Ufo Abductions Beyond Matter
 There is a certain sense of stability in the physical world that most of us take for granted. However, in the current realm of UFO abduction literature, the term 'physical world' may need some redefinition. UFO abductees have found their world stretched and distorted in a way that defies modern science. Testimony from abductees now includes levitation, paralysis, telepathy, and startling visions. To ignore these reports is to ignore the vast amount of evidence that seems to be mounting from many personal accounts. To accept these reports blindly, however, is to accept data whose source is testimony from hypnosis, vague memories, and spontaneous recall. Are abductees really levitating out of their beds at night, floating up to a hovering UFO, and being subjected to physical examinations? Perhaps this question can be answered by looking closer at abductee's testimony.

In the last decade, UFO abduction researchers Budd Hopkins and Whitley Strieber have strongly promoted the notion of physical abductions as a norm for UFO contact with humans. However, from a published article in UFO Magazine (Vol. 4, Num. 4), researcher Ann Druffel offered a new perspective on the abduction phenomena. This perspective altered the focus of an abduction from something physical to something within the mind. Ann Druffel, in her book 'The Tujunga Canyon Contacts', tells of hypnotic regression of a particular abductee named Emily who 'learned that if she could manage to move even one toe or finger, the paralysis broke and the creatures vanished.' The article goes on to report that Emily could use mental effort to wake her roommate and also break the abduction paralysis. In another case Ms. Druffel notes that the abductee was able to break out of the 'contact' by making a sound or mantra within herself.

Breaking out of the alleged abduction by shear force of will is just one clue of its non physical nature. Are there others? Looking at the varied testimony of abductees, one gets the sense of the lack of coincidence from report to report. One person stated that she was transported through her apartment wall. While others feel the abductors take them 'by hand' into waiting UFO's. Whitley Strieber, in his book 'Transformation', writes about his attempts at astral travel and the similarity of that experience to his abductions. He also notes the strangeness factor of abduction reports from his article in UFO Magazine (Vol 4, Num 2). Strieber writes, 'Of the 690 narratives sent to me by Communion and Transformation readers, only a few appear to support these present theories of abduction. The vast majority instead describe perceptions and experiences far stranger than any reported by mainstream abduction researchers.' Another UFO researcher, Richard Grossinger, writes of the inability of contactees to distinguish between the concrete or real and the psychic or hallucinatory. He suggests that we may be dealing with both levels of reality thereby creating the current paradox of conflicting abduction testimonies.

Before the 'Communion' and 'Intruders' phenomenon, astrophysicist and UFO researcher Jacques Vallee cautioned the conception of UFO's as being something truly physical. Vallee's position is that individual and social psychological manipulation of UFO contactees may not be extraterrestrial at all but encounters with another reality. He suggests that the intelligence community worldwide is probably 'in the dark' about most aspects of the UFO phenomena. On the MJ-12 document he writes, 'Given the names on the list of MJ-12 scientists, however, it seems to me their work could have had an entirely different orientation, having to do with psychological warfare. I scratched the surface of that issue in 'Messengers of Deception', and I got burned because the UFO research community was not ready to even consider that side of the problem'. Now that the verdict is out on the MJ-12 documents with Bill Moore's revelation of planted information, Dr. Vallee's comments seem much more potent.

In his book 'Dimensions', Dr. Vallee strongly emphasizes the psychological nature of UFO encounters. His research has shown that historically, UFO encounters have been perceived to be the common myths of the time period such as the miracle at Fatima, Portugal in 1917. 'The events at Fatima involve luminous spheres, lights with strange colors, a feeling of 'heat waves'-all physical characteristics commonly associated with UFOs. They also encompass prophecy and a loss of ordinary consciousness on the part of witnesses - what we have called the psychic component of UFO sightings' (p 174). Dr. Vallee even implies that much of human history may have been shaped by the psychological effects of UFO encounters and that the shape may have a purpose.

Extraterrestrial or not, it seems that abductions by UFOs are much more psychological in nature than physical. Yet the common belief is in physical contact! Is this what we are meant to believe?

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D James is a computer architect and part-time new age investigator. One of his websites, Astral Realms, is a site devoted to Astral Projection and related Out-of-Body experiences.