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room. might appear in some of the transcript excerpts used in this study that a question is leading. In each case I have found that the abductee was not readable; often the questions asked are from material that had already been discussed previously in the session. I use a calm, informal style of inquiry, especially with those abductees who have had many sessions with me and with whom I have spent enough time to know their reactions to the questioning. When a person comes for her first session, my questioning technique is necessarily cautious and not pressing. With a new subject, I intentionally ask leading questions to ascertain whether she is “readable” to any degree. The vast majority of the time she is not, demon- strating this by answering a definite “no to my leading questions During a regression session, I try to be as rigorously systematic as I can. I go through the abduction one step at a time, from just before the incident began until the very end. This requires expending a great amount of time on each abduction account. I have developed a technique through which I can move the abductee backward and forward through the event, slowly expanding memories. Sometimes I will go through the event twice, asking questions in a slightly different manner based on what has already been said. If a person cannot remember something, I do not press for recall. Each session lasts between three and five hours, with the hypnosis itself lasting between one and three hours. I use as nonconfrontational and is During a regression, all abductees are quite aware of what is happening on two fundamental levels: (1) the information that they are remembering, and (2) the questions and answers that they are required to deal with while they remem- ber. If possible, the abductees learn to observe and analyze the events from a dispassionate and systematic point of view. When they have had a number of sessions, they become adept in question- ing themselves and their remembrances, and they can distance themselves to a greater degree from the event. They become “participant-observers” rather than just helpless victims. This has proved to be invaluable for my own research and for the way that the abductees learn to cope with the problems engendered by the abductions. After I have had a number of sessions with them and am sure that they cannot be led while undergoing hypnosis, I can be more blunt in my questions and they can evaluate their memories for themselves. After I bring them out of the hypnotic state, we engage in a thirty-minute to one-hour “talk down” period when other details may be recalled. Occasionally I use a method I call “assisted recall,” in which close and careful questioning techniques enable the abductee to remember most of the abduction without the use of hypnosis. vast and use as supportive a manner as I can, often purposely not finishing questions so that abductees can “ease” into the line of questioning that I am developing or interpret the question for themselves. For the most part, I speak in low, conversa- tional tones so that I do not in any way set up an environment that is hostile or suspicious. If I find what appear to be contradictions, I point these out and question them about it (e.g., “If you are lying on your back, how could you feel someone touching your back?’). If they say something that I have never heard before, I again question them very closely to make sure that it is not imaginary. It David Jacobs is an Associate Professor of History at Temple University and a leading authority on unidentified Flying Objects. He is the author of The UFO Controversy in America. 19