105 lines
5.4 KiB
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105 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
A letter to the editor in the Summer 1988 issue of the
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Skeptical Inquirer caught my eye. It referred to an article
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called "The Aliens Among Us: Hypnotic Regression Revisited," by
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Dr. Robert A. Baker. In it, Baker challenged UFO abductions by
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coming up with several alternatives to the ET Hypothesis,
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including Fantasy-Prone Personalities and Hypnogogic/Hypnopompic
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Hallucinations. These last two are special dream states
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experienced upon drifting off to sleep/waking up, in which one
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can feel paralyzed and/or see things in their bedroom that
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aren't really there. Out of Body Experiences and Alien
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Abductions have been attributed to this phenomenon by some
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research psychologists.
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Since I received few responses to my post on the ASTRAL echo
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suggesting Hypnogogic/pompic phenomena as a POSSIBLE explanation
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for OOBEs, I thought perhaps this letter would be enlightening:
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I would like to thank Robert A. Baker for his article "The
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Aliens Among Us: Hypnotic Regression Revisited" (SI, Winter
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1987-88). I have been plagued by hypnogogic hallucinations since
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childhood, but until reading this article I didn't know what
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they were called or even that other people had them.
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My typical hallucination goes something like this: I am on the
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verge of falling asleep. A loud ringing in my ears, sometimes
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accompanied by a montage of unearthly voices, signals the onset
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of another episode. Though I seem awake, my body is completely
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paralyzed. I feel my "spirit" leave my body. The next thing I
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know I am floating somewhere near the ceiling, looking down at
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myself and my wife at my side. Once free of my body, I can often
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control where my ethereal self goes. Sometimes I float all
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around the house, and on one occasion I floated through the wall
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and out into the yard. Occaionally I sense the presence of other
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beings around me. At some point I get bored or frightened by the
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whole thing and return to my body and go to sleep.
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Instead of an out-of-body experience, I sometimes have an
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extremely vivid auditory and/or visual hallucination. Over the
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years I have seen and talked to "ghosts," been visited (though
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not yet abducted) by aliens, seen three-dimensional heads
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floating by my bed, heard knocks on my door (when no one else
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was in the house), and was once attacked by a glowing green
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Doberman. These experiences seem as real as life.
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I have never thought of these experiences as anything more than
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what they certainly are: my mind playing tricks on itself. The
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few other people I've known who have had similar experiences
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were all convinced that they were, in Baker's words,
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"incontrovertible proof of some sort of objective or consensual
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reality." These otherwise rational and intelligent people also
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believe that Uri Geller can really bend spoons with his mind.
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Take one hypnogogic hallucination and one fantasy-prone
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individual and you have all the ingredients you need for a true
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believer.
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Based on my own experience, I believe that hypnogogic and
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hypnopompic hallucinations provide a rational explanation for
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most alien abductions, out-of-body and near-death experiences,
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ghosts and just about any other claim of the paranormal you care
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to name. Baker states that these hallucinations are a "common yet
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little publicized and rarely discussed phenomenon." I recommend
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that SI and CSICOP discuss and publicize them thoroughly in the
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future.
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James A. Stewart
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Coronado, CA
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COMMENT:
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Mind you, I don't think "H/HH"s can fully account for the
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abduction syndrome, due to the striking similarities between
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reports (see SNOBS.UFO, ParaNet Alpha, Library 1). But even in
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this area I'm open to further inquiry.
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I'm also not the least bit impressed with this so-called
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"skeptic's" remark that OOBE's are "certainly" caused by H/HHs,
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"based on [his] own experience." Isn't extrapolation from
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personal experience an unsound method of judging data? It
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certainly is when True Believers do it, as many declared
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skeptics are quick to point out. If he's that "certain," there's
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no use in even arguing with him. He's no longer a skeptic, he's
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become a cynic.
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However, I thought this letter was important, in that it
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presents an alternative, Earth-bound picture of the phenomenon
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from the point of view of one who has experienced it. Rarely do
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declared skeptics acknowledge having actual encounters with the
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bizarre; they choose instead to take a more detached approach. I
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think this mixing of subjective experience with objective
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evaluation is an important element in the Rationalism movement's
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efforts to gain credibility among the credulous.
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<<>>
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Copyright 1988 National Fringe Sciences Information Service, All Rights
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Reserved.
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Letter Copyright 1988 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of
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Claims of the Paranormal. Used with permission.
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