SUBJECT: THE EVIDENCE FOR ALIEN ABDUCTIONS                   FILE: UFO3042





I have been reading a book called _The Evidence For ALien ABductions_
by John Rimmer C. 1984...

I would like to summarize and\or quote an experiment and the results.

The experiment was conducted by Alvin Lawson and William McCall.

The concept was to be able to distinguish the abduction info given
during hypnotic regression between a real abduction and a hoax(the
reason for the hoax for this particular experiment was irrelevent). They
wanted a database of info that could distinguish real data from
imaginary data.

"They began by locating a number of people who would be willing to
participate in their experiments, but who knew little or nothing about
UFOs - possibly a rather difficult task in Southern California where
they operated...These...subjects were then 'led into' a UFO abduction
scenario by means of a carefully designed series of leading questions,
which suggested the bare outlines of the abduction but left the subject
free to fill in the details. These details would come...from the
witnesses' own imaginations. They would then be able to compare the
imaginary abductions with th real events, and by a comparison of the
differences between the two, would be able to gain valuable clues to use
when trying to sort out any hoaxes in the cases that came to them as UFO
researchers."

One interjection here- how did they know that there supposed known- the
so-called 'real' abductions were in fact, real abductions? Not saying
the supposed real were not real, but no comment in the text
mentioned this point. I took the assumption that their real database
were witnesses who were not led into the abduction or prior cases,
possibly by other researchers.

"...But the experiments went spectacularly wrong...what happened was
that the 'imaginary' stories were quite indistinguishable from the
'real' experiences, even down to tiny details..."

The text then goes further into the stereotyped abductee, some of the
stories the witnesses gave, etc...until the text leads into the
researchers conclusion, "Birth Trauma Hypothesis."

The point here is it is very difficult to distinguish between an actual
abduction(if in fact they do occur) and the imagination.


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