Zardoz
Like the lady shrink said: "It's a culturally-available explanation" for psychological problems people have. In the old days it was demonic possession and satanic influence. Now it's alien abduction.
These goofballs "expect to be abducted again". You think that might explain anything?
I actually did a research paper on this for a psychology course where I even wrote letters to the author of one of the books I used and in the end it all boiled down to hypnosis being inconclusive. A "repressed" memory read during hypnosis can be created as a psychological defense mechanism to hide a traumatic memory. Hypnosis is too questionable a science to determine whether the memories are real or created.
The other possibility in these memories is, as the interviewer asked the woman, the outcome of an overactive imagination to the point that the person has trouble seperating truth from fiction in their memory. They are stable enough to not be a danger to others or themselves but unstable enough to create adventures in their minds.
Then for those who do believe in the paranormal there are even alternative explanations to abduction. Some believe it could be past life memories distorted to make the surroundings and other people in the memories unrecognizable. Sometimes these can be confused with current memories causing the person to remember their friends or family as well as their house and neighborhood.
Others think it could be telepathic communication being misunderstood as something else with the "abducters" appearing distorted because the person is unable to recognize what is happening and those they are communicating with seem to not be human. Kind of like a mental refraction, if you will.
I personally believe it is a combination of active imagination and repressed memories. I have yet to see or meet an "abductee" that appeared well adjusted and stable.
I met a guy from MUFON at the state fair last year. They had a booth and this guy went on a rant without me saying a word. I just stopped long enough to examine what teh booth was and he started into me trying to show me pictures and videos and everything else. Eventually he dropped something and when he turned to pick it up and stepped back into the crowd and disappeared as quickly as possible. He was out of sight before he stood back up. It would be funny if he thought that I was an alien that just beamed out when he looked away.
Watched for about 2 seconds, then got annoyed.
