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54 Alien Abductions Are Down Dramatically

Why alien abductions are mystical experiences, explained, “More people
are willing to talk about their experiences
down dramatically because media has opened the door, because

there has been a lot of media attention on all
kinds of experiences, positive and negative. . . .
Continued from Page 53
This is validating, that they can talk about it and
not be ridiculed.”
Yet if periodic polls are any indication,
“These books sold really, really well, they were
Americans have remained consistent on the
on book racks in airports and railway stations. subject of aliens for the last three decades. At
You couldn’t really avoid it,” said Dr. Chris
any given moment, roughly 10 percent of
French, head of the anomalistic psychology
Americans believe they’ve seen a UFO. A
department at Goldsmiths College in London
Gallup poll from 1990 found that 47 percent of
and author of a study on alien abductees. And it
respondents believed UFOs were “real,” as in
wasn’t just books — one of the most popular
now largely dismissed by mainstream alien. A 2015 Ipsos poll found that 56 percent of
television shows of the 1990s was devoted
psychology, hypnotic regression remains Americans believed in UFOs. American
almost entirely to alien conspiracy theory: “The
popular with experiencers. Psychologists say disbelief of the government line on UFOs has
X-Files.” “All of these things influence people’s
that discerning true memories of actual events also remained steady. In 1996, 71 percent
beliefs about what might be true, what might be from true memories of imagined events is thought the government was hiding something;
plausible,” said French.
impossible, especially if the individual was it was 79 percent in 2012, according to a
Other social currents, some of them
predisposed to believe in paranormal or alien National Geographic Survey. In other words,
peculiarly American, informed these stories and
experiences. more people believe that the US government is
our interest in them. Space exploration in the
Additionally, there’s old-fashioned covering up evidence of alien life than believe
1950s and ’60s forced the country to admit that
hallucination. A recent international survey of that Jesus is the son of God (a 2013 Harris Poll
a vast unknown lay beyond our atmosphere — at
more than 30,000 people, none of who were survey found that 68 percent of respondents
the same time, the Cold War inspired existential
diagnosed with schizophrenia or other mental believed Christianity’s central tenet). That
fear of invasion. The 1960s and ’70s were
health issues, found that 6 percent of them makes Hillary Clinton’s campaign promise to
attended by horizon-broadening mysticism, reported experiencing a hallucination unrelated open up files on Area 51 look all the more canny.
publicized experimentation with drugs —
to drugs, alcohol, or sleep. Finally, Michael It also points to a strange moment for us
people talked about out-of-body experiences.
Shermer, prominent American skeptic and humans, for how our understanding of our place
The 1980s saw an explosion of angst around
columnist for Scientific American, notes, in the universe has changed over the last 50
“stranger danger,” with a near-constant reports
“Sometimes people just make stuff up.” years. “We’ve become more materialistic,
of child abduction and sexual molestation, and
By the end of the 1990s, the alien scientific, secular, and yet we are exactly the
then, recovered and repressed memory. Alien
abduction bubble had burst. Ratings fell for the same human beings . . . with the same
abduction stories absorbed those strains, re-
“The X-Files.” In April 2001, reports (later physiological and psychological makeup. Our
inventing them as anal probes and sinister
denied) circulated that the British Flying Saucer brains are hard-wired to believe in something
hybrid breeding programs. Bureau, 1,500 members strong at its peak, was other than ourselves,” said Clarke. “People will
Meanwhile, psychologists like French
shutting down after a long dry spell of no carry on believing it because I think it’s just a
were examining alien abduction narratives from
sightings. Five months later, two planes crashed natural part of what we are.”
a more skeptical perspective. And what they
into the Twin Towers and no one cared about Or maybe not. In 1979, Pulitzer Prize-
found is that the truth wasn’t so much out there
little green men anymore. “X-Files” director winning poet James Merrill published
as it was in our heads. “People have weird
Chris Carter, at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, “Mirabell: Books of Number,” a work
experiences in all societies, given that our
declared that after 9/11, the mood just wasn’t transcribing the poet’s conversations with spirits
nervous systems are the same the world over,”
right anymore. In 2006, Ben Macintyre, using a Ouija board. “If the spirits aren’t
explained French. “It’s the interpretations that
columnist for The Times, declared that the external, how astonishing the mediums
might differ.” Internet had undermined belief in UFOs and become!” he said in an interview. The
A small but stubborn percentage of alien
alien visitation: “The unidentified flying object implication is perhaps disappointing — it’s not
abduction experiences defy clear scientific
has been identified, and cannot fly any more. ET spirits, it’s not aliens, it’s just us — but also
explanation, but many of the rest can have a
has gone home.” Skepticism, it seemed, had beautiful. And useful. “Investing time and
number of different physiological or
killed the UFO. money into why people have these kinds of
psychological explanations, including epilepsy,
Except that it hadn’t. Not really. extraordinary experiences might help us to
which can be preceded by visual disruptions,
David Clarke is a UFO researcher who answer fundamental questions that we don’t
narcolepsy, or sleep paralysis.
investigated the British government’s UFO files have answers for, like why do we have
In normal sleep, your body is relaxed
— a former believer, he’s now a skeptic and consciousness? I don’t believe in aliens, but I do
nearly to the point of paralysis, presumably to
author of several books, including “How UFOs believe that something unusual is happening to
keep you from acting out your dreams. Sleep
Conquered the World.” In his view, the Internet these people and it ought to be studied,” said
paralysis is a disruption of lucid dreaming in
didn’t kill alien belief so much as offer up Clarke.
which the mind partially wakes but finds that the
hundreds of echo chambers for it to thrive in. “I Solving those riddles takes a lot of
body has not. It can be terrifying: Individuals
think there are just as many people who believe serious work, leads to a lot of dead ends, and
report sensing entities in the room with them and
that these things happen, but I think that they’ve might not prove satisfying even if we arrive at
being unable to move, pressure on their chests,
retreated from public view and they just talk to answers. Which is why, in the end, it may just be
out-of-body-like sensations coupled with
themselves,” said Clarke. “In order for you to be easier to attribute to aliens all the many
intense, heightened emotions. In the past and in
a party to that, you need to buy into that reality.” wonderful things that we simply do not
other cultural contexts, this experience was
Skeptics want to believe that fewer understand about the condition of being human.
attributed to demons or evil spirits or a religious
people believe, that more people are aware of []
phenomenon. In America, science fiction was
explanations like sleep paralysis or false
increasingly part of mainstream entertainment,
memories. “People are capable of these fantastic
and stories about alien contact experiences were
experiences without them being real outside of
covered as news, so aliens seemed like a
the brain,” said Shermer, adding, too, that the
plausible explanation for these experiences.
camera-phone age is increasing the burden of
Then there’s the slippery nature of
evidence on experiencers.
memory itself. The richness of a remembered
Experiencers want to believe that public
experience is no guarantee of its objective
skepticism is subsiding. Rosemary Ellen Guiley,
reality, even less so if that memory was
a prolific American writer about paranormal and
“recalled” through hypnotic regression. Though