House of Cards by Robyn Dawes

Author:Robyn Dawes
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, pdf
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1994-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

Here we have a striking example of the “license to ignore” gone haywire—in this case, to ignore virtually every study that has ever been conducted on the nature of human memory, especially those that show that memory under hypnosis is not more accurate than in a waking state.75 The implications of these studies make it unsurprising that hypnosis produces “recall” of experiences involving ETs and UFOs, since one of the symptoms Fiore lists is obsession with ETs and UFOs. Bridie Murphy lives again, only this time she is sanctified by a state license.

Fiore and her colleagues are far from alone in their beliefs that people are abducted by ETs. Recently (1992), I received an unsolicited report in the mail from the Bigelow Holding Corporation. The introductory chapter of the report, written by John E. Mack (Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry), begins by observing that a “Roper Survey, conducted between July and September, 1991, suggests that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American men, women, and children may have experienced UFO abductions, or abduction related phenomena.”76 He continues that “mental health clinicians should learn to recognize the most common symptoms in the patient’s or client’s history that they are dealing with an abduction case.”77 These symptoms include fear of the dark or of nightfall, repetitive nightmares, dreams about abduction, unexplained phobias or fears, and even the appearance for no apparent reason of small scars or cuts or bruises.

Five “key indicator” questions were included in this Roper Poll. The 5,947 adults were asked whether they had ever (1) wakened up paralyzed with a sense of a strange figure or presence in the room; (2) experienced a period of an hour or more in which she or he was apparently lost but could not remember why; (3) felt the experience of actually flying through the air without knowing why or how; (4) seen unusual lights or balls of light in a room without understanding what was causing them; and, (5) discovered puzzling scars on his or her body without remembering how or where they were acquired. Of those surveyed, 119 responded yes to four or five of these items. The authors of the Bigelow report conclude: “This is 2 %of our sample, and it therefore suggests that 2% of adults in the American population have had a constellation of experiences consistent with an abduction history. Therefore, based on our sample of nearly 6,000 respondents, we believe that one out of every 50 Americans may have had UFO abduction experiences.”78 As they point out, two percent of the American adult population of 185 million constitutes 3.7 million people.

Knowing that people may be encouraged to say yes to any unusual question whatsoever, the researchers controlled for this by asking the respondents whether they had heard or seen the word trondant and known it had a special meaning for them. Only one percent of the sample answered yes, so the authors concluded that the positive responses to the other questions were not due to suggestion on the part of the questioners.

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