Written during my skeptical period, contains some formulations I might not agree with today. Nevertheless, enjoy!
This
book by Peter Brookesmith is an even-handed but ultimately sceptical look at
the bizarre phenomenon of "alien abductions".
Thousands of Americans claim to have been abducted by evil beings from other planets, taken onboard their vessels, and forced to undergo painful medical examinations. Some claim to have been repeatedly abducted, and others believe they have given birth to alien-human hybrids. Often, these "memories" are only retrieved during hypnosis, and there are a number of "therapists" who work exclusively with abductees, the most notorious being Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs. The former even claims that UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar witnessed an alien abduction in New York!
Initially a fringe phenomenon, the idea of alien abductions have become part of popular culture, to a large extent due to Whitley Strieber, an author of horror fiction who claims to have been abducted multiple times by aliens known as "Greys". Strieber have subsequently become a kind of New Age prophet. The late John Mack is another person who connected abductions, the UFO phenomenon and New Age forms of spirituality. Mack was a professor at Harvard when he became uncritically interested in abductions.
To be perfectly honest, I find it difficult to take this phenomenon seriously. We are obviously dealing with people in need of psychiatric treatment, or with various kinds of delusions. The phenomenon also strikes me as very "American" in the worst sense of that word. The United States, the first nation to put a man on the moon, is also the Western nation most reeking with pseudoscience, superstition and fundamentalism. Where else than in America can bizarre notions such as these become a veritable mass movement? Darkest Africa, perhaps?
Having this in mind, I admire Peter Brookesmith for writing about the subject in such an even-handed and sober way. The author is obviously seriously interested and even intrigued by the phenomenon, and he treats the abductees with a large amount of respect. Indeed, a large portion of the book consists of abduction cases, described on the basis of interviews with the abductees themselves. Yet, Brookesmith simply cannot believe that the "abductions" are objectively real. He discusses various psychological explanations, including hypnagogic dreams, somnambulism, or the effects of hypnosis. Various cultural factors are also mentioned. The aliens known as "Greys" became common in US abduction reports after Strieber's books had become bestsellers. Before that, the space aliens supposedly seen by people were much more diverse, and apparently they still are in Europe, where Strieber has always been less popular.
Brookesmith also discusses a more physical explanation. He believes that unknown but natural electromagnetic phenomena, something akin to will-o-the-wisps, might induce humans to hallucinate and thus imagine "alien abductions". Somehow, these earth lights make the victim oversensitive to further exposure to electricity, hence triggering new hallucinations ("repeated abductions"). The theory is interesting, but it's not clear to me how much experimental evidence is behind it.
"Alien Abductions" gives a good overview of the abduction phenomenon, its principal players, and various theories about the origins of these notions. It's illustrated with artwork showing UFOs and abductions! Recommended.
Thousands of Americans claim to have been abducted by evil beings from other planets, taken onboard their vessels, and forced to undergo painful medical examinations. Some claim to have been repeatedly abducted, and others believe they have given birth to alien-human hybrids. Often, these "memories" are only retrieved during hypnosis, and there are a number of "therapists" who work exclusively with abductees, the most notorious being Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs. The former even claims that UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar witnessed an alien abduction in New York!
Initially a fringe phenomenon, the idea of alien abductions have become part of popular culture, to a large extent due to Whitley Strieber, an author of horror fiction who claims to have been abducted multiple times by aliens known as "Greys". Strieber have subsequently become a kind of New Age prophet. The late John Mack is another person who connected abductions, the UFO phenomenon and New Age forms of spirituality. Mack was a professor at Harvard when he became uncritically interested in abductions.
To be perfectly honest, I find it difficult to take this phenomenon seriously. We are obviously dealing with people in need of psychiatric treatment, or with various kinds of delusions. The phenomenon also strikes me as very "American" in the worst sense of that word. The United States, the first nation to put a man on the moon, is also the Western nation most reeking with pseudoscience, superstition and fundamentalism. Where else than in America can bizarre notions such as these become a veritable mass movement? Darkest Africa, perhaps?
Having this in mind, I admire Peter Brookesmith for writing about the subject in such an even-handed and sober way. The author is obviously seriously interested and even intrigued by the phenomenon, and he treats the abductees with a large amount of respect. Indeed, a large portion of the book consists of abduction cases, described on the basis of interviews with the abductees themselves. Yet, Brookesmith simply cannot believe that the "abductions" are objectively real. He discusses various psychological explanations, including hypnagogic dreams, somnambulism, or the effects of hypnosis. Various cultural factors are also mentioned. The aliens known as "Greys" became common in US abduction reports after Strieber's books had become bestsellers. Before that, the space aliens supposedly seen by people were much more diverse, and apparently they still are in Europe, where Strieber has always been less popular.
Brookesmith also discusses a more physical explanation. He believes that unknown but natural electromagnetic phenomena, something akin to will-o-the-wisps, might induce humans to hallucinate and thus imagine "alien abductions". Somehow, these earth lights make the victim oversensitive to further exposure to electricity, hence triggering new hallucinations ("repeated abductions"). The theory is interesting, but it's not clear to me how much experimental evidence is behind it.
"Alien Abductions" gives a good overview of the abduction phenomenon, its principal players, and various theories about the origins of these notions. It's illustrated with artwork showing UFOs and abductions! Recommended.
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