UFO ABDUCTIONS: BEYOND MATTER?

TITLE: UFO ABDUCTIONS: BEYOND MATTER?

AUTHOR: Don Sudduth
c/o META-4, Inc.
1401 W. 76th St, Suite 100
Minneapolis, MN 55423

DATE: November 26, 1989



There is a certain sense of stability in the physical world that
most of us take for granted.  However, in the current realm of UFO
abduction literature, the term "physical world" may need some
redefinition.  UFO abductees have found their world stretched and
distorted in a way that defies modern science.  Testimony from
abductees now includes levitation, paralysis, telepathy, and
startling visions.  To ignore these reports is to ignore the vast
amount of evidence that seems to be mounting.  To accept these
reports blindly, however, is to accept data whose source is
testimony from hypnosis, vague memories, and spontaneous recall.
Are abductees really levitating out of their beds at night, floating
up to a hovering UFO, and being subjected to physical examinations?
Perhaps this question can be answered by looking closer at
abductee's testimony.

Recently, Budd Hopkin's and Whitley Strieber's works have strongly
promoted the notion of physical abductions as a norm for UFO contact
with humans.  However, from a recently published article in UFO
Magazine (Vol 4, Num 4), Ann Druffel has offered a new perspective
on the abduction phenomena.  This perspective alters the focus of an
abduction from something physical to something within the mind.  Ann
Druffel, in her book "The Tujunga Canyon Contacts" tells of hypnotic
regression of a particular abductee named Emily who "learned that if
she could manage to move even one toe or finger, the paralysis broke
and the creatures vanished."  The article goes on to report that
Emily could use mental effort to wake her roommate and also break
the abduction paralysis.  In another case Ms. Druffel notes that the
abductee was able to break out of the "contact" by making a sound or
mantra within herself.

Breaking out of the alleged abduction by shear force of will is just
one clue of its non-physical nature.  Are there others?  Looking at
the varied testimony of abductees, one gets the sense of the lack of
coincidence from report to report.  One person stated that she was
transported through her apartment wall.  While others feel the
abductors take them "by hand" into waiting UFO's.  Whitley Strieber,
in his book "Transformation", writes about his attempts at astral
travel and the similarity of that experience to his abductions.  He
also notes the strangeness factor of abduction reports from his
article in UFO Magazine (Vol 4, Num 2).  Strieber writes, "Of the
690 narratives sent to me by Communion and Transformation readers,
only a few appear to support these present theories of abduction.
The vast majority instead describe perceptions and experiences far
stranger than any reported by mainstream abduction researchers."
Another UFO researcher, Richard Grossinger, writes of the inability
of contactees to distinguish between the concrete or real and the
psychic or hallucinatory.  He suggests that we may be dealing with
both levels of reality thereby creating the current paradox of
conflicting abduction testimonies.

Before the "Communion" and "Intruders" phenomenon, astrophysicist
and UFO researcher Jacques Vallee cautioned the conception of UFO's
as being something truly physical.  Vallee's position is that
individual and social psychological manipulation of UFO contactees
may not be extraterrestrial at all but encounters with another
reality.  He suggests that the intelligence community worldwide is
probably "in the dark" about most aspects of the UFO phenomena.  On
the MJ-12 document he writes, "Given the names on the list of MJ-12
scientists, however, it seems to me their work could have had an
entirely different orientation, having to do with psychological
warfare.  I scratched the surface of that issue in "Messengers of
Deception", and I got burned because the UFO research community was
not ready to even consider that side of the problem".  Now that the
verdict is out on the MJ-12 documents with Bill Moore's revelation
of planted information, Dr. Vallee's comments seem much more potent.

In his book "Dimensions", Dr. Vallee strongly emphasizes the
psychological nature of UFO encounters.  His research has shown that
historically, UFO encounters have been perceived to be the common
myths of the time period such as the miracle at Fatima, Portugal in
1917. "The events at Fatima involve luminous spheres, lights with
strange colors, a feeling of 'heat waves'--all physical
characteristics commonly associated with UFOs...They also encompass
prophecy and a loss of ordinary consciousness on the part of
witnesses--what we have called the psychic component of UFO
sightings" (p 174).  Dr. Vallee even implies that much of human
history may have been shaped by the psychological effects of UFO
encounters and that the shape may have a purpose.

Extraterrestrial or not, it seems that abductions by UFOs are much
more psychological in nature than physical.  Yet the common belief
is in physical contact!  Is this what we are meant to believe?