Abductions? Not likely.
By Michael Berkowitz, Josh
Liljedahl, Ryan Narus, and
Grayson Farrar
Why do people believe in UFOs???
 Consistency of the stories told by the
victims.
 Quantity of testimonials claiming abductions
 Apparent sincerity of those who experience
the abductions
 Testimonials from young children
Consistency of Stories
 Victims have similar stories without
prior knowledge of each others
experiences
 Share very similar detailed stories, many people comment
on the eyes of the aliens.
 Many people claimed to have been probed all over the
body in the same sort of manner.
 People have similar descriptions of being sexually abused
with vivid descriptions of the examination room.
 Almost all abductees claim they were paralyzed and
kidnapped in their sleep from their rooms.
Quantities of Testimonies
 Testimonies come in mass quantities from
different people worldwide.
 Testimonies come from all different types of
people. (No just wackos!)
Apparent Sincerity of Victims
 Many victims show great emotion and have difficulty talking
about experiences
 When victims speak or write about it sincerity is evident
 Dr. John Mack, Harvard University said “case after case
there is consistence in the power of the stories, self doubt,
and sincerity
 Dr. Mack also opened hundreds of letters from claimed
victims and said, “its is very convincing that these stories
are from absolute reality because the victims are truly
traumatized
 He was convinced to the point of jeopardizing
his personal reputation as well as his reputation
as a Harvard professor
Testimonies of Children
 “Mommy I saw the shadows again last night”
 Children with abduction stories too young to
have knowledge of abduction scams
 Small boy and his toddler sister each gave a
testimony.
 Testimonials from small children are more
convincing, because they seem more
sincere.
Memory
 episodic memory
– Memory for one’s personal past experiences
 confabulation
– False recollection of episodic memory
 source misattributions
– When people misremember the time, place, person,
or circumstances involved with a memory; false fame
effect
 source amnesia
– A type of amnesia that occurs when a person shows
memory for an event but cannot remember where
they encountered the information
 Memory can be very unreliable and even
malleable for these reasons
Hypnosis
 suggestibility
– The development of biased
memories when provided with
misleading information
– While under hypnosis, if the person
doing the hypnotizing is charismatic enough, the
person undergoing the hypnotism will do or say just
about anything to please the hypnotist
– With a hypnotist pressing for information and details,
a subject is very likely to use their imagination rather
than actual memory
– Hallucinations and dreams can engender real
emotions, and critics say that hypnosis and
therapeutic suggestion can transform these emotions
into traumatic abduction memories
Lost in a Shopping Mall Experiment
 Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus set out to prove that
memories are malleable and unreliable by the well known
“Lost in a shopping mall” experiment
 The experiment attempts to implant a false memory into a
subject using hypnosis
 The subject is told under hypnosis that she was lost in a
mall at a young age, then the subject elaborates and
memories are formed
 The experiment was a success
 One week later, the subject had constructed a detailed
account of an event that never took place
Support Groups
 Suggestive influence could also be in effect in support
groups
 People reveal things about themselves that they clearly
find embarrassing and the therapist helps them explain
these things away as the product of their alien abduction
 Also, whatever story the person imagines and reveals to
the group is then accepted as a memory, and when the
person offers it to the group and is rewarded for finding
what was expected, it all makes sense
– Example: one woman testified that she did not recall being sexually
violated during her abduction, but said that it is very possible she
blocked it out
Sleep Paralysis’s
Relation to Alien
Abductions
What is Sleep Paralysis?
 Sleep paralysis consists of a period when
one cannot perform voluntary movements.
 It occurs either at the beginning (hynogogic)
or at the end (hypnopompic) of sleeping.
 REM sleep- The stage of sleep marked by rapid
eye movements, dreaming, and paralysis of
motor systems; sleep with an activated brain
Symptoms
 Patient is unable to move their limbs or
torso
 Short periods of partial or full paralysis
of the body
 Vivid dreams that can seem real to the
patient
Effects of Sleep Paralysis
Patients who suffer from sleep
paralysis, may experience dreams that
seem extremely real. They often report
realistic hallucinations, hear a variety of
sounds, have out of body experiences,
feel a presence or entity is in the room,
and may feel this presence or entity
touching or moving them.
Hag Phenomena
Occurrences of the Hag
Phenomena, in
mythology, date back to
the Greeks and
Romans. It is also
recorded in many
religions and cultures
across the world. The
basic concept is that a
spiritual, magical or
mythical creatures
attacks sleeping
persons.
Hag Phenomena
Usually climbing on top of their chest and
attempting to crush or suffocate them. In
Europe it was believed that small ghoulish
hags or witches were the attackers. The
attackers can be seen by their victims and
feel real, however they usually suddenly
disappear the instant the victim regains
control of their body. UFO sightings could be
modern version of this phenomenon.
What it Means
Victims of sleep paralysis and “alien
abductions” report highly similar
experiences. If a psychiatrist or other
individual trusted by the victim offers being
abducted by aliens, it fits all the details of
the event, and seems plausible.
Cultural Impact
Close Encounters?
 After successful movies such as E.T. and
Close Encounters of the Third Kind reports
increase
 Betty Hill’s experience
Problems With Testimonials and
Current Evidence
 Observer bias
 Confirmation Bias- most cases of “UFO”s
solved
 Hindsight Bias- people read books like
“Intruders” or see movies, and recall
memories from long ago
 Reactivity- The knowledge that one is being
observed alters the behavior being
observed- children
HARD EVIDENCE
Bibliography
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050709/bob9.asp
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html
http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005951D.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://www.hypnosisinmedia.com/Miscellaneous/RPGames/Watch%20the%20Watch.jpg
http://www.hms.harvard.edu/orsp/coms/images/Harvard-Seal-Nice.jpg
http://www.quietcity.org/img/louis-zzzzzz.jpg