221 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
221 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: JOHN MACK ON ABDUCTION FILE: UFO2726
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The Harvard University Gazette is a publication largely internal to
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Harvard. It prints information about seminars, research and whatnot,
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along with spotlights on interesting professors and areas of study.
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In the most recent issue (July 24, 1992) a full page is devoted to
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John Mack, an MD affiliated with Harvard who believes that aliens
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routinely abduct midwestern housewives and perform strange experiments
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on them.
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The article is extremely generous to Mack; in fact, it could scarcely
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be more so.
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I would like to write a full response to the Gazette, and was
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wondering if anybody reading this post could point me to relevant
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sources of information about the 'abductions' and 'visitors' and so on.
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The article follows, in its entirety.
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Accounting for Stories of Alien Abduction Psychiatrist John Mack shares
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his convictons [sic] that these reports are 'authentic and disturbing
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mysteries'
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By Deane W. Lord
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Gazette Staff
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From Ancient Greece to the present, humankind has asked, Is there
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life beyond planet Earth? And, if so, what form does it take?
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Last month some 100 researchers and mental health professionals
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gathered in Cambridge to explore the possibility of extraterrestrial
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life and to examine and compare the experiences of abductees--men and
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women who claim to have been kidnapped by alien beings, taken aboard
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spacecraft, and eventually released.
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The four-day closed meeting drew some of the most ardent and long-
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term researchers who presented short papers on their work. Chief among
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them was conference co-organizer Medical School Psychiatry Professor
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John Mack, who became involved with the UFO question two and a half
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years ago. Though he began as a total skeptic, he admitted, he now
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believes that the experiences of abductees "are an extremely important
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phenomenon"-and that "we can't begin to understand them without a shift
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in our world view."
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He believes that mental dualism in the West--"we're here, you're
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there"--will prevent many from being open minded about the possibility
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of alien abductions. These experiences are shattering our world view
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[by suggesting] that we may be connected with other beings beyond
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ourselves.... The proposition attacks the arrogance of our ideas and
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makes a mockery of our technology.
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Estimates vary as to how many individuals have had abduction
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experiences. According to a Roper Organization poll, one out of every
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50 American adults-- some 3.7 million people indicate that they have
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had an encounter with an unidentified flying object or an alien being.
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"It is possible that hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of
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people in this country alone have undergone abduction experiences,"
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said Mack.
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Because of the stigma attached to revealing such experiences, he
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believes many people remain underground, too ashamed or alarmed to
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admit the experience.
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"The more prominent the person, the more likely he or she will be
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reluctant to come forward as they have more to lose," he said. "Often,
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once they seek help, abductees prefer to be diagnosed as crazy."
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A well-known psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Mack reports that of the
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60 cases he has worked on he has found, -to his surprise, that after a
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battery of psychological tests, "no psychiatric or psychosocial
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explanation for these reports is evident. These people are not mentally
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ill." He has spent countless therapeutic hours with these individuals
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only to find that what struck him was the "ordinariness" of the
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population, including a restaurant owner, several secretaries, a prison
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guard, college students, a university administrator, and several
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homemakers.
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"The majority of abductees do not appear to be deluded,
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confabulating, lying, self-dramatizing, or suffering from a clear
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mental illness," he maintained. He has encountered only one person who
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showed psychotic features.
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The central finding of most researchers, including Mack, is that
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there is one archetypal abduction experience and that most abduction
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memories contain very limited variations on a standard scenario. A
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typical encounter would begin with uneasy feelings of foreboding, a
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fear-inducing appearance of small alien beings, transport to a
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spacecraft, examination and other procedures performed on a special
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table, various tests and tasks given, the introduction of more
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favorable feelings toward the aliens, and finally a return to pre-
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abduction activities and states of consciousness.
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For most of the abductees, the experience is fearful and many repress
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the details. Often, hypnosis brings back the traumatic episode and
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helps the abductee recover memories of the entire event, Mack and
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others have found.
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"Particularly impressive to me has been the intense resistance and
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disturbing affect, especially fear, as memories of traumatic abduction
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experiences begin to emerge under hypnosis or through conscious
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recall," said Mack. He and others find it hard to explain the marks
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left on some bodies from red triangles on the chest to incisions on
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arms and legs. Several have had implants in their ears and noses but,
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upon study, physicists and biochemists find no unearthly material.
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"Any adequate theory of alien abductions, even a useful hypothesis,
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must account for a broad range of puzzling phenomena," said Mack.
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In his inventory of occurrences, he includes narrative consistency.
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"The stories that abductees tell vary in their details, but they have a
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hard edge of narrative consistency," he found. He dismisses the
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argument that abductees influence one another and believes that "what
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more often happens is that when abductees communicate with each other
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about their abductions or watch television or film versions of
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abductions, they fill in details of what they have already experienced
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and are trying to clarify."
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Even though many abductions occur independent of UFO sightings, a
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close association between UFO encounters and abduction experiences has
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been consistently observed, noted Mack.
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Mack believes a convincing theory must be found for the bizarre
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physical effects, such as termination of pregnancy, sexual liaisons,
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incisions, and implants that abductees report.
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A way also must be found to account for the abduction reports of
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children as young as 2. These are, Mack said, "emotionally intense and
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seemingly authentic, detailed experiences [from young people] whose
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exposure to outside sources of information has been limited."
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The abduction phenomenon, said Mack, "confronts us with an authentic
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and disturbing mystery. There is no way, I believe, that we can even
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make sense, let alone provide a convincing explanation, of this matter
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within the framework of our existing views of what is real or possible.
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Our psychological theories do not include a way of accounting for the
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simultaneous occurrence among thousands of people, unacquainted with
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each other, including small children, of complex, elaborate, and
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sometimes overwhelmingly powerful experiences that resemble one another
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in minute detail, accompanied by equally peculiar physical phenomena."
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Mack also thinks that the current understanding of physical reality
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"whereby a population of beings from some other space/time realm can
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enter our world with such limited detection and affect so many people"
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defies our accepted notions of scientific reality.
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Like others, Mack believes the phenomenon is worthy of more inquiry.
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"The phenomenon may deliver to us a kind of fourth blow to our
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collective egoism, following those of Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud. We
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may be led to realize that we are not physically at the center of the
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universe, . . . we are not even the preeminent or dominant intelligence
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in the cosmos in control of our psychological and physical existences.
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"It appears that we can be 'invaded' or taken over, if not literally
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by other creatures, then by some other form of being or consciousness
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that seems able to do with us what it will for a purpose we cannot yet
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fathom."
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Sidebar:
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Research on human lives, with purpose and idealism
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About three years ago, a colleague asked John Mack to meet writer
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Budd Hopkins, the author of Intruders, a book recently made into a
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television movie on the experiences of abductees.
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Mack was highly skeptical; "there was no way I could understand the
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phenomena," he recalled.
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But Mack did meet with Hopkins, and became fascinated by the stories
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he heard. The conversation ultimately led Mack into abductee research;
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from 1990 to January of this year, he interviewed 34 adults and
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children who claim to have encountered aliens, and will write a book
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about the phenomenon.
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His work with abductees impressed him "with the powerful dimension of
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personal growth that accompanies the traumatic experiences. An intense
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concern for the planet's survival and a powerful ecological
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consciousness seem to develop for many abductees. For me and other
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investigators, abduction research has had a shattering impact on our
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views of the nature of the cosmos."
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He is most proud of his work at Cambridge Hospital's psychiatry
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department, which he founded in 1962. He won a 1977 Pulitzer Prize for
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his biography of Lawrence of Arabia, A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life
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of T.E. Lawrence (Little, Brown and Co.). He has also published
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extensively in the areas of psychobiography and the psychosocial
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effects of the nuclear arms race.
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As an investigator of the psychology of the nuclear arms race, Mack,
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62, founded the Center for Psychology and Social Change, a Cambridge-
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based research organization devoted to the psychosocial study of human
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violence, conflict, and images of the enemy. The center has recently
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enlarged its focus to include the preservation of the environment.
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Mack received his M.D. from Harvard in 1955, and graduated from the
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Boston Psychoanalytic Institute in 1967 and was certified as a child
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analyst in 1969. He graduated from Oberlin College, phi beta kappa.
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He has been a professor of psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, an
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affiliate of the the Medical School [sic], since 1972 and was head of
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the Department of Psychiatry there from 1973 to 1977. A faculty member
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of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society, he is also currently president of
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the International Society for Political Psychology.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |