Alien abduction may be all in the mind

New research presented at the Science Museum's Dana Centre, supports what scientists have long argued: that people who report contact with aliens have a psychological profile that might make them more susceptible to false memories.

They also believe more strongly in the paranormal and claim to have experienced more paranormal activity than the wider public.

The new research has been carried out by Professor Chris French, Head of Anomolistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College, who investigated the psychological differences between ‘experiencers’ (or abductees) and non-experiencers through studying fantasy-proneness, dissociativity, sleep paralysis and history of paranormal experiences.

The research reveals that alien abduction experiences are often similar to other paranormal phenomena such as encounters with ghosts and are frequently based upon episodes of sleep paralysis, a condition in which, upon waking, a person is aware of the surroundings but is unable to move. In this state, auditory and visual hallucinations may occur.

Professor French will be talking about the research, as part of a free public debate exploring Alien Intrigue at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre – the UK’s only venue for adults to talk about contemporary and controversial science on Wednesday 26 October.

The study compared 19 experiencers with 19 control participants. Experiencers scored more highly than the control group on the following measures:

• Paranormal belief / experience.
• Tendency to Hallucinate
• Absorption (the tendency to become engrossed in experiences)
• Dissociative tendencies (the tendency to enter altered states of consciousness)
• Fantasy proneness
• History of sleep paralysis

“In the late twentieth century, an increasing number of people around the world began to claim that they had had a most bizarre experience,” said Professor French.

“Typically, they would report being taken from their beds or from their cars by alien beings. These beings were often around four feet high, with spindly arms and legs and oversized heads. The most striking thing about them was their large black eyes through which they appeared to communicate telepathically.

“The abductees, or “experiencers” as they prefer to be known, would describe how they had found themselves on board an alien spaceship where they were subjected to (often painful) medical examination, during which sperm or ova might be extracted. Although it is hard to estimate just how many people have conscious memories of this kind it is likely to run into at least several thousand worldwide.”