Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Bizarre World of Doctor David Jacobs: An Interview and Review, Part Two of Three

Mental Health Issues 
            
Jacobs repeatedly suggested themes of what he has come to call 'abduction events' were formed from the testimonies of abductees. Similarly, the commonly held views among the UFO community of what takes place during alleged alien abductions are assumed to be the results of reports submitted by abductees.

The validity of such assumptions could in itself be debated, as a great deal has been competently questioned concerning researchers' selective citation and selective omission of details contained within witness statements and reports. Additionally, the origins, handling and lack of public access to such reports have been competently called into question.

I will currently pass on such considerations, however, choosing instead to enter the fact there are actually many, many reasons people may say the things they say in addition to the possibility the statements are accurate. While Jacobs, some of his peers and the UFO community tend to cite an allegedly significant number of witnesses who supposedly narrate strikingly similar accounts of often abusive encounters with non-human beings, there is a prevailing failure to objectively address virtually any of the conclusively known reasons why people commonly narrate extraordinary yet entirely confabulated experiences.

The resulting current culture within abduction research could reasonably be interpreted to be conducive to the exploitation of self-described witnesses, potentially damaging their mental health and emotional well being while omitting mention of relevant facts.
The predominant failure within ufology to acknowledge and address such reasons arguably contributes to the continuing alienation of all but a fringe element of the professional mental health community. The overall effect of the situation presents an incomplete and inaccurate assessment of what has come to be known as the abduction phenomenon, while sensationalizing circumstances of which there are actually quite valid and likely explanations. The resulting current culture within abduction research could reasonably be interpreted to be conducive to the exploitation of self-described witnesses, potentially damaging their mental health and emotional well being while omitting mention of relevant facts.

The common lack of accepting and discussing data set forth by the professional mental health community, much less minimizing said data, detrimentally fails to present a thorough and objective assessment of the situation. This is arguably conducive to creating unnecessary distress among self-described witnesses, potentially misrepresenting actuality and lacking objectivity. A reasonable debate can be made that not only does the UFO community commonly fail to produce objective analysis of the situation, but distorts actuality in a most disproportionate manner. The least likely explanations receive a majority of attention while infinitely more likely explanations, consisting of facts established within the medical profession, commonly fail to so much as receive anything more than a brief and dismissive mention.

The fact of the matter is the current Western mental health paradigm indicates emotional traumata, which may result from any number of common, although very distressing, situations, can indeed lead individuals to sincerely yet incorrectly interpret they experienced most extraordinary circumstances. Untreated severe emotional traumata should be expected to produce symptoms including inaccurately interpreting details of events, misidentifying individuals present during such events and decreased abilities to think critically. Symptoms also commonly include decreased abilities to accurately recall chronological orders of events, becoming mistakenly convinced of connections between circumstances that are actually unrelated, and incorrectly perceiving traumatic experiences to be recurring. Auditory and visual hallucinations are not uncommon, and symptoms may be re-stimulated and subsequently experienced under any number of potential conditions and unknown to the individual.

This is not to suggest all reports of abduction should be filed under untreated emotional traumata, as they should not. I invite, however, consideration of the following:

- Failing to address relevant mental health issues, of which emotional traumata is but one of many, does a disservice to witnesses who could benefit from receiving proper medical and therapeutic care.

- Failing to address relevant mental health issues paints an incomplete and grossly distorted picture of the abduction phenomenon.

I am confidently of the understanding the current mental health paradigm does not include encouraging a traumatized individual, regardless of possible original sources of the trauma, to participate in multiple regressive hypnosis sessions in which the likelihood of extraterrestrial abusers is explored at length.
- Even if we were to unquestionably accept witness testimonies and hypnotically retrieved information as representations of factual, alien-related events, witnesses commonly describe such events as extremely traumatic, in and of itself making the symptoms of traumata relevant. Both the welfare of the witness and the accuracy of research are then at risk. I am confidently of the understanding the current mental health paradigm does not include encouraging a traumatized individual, regardless of possible original sources of the trauma, to participate in multiple regressive hypnosis sessions in which the likelihood of extraterrestrial abusers is explored at length. Such circumstances demand much more attention and accountability from researchers and a community claiming to prioritize witness care and accurate information.

While certain researchers and UFO enthusiasts cite various supposed fantastic circumstances as seemingly indicative of the reality of alien abduction, a bit closer look reveals many such circumstances are not so fantastic after all. This is the case, as demonstrated above, when it is suggested that an extraordinarily large number of people claim to encounter aliens, assuming there actually is such a large group of people, and that the existence of such a group implies the claims are accurate. There are actually any number of reasons conclusively established as to why large amounts of people might incorrectly believe and say such things. Again, I wish to please emphasize this does not by any means indicate all reported abductions are due to emotional traumata, but it indeed establishes the alleged number of testimonies is not at all as peculiar as some enthusiasts try to lead us to believe.

Another commonly cited yet rather ill conceived point concerns accusations the scientific community refuses to provide ufology with serious consideration and review. I have no argument with the generally accepted perception that scientists currently enjoying successful careers consider it wise to publicly avoid the topic of alien abduction. However, there are exceptions. A more accurate description of the situation might include acknowledging academia in fact provides periodic qualified critical review, but the UFO community widely refuses to offer the work reasonable attention that would facilitate better understandings and productive dialog.

Qualified Experts

Critical review was provided by Oxford graduate Dr. Susan Blackmore, who has a degree in psychology and physiology in addition to her Ph.D. in parapsychology. Her article, Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis (Skeptical), was published in the May/June 1998 issue of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine. Among other points of interest, Blackmore addressed the now infamous Roper polls designed by Jacobs, Budd Hopkins and Ronald Westrum, funded by Robert Bigelow and seemingly attempting to identify experiencers of anomalous events such as alleged alien abduction. 

I found it quite questionable that Dr. Jacobs cited data from the polls during his Ozark presentation, as Blackmore and others offered valid reasons to seriously doubt the credibility of such data, particularly considering its fantastic nature. Jacobs failed to inform conference attendees of the concerns raised by Blackmore and her peers.

Blackmore explained:
The claim that 3.7 million Americans have been abducted was based on a Roper Poll conducted between July and September 1991 and published in 1992. The authors were Budd Hopkins, a painter and sculptor; David Jacobs, a historian; and Ron Westrum, a sociologist (Hopkins, Jacobs, and Westrum 1992). In its introduction John Mack, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, claimed that hundreds of thousands of American men, women, and children may have experienced UFO abductions...

The Roper Organization provides a service for other questions to be tacked on to their own regular polls. In this case, 5,947 adults (a representative sample) were given a card listing eleven experiences and were asked to say whether each had happened to them more than twice, once or twice, or never. The experiences (and percentage of respondents reporting having had the experience at least once) included: seeing a ghost (11 percent), seeing and dreaming about UFOs (7 percent and 5 percent), and leaving the body (14 percent). Most important were the five "indicator experiences": 1) "Waking up paralyzed with a sense of a strange person or presence or something else in the room" (18 percent); 2) "Feeling that you were actually flying through the air although you didn't know why or how" (10 percent); 3) "Experiencing a period of time of an hour or more, in which you were apparently lost, but you could not remember why, or where you had been" (13 percent); 4) "Seeing unusual lights or balls of light in a room without knowing what was causing them, or where they came from" (8 percent); and 5) "Finding puzzling scars on your body and neither you nor anyone else remembering how you received them or where you got them" (8 percent).

The authors decided that "when a respondent answers `yes' to at least four of these five indicator questions, there is a strong possibility that individual is a UFO abductee."
The only justification given is that Hopkins and Jacobs worked with nearly five hundred abductees over a period of seventeen years. They noticed that many of their abductees reported these experiences and jumped to the conclusion that people who have four or more of the experiences are likely to be abductees.
From there, the stunning conclusion of the Roper Poll was reached. Out of the 5,947 people interviewed, 119 (or 2 percent) had four or five of the indicators. Since the population represented by the sample was 185 million, the total number was 3.7 million -- hence the conclusion that nearly four million Americans have been abducted by aliens.
Why did they not simply ask a question like, "Have you ever been abducted by aliens?"? They argue that this would not reveal the true extent of abduction experiences since many people only remember them after therapy or hypnosis. If abductions really occur, this argument may be valid. However, the strategy used in the Roper Poll does not solve the problem.
With some exceptions, many scientists have chosen to ignore the poll because it is so obviously flawed. However, because its major claim has received such wide publicity, I decided a little further investigation was worthwhile.


Ted Goertzel
Ted Goertzel is a professor in the Rutgers University Sociology Department. Like Dr. Blackmore, he also raised valid concerns about research methodology undertaken by Jacobs, Hopkins and Westrum during their designing and analyzing of the polls. In a 1994 work titled, Measuring the Prevalence of False Memories: A New Interpretation of a "UFO Abduction Survey," Goertzel suggested it was infinitely more likely the polls effectively measured the prevalence of false memories than encounters with aliens.

Explaining why, Goertzel wrote:

This conclusion is also strongly supported by Dawes and Mulford's (1993) innovative study at the University of Oregon which demonstrated that the dual nature of Hopkins, Jacobs and Westrum's first item, which asked about waking up paralyzed and about sensing a strange person in the room in the same item, actually led to an increased recollection of unusual phenomena as compared to a properly constructed single-issue survey item. Textbooks on questionnaire writing universally warn against "double-barreled" questions of this sort because they are known to give bad results. Dawes and Mulford confirm this and further offer the explanation that the combination of the two issues in one item causes a conjunction effect in memory which increases the likelihood of false recollection.
While the Hopkins, Jacobs and Westrum scale is not a valid measure of UFO abduction, they have inadvertently constructed a useful measure of another phenomenon: the tendency to have false memories.

Further evaluating alleged alien abduction as described by Jacobs, Goertzel continued:

Dr. David Jacobs was kind enough to speak to our class to familiarize the students with the issue, and I had the opportunity to speak with him informally after the lecture. At that time, I mentioned the "UFO abduction" case discussed in Siegel's (1992) book Fire in the Brain. Jacobs had absolutely no interest in learning of Siegel's findings, and expressed the view that no one was qualified to speak on this issue unless they had done dozens of interviews with abductees under hypnosis, as he had. He clearly fit the profile of the true believer as described in my book Turncoats and True Believers (1992). He used numerous ideological defense mechanisms to avoid confronting unwelcome evidence.

This closed mindedness can be observed in Jacobs' book Secret Life (1992). As the reviewer for the Journal of UFO Studies (Rodeghier, 1992: 186) observed: "Does Jacobs lead his witnesses? Sadly, one must answer in the affirmative." The whole weight of his argument in the book depends on hypnosis sessions which he conducted himself, and in which his strong convictions cannot help but influence the respondents.

The dogmatism of Jacobs and his associates has also been noted by others in the community of believers in UFO abductions. Abductee Karla Turner (1993: 26) has written that "it is a myth that alien abductions of humans follow a set pattern or agenda... David Jacobs... and other writers hold a diversity of intelligent, often ingenious theories, yet each makes the same error. They ignore parts of the abductions evidence--whatever details don't support their ideas." UFO investigators Stefula, Butler and Hansen (1993) confronted this dogmatism when their investigation of the prominent Linda Napolitano case uncovered serious flaws and apparent fabrications. When they shared this evidence with UFO experts including Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, they found them completely unwilling to consider the evidence...

George Hansen asked me to ask David Jacobs for his reaction to their heartfelt memo, since he had not replied when they sent it to him. When I did so, he dismissed it out of hand, claiming that they were irresponsible members of the UFO fringe. He said the same about Karla Turner and other abduction researchers who differ from his and Budd Hopkins' understanding of the abduction phenomenon.
Jacobs did not mention or reference any of the above information during his Ozark presentation. He completely omitted reference to such qualified critical review while declaring polls indicated millions of people experience alien abduction.
Stephanie Kelley-Romano
Stephanie Kelley-Romano is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Bates College. She interviewed some 130 self-described alien abductees prior to the publication in 2006 of her Ph.D. thesis, Mythmaking in Alien Abduction Narratives, leading her to interpret the witness testimonies consist of social dynamics comparable to those found in religious movements. 

In her essay, Alien Abductions as Mythmaking, the associate professor explained that although she remained skeptical of the empirical reality of alien abductions, invalidating the claims was beyond the scope of her inquiry. "Still," she added, "I conclude that these people sincerely believe they have been kidnapped by extraterrestrial beings."

"In my classes, you can claim anything you want and if you can prove it, you will do well. If you can't, you won't," Kelley-Romano told Bates Magazine during an interview. 

She and fellow researchers Barbeito and Brown interpreted 'hybridization' narratives to likely be expressions of anxieties related to reproductive technologies, at least as compared to literal experiences. Additional factors likely to contribute to forming such narratives include influence of popular culture and influence from others who promote and support such beliefs.

"The gray aliens are often on Earth to start a hybrid race that can’t survive without nurturing from humans," she observed of the narratives and beliefs commonly circulating throughout the UFO community.
Kelley-Romano contended her work led her to observe abductee testimonies represent a religious-like evolving myth. "In the narratives," she explained, "you see people using their experience like a religion: for self-guidance on how to live or to achieve a sense of unity and transcendence."

...............................................................................................................................

The Bizarre World of Doctor David Jacobs: An Interview and Review, Part One of Three

The Bizarre World of Doctor David Jacobs: An Interview and Review, Part Three of Three

31 comments:

  1. “Jacobs repeatedly suggested themes of what he has come to call 'abduction events' were formed from the testimonies of abductees.”

    Dr. Jacobs himself creates the accounts in his subjects using hypnosis. I have made public on my website audio from the hypnosis sessions that he conducted with me of him engaging in overt leading and suggestion. The man is deliberately creating the narrative that he puts forward. It is not coming from his subjects. It is coming from him. In the case of Dr. Jacobs’ research, you need look no further than his own hypnosis practice.

    Having said that, I believe that there is a real phenomenon, and perhaps that does have certain patterns in it. Whatever those patterns are, they have been obliterated in Dr. Jacobs’ research by his using hypnosis to overlay his own narrative into the minds of his subjects, thereby contaminating whatever real memories might have been there.

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  2. While the psychological and technical aspects of poll interpretation are outside my wheelhouse, I can suggest a practical reason why the claims for the Roper poll are unlikely.

    The sheer numbers suggested by these UFO zealots belie their case. If millions of people were being abducted, one would only have to look out of his window at night to see saucers flitting around grabbing folks. The skies should be filled with saucers as they perform a task unequalled by anyone other than Santa Claus.

    Hilariously the sad (but typical) overstatement of their case, destroys it.

    Best,

    Lance

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    1. Those are valid concerns, Lance, and I too have thought about the logistics and practicality of so many supposed alien craft in the sky. It is particularly an issue when approaching alleged alien abduction from a physical, nuts and bolts perspective as I interpret to be the stance of Jacobs and company.

      The third and final part of this series of posts includes info provided by process design engineer Frank Purcell, who puts a pencil to just such issues. I confidently interpret he agrees with you, Lance, that such an amount of US air traffic as would be required to support an abduction campaign of the claimed scope becomes difficult to even seriously consider.

      By the way, part three also includes substantial contribution from microbiologist Dr. Tyler Kokjohn. He offers considerations on the feasibility of similar such claims, as well as ways to conclusively confirm or dismiss them, from the perspective of his field of expertise. I hope you and others find the series interesting.

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  3. Some comments from me on the links.

    Ted Geortzel references Phil Klass. Klass was a rabid debunker. The FBI found Phil Klass to be pest and tried to shake him off their leg, so to speak. Klass was obsessed and really wanted to destroy the reputation of anyone he perceived as accepting UFOs (and/or abductions) to be real.

    Geortzel writes, regarding trying to replicate the Hopkins/Jacobs/Westrum Roper Poll: "We began with telephone interviews of randomly selected telephone subscribers, but it proved too difficult for the students to obtain an adequate sample in that way, so we relaxed the sampling plan to allow the students to include their friends and family members. This kind of accidental sampling is not appropriate for generalizing to a population at large, but it is generally viewed as adequate for testing the validity and reliability of a measure. There is no reason to believe that systematic sampling biases were introduced which would have distorted the correlations between questionnaire items." - - -

    College students are ticking off Geortzel's questionaire to their family members and friends and Geortzel is fine with it. Ahem....not good professor.

    Geortzel writes: " By their criteria of having suffered four or five of these experiences, 3.7% of our respondents qualified as "abductees." This number is quite high, especially considering the fact that the interviews were done in the suburbs of Philadelphia, an urban region which is not known for a high frequency of UFO sightings or abduction reports." - - -

    How would Geortzel know what percentage is too high? No one really knows percentages of abductees. Furthermore reports from most ufologists, going back several decades, have refuted the skeptibunker idea that only some liquored-up redneck in podunk county with a population of 47 sees flyin' saucers and gets abducted. In the 1960s, as an example, John Keel was writing about UFO sightings over cities (often over apartment complexes), city schools and suburban schools....also cemetaries (that last one is really interesting and creepy).

    Geortzel writes: "George Hansen asked me to ask David Jacobs for his reaction to their heartfelt memo, since he had not replied when they sent it to him. When I did so, he dismissed it out of hand, claiming that they were irresponsible members of the UFO fringe. He said the same about Karla Turner and other abduction researchers who differ from his and Budd Hopkins' understanding of the abduction phenomenon." - - -

    Geortzel cherry-picks who suits his ideas and agenda. I wonder if he's read George Hansen's 'The Trickster and the Paranormal'....an esoteric book that postulates a Trickster being (God?, Satan?, Gaia?...who knows?) pervades our world, causing UFOs, aliens, ghosts, poltergeists, synchronicity as well as all other manner of paranormal happenings. Hansen's Trickster feeds off of "anti-structure" in individuals and in societies manifesting all sorts of ooglie-booglies to scare the bejesus out of us.



    CONTINUED -

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  4. -continued-pt.2

    As for Karla Turner, who Geortzel uses to back up his points as well..... She was a self-identified "alien abductee" as was her husband Casey, and an abduction investigator/writer. I personally don't agree with everything she put forward in her books or lectures (the latter which can be found on youtube) - Turner had some very controversial ideas and experiences such as sexed-up reptoids that raped human women, mean mantids and greys (the latter, who she said were created from the fetuses that human women carried and then aliens removed after a few weeks to grow in vats on spaceships and/or underground with the help of our covert military special ops.). She also claimed human clones were created by aliens and activated with stolen human souls. These clones were supposidly brought to term in the uteruses of cows on board spaceships and then popped out of the cow bellies, whole, as adults. Turner relied on a mix of conscious recall[usually the beginning of the abduction leading up to the missing time] and *hypnosis*.


    The Susan Clancy link with her debunking book "Abducted", relies on sleep paralysis and night terrors (a particularly horrible dream state) to explain away abduction accounts. Clancy conveniently ignores (as does Geortzel) the many reports people have have made of being taken when outside, during the day, driving, walking, farming, gardening, swimming (and multiple people abductions)...all manner of awake activities, not in bed or on a couch asleep.

    I'm not sure which link this excerpt is from: "1) This essay is based on a chapter from my dissertation (Ball 2009). A version was presented at the 2009 conference of the American Folklore Society in Boise, Idaho.
    (2) I therefore agree with Jodi Dean in seeing a special connection between UFO-abduction narratives and Internet technology, though our reasons differ. For Dean, the "multiple layerings and linkages" made by abductees and abduction investigators to account for seemingly unconnected occurrences as abduction phenomena mirror the links made possible through Internet technology (Dean 1998: 131).
    (3) A few examples: abduct.com, abovetopsecret.com, alien-abduction.com, aliencases. conforums.com, alien-ufos.com, book-ofthoth.com, curezone.com, irishufology.net, iwasabducted.com, theblackvault.com, ufocasebook.com, ufos-alien.com, ufoseek.com, unexplained-mysteries.com. " - - -

    The ufo (and alien abduction) phenomenon appears to have been around for along time. UFOs and aliens weren't created from the internet or from books or movies/tv programs or pop culture in general. The Big Study (on blogspot) posted a link to a comprehensive, worldwide report of sightings, close encounters and abductions (the report noted incidents thought to likely be hoaxed - such as the Linda Napolitano case). http://thecid.com/ufo/ The reports are world-wide and date back to the beginning of the 20th century.

    CONTINUED

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  5. -continued pt. 3 -

    Finally, Susan Blackmore's article in the Skeptical Inquirer: "I suggest that the best explanation for many abduction experiences is that they are elaborations of the experience of sleep paralysis." - - -

    Again, a debunker ignoring the many reports of awake, daytime, outside (and multiple people) abductions.


    The Roper Poll (results public), the Brad Steiger poll (results public and still ongoing, with updates every few years) and the recent Project Core (with results NOT to be made public, unfortunately more secrecy which ufology does not need)...these polls may provide clues to the abduction enigma, no matter how imperfect they were designed.

    But what 'aliens' are? - Extra-terrestrial?/Interdimensional?/Ultraterrestrial?/Cryptoterrestrial?.....I just don't know. The older I get, the more questions I have as a life-long close-encounter experiencer. I do think the powers-that-be behind our U.S. government have a particular interest in it, thus MILABs. Other western governments may have MILABs too. It's bad enough some unknown, non-human intelligence may be invading our lives - literally. And we then have a government black ops program that I think piggy-backs their own abductions to find out what the 'aliens' are so interested in.

    Personally I'd be very willing to take any physical and DNA tests to find out if there is anything in particular that would be of interest to 'aliens' or to MILABs. I don't think there is, but knowing that some close relatives have had sightings (including my late maternal grandfather with an amazing story from his young years in Turkey, before he had to leave during the Armenian genocide), I think this is generational and genetic oriented. But why and to what end, I don't know.

    ~ Susan Brown

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    1. Thanks Susan. That was interesting. It seems like both the way that abductions have been investigated in the UFO field, and the way that mainstream science has approached the subject, has been a rocky road. I suppose that is why we still have not progressed much in finding out what is going on.

      I too would be willing to take any physical and DNA tests. I tried taking pregnancy tests once a month for a year to test the theory that aliens are impregnating female experiencers on a regular basis, and they all came back as negative. But it would be interesting to do DNA tests along the lines that Dr. Kokjohn talks about, if that were possible.

      I also think that it might be generational and genetic oriented. My father had experiences and his mother too. It would be amazing if some kind of marker could be found that many or all experincers had.

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    2. Susan,

      I'd be happier with your dispensing with sleep disorders as a cause of abduction reports if you had negative sleep study results for "abductees" you could point to. Also, if you could quantify just how many "awake, daytime, outside (and multiple people) abductions" have taken place that would be helpful. Are there more of them than bed-to-bed abductions? I don't think any "abduction" researcher should be taken seriously who does not use sleep studies as part of an array of investigational tools. Sleep studies aren't done because paranormal investigators simply can't stand faisifying the data. They cherrypick investigational tools.

      Some of the people whose presentation fits your rebuttal have criminal records. They've threatened polygraph examiners (not that polygraph examinations prove the physical existence of alien beings). Their evidence usually consists of verbal report only. But evidence is not the standard. The standard, since the UFO community has set the bar extremely low to tout pet-project narratives, with the inevitable outrageous consequence, is proof.

      The notion that something strange happened means that that strangeness must inevitably involve alien beings requires a high standard of proof. The courageous thing to do is use the tests of the "debunkers" to vet your data.

      Otherwise, abduction researchers look like what many of them are: intellectual cowards.

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    3. Gary to me: "Some of the people whose presentation fits your rebuttal have criminal records. They've threatened polygraph examiners (not that polygraph examinations prove the physical existence of alien beings). Their evidence usually consists of verbal report only. But evidence is not the standard. The standard, since the UFO community has set the bar extremely low to tout pet-project narratives, with the inevitable outrageous consequence, is proof." - - -

      Gary, Who are "the people" that have "criminal records"?

      Pleasw show where I've used the "presentation" of criminals to rebut the debunkers linked in Jack's essay and please name these criminals as well.

      Thanks,

      Susan

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    4. Hi Emma, Y/W, I think it's the Virgo personality in me that needs to address what I see to be cynical hypocricy in debunkers who will use one ufo/alien researcher against another, neverminding that all of their ideas and methods might be suspect. It seems to be 'the enemy of my enemy, is my friend' attitude!

      Personally, I think that the future is for experiencers to speak for themselves (and the internet helps to fascilitate that),... eschew abduction investigators (especially people who want to write books)...and be receptive to DNA testing and home-kit specimen collections in case further anomalous experiences happen, so as to collect potential evidence - as you noted with people like microbiologist Tyler Kokjohn...As long as the results will be shared and made public.

      And yes, like you and many others I think there is a genetic, family component to this.

      Also, like you, I never had mystery pregnancies. And I most definately was a virgin until I had sex with a boyfriend - the physical proof was undeniable. Yet I can't ignore that there are women and men, that I think are sincere, who claim they were used for reproductive purposes by these beings. But does that translate to "hybrids"?...Not necessarily. We know these beings seem to have an ability to affect our perceptions. We might think we're looking at a "hybrid" when it's actually an 'alien' or an illusion.

      The enigma continues.

      Take Care,

      Susan

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    5. "Gary, Who are 'the people' that have 'criminal records'?"

      I'll let Jerome Clark, renowned debunker, answer your question.

      "UFO abductee Travis Walton, the target of one of Klass' most sustained debunking efforts, had a youthful scrape with the law - a not uncommon occurrence among teenagers who have grown up in broken homes, as Walton did - five years before his alleged encounter. The incident, which took place during a particularly troubled period in the young man's life, was hardly representative of a continuing pattern of criminal activity because soon afterwards, like most young offenders who are not hardcore criminal types, he straightened himself out and went on to lead a normal law-abiding adult life. Nonetheless, in any public discussion of Walton's claims, Klass never misses an opportunity to point to Walton's "criminal record" as if it were compelling evidence against the validity of the UFO episode. He reacts with indignation to any suggestion that this smacks of McCarthyism and character assassination." The post doesn't dispute the criminal record of the individual involved.

      http://www.nicap.org/klassvufo.htm

      On online review of one of Kevin Randle's Books states the following about Ed Walters, whom Budd Hopkins had concluded had been abducted: "Randle also is skeptical about the Gulf Breeze, Florida UFO photographs taken by Ed Walters. Randle points out that Walters had a previous minor criminal record and had hoaxed 'ghost' photos for fun at parties. Walters was paid a large amount of money for a book on UFOs, Randle asserts that a monetary gain is the reason for this UFO hoax."

      http://www.roundtownufosociety.com/Book%20Reviews/therandlereport.htm

      I guess I'm supposed to view Jerome Clark and Kevin Randle as confused. I was not accusing you of promoting the testimony of criminals. I was accusing you of throwing away a valid critique of the abduction scenario. Had some of the "abductees" of the Hopkins-Jacobs rip-off of sleep disorders availed themselves of a sleep study, my contention is, they would not have defaulted to the hopelessly inept UFO community for aid.

      The enigma continues for you.

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    6. Gary, does synchronicity happen to you on occasion? Well it has for you and me - On Wednesday, May 2, 2012, I wrote a skeptical post about the Travis Walton Abduction in The UFO Iconoclasts Blog. The link is here so you can personally see the entry and the date. However I'll c/p the post here as well.

      http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2012/04/source-of-travis-walton-abduction-tale.html

      [[ When I read Karl Pflock's opinion on the alleged Walton Abduction, I think it made the most sense. Before that, I believed Walton.

      It likely was a hoax, only involving 2-3 people...Travis Walton, Mike Rogers and Duane Walton. The 5 men in the backseat were hoaxed along with the rest of us.

      Rogers left the worksite for 2 hrs. that day with no one knowing where he went (to set up the ufo fascimile?). Walton did little work the whole day. The crew ended up going home past sundown, when usually they'd leave during daylight hours. But, a light in the woods wouldn't be noticeable or at least that dramatic during daylight hours.

      The Waltons were UFO buffs - admitting this to the local police and the two psychiatrists that the National Enquirer had flown in.

      Only Mike Rogers had a supposidly clear view of the ufo. The 5 men in the backseat did not - they saw a "light" and were listening to the frantic descriptions of Rogers who sped the truck away after Travis went to the ground (giving plenty of time for Travis and a 3rd accomplice to take down the lighted device and take off in a truck parked nearby, then hole up in a cabin somewhere for 5 days). Upon his return, Walton was not found to be malnourished, though he claimed he hadn't eaten during the abduction.

      Walton failed the first polygraph test. The one he later passed, from a different, less experienced examiner, was based on questions he and Duane submitted (unethical on the part of the examiner to even go along with that).

      Once a book deal was in the works, Travis' bio ,regarding ufos, was that he had no interest in them before his abduction - something the police and psychiatrists knew to not be true. The whole Walton family was obsessed with ufos, including the mother.

      Could a sci-fi cartoon influence Walton? Yes, and also a potential influence -- The UFO Incident (Interrupted Journey) aired on tv a couple of weeks before Walton's abduction. I think that movie sowed a seed in Travis, Duane and Mike. That and the National Enquirer giving monetary rewards for ufo/abduction evidence.

      ~ Susan

      By Brownie, at Wednesday, May 02, 2012 ]]


      And, as for Kevin Randle, what I know of him is he holds a Ph.D. from an online diploma mill and is a book-writing Roswell-ufo crash enthusiast who happens to not believe that abductions from ufo occupants are a possibility. I think Randle might have more to answer for than Ed Walters with that resume. Besides, You don't even know my opinion on the Ed Walters case, just as you didn't on the Travis Walton case. I will state I think it's signficant that Gulf Breeze is near the Pensacola Naval Base (which might tie into some military psy-op experiments or MILABS...or not).

      And I know, from your former blog, that you have no use for Jerome Clark because of his viscious attacks he wrote on UFO Updates List on Emma Woods and Carol Rainy; so your sarcasm doesn't work with me. I remember what you've written in the past, including what you wrote on UFO Magazine blog.

      ~ Susan

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    7. You asked for criminal records. I supplied them. I wasn't being sarcastic. Travis Walton's case is usually the case people cite when they argue against the idea abductions only occur when people are asleep in bed. According to your buddy Randle, Travis thinks Phil Klass "was a paid government disinformationist.”

      http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2012/03/philip-klass-travis-walton-and-steve.html

      Interesting conspiracy theory.

      Conspiracy theories work both ways. In 2007, I believe it was, Emmy Award-Winning journalist Linda Moulton Howe reported that the National Enquirer was for a time funded by the CIA. Travis won the Enquirer’s 5,000 dollar prize for “most impressive UFO incident of 1975”. The Enquirer apparently also paid for at least the Jack McCarthy polygraph. Assuming the agency still had a financial stake in the Enquirer, if the CIA then footed the bill for Travis's prize money, doesn’t that, in view of disinformation analysis, make the abduction UFO propaganda?

      “[Polygraph Examiner] McCarthy spent approximately two hours with Travis,” Klass wrote in A Dangerous Game, page 30, “briefing him on the polygraph test procedure, going over each question to be sure Travis felt able to answer with an unequivocal yes or no. When McCarthy finished around 4:00 P.M. he reported his findings to National Enquirer reporters and APRO’s [James] Harder. 'Gross deception.' Further, McCarthy reported, Travis was resorting to tricks, such as intentionally holding his breath, in an effort to ‘beat’ the test.”

      “When Harder telephoned Lorenzen to report the bad news, the National Enquirer reporters asked McCarthy to wait and adjourned to another room. When they returned they asked McCarthy to sign a hastily typed ‘secrecy agreement.’”

      Klass says later that “[s]everal weeks after Travis had flunked the McCarthy lie-detector test, the National Enquirer ran a large feature story about the ‘UFO-abduction.’ The article headlined the fact that the woodcutters had taken polygraph tests while Travis was still missing to determine if they might have killed him and hidden his body. Five of the six passed the test. There was no mention of McCarthy’s test that Travis had flunked badly.” Pages 30-31.

      Philip Klass. UFO Abductions: A Dangerous Game. New York: Prometheus Books, 1989.

      So it seems you and the deceased mean old debunker have similar sentiments. I didn't know your opinion on Walton or Walters. I'd like to know more. I am still waiting for your book. When it comes out, I'll buy the hardback.

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    8. Gary to me: "You asked for criminal records. I supplied them. I wasn't being sarcastic. Travis Walton's case is usually the case people cite when they argue against the idea abductions only occur when people are asleep in bed. According to your buddy Randle, Travis thinks Phil Klass "was a paid government disinformationist.” " - - -

      Gary, You brought up, to me, the subject of criminals as if I was somehow supporting them, when I didn't know who you were referring to. You presumed I was a Walton believer. And you were and are sarcastic about Clark and now "your buddy Randle" No, the prolific author (around 90 books churned out by him I think) 'Dr.' Randle isn't a "buddy" to me.


      Gary to me: "I didn't know your opinion on Walton or Walters. I'd like to know more. I am still waiting for your book. When it comes out, I'll buy the hardback." - - -


      Hmm?? Waiting for what book? More sarcasm from you, Gary. And because you disagree with me.

      But, since you opened the door again... I truly would like very much to read your autobiography, particular after witnessing your FUBAR meltdown on UFO Magazine Blog when you attacked one of their writers Alfred Lehmberg and the magazine's editors. Trolling with weird made-up names, then finally identifying yourself and.... the big Reveal(which I won't post here because I felt and still feel genuinely sorry for you).

      ~ Susan

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  6. While I do not agree with all of your lines of reasoning or methods of forming conclusions, Susan, I have an appreciation for the effort you put in your comments. I am glad my blog motivates you to consider such circumstances and express your thoughts to such an extent.

    As for me, I believe it is through integrating the work of qualified professionals into current ufology paradigms that ufology will integrate into the scientific paradigms. After all, why would the likes of Jacobs, Hopkins and Westrum not welcome qualified review, working with those academics willing to share interest in their abduction research while more widely accepted and less criticized protocols were developed? That would seem a reasonable path to me, resulting in a much more constructive and functional environment for all parties involved, including witnesses.

    Whether or not some of us readily accept it, SOME reported alien abductions are due to sleep paralysis, emotional traumata, false memories and similar such psychological and physiological conditions. SOME are apparently not.

    My primary reasons for citing Blackmore and Goetzler, by the way, were my interests in Goetzler's demonstration of Jacobs' bias and leading witnesses, and establishing the flawed methodology involved in the design and analyzing of the Roper polls. Concerning the latter, I would be interested to know what others think of that.

    Does anyone care to comment on what they think about a poll in which 5,947 people were surveyed, they were never actually asked if they have been abducted by aliens, and the designers of the survey concluded and subsequently declared that about four million Americans have been abducted by aliens? Anyone have any thoughts on that?

    Does it make you feel deceived and angry? ...or validated and happy? ...or something else? Why?

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    1. Jack, Your blog does indeed motivate me to consider a variety of possibilities. Sometimes more than many "believer" blogs or forums. As I think you know, I'm intrigued with MILABS and I know that's your interest as well, though I think we disagree on how far reaching MILABS are - you perhaps think it's the root cause of ufos/'aliens' while I think it piggy-backs for info onto a genuine phenomena that none of us fully understand and perhaps never will.


      Re. David Jacobs - Of course we know he leads witnesses to fit his sex-obsessed narrative as does Barbara Lamb, Ritchie 'hottub' Boylan, the late John Mack, the late Karla Turner (and more) - each with different twists from their own beliefs. Reading accounts of their clients, we can see how they've been infuenced by the particular investigator. And they used/use hypnosis.


      Re. Your question about The Roper Poll - I didn't participate in it. I do recall reading it (and the results) again after they were published but still didn't answer the questions to myself - hmmm. I think there was much more fear, anxiety and denial involved at that point in time in my life regarding my experiences.

      The French government's COMETA Report, which is newer but more UFO report based, might be a better standard than the old Roper Poll or anything else I'm aware of.

      Jack, Is there a recent poll that you support and think is better created that addresses ufo sightings, close encounter experiences etc.?

      ~ Susan

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  7. Hello Susan,
    Just a correction to your mention about "the French government's COMETA Report": That "report" is purely a private work (even if by a group of several high-ranking people), it was sent by its authors to the President and the Prime Minister, but was not solicited or ordered by them in any way nor by any official body. Its alleged "official" status is basically only an advertisement trick by its first publisher...
    As this is my first contribution here, it would be polite to present somewhat myself; I've alas very few available time. Let us say only I'm a French skeptical ufologist, working currently about a catalogue of alleged UFO abductions in France, and that for my introductory chapter I've read recently rather numerous papers about the UFO abduction situation -- including about the "Emma Woods" story, a brave woman outrageously mistreated by the "luminary" D.M. Jacobs and, perhaps still more scandalously, by too much "serious" ufologists who condemned her without hearing what she says (unless she doesn't even exist for them)...
    Those who would be interested by my general skeptical views about the UFO problem could read an "old" contribution (rather out-dated now) of mine on the UFO UpDates list: "A Skeptical View Of UFOs", http://ufoupdateslist.com/2007/sep/m20-012.shtml.
    Best regards,
    Claude Maugé

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    1. Hi Claude,

      Thankyou for the correction on the COMETA Report!

      I read your 2007 UFO Updates List link and you made yourself and your point of view on the subject, perfectly clear. I don't agree with most of what you wrote, but appreciate you expressing exactly what you think.

      Here's a website link that includes reports from throughout the world, dating back to the early part of the 20th century. It might be of some benefit to your investigations. I've found many of the reports fascinating - particularly the older ones when people didn't have terms such as "flying saucers" or "ufos" nor were part of the 'cold war' or space age.
      http://thecid.com/ufo/

      ~ Susan

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    2. Hi Susan,

      Sorry for this somewhat late answer. Many thanks for your reply and kind words about my old contribution to UFO UpDates. I understand perfectly that you (as anybody) don't share the views I expressed here. And this applies particularly to witnesses or experiencers: my intention was not to hurt them, in any way, but it would be natural for them not to really appreciate what I said. In any case, many things would be added today, some are to be qualified or even corrected; I expect to update someday that old paper, both in the French and English versions. But when?
      I began to be interested in UFOs in 1974 by the hearing of a pretty good radio series. I was during some ten years a moderate believer in the existence of true-UFOs and of their probable extraterrestrial origin. But I turned my mind because of some factors (including studies in psychology [my background studies are in physics, and I was a teacher in maths and physics, now retired]) and became then a moderate disbeliever. That is I cannot vouch for the non-existence of true-UFOs, but I think this is the more realist hypothesis when taking into account all the known facts.
      Facts that too often many ufologists accept as actually (or virtually) demonstrated as real facts, while many of them are still disputable. That's true for the UFO DNA site the adress of which you gave. There are here very interesting considerations, but also too many accounts simply recopied from sources which themselves recopy etc. And even fanciful stories (or at the best fanciful details) for which it is clear that Luke Ford have done absolutely no verification. This is evident for several French cases, and I guess it's true also for other affairs.
      In fact, if ufology has done no *real* progress since its beginning, there are several reasons, partly linked to the nature of the UFO phenomenon (whatever it can be in definitive), but often due to the ufologists themselves. And one of the later is this frequent tendency to copy stories from a whole chain of authors who are nor really impeccable, so that the present author often add his/her own error(s) to all the previous errors of his/her predecessors...
      Well, I've spitted out enough venom this evening...

      Claude

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    3. Claude wrote: "In fact, if ufology has done no *real* progress since its beginning, there are several reasons, partly linked to the nature of the UFO phenomenon (whatever it can be in definitive), but often due to the ufologists themselves."- - -

      I certainly agree with this assessment, Claude.

      Cheers,

      Susan

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  8. all you non believers and debunkers must all be a genius,you seem to have all the answers,if not you twist the facts to fit your distorted view of things.but there are those for whom the truth about alien agenda causes them to,well,mentally wet themselves.the discloser project,over 400 top,military,faa,government officials have come forward about the aliens and our govt.,but what,they are all crazy,come on,even a first grader can see the writing on the wall,oh yea,thousands of unidentified objects traveling thousands of miles an hour then do a 45 degree turn,on radar,in american airspace,and what,our govt. says it was just swamp gas or we do not care,wake up..

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  9. Luther, The problem with The Discloser Project (which you bring up) is that it's run by Dr. Steven Greer [m.d.] who has taken advantage of the good names & reputations of legitimate ufo witnesses who came forward to the press, under the auspices of that organization. Greer promotes a cultlike devotion to himself and his new-aged beliefs about aliens.

    ~ Susan

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  10. legitimate ufo witnesses,at least you admit that much,well,the human race is greedy beyond belief,and power hungry,we try to take advantage of everything even the alien thing,and destroy and rune the good work done by those who seek the truth.we are taught that.most people live in a world of there own making,and the way they are brought up,work,a small circle of friends,the weekend,a little politics,religion maybe,ect,ect,.most people can not handle the truth,it runes the world they have built for themselves,ect,looking at things with a little logic there is just to much proof that aliens are here and have been for quit a while,but it does no good until they land on the white house lawn,then some will still not believe,in the fortys during ww2 we used an island to refuel on,the natives had not seen an airplane,and we gave them canned food to make them friendly,well when we left they built a plane out of sticks and burned it every night for us to come back,like we were gods,it was beyond them to understand,like with the aliens nowdays with us...

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    1. luther renfroe jr wrote: "legitimate ufo witnesses,at least you admit that much"/snip/ - - -

      If you had bothered to read the comments to Jack Brewer's post, you would have found mine to be supportive of the reality of ufos and their occupants (where ever they might originate from). I've had a few sightings and anomalous experiences associated with them.

      As for your referencing cargo cults, I'm well aware of that sociological phenomenon. Nothing you write impresses or is new to me. How about taking the time and courtesy to read and consider all comments before writing such longwinded angry junk.

      With ignorant ufo reality advocates like you, debunkers really don't need to do much.

      I'm done with this exchange.

      ~ Susan

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  11. ouch!!!!,cargo cults,just psych. 101,documented in ww2,never before had doctors seen this first hand and in the 21 century. just saying that people have bad experiences to the alien thing,introduce anything outside the norm and you get a wide range of reactions,mostly fear, denial,to liieeerrr.if we actually knew what was really going on,on earth and the moon we would all panic.

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  12. " I am confidently of the understanding the current mental health paradigm does not include encouraging a traumatized individual, regardless of possible original sources of the trauma, to participate in multiple regressive hypnosis sessions in which the likelihood of extraterrestrial abusers is explored at length."

    Completely untrue. There are many sources of material which encourage symptoms already experienced (symptom prescription) and indulging in fantasy in order to change the experience in an agreeable way.

    So yeah there are many ways of helping someone change their thoughts and behavior. And frankly this field knows very little about how people change. It's still largely debated.

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    1. One, regressive hypnosis was specifically addressed, not "many sources of material."

      Two, regressive hypnosis advocates in the alien abduction genre do not at all encourage participants to frame the resulting mental imagery as fantasy, but completely interpret and promote it to be indicative of actual events, and...

      Three, I am unaware of anywhere in the professional mental health community that such practices are encouraged as matters of policy, and remain extremely confident it does not exist.

      I therefore stand by the original statements and their intent.

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  13. Barely into this article and need to stop and address this:

    "The predominant failure within ufology to acknowledge and address such reasons arguably contributes to the continuing alienation of all but a fringe element of the professional mental health community."

    Never mind the fringe element of the mental health community. Nearly all of he rest of it has no credibility, for two reasons: The mental 'health sciences' arose straight out of Tavistock (where modern mind control, including torture) got it's start and the mental 'health' community is up to it's eyeballs in perpetrating these horrors that make people think they've been abducted (among other things). The discipline is a fraud and not based on science (and, no, I'm not a Scientologist). Hello - American & Canadian Psychiatric Associations and MK ULTRA.

    "The overall effect of the situation presents an incomplete and inaccurate assessment of what has come to be known as the abduction phenomenon, while sensationalizing circumstances of which there are actually quite valid and likely explanations."

    Valid and likely? No. Earthly, yes. There's nothing valid and likely about the human perpetrated mind control and abduction programs. Furthermore, the sadistic sociopaths involved are so evil that most normal people can't believe it and reject even well documented evidence like the MK ULTRA documents and hearings. The whole subject is right up there with the global elite being involved in pedophilia and human trafficking, which has also been well documented and the sheeple still don't believe it or try to convince themselves this stuff is an aberration rather than business as usual.

    "Alien abduction" is a very dark rabbit hole that is so hideous that the abductees themselves can't face the truth. Inter-generational ritual abuse, corrupt families that betray their own children, violent criminal acts and occult activities worthy of a horror novel and trauma based mind control - all wrapped up in the alien abduction cover story. Which story would you rather believe about yourself?

    BTW, I don't mean to say that the paranormal isn't real or that UFOs don't exist. That's another subject, though.

    Oh, and if you want to get a better handle on the agenda of those behind this alien abduction fraud, do a study on the beliefs held by abductees. What is their political bent? What do they think about 'global warming' and 'climate change'? Do they see themselves as 'global citizens'? Where do they come down on issues like freedom of speech & thought v, political correctness; the power of the state; gender bending and transhumanism; culture wars; regime change, Syria, Libya, the 'Arab Spring', Ukraine, Russia, Putin? Seem unrelated? It isn't. I know the answers and suggest that others look for it and keep in mind that we're talking about MIND CONTROL. Discover the patterns. They matter.

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  14. Hi Susan O. , you wrote: "Alien abduction" is a very dark rabbit hole that is so hideous that the abductees themselves can't face the truth. Inter-generational ritual abuse, corrupt families that betray their own children, violent criminal acts and occult activities worthy of a horror novel and trauma based mind control - all wrapped up in the alien abduction cover story. Which story would you rather believe about yourself?" - - - -

    I'd rather believe any of the human based examples you gave above. As an old saying goes - Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

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  15. The aliens are strangely lame technologically: their reproductive technology and anesthesia are hardly even up to human standards. Which makes me think that the whole thing is only some kind of echo of the human mind. Demons afflicting us because we deserted the true Gods when we became atheists 2000 years ago.

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    1. It's probably best not to presuppose aliens are extraterrestrial and all that might imply (super-intelligent, wise, altruistic). These buggers could have always been earth based (ex. cryptids) or a mix of material and non-material beings (ex. djinn, fairies) and have hatred against humans for whatever reason....I don't think advanced space brothers and sisters would cruelly, repeatedly take people, against their will, to some place to be layed on a slab where sadistic, painful, senseless, repetitive, Victorian-era medical technology seems to be employed against the hapless victim.

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