Page 17 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

Alien Abductions Down Dramatically 17

Why alien abductions are diagnosed with schizophrenia or other mental believed Christianity’s central tenet). That
health issues, found that 6 percent of them makes Hillary Clinton’s campaign promise to
down dramatically reported experiencing a hallucination unrelated open up files on Area 51 look all the more canny.
to drugs, alcohol, or sleep. Finally, Michael It also points to a strange moment for us
Shermer, prominent American skeptic and humans, for how our understanding of our place
Continued from Page 15
columnist for Scientific American, notes, in the universe has changed over the last 50
“Sometimes people just make stuff up.” years. “We’ve become more materialistic,
Other social currents, some of them peculiarly
By the end of the 1990s, the alien scientific, secular, and yet we are exactly the
American, informed these stories and our
abduction bubble had burst. Ratings fell for the same human beings . . . with the same
interest in them. Space exploration in the 1950s
“The X-Files.” In April 2001, reports (later physiological and psychological makeup. Our
and ’60s forced the country to admit that a vast
denied) circulated that the British Flying Saucer brains are hard-wired to believe in something
unknown lay beyond our atmosphere — at the
Bureau, 1,500 members strong at its peak, was other than ourselves,” said Clarke. “People will
same time, the Cold War inspired existential
shutting down after a long dry spell of no carry on believing it because I think it’s just a
fear of invasion. The 1960s and ’70s were
sightings. Five months later, two planes crashed natural part of what we are.”
attended by horizon-broadening mysticism,
into the Twin Towers and no one cared about On that point, some skeptics and some
publicized experimentation with drugs —
little green men anymore. “X-Files” director believers agree. There’s a long history of
people talked about out-of-body experiences.
Chris Carter, at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con, anomalous experiences attributed to angels,
The 1980s saw an explosion of angst around
declared that after 9/11, the mood just wasn’t fairies, gods, and monsters — nonhuman contact
“stranger danger,” with a near-constant reports
right anymore. In 2006, Ben Macintyre, experiences made to fit a cultural context. Those
of child abduction and sexual molestation, and
columnist for The Times, declared that the experiences point to something common in
then, recovered and repressed memory. Alien
Internet had undermined belief in UFOs and human consciousness. “We have had
abduction stories absorbed those strains, re-
alien visitation: “The unidentified flying object experiences throughout history that demonstrate
inventing them as anal probes and sinister
has been identified, and cannot fly any more. that we are connected to something greater than
hybrid breeding programs.
ET has gone home.” Skepticism, it seemed, had ourselves,” Guiley said.
Meanwhile, psychologists like French
killed the UFO. Or maybe not. In 1979, Pulitzer Prize-
were examining alien abduction narratives from
Except that it hadn’t. Not really. winning poet James Merrill published
a more skeptical perspective. And what they
David Clarke is a UFO researcher who “Mirabell: Books of Number,” a work
found is that the truth wasn’t so much out there
investigated the British government’s UFO files transcribing the poet’s conversations with spirits
as it was in our heads. “People have weird
— a former believer, he’s now a skeptic and using a Ouija board. “If the spirits aren’t
experiences in all societies, given that our
author of several books, including “How UFOs external, how astonishing the mediums
nervous systems are the same the world over,”
Conquered the World.” In his view, the Internet become!” he said in an interview. The
explained French. “It’s the interpretations that
didn’t kill alien belief so much as offer up implication is perhaps disappointing — it’s not
might differ.”
hundreds of echo chambers for it to thrive in. “I spirits, it’s not aliens, it’s just us — but also
A small but stubborn percentage of alien
think there are just as many people who believe beautiful. And useful. “Investing time and
abduction experiences defy clear scientific
that these things happen, but I think that they’ve money into why people have these kinds of
explanation, but many of the rest can have a
retreated from public view and they just talk to extraordinary experiences might help us to
number of different physiological or
themselves,” said Clarke. “In order for you to be answer fundamental questions that we don’t
psychological explanations, including epilepsy,
a party to that, you need to buy into that reality.” have answers for, like why do we have
which can be preceded by visual disruptions,
Skeptics want to believe that fewer consciousness? I don’t believe in aliens, but I do
narcolepsy, or sleep paralysis.
people believe, that more people are aware of believe that something unusual is happening to
In normal sleep, your body is relaxed
explanations like sleep paralysis or false these people and it ought to be studied,” said
nearly to the point of paralysis, presumably to
memories. “People are capable of these Clarke.
keep you from acting out your dreams. Sleep
fantastic experiences without them being real Solving those riddles takes a lot of
paralysis is a disruption of lucid dreaming in
outside of the brain,” said Shermer, adding, too, serious work, leads to a lot of dead ends, and
which the mind partially wakes but finds that
that the camera-phone age is increasing the might not prove satisfying even if we arrive at
the body has not. It can be terrifying:
burden of evidence on experiencers. answers. Which is why, in the end, it may just be
Individuals report sensing entities in the room
Experiencers want to believe that public easier to attribute to aliens all the many
with them and being unable to move, pressure
skepticism is subsiding. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, wonderful things that we simply do not
on their chests, out-of-body-like sensations
a prolific American writer about paranormal and understand about the condition of being human.
coupled with intense, heightened emotions. In
mystical experiences, explained, “More people
the past and in other cultural contexts, this
are willing to talk about their experiences Linda Rodriguez McRobbie is an American
experience was attributed to demons or evil
because media has opened the door, because freelance writer living in London. []
spirits or a religious phenomenon. In America,
there has been a lot of media attention on all
science fiction was increasingly part of
kinds of experiences, positive and negative. . . .
mainstream entertainment, and stories about
This is validating, that they can talk about it and
alien contact experiences were covered as news,
not be ridiculed.”
so aliens seemed like a plausible explanation for
Yet if periodic polls are any indication,
these experiences.
Americans have remained consistent on the
Then there’s the slippery nature of
subject of aliens for the last three decades. At
memory itself. The richness of a remembered
any given moment, roughly 10 percent of
experience is no guarantee of its objective
Americans believe they’ve seen a UFO. A
reality, even less so if that memory was
Gallup poll from 1990 found that 47 percent of
“recalled” through hypnotic regression. Though
respondents believed UFOs were “real,” as in
now largely dismissed by mainstream alien. A 2015 Ipsos poll found that 56 percent of
psychology, hypnotic regression remains
Americans believed in UFOs. American
popular with experiencers. Psychologists say
disbelief of the government line on UFOs has
that discerning true memories of actual events
also remained steady. In 1996, 71 percent
from true memories of imagined events is
thought the government was hiding something;
impossible, especially if the individual was
it was 79 percent in 2012, according to a
predisposed to believe in paranormal or alien
National Geographic Survey. In other words,
experiences.
more people believe that the US government is
Additionally, there’s old-fashioned
covering up evidence of alien life than believe
hallucination. A recent international survey of that Jesus is the son of God (a 2013 Harris Poll
more than 30,000 people, none of who were
survey found that 68 percent of respondents