Abductions: Good or Evil? An Essay on Abductee Attitudes
There are three topics one should never discuss in a social group: Religion, Politics, and whether Alien Abductions are good or evil. Why? Because there is no definitive answer in any of these areas of discussion. A group of people engaged in such a discussion on any of these three topics will typically become overly emotional, defensive, upset, and insistent his or her viewpoint is correct—based upon personal opinion and/or personal experience. Wars have begun and been waged over the first two topics; we certainly do not need that kind of escalation and hysteria in the realm of alleged alien abductions. Most of the world would first debate whether alien abductions actually occur or not. Yet, those who already believe in the reality of alien encounters will debate whether this is a positive, negative, or neutral type of experience for mankind. Well, I have news for you! No matter what the personal experience has been and the resulting impressions are, there is no definitive answer to this question. The conclusions of researchers also depend upon which participants they have interviewed as well as the researcher’s own perspective and opinion as to what all the information means.
Participants in this bizarre world of alien encounters have had very difficult and confusing experiences that are nearly impossible to comprehend, explain, or even describe to others. They are met with great disbelief, ridicule, and criticism. Yet, each participant in this phenomenon knows what he feels about his experience. This leads to the development of a strong opinion based solely on his or her personal perspective. Attempting to convince a participant that his or her experience means something else will go directly against their emotional perspective about which he/she feels so strongly.
Try telling the survivor of a Nazi concentration camp that he did not suffer that much. Try to convince the victim of rape that she should not feel badly. Participants in alleged contact with alien entities claim a variety of emotional reactions. Nobody clearly comprehends what is occurring or for what reasons. We are left to guess or make assumptions based solely on the feelings and details of the perceived experience. But perception is formed from one’s own focus of attention, ability to concentrate, emotional distraction, interpretation, and quality of memory. Opinion is shaped by attitude, personality, present mood, and prior experiences. Therefore, many variables contribute to the final personal opinion of what these experiences are all about.
A common demonstration of this occurs when a crowd of people attend the same movie at a theater. They are all exposed to the same content for the same length of time under the same conditions. For example, one hundred people of all ages saw , lasting three hours in a theater chilled by an improperly operating air conditioning system. When they walked out, they were interviewed by researchers. Here are some of their reactions from that experience:
- “I hated the movie because it lasted three hours, and I can’t sit still that long.”
- “I loved this epic love story! I cried through the ending! It was so moving.”
- “I thought this was a family movie—I cannot believe he cussed at the end!”
- “I hated Scarlet O’Hara—I’ve known women just like her in my life! Ugh.”
- “I missed part of it because I started daydreaming about that new girl I like.”
- “The theater was too frickin’ cold! It just ruined it for me.”
- “I could really identify with poor Scarlet as the victim in her unfortunate life.”
- “I loved the movie but hated the ending—that was just not right to end like that!”
- “Oh, I don’t know … I was kinda bored … It was just another movie to me.”
- “It was a good story, but they really crammed way too much into it … not good.”
- “The people behind me kept talking—so I was very distracted much of the time.”
Therefore, what can we conclude about the quality of this movie? We do not have any kind of a consensus—just a variety of different experiences, leading to mixed opinions. And yet, they all experienced the same exact input at the same time under the same conditions.
When we listen to what alleged abduction participants tell us about their experiences, we hear the same variety of opinions, reflecting various perspectives. As a researcher and psychiatric hypnotherapist, I have noted that despite encountering nearly identical abduction scenarios, there has been a diversity of emotional reactions. Listen to this collection of various opinions:
- “I am amazed by what I have recalled. It is wonderful to know that there is life beyond our planet, and they have chosen to visit us and study us.”
- “Nobody asked my permission to take me and examine me!! I feel raped!”
- “I hate their guts and want to kill them if I ever see them again.”
- “I am really confused. What do they want from me? Why couldn’t they just explain what they are doing and why they needed me? Then it would be okay.”
- “I feel so special that they have been following my family over the years and find us interesting and perhaps helpful to their cause.”
- “I have horrible nightmares and wake up screaming! I didn’t ask for this to happen—I don’t need this in my life.”
- “They should ask me first! That is my only hang-up over this. They should ask my permission and not just treat me like a stupid little kid.”
- “I don’t really care about this. I know it happened, but I’m moving on … okay?”
- “They need to be stopped!! Our military should defend us! People, wake up!!”
- “I believe they have been coming here for centuries and probably brought us here. They are our angels, leprechauns, elves, fairies, and little goblins in legends!”
- “We are just their frogs that they are dissecting on their high school field trip!”
As one can easily see, the same variety of perspectives and opinions abound from this confusing experience—which has been given the name of “alien abductions.” What should we call it? Fairies stealing our children away? Entranced by leprechauns? Mingling with the Little People? Hellish visits from demons? Angelic encounters? Higher-functioning insects from Andromeda?
Researchers also claim differing explanations based upon their expertise, background, academic training, professional perspective, as well as personal experiences. Although claiming to be unbiased, they cannot help having a certain angle, perspective, or opinion. They are human beings, and it is human nature to do so! They want to solve the mystery and be able to explain it to everybody else. Despite citing certain data and deriving “logical” conclusions, they can inadvertently notice some data more frequently and dismiss, doubt, or minimize other data at the same time. This is not deliberate—just another process that human beings perform subconsciously to arrive at solutions. Therefore, it can be noted that a researcher always seems to keep finding data that matches his opinions while another researcher may find different conclusions from other data that he continues to find. Of course, these researchers will then debate whose conclusions are correct and whose data is best!
So what do I conclude? My opinion is … that there are no clear answers. We must be very careful when we criticize another person’s perspective or belief. Maybe our data points in one direction and suggests a certain conclusion, but do we really know for sure? How can we ignore certain data—especially if it does not agree with our accepted ideas? Having talked with many prominent researchers, I know that every one of them has this “gray” basket in which is tossed the undesirable, less believable, unpopular kinds of data.
Why? Is not every piece of data important and a piece of the puzzle? How can anything in this field of research be “too weird”? We need to look at everything and all opinions to gain a complete and more accurate appraisal. Would that be too overwhelming?
So be it. That’s reality.
