POSSIBLE explanation for OOBEs

         A letter to the editor in the Summer 1988 issue of the

        Skeptical Inquirer caught my eye. It referred to an article

        called "The Aliens Among Us: Hypnotic Regression Revisited," by

        Dr. Robert A. Baker. In it, Baker challenged UFO abductions by

        coming up with several alternatives to the ET Hypothesis,

        including Fantasy-Prone Personalities and Hypnogogic/Hypnopompic

        Hallucinations. These last two are special dream states

        experienced upon drifting off to sleep/waking up, in which one

        can feel paralyzed and/or see things in their bedroom that

        aren't really there. Out of Body Experiences and Alien

        Abductions have been attributed to this phenomenon by some

        research psychologists.

        Since I received few responses to my post on the ASTRAL echo

        suggesting Hypnogogic/pompic phenomena as a POSSIBLE explanation

        for OOBEs, I thought perhaps this letter would be enlightening:

        ----------------------

        I would like to thank Robert A. Baker for his article "The

        Aliens Among Us: Hypnotic Regression Revisited" (SI, Winter

        1987-88). I have been plagued by hypnogogic hallucinations since

        childhood, but until reading this article I didn't know what

        they were called or even that other people had them.

        My typical hallucination goes something like this: I am on the

        verge of falling asleep. A loud ringing in my ears, sometimes

        accompanied by a montage of unearthly voices, signals the onset

        of another episode. Though I seem awake, my body is completely

        paralyzed. I feel my "spirit" leave my body. The next thing I

        know I am floating somewhere near the ceiling, looking down at

        myself and my wife at my side. Once free of my body, I can often

        control where my ethereal self goes. Sometimes I float all

        around the house, and on one occasion I floated through the wall

        and out into the yard. Occaionally I sense the presence of other

        beings around me. At some point I get bored or frightened by the

        whole thing and return to my body and go to sleep.

        Instead of an out-of-body experience, I sometimes have an

        extremely vivid auditory and/or visual hallucination. Over the

        years I have seen and talked to "ghosts," been visited (though

        not yet abducted) by aliens, seen three-dimensional heads

        floating by my bed, heard knocks on my door (when no one else

        was in the house), and was once attacked by a glowing green

        Doberman. These experiences seem as real as life.

        I have never thought of these experiences as anything more than

        what they certainly are: my mind playing tricks on itself. The

        few other people I've known who have had similar experiences

        were all convinced that they were, in Baker's words,

        "incontrovertible proof of some sort of objective or consensual

        reality." These otherwise rational and intelligent people also

        believe that Uri Geller can really bend spoons with his mind.

        Take one hypnogogic hallucination and one fantasy-prone

        individual and you have all the ingredients you need for a true

        believer.

        Based on my own experience, I believe that hypnogogic and

        hypnopompic hallucinations provide a rational explanation for

        most alien abductions, out-of-body and near-death experiences,

        ghosts and just about any other claim of the paranormal you care

        to name. Baker states that these hallucinations are a "common yet

        little publicized and rarely discussed phenomenon." I recommend

        that SI and CSICOP discuss and publicize them thoroughly in the

        future.

        James A. Stewart

        Coronado, CA

        ---------------

        COMMENT:

        Mind you, I don't think "H/HH"s can fully account for the

        abduction syndrome, due to the striking similarities between

        reports (see SNOBS.UFO, ParaNet Alpha, Library 1). But even in

        this area I'm open to further inquiry.

        I'm also not the least bit impressed with this so-called

        "skeptic's" remark that OOBE's are "certainly" caused by H/HHs,

        "based on [his] own experience." Isn't extrapolation from

        personal experience an unsound method of judging data? It

        certainly is when True Believers do it, as many declared

        skeptics are quick to point out. If he's that "certain," there's

        no use in even arguing with him. He's no longer a skeptic, he's

        become a cynic.

        However, I thought this letter was important, in that it

        presents an alternative, Earth-bound picture of the phenomenon

        from the point of view of one who has experienced it. Rarely do

        declared skeptics acknowledge having actual encounters with the

        bizarre; they choose instead to take a more detached approach. I

        think this mixing of subjective experience with objective

        evaluation is an important element in the Rationalism movement's

        efforts to gain credibility among the credulous.

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Copyright 1988 National Fringe Sciences Information Service, All Rights

Reserved.

Letter Copyright 1988 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of

Claims of the Paranormal. Used with permission.