Time Travel Institute

From: [email protected] (Don Allen)
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors, alt.conspiracy, sci.skeptic
Subject: RE-POST: Abduction articles
Message-ID: [email protected]
Date: 11 Mar 93 14:27:28 GMT
Organization: W. J. Vermillion – Winter Park, FL

AREA: UFO
Tue 9 Feb 93 23:34
By: Don Allen
To: All
Re: Abduction Article

Encounter Phenomena Defy “Set Pattern”; by Karla Turner.

(UFO, Vol. 8 No. 1 1993, Copyright 1992 by California UFO, 1536 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035, published bi-monthly with a subscription rate of $21/yr. Offices: UFO, PO Box 1053, Sunland, CA 91041-1053 818-951-1250)

It is a myth that alien abductions of humans follow a set pattern or agenda. Perhaps the best-known proponent of this theory is Budd Hopkins, who in his books made the genetics and cross-breeding scenario familiar to the public. Yet when you read back through those books, you’ll notice that several of the alien encounters seem to have very little apparent connection to an interest in breeding or DNA. And even Hopkins, in the past couple of years, has had to expand his theory to include a definite alien interest in some other things, such as pleasure and pain in humans.

Other well-known UFO researchers also harbor restrictive theories about the abduction phenomenon. Jacques Vallee, David Jacobs, Whitley Strieber, Brad Steiger, John Lear, Raymond Fowler, Jenny Randles, Kevin Randle, John Keel and other writers hold a diversity of intelligent, often ingenious, theories, yet each makes the same error. They ignore parts of the abductions evidence—whatever details don’t support their ideas.

INADEQUATE THEORIES.

Yet it must be clear that any present theory which cannot account for all the known evidence is not acceptable. At best, it can be misleading, especially for victims of abductions who turn to these prominent researchers seeking answers.

A case in point occurred during a conversation I had with a prominent researcher in 1989. In his lectures, this researcher always said that he had certain ways of testing the validity of potential new abduction cases, and one of those ways was the presence of particular scars on the victims’ bodies. I questioned him about a different kind of scar, one which I knew often appeared on abductees of my own acquaintance, and the researcher denied that such a mark showed up in his cases.

“Are you sure?” I asked incredulously. “This mark is pretty common around here, and I’d think it would show up in other places, too. In fact, I know it has.
“No,” he insisted, shaking his head, “the only marks I find are like the ones I’ve already described.”
“And this other mark hasn’t shown up at all?” I asked.
“No,” he repeated.
“Not even once?” I persisted.
“Well,” he said reluctantly, lowering his voice, “there have been a couple of instances. That child I talked about tonight, she had two of those marks, and I think there was another case. But they’re so rare that I have to ignore them. When you have two hundred cases with Scar A and only two cases with Scar B, you go with numbers.”

And that was the message he delivered, to an audience where anxious abductees were made to wonder if their anomalous marks meant anything after all, or if, as so many of their friends seemed to think, they were delusions of a troubled mind.

‘NO SINGLE PATTERN’.

In truth, however, although there are recurrent events in the abduction phenomenon, there is no single pattern or structure. And until we know what all the events mean, we can’t afford to ignore any of them.

What is one to make, for instance, of an ET-human encounter in which two of the four aliens assisted the abductee in preparing a roast for dinner? Granted, other events occurred in this case, but the dinner was indeed cooked, served and eaten by the abductee’s family less than two hours after the ETs departed.

Other details of this encounter included the manipulation of the abductee’s neck, “for the purpose of instruction,” and a discussion of genetically-stored memories and knowledge that can be tapped open in humans. But there was no medical exam, no cross-breeding activity, and no warnings of coming catastrophe, all of which are events that have been used to construct abduction theories. I know this to be true, because it happened to me.

HUMAN DUPLICATES.

Another anomalous event involves the duplication or replacement of the human by an alien counterpart. In one instance, a young man and his fiancee were in their car when a “shimmering force” enveloped him. He passed out, but moments later he began to move, acting and talking entirely different. His fiancee became terrified when he tried to drag her out into the dark back yard, where he told her “Something wants to see you there.” And only when a friend drove into the yard did the young man return to normal, with no memory of his aberrant behavior during the past ten minutes.

Under hypnotic regression, the fiancee described the young man as being kept in the car while the “other one” took his form and tried to control her. She called the “other one” a “hologram” and consistently referred to it as “it,” not “him.” In fact, she said she struggled to get away from “it” and back to the car where “the real” young man was still waiting.

Under separate regression, the young man recalled his version of the evening and said that at a certain point he was “turned off” and “unplugged,” yet he couldn’t say what sort of power was then operating his body.

An even more bizarre event happened to a woman in the Southwest during her encounter. She said she was “removed” from her body and stored in some inexplicable way, still aware, however, and able to communicate with her captors. They told her that another entity was now using her body, that it was going through all her regular activities, and that no one would be able to tell the difference. The day after the abduction when she returned to her job, she found that her body had indeed been at work, even though she herself was somewhere else.

‘INTERDIMENSIONAL BEING’.

These alien intruders apparently can behave and appear in a variety of ways. In one man’s experience, a human-looking woman often appeared, although she claimed she was an interdimensional being whose real appearance was not what the abductee saw. At times she would be “completely there” and very three-dimensional, but at other times only her head would be visible, or her head and hands.

The evidence from several cases also shows that the aliens have an odd interest in our animals, yet this is hardly mentioned in standard abduction research. During a period of intense ET activity in my family’s life, for instance, our dog was somehow moved one night from a fenced back yard into a locked garage. And the same dog, conversely, woke us up one morning barking in the back yard, when it had been put in a locked garage the night before. In both cases, there was no sign that either the gate or the garage door had been opened. The old dog was quite blind, at any rate, and would have had trouble getting anywhere, even if both passageways had been clear.

PET PUZZLER.

Transporting dogs turned up again in the case of a UFO researcher. Her dog slept outside, yet in the middle of the night she was awakened by his wet tongue on her face. She and the dog were in her bed, but her bedroom door was still locked, as was the outside door, and there were two other doors closed in between them.

Horses also have been moved, leaving their abductee-owners to track them down in corrals far distant from where the animals had been locked away for the night. It’s hard to imagine the purpose of such events, yet they are part of the larger phenomenon and must have some relevance.

There also seems to be a connection between abductions and the disappearance or appearance of possessions and other objects. One of the more humorous episodes occurred when a researcher was visiting another city and staying as a guest in our home. The day had been spent in work with other abductees, and that evening the group ordered Chinese food.

PREFERRED UTENSILS APPEAR.

As we sat eating the food, the researcher remarked that she preferred eating Chinese food with chopsticks, but we didn’t have any. After the meal, the researcher went to her room then returned moments later with a very puzzled expression. “I thought you didn’t have any chopsticks,” she told my husband. “And I certainly didn’t mean for you to go out and buy them! But thank you anyway for being so thoughtful.” She held out a pair of chopsticks wrapped in paper and smiled.

“Where did you get those?” he asked in amazement.
“They were on my bed,” she replied. “Didn’t you put them there?”
“Of course not!” he exclaimed. “There aren’t—weren’t—any chopsticks in the house, I promise you. And I haven’t gone anywhere!”

Other objects have appeared out of nowhere, such as metal balls falling from abductees’ bodies when they rose from their beds the morning after an encounter. In another instance, a mother saw what looked like a white book floating horizontally in her son’s bedroom, but when she went in, there was no book to be seen. In one abductee’s home, a fish disappeared from their aquarium, and then it reappeared ten days later, twice as large as it had been. Within 24 hours, however, it died, as did all the other fish in the tank.

WOMEN IN DISTRESS.

Perhaps the most remarkable and disturbing set of cases concerned two women I know but who are unacquainted with each other. The first woman awoke one morning to find her bed soaked with blood. It was during her menstrual cycle, yet she was surprised to have bled so profusely as to soak through the tampon she had inserted before going to bed. When she went to the bathroom to clean up, she could find no tampon to remove. Frantically she searched her bed, the bedroom, and finally her entire apartment, but the tampon had disappeared. A few days later, she related the incident to me, but neither of us knew what to make of it.

A month passed, and I received a call from the second woman, who lived far away from me. She was perplexed by an event of the previous night and wanted to tell someone about it. This woman was having her menstrual cycle also, and the night before had put on a sanitary pad before going to bed. Several hours later, she woke up and decided to go change the pad, as she was an unusually heavy bleeder. In surprise, however, she found the pad was spotless, and then she felt something inside her. She told me that she removed the tampon, but couldn’t understand how it had gotten there. “I haven’t used tampons in ten years,” she said, “so this doesn’t make any sense.”

ANOMALIES IN ‘TYPICAL’ REPORTS.

Anomalies have turned up in some cases that might otherwise seem to follow the “typical” abduction sequence of going into the “ship,” undergoing an examination and being returned with little or no memory. Sometimes, for instance, the surroundings in the “ship” are described as messy or dirty, with foul odors and signs of sloppy housekeeping. Sometimes the interior is said to be crowded, buzzing with numerous entities engaged in rapid, inexplicable movements from place to place.

Even more unusual are those accounts of abductions to inner space rather than outer space. In these cases, abductees tell of being taken into large underground complexes, and their descriptions very often include earthly—perhaps military— apparatus as well as the presence of both humans and aliens working together. These underground areas are reached through long vertical or corkscrewing tunnels, the abductees say, and in one case the place looked like a movie set of an old Western town.

‘BATHROOM SETTINGS’.

A third anomalous episode, which may have taken place aboard a craft or in an underground setting, involves abductees taken into “bathroom” settings. There they are made to get into “stalls” with or without toilets, and in most cases the abductees are thoroughly frightened by the events that occur in these surroundings, often having to do with examination of their sexual organs.

Most of these anomalous details have come from a relatively small group of abductees, yet similar cases are known elsewhere. In the instance of the odd scar, which began this discussion, there are cases of the triangular pattern turning up all over the world, yet no prominent researcher has acknowledged this. The scoop marks and straight-line cuts are well known, but just as frequent are less permanent scars and marks. Single, double and multiple puncture marks appear on abductees’ bodies, as do wide paths of subcutaneous purplish smears, triangles and other shapes made by skin discoloration rather than punctures, and long claw-mark scratches, usually numerous, accompanied by even longer welts of unbroken skin.

CHALLENGE TO ‘POSITIVE’ THEORIES.

As to researchers who claim that the ETs are here to help us evolve some higher consciousness or that they are here for some other positive purpose—saving our plant, promoting world peace, etc.—I challenge those researchers to incorporate anomalous data into this view.

What about those people who suffer total breakdowns after their experiences? What about those who undergo wild personality changes, who find themselves obsessed with deviant sexual behavior they never had before, often leading to the breakup of marriages and friendships? These things have happened numerous times, but no researcher has yet explained the higher purpose behind such results.

Particularly disturbing are those cases where previously healthy individuals have an ET encounter and then develop debilitating or terminal illnesses. It is well known that many women suffer gynecological problems after their experiences, often leading to hysterectomies. But other instances have shown the development of severe fatigue, horrible swelling and itching, and even cancer. Where are the positive effects in these cases?

Theories are starting places for research, not proven conclusions, and UFO researchers must be willing to expand and alter their pet theories according to the data they uncover. It would be wonderful if we could shape ET experiences into something positive, but until the details of abduction encounters—all the details—are given serious consideration, I think it’s dangerous to cling to theories that ignore data that will not fit. We owe it to ourselves to seek the whole truth.

(Karla Turner, Ph.D. received her doctorate in English studies from the University of North Texas and was a university teaching fellow for over a decade. Author of the recently-released Into the Fringe, she has researched the UFO phenomenon and worked with abductees since 1988.)

“Alien Abductions in the Gingerbread House”; by Dr. Karla Turner.

(UFO Universe, Vol. 3 No. 1 Spring 1993. Copyright 1993 by Charlotte Magazine Corp., Inc. 1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Published quarterly with a subscription rate of $14/yr. 815-734-1103.)

World-renowned UFO researcher Jacques Vallee has repeatedly referred to the similarities between UFO and abduction reports and the stories of folklore and fairy tales. I disagree with Dr. Vallee on many, many points of UFOlogy, but here I will grant that there is one fairy tale which does have something important to tell us about the alien abduction phenomenon. It is not, however, what Dr. Vallee might think.

The story of Hansel and Gretel presents a lesson that every abductee should heed. These innocent children, wandering lost and frightened in the forest, came upon a gingerbread house that seemed to offer them shelter and sustenance. The owner of the house, a wizened old woman, was frightening to them at first, but their hunger pushed the children to accept her offer to come inside and be fed.

And so they entered the gingerbread house and promptly became the old woman’s captives. Kept in cages, the two children were abundantly fed. It was not for their benefit, though. In fact, they were being fattened up for the oven! The deceptive nature of the gingerbread house and of the old woman’s offer of food worked quite well.

It is the deceptive quality of this story that holds a warning for humans who are abducted by aliens. Like Hansel and Gretel, we are initially terrified by our encounter with aliens, but in too many cases, our fear is overcome by the words of our abductors and by the thoughts and experiences they present to us.

I, too, am an abductee, and my quest to discover the nature of my own experiences led me into abduction research over the past four years. Working with many other abduction cases, I have learned just how basic the deception of alien actions can be.

My family and I also delved into our own experiences, both past and present. Barbara Bartholic, a dedicated UFO investigator from Tulsa, Oklahoma, worked closely with us and helped us fill in the gaps in our recollections of strange encounters through hypnotic regression. Ms. Bartholic, by the way, began her own research as an assistant to Jacques Vallee in cattle mutilation investigations, so her expertise in UFOlogy is wide-ranging. I have recently written a book, Into the Fringe, about the startling and often disturbing results of our personal investigations, and it will be published by the Berkley Publishing Group in November 1992.

But my interest soon expanded past the merely personal, and for the past several years I have worked as Ms. Bartholic’s research associate, exploring literally hundreds of sighting and encounter cases with her. And what I’ve learned through this work has raised far more questions than answers. In fact, it has taught me to be wary of those researchers who do claim to have answers. I have yet to hear of a single theory or explanation that accounts for all of the data.

Some researchers have pointed out patterns of events in the abduction experience, such as the physical examination, the taking of sperm and ova, and the later presentation of a hybrid baby to the abductee. Other patterns include the training of the abductee in some way and the delivery of a warning of some upcoming global disaster. Yes, these events are frequently reported, as one researcher has said in boringly repetitious accounts, and it is tempting to think that the explanation for alien abductions may lie in these patterns.

So the researchers announce that the problem is solved. The aliens are doing cross-breeding experiments, UFOlogists tell us. Never mind the overwhelming evidence against the viable commingling of different species. Or, we are told, the aliens are here to save us from destroying ourselves and our planet through violence, drug use, epidemic disease, pollution, and resource depletion. Never mind that these problems have grown worse, not better, since the ETs began visiting us.

Or, most infuriating of all, we are assured that there are no actual aliens, that our experiences spring from our own subconscious turmoil or from our need for fantasy fulfillment. Never mind that many abductees are young children, too young to be suffering from such psychological disturbances. Well, then, the resourceful researcher counters, the imagined aliens must spring from some collective human super-psyche that is mirroring our failures and dangers back to us. This particular theory adores the archetypal gray ET, because it resembles some sickly fetal form of humanity and must therefore be an objectified warning of what our species is in danger of becoming if we don’t mend our ways. Never mind that many, many abductees have no dealing with grays, but instead are victimized by robust reptoids and insectoids. Not to mention the totally human-looking blond beauties and black-headed, black-robed clan with the widow’s peak hairline.

No, too many researchers seem to find a theory and cling to it in spite of data that contradict it. And it is the ideas of these researchers that dominate ufology. But if the public had access to the raw data, to the first-hand reports of abductees, especially those unfamiliar with UFO-oriented books, magazines, and lecturers, they would find a much less neatly organized set of patterns. These “virgin” cases—people uncontaminated by ufological literature—supply a staggering picture of human-alien contact events.

What follows here is an overview of these “virgin” reports, a list of recurrent experiences that taken together gives us a close-up view of what the aliens are doing here on earth. This data doesn’t tell us for certain just what sort of creatures the aliens are, or what their purpose here may be. But it does tell us what humans are experiencing and what they are observing in the actions and capabilities of the aliens. Every detail in the following list has been reported by more than one abductee, and in many cases the details have turned up quite frequently.

ABDUCTION “CHECKLIST”.

If these reports can be believed—and there is no reason to doubt the honesty of the reporters—the abduction phenomenon includes the following details.

In every instance from this list, there are multiple reports from unrelated cases, confirming that such bizarre details are not the product of a single deranged mind. These details are convincing evidence that, contrary to the claims of many UFO researchers, the abduction experience isn’t limited to a uniform pattern of events. This phenomenon simply can’t be explained in terms of cross-breeding experiments or scientific research into the human physiology.

SPIRITUALLY ENLIGHTENED?

And it becomes clear from these details that the beings who are doing such things can’t be seen as spiritually enlightened, with the best interest of the human race in mind. Something else is going on, something far more painful and frightening, in many, many abduction encounters.

There is a theory current in ufological research that says abductees who perceive their experiences in a negative way only do so because they themselves aren’t spiritually or psychically advanced. Persons with higher cosmic development have positive alien encounters, so the theory goes, and those who have painful or frightening experiences are merely spiritual Neanderthals. This is a pet theory of researchers who claim that aliens, whether objectively real or not, serve as “mirrors” of our spiritual nature, on an individual or a species-wide basis. Strieber has voiced this theory, for instance, in Majestic, where he says, “In the eyes of the others [the aliens], we who met them saw ourselves. And there were demons there.”

Having worked with so many decent, honest, positively oriented abductees, however, I believe this theory is wrong. It is worse than wrong—it is despicable, as despicable as blaming a rape victim for the violence committed against her. This attitude leaves many abductees feeling doubly violated, first by the aliens who took them and then by the UFO researchers to whom they turn for explanations and help.

But it is easy to understand why such a theory would be so popular. Humans have a deep need to believe in the power of good. We need for the aliens to be a good force, since we feel so helpless in their presence. And we need for some superior force to offer us a hope of salvation, both personally and globally, when we consider the sorry state of the world.

I think the aliens know this about us—they know that we want and hope for them to be benevolent creatures—and they use our desire for goodness to manipulate us. What better way to gain our cooperation than to tell us that the things they are doing are for our own good? But looking at the actions, the results of alien interference such as the long list above. There is a great discrepancy between what we desire from them and what they are doing to us.

Not all abduction reports are filled with frightening or painful events, of course. Many people say that their alien encounters felt benevolent, that their abductors treated them kindly or at least with a scientific detachment. Some abductees recall being told that they were “special,” that they were “chosen,” and that they have an important task to perform for the benefit of humanity.

Given such a positive message, the abductees may ignore the fear and the pain of their encounters and insist to themselves and to others that a higher motive underlies the abduction experience. And, in some cases, all that an abductee remembers is a benevolent encounter and so has no reason to assume any negative action has occurred.

But intensive research shows that at the core of the human-alien interaction there is a clear pattern of deception. We know, for instance, that “screen memories” are often used to mask an alien abduction. Such accounts abound, in which a person sees a familiar yet out-of-place animal, like a deer or owl, a monkey or a rabbit, and then experiences a period of missing time. The person often awakens later to find a new, unexplained scar on his body.

Uneasiness about the encounter will persist, however, and far different memories may start to surface in dreams or flashbacks, and then the person seeks help to explain the uneasiness. Quite often, hypnotic regression is used to uncover the events behind the “screen memory,” and that is when a typical alien abduction surfaces.

The most recent research in which I’ve been involved has turned up yet a second sort of screening process. If it turns out to be accurate, then thousands of abduction cases are in urgent need of re-examination.

The typical scenario of undergoing the regressive hypnosis usually results in penetration of the initial blocked memories. The abductee then recalls an encounter, hitherto unremembered, such as undergoing a physical examination of some sort, perhaps having body tissues removed or having a gynecological exam. Other typical reports include the taking of sperm and ova, of being told of an important task to be carried out, or of receiving a warning of upcoming disaster.

And in most cases, both the abductee and the investigator come away from the hypnosis session feeling that they have discovered the truth about the experience. Rationalization leads them to believe that the aliens’ purposes must be scientifically objective or benevolent. The less threatening and more benevolent the hypnotically recalled event seems, the more satisfied are the investigator and the abductee. “That wasn’t so bad, now, was it? These beings are our friends, or at least they are not our enemies.” And everyone goes away with a sense of relief. I have yet to hear of a researcher who actually questions the uncovered scenario.

But from several recent cases, it is apparent that these recovered memories may well also be yet another screen, masking events that are much more reprehensible. I will explain one such case, to make the point clear.

A STRANGE REPORT.

A man in his late 40’s came to us to explore several alien-related events in his life, and in the interview he told of a strange, although not apparently alien-oriented, episode that had haunted him since childhood. When he was ten years old, his grandmother came to visit in his home, and since the house was small, she shared his bed on the first night of her visit.

During the night, the boy was awakened by a loud male voice. He couldn’t understand what the voice was saying, but it sounded angry and was addressing the grandmother lying beside him.

The next morning, he asked his grandmother, “What was that voice in the bedroom last night?”
His grandmother, with tears in her eyes, pulled him tightly to her and said, “That was the devil.” She said nothing more about the episode, but she did insist that her son take her back to her own home immediately. It was an unreasonable request, and her son tried to talk her out of it. But the grandmother was adamant, and finally her son agreed to take her home the following day.

The entire family made the trip of over a hundred miles back to the grandmother’s farm, and within an hour of their arrival, the grandmother suffered a massive stroke and died. Ever since that event, the man had felt a heavy burden of guilt associated with his grandmother’s death. Yet there was no conscious reason for him to have felt that way. The entire event was poignant and mystifying, but in all the alien encounters he had subsequently undergone, he had felt that the aliens were his friends and were helping him by expanding his psychic abilities.

A regression session was arranged, and in the course of the hypnosis, he was asked to look at that childhood experience. What he recalled was an abduction in which he and his grandmother were taken to a spacecraft in the company of reptilian aliens. He remembered the aliens telling his grandmother that they were interested in learning about her knowledge of medicinal herbs. And they offered to exchange medical information of their own.

They gave the boy and the grandmother a liquid to drink, explaining that it was beneficial and would make the grandmother feel young and attractive again. So both of them drank the liquid, and the man remembered seeing his grandmother indeed looking much younger. That was the extent of his recollection.

Both he and Ms. Bartholic, who was conducting the regression, were puzzled by this, because there was nothing in the episode to account for the guilt he had felt about the grandmother’s death. So Ms. Bartholic deepened the man’s trance level and asked him to look at it again, with much clearer vision. And what he then recalled was much more disturbing.

The abduction, at first, followed his initial recollection. But when the liquid was drunk, he now remembered a very strong feeling of change in his body. And he saw that the grandmother didn’t actually look younger. Instead, she was placed on a table and approached by one of the reptilian aliens who wanted to have intercourse with her. The liquid had acted as an aphrodisiac, yet the grandmother resisted and said that since her husband’s death she would not have sex with anyone.

The reptilian laughed and disappeared from the room momentarily. When he returned, he was accompanied by a man who looked exactly like the dead husband.

At this point, the grandmother agreed to have sex, but as the act was in progress, she suddenly realized that the image of her dead husband was a cruel illusion. It was actually the reptilian on top of her, and she cried out in great resistance for him to leave her alone.

Once he was finished with her, he lifted up the little boy and placed him on top of the grandmother, forcing another sex act upon the both of them. Then the grandmother was removed from the table and the little boy was victimized himself by the reptilian, forced to have anal and oral sex. The grandmother protested violently, pushing the reptilian away from her grandson and interposing her body between them.

“By Jesus,” she shouted, “you will not touch this boy!”
That must have been the wrong thing to say, because the reptilian became very angry and threatened her. “You will die for that!” he told her, and the two people were returned to the bedroom from which they’d been taken. The next morning, the grandmother told the little boy that the devil had been there the night before, and that was when she insisted upon being taken home. And, as it turned out, she did die immediately thereafter.

This, then, was the cause of the man’s lifelong sense of guilt about her death. He had been forced to have sex with her, and her death had followed shortly after. But none of this story would have emerged if Ms. Bartholic had done as most investigators do and stopped the regression after uncovering the story about the exchange of medicinal knowledge.

There are other cases in our files that show a similar deception at work in the initial hypnotic recall. We cannot trust that first memory, it is clear, for like so much else in the abduction experience, there may well be further maskings of events.

Before we allow ourselves to believe in the benevolence of the alien interaction, we should ask, do enlightened beings need to use the cover of night to perform good deeds? Do they need to paralyze us and render us helpless to resist? Do angels need to steal our fetuses? Do they need to manipulate our children’s genitals and probe our rectums? Are fear, pain and deception consistent with high spiritual motives?