Earth to Susan Clancy (heh-heh).

We are now removing implants.

Repeat: We are now removing implants.

So, Betty and Barney Hill were out driving and simultaneously experienced sleep paralysis?

Amazing.

Even more so for the Allagash 4 in their canoe.

Wow.

Interesting that many abductees WANT to believe their experience was not real, but just a dream.

Interesting that many abductees recall vast portions of their experience(s) w/o the aid of hypnosis.

So you think sleep paralysis leads to post traumatic stress disorder?

I think you need to study more.

Harvard. Isn't that brainy Pres Bush a grad?

William of Occam was wrong, things just aren't that simple.

Mark M's Razor:

Of two competing theories, the more astonishing one is to be preferred.

--Mark M

FAIR WARNING: This excellent, well-written book isn't really about aliens at all -- it's about the psychological mechanisms that drive the human memory machine. If you're looking for a lively debate about the existence, or non-existence, of alien visitors to Earth, find another writer.

Susan Clancy is a post-doctoral fellow in psychology at Harvard University. She has also worked in Nicaragua as an economic development advisor. She doesn't believe in extra-terrestrial visitors and she's very open about that from the get-go.

The real purpose of her research, as documented in this book, is to determine what "abductees" have in common from a psychological standpoint -- to answer these five questions:

-- How do people come to believe they were abducted by aliens? In other words, how did these imaginary "memories" come to exist in the first place?
-- Why do abductees have memories if it didn't really happen?
-- Why are abduction stories so consistent? (They're not.)
-- Who gets abducted?
-- If it didn't happen, why would an abductee want to believe it?

At the risk of over-simplification, Clancy's answer is this: Virtually all abduction reports were reported only AFTER Hollywood and the publishing industry popularized this type of narrative, starting in the late 1940s and continuing in the 1960s - 1980s. Most abductees are not insane or psychotic, but they do test very high on objective laboratory measuresments for what is called "schizotypy" -- the tendency to think eccentrically and to believe in "magical thinking" (e.g., that certain numbers have magical powers). They're often loners who are very interested in UFO studies and other paranormal phenomenon long before they claim to have been abducted.

Clancy and her team interviewed, at length, about 50 "abductees." In the course of her report, we learn a great deal about the biological and psychological mechanisms that shape the human memory system. It's a fascinating look at how the brain works and how we interpret stored information based on pre-conceived beliefs. A few sections get repetitive here and there, but generally speaking Clancy's writing is lively and fun to read.

In the final chapter, she theorizes about why these people WANT to believe in these traumatic abductions, despite the pain and disruption the memories cause. Her answer is a fascinating proposal that deserves further study, both from a scientific and religious perspective. Don't miss this short little book!

(Note: Some of the material here is very sexual and sometimes violent, so I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone under the age of 16.)