Abstract

In his article “Explaining ‘Memories’ of Space Alien Abduction and Past Lives: An Experimental Psychopathology Approach” Richard J. McNally presents his findings on alien abduction studies. These findings point to people’s willingness to accept these abductions as “quasi-spiritual.” He discusses why these occurrences are just false memory syndromes. The study utilized three groups of people. Group one included, “Adults who reported “memories” of extraterrestial kidnapping,” (12) Group two, “reported a history of alien abduction, but had no autobiographical memories of the experience.”(12) While group three the, “Comparison group comprised participants who denied ever having been kidnapped by space aliens.” (12) From the study, McNally found that the formula for the perfect “alien abduction,” “the ingredients for a space alien abductee include: 1) New Age beliefs (e.g., high scores on measures of magical ideation), 2) episodes of isolated sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic hallucinations, 3) hypnotic memory recovery sessions, 4) high scores on a measure of absorption, and 5) familiarity with the cultural narrative of alien Abduction.” (21)