SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF THE ABDUCTION PHENOMENON
Obstacles to acceptance. The “general UFO hypothesis” which encompasses the existence of extraterrestrial spaceships and the abduction of people into them has to overcome a series of barriers to credibility. Each barrier is actually the threshold of acceptance among technically educated people for a series of isolated ideas which cannot be easily assimilated into the current coherent picture of the world. The unassimilated picture presented by the UFO hypothesis is much too rich for the average scientist’s taste. It includes telepathy, movement through solids, craft maneuvering at what are for us unattainable and dangerous g-forces, and propulsion with no apparent reaction against the atmosphere.
The average scientist falls back on a much more plausible psychological explanation for this rich diet of impossibilities. Memory can be biased or faulty; perception is ambiguous and unreliable; social pressures and social gain motivate convincing lies; hypnotists can influence susceptible witnesses. By relying on any one of these alternatives, the over-rich banquet of UFO-related phenomena can be dismissed as a combination of individual and social psychological aberration. When theory is overtaken by data. Pausing to look back just a few years to the time when physics was experiencing great upheavals provides an interesting perspective on the problem of interpreting UFO and UFO abduction data. After 1895 physicists could no longer use the mathematics of continuous physical displacements to model the universe. Quantum theory required what were then radical changes in assumptions about causality. Atoms did or did not emit radiation on a probabilistic, not a deterministic, basis; the basic constituents of matter and energy were either particles with wavelike properties or waves with particle-like properties, depending on how and when you measured them; position and momentum could not be simultaneously measured to any degree of accuracy; the state of a particle is only determined when you measure it, and that measurement also immediately determines the state of a related particle which is so far away that information cannot travel to it from the first particle. These difficulties do not mean that quantum theory is inaccurate; it is highly accurate. But, unlike relativity theory, it does not explain the universe in a classically deterministic way.
One of the problems that physicists had in understanding and assimilating quantum theory was based on the fact that the interpretation of all measurement is wholly bound up in theoretical assumptions about those measurements. If the assumptions one made about measurement at the microphysical (quantum) level were classical assumptions, the measurements made no sense. Eisenbud (8) said that
Ultimately, theory becomes so familiar that we hardly realize its importance in the interpretation of observation…. When theory fails, however, the familiar connections between its constructs and what is observed are broken. We must then return to naked observations and their observed interrelations, and try to build from them new and successful theoretical structures.
The UFO community is faced with the same dilemma. The data of abduction research cannot be interpreted in a simplistic way as veridical descriptions of experience which fit our available theoretical framework. We are now forced to “return to our naked observations” and develop a new and comprehensive theory to explain the general tendency of these observations, and reduce the exceptions to a sufficiently small number to justify our confidence in the “naked observations and their observed interrelations.” If we can build this confidence in ourselves, based on an adequate theoretical understanding, then we can certainly build it in at least the younger members of both the scientific public and the larger public who follow our investigations and our work with interest, but who are waiting for us to clarify our own understanding before committing themselves to accept it.
I cannot, myself, overcome all of the obstacles to comprehension of the UFO phenomenon from a technical point of view. Explaining how people can be moved through solids and explaining UFO propulsion are beyond my competence. These observables clearly require a better understanding of nature than is provided us by current publicly available knowledge in the fields of physics and engineering. But with respect to the psychological phenomena, some comments to the general scientific public, as well as to colleagues in the UFO field, are in order. They concern the plausibility and current scientific status of various events which are described in UFO and abduction investigations. Some of these phenomena are by no means as empirically far-fetched as they might first appear to be.
The psychology of some reported abduction experiences: Hypnosis and memory. Hypnosis has a long and colorful past, and has been, in its day, as controversial a scientific topic as UFOs are at present. It is still a controversial phenomenon. The most radical – or skeptical – view of the phenomenon is that it is nothing but acting, suggested by the hypnotist and willingly and knowingly carried out by the patient. On the other hand, there are many phenomena of hypnosis which are very unlike those which can be produced by voluntary acting. The removal of crippling hysterical symptoms with the aid of hypnosis was the clinical discovery which triggered Sigmund Freud’s interest in the mental bases of what were thought to be neurological symptoms, and so led to the development of psychoanalysis.(9)
A great deal of serious research effort has gone into the study of hypnotic phenomena, in an effort to determine to what extent there are genuine changes in consciousness as a result of the hypnotic process. The simplest description of the present evidence is this: hypnotic induction in a highly suggestible subject produces a mental state in which external instructions (the hypnotist’s) can alter the subject’s conscious mental content, to the extent that both memory of past events and perception of the current environment can be influenced in ways that cannot be duplicated by suggestion, unaided by hypnosis. It must be stressed that not everyone is equally hypnotizable. Highly suggestible people need less effort to produce the radical changes of conscious content which are characteristic of hypnosis, while some very un-suggestible people do not ever experience the extreme changes of conscious experience which characterize highly suggestible, deeply hypnotized subjects.
Most of the controversy about the use of hypnosis in abduction research is over the question of whether recall facilitated by hypnosis is necessarily true. It is not. Extensive experimental evidence demonstrates that confabulation is as possible under hypnosis as it is in ordinary unaided memory; in some cases, while fluency of memory is increased under hypnosis, so is the inclusion of verifiably inaccurate recall.(10) However, as students of the UFO and abduction phenomenon already know, not all UFO abduction accounts depend on information gained through hypnosis. Frequently there is recall, even extensive recall, without hypnosis.
Equally extensive experimental evidence demonstrates that hypnotic techniques can both induce and remove amnesia. When memories have been blocked either by trauma or by previous hypnotic instruction, they can be recalled by later, appropriate hypnotic counter-instruction. (11) It is possible to establish “hidden experience” in a hypnotically susceptible person so that a real experience is actually concealed from the experiencer until he or she is later instructed to remember it. This is a stock in trade of stage hypnotists: the person who is made to bark and run around on all fours, pretending to be a dog, will have no memory of that experience if instructed not to remember; the hypnotist may provide a cue for later recall of the following kind: “you will remember nothing of this session when you wake up, until I place my hand on your shoulder.” The result is that the hypnotized person undergoes experiences which he or she cannot remember until later. So long as the hypnotist does not provide the cue, the experience is not available to conscious recall. Once the cue is provided, recall occurs.
Imagine if a hypnotist were to say to a subject under hypnosis: “Under no circumstances will you remember this experience,” and then simply disappear from the subject’s life. (12) The hypnotized subject would have a gap in his or her memory. Careful questioning might reveal that he went to a hypnotist’s performance; that he remembers being in a seat with his friends who encouraged him to go on stage; and then he came home. When asked to account for the show, or his part in it, he would be unable to consciously recall his own participation. There would be “missing time.” Under these circumstances, a second hypnotic session with another hypnotist might remove the memory block and reestablish the continuity of experience and memory. Or alternatively, the experience might simply be recalled after a sufficiently long time.
Since we know that hypnosis can be used to block experience from conscious memory, and since we know that re-hypnosis is one tool by which that experience can be made accessible to voluntary recall, therefore we also know that the recovery of blocked UFO abduction memories by hypnosis is not an impossibility. We do not know that the recovered memories are accurate; great pains must be taken to avoid leading the hypnotic subject, because hypnotically recovered memories, as mentioned earlier, are not necessarily more accurate than memories which are recalled unaided.
Telepathy. Humans can transmit information telepathically. The empirical evidence for this is cumulatively overwhelming. Neither current psychological theory nor current physiological theory has an explanation for the data, but the data are sound. There is too little space here to review the history of experimental psychical research, which dates back over a century. The evidence for telepathy does not depend on trusting mediums, which is always a dangerous business. Starting with the experimental work of J. B. Rhine,(13) the experimental reliability and repeatability of telepathy has been established by many researchers.(14 – 16)
For the most part, the experimental demonstrations of telepathy are statistical and relatively crude. The best of them involve remote viewing of complex scenes, which are then reproduced visually by the telepathic subject in more or less complex detail. Statistical analysis of the agreement between scenes and drawings, under experimental conditions which preclude collusion, cheating, or biasing the results, shows results that are sometimes quite striking and over the long run, far, far better than could be ascribed to chance.
Therefore it is within the realm of current scientific knowledge to expect that information can be transmitted telepathically to a human being. The descriptions of telepathic communication made by alleged abductees are not, then, without a reference in human experience as defined by scientific experiment. Visual illusions. Virtual reality is created by using two or three-dimensional visual images which give the illusion of objects in space. This can be done with wide-screen sound and motion, it can be done holographically or it can be done stereoscopically. While holographic images currently lack solidity, they do not lack detail. Therefore it is within the realm of our current scientific knowledge to be able to construct an alternative visual reality (sound effects were accomplished long ago) which gives the illusion of solidity. This is already done cinematically, and large-screen projections like I-Max are quite convincing in conveying the experience of motion. Virtual reality is created in aviation simulators; its success is indicated by the fact that emotional reactions in simulated situations of danger mimic, if they do not actually duplicate, emotional reactions recorded in real situations of danger. Therefore the experiences of staging as described in the abduction literature are not without a reference in human experience as influenced by human technology.
Hallucinations can be induced in an uncontrolled way through the use of psychotropic drugs, sensory deprivation, and hypnosis. Remember that hypnosis is a powerful hallucinogen. A subject under hypnosis can be made to react to hypnotically induced sensory experiences. The very suggestibility that defines the earliest stages of trance induction (“your eyelids are getting heavier, your hands are together and you can’t move them apart, your arms are sluggish and you can’t lift them off the chair”) are all hypnotically induced sensory-motor experiences. Other, more complex experiences can be introduced by a skilled hypnotist. Therefore the induction of hallucinatory experiences, as reported in many abduction cases, is not unknown to ordinary human experience.
Abduction reports include illusions, hypnosis and telepathy. The characteristic abduction experience described in books by Hopkins and Jacobs and in articles by Carpenter may include elements of telepathy, hypnosis, and illusion. An alien being communicates telepathically; using some form of close physical contact, the same being induces an altered state of consciousness in the human, and the human experiences ambiguous scenes either as a hallucinatory “virtual reality” or as hypnotically induced interpretations of real events in which alien actors play a role. As explained in the previous few paragraphs, this apparently implausible combination of experiences – telepathy and illusions or hallucinations – is by no means beyond the realm of human experience. All of the phenomena are known individually, and under certain circumstances can be induced or controlled by humans in other humans.
The reliability of UFO and abduction witnesses. All of science is based on observation; and ultimately all science is based on human observation and interpretation of even the most sophisticated data from the most sophisticated instruments. It is instructive to remember that about one hundred and fifty years ago, science was being conducted with much simpler instruments, and may fewer of them; that natural science like that practised by Charles Darwin required a only notebook and a sketchpad; and that however complicated the mechanical or electronic gadget into which the scientist peers, the human observer is always present to interpret what is seen or recorded. If UFO (and UFO abduction) witnesses are intrinsically unreliable reporters, then all of the evidence is suspect, because it has been obtained with unreliable instruments, whose distortions or biases may be responsible for the seeming abnormality of the reports. As a case in point, Bartholomew, et al. (17) reported that a study of self- reported biographical material from 152 alleged UFO abductees or contactees demonstrated an incidence of fantasy-proneness which was higher than the population average. The biographical data used in this study were drawn from l6th-century sources as well as from current data, and no distinction was reported between what UFO investigators would recognize as contactees and more credible reporters of abduction experiences. But the best UFO and abduction evidence is not suspect. Spanos, et al.,(18) Bloecher, Clamar and Hopkins,(19) and Rodeghier, et al.(20) have made it clear that UFO reporters and abduction reporters do not suffer from psychopathology; therefore there is no a priori reason to reject their reports because their personality characteristics make them less reliable than other reporters of phenomena.
Ordinary precautions have to be taken in obtaining reports about external events from anyone. Good reporters and good scientists know how to listen; how not to lead; how to encourage reluctant or emotionally upset witnesses without putting words in their mouths; and in general how to avoid biasing the source of the information they are recording. The same thing applies to extraordinary methods for obtaining data, like hypnosis. Proper use of hypnosis in the forensic field as well as the UFO investigation field is necessarily subject to stringent precautions. Good hypnosis data will be presented with evidence that appropriate precautions were taken; the work of Carpenter and Haines(21-23) is exemplary in providing evidence that the requisite precautions have been taken.
Prior conditions for accepting the abduction phenomenon. Most of us take for granted something which our scientific colleagues have neither the background nor the confidence to take for granted: that reports of UFOs are reports of extraterrestrial vehicles. It is impossible here to go into the detail which supports this conclusion. When the evidence is assembled and presented coherently, it is overwhelming. It is rarely so assembled and presented. Classic works by Jacobs, Hynek, and NICAP on the extraterrestrial UFO hypothesis, which precedes the abduction phenomenon, are twenty years old. They are respected but not widely read, and certainly not known to the scientific world outside the UFO community.
It follows that uncertainty about the existence of ET UFOs precludes acceptance of the UFO abduction phenomenon. If I’m not sure that ET UFOs exist, how can I accept the evidence for UFO abductions? In this case, the additional evidence about UFO abductions does not strengthen the ET UFO evidence; instead, the uncertainty about the UFO evidence weakens the acceptance of the abduction evidence. This is a classic application of what is known to statisticians as Bayes’ theorem. The probability of some event, given supporting evidence, depends not only on the current supporting evidence, but on the prior probability of the event: in other words, how probable – before the supporting evidence – was the event in question. If the ET UFO evidence is either unknown or rejected, the prior probability that any reported experience has to do with UFOs is bound to be low. This immediately prejudices acceptance of the abduction evidence, because it is read in a context where the a priori assumption is that UFOs themselves are highly unlikely, and therefore so is a UFO-related explanation for the abduction evidence. The answer to this problem, to the degree that we can solve it, is to present the UFO evidence and the solid UFO abduction evidence together in an intellectual context-book, course, or visual medium – in which the UFO evidence establishes the a priori probability for the UFO abduction phenomenon. The tendency – certainly reasonable, in light of the importance of the phenomenon – has been for recent work to concentrate on the abduction phenomenon alone. But the extensive and well-investigated body of UFO cases deserve equal time with the abduction evidence, because the ET interpretation of the classical UFO data is the a priori basis for allowing an ET interpretation of the abduction evidence.