[Paleopsych] NYT: Explaining Those Vivid Memories of Martian Kidnappers

[Thrst4knw at aol.com]

It has long been established that alien abductee reportees are not usually 
psychotic or gullible.  The research goes back decades.  Even the 
anti-paranormal publications like Skeptical Inquirer eventually picked up on this, as much 
as they probably would rather have been able to refer to these people as 
crackpots or lunatics.  It simply isn't true.  On the other hand, it also doesn't 
appear to be true that they are reporting veridical events in most cases.  The 
psychological explanations in the literature have for years been more in terms 
of fantasy proneness or other forms of imaginative talent rather than 
pathology or chicanery.  

The history of this 'abduction' topic parallels the history of hypnosis in 
some interesting ways.  Hypnosis itself was considered first miraculous, then 
mysterious, then paranormal, then fakery of various kinds, and finally now a 
valid way of studying normal if somewhat less well understood and still 
fascinating psychological processes like dissociation, absorption, fantasy, and role 
taking.  Today, abduction experiences are generally considered by researchers to 
be real, non-pathological, emotionally intense, imaginative experiences 
rather than psychotic hallucinations, alcoholic tales, the effluent of a weak mind, 
or deliberate fakery.   The mainstream view is consistent with the author 
quoted in the NYT articles, and vice versa, from what I understand.

So it turns out that there is, remarkably, already a fairly good sized 
scientific literature on the psychology of human exceptional experiences: exploring 
the relationship between hypnotic responding talent, fantasy proneness talent, 
dissociation talent, memory, confabulation, expectancy, involuntariness, and 
so on.  There are even scientific explorations of the spiritual side of these 
experiences, by people like Kenneth Ring.  The "spiritual" variations focus on 
how meaning is attributed in exceptional experiences and how people's lives 
are changed by them, rather than on how and why the experiences are produced.  
Overall, there are some pretty reliable findings in the former area, although 
the latter is somewhat less amenable to study.   For an example of the former, 
talented people don't even need hypnosis or relaxation to produce the 
characteristic experiences of hypnotic responding.  
I don't believe in abductions, but I cannot explain their reactions any other 
way
kind regards,

Todd
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