The Human Hypothesis for Some Reports of Alien Abduction: Trauma, Covert Research Projects and Non-Lethal Weapons

The human hypothesis, or HH, is nothing new to ufology, unpopular and disproportionately omitted from discussion as it may be. Sincere and sober researchers have long acknowledged that it only stands to reason that a certain percentage of reports of stunning flying objects and their breath-taking aerial maneuvers would be quite earthly, as opposed to extraterrestrial, advanced aircraft.

The HH and its implications to the abduction phenomenon, however, are more difficult to bring to light. To proceed with relevant considerations, we might first explore emotional trauma.

The Traumatized Abductee

Severe emotional trauma may physiologically alter the brain, the medical industry informs us. The effected part of the brain is directly related to critical thinking and mental abilities such as interpreting time lines and the accurate recollection of events.

It is not only possible, but should be expected, that an extremely traumatized individual cannot accurately recall certain events. Additionally, their inability to construct accurate time lines may result in not only an inability to correctly recall when an event took place, but incorrect perceptions that similar such events are recurring. Specifically, this means it is common to the point of being considered probable that a traumatized and untreated individual can construct an inaccurate perception of an event and incorrectly perceive it is happening again and again.

I am directly suggesting a percentage of self-described abductees are, in fact, terribly traumatized individuals in need of treatment and of which never had anything particularly out of the ordinary happen to them. I am suggesting that, yes, they had horrific events befall them, but, no, not particularly uncommon events or alien abductions. I am directly suggesting some of them have confused their traumatic experiences with alien abductions, and that an overeager UFO community – and often its self-appointed experts - encourage such people to take the alien abduction ball and run with it. This is of course not a unique interpretation on my part, but one currently held by the professional mental health community.

To try to be clear, the rest of this post is not about such people who were traumatized by relatively common, all be them terrible, events, and came to incorrectly think themselves alien abductees. The HH is about individuals who may have truly experienced something unusual, and as a result sustained trauma.

A relevant question becomes what truly caused the trauma. Perhaps in some circumstances aliens or yet to be understood phenomena caused the trauma. I do not know, but the HH is, of course, not about such possibilities. The HH is about the possibility that quite human-instigated occurrences may have taken place in select cases and circumstances.

The traumatized people who are sadly confused must be acknowledged because their claims most certainly account for some reports of abduction. Furthermore, we must acknowledge emotional trauma because it potentially plays as large a role in the lives of those who may have experienced truly peculiar circumstances as it plays in the lives of those who did not. I am directly suggesting that the premise of the HH involves sustained trauma, the peer pressure the UFO community puts upon its members to carry the torch of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, and the subsequent manufacturing of what became known as alien abductees.

In order to more accurately comprehend the HH, we must consider how some people became extremely traumatized under unusual circumstances and at the hands of quite human beings. In order to more thoroughly understand how a person could become severely traumatized by their fellow human beings, and, then, to add painful insult to traumatic injury, waded into a UFO community that slapped them in front of a hypnotist and would only provide emotional support if they proclaimed them self an alien abductee, we must take a look at the past.

Much More Than Just Staring at Goats

During the 1940's in the United States, the intelligence community began what would become a no-holds-barred effort that lasted no less than into the 1970's to master “behavior modification,” or, by any other name, mind control. The use of hypnosis was initially explored. Projects BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE and a variety of classified initiatives evolved into Project MKULTRA.

Mind Kontrol Ultra combined the most experienced and educated people that CIA money could buy and coerce into experimenting on involuntary human research subjects. Some 140+ known sub-projects took place at 80+ known venues, including major universities, military bases, nonprofit organizations, hospitals, clinics, drug treatment facilities, correctional institutions and even brothels. The Agency went all in: drugs, hypnosis, implants, sex, electromagnetic frequencies, electricity, audio programming, toxic substances, the uses of syringes and aerosols, conditioned behavior, sensory deprivation, combinations thereof... If there was a possibility it might control thoughts and facilitate predictable responses, there was a sub-project somewhere with someone checking it out and subjecting unwitting individuals to it.

We only found out because they got caught.

CIA employee and MKULTRA project director Dr. Sidney Gottlieb was called out on the Congressional carpet during the 1970's to account for his activities. He and other members of the intelligence community were called to Washington to explain such curiosities, among others, as why spooks had magicians on the CIA payroll (see 1977 Senate Hearing on MKULTRA, CIA Director Stansfield Turner's Testimony, page 42). While Gottlieb and company evaded such questions and played a shell game about what was going on from one project to the next, Gottlieb's instructions were carried out to have all 'ULTRA documents shredded.

Let us consider the memo, subject line, Request for Guidance on Handling Recently Located MKULTRA Material, dated 1977 and viewable beginning on page 106 of the Black Vault file linked here. The memo was composed by the director of the Office of Technical Service, CIA, and designed to inform the CIA deputy director that certain MKULTRA documents had been located. The memo addressed a request from writer/researcher John Marks for copies of any such documents, and advised the deputy director of a recommended course of action.

The memo provides confirmation that, about the time Congress began inquiring what was going on in the CIA, MKULTRA project director “Dr. Gottlieb retrieved and destroyed all documents he was able to locate.” The memo further indicates that the remaining MKULTRA documents were not planned to be released to Marks until after having been subjected to adequate “review and sanitization.”

What the public eventually learned about MKULTRA and similar such CIA ventures into mind control never included what Gottlieb destroyed. We never even got the real scoop. Furthermore, the story presented to the public, disturbing and heinous as it was and that resulted in concession on top of concession that cruel abuses were repeatedly perpetrated upon unsuspecting victims, was the sanitized version.

Meanwhile, John Marks continued his quest for truth. Marks utilized the Freedom of Information Act and employed legal counsel in eventually obtaining the remaining MKULTRA documents apparently missed by Gottlieb. He extensively studied the approximately 20,000 pages of eventually released documents, sanitized as they may have been, and informed us of what he learned in his landmark work, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate.

Marks informed us that the emerging picture included a Central Intelligence Agency that delved extensively and for decades into the use of hypnosis and the intentional induction of trauma in order to create multiple and split personalities. The ultimate reasons included creating methods to solicit specific behavior unknown to the individual being programmed. The general research objectives included, essentially, further quantifying factors by which individuals suffer from the symptoms of trauma. It was generally reasoned that if circumstances befall people that result in extreme trauma and the symptoms thereof, then such circumstances could be intentionally created and administered, enabling intentional manipulation of the resulting symptoms and subsequent behavior.

It was demonstrated by Marks and future works inspired by his efforts, such as Martin Cannon's controversial The Controllers: A New Hypothesis of Alien Abduction, that the CIA extensively experimented with what was viewed as an expendable population at large in the pursuit of perfecting mind control methods. Such researchers suggested that project objectives included the ultimate creation of assassins, human 'carrier pigeons,' Special Forces personnel and the like who literally were unaware of their programming. One of the many potential benefits to the Agency and its associates of such project outcomes was the possible creation of operatives who literally did not know their orders. Such operatives could not reveal secrets of state - even if they wanted to do so – to potential interrogators, seductive spies or wealthy enemies because they were not consciously aware of the secrets. They literally would not know what was going on if programmers could perfect the intentional induction of false memories, creation of screen memories, and administrations and manipulations thereof.

Cannon pointed out the striking similarities between such research subjects and self-described abductees. After all, it was the abductees themselves who frequently described 'missing time' and screen memories, of which they feared were intentionally induced. Abductees also described having their abduction experiences of many years past only occur to them at later points in their lives, going as far as to often directly state they felt as if they had been living double lives of which they had been consciously aware of but one. Furthermore and as pointed out by previous researchers, it was, in fact, abductees themselves who described the presence of apparent military personnel during some of their abductions.

To tie all this together, at least up to the point Cannon arrived on the scene, as well as clarify my implications, I will offer some direct statements. I am suggesting certain victims of projects such as MKULTRA, due to the very nature of the research conducted, suffer from traumatic fragmented memories of their ordeals. I believe it is not only possible, but highly likely, that a certain percentage of such people wandered into the UFO community to seek answers to their questions; questions related to circumstances such as 'lost' periods of time while serving in the military, general episodes of missing time, unexplained body markings, fragmented memories of programming and so on. I am suggesting that such individuals may have been subjected to the creation of screen memories of alien abductions for purposes that served as cover for MKULTRA or similar such projects but, more importantly, served the project methodology and desired outcomes. This may have been the case because the ultimate purposes, as demonstrated by Marks and Cannon, included the ability to create personnel who did not know their orders and could not disclose them even if they wanted. I am further suggesting that upon arriving in the UFO community, such research subjects would sadly and regretfully be quickly met by ill advised yet supposedly helpful people eagerly informing them that experiences as described were indicative of having been abducted by aliens.

When individuals accept the reality of covert research projects such as MKULTRA, its sister projects and predecessors, and accept the nature of the research conducted, it becomes a virtual given that a certain percentage of the victims would wade into UFO Land, its abductee support groups, Internet forums and the like. It just stands to reason. I am convinced that, at the least, further research is justified.

A reasonable line of inquiry might then include wondering what happened to ufology and the abduction phenomenon since the time of MKULTRA. One might wonder if circumstances continued that might result in involuntary research subjects incorrectly concluding they were alien abductees. One might ask if the latter 20^th century included technology and circumstances that could be as easily correlated with the alien abduction narrative as in the case of the horrors of mind control experiments.

The answer is yes. A review of the evolution of non-lethal weapons and their electromagnetic frequency (EMF) technology reveals similarities between reports of alien abduction and overexposure to EMFs that demand serious consideration. As a matter of fact, a great deal of technology often incorrectly assumed to be beyond human capacity and therefore reported as alien may be, in actuality and all reasonable likelihood, quite human.

Non-Lethal Weapons

In his book, The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life, published in 1985, author Dr. Robert Becker offered some explanations about what was known at the time about the development of EMF technology. This included Allan Frey's discovery that pulsed transmissions significantly impacted living tissue, including enhancing the effects of drugs, bacteria and poisons. Frey further demonstrated methods to use EMFs to entrain and alter the heartbeat rates of frogs to the point of stopping the heart altogether.

Becker further presented mind-boggling results achieved by Dr. Jose Delgado, including manipulating the actions of monkeys to extraordinary extents. Delgado wrote in his work that the animals looked like electronic toys. Delgado went on to be infamously known for his controversial remarks to Congress, in which he stated that man does not have the right to develop his own mind, and that one day armies would be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain.

Becker explained how Dr. Joseph Sharp of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research developed an analog pulse that successfully beamed an otherwise unheard word directly into the brain. Sharp had, essentially, created what would become voice to skull technology and, in effect, what could be misinterpreted as telepathic communication.

I find it difficult to accept without question that research involving involuntary human subjects and as took place during MKULTRA would be halted when such extraordinary accomplishments, as in the work of Frey, Delgado and Sharp, were being achieved. The similarities to events commonly reported by self-described alien abductees begins to materialize, and becomes increasingly evident, as we consider the work of investigative journalist Anna Keeler.

In her article, Remote Mind Control Technology, Keeler cited confirmed symptoms of overexposure to EMFs. Such symptoms include burned/reddened skin (even at night), memory loss, fatigue, insomnia, hallucinations and experiencing emotions with no contextual significance. The commonalities between such symptoms and abduction lore should be evident to those familiar with alleged alien abduction. What's more, such symptoms could result from research involving remote applications – no literal abduction required. Keeler's article takes readers through the mind control efforts of Project Pandora, as well as the initial uses of EMF technology by corporate America, and I recommend its reading.

Oxford graduate Dr. Susan Blackmore addressed alien abduction in her 1994 New Scientist article of the same name. Blackmore described first hand how measurable effects of magnets induced abduction-esque perceptions. “Suddenly prospects of magnetic mind control,” she wrote, “seem an awful lot worse than the idea of being abducted by imaginary aliens.”

Researchers at Project Censored, an ongoing investigative effort conducted by Sonoma State University, delved deeply into the likelihood of human rights violations during the evolution of EMF technology and resulting non-lethal weapons. US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights, by Peter Phillips, Lew Brown and Bridget Thornton, was a comprehensive study completed in 2006 of the history of the US intelligence community, human rights violations and ongoing research and development of electromagnetic weapons. The trio cited illegal experimentation, cited weapons development and presented expert interviews while conclusively demonstrating the abilities of what have come to be known as non-lethal weapons.

We are indeed long past a point in which we should accept non-lethals as possible explanations for some circumstances commonly reported in UFO and abduction lore. Non-lethals, for example, offer potential explanations for failed electronic equipment, such as car electrical systems, household appliances and computers. Non-lethals also offer possible explanations for perceptions of unexplained lights, perceptions of non-human beings, losses of consciousness, 'missing time,' fragmented memories, voices in the head and similar such circumstances that seem to consistently be reported by those who consider themselves to be alien abductees.

While the UFO community lectured on alien mind control, hybrid breeding experiments and invasive medical examinations, human technology surpassed that of events being reported. What's more, quite human beings were conclusively demonstrated to have conducted activities of which the alleged aliens keep being accused, yet such circumstances are consistently omitted from discussion within the halls of UFO Land. While overzealous proponents of alleged alien abduction ironically and passionately continued to insist it would be absurd to suspect people would physically abduct other people, a time came and went in which literal physical abductions were even so much as required to complete the feasibility of the human hypothesis.

It is no longer necessary for involuntary human research subjects to so much as leave their homes to experience perceptions of alien abduction. It is neither necessary for them to interact with another human being nor be taken to a remote work station during the possible course of non-lethal weapons development.

The research subjects of yesteryear were indeed extremely traumatized by the intelligence community. I invite consideration this is the same intelligence community involved in such implications as the 'contactee' stories of individuals such as Adamski and Menger, the Maury Island fiasco, the saga of Paul Bennewitz, the circumstances of the Gulf Breeze Six and the mysterious Ron Pandolfi.

Trauma most certainly played a starring role in the evolution of both ufology and military intelligence. I believe it is likely that some research victims of yesteryear, both physically and mentally battered, waded into the UFO community and fit the profile well enough to 'become' alien abductees. While this may be accurate, circumstances have indeed progressed while many are too busy to have noticed due to patting one another on the back and exchanging assurances that their assumptions are correct.

I present for consideration that further research is justified into the likelihood the current reports of experiences of high strangeness and the accompanying symptoms of trauma among the witnesses may in some circumstances be the results of non-lethal weapons research and development. Combined with the ill advised influence of the UFO community, some of our present day abductees and their narrations may therefore be manufactured. This might be the case all while their experiences may, in actuality and as real as such experiences may be in one sense of the definition, largely be taking place on a mental landscape.

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The number of victimized citizens is difficult to estimate. Lawsuits continued well into this century that focused upon notoriously heinous and cruel MKULTRA events carried out at Allan Memorial Institute, now known as McGill University, of Montreal. Hundreds of plaintiffs, former 'psychiatric patients' at McGill, have been named and the US Department of Defense has shelled out millions of dollars in damages. A pending lawsuit in which Vietnam Veterans of America is suing the CIA estimates some 8,000+ military personnel were abused, including the administration of brain implants in some cases, during the MKULTRA reign at just Edgewood Arsenal military facility.

The Clinton administration launched a probe into allegations that members of the 'ULTRA crew, in addition to their delving into mind control, were responsible for widespread radiation experiments perpetrated upon unsuspecting and vulnerable research subjects. The President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments subsequently concluded that an estimated 11,000 American citizens were treated negligently by their federal government in the course of such experimentation.

My point being there are a lot of people out there that conclusively got traumatized by Uncle Sam. We largely do not know specifically who these people are or how their emotional scars manifest, but we indeed know they exist.

We know who some of them are because they have been awarded damages. We know, for example, that Martti Koski was among the victims at McGill University in Montreal. We additionally know that Koski claimed his abusers mockingly called him “microwave man” due to the nature of the EMF tests of which he was subjected. He further claimed his abusers told him they were aliens from Sirius. While the significance of such claims can be debated, its potential relevance remains worthy food for thought.

Koski was initially noticed by authorities when he wandered into a police station while suffering from amnesia, having resided for days under a bridge. He was identified after his photo was published in newspapers. While such circumstances may be relevant to the UFO community for any number of reasons, a point comes in which I cannot help but consider that, while the abuse of involuntary human research subjects may well include some unwitting self-described abductees, the overall situation is of such potential magnitude that it arguably dwarfs the floundering field known as ufology.