John Mack & Abductions
Joseph Polanik
While researching the parallels between Out of Body Experiences, OBEs,
and Alien Abduction Experiences, AAEs, I came across an interesting
document written by legendary Out-of-Body Experiencer, Bob Peterson,
whose book, _Out-of-Body Experiences: How to Have Them and What to
Expect_, long available on-line, has now been published by Hampton Roads
Publishing.
The document is in three parts. The URL to the first part is:
http://www.winternet.com/~rsp/ufoobe1.html. Each part links to the next.
Peterson's plan is simple. He will undertake a systematic comparison
between the OBE and the AAE. He uses a book by researchers Gabbard and
Twemlow, _With the Eyes of the Mind: An Empirical Analysis of
Out-of-Body States_, as his reference for the common features of the
OBE. He uses _Abductions_ by Dr John Mack as his source of information
on the common features of the AAE.
Gabbard and Twemlow list 19 features that turn up time and again in OBE
reports and provide a figures for the frequency with which that feature
was reported in their sample.
Number Common Features of OBEs %
1. Experience was more real than a dream 94
2. OBE Body similar to physical body 76
3. Same environment as physical body 62
4. Felt a sense of energy 55
5. Wanted to return to body 54
6. Felt able to pass through objects 50
7. Felt vibrations in body 38
8. Part of awareness was still in body 37
9. Was aware of presence of beings 37
10. Heard noises in early stages 37
11. Experienced a change in time sense 33
12. Saw a brilliant white light 30
13. Felt the presence of guides or helpers 26
14. Dark tunnel with white light at end 26
15. Felt attached to phyical body 21
16. Felt able to touch objects 18
17. Felt that others were aware of them 14
18. Felt a sense of border or limit 14
19. Experienced panoramic vision 14
And, for each one of these features, Peterson cites cases where Dr
Mack's clients reported the same phenomenon in _Abductions_ .
* * *
This analysis occupies the first two sections of the document. In the
third section, Peterson does the reverse analysis. He abstracts a list
of 16 features of the AAE from chapter 16 of _Abductions_, where Dr Mack
discusses this subject, and discusses the extent to which the features
of an AAE can be found in OBE reports.
This is the list:
Number Common Features of Alien Abductions:
1. "Shift in consciousness"
2. "Hum or other odd sound"
3. "Appearance of a light for which no usual source can be found"
4. "Sense of a presence or even the sight of one or more alien beings"
5. "A strong vibratory sensation in the body"
6. "Abductees are always sure that they are not dreaming or imagining"
7. "Rather they experience that they have moved into another reality.
This is a waking reality, but a different one."
8. "Experiencer is taken by some force, often a beam of light or some
other energy at the disposal of the alien beings."
9. "Through walls, doors, or closed windows."
10. "Experiencers may see their home and the earth itself recede before
them as they are transported into a spacecraft..."
11. "Once inside the craft the abductees see varying numbers of alien
beings..."
12. "Telepathic communications of various sorts."
"Various procedures administered under the control of a slightly
13. taller and older-appearing alien, spoken of by abductees as the
doctor or leader." (Mack goes on to describe the varieties of the
procedures that can have medical or surgical-like quality).
14. "In some cases a person is known to have been missing, can recall,
with ot without hypnosis, an abduction experience"
In some cases "has returned with bodily lesions for which there
15. seems to be no other explanation. But in other situations,
'complete' abduction does not appear to occur."
16. "The individual may have an out-of-body experience while others see
that he or she has not left the house."
After conducting this part of his analysis, Peterson concludes:
Interestingly enough, except for the references of spacecraft,
bodily lesions and medical procedures, the features of alien
abductions given by Mack also appear in the list of features common
to OBEs.
Peterson goes on to discuss other similarities between OBEs and AAEs and
the differences between them.
Here is his overall conclusion:
When we closely examine the symptoms of the typical out-of-body
experience, and compare those symptoms to those of a typical alien
abduction, the similarities are astounding. However, based on
physical evidence, it's not reasonable to conclude that all alien
abductions are really OBEs in disguise, nor that all OBEs are alien
abductions in disguise. However, the similarities are strong enough
to suggest that perhaps a fair number of alien abductions have been
incorrectly reported as OBEs, and that a fair number of OBEs have
been incorrectly reported as alien abductions.
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In part 3: How many of the features common to OBEs and AAEs are also
features of Awareness during Sleep Paralysis, ASP.
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Joseph Polanik, <jpol...@mindspring.com>
Trionic Research Institute
http://www.trionica.com