Clancy continues to address in her book important questions that she has consistently been asked in the field. I love the way she is able to intertwine anecdotal and empirical evidence to thoroughly support her case and opinions. One of the most important questions she poses and answers, I believe, is in the final chapter which asks: "If it isn't real, why would I WANT to remember it?" This is a legitimate question- the experiences would be TERRIFYING. Wouldn't an 'abductee' love to cast their horrible memories off as a fallacy and not allow them to occupy their thoughts anymore? Unfortunately it isn't this easy. The "alien" answer may not be an answer the subjects want to hear, and it may not be the most logical answer (or logical at all...), but it IS ultimately an answer. Not only is it an answer that somehow gives legitimacy to a singular event such as sleep paralysis, it gives legitimacy to an entire life spent feeling out of touch. As Clancy explains in her previous chapters, there is little consistency between alien abduction stories, but there IS consistency in the kind of people who create these stories. Not only are they prone to being more imaginative and dissociative, but there is also a large majority who admits to always feeling 'different' or 'out of place'. The common, though not well known, occurrence of sleep paralysis may be the logical explanation, but it certainly doesn't help to validate a lifetime of loneliness like only an alien abduction can. I think that there is not just one characteristic that causes someone to assemble these stories, but all of the right pieces must fall into place- and this is usually the case with 'abductees'. They must be a 'believer' to begin with, with active imaginations. This isn't helped by accepting culturally accepted and media driven depictions of aliens and abductions. Add in a horrifying and unexplained event, accompanied by hypnosis (which provides all the right conditions for implanting a false memory) and you have the perfect formula for an alien abduction.
In several parts of this book Clancy suggests that even after people learn about sleep paralysis they continue to believe aliens have abducted them. She says one of the reasons this happens is because they use it as an answer to their other personal problems. If they were having social problems, problems relating to people or difficulty staying in a relationship, being abducted by an alien would explain why they were “different”. A similar thing occurs with false memories. In “Remembering Trauma” by Richard McNally, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis suggest that people create false memories because they can then blame someone for their problems. It was really interesting to see how shocked Clancy was the first time she met an alien abductee because he was so “normal”. She describes another one, Geoge Adamski as “dressed in well worn, but neat, overalls. He had slightly greying hair and the most honest eyes I’ve ever seen.” (89) “The link between fantasy-proneness and hypnotic susceptibility has been well documented. And not surprisingly, people who believe they were abducted are more fantasy prone that others.” (132) After watching a movie or reading a book about aliens, not only is it easier to assume that what one saw when in sleep paralysis was an alien or an alien ship. Then, when one goes into hypnosis, with this idea in your head, it is easier to begin believing that an alien abducted you. Perhaps the most intriguing part of this entire study was that these people sincerely believe aliens abducted them, even when there is an easier more simple explanation. They are happy that they had this experience, despite how terrified they were at the moment. An alien abduction “not only furnishe[s] an explanation for psychological distress and unsettling experiences; it provides meaning for one’s entire life.” (149) Finding something that explains your entire life is perhaps a very satisfying feeling, why would you let go of that explanation?
In Susan Clancy’s Abducted, I found the section on how people come to believe they were abducted by aliens to be extremely compelling. Just from reading this book I am shocked by the amount of people who believe that they have had alien encounters and that they have been abducted in some way or another. I was also shocked how all these people use their abduction as an explanation for something that has gone wrong in their life or sleep paralysis experiences. What is also remarkable, as Clancy points out, is how “normal” some of these abductees are. All of us at some point have feelings or experiences that we don’t understand, but we don’t use them as an explanation for being abducted by aliens. I am not shocked however by the amount of people who do believe that aliens exist, because that is entirely probable. With all the planets in the universe, why wouldn’t there be other life out there? I definitely believe that there are other beings out there, even if they aren’t specifically aliens. However I believe that many of the accounts of these abductees are completely irrational.
For many of these individuals, they refute the fact that it is entirely scientifically impossible for an alien abduction to occur, however they count other individuals reports of their experiences with alien abductions to justify that is true (especially because of the fact that many of the reports come from relatively normal people). The body of people that believe in this is surprisingly enormous, and all these abductees count this large body of testimony as powerful evidence that it is true. People choose alien abduction as an explanation for something bizarre that has happened to them because they now can (with the amount of people who believe in it now and share their accounts of it). As Clancy points out, for scientists, anecdotes don’t count as evidence. But believers don’t think in terms of probability and don’t look for the simplest explanation, but think in terms of what makes sense to them. And in these situations, alien abduction seems to make sense and fit as an explanation. The controversial aspect of all of this is that you can’t disprove alien abductions, and all you can do is argue that they’re improbable and that an account from a believer does not justify that the belief is true.
After these individuals have gone through every possible explanation to figure out why something happened to them or is happening to them, and once they start to suspect that have been abducted by aliens, there’s no going back. Once we have established something that we truly believe in, it is extremely difficult to free ourselves from it. No matter how many times these abductees are told that it is entirely scientifically impossible that they could have been abducted by aliens, they will never sway from their belief (as it has now become so personally relevant to them). I do believe that aliens could exist, but I think that the accounts of these abductees hold so many false beliefs and that their beliefs are based very largely on the fact that alien abduction is becoming an increasingly wide phenomenon, and the amount of believers is continually increasing. I agree with the idea that there is a lot going on in the universe that people don’t know about and that no one can prove that aliens don’t exist, but I don’t think that the reports from these individuals count as evidence that alien abductions occur.
This post continues the precious one questioning truth in science and these testimonies.
I thought the final chapters of this book summed Clancy’s ideas really well particularly the final chapter where she introduces the positive affects of alien abductions. The most thought-provoking idea came from not whether we should believe these testimonies, but why would we? She mentioned the parallels of religion and how in each of her subjects showed a very strong belief system similar to believing in a religion (with higher power and unquestionable faith). Having experiences with aliens seemed to complete them, transform and improve their lives. As bizarre as it already sounds it kind of makes sense that these new encounters have made them better people or better articulated by Clancy- it helped them find a place and purpose in the universe. I now ask why should we believe alien abductees for the same reason why a certain number of us believe in religion? I find myself at the center and very vulnerable because I don’t necessarily believe in a religion or a right one, but still skeptical about aliens living among us and abducting people. What can we really believe in and again, what really is true? Now, I’m a believer in true/actual events and one great quote picked up from Clancy is that, “…science is not a collection of facts, but a process aimed at the pursuit of truth –one in which there are no forbidden questions.” Maybe alien abductions really do happen and they walk among us in different life forms, but I think it’s interesting to think that there is a new trend of expanding reality. Will we in a hundred years believe this? I think so.
Susan Clancy spends chapters four through six of Abducted discussing why alien abduction narratives are so consistent, or rather inconsistent in actuality, the type of people who come to believe they were abducted by aliens, and why anyone would choose an abduction narrative as an explanation for unnerving feelings or experiences as opposed to a factual explanation when there is no credible evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. While believers of aliens and alien abductions are quick to reason that the accounts of abductees are consistent with one another, as Clancy argues, the accounts of such abductees are only vaguely similar in their “general plot” (2005: 82), in which extraterrestrials come to earth to take unsuspecting and ordinary humans for experimental testing. What’s more is that despite some similar details amongst the stories of supposed abductees, such as oversized, upside-down, almond shaped heads, slanted, black, beady eyes, and waifish, gray-green bodies, both these details and the “general plot” could be found in movies and on television prior to people ever having reported having personal information about aliens. In fact, before 1962 with the rise of movies and television shows featuring aliens and alien abduction, there were virtually no accounts of alien abduction anywhere, ever. This is not to say that prior to the early 1960s people had no interest in aliens, but is simply to mean that before Hollywood began capitalizing on the horror of alien abduction specifically, it didn’t seem to cross anyone’s mind that they could be or had been abducted. Although one could argue that the first sighting of a UFO was reported in 1947, before they were ever given prominence in movies or on television, the counter to that argument is that flying objects, such as airplanes, were around long before that. What I found particularly interesting was Clancy’s inclusion of an except from an article in the Chicago Sun published a few weeks after the first reported sighting of a UFO, which states, “Human suggestibility being what it is, a lot of people didn’t see what they say they saw” (2005: 92). With the theory of aliens becoming increasingly popular through film and literature, and under societal pressure to conform to what is popular or accepted, people become highly suggestible and vulnerable to the held beliefs of others. Interest and belief in aliens became a cultural and social construct in response to a chain of events involving innumerable reports of UFOs by credible media sources and tabloids alike, popular Hollywood movies featuring aliens and UFOs, television shows and “first-hand accounts” of encountering aliens or UFOs. The rise in reports of alien abductions, however, grew only after the first report of abduction by Betty and Barney Hill, a memory which they had no recollection of but recalled while undergoing hypnotherapy. They story that unfolded while hypnotized became instantly popular among various media sources and the public and was soon transformed into a documentary-type movie. Throughout the two years following the release of the movie based on the Hill’s experience, the rate of reported alien abduction increased by 2,500 percent, further lending credence to the idea of human suggestibility. More intriguing, however, is how each abduction account, either by the media or an individual, seemed oddly similar; each story included details seen or heard in other reports, seeming to build upon the abduction experiences previously accounted for, and furthermore creating the “consistency” among stories that many believers resort to in adding credibility to their belief in aliens. As Clancy makes note, there is no coincidence in the fact that the experience felt by Betty and Barney was brought into conscious memory merely twelve days after the “Belllero Shield” episode of The Outer Limits TV series aired and that Betty had been a “long-time believer” in extraterrestrial life. “Long-time believers” are particularly prone to creating memories of alien abduction, as Clancy explains in trying to decipher what kind of person the typical abductee is. While there is no evidence that abductees suffer from any serious psychiatric illness, they do tend to score higher than nonbelievers on tests searching for schizotypy, which while doesn’t confirm them to be schizophrenic, they do “tend to look and think eccentrically” and are “prone to ‘magical’ thinking and odd beliefs.” In hypnotherapy, an atmosphere which already fosters the implantation and creation of false memories, “fantasy prone” subjects are especially susceptible to developing alien abduction memories. The difference between those who come to believe through hypnotherapy that they were abducted by aliens and those who dismiss the idea when they come out of being hypnotized is that the abductees believed in aliens and were searching for an explanation for unusual behavior or feelings before being brought into a highly suggestible, hypnotized state. Despite being highly implausible and evidentially incredible, a good portion of the population still believes they were contacted or taken by aliens, experimented on, and returned to earth unharmed, although terrified. Nonetheless, these abductees are wholly grateful for their experience and wouldn’t be as happy if they hadn’t been taken and experimented on by aliens. They claim their experience was transformative in that it settled their nerves about distressing experiences and unexplainable emotions and often “provides meaning for one’s entire life.” Much like religion and the belief in God, a belief and faith in something for which we have no evidence, abduction narratives provide people with “meaning, reassurance, mystical revelation, spirituality, and transformation.”
In discussing the content of alien abduction stories, Clancy discusses the increase in reported abductions after a corresponding increase in media coverage/entertainment about extraterrestrials. When questioned by a believer about the author's certainty regarding the correlation, Clancy's response suggests the lack of objective verification as a legitimate reason for the false nature of abduction memories. Specifically, Clancy mentions that the evidence would be visible, physiological, or in some other way measurable should aliens intervene in human life. Initially, this made me think of, say, a paranoid schizophrenic believing that the spirit of a deceased person was inhabiting his/her body (in some way). In this instance, we're not inclined to believe this person, as his/her mental state points to some larger problem at work. I wonder how quickly an abductee would dismiss this person's claims? That is, to both people the respective situations are real, so why the disparity (in the minds of the abducted)? Clancy examines some of the motives behind the abduction stories, but we can't really say why this particular mental niche is shared among so many people. As with Clancy, I believe that the popularizing of abduction stories through media makes this a more accepted, pop culture phenomenon. We've already looked at the role of media and its link to false memories, and I think that it is applicable in this case.
On another note, reading these chapters made me think about an experience I had recently. I went for a run, and, upon returning to my apartment building, I walked up the stairs and attempted to enter my apartment. When I tried to do so, I realized my key didn't work, and that my roommate must have purchased a new doormat. In looking around, I started to panic as I realized that the lock on my neighbor's door was no longer green, and the sticker that's always on the door adjacent to mine was missing. I stared at what was, but simultaneously was not, my apartment door questioning and then muttering "4B..4B?..4B!" Honestly, in those 5 minutes or so, I had a million thoughts: I am in a bizarro version of my life. How can this be? How can I get out of here? Nobody will believe me, but I know that I live in this apartment, in this building, in this city! Ultimately, I resolved to go down to the lobby in the elevator and to try to come back up again, hoping that the universe would flip back to normal. Ridiculous, I know. Basically, I realized (once in the elevator, which has the building address) that I had entered the building one block down from mine (which is identical in every way), by mistake. In discussing this with my friends, we realized we've each had a similar experience with apartments we've lived in (a curse of identical buildings), and that we all felt crazy but simultaneously certain that something unusual was happening at the time. And, of course, we all felt completely foolish afterward. The point of this embarrassing and ridiculous story is that I think, when faced with something that we can recognize is absurd, but are also so rationally certain about, like abductions for an extreme example, that it might be very easy for our minds to make that leap, now matter how unrealistic it may be, objectively. I agree that much can be attributed to the media, but it doesn't make it any less real to the one experiencing it. Also, for the record, I am not crazy, I was just exhausted at the time of my apartment mishap.
The question of the media/cultural influence on the increase of alien abductions is loaded. Which came first the chicken or the egg? The cultural representations in the media or the actual alien sitings. Isn't it possible that the sudden increase in films and television of alien narratives happened in response to the growing demand for actual alien abductees to have their stories told in narrative form. People who fall into any sort of minority have a desire to see themselves somehow represented in popular culture. Otherwise they feel invisible. Also the metaphor of aliens is not unlike the vampires in films and television. They are a substitute for any "other" in our society. Sometimes it is specifically pointing to racism or homophobia or treatment of immigrants. Quite often fiction in our society in all forms of media contains more truth than non-fiction. A movie called Storytelling demonstrates this concept. A documentary film maker directs the people in his film to act a certain why say particular things. They highlight some of the footage and discount others. Through this process they can easily find their finished product to no longer resemble the "truth." Whereas in contrast fictional narratives in films, novels, television etc. sometimes provide its viewers with the truth of a matter. The artist chooses to represent their life or someone elses in a way that is easier for the general public to digest. This is also the way that we shape and frame our own autobiographical memories. Just because the narrative often conforms to a certain method of storytelling does not mean that the stories are inherently false. So, alien stories may have increased to give voice to the many abducted citizens. If aliens do not "exist" then isn't it still odd and worthy of study and debate when someone claims to be abducted? Perhaps there is something else happening to all these people. Something that we haven't coined a term for yet...With the loosening of regulations on films and the decrease in book banning every year America produces more edgy and outrageous artistic works. The alien invasion in the media could be explained by that added fact. Sex is more acceptable in film now and alien abductions can tend to involve sexual acts. The idea of imaginative personalities being dangerous in any way bothers me. Of course a scientist would not hesitate in diagnosing a patient with too much imagination. Or using this trait to prove some sort of disorder. This is because scientists are encouraged not to be imaginative. Their strict "logic" hinders their ability to imagine because the attempt to make lofty claims that fit within their own conventions.
7 comments:
Clancy continues to address in her book important questions that she has consistently been asked in the field. I love the way she is able to intertwine anecdotal and empirical evidence to thoroughly support her case and opinions.
One of the most important questions she poses and answers, I believe, is in the final chapter which asks: "If it isn't real, why would I WANT to remember it?"
This is a legitimate question- the experiences would be TERRIFYING. Wouldn't an 'abductee' love to cast their horrible memories off as a fallacy and not allow them to occupy their thoughts anymore? Unfortunately it isn't this easy. The "alien" answer may not be an answer the subjects want to hear, and it may not be the most logical answer (or logical at all...), but it IS ultimately an answer. Not only is it an answer that somehow gives legitimacy to a singular event such as sleep paralysis, it gives legitimacy to an entire life spent feeling out of touch. As Clancy explains in her previous chapters, there is little consistency between alien abduction stories, but there IS consistency in the kind of people who create these stories. Not only are they prone to being more imaginative and dissociative, but there is also a large majority who admits to always feeling 'different' or 'out of place'. The common, though not well known, occurrence of sleep paralysis may be the logical explanation, but it certainly doesn't help to validate a lifetime of loneliness like only an alien abduction can. I think that there is not just one characteristic that causes someone to assemble these stories, but all of the right pieces must fall into place- and this is usually the case with 'abductees'. They must be a 'believer' to begin with, with active imaginations. This isn't helped by accepting culturally accepted and media driven depictions of aliens and abductions. Add in a horrifying and unexplained event, accompanied by hypnosis (which provides all the right conditions for implanting a false memory) and you have the perfect formula for an alien abduction.
In several parts of this book Clancy suggests that even after people learn about sleep paralysis they continue to believe aliens have abducted them. She says one of the reasons this happens is because they use it as an answer to their other personal problems. If they were having social problems, problems relating to people or difficulty staying in a relationship, being abducted by an alien would explain why they were “different”. A similar thing occurs with false memories. In “Remembering Trauma” by Richard McNally, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis suggest that people create false memories because they can then blame someone for their problems.
It was really interesting to see how shocked Clancy was the first time she met an alien abductee because he was so “normal”. She describes another one, Geoge Adamski as “dressed in well worn, but neat, overalls. He had slightly greying hair and the most honest eyes I’ve ever seen.” (89)
“The link between fantasy-proneness and hypnotic susceptibility has been well documented. And not surprisingly, people who believe they were abducted are more fantasy prone that others.” (132) After watching a movie or reading a book about aliens, not only is it easier to assume that what one saw when in sleep paralysis was an alien or an alien ship. Then, when one goes into hypnosis, with this idea in your head, it is easier to begin believing that an alien abducted you.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of this entire study was that these people sincerely believe aliens abducted them, even when there is an easier more simple explanation. They are happy that they had this experience, despite how terrified they were at the moment. An alien abduction “not only furnishe[s] an explanation for psychological distress and unsettling experiences; it provides meaning for one’s entire life.” (149) Finding something that explains your entire life is perhaps a very satisfying feeling, why would you let go of that explanation?
In Susan Clancy’s Abducted, I found the section on how people come to believe they were abducted by aliens to be extremely compelling. Just from reading this book I am shocked by the amount of people who believe that they have had alien encounters and that they have been abducted in some way or another. I was also shocked how all these people use their abduction as an explanation for something that has gone wrong in their life or sleep paralysis experiences. What is also remarkable, as Clancy points out, is how “normal” some of these abductees are. All of us at some point have feelings or experiences that we don’t understand, but we don’t use them as an explanation for being abducted by aliens. I am not shocked however by the amount of people who do believe that aliens exist, because that is entirely probable. With all the planets in the universe, why wouldn’t there be other life out there? I definitely believe that there are other beings out there, even if they aren’t specifically aliens. However I believe that many of the accounts of these abductees are completely irrational.
For many of these individuals, they refute the fact that it is entirely scientifically impossible for an alien abduction to occur, however they count other individuals reports of their experiences with alien abductions to justify that is true (especially because of the fact that many of the reports come from relatively normal people). The body of people that believe in this is surprisingly enormous, and all these abductees count this large body of testimony as powerful evidence that it is true. People choose alien abduction as an explanation for something bizarre that has happened to them because they now can (with the amount of people who believe in it now and share their accounts of it). As Clancy points out, for scientists, anecdotes don’t count as evidence. But believers don’t think in terms of probability and don’t look for the simplest explanation, but think in terms of what makes sense to them. And in these situations, alien abduction seems to make sense and fit as an explanation. The controversial aspect of all of this is that you can’t disprove alien abductions, and all you can do is argue that they’re improbable and that an account from a believer does not justify that the belief is true.
After these individuals have gone through every possible explanation to figure out why something happened to them or is happening to them, and once they start to suspect that have been abducted by aliens, there’s no going back. Once we have established something that we truly believe in, it is extremely difficult to free ourselves from it. No matter how many times these abductees are told that it is entirely scientifically impossible that they could have been abducted by aliens, they will never sway from their belief (as it has now become so personally relevant to them). I do believe that aliens could exist, but I think that the accounts of these abductees hold so many false beliefs and that their beliefs are based very largely on the fact that alien abduction is becoming an increasingly wide phenomenon, and the amount of believers is continually increasing. I agree with the idea that there is a lot going on in the universe that people don’t know about and that no one can prove that aliens don’t exist, but I don’t think that the reports from these individuals count as evidence that alien abductions occur.
This post continues the precious one questioning truth in science and these testimonies.
I thought the final chapters of this book summed Clancy’s ideas really well particularly the final chapter where she introduces the positive affects of alien abductions. The most thought-provoking idea came from not whether we should believe these testimonies, but why would we? She mentioned the parallels of religion and how in each of her subjects showed a very strong belief system similar to believing in a religion (with higher power and unquestionable faith). Having experiences with aliens seemed to complete them, transform and improve their lives. As bizarre as it already sounds it kind of makes sense that these new encounters have made them better people or better articulated by Clancy- it helped them find a place and purpose in the universe.
I now ask why should we believe alien abductees for the same reason why a certain number of us believe in religion? I find myself at the center and very vulnerable because I don’t necessarily believe in a religion or a right one, but still skeptical about aliens living among us and abducting people. What can we really believe in and again, what really is true? Now, I’m a believer in true/actual events and one great quote picked up from Clancy is that, “…science is not a collection of facts, but a process aimed at the pursuit of truth –one in which there are no forbidden questions.” Maybe alien abductions really do happen and they walk among us in different life forms, but I think it’s interesting to think that there is a new trend of expanding reality. Will we in a hundred years believe this? I think so.
Susan Clancy spends chapters four through six of Abducted discussing why alien abduction narratives are so consistent, or rather inconsistent in actuality, the type of people who come to believe they were abducted by aliens, and why anyone would choose an abduction narrative as an explanation for unnerving feelings or experiences as opposed to a factual explanation when there is no credible evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. While believers of aliens and alien abductions are quick to reason that the accounts of abductees are consistent with one another, as Clancy argues, the accounts of such abductees are only vaguely similar in their “general plot” (2005: 82), in which extraterrestrials come to earth to take unsuspecting and ordinary humans for experimental testing. What’s more is that despite some similar details amongst the stories of supposed abductees, such as oversized, upside-down, almond shaped heads, slanted, black, beady eyes, and waifish, gray-green bodies, both these details and the “general plot” could be found in movies and on television prior to
people ever having reported having personal information about aliens. In fact, before 1962 with the rise of movies and television shows featuring aliens and alien abduction, there were virtually no accounts of alien abduction anywhere, ever. This is not to say that prior to the early 1960s people had no interest in aliens, but is simply to mean that before Hollywood began capitalizing on the horror of alien abduction specifically, it didn’t seem to cross anyone’s mind that they could be or had been abducted. Although one could argue that the first sighting of a UFO was reported in 1947, before they were ever given prominence in movies or on television, the counter to that argument is that flying objects, such as airplanes, were around long before that. What I found particularly interesting was Clancy’s inclusion of an except from an article in the Chicago Sun published a few weeks after the first reported sighting of a UFO, which states, “Human suggestibility being what it is, a lot of people didn’t see what they say they saw” (2005: 92). With the theory of aliens becoming increasingly popular through film and literature, and under societal pressure to conform to what is popular or accepted, people become highly suggestible and vulnerable to the held beliefs of others. Interest and belief in aliens became a cultural and social construct in response to a chain of events involving innumerable reports of UFOs by credible media sources and tabloids alike, popular Hollywood movies featuring aliens and UFOs, television shows and “first-hand accounts” of encountering aliens or UFOs.
The rise in reports of alien abductions, however, grew only after the first report of abduction by Betty and Barney Hill, a memory which they had no recollection of but recalled while undergoing hypnotherapy. They story that unfolded while hypnotized became instantly popular among various media sources and the public and was soon transformed into a documentary-type movie. Throughout the two years following the release of the movie based on the Hill’s experience, the rate of reported alien abduction increased by 2,500 percent, further lending credence to the idea of human suggestibility. More intriguing, however, is how each abduction account, either by the media or an individual, seemed oddly similar; each story included details seen or heard in other reports, seeming to build upon the abduction experiences previously accounted for, and furthermore creating the “consistency” among stories that many believers resort to in adding credibility to their belief in aliens. As Clancy makes note, there is no coincidence in the fact that the experience felt by Betty and Barney was brought into conscious memory merely twelve days after the “Belllero Shield” episode of The Outer Limits TV series aired and that Betty had been a “long-time believer” in extraterrestrial life. “Long-time believers” are particularly prone to creating memories of alien abduction, as Clancy explains in trying to decipher what kind of person the typical abductee is. While there is no evidence that abductees suffer from any serious psychiatric illness, they do tend to score higher than nonbelievers on tests searching for schizotypy, which while doesn’t confirm them to be schizophrenic, they do “tend to look and think eccentrically” and are “prone to ‘magical’ thinking and odd beliefs.” In hypnotherapy, an atmosphere which already fosters the implantation and creation of false memories, “fantasy prone” subjects are especially susceptible to developing alien abduction memories. The difference between those who come to believe through hypnotherapy that they were abducted by aliens and those who dismiss the idea when they come out of being hypnotized is that the abductees believed in aliens and were searching for an explanation for unusual behavior or feelings before being brought into a highly suggestible, hypnotized state.
Despite being highly implausible and evidentially incredible, a good portion of the population still believes they were contacted or taken by aliens, experimented on, and returned to earth unharmed, although terrified. Nonetheless, these abductees are wholly grateful for their experience and wouldn’t be as happy if they hadn’t been taken and experimented on by aliens. They claim their experience was transformative in that it settled their nerves about distressing experiences and unexplainable emotions and often “provides meaning for one’s entire life.” Much like religion and the belief in God, a belief and faith in something for which we have no evidence, abduction narratives provide people with “meaning, reassurance, mystical revelation, spirituality, and transformation.”
In discussing the content of alien abduction stories, Clancy discusses the increase in reported abductions after a corresponding increase in media coverage/entertainment about extraterrestrials. When questioned by a believer about the author's certainty regarding the correlation, Clancy's response suggests the lack of objective verification as a legitimate reason for the false nature of abduction memories. Specifically, Clancy mentions that the evidence would be visible, physiological, or in some other way measurable should aliens intervene in human life. Initially, this made me think of, say, a paranoid schizophrenic believing that the spirit of a deceased person was inhabiting his/her body (in some way). In this instance, we're not inclined to believe this person, as his/her mental state points to some larger problem at work. I wonder how quickly an abductee would dismiss this person's claims? That is, to both people the respective situations are real, so why the disparity (in the minds of the abducted)? Clancy examines some of the motives behind the abduction stories, but we can't really say why this particular mental niche is shared among so many people. As with Clancy, I believe that the popularizing of abduction stories through media makes this a more accepted, pop culture phenomenon. We've already looked at the role of media and its link to false memories, and I think that it is applicable in this case.
On another note, reading these chapters made me think about an experience I had recently. I went for a run, and, upon returning to my apartment building, I walked up the stairs and attempted to enter my apartment. When I tried to do so, I realized my key didn't work, and that my roommate must have purchased a new doormat. In looking around, I started to panic as I realized that the lock on my neighbor's door was no longer green, and the sticker that's always on the door adjacent to mine was missing. I stared at what was, but simultaneously was not, my apartment door questioning and then muttering "4B..4B?..4B!" Honestly, in those 5 minutes or so, I had a million thoughts: I am in a bizarro version of my life. How can this be? How can I get out of here? Nobody will believe me, but I know that I live in this apartment, in this building, in this city! Ultimately, I resolved to go down to the lobby in the elevator and to try to come back up again, hoping that the universe would flip back to normal. Ridiculous, I know. Basically, I realized (once in the elevator, which has the building address) that I had entered the building one block down from mine (which is identical in every way), by mistake. In discussing this with my friends, we realized we've each had a similar experience with apartments we've lived in (a curse of identical buildings), and that we all felt crazy but simultaneously certain that something unusual was happening at the time. And, of course, we all felt completely foolish afterward. The point of this embarrassing and ridiculous story is that I think, when faced with something that we can recognize is absurd, but are also so rationally certain about, like abductions for an extreme example, that it might be very easy for our minds to make that leap, now matter how unrealistic it may be, objectively. I agree that much can be attributed to the media, but it doesn't make it any less real to the one experiencing it. Also, for the record, I am not crazy, I was just exhausted at the time of my apartment mishap.
The question of the media/cultural influence on the increase of alien abductions is loaded. Which came first the chicken or the egg? The cultural representations in the media or the actual alien sitings. Isn't it possible that the sudden increase in films and television of alien narratives happened in response to the growing demand for actual alien abductees to have their stories told in narrative form. People who fall into any sort of minority have a desire to see themselves somehow represented in popular culture. Otherwise they feel invisible. Also the metaphor of aliens is not unlike the vampires in films and television. They are a substitute for any "other" in our society. Sometimes it is specifically pointing to racism or homophobia or treatment of immigrants. Quite often fiction in our society in all forms of media contains more truth than non-fiction. A movie called Storytelling demonstrates this concept. A documentary film maker directs the people in his film to act a certain why say particular things. They highlight some of the footage and discount others. Through this process they can easily find their finished product to no longer resemble the "truth." Whereas in contrast fictional narratives in films, novels, television etc. sometimes provide its viewers with the truth of a matter. The artist chooses to represent their life or someone elses in a way that is easier for the general public to digest. This is also the way that we shape and frame our own autobiographical memories. Just because the narrative often conforms to a certain method of storytelling does not mean that the stories are inherently false. So, alien stories may have increased to give voice to the many abducted citizens. If aliens do not "exist" then isn't it still odd and worthy of study and debate when someone claims to be abducted? Perhaps there is something else happening to all these people. Something that we haven't coined a term for yet...With the loosening of regulations on films and the decrease in book banning every year America produces more edgy and outrageous artistic works. The alien invasion in the media could be explained by that added fact. Sex is more acceptable in film now and alien abductions can tend to involve sexual acts. The idea of imaginative personalities being dangerous in any way bothers me. Of course a scientist would not hesitate in diagnosing a patient with too much imagination. Or using this trait to prove some sort of disorder. This is because scientists are encouraged not to be imaginative. Their strict "logic" hinders their ability to imagine because the attempt to make lofty claims that fit within their own conventions.
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