Alien abduction or sleep paralysis

1. Alien Abduction or Sleep Paralysis?
By Barry Burdette
Since the first reported alien abduction in 1957 by Antonio Villas Boas there have been a
number of others that have also claimed to have been abducted. Their stories are remarkably
similar. They wake up and find themselves paralyzed, unable to move or cry out for help. They
see flashing lights and hear buzzing sounds. They feel an electric sensation which levitates their
bodies. The approaching aliens with wrap-around eyes, gray or green skin, lacking hair or noses
causes the abductees' heart to pound violently. They are transported to the alien's ship where
they are probed. Instruments are inserted in their noses, navels, or other orifices. It's painful.
Sometimes sexual intercourse occurs.
After a few seconds or minutes it is over. The aliens have vanished and the abductees are back
in their own beds and can move again.
This experience sounds strangely like that of someone experiencing sleep
paralysis. You wake up and find yourself paralyzed, unable to move or cry
out for help. You are transcending from a sleep to a waking state causing
hallucinations, where you may see and hear strange forms and sounds.
Where you are fully awake you are not sure what just happened.
Ok so how do I come to remember all the details of my experience? Well
most people that have claimed to have been abducted only remember
the experience after being hypnotized to help them recover their lost
memories.
Some leading Psychologist believe that hypnosis is a misleading way to help recover memories.
Not only that, it renders the subject susceptible to creating memories of things that never
happened, things that were suggested to you or that you just imagined.
This means that during hypnosis the hypnotist may actually create false memories by asking
you questions like is there anyone in the room with you.
A study conducted by Psychologist at Harvard University also found that while the abductees
show little evidence to support psychopathology in abductees. The research did indicated that
these individuals usually do not meet the criteria for serious psychiatric impairment, but they
scored high on measures of schizotypy. Such individuals can be described as eccentric, prone to
magical and imaginary thinking, and loners. The study concluded that abductees were prone to
creating false memories in the lab and were confused about the source of their memories.
This study also made some other tantalizing discoveries. Measurements of sweating, heart rate,
and brain waves reviled that those claiming to be abductees show similar symptoms of post-

2. traumatic stress syndrome as combat veterans. The researchers did not, however, conclude
that the abductees had experienced combat-type trauma. Rather, they believe, it is the
emotional significance of a memory, whether it is true or not, that causes sweaty hands and
rapid heartbeats.
You may also find it interesting that stories of alien abduction did not
exist prior to 1962, and they seem to have gained popularity after they
were publicized on TV and in the movies. The first movie involving an
alien abduction was the 1953 movie Invaders from Mars, and the Outer
Limits television series presented numerous episodes involving alien
abduction from 1961-1964.
With the above information you may believe that those reporting to have
been abducted by aliens are highly imaginative people that have
experienced sleep paralysis and later through hypnotism have been
couched into recovering false memories of the experience.
The possibility always exists that some sleep paralysis experiences might have been
misinterpreted by the individuals and reported them as alien abductions, particularly by
susceptible people who have been reading books about aliens and UFOs. But what about those
who have claimed to have been abducted during a waking state?
While there is no proof to support or dismiss the reports of alien abduction we would be pretty
vain to believe that we are the only intelligent beings in the universe or for that matter the
most evolved. This being said I still find some of the reported abductions a little hard to accept
of a more evolved being. If I am studying a monkey I am pretty sure that I am not going to want
to have sex with it.