The Woods/Jacobs Tapes and the 'Oral History' Falsehood

Tuesday, February 4, this writer was pleased to be among guests on Jeff Ritzmann's Paranormal Waypoint. The show was a special three-hour finale to Ritzmann's multi-episode exploration of research of alleged alien abduction. Focus was upon the case of Emma Woods and its mishandling by the now retired Temple University historian Dr. David Jacobs. Fellow guests were microbiologist Dr. Tyler Kokjohn and author Jeremy Vaeni. 

Ritzmann put a great deal of preparation into the episode, taking listeners on an informative and revealing audio tour of the case via taped interactions between Woods and Jacobs. Both were fully aware the recordings were being made at the time of their creation. 

The Woods/Jacobs tapes provide irrefutable documentation of unsettling and often disturbing circumstances. Recordings presented and considered - which have long been public thanks to Woods - included interactions from the initial hypnotic regression sessions Jacobs began in 2004 and conducted by telephone. Ritzmann also took listeners through taped exchanges in which Woods confronted Jacobs about discrepancies in his ongoing and increasingly outrageous suggestions. Tapes were also played and discussed in which Woods attempted to clarify circumstances with Jacobs, who threatened her with consequences if she did not either support his conclusions or remain silent. 

Leading

David Jacobs

At the time of this post, the website of the International Center for Abduction Research, which is maintained by Jacobs, has a bio on Jacobs. Among other questionable items, the bio asserts that "Jacobs is a strong advocate of strict scientific and ethical research methodology", a claim that can irrefutably be shown to be false to the extent of insulting one's intelligence.

The following clip was featured on Paranormal Waypoint and contains details of a telephone hypnosis session between Jacobs and Woods. While Woods largely repeated that she was unsure of the circumstances and often replied, "I don't know," to Jacobs' questions, a scenario was nonetheless constructed in which she was aboard an alien craft. One unclear circumstance at a time, the Jacobs-led conversation progressed to Woods envisioning herself surrounded by beings. Around the eight-minute mark, the following statements were made: 

Jacobs: Well, I'm just wondering if maybe they put him on top of you, basically. 

Woods: Maybe. Yeah, I think so.

Jacobs: And I know that once again I'm leading you here so you have to be careful, and I understand I'm leading you, and you should understand that too. Okay, now I'm going to ask you a series of questions here and when you answer these questions, when you understand what's happening here, you will - it's not that there's going to be a revelation, but you're going to understand what's going on here and it's not what ya think. How's that for something odd?

Jacobs then proceeded to create, nearly completely independently of Woods' statements, a scenario in which she was allegedly forced to have sex with what Jacobs described as another abductee.

"He's just some guy," Jacobs told the woman, "he's some, he's some guy that they got. You know, he's an abductee. It's happened to him all his life, and, uhm, he's just as much a victim in the situation as you are. They put him on you, he does his business. What happens - when you get a sense that he is about to ejaculate, what happens to him? What do they do with him?"

Woods then told Jacobs that she did not think the man ejaculated. "I don't think he does," she explained, adding that she did not have a very strong visual sense of the situation and that the described scenario may be wrong.

Around the twelve-minute mark, Jacobs then apparently felt himself entitled and qualified to interpret and explain the entire circumstance at length, incredibly informing the woman, "This is a sperm collection procedure. They bring the guy to a height of sexual arousal. Before he ejaculates they pull him off and they collect the sperm in a receptacle, and they do this every single time that this event happens."

Jacobs continued to inform Woods how she should look at the situation in her role as the "facilitator of the sperm collection." 

The entire clip:

The Chastity Belt Clip

Among the more infamous recordings to be published by Woods included the chastity belt clip. Jacobs explained to the woman that she could consider wearing a belt that "right where the vaginal opening is has a couple of nails sticking across." This, he suggested, would slow down hybrids intent on committing repeated sexual assaults.

"They have these sex shops, ya know, and I went into one that specialized in bondage dominance, a place that I frequented quite often," the man claiming to be an advocate of strict scientific and ethical research told Woods during a long distance hypnosis session:

 

The Underwear Session

And then there was the request for underwear. 

"Were you wearing underpants?" Jacobs asked Woods.

Woods: Yeah.

Jacobs: Uhm, did you wash the underpants?

Woods: Hmm, prob - probably, yeah.

Jacobs: Even though it was yesterday? 

Woods: I might not have. I'll go and look in the laundry. But I won't know which ones. Uhm, I can have a look.

Jacobs: Have a look. Put it in a plastic bag, if you find the ones...

Later during the same session, Jacobs instructed Woods, "Well, if you can dig up the underpants, without even thinking about it, just put 'em in a plastic bag, put 'em in an envelope, then just send 'em off to me. Totally, greatly appreciate it. Do not even think about it. Just do it automatically. No fuss, no muss and don't think about it afterward either."

Full clip:

More of the Woods/Jacobs tapes, including the historian's suggestion the woman had Multiple Personality Disorder during an ill conceived, convoluted and rather unbelievable plan to deceive the hybrids, may be found at Paranormal Waypoint. The thorough and expanding website of Emma Woods should also be viewed for more information. 

If there is evidence of high strangeness to be found, it is not within such hypnosis sessions. Not only does the research subject find neither emotional support nor intellectual answers, they are at high risk of sustaining further trauma. 

Further Considerations

It might be rather easy for many readers to write Jacobs off as an idiot, and there are certainly some within UFO circles who have done just that. I invite a bit further consideration, however, that regardless of his wanderings into abuse and absurdity, Jacobs indeed knew what kind of evidence he was seeking. I additionally suggest that after the man repeatedly failed in obtaining support for his hypotheses through his collection of samples, he ceased collecting potential evidence rather than revise suppositions. 

A spring, 2011 newsletter published by the False Memory Syndrome Foundation reported that Temple defended the actions of Jacobs, primarily on the grounds that his research was limited to the collection of oral histories. Obviously, the collection of underwear is more than oral history. Moreover, The UFO Trail conducted an interview with Jacobs at the 2012 Ozark UFO Conference in which the doctor himself described multiple circumstances of collecting samples from research subjects. A 2012 exchange between Jacobs and The UFO Trail:

"I have taken material for analysis to various DNA testing places. They had negative results. There wasn't enough of it or they couldn't tell what it was – that sort of thing.”

“Are these tests available for the public to review?”

“Not yet.”

“Will they be?”

“I don't know. One I did many years ago at a local lab in Delaware. Another one was done by American Testing Institute in New York City – American Chemical? I can't remember the name of it now. That was also many years ago – about brown stains that people have; that's routinely there. I had another one done for a TV show..."

The collection of oral history defense is apparently both incorrect and a blatant misrepresentation of actuality. It additionally shows us that when the purported science advocate failed to obtain the valuable physical evidence supporting his theories, he shamelessly continued his promotion of a completely unsubstantiated assumption and with virtual disregard for the extents others were hurt in the process. He did so not only while coming up short with the samples he stated he obtained, but he failed to share the data with the public.

People are entitled to believe and conduct their affairs as they choose. They are not entitled, however, to conduct nonscientific activities and call them science without challenge. Neither is David Jacobs entitled to immunity from accountability.