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he saw earth spirits whom he described as “mirthful little playful creatures” (p. 48); and “Joe” (No. 6) said he saw “mythic gods, and winged horses.” “Joe” also “remembered” being born (Mack 1994, pp. 170, 184). “Catherine” (No. 5), “Sara” (No. 7), “Paul” (No. 8), and “Eva,” (No. 9) said they had past-life experiences or engaged in time-travel while under hypnosis. Several said they were able to drift through solid doors or walls, including “Ed” (No. 1), “Jerry” (No. 4), “Catherine” (No. 5), ‘Paul’ (No. 8), “Dave” (No. 10), and “Arthur” (No. 13). “Carlos” (No. 12) claimed his body was transmuted into light. I have already men- tioned that under hypnosis “Peter” (No. 11) said he becomes an alien and speaks in an imitative, robotic voice. In all, eleven of Mack’s thirteen subjects (all but Nos. 2 and 3) appear to fantasize under hypno- sis. Of course it may be argued that there really are “earth spirits” and “winged horses,” or that the extraterrestrials may truly have the ability to time travel or dematerialize bodies, or that any of the other examples I have given as evidence of fantasizing are really true. However, once again the burden of proof is on the claimant and until that burden is met, the examples can be taken as further evidence of the subjects’ ability to fantasize. Conclusions Despite John Mack’s denial, the results of my study of his best thirteen cases show high fantasy proneness among his selected subjects. Whether or not the same results would be obtained with his additional subjects remains to be seen. Nevertheless, my study does support the earlier opinions of Baker and D w-4 w1 ee e a 2 Bartholomew and Basterfield that alleged alien abductees tend to be fantasy-prone personalities. Certainly, that is the evidence for the very best cases selected by a major advocate. Note 75 I am grateful to psychologists Robert A. Baker and Barry Beyerstein for reading this study and making helpful sugges- tions. References Baker, Robert A. 1987-1988. The aliens among us: MHypnotic regression revisited. Skeptical Inquirer 12(2) (Winter): pp. 147-162. Bartholomew, Robert E., and _ Keith Basterfield. 1988. Abduction states of consciousness. International UFO Reporter, March/April. Bartholomew, Robert E., Keith Basterfield, and George S. Howard. 1991. UFO abductees and contactees: Psychopathology or fantasy prone- ness? Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 22(3): 215-222. Cone, William. 1994. Research therapy methods questioned. UFO 9(5): 32-34. Mack, John. 1994. Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens. New York: Simon and Schuster. Nickell, Joe. 1995. Entities: Angels, Spirits, Demons and Other Alien Beings. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Spanos, Nicholas P., Patricia A. Cross, Kirby Dickson, and Susan C. DuBreuil. 1993. Close encounters: An examina- tion of UFO experiences. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102 (4): 624-632. Wilson, Sheryl C., and Theodore X. Barber. 1983. The fantasy-prone personality: Implications for under- standing imagery, hypnosis, and parapsychological phenomena. In Imagery, Current Theory, Research and Application, ed. by Anees A. Sheikh, New York: Wiley, pp. 340-390. In Joe Nickell is the Senior Research Fellow for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the author of numerous books on the paranormal.