Abduction by imaginary aliens can be almost as traumatic as being caught up in real horror, according to United States psychologists. The only difference is when asked, ”Would you go through it again?”, most of ET’s abductees replied: ”Yes.”
In one of the more out-of-this-world research projects, Richard McNally of Harvard University interviewed tens of thousands of Americans who claimed to remember being carried off by extra-terrestrials.
The Harvard scientists measured heartbeat, facial tension and sweating on the palms as they played back audiotapes of the subjects recounting their experience.
”Our question is: do people who have apparent false memories of trauma show the same psycho-physiological reactivity? The answer appears to be yes,” McNally said. ”In fact, the heart rate responses and skin conductance responses were at least as great in the alien abductees when they heard their memories of being abducted by space aliens and subjected to these experiments on spaceships as for people with genuine traumatic events.
”The moral of the story appears to be that it underscores the power of emotional belief.”
McNally’s research also identified the characteristics of an alien abductee. Most of the subjects were interested in astral projection, tarot cards, bioenergetic therapies and, of course, aliens. They were prone to fantasies and vivid images.
They had also had episodes of sleep paralysis and hallucinations upon awakening. Sleep paralysis occurs on awakening from the dream state and is marked by rapid eye movement. ”During REM sleep, the body is fully paralysed except for the eyes … Often elements of dream will intrude into wakefulness,” McNally said. — Â