as though you have a strong sense of having a mission or important task to perform, sometime, without knowing where this compulsion is coming from?
(d) Have you experienced unexplainable events, and felt strangely anxious afterwards? (e) Have you ever dreamt of owl or deer eyes looking at you?
(f) Do you fear eyes?
(g) Have ever woken up, in the middle of the night, startled?
(h) Has anyone claimed to have seen a ship or alien near you, or declared that you’ve gone missing?
(i) Do you have an interest in the subject of UFO sightings or aliens?
(j) Do you have an extreme aversion towards the subject of UFO's or aliens?
(k) Do you have dreams of passing through a closed window or solid wall?
(l) Have had ever dreamt of doctors or medical procedures?
(m) Do you have a fear of sharp, metal instruments?
(n) Do you have close relatives who have military or civilian intelligence experience?
(o) Have you ever had paranormal or psychic experiences, including intuition?
(p) Do you have to sleep with your bed against a wall?
(q) Have you ever had dreams of destruction or catastrophe?
(r) Do you feel as though you should not talk about such things as aliens or ufos?
Honestly, how many times did you answer “yes” to one of these questions? What was the breakdown per category? What might account for your positive responses?
Category 1
(a) Have you ever had unexplainable missing or lost time of one hour or more?
(b) Have you ever seen balls of light or flashes of light in your home or other locations?
(c) Do you have a memory of flying through the air which could not be a dream, or many dreams involving flying?
(d) Do you have a strong "marker memory" that will not go away (i.e.: an alien face, an examination, a needle, a table, a strange skinny baby, etc.)?
(e) Do you have a secret feeling that you are "special" or "chosen," somehow?
(f) Do you have inexplicably strong fears or phobias. (i.e. heights, snakes, spiders, large insects, certain sounds, bright lights, your personal security or being alone)?
(g) Have you experienced self-esteem problem much of your life?
(h) Have you ever seen anyone with you become paralyzed, motionless, or frozen in time, especially someone you sleep with?
(i) Do you have a memory of a special place with spiritual significance, when you were a youngster?
(j) Have you felt suddenly compelled to drive or walk to an out of the way or unknown area?
(k) Have ever had the feeling of being watched much of the time, especially at night?
(l) Have you ever seen a strange fog or haze that should not be there?
(m) Have you ever heard strange humming or pulsing sounds, the source of which you could not identify?
(n) Have you seen a hooded figure in or near your home, especially next to your bed?
(o) Do you have an unusual fear of doctors, or tend to avoid medical treatment?
(p) Do you sometimes feel that you are going crazy for even thinking about these sorts of things?
(q) Do you have insomnia or sleep disorders which are puzzling to you?
(r) Do you have frequent or sporadic headaches, especially in the sinus, behind one eye, or in one ear?
(s) Are you prone to compulsive or addictive behavior?
(t) Have you ever channeled telepathic messages from extraterrestrials?
(u) Have you simply heard an external voice in your head, speaking to you, perhaps instructing or guiding you?
(v) Have you ever been afraid of your closet, now or as a child?
(w) Have you had sexual or relationship problems (such as an odd "feeling" that you must not become involved in a relationship because it would interfere with "something")?
(x) Do you feel that you must be very vigilant, or risk getting taken away by "someone"?
(y) Do you have a difficult time trusting other people, especially authority figures?
(z) Do you recall your children or parents speaking of similar experiences on occasion?
(aa) Have you tried to resolve these types of problems with little or no success?
(ab) Do you Have many of these traits but can't remember anything about an abduction or alien encounter?
Category 2
(a) Have you ever been paralyzed in bed with a being or presence in your room?
(b) Do you have unusual scars or marks, but don’t remember how you received them
(c) Have you ever had false pregnancy or spontaneous abortion?
(d) Have you ever left blood or strange stains on your sheet or pillow without any sign or memory of physical injury?
(e) Have you ever had unusual nose bleeds at any time in your life, especially upon waking?
(f) Have you awoken with inexplicable soreness in your genitals?
(g) Have you had back or neck problems (especially T-3 vertebrae), or awoken with an unusual stiffness in any part of the body?
(h) Do you suffer from chronic sinusitis or nasal problems?
(i) Have you experienced sporadic ringing in your ears, especially in one ear?
(j) Has your doctor ever discovered strange or foreign objects inside your body upon examination or x-ray?
Category 3
(a) Have you seen beams of light outside your home, or come into your room through a window?
(b) Have you had many dreams of UFOs, beams of light, or alien beings?
(c) Have you ever had psychic experiences - such as knowing that something is going to happen before it happens?
(d) Have you ever awoken in another place than where you went to sleep, or don't remember ever going to sleep?
(e) Have strong reaction to cover of Whitley Strieber's Communion, or pictures of aliens (either a strong aversion or attraction)?
(f) Do electronics around you go haywire, or oddly malfunction with no explanation?
Category 4
(a) Have you ever had a shocking UFO sighting or multiple sightings in your life?
(b) Do you posses a cosmic awareness, an interest in ecology, environment, vegetarianism, or profound social consciousness?
(c) Do you feel as though you have a strong sense of having a mission or important task to perform, sometime, without knowing where this compulsion is coming from?
(d) Have you experienced unexplainable events, and felt strangely anxious afterwards? (e) Have you ever dreamt of owl or deer eyes looking at you?
(f) Do you fear eyes?
(g) Have ever woken up, in the middle of the night, startled?
(h) Has anyone claimed to have seen a ship or alien near you, or declared that you’ve gone missing?
(i) Do you have an interest in the subject of UFO sightings or aliens?
(j) Do you have an extreme aversion towards the subject of UFO's or aliens?
(k) Do you have dreams of passing through a closed window or solid wall?
(l) Have had ever dreamt of doctors or medical procedures?
(m) Do you have a fear of sharp, metal instruments?
(n) Do you have close relatives who have military or civilian intelligence experience?
(o) Have you ever had paranormal or psychic experiences, including intuition?
(p) Do you have to sleep with your bed against a wall?
(q) Have you ever had dreams of destruction or catastrophe?
(r) Do you feel as though you should not talk about such things as aliens or ufos?
Labels: ufology



39 Comments:
At 1:40 PM,
boneman said…
well, too many yeses bring me to ask....
Have I been abducted? or am I an alien? or, do my sore balls mean I need more sex in my life?
Or none of the above?
At 3:01 PM,
Charles Gramlich said…
I've only had one of those symptoms and it's clear it was due to Sleep paralysis and nothing outre world.
I'd like to meet some folks who've had a bunch of these effects.
At 6:02 PM,
foam said…
uh oh ..
i've got a lot of yesses ..
but no .. i haven't been abducted by aliens ..
i think i'm just nuts ..
wait, i've got a lot of no's too ..
i'm just a well-balanced person ..
yeah .. that's it.
At 6:29 PM,
boneman said…
missing time? Most folks who drank as teens get that. Balls of light/flashes? if you are sensitive enough to see thm, yeah. Memory of flying through air? duh. I was a helicopter crewchief, and I was Airborne. strong fears/phobias? HA! I was Airborne. We jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, and one day, what the heck. My number might be up. Not to mention sharks. You know, some make fun of me about not going into swimming pools, but, I saw Thunderball. More sharks! I made less than four hundred take home dollars last year....what does that say about my self esteem? Special place? Yeah. Drainage tubes in Texas when I would go smoke the cigarettes i snitched out of Ma's purse. (shall we back up and see under low self esteem, again?) We learn to not tak the same path in that we took out when in a war zone. One gets used to openning up whole new routes without knowing where they lead. and, dang. I guess if I hadn't been so anti-Bush junior, I wouldn't feel 'watched' but, hey. You do what you gotta do. fog? Fog comes on little cat feet. Not all fog is specific to weather incidents. (see LA from the desert) humming noises? Yeah. I try to ignore them. It's called minear's disease. Army doctor said it was because I was to close to mortar/explosions on my left side. You want to see what 'fear' I have about 'doctors'? Start a dentists drill too close to me. Start it at enough distance to get away from me quickly as I react. Of course I'm going crazy. I live in a country that throws away food stuff by the tons EVERYDAY even though in Florida (?) a man was arrested and jailed for feeding a homeless person. In 2003, god have mercy on us, 25000 people died EVERY DAY of starvation! Not puzzled at all. Nightmares follow after me like I was their daddy. I like rising early and watching the Sun rise and anyway, best time to create is early in the day for me. Less garbage implanted in the head bone.
Ma had sinusitis her whole life. Hmmmm. Wonder where I got that gene, eh?
Now, here's where the man hits the road.
I am an alcoholic, I stopped dead in 1990 ('91? It was the day after Hollifield beat Brown) I quit hallucigens in the 80s, and I quit cigarettes in 2002.
When I qwas snitching those cigarettes and the Old Man's cigars? 1957. Yeah baby. I used to be a gullible, get hooked on whatever I did kind of guy, but, now? HA! Nothing.
OK, this IS too long. These descriptors are so generalized a LOT of people are ging to have had some experience with them
I would think two other things.
#1....Charles, that you don't makes me think you ARE an alien. Take us to your leader, guy.
And #2 X.Dell is trying to get out of a real post without just putting a video on. (that's what I do when I get .... too busy to post. Toss a video on.
Like today. HA!
A Sunrise and Sunset at the same time....
AND It's the same Sun, too.
Not a Sun from a different solar system.
(just joking, Charles)
At 7:05 PM,
X. Dell said…
Charles, as a real-life shrink, you'd probably have pegged sleep parlysis as the explanation of one of those sensations. The bedroom abduction scenario is one of the most prevalent when reporting alien contact. I'd be curious to know how closely your experiene jibes with others who firmly believe that they've been taken aboard a spacecraft with ET.
Foam, I think many people would have far more yesses than nos, here. Question is, what does that mean? That we've all been abducted by aliens? You'd think they'd have something better to do.
Yup, Boneman, you pegged me. I'm puttering around a bit before the start of the next series. But I wanted to get back into cyberspace. And this is a bit more interactive than a video, don't you think?
I put this list up, and categorized it, for specific purposes, mainly to illustrate what you have depicted in some detail. You do have a few yes answers to these questions, yet it doesn't seem to have occurrred to you (or Charles) to attribute these to alien abduction.
Many abduction claimants have these and other symptoms that truly are strange, and don't have an opinion about them until they see questionaires like this one. They then slowly gravitate towards an ET explanation.
At 7:06 PM,
X. Dell said…
BTW, Charles, you have come across someone who's had most of these effects: namely, me.
At 10:24 PM,
Devin said…
Fascinating Xdell-of that list I spotted two right off the bat -the self-esteem problems and the awful probs I have with insomnia -however I do not think I have been abducted -I do find these stories interesting to say the least and think there is a core of people who at least "in their hearts and minds" believe this has happened to them whatever the actual reality of the phenomenon is -perhaps it is a great many things that are categorized as one?? I will try to come back to this list tomorrow if i am not at Drs all day-hehe not psychologist-although I do have one whose only function seems to be to prescribe me meds-best as always!!
At 11:47 PM,
Aggie said…
Very few yes answers here and no I don't hink I've ever been abducted by aliens. Although, personally, I put some males in that category!
At 12:01 AM,
Libby said…
x...when i was about 5 i used to get nosebleeds all the time...but i "grew out of that"...and then i got headaches & sinus problems...but, as far as i know, i was never abducted...
At 5:33 AM,
Sridhar said…
Cat 1
(e) Do you have a secret feeling that you are "special" or "chosen," somehow?
Yes
(g) Have you experienced self-esteem problem much of your life?
Yes
(i) Do you have a memory of a special place with spiritual significance, when you were a youngster?
What do you mean by "spirit"ual? :)
(j) Have you felt suddenly compelled to drive or walk to an out of the way or unknown area?
Yes
(y) Do you have a difficult time trusting other people, especially authority figures?
Authority figures
Cat 4
(c) Do you feel as though you have a strong sense of having a mission or important task to perform, sometime, without knowing where this compulsion is coming from?
Yes
(g) Have ever woken up, in the middle of the night, startled?
Yes
(i) Do you have an interest in the subject of UFO sightings or aliens?
Yes (but mostly to disprove/pooh-pooh them)
"No" to the rest.
At 12:28 PM,
boneman said…
yeah, I didn't see the other category...the question:
Do you give TMI sometimes?
yes...
but, like some have told me, that's boneman for ya
d=))
At 5:15 PM,
Crushed said…
I was intrigued by category One.
I answered yes to many, but don't actually know why.
I'm intrigued. Because I've NOT been abuducted by Aliens.
Does this mean I'm mad?
At 11:54 PM,
yinyang said…
I didn't bother to count, but I mostly answered yes in Category 1.
"What might account for your positive responses?"
The fact that the questions are broad-ranging. It's like horoscopes, really - a list of things that could apply to anyone.
Generally, I would think that the only people who believe in alien abductions are people who are already predisposed to believe in such things. And I'm biased to not believe in abductions, of course, because I don't know that there even are aliens. But, if there's anyone who could make a believer out of me, it's probably you, X. :)
At 12:59 AM,
JohnB said…
Some of these, yes...mostly to do with mental experience (or delusion) as well as environmental "strangeness"...but it is usually accompanied by fatigue or drinking, ha ha. oh, and I mean alcohol!
At 1:34 PM,
benjibopper said…
mostly no's here. but i do like a good alien abduction novel.
At 2:43 PM,
dr.alistair said…
so many of us have a variety of the experiences from both lists, but to ascribe reasons for such things is difficult.
science wishes to be able to claim all of human experience as that of the physical and rational and that is where scisnce falls down for me.
it is sciences opinion that certain types of experience can be called sleep paralysis, yet they like to call thier opinion theory...which has more cultural currency...and also kills debate.
i call that censorship, or more strongly, thought control.
much of history contains stories full of characters who would give many yesses from the lists you provide, and many scisntists have found yesses too.
john mack for instance.
so, thankfully, the debate continues.
and i`ve had more than one experience that would fit on the list.
a paralysis experience that included a vision of a bright light pressing my forehead and pinning me to the bed, which i surrendered to and went to sleep...or unconsciousness.
a "dream" as a child wherein i was terrified by an owl that stared in at me through the dining room window.
a "dream" wherin i flew on a carpet over my father`s head and out the bathroom window and into the laneway between the houses that was so vivid that i could see the brickwork and the detail of the outside drainpipe down the side of our house, that the next day when i looked up i could see where i had seen that it was coming away from the wall, which as difficult to see from the ground.
and sometimes i`m full-blown clairvoyant, psychic and i always feel that i`m on a mission, and that i feel special and gifted and that i`ve suffered esteem issues all my life.
and the scientist will reject these experiences as unmeasureable, reported subjectively, and that they are generalisations made by a layperson.
so thier industry of opinion is virtually safe from criticism and challenge.
At 8:22 PM,
X. Dell said…
Well, seeing that we're all out here on th wild, wild web, we're all guilty of giving out too much information, Boneman.
Crushed, it might mean anything. And because it can mean anything, it doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot. If you notice, some of the questions are contradictory, meaning that you would have to answer yes to at least one of them.
Yinyang, it's a bit more complicated than predisposition. One of the most inteesting studies ("Conclusions on Nine Psychologicals," by Dr. Elizabeth Slater) found:
"While this is a heterogeneous group [abductee claimants] in terms of overt personality style, it can be said that most of its members share being rather unusual and very interesting. They also share brighter than average intelligence and a certain richness of inner life that can operate favorably in terms of creativity or disadvantageously to the extent that it can be overwhelming. Shared underlying emotional factors include a degree of identity disturbance, some deficits in the interpersonal sphere, and generally mild paranoia phenomena (hypersensitivity, wariness, etc.)."
Pathology in abductee claimants runs at about the same rate as everyone else, according to this and subsequent studies (even dissenting ones, such as Dr. Clancy's of Harvard, don't list pathology as the cause of the bulk of abductee reports).
The disposition isn't really one in which people are more prone to beleive they were kidnapped by aliens specifically, in other words. But they would be more likely to conceive or envision it as a possible explanation.
BTW, I don't believe that little gray people are abducting Earthlings. I do, however, believe that something significant is happening. As another researcher who's studied the phenomenon (Dr. Rima Laibow) has said, the alien abduction scenario is simply the most facile explanation that covers all of the symptoms, and evidence. Of course, the simplest explanation is often wrong.
JohnB, alcohol, in excess, legendarily produces psychotic episodes--altered states that mimic the symptoms of psychotic ailments, but are exremely temporary, and due to some physical agent. As such, you're corect in bringing this point up as a reason for why someone might answer "yes."
Benjibopper, I have only read Whitley Strieber's Communion and The Secret School. I consider those fiction mostly, but their style reads better as non-fiction. Hence their appeal.
Alistair, by now I think I have a handle on what you think about science. In many ways, I've shared the belief that we err epistemologically when we assume science to be the supreme knowledge, and chuck all other knowledges to the curb. But as you have mentioned, and as I have written in my previos series on alien bduction, scientists actually don't agree on the cause of alien abduction. And even John Mack left open the possibility that other psychological influences might better explain the phenomenon, and he duly explored them. Furthermore, my belief is that if a phenomenon is persistent and present, science should be able to at least address the issue to some degree.
At 10:11 AM,
dr.alistair said…
of course. reasonable people are reasonable......but......there is undoubtably something vast and inscrutable occuring within the consciousness of all of us that is poorly addressed by the scientific and religious.
and neuro-chemistry is a joker that plays with scientists and abductees alike.
At 2:51 PM,
Middle Ditch said…
I'm having to say no to all of the categories, apart from being really scared of the dentist but that stems from her (the dentist) hitting a nerve during a drilling session in childhood, terrified ever since.
I think that I have seen an ufo though in the seventies. It stood still in the sky and then it would zig zag left and right and up and down. Definitely not a helicopter and definitely not a plane. It was high, red and cigar shaped as I recall. And, of course, I was alone.
At 8:44 PM,
Sam said…
Far too many yes answers for me, I think I need more pills, or maybe less...
At 8:56 PM,
dr.alistair said…
and i meant to say that ufos are unreasonable. they cannot get here from there etc....and so a reasonable person will reject the idea, regardless of the body of reports.
At 10:18 PM,
Mayden' s Voyage said…
Since I was young I have thought other life forms existed in outer space, and they have visited us. We are curious creatures- and I would guess the same about other life forms. However, I'm certain I haven't been abducted, but that's not to say I didn't wish for such an experience when I was a kid. Obvously I thought the aliens would be nice...
There are stories from many cultures which date back thousands of years where people awake in a paralized state and are sure a witch, or a demon, or a cruel fairy, or a mythical figure of their heritage is in the room with them. Aliens, in my opinion, are just the latest group to be blamed for what's simply a distortion in a sleep pattern (or something along those lines.)
With all the documented people in the US, vs the countless others in parts of the world where people are born and die with barely a name and no other record of their existence- why would aliens bother with people who might end up on the news? Of course, if they are only picking up people in 3rd world countries...we'd never know about it- would we?
Just a rambling thought :)
(BTW- I'm curious as to what a good definition of "unreasonable" would be. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23103146-2,00.html
There are many things in nature we didn't think were possible, or might find unreasonable- platypus is a good example. How about breaking the sound barrier and beyond? Less than 100 years ago it took months to cross the Atlantic, now it takes hours. I can talk to you in DC and Lux overseas just by pushing a few buttons on a phone or a computer. I'm constantly amazed by what technology and medicine allows us to do that couldn't be done just 50 years ago. )
At 8:07 AM,
dr.alistair said…
mayden, a definition of unreasonable could be that which one couldn`t discuss rationally.
it makes no reasonable sense to speak of experiences that would make a scientist guffaw, and to persist looking for validation from such types causes distress.....yet those of us who have had,let`s say, "alternate" views of reality.....would like to have some form of context within which to cope.
i run a fine line between the world of science and that of the twilight zone.
in my work i deal in the precision and disciplines of psychotherapy, yet i am aware of the other side of myself and that of my clients and that of those who drive the highways and walk the malls.
many of us have had experiences that fit the lists and others that don`t, and so dicussions such as this provide a perspective that is unavailable most other places.
At 12:19 PM,
Mayden' s Voyage said…
To be clear Alistair~ your use of the the term "unreasonable" is mostly being applied to a specific kind of person, and not the topic?
You wrote "UFO's are unreasonable"- but only in the context of speaking to someone who doesn't believe in them- correct?
I agree we need more places/forums to discuss such events where people can freely talk about their own experiences. Obviously what is "unreasonable" to some is clearly "reasonable" to others and I think I understand the distinction you were making between groups of people.
At 8:27 PM,
dr.alistair said…
mayden, we live in the age of reason....therefore the unreasonable couldn`t exist.....
to be clear, i`m talking about the tunnel reality created by talking in reasonable terms. this is a semantic game that we all subscribe to by default, until we challenge the meaning of things and discover that we can seek validation for the cigar-shaped disk we saw as a child, or the thing we thought we saw out of the corner of our eye one night before sleep.
are we then being unreasonable?
by the game rules of reasonable thought and material reality.....yes.
but the fact still remains that our nervous sysyem reported these experiences to us, no matter what a scientist says after the fact (uness we begin to doubt ourselves....but that`s another story.)
At 12:49 AM,
X. Dell said…
Clucks tongue. I leave cyberspace for a few days to travel back to Washington, and I find a lively discussion on the board. Oh the things I miss, here.
Monique, that's an interesting comment. I know a bit about UFOs in Britain, especially between the 1950s and 1970s, but little about their appearance in Europe until the 1980s. Did you see this in the Netherlands, or in England?
Sam, I understand the too many pills thing. I wish I had that explanation. Without it, I'm leaning more towards seeing myself as psychotic:-)
At 1:09 AM,
X. Dell said…
Mayden, Alistair, very interesting discussion.
Mayden, what I hear from Alistair is criticism of logocentrism, the belief that everything has a rational explanation that can be quatified by some measure, and described by language. When items appear that defy rational explanation, in the narrow sense afforded by the university, then those who are academics (or reasonable) might struggle to understand the cause. If they decide they don't want to struggle, they can always dismiss the topic as nonsense.
Alistair, what I hear from Mayden is that the term "reasonable" (or the opposite, "unreasonable") might not really apply to this discussion. The belief that institutions cannot understand anomalous events doesn't necessarily hold true, especially given our history (to this point, I could add numerous examples where conventional wisdom could not accept many outre facts, but embraed them eventually).
As for me, it helps me understand the question of extraterrestrial better when someone like Dr. Michio Kaku can explain the difficulty a civilization would go through to travel trillions of miles to get to the Earth. And as I said earlier, experts aren't of the same mind. Note how Dr. Jack Kasher (University of Nebraska) went through every mathematical model he could to prove that the sights seen in STS mission tape 48 could not have been made by anything other than intelligently controlled craft, for example. Also note that such people as NASA's Dr. J. Allen Hynek were convinced that UFOs didn't exist, and set out to prove that they didn't, only to change their mind because of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Basically, it's what Thomas Kuhn described as the mechanism by which scientific thought changes. Nowadays, we call them paradigm shifts. Any time we have a breakthrough in our understanding, or in our technology, it's due to the type of paradigm shift Mayden alludes to in her remarks.
At 5:42 AM,
Sridhar said…
Conventional wisdom says conventional wisdom is wrong.
At 5:43 AM,
Sridhar said…
I think and I can bet that you are going to take us through an alternative alternative explanation.
So who would want us to assume there are alien abductions and why?
At 6:55 AM,
X. Dell said…
Sridhar, I just dropped in to see what convention my convention is in.
BTW, that's the $64 question, isn't it.
At 11:48 AM,
dr.alistair said…
x, thanks for clarification of our positions in this matter.
"sigh"
if our reality is in our heads (consciousness) then so are our experiences...so the aliens wouldn`t have to travel too far at all.
the type of science i delve into, that of consciousness, allows for this type of thinking....at least to run theoretical models... to see if there is some validity in this.
and then the only instrument we need to make measurements with is the self.
we make our own mind up.
At 12:06 AM,
Ricardo said…
No but if so, I would want to be abducted and molested by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. You know what? Apply that to everything in this post. And you know the real kicker? I will not complain!!
At 6:34 AM,
Middle Ditch said…
In the Netherlands X. It must have been the mid seventies. Nobody believed me of course.
I do satellite watching in the summer. On a clear night you can see them zoom by.
At 9:57 AM,
Mayden' s Voyage said…
I want to go where Middle Ditch is going in the summer! :)
Thank you X- you did bring clarity to the previous discussion and I think the term "paradigm shift" will be the word/phrase of the week for me and the kids! :)
At 3:05 PM,
X. Dell said…
Ricardo, I dunno if I agree. After all, were I abducted by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, I'd probably want to remember it.
Monique, that's fascinating. I do a bit of sattelite watching myself. The graceful speed at which they move across the sky is actually pretty, especially if you have a starfield in the background.
Mayden and Alistair, that was one of the better discussions we've had here in awhile, and I appreciated that the two of you expressed some rather heady views thoughtfully and civilly. I'm still mulling over your comments, for you both gave me something to think about.
At 3:22 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi, I believe Ive been abducted on and off since I was a child. I recal one of my first. As I floated thru the hallway. I was real young then. I have had many experiences, I have an unexplained bump in the right side of my head just close to my ear. I have memories of being in rooms with others were interesting creatures were standing around the room watching us. I have recall plenty of times were, Ive been parallized with a creature or creatures standing next to my bed. Alot of these things stoped after my son was born. Which puzzles me. Is he next? He has never mentioned anything. So I hope not. I find my self very much intrigued by UFO and creatures that are just out of these world. I find my self feeling that I am being watched and maybe even being looked after. They are almost the same, but one is better then other. I have had thouths that someone has told me something yett no one is around. I just thouth I as going nutz. Maybe. I am a 32 year old male, self employeed and have hardly any fears. Ive been bitten by black widow 3 different times. I think I have anti venom in my blood now. I am not actually afraid of being abducted, I would just like to know if it really is real. I can recall many many times. Some of my family members have same or close to same recollections. Few of us even seen some crazy flying lights aka UFO's. Even my grandma tells me her experiences, which are really close to my and that without me even sharing with her at all. My nephue and actually possibly my other nephue. I recently have woke up at night, with a highly strange feeling. Unexplainable. I noticed a little bump on my upper left back. Its not a mold, nor a pimple. Its just a bump that has not been there before. Seemed like it just came out of no were. I CANT recall that it would have appeared after my recent unexplainable awakening thou. Its just there just like the bump on my head. These bumps are really small. I went to a doctor, and I really dont like doctors. He told me its nothing, but he never really looked at it either.
I do believe I have seen many different species. From small grays to tall and taller. Also tiny green's, and human look alikes yett you can tell they werent human.
I am just glad and hope that they do look out for me and possibly my family. As long as its for the better. I have never really shared before, especially not online.
I might seek hypnotherapy one day just to double check if I am just imagining or if its really real.
At 12:33 PM,
X. Dell said…
Anonymous, welcome to The X-Spot. Thank you for your comment.
You say that you have memories that seem very real, but later on in your comment you cast some doubt on the reality of what you recall. You also worry about "going nutz" and mention that other family members might have undergone a similar experience.
First off, I would invite you to consider other potential explanations for your memories other than "nutz" or "actuality." I would consider the more mundane possibilities first (e.g. false memory, hypnopompic imagery, sleep paralysis). If you don't like any of those explanations, you might want to check in with a psychologist or therapist to see if there are issues or history of schizophrenia in your family. If not, then a real shrink would be your best (most responsible) hope for hypnotic regression.
As you can probably tell, I don't have much faith in the alien abduction hypothesis. But if you actually have been, a psychiatrist would probably be the best validator of the experience. If you click on the Alien Abduction series link (on the sidebar), then you can read about psychiatrists who don't automatically dismiss the possibility of ET abduction.
At 9:04 PM,
Anonymous said…
Well, I have more than 50% yesses on the questions. But very oddly, I can never recall seeing an actual UFO (one I would stake my life that it actaully was one), nor any memories of an actual alien encounter. I have had several very odd experiences in my youth and early adult-hood that sound like abduction (flashes of light coming in through the bedroom window, bizarre dreams, electornics malfunctioning, like TVs turning on or street lights going out one-by-one as I go past them, electronics going on or off by themselves in my room at night, waking up with a nose bleed, and so on. This, coupled with events that deeply confuse me make me want to know what is going on. It has been suggested to me by people who know me to check into the possibilty, but the only thing I know if would be hypnosis and I fear the common belief this could put a false memory in there. So, do I chalk it all up as coincidence or run the risk of having some jerk put a fictitious memory in my head that could fuck up my life?
At 9:47 PM,
X. Dell said…
Welcome to The X-Spot, Anonymous. Thanks for your comment.
The problem with these questions is that they can be explaned by many things other than alien abduction (see Boneman's second comment). Hypnosis is problematic in that it isn't the panacea that the public thought it once was, and implanting "false memories" wouldn't be quite the issue that some would have you believe.
If you are curious, then I wouldn't necessarily shy away from hypnosis or other memory recovery techniques (e.g., free association). But I would obviously take anything I said in an altered state with a pillar of salt.
That you've spoken about this with friends is encouraging (to put it crassly, you're not some kind of lone-nut loser if people respect you enough to show concern about your feelings). Perhaps finding other points of view--including critical, skeptical or opposing ones--might clarify some of the issues for you.
You could also seek professional counseling--not because anyone thinks you're looney (including a therapist--if he/she does, find another one), but because you might find a dispassionate ear helpful in sorting out what it is you're actually perceiving. Then too, supposing you actually were abducted by aliens (and from my comments, you can probably guess that I'm not a firm believer in this), you still have the task of going about your life and getting the most out of it.
Whatever you decide to do--even if you decide to drop the whole subject--I hope things work out for you.
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