Alien abduction

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As an alien abduction ( English abduction alien or alien abduction experience (AAE) ; in the ufology after a classification of UFO encounters by J. Allen Hynek also close encounter of the fourth kind (Engl. Close encounter of the fourth kind , short- CE 4 )) is the abduction of humans by extraterrestrial beings .

Assumptions about the factuality of such kidnappings are based on reports from the victims of the alleged kidnappings. However, there is no evidence that humans were ever abducted by aliens, nor does it exist for the existence of alien life at all.

The mythological being Gray is associated with the phenomenon in several cases by ufologists and alleged kidnapping victims.

History of the phenomenon

The first modern case of its kind that caused a sensation involved the American couple Betty and Barney Hill , who claimed to have sighted a UFO in 1961 . After Betty suffered for months from nightmares about being in a laboratory equipped with unknown instruments , she and her husband were treated with hypnosis , with Barney Hill describing similar experiences as his wife. Travis Walton had a similar experience in the 1970s . The phenomenon also became known to a larger circle through the writer Whitley Strieber , who had some personal experiences from 1985 examined in hypnosis sessions and presented them in 1987 in his book Communion (German: The Visitors ). However, Strieber does not insist on an extraterrestrial origin of the experience, but rather carefully considers the possibilities of the unconscious . The content of the book was filmed in 1989 under the same title as a feature film with Christopher Walken in the lead role.

It is difficult to get reliable numbers of how many people claim they were abducted by aliens and subjected to various medical experiments in their spaceships. In 1992, the American polling institute Roper published a poll according to which 3.7 million Americans had experiences that indicated a kidnapping. The validity of this study and its results has been questioned several times. Another poll by Roper in 2002 found that 1.4% of the US population remembered four out of five key experiences of kidnapping.

A 1988 study at the University of New Mexico found that about 20% of volunteers who were injected with a high dose of dimethyltryptamine had experiences identical to those of an alien abduction.

Described process

Most victims initially experience only a few psychological and somatic symptoms that are not very specific (such as insomnia, nightmares and fear of the dark) after the alleged abduction . Only when specific questioning techniques are used, especially when hypnotic regression is used by a psychotherapist familiar with the phenomenon, do memories of the kidnappings arise themselves. The persons concerned then report - essentially in agreement - about their experiences. If one uses the ideal-typical reconstructions made by various authors as a guide, the process of such an abduction can be described as follows:

  1. First of all, the victim sees an unusual sky phenomenon (e.g. a brilliant bright light). In some of the abductions, people who were not abducted also saw an unusual phenomenon in the sky at the same time.
  2. Alien figures appear as if from nowhere, robbing the victim of willpower and sensitivity using unknown methods.
  3. Through these figures or through a kind of beam of light (also known as a tractor beam ), the victim is brought into a spaceship, where they find themselves in a brightly lit room, often filled with strange machines.
  4. Here the victim - fixed on a kind of table or bed - is subjected to various, usually very painful, examinations and / or experiments: blood and tissue samples are taken, thin probes are inserted into various body openings or through the skin, and sometimes implants are inserted.
  5. The genitals of the abductees are of particular interest. Sperm and egg cells are collected - in some cases, sexual interactions between humans and human-like aliens occur. Women are sometimes implanted with fertilized eggs, and the fetuses are removed when they are later abducted.
  6. During all experiments the victims feel controlled from the outside. They experience themselves, even if they are not mechanically fixed, as helpless and defenseless.
  7. At the end of the investigation, either memories of the events are erased or the victims' minds are manipulated (“programmed”) so that they cannot talk about their experiences.
  8. There is usually no memory of the return transport to the kidnapping site (more rarely to another place).

With some kidnappings, the victims also report that they seem to be missing a certain amount of time. On the basis of these structurally uniform reports, extensive background knowledge of the phenomenon has developed over time in the social networks of those affected, UFO and kidnapping experts and some scientists. This also includes assumptions about the psychological and psychosocial effects on those affected and a corresponding ethical assessment of the experience.

In some cases, a more positive effect on the supposedly abducted is assumed: The interaction with the alien beings is said to have given them "higher insights" about themselves or the future of humanity. In the majority of reports - this tendency intensified in the 1980s and 1990s - the kidnappings and their aftermath are assessed extremely negatively. The kidnappings, and especially the painful and degrading medical experiments that took place within them, are viewed as traumatizing experiences. Accordingly, the majority of the abduction victims suffer from symptoms such as those described by post-traumatic stress disorder . Many of those affected report multiple kidnappings, which began regularly in childhood and which occurred repeatedly over the decades. Many find the knowledge that they will continue to be victims in the future as particularly agonizing.

Celebrities who report kidnappings

  • Kary Mullis , American biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 , claims to have been kidnapped by aliens in 1985.
  • Ace Frehley , co-founder and former lead guitarist of the hard rock band Kiss , said he was kidnapped several times from 1968 onwards.
  • Whitley Strieber , American writer . He describes his alleged abduction by aliens in his work The Visitors ( Communion , 1987).
  • Betty and Barney Hill , American couple who became famous for their alleged kidnapping.
  • Travis Walton , American forest worker known for his alleged kidnapping. His story was made into a film.
  • Charles Hickson was allegedly abducted on October 11, 1973 near Pascagoula, Mississippi, by three beings with leathery gray skin and cancer-like pincers.

Scientific attempts at explanations

As an attempt to explain the claims to have been abducted by aliens, a whole series of hypotheses have been put forward in the last ten years, which investigate the question of what processes could have caused these perceptions, experiences and memories. They can be grouped into two types of explanations:

According to an explanatory model, the reports are to be classified in the context of cultural-historical processes and understood as a collective narration:

  • UFO researchers like Jacques Vallée , for example, point out that many descriptions of kidnapping correspond to myths and fairy tales , especially the descriptions of ghosts , fairies , sylphs and dwarfs . The author Ulrich Magin views the phenomenon in a similar way, but interprets stories of encounters with extraterrestrials in the context of "a narrative tradition that has only externally adapted to the changing times".
  • Several scholars have also worked out references to religious ideas, such as the Greek idea of Proteus , angels , demons and apparitions of Mary such as that of Fatima . The sexual component of the kidnappings refers to the incubi and succubi of Jewish and Christian mythology . The role of the abductee as “mediator for messages” shows parallels to shamanic initiation rites.
  • Closely related to this is the theory that the descriptions are based on “cultural takeovers”, ie that the experiences come from stories, books or films. Media-scientific findings on the distribution and introception of social patterns of interpretation also play a role.

According to another explanation, the experiences of kidnapping are the result of an (whatever kind of) individual psychological or physiological disorganization of the people who report on such experiences. This group also contains a number of competing individual declarations:

  • A more rational explanation of the phenomenon is that these experiences are misinterpreted cognitive processes , i.e. psychological illusions similar to optical illusions .
  • Another theory is that the alleged abductees are mentally ill . However, this assumption has been refuted by clinical tests. However, people with UFO experiences have “a significantly larger number of exotic beliefs” than the control groups examined. Furthermore, people with a tendency to produce imaginations are most likely to have such experiences.
  • Some scientists consider the experiences to be a consequence of post-traumatic stress disorders, for example unprocessed childhood trauma, experiences of violence or social stress.
  • It is also believed by some scientists that the descriptions obtained under hypnosis are therapeutically generated false memories , of which some studies provide evidence. Critics of this statement claim that hypnosis is often used by the police (in the USA) for successful reconstruction of facts, that in the laboratory experiments to create false memories for the test subjects insignificant material was used and this was not related to the dramatic circumstances of a kidnapping to be compared.
  • A further explanation is provided by so - called out -of- body experiences (LFS). Because of the similarities between the two experiences, LFS researchers conclude that the phenomenon could be the same.
  • Another theory traces the alleged perceptions back to sleep paralysis or hallucinations in the context of sleep. A number of studies also provide serious evidence for this.

Regardless of the question of how the reality content of the kidnapping experiences is to be assessed from a scientific point of view, “the fact remains that thousands of those affected are subjectively convinced of the reality of the kidnappings after they have been 're-remembered' and begin to reconstruct their biographies and family histories accordingly and align both your everyday life and your future planning to this conviction ”.

“The kidnapping reports fall out of the conventional pattern of individually explained perception or memory disorders not only because psychological examinations of the persons concerned - apart from the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - hardly produce any noticeable findings. It is even more important that it is a collective phenomenon: Mostly without having had contact with other victims beforehand, under hypnosis , those affected report not completely identical experiences, but structurally and symbolically amazingly similar experiences. The density of memories and the consistency of the narrations increase with each therapy session. Once accepted, the kidnapping experience has a lasting impact on the lives of the victims. "

- Michael Schetsche

Artistic reception

The writer Whitley Strieber described in 1987 in his own account based on real events book Communion his own suffered abduction by aliens. In 1989 this was filmed under the title The Visitors with Christopher Walken in the leading role.

The alien abduction is also a main motif in numerous other films and television series of various genres , for example in The X-Files , The Fourth Kind and Encounter from Nowhere, a film adaptation of the abduction case Betty and Barney Hill .

In the live documentary Uri Geller Live: UFOs and Aliens - The Incredible TV Experiment , broadcast in 2008 , a kidnapping case was described and analyzed.

In the found footage film Alien Abduction , released in 2014, director Matty Beckerman shows the kidnapping of a family who is being captured with a camcorder. The so-called Brown Mountain Lights form the background .

The American movie The Signal from 2014 also deals with an alien abduction.

See also

literature

  • Thomas E. Bullard: UFO Abductions: The Measure of a Mystery. The Fund for UFO Research, Bloomington 1987
    • Vol. 1: Comparative Study of Abduction Reports,
    • Vol. 2: Catalog of Cases.
  • Nicholas P. Spanos, Patricia A. Cross, Kirby Dickson, Susan C. DuBreuil: Close Encounters: An Examination of UFO Experiences. In: Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 102/1993, ISSN  0145-2347 , pp. 624-632.
  • Nicholas P. Spanos, Cheryl A. Burgess, Melissa Faith Burgess: Past-life Identity, UFO Abductions, and Satanic Ritual Abuse: The Social Construction of Memories. In: The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. XLII (4), 1994, ISSN  0020-7144 , pp. 433-446.
  • John E. Mack : Abduction. Human Encounters With Aliens. Scribner, Boston 1994, ISBN 0-684-19539-9 .
  • Andrea Pritchard, David E. Pritchard , John E. Mack, Pam Kasey, Claudia Yapp (Eds.): Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. North Cambridge Press, Cambridge 1994.
  • CDB Bryan : Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs and the Conference at MIT Knopf, 1995
  • Steven E. Clark, Elizabeth F. Loftus: The Construction of Space Alien Abduction Memories. In: Psychological Inquiry. Vol. 7, No. 2, 1996, pp. 140-143, ISSN  1047-840X
    • Alien Discussions - Abducted by aliens. Research reports and discussion contributions to the conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, on the abduction phenomenon. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-86150-174-0 .
  • Roger Luckhurst: The Science-Fictionalization of Trauma: Remarks of Narratives of Alien Abduction. In: Science Fiction Studies. 24/1997, ISSN  0091-7729 , pp. 29-52.
  • Richard Thieme: Stalking the UFO Meme . In: CTheory. January 16, 1997.
  • Michael Schetsche: "Abductions by extraterrestrials" - a completely earthly interpretation pattern. In: Social Reality. Jenaer Blätter for social psychology and related sciences. 1, Issue 3-4, 1997, ISSN  1430-3841 , pp. 259-277 ( PDF; 92 kB ).
  • Johannes Fiebag (Ed.): Visitors from nowhere. UFO abductees report. Droemer & Knaur, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-426-77389-9 .
  • Courtland DB Bryan: UFO Files. Close encounters of the fourth kind. Alien abductions. Goldmann, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-442-12748-3 .
  • David M. Jacobs: UFOs and Abductions - Challenging the Borders of Knowledge. Univ. Press of Kansas, Lawrence 2000, ISBN 978-0-7006-1032-7 .
  • Stuart Appelle, Steven Jay Lynn, Leonard Newman: Alien Abduction Experiences. In: Etzel Cardena, Steven Jay Lynn, Stanley Krippner (Eds.): Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence. Washington DC 2000, ISBN 1-55798-625-8 , pp. 253-282.
  • Gerald L. Eberlein : Four Types of Explanations of CE IV UFO Reports. In: Journal of Anomalies. 1/2001, ISSN  1617-4720 , pp. 39-49.
  • William J. Cromie: Alien abduction claims examined . In: Harvard Gazette. February 20, 2003.
  • Bill Chalker: Hair of the Alien - DNA and Other Forensic Evidence of Alien Abductions. Simon & Schuster, London 2005, ISBN 0-7434-9286-2 .
  • Susan A. Clancy: Abducted - how people come to believe they were kidnapped by aliens. Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-674-01879-6 .
  • The Journal of Alien-Encounter Research. 2007 ( Issue 1 (PDF; 2.2 MB), Issue 2 ; PDF; 2.7 MB).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ A b C. DB Bryan: Close encounters of the fourth kind: alien abduction, UFOs, and the conference at MIT Knopf, New York 1998, ISBN 0-679-42975-1 .
  2. ^ J. Allen Hynek: The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. 1972, ISBN 978-1-56924-782-2 .
  3. ↑ Jenny Randles, Peter Houghe: The Complete Book of UFOs: An Investigation into Alien Contact and Encounters. Sterling Publishing, 1994, ISBN 0-8069-8132-6 .
  4. ^ Stuart Appelle: The Abduction Experience: A Critical Evaluation of Theory and Evidence. In: Journal of UFO Studies. ns 6, 1995/96, pp. 29-78.
  5. ^ Robert Sheaffer: A Skeptical Perspective on UFO Abductions. In: Andrea Pritchard, David E. Pritchard, John E. Mack, Pam Kasey, Claudia Yapp (Eds.): Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. North Cambridge Press, Cambridge 1994, pp. 382-388.
  6. ↑ Thomas E. Bullard: The Variety of Abduction Beings. In: Andrea Pritchard, David E. Pritchard, John E. Mack, Pam Kasey, Claudia Yapp (Eds.): Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. North Cambridge Press, Cambridge 1994, pp. 90-91.
  7. ^ Richard Hall: Are UFO Abductions a Universal or a Culturally Dependant Phenomenon. In: Andrea Pritchard, David E. Pritchard, John E. Mack, Pam Kasey, Claudia Yapp (Eds.): Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. North Cambridge Press, Cambridge 1994, pp. 191-193.
  8. ↑ John G. Fuller: The Interrupted Journey. ISBN 3-930219-12-3 .
  9. ↑ Friedman, Marden: Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. 2007.
  10. ↑ s. the collection of articles in: Robert Sheaffer: The Selling of the Travis Walton "Abduction" Story. Some background information
  11. ↑ Jerome Clark: The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial. Visible Ink, 1998, ISBN 1-57859-029-9 .
  12. ↑ a b Susan Blackmore: Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis? ( Memento from June 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Skeptical Inquirer. 22, 1998, pp. 23-28 ( Internet Archive )
  13. ^ The Roper Poll: UFOs & Extraterrestrial Life. Americans' Beliefs and Personal Experiences ( Memento of May 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). September 2002
  14. ↑ Rick Strassmann: DMT - The Molecule of Consciousness: On the Biology of Near-Dead Experiences and Mystical Experiences. AT Verlag, Baden / Munich 2001, ISBN 978-3-85502-967-9 , pp. 254-297.
  15. ↑ Michael Schetsche : Kidnapped! From earthly victims and extraterrestrial perpetrators . In: Michael Schetsche, Martin Engelbrecht (Ed.): From humans and extraterrestrials. Bielefeld: Transcript-Verlag 2008, pp. 157-182.
  16. ↑ London Review of Books: What might they want? Retrieved July 18, 2015
  17. ^ Nathan Geffen et al .: Errors in Celia Farber's March 2006 article in Harper's Magazine ( Memento of June 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 383 kB), March 25, 2006, p. 28
  18. ^ The Examiner: Ace Frehley of KISS claims to have been abducted by aliens. Who else? Retrieved July 18, 2015
  19. ↑ Die Welt: When the Aliens Kidnapped Charles Hickson October 13, 2013 Retrieved March 15, 2016
  20. ↑ Ulrich Magin: Trolls, Yetis, Tatzelworms. Puzzling phenomena in Central Europe. Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-37394-1 , p. 92.
  21. ^ Jacques Vallée: Dimensions. Munich 1996, passim
  22. ↑ Keith Thompson: Angels and Other Aliens. UFO phenomena in a new interpretation. Munich 1993, passim.
  23. ↑ Keith Thompson: Angels and Other Aliens. UFO phenomena in a new interpretation. Munich 1993, pp. 106-111.
  24. ↑ cf. Susan Blackmore: Psychic Experiences: Psychic Illusions . In: Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 16, No. 4, 1992, pp. 367-376; dt .: physical illusions. In: Gero von Randow (Ed.): My paranormal bike and other reasons for skepticism. Reinbek 1993, pp. 131-139.
  25. ↑ Terry Matheson: Alien Abduction: Creating A Modern Phenomenon. Prometheus Books, 1998, ISBN 1-57392-244-7 .
  26. ^ Robert A. Baker: Studying the Psychology of the UFO Experience . In: Skeptical Inquirer. 18, 3, 1994, pp. 239-242; German: For the psychological investigation of UFO experiences. In: Gero von Randow (Ed.): The stranger in the glass and other reasons for skepticism. Reinbek 1996, pp. 31-38
  27. ↑ Nicholas P. Spanos et al .: Close Encounters: An Examination of UFO Experiences. In: Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 102, 4, 1993, pp. 624-632.
  28. ^ Iona Miller, Graywolf Swinney: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the Consciousness Restructuring Process . Asklepia Foundation, 2000.
  29. ^ Jacques Vallée: Confrontations. Munich 1996, p. 156f., 170-176.
  30. ^ Alvin Lawson: Abductions and Birth Memories ( Memento December 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). 1997/1999/2000
  31. ^ Martin Gardner: The False Memory Syndrome. In: Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 17, No. 4, 1993, pp. 370-375; Vol. 18, No. 5, 1994, pp. 464-470; German: false memories. In: Gero von Randow (Ed.): The stranger in the glass and other reasons for skepticism. Reinbek 1996, pp. 133-157.
  32. ↑ Helmut Lammer, Oliver Sidla: UFO - Nahbegegegen. Herbig, Munich 1996, p. 76f.
  33. ^ Robert Peterson: Are Alien Abductions OBEs? In: Lessons Out of the Body. Charlottesville (VA) 2001, chap. 24.
  34. ^ Susan Blackmore, Marcus Cox: Alien Abductions, Sleep Paralysis and the Temporal Lobe . In: European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies. 1, 2000, pp. 113-118.
  35. ↑ Peter Huston: Night Terrors, Sleep Paralysis, and Devil Stricken Demonic Telephone Cords from Hell. In: Skeptical Inquirer. Vol. 17, No. 1, 1992, pp. 64-69; German: tied up by the devil with the telephone cord. In: Gero von Randow (Ed.): My paranormal bike and other reasons for skepticism. Reinbek 1993, pp. 141-147.
  36. ↑ a b Michael Schetsche : Trauma in social discourse. Interpretation patterns, actors, publics ( Memento from March 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Opening lecture of the 4th Child Protection Forum (Düsseldorf 2002)