103 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
103 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: MACK BOOK REVIEW-INDEPENDENT FILE: UFO2226
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BOOK REVIEW
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Byline: ANTHONY STORR
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05/22/94
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THE INDEPENDENT
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JOHN MACK is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical
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School, a faculty member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society,
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president of the International Society for Political Psychology,
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and the author of a prize-winning biography of T E Lawrence, A
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Prince of Our Disorder, which I read with admiration. Since many
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people will find this new book incredible, it is important to
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emphasise that the author's credentials are impeccable.
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Mack claims to have interviewed more than a hundred people who
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say that they have been abducted by aliens. Of these, 47 females
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and 29 males, including three boys of eight and under, have
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convinced Mack that their accounts of being abducted are genuine.
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In this book, he presents 13 selected cases, eight men and five
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women.
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The usual pattern of an abduction is that the abductee is at
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home or in a car. He or she sees a bright light, sometimes blue,
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which emanates from a spacecraft or UFO to which the abductee is
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taken by "floating" through walls or the roof of a car. Further
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transportation to a larger spacecraft follows. "Communication
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between aliens and humans is telepathic, mind to mind or thought to
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thought, with no specific common learned language being necessary."
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Most victims describe aliens as small, grey, and hairless, with
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large heads and long arms. The captive usually feels unable to move
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any part of the body except the head. The aliens then conduct
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experiments on the abductee's body, often using instruments which
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remove eggs from females and sperm samples from men. These
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experiments are usually felt as intrusive, but there are also
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reports of rewarding sexual intercourse with aliens. Many abductees
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believe the aliens have an interspecies breeding programme, and say
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they have seen hybrid infants in spacecraft.
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Aliens are generally regarded as "more advanced spiritually and
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emotionally than we are", which makes it hard to understand why
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they should want to interbreed with humans, whose misuse of the
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earth they usually condemn as wicked or stupid. For not all the
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habits of aliens are nasty: they also issue timely warnings. When
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in the spacecraft, the captives are given information about the
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fate of the earth, which may include scenes of devastation
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following a nuclear explosion, lifeless polluted landscapes and
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"apocalyptic images of giant earthquakes, firestorms, floods, and
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even fractures of the planet itself". Some lucky abductees are
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given glimpses of their previous incarnations, as, for example, a
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tomb-painter in ancient Egypt.
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Abduction experiences often run in families. Mack states that
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his subjects are free from psychiatric illness or psychological or
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emotional conditions which could account for their abductions. Yet
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examination of his 13 cases reveals that all reported strange
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experiences, neurotic symptoms or preoccupation with the paranormal
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from early childhood onward. One subject had been seeing a
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psychiatrist for seven years. Another had seizures, migraine-like
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headaches, visual hallucinations and a temporarily abnormal
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electroencephalogram. Some have been searching for enlightenment in
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a variety of sects throughout their lives.
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Mack used hypnosis to induce regression to childhood and recover
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memories of abduction experiences. He states that "abductees are
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peculiarly unsuggestible". If so, one would expect that they would
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be hard to hypnotise. Yet he also writes that "abductees seem to
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move readily into trance" and shares with readers his impression
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"that the reports provided under hypnosis are generally more
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accurate than those consciously recalled".
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Mack's technique of inducing the hypnotic state includes deep,
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rapid breathing. He reports that, at the end of the session, his
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subjects often experience cramps in the muscles of the hands.
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Overbreathing interferes with calcium metabolism and may cause such
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cramps, which are known as tetany; but Mack does not mention this.
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Nor does he consider the possibility that his form of therapy is
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creating a new, crazy sect whose members try to outdo each other's
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fantasies. We have enough interplanetary societies already.
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Mack learned the breathing technique from the work of a
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psychiatrist called Stanislav Grof. It is said to facilitate travel
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through history and the establishment of "transpersonal
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relationships". Mack told Esquire that, when he practised it
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himself, he found that in one of his past lives he had been a
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16th-century Russian who had to watch a band of Mongols decapitate
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his four-year-old son.
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I wonder if aliens are as credulous and gullible as human
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beings? They could hardly be more so. John Mack, of course,
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realises that he has put his reputation as a professor of
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psychiatry on the line. If he is eventually professionally
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discredited, his $250,000 American advance will hardly constitute
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sufficient comfort.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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