Home > Abduction Phenomenon

While few mainstream scientists believe the phenomenon literally occurs as reported--some experts contend the field is rife with kooks and pseudoscience--there is little doubt that many thousands of sincere persons report alien abductions they believe are utterly genuine. Stigma and self-doubt may be obstacles to more widespread study and/or reporting.

In his books, Harvard Medical School professor Dr. John Mack explains that common features of alien abduction experiences include the feeling of paralysis, the perception of having been transported immaterially, frequently through a beam of light; the sense of having been surgically probed or implanted with devices, the freezing or slowing of time, and sexual or reproductive contact or manipulation by the aliens. Local support groups for experiencers of the phenomenon are not uncommon.

Proposed psychological alternative explanations of the abduction phenomenon have included hallucination, false memories (such as the ones medically shown to be produced by hypnosis), temporary schizophreniaSchizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behaviour, thinking, and emotion. The term schizophrenia comes from the Greek words schizo split or divide) and phrenos mind) and is best tra, and parasomniaA parasomnia is a sleep disorder such as sleepwalking, night terrors, rhythmic movement disorder, REM behaviour disorder and restless leg syndrome, characterized by partial arousals during sleep or during transitions between wakefulness and sleep. Parasome - near-sleep mental states ( hypnogogic state s and sleep paralysisSleep paralysis is a term either used to describe the normal paralysis of the body that occurs during REM sleep, or the disorder in which awareness is maintained when the body becomes paralysed when entering sleep (known as hypnogogic paralysis) or remain). Sleep paralysisSleep paralysis is a term either used to describe the normal paralysis of the body that occurs during REM sleep, or the disorder in which awareness is maintained when the body becomes paralysed when entering sleep (known as hypnogogic paralysis) or remain in particular is often accompanied by hallucinations and peculiar sensation of malevolent or neutral presence of "something", though usually people experiencing it do not interpret that "something" as aliens.

It is worth noting that the events allegedly happening during the purported abductions often have parallels in anthropologyAnthropology (from the Greek word ANTHROPOLOGIA consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo . It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times, and with all dimensions of humanity. Central to anthropology is the concept of. Especially frequently correlate with certain imagery persistent in shamanSpecifically, Shaman (saman) is a term in Evenk, Manchu and other Manchu-Tungus languages for an intellectual and spiritual figure; who usually possess power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, one of which is analoic experiences (e.g., surgery-like procedures, foreign objects implanted in the body) and faerieIn mythology and in fiction, Faerie (also Faery is an otherworldly realm, home to the Fae or fairies. Traditional examples of Faerie include: in Germanic folklore and myth: Alfheim in Norse mythology, (spelled Elphame in Scottish tales such as Thomas the contact stories, for instance.

Abduction claimants do not always attempt to explain the phenomenon, but some take independent research interest in it themselves, and explain the lack of greater awareness of Alien Abduction as the result of either extraterrestrial or governmental interest in coverup.

The alien abduction phenomenon has been the subject of conspiracy theoryFor the movie, see Conspiracy Theory (movie # A conspiracy theory is a theory that defies common historical or current understanding of events, under the claim that those events are the result of manipulations by one or more secretive powers or conspiraci and as such has become a staple of popular science fictionScience fiction generally speaking, is a form of speculative fiction which deals principally with the impact of imagined science and/or technology upon society or individuals. There are, perhaps, exceptions to (or at least, some very unusual examples of) works such as The X-Files.

See also UFOs