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Alien abductees prone to false memories - expert
Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 10/25/05 | Reuters

Posted on 10/25/2005 11:53:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

LONDON (Reuters) - Do you have memories of being abducted by aliens and whisked away in a spaceship?You wouldn't be alone. Several thousand people worldwide claim to have had such close encounters, researchers say. But in a new study, a psychology expert at London's Goldsmiths College says these experiences are proof of the frailty of the human memory, rather than evidence of life in other galaxies.

"Maybe what we're dealing with here is false memories, and not that people are actually being abducted and taken aboard spaceships," says Professor Chris French, who surveyed 19 self-proclaimed alien abductees.

Several of the abductees reported being snatched from their beds or cars by alien creatures around four feet high, with spindly arms and legs and oversized heads, French said.

Some men said they were subjected to painful medical examinations by the aliens, during which their sperm was extracted.

Many of the alien experiences could be explained by sleep paralysis, a condition in which a person is awake and aware of the surroundings but is unable to move.

Sleep paralysis often leads to hallucinations and 40 percent of people experience the state at least once in their lives, French said.

A rich imagination was also at play. Several of the alien abductees were already prone to fantasising and also claimed to have seen ghosts and have psychic or healing abilities.

"People have very rich fantasy lives," said French, who is due to present his findings at a public seminar at London's Science Museum on Wednesday.

"So much so that they often mix up what's happening in their heads with what is going on in the real world."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: abductees; alien; darnthatdream; expert; false; littlealeinn; memories; prone; runawaybride; sleepparalysis; thetruthisoutthere; wrongmothership
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To: Paul C. Jesup
I have had that happen to me twice. Both times were no picnics.

It's a frightening thing, of that there's no doubt. I used to get it all the time when I was in my mid-twenties, but it recurs infrequently now. I had poor control of my blood sugar back then, and was told by the doctor that I was at risk to develop type 2 diabetes. The experiences would usually happen after getting up about five hours after a food or beer binge, downing a couple of glasses of water and then going back to sleep. I still can't get over the vividness of the dreams I'd have just prior to partially waking up and not being able to move. They had none of the "dream-like" quality of dreams. The surroundings were perfectly natural (usually I'd be walking around my own house with everything in its proper place) but there would be some kind of "unreal" element, like doing somersaults and backflips in slow motion in the air, as if I were weightless in outer space. Bizarre.

21 posted on 10/26/2005 12:54:43 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: NormsRevenge

If you haven't been probed by Zarquon, you haven't been probed at all!


22 posted on 10/26/2005 1:02:43 AM PDT by NaughtiusMaximus ("When it comes to a wife, give me a woman every time." - The Horse's Mouth)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham
It's a frightening thing, of that there's no doubt.

Actually I felt more annoyness and a need to stop the pain than fear.

23 posted on 10/26/2005 1:09:56 AM PDT by Paul C. Jesup
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To: NormsRevenge
Well...about 20 years ago a very good friend and I both worked in TV/Radio. Late one night I picked her up and we went to visit a small radio station in a VERY rural area. It was located in a field at the top of a hill at the end of a dirt road that made it's way thorugh a deep, dark woods.

We arrived shortly after midnight and found no one at the station. The door was open so we walked in a nd looked around. It was running on autopilot so we went back outside.

It was a BEAUTIFUL starlit night! We decided to just sit in my Renault Medallion wagon and watch the stars for awhile. Let me repeat...It was a BEAUTIFUL starlit night!

Suddenly there were beams of light all around us...then colored lights flashing red and blue! We were pretty shook up and decided to leave ASAP but when I turned the key the Renault wouldn't start! NO POWER FOR STARTER< LIGHTS OR ANYTHING! We snuggled close and waited until the lights dimmed and we thought it was safe.

She opened the passenger door, I opened the drivers door and we started pushing the car down the dirt road. It was so dark we had to feel our way about a mile down the hill.

At the bottom we intersected the main road where a single light bulb shone in a fixture outside a closed tavern. I pushed the car under the light, opened the hood, fiddled with fuses and relays and finally got the car to start.

We drove as quick as possible back to her apartment some 30 miles away. It wasn't until we were almost there that we got the radio to work and the annojncer gave a time check...it was nearly 5:30 AM. We both checked our watches and found they had stopped dead at around 1:15AM! We couldn't account for the missing time! I dropped her off and headed home.

Later we talked about the incident and came to the conclusion we had been abducted by aliens.

At least that's the story I gave my WIFE when she asked where I'd been all night. Of course I left out the part about having my friend along when I went to the station.

Hopefully Wife believed that...!

prisoner6

24 posted on 10/26/2005 1:16:25 AM PDT by prisoner6 (Right Wing Nuts hold the country together as the loose screws of the left fall out!)
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To: NormsRevenge

corrected headline: Alien Abductees Prone To Making Bullsh*t Up To Get Attetion.


25 posted on 10/26/2005 1:29:55 AM PDT by tomakaze (Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum.)
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To: NormsRevenge

Well, all I can say is, "Ack, ack-ack-ack, aaaACK!"


26 posted on 10/26/2005 1:35:59 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: NormsRevenge
I dunno.

I wake up some mornings . . . well, I just feel . . . probed. There's no other explanation.

27 posted on 10/26/2005 1:38:11 AM PDT by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: NormsRevenge

28 posted on 10/26/2005 2:01:45 AM PDT by WestVirginiaRebel (The Democratic Party-Jackass symbol, jackass leaders, jackass supporters.)
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To: NormsRevenge
I have an autographed copy of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FOURTH KIND by C.D.B Bryan a writer for the New Yorker. He treats the subject of alien abduction clinically. His position is that one of three things is happening.

1) People are really being abducted,

2)There is a world-wide and cleverly coordinated hoax going on, or

3) There is an unrecognized and undiagnosed form of mental illness causing these delusions.

The book gives a factual presentation of the abductees reports and also covers the charlatans working them for money but in the end, it seems clear that this is a serious delusion suffered by a significant number of people

29 posted on 10/26/2005 2:08:43 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopechne is walking around free)
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To: NormsRevenge

I drank some moonshine once. It was very unpleasant. I won't do it again, and I know those aliens weren't real. Some folks just have to air their hallucinations in public. Maybe they believe them, I don't know.


30 posted on 10/26/2005 2:14:17 AM PDT by KarinG1
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To: NormsRevenge
I'm not an abductee but I am an abductor.

I hail from a planet far, far away. My purpose here on Earth is to intermingle with your people and set up abductions for my people. I am an advance man, so to speak. I work out the details, mark the abductees in a tasteful and inconspicous manner, and then I give the green light to my Mother Ship to come on in.

Technically, I am sworn by my home planet to secrecy about my mission here, but this primitive Internet forum allows me a cloak of anonymity in which I can let my hair down from time to time. My masters from the Mother Ship would be displeased if they found I was posting about this here, but I doubt they could be bothered to check up on what I do in my spare time down here.

I have already worked out the abductions of some 200 Earthlings and that includes some of the Freepers in this forum. I hope you are not angry with me. My people mean well and we are sure to return all our abductees back to Earth the way we found them (to the best of our ability). It's all in the name of science and research. So please understand that we mean no harm. Permanent harm, that is.

If anybody wants to volunteer for our research program, please Freepmail me. I'm not supposed to recruit volunteers and my people would be displeased, but it does make my job here go smoother and I have more time to goof off like I'm doing right now. If you want to volunteer, I'll just need to know your blood type, height, weight, hair color and home address. Have a Sharpie marker on hand and I'll tell you what to do with it the night of your planned abduction. You might want to schedule your abduction the night before a day off from work. Even though our tests should be mostly transparent to you, you'll probably be a bit "peaked" the next day.

Thank you and good day.

31 posted on 10/26/2005 2:43:59 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (What Would Howard Roarke Do?)
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To: Paul C. Jesup
Sleep paralysis often leads to hallucinations

Ok it said often. It didn't say 100% of the time. I'm sure with billions inhabiting the Earth that it's possible that you could be the exception to the rule.

32 posted on 10/26/2005 2:47:42 AM PDT by SALChamps03
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To: babygene
Some men said they were subjected to painful medical examinations by the aliens, during which their sperm was extracted.

Is this how you knew?

Never mind, too much info.

33 posted on 10/26/2005 2:49:09 AM PDT by TN4Liberty (American... conservative... southern.... It doesn't get any better than this.)
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To: NormsRevenge

I've never been abducted by aliens, but I have worked in western Washington. Aliens have no monopoly on bizarre processes.


34 posted on 10/26/2005 3:06:01 AM PDT by meadsjn
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To: NormsRevenge

What happens on the mothership stays on the mothership.


35 posted on 10/26/2005 4:47:05 AM PDT by DancesWithBolsheviks (Celebrate E Pluribus Unum)
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To: NormsRevenge
An interesting read is _Alien Intrusion_ by Gary Bates. I heard him interviewed by George Noory a few months ago, he seemed very knowledgeable and has done a lot of research. I just finished the book and think it's pretty well done.

I don't usually listen to George Noory or Art Bell, but heard this author was being interviewed so we recorded the program.

36 posted on 10/26/2005 5:08:54 AM PDT by Mrs. P
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To: NormsRevenge
Okay, I know someone who had an encounter with a UFO, he claimed it came over him at a tremendous rate of speed and then crashed.
He made his way to the wreckage and upon further examination he thought he knew what it was and was sure where it came from. Then suddenly another object soared overhead and crashed just beyond where he stood at the time.
Finally, he knew what he had to do, gathering up all of his strength he shouted out "Hillary you b*tch, stop throwing things at me!!!
37 posted on 10/26/2005 5:34:16 AM PDT by #1CTYankee (I thought about that and DELIBERATELY didn't go there. ((Or maybe I did?))
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To: sweetliberty

lol!


38 posted on 10/26/2005 5:51:19 AM PDT by nicmarlo
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To: sweetliberty

NOT my fault.
;-)


39 posted on 10/26/2005 6:03:19 AM PDT by Darksheare (If you shake a stick of garlic butter at a vampire, will it keep him away?)
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To: NormsRevenge
Hardly! The reason that they have problems with their memories is because the "visitors" have played around with their memories! They don't want the abductees to have perfect memories of what happened to them. It's a SYMPTOM of being abducted, not the cause!

Mark

40 posted on 10/26/2005 6:11:48 AM PDT by MarkL (I didn't get to where I am today by worrying about what I'd feel like tomorrow!)
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