ABDUCTEE BRAINWASHING?

Attitudes appear to be changing as many abductees who have been traumatized, physically abused and violated are now saying that their abductors have only spiritual and/or benevolent motives behind their actions.  This growing new trend is a concern to a number of researchers and healthcare professionals who work with abductees.

Many abductees who once reported tremendous fear of being taken repeatedly from their bedrooms and cars by non-human entities are now reporting being told by these entities that it was for their own good; that their fear was unwarranted and was simply a product of the abductee’s lack of understanding.  In many cases, abductees who accept this explanation are also led to believe that technological advancement equals spiritual advancement.  There is no logical reasoning for this, as spiritual advancement may run parallel to technological advancement, the two may not proceed along together at the same pace, or they may not run along together at all.  We cannot assume that where we find one we will find the other.

I believe the reasoning put forth by these abductees to justify abduction is faulty.  I am a hypnotherapist in Santa Barbara, California, working with abductees. I became personally involved in this situation when I watched two members of our support group change their stories from one meeting to the next.  These were abductees who had been terrorized and abused for years and had only hatred for their abductors.  Suddenly, their stories changed and they both, independently of each other, began saying that recently they were shown that everything that had been done to them was for their own good and facilitated their spiritual growth.

With regards to this, Dr. Karla Turner, in a paper she presented to the MUFON 1994 International UFO Symposium, said the following:  “It is odd, however, that such growth seems to come to abductees only after they are aware of their experiences.  If indeed this growth is produced by the aliens, then it should have been there long before the abductees were conscious of their encounters, since in almost every reported case there is evidence of alien involvement since early childhood.  The psychic increase and growth of perceptive abilities indicate a different genesis — an internal evolution of consciousness — stemming from our need to know what is and has been done to us and what we can do to meet the situation in a more empowered state.  Survivors of great catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and war may be crushed by the impact of these events … or they may find a new resilience, rising to the occasion and reacting with abilities they didn’t know they possessed.  Given the vast intrusive activities of the abduction scenario, our species may well feel such a threat or stress that a mutational or evolutionary leap is occurring today….”  If this is indeed the case, then any spiritual growth is the abductee’s own doing at a deep level of consciousness and is not coming from an abducting entity.

There can be a number of reasons why an abductee changes his mind.  One that has been put forth a number of times is what is termed the Stockholm Syndrome, aka the Hostage Syndrome, where a person who has been kidnapped or captured eventually comes to sympathize with and even grow fond of his captors.  With some abductees, I believe that this may be occurring.  However, I think we are seeing something else happening with this attitude change that goes beyond the easy answer of the Stockholm Syndrome. 

Because I was disturbed by the attitude change of the abductees I knew and of many others I had been hearing about, I wrote a letter in February to a group of abductees who were reachable through computer online services.  I also posted my letter to a number of bulletin boards on the Internet and asked that abductees please respond with their thoughts and feelings about the situation.  I’d like to mention a few of the points I made in my letter and then share with all of you some of the responses I received from people.

In my letter, I stated that by the very meaning of the word, abduction implies being taken against one’s will with no say in the matter.  It can include experiencing painful physical procedures, being lied to and given screen memories, being mentally terrorized, and being paralyzed, manipulated and controlled.  There is nothing spiritual about any of these things and yet the abductors say they are highly advanced spiritual beings. It is very interesting that these non-human entities seem to have learned two ways to control human beings – through fear and through acceptance.  Obviously we are seeing some abductees who are still being controlled and manipulated through fear, but we are also seeing abductees being controlled and manipulated through their acceptance of these entities as spiritual beings.  By accepting these beings as highly spiritual, the abductee gives up seeking to end his abduction experiences and instead starts to welcome them.  Instead of abductees coming into a sense of their own power as spiritual beings who do not need to give up their free will to anyone, what we are now seeing is a group of submissive, controlled abductees who are passively letting the abductors do as they want with them in the name of spiritual progress.  In my opinion, anything that keeps a person from learning the truth and from taking responsibility for his own growth and awakening as a spiritual being is completely unspiritual.  Anything that allows the person his free will, responsibility for his own spiritual progress and aids in the process of discovering his true unbounded spiritual nature is truly spiritual.  I don’t think it is difficult to see into which category the abductors fall. I believe that we have spiritual entities in our midst, beings who are assisting humans with their evolution, but I’m quite sure that these spiritual beings are not the same as those who are responsible for the abductions.

In my letter I also stated that the entire hybrid scenerio could be a fantastic cover for an agenda that is completely different than we are being shown.  As Dr. Karla Turner has stated in radio interviews, it is almost as though abductees are shown the same movies, as a cover for other motives completely unknown to us, or possibly they are using the hybrid scenerio to study our emotions.  Things should not be taken at face value when we know we are dealing with entities who can implant thoughts into our heads, manipulate our minds with screen memories and virtual reality scenes, and who pass themselves off as wonderful spiritual beings.  We presently have no way to know the truth about what is really happening.

I’d like to quote part of a letter I received from an abductee, Irene Rea in Oregon.  She writes, “One of the most frightening aspects of this phenomenon is the abductor’s ability to manipulate the abductee’s perceptions.  I’m frightened by the current trend that many abductees seem to be going through in assigning the abductors benign motives in the spiritual growth of the abductees and planetary healing.  In my experience, the abductors have manipulated my reality over and over. In one very telling instance, my partner and I were abducted together.  He thought he was being wooed by a gorgeous and astoundingly remarkable woman.  My view of his experience was that he was on a table, strapped to medical gear, and staring into the eyes of a typical ‘grey’.  I find it even more abusive to be told by my fellow abductees that the reason I’m experiencing these negative experiences is because I’m somehow spiritually unadvanced.  As a two-decade veteran of the New Age, I have heard this kind of spiritual elitism from the devout followers of alleged spiritual leaders who were, in fact, promoting their own agendas of power and greed.”

Another letter from an abductee, Dana Buyers of Los Angeles, California:  “We are nothing more to these beings than a crop to be harvested.  They terrorized me, hurt me and nearly ruined my health.  An abuser is an abuser.  I don’t care what planet they come from or how intelligent they claim to be.  So when I get the impulse from them to start thinking that they aren’t so bad after all and are just pursuing some noble purpose that we can’t understand, I show them in my mind all that they have done to me and I say ‘get real’, there is no way that I’m ever going to change my mind.  These aliens are dangerous, don’t ever believe them.”

And a letter from abductee Amy Hebert of Carrollton, Texas:  “As a facilitator of an abductee support group, I have observed abductees’ reactions change from deep contempt and anger toward their abductors to acceptance and complete surrender.  Some abductees express years and years of anger and confusion, then suddenly announce they don’t think the aliens are really so bad after all and may actually represent some type of spiritual experience.  These reactions seem quite surprising, considering the levels of anger and humiliation the abductee expressed only a week before.  Could these new feelings be due to the resolution of the individual’s long-term hatred and resentment toward the abductors?  Or, could this be yet another example of alien manipulation?  According to Dr. Karla Turner, aliens have been known to lie to abductees for their own purposes and all abductions take place in an alien-controlled environment.  These alien-human hate-love relationships seem to reflect alien control more than any spiritually fulfilling promise for humankind.  After all, kidnapping and forcing someone to be a guinea pig can hardly be considered spiritual.”

I want to give one last letter I received from a man who is in training as a body-centered psychotherapist, Mark Richards of Boston, Massachusetts.  He writes, “It’s of little doubt that the internal confusion and pain resulting from one or more abduction experiences results in some form of compensation.  Just as ‘screen memory’ tends to re-shape the horrific experience into more palatable images, it’s possible that this same re-shaping occurs at many other levels, notwithstanding the body’s cellular memory.  Given the infinite variety and creativity of the whole mind, how is it that hypnotic recollections of the victims, often including deeply felt sensory experiences, have such striking parallels?  Could it be that a ‘cult’ of some type is forming and having influence upon the story? … Culture and historical factors may strongly influence what comes forth.  Here in our technological, educated and motive culture, when something doesn’t make sense in our head, we switch to ‘faith’, to a spirituality of some sort.  Once this switch occurs, we have a ‘cult’, and in the case of abductees as a group, a ‘cult’-ure built around technological unknowns.  Perhaps all semblance of reason is not lost, just put on hold for a while as the body (collective and individual) tries to make some sense out of stuff that cannot possibly find correlation.  This trend among the abductee community has not been so named, perhaps out of the same denial which seems to be increasingly prevalent in the various stories .. stories that have begun to shift in character and substance.  Now abduction is no longer a horrible violation but a necessary component of a great plan.  Now the aliens who are beaming into our bedrooms are no longer uninvited violators of the human story, but welcome harbingers of our ‘salvation’.  The parallels between various religious mythological systems and the growing abductee community are striking.  They spring from the same set of unknowns, growing in the fertile ground of fear and imagination, a set of ideas concerning the history, purpose and future of the human race.”

With all the confusion that surrounds the abduction phenomenon and all the various ways of looking at the phenomenon itself, it is impossible for anyone to say with certainty that they know what is true.  People need to analyze why they believe what they believe and not allow themselves to accept a belief just because it fits nicely into their world picture.  I know that it takes strength and courage to put aside a glowing, positive picture and admit that you really just don’t know for sure.  But the only way we are going to come up with any answers is if people question what they are being told and shown.  Don’t accept someone else’s explanations (whether it be that of another abductee, a channeled source, or a non-human entity). Use your own analytical thinking and judgment and realize that we just don’t have the answers yet.

I welcome comments and thoughts regarding the above article.