Category: RIMA E. LAIBOW

Although it has long been the “common wisdom” of both the professional and lay communities that anyone claiming to be the victim of abduction by UFO occupants must be seriously disturbed, thoroughly deluded or a liar, careful examination of both the reports and their reports calls this assumption into question. A clinical and psychometric investigation of abductees reveals four areas of discrepancy between the expected data and the observable phenomena and suggests further investigation. These discrepant areas are: 1. ABSENCE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY The unexpected absence of severe psychopathology coupled with the high level of functioning found in many abductees is a perplexing and surprising finding. The psychometric evaluation of nine abductees revealed a notable heterogeneity of psychological and psychometric characteristics. The major area of […] Read More

Type 1. patients consciously recall parts of the full abduction scenario without hypnotic or other techniques designed to aid recall. The emergence of this material may be delayed. Type 2. patients recall the UFO sighting, surrounding circumstances and/or aliens, but do not recall the abduction itself. Only a perceived gap in time indicates an anomalous occurrence. Type 3. patients recall a UFO and/or hominids but nothing else. There is no sense of timelapse or dislocation. Type 4. patients recall only a timelapse or dislocation. No UFO abduction scenario is recalled without the use of specific retrieval techniques. Type 5. patients recall noting relating to UFO or abduction scenarios. Instead, they experience discrepant emotions ranging from uneasy suspicions that “something happened to me” to intense, […] Read More

2. CONCORDANCE OF REPORTED DATA: The second point of intriguing discrepancy follows from this surprising absence of evidence of a common thread of severe and reality-distorting psychopathology to account for the patient’s bizarre assertions. They claim that they have been abducted, sometimes repeatedly over nearly the whole course of their lives, by aliens who have communicated with them and carried out procedures much like medical examinations. Persons reporting these experiences are seen to be psycho-dynamically varied. They are also demographically varied. Reports of this basic scenario, numbering in the hundreds, have now been recorded. Even though the reporters range from individuals as diverse as a mestizo Brazilian farmer(5),an American corporate lawyer (6), and a Mid- Western minister(7), there is a perplexing and intriguing concordance […] Read More

AREAS OF DISCREPANCY 1. ABSENCE OF MAJOR PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: It is intuitively seductive (and perhaps comfortable) for us to assume that psychotic-level functioning will necessarily be present in a person claiming to be a UFO abductee. If this level of distortion and delusion is present, a patient would be expected to demonstrate some other evidence of reality distortion. Pathology of this magnitude would not be predicted to be present in a well integrated, mature and non-psychotic individual. Instead, we would expect clinical and psychometric tools to reveal serious problems in numerous areas both inter- and interpersonally. It would be highly surprising if otherwise well-functioning persons were to demonstrate a single area of floridly psychotic distortion. Further, if this single idea fix were totally circumscribed, non-invasive […] Read More