The Globe and Mail - Canada's National Newspaper.
Toronto.
Friday, August 13th, 1993.
Page A22


Social Studies - A Daily Miscellany of Information
by Michael Kesterton.


Yesterday, the U.S. space shuttle did not go up and few
Persieds were seen to come down. Nonetheless, many
people believe there is something travelling regularly
between heaven and Earth.

Recently, when the magazine USA Weekend asked "Do you
believe space aliens have visited Earth, now or in the
Past?" 91 percent of Americans said "yes".

Some would go even further:

In 1991, after a UFOolgist-sponsored Roper Poll of 6,000
Americans, some researchers concluded that one out of 50
Americans has had "an abduction experience with an
unidentified flying object".

Most abductees report being taken first as children, when
small implants were placed deep in their ears or noses.
Aliens are generally described as small and grey, with a
special interest in the human sexual organs - which leads
some authorities to think these stories may be repressed
memories of childhood abuse. (Abductees, reports one
authority, can always identify the sex of an alien,
despite a lack of external evidence).

The first clue to the condition is a phenomenon called
"missing time", says David Gotlib, a Toronto physician
and hypnotherapist. The patient loses several hours
and cannot remember what happened, but is very disturbed.
Other symptoms: nightmares, post-traumatic stress
disorder and, sometimes, long straight cuts on the body.
(Doctor Gotlib, who launched the Bulletin of Anomalous
Experience to discuss the disorder, says a doctor must
rule out other conditions such as schizophrenia,
multiple-personality disorders and partial epilepsy.)

John Mack, a Harvard psychiatrist, is convinced abductees
are not lying and says he has non idea what their
experience means. He notes abductees tell remarkably
consistent stories and many have children who become
abductees as well. He has established a support group
for the condition.

David Jacobs, a historian at Temple University in
Philadelphia, teaches a credit course on UFOs in American
Society. He thinks millions of Americans may have been
abducted by aliens, but says "I want to be wrong".

Abduction tales are not new, says astrononmer Carl Sagan,
citing ancient stories about fairies and people having
sex with demons. In 1894, he adds, 'The International
Census of Waking Hallucinations' reported that 10 to 25
percent of ordinary people had had at least one vivid
hallucination.

Waking dreams - delusions while falling asleep or waking
up - are mentioned by some authorities as an explanation,
because most abduction stories begin with the victim in
bed, being roused by aliens. There is also "sleep
paralysis" in which people are awake but their muscles
are still immobilized for sleep. "Almost 90 percent of
the time, sleep paralysis is accompanied by a certainty
that there is something threatening in the room with you,"
writes David Hufford, in 'The Terror That Comes in the
Night'.

Other sources: 'The Medical Post', 'The Wall Street
Journal', news services.

Ends.


Any typos are the result of inept copy-keying by Errol Bruce-Knapp.

Al,
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