>>> Continued from previous message
said this.

Two further thoughtful studies of the abduction phenomenon have just
appeared-Dark White: Aliens, Abductions And The UFO Obsession by Jim
Schnabel (recently issued in Penguin paperback) and Close Encounters
of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abductions, UFOs, And The Conference At MIT
by C.D.B. Bryan (Knopf, US) . Schnabel has produced a well-written
snapshot distillation of the abduction scene, mainly focusing on the
early 1990s. It has flaws, but is a reasonable accounting of the
controversy. He acknowledges the puzzling and anomalous character of
the abduction phenomenon but refrains from taking a literal view of
what is happening. Instead of invoking alien kidnappers, he argues
for a daunting and ultimately unsustainable eclectic mix of
hypotheses including sexual hysteria, multiple personality disorder,
unusual psychological phenomena, the collective unconscious and other
more exotic suggestions.

Journalist Courtlandt Bryan began his study with an abduction study
conference held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June
1992, at which psychiatrists, psychologists, health professionals,
scientists, UFO researchers and experiencers (or "abductees")
addressed and reviewed the evidence. Bryan's account of the
conference gives the reader a good account of the proceedings and the
fascinating dirnensions of the abduction phenomenon. Like a lot of
people who have taken the trouble to confront the depth of the
evidence, and in particular of getting to know many people who have
had the experience, Bryan states: "I am struck by how my perception
of the abduction phenomenon has changed. I no longer think it's a
joke. This is not to say I now believe UFOs and alien abductions are
real-'real' in the sense of a reality subject to the physical laws of
the universe as we know them-but rather that I feel something very
mysterious is going on." Bryan concludes with a review of the
dazzling range of hypotheses, cogently stating: "Philosophers,
physicists, psychologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, biochemists,
researchers, scholars, folklorists, abductees and journalists alike
circle this issue like dogs circling a spot on the rug, searching for
a warm and comfortable place where they might set their intellects
down." With the popularisation of abduction through mass-media
offerings such as the television series The X Files and the "new age"
flavour that has entered many stories, along with bonafide concerns
about the indiscriminate use of hypnosis, false memory syndrome and
amateur investigations, a veritable minefield has been created. In
this uncertain setting, witnesses, researchers, health professionals
and therapists can all be casualties unless cautious and appropriate
methods of assisting and researching this area are followed. The
victims of these experiences must not be unrealistically encouraged
by advocates of alien presence nor, at the other extreme, should they
be ridiculed by the sceptical among us. They should be helped to
confront the reality of their experiences, whether it is eventually
found to be prosaic or profound.
-End-
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