Alien Abductions - A Critical Reader-pages

Page 74 of 81

Page 74 of 81
Alien Abductions - A Critical Reader-pages

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“Cause and effect in the relationship of abduction experiences to building of personality are thus virtually impossible to sort out” (Mack 1994, p. 5). But surely it is Mack’s burden to prove his own thesis that the alien hypothesis does have a basis in fact beyond mere allegation. Otherwise the evidence may well be explained by a simpler hypothesis, such as the possibility that most ‘“‘abductees” are fantasy-prone personality types. (Such people have traits that cut across many different personality dimensions; thus conventional personality tests are useless for identifying easily hypnotizable people. Some “abductees” who are not fantasy prone may be hoaxers, for example, or exhibit other distinctive personality traits or psycholog- ical problems.) Mack’s approach to the diagnosis and treatment of his “abductee” patients has been criticized by many of his colleagues (e.g., Cone 1994). Methodology To test the fantasy-proneness hypothesis, I carefully reviewed the thirteen chapter- length cases in Mack’s Abduction (Chapters 3-15), selected from the forty- nine patients he most carefully studied out of seventy-six “‘abductees.” Since his presentation was not intended to include fantasy proneness, certain potential indicators of that personality type—like a subject’s having an imaginary play- mate—would not be expected to be present. Nevertheless, Mack’s rendering of each personality in light of the person’s alleged abduction experiences was sufficiently detailed to allow the extraction of data pertaining to several indicators of fantasy proneness. They are the follow- ing: 1. Susceptibility to hypnosis. Wilson and Barber rated “hypnotizability” as one of the main indicators of fantasy proneness. In all cases, Mack repeatedly hypnotized the subjects without reporting the least difficulty in doing so. Also, under hypnosis the subjects did not merely “recall” their alleged abduction experienc- es but all of them reexperienced and relived them in a manner typical of fantasy proneness (Wilson and Barber 1983, pp. 373-379). For example, Mack’s patient “Scott” (No. 3) was so alarmed at “remembering” his first abduction (in a pre-Mack hypnosis session with another psychiatrist) that, he said, “I jumped clear off the couch” (Mack 1994, p. 81); “Jerry” (No. 4) “expressed shock over how vividly she had relived the abduction,” said Mack (1994, p. 112); similarly, “Catherine” (No. 5) “began to relive” a feeling of numbness and began “to sob and pant’ (Mack 1994, p. 140). 2. Paraidentity. | have used this term to refer to a subjects having had imaginary companions as a child (Wilson and Barber 1983, pp. 346-347) and/or by extension to claiming to have lived past lives or to have a dual identity of some type. Of their fantasy-prone subjects, Wilson and Barber stated: “In fantasy they can do any- thing—experience a previous lifetime, experience their own birth, go off into the future, go into space, and so on.” As well, “While they are pretending, they become totally absorbed in the character and tend to lose awareness of their true identity” (Wilson and Barber 1983, pp. 353, 354). Thus, as a child, “Ed” (No. 1) stated: “Things talked to me. The animals, the spirits .... I can sense the earth” (Mack 1994, p. 47); “Jerry” (No. 4) said he has had a relationship with a tall extraterres- trial being since age five (Mack 1994, p. 113). At least four of Mack’s subjects (Nos. 5, 7, 9, and 10) said they have had past-life experiences (pp. 160-162, 200, 248, 259), and seven (Nos. 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12) said they have some sort of dual identity (pp. 92-93, 173,200, 209, 243, 297, and 355- 356). For example “Dave” (No. 10) said he considers himself ‘a modern-day Indian’; while “Peter” (No. 11) under hypnosis said he becomes an alien and speaks in robotic tones (Mack 1994, pp. 275, 277, 72