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Cross-Cultural ‘Encounter’ Experiences and Neurohormonal Transmission
By Joseph Durwin
Part III
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE HISTORICAL KIND
Although reports of flying saucers and their strange, possibly extra-terrestrial occupants have undergone an enormous ballooning since World War II, they are by no means limited to the twentieth century. Cave carvings depicting bright airborne cylindrical objects, with what could be considered alien occupants, appear on an island in Hunan Province, China. They have been assigned a tentative age of 47,000 years (Marshall,et al, 1990). A written account, on Egyptian papyrus from the reign of Thutmose III (c. 1504-1450), describes large, numerous circles of fire in the sky which hovered for several days (Le Poer Trench, 1966).
The prophet Ezekiel's vision, recorded in the Bible, is thought by many to describe a UFO and its occupants. He describes a strange vehicle coming from the sky and landing near the Chebar River in Chaldea (Iraq) in the fifth year of the Judean captivity (592 B.C.) under Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon:
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north,
And a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire
flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as
it were gleaming bronze…And from the midst of it came
the likeness of four living creatures… Now as I looked at
the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside
the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As
for the appearance of the wheels and their construction:
their appearance was like the gleaming of a chrysolite…
being as it were a wheel within a wheel… the four wheels
had rims and they had spokes; and their rims were full of
eyes round about. And when the living creatures went, the
wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures
rose from the earth, the wheels rose.
Were these humanoids going in and out of a green-glowing spacecraft surrounded by a ring of portholes? Ezekiel is told that the Israelites have transgressed and will be punished if they don't obey their God's commandments. Ezekiel is selected as the messenger to his people and is taken on board. The spacecraft takes off and he is carried to Tel-abib and deposited with there with his fellow exiles to sit "overwhelmed among them seven days," traumatized by his experience. (Ezekiel 1-3)
Researchers have documented over three hundred reported sightings prior to 1900 (Blundell& Boar, 1983). In 1290, the abbot and monks of Byland Abbey, Yorkshire, reported observing "a large round silver disc" hovering over them; on August 7, 1566, giant glowing discs covered the sky above Basle, Switzerland. W. Raymond Drake, who has written many books on the UFO phenomenon, says that a belief in beings from the sky who surveyed the earth was extremely prevalent throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.
Perhaps the most interesting data comes from the Dogon people, tribal people who reside in the Hombori Mountains of southern Mali. Preserved in their religious teachings is a story of contact with an advanced group of amphibious beings (called the Nommos) from the Sirius star system, who they claim visited them in ancient times. The visitors, imparted to them detailed astronomical knowledge, including to a large amount of knowledge concerning the star Sirius B, a white dwarf star in the system. Although they imparted this knowledge to anthropologists in the 30's and 40's, this star is invisible to the naked eye and difficult to see even with a telescope-so difficult, in fact, that no photographs of it were obtained until 1970. (Temple, 1976)
UFOS AND 'LITTLE GREEN MEN' IN MODERN TIMES
After WWII, around 1947, reports of UFO sightings and contact with their occupants started to become extremely common. In 1950, the first modern 'abduction' attempt took place. Reported by a woman in the Loire Valley, France, on May 20, this attempt failed, but later attempts would be more successful. The first sex-related abduction reports occurred in the fall of 1957. In England, on September 7, James Cook was taken, and was asked to remove his clothes. On October 16, in Brazil, Villas Boas was abducted, and asked to remove his clothes, as well. He was then raped by a "female," who told him she would have his baby in space. Boas was later diagnosed with symptoms of mild radiation poisoning. (Randles, 1997)
Since then, millions of people have reported similar events, and researchers have collected thousands of detailed testimonies. These accounts possess many points of striking similarity. The following pages will attempt to convey the major commonalities of the experience, as collected by researchers.
Encounters seem to take place primarily at night, in bed, in a car or out of doors. Contactees report consciousness being disturbed by a bright light, a "humming sound," strange bodily vibrations or sudden paralysis, the sighting of a craft, and the appearance of beings. Generally, the descriptions of the beings consist of a large head, skinny body, big eyes, small mouths and a grayish skin. The reoccurrence of this description all over the world has led to widespread use of the term "greys" to indicate a race of beings. However, there are also frequent descriptions of reptiles, mantises, and spiders. (Hopkins, 1981; Mack, 1994) Many people report emotional components coming into play at the onset of the experience, a "pushing through" or "letting go," which is often perceived as changing the nature of the experience from negative and positive. Interestingly, this is precisely what is reported in experiences with psychedelic drugs.
Quite often, abductees remember little or nothing about their encounters at the time. The phenomena of 'missing time'-periods of time which cannot be accounted for and which the subject has no memory of- occurs, and often the individual will suddenly find themselves somewhere without remembering how, sometimes with blood on their clothing. Often the person will have a memory of seeing an animal or animals. One young woman, recalled an experience from when she was sixteen:
It happened when we were on a family picnic, and my
father was taking movies of all the kids, and my brother
and I came rushing out of the woods. I had been separated
from my brother and I didn't remember where I had been,
and I was talking when somebody said, "You have blood
on your blouse." I was horrified and started feeling the tip
of my nose, if I had a bloody nose or something. There was
nothing, no wound, but I had blood on my blouse from
somewhere, as though I had been splattered… I said the only
thing I could remember is that I saw a beautiful deer in the
woods. It was almost like a mystical deer… it was very strange.
(Hopkins, 1981)
Similarly, Whitley Strieber, whose contact experiences remain the most extensive on record, after a particularly involved procedure in December of 1985, remembered only seeing a barn owl peering in at him through the window that night. Memories of this kind are screen memories. As described by Freud, a screen memory is a method the mind uses to shield itself from events which are too upsetting or traumatizing to recall. However, it is often the strangeness of the screen memory or the inexplicability of the missing time which leads abductees to pursue an answer-which often leads them to UFO researchers. Ultimately, because of the lack of easy retrieval of these memories, a huge segment of the more detailed reports have to be retrieved through the use of careful hypnosis.
Through hypnosis and other methods, many researchers have discovered that a large segment of abduction experiences, when investigated, turn out to be long-term or life-long phenomenon. Many abductees or "experiencers" come to understand their own past in much clearer context as they realize the extent of these experiences in their life. Contact begins, for many of these cases, in early childhood, possibly as young as two or three years old. In childhood contact, these "alien" beings are generally considered to be friendly playmates, healers or protectors. If these manifestations continue, the experience will become more and more serious and disturbing as the child reaches puberty. (Mack, 1994; Strieber, 1997)
Spoken English is rarely if ever heard from these beings, though many have reported them speaking in a rapid, chattery fashion, in a language that sounded like Chinese or using a sing-song speech pattern (Steiger, 1978). Even more report a more suggestively telepathic communication. John Mack has suggested that these beings may communicate using a language of universal visual symbols rather than sounds or words. This is reminiscent of Terence McKenna's idea of a visible syntax which overflows the audio channels and entering the video channels. It is also consistent with the effects of dimethyltryptamine upon the locus coerueleus neurons in the back of the brain, causing sensory data to overlap in the event of synesthesia.
MEDICAL PROCEDURES
As in the accounts of encounters brought on by DMT, spontaneous encounters involving UFOs and entities are fraught with images of medical examinations and procedures. In these memories, people find themselves very suddenly on a table in a large room. Bright lights usually shine on them from nearby or above. Sometimes the person can remember being brought into this room, usually not. Often there is incomprehensible machinery and equipment visible.
Of particular interest to the abductors in these cases seem to be the nasal cavity, ears, eyes, and genitalia; the navel, or umbilical area, may also be examined, but only in women. Many abductees report a thin probe with a tiny ball on its end being inserted into their nostril, usually on the right side. When examined by physicians, many abductees are observed to have scars on their calf, thigh, shoulder, hip, or spinal column, and on the right sides of the back and forehead. These scars are of two main types: thin, straight, linear hairline cut about 1-3 inches long; a circular or scoop-like depression, 1/8 to 3/4 inches in diameter and as much as 1/4 inch long. (Neal, 1988; Hopkins, 1981)
Most cases of reported medical procedures feature some type of anesthetic pre-operative care or preparation. The subject may be administered an oral liquid medication, topical or general anesthetic is applied, or sometimes the application of a "wand-like" instrument to the head neutralizes all tactile sense. In some cases, pain- sometimes extreme pain- is felt, and on these occasions, the entities on hand are always described as being indifferent to the abductees pain. Very few abductees recall the point at which their clothes are removed. The after effects of these various forms of anesthesia closely resemble those of curare. (Neal, 1988; Hopkins, 1981) Curare, and it's principal constituent Tubocurarine, cause anesthetic paralysis by blocking the transmission of acetycholine.
In the abduction literature of the past decades, one case in particular has gotten great attention, that of Betty Andreasson (Luca), both because of the amount of corroborative evidence produced and because it provides as synthesis of many of the common elements. The subject of several books by Raymond Fowler, the Andreasson case describes in detail instances of many medical experiments, particularly reproductive experiments. Generally, these cases appear in the literature as involving either taking genetic matter from humans for the purpose perceived of reproductive experiments or actual reproductive contact with the entities. Sometimes women are impregnated under unusual experiences following UFO phenomenon, and sometimes the process of pregnancy and labor are interfered with (Fowler, 1979, 1982).
Under hypnosis, Betty recalls witnessing the typical "greys" removing a small, strange looking fetus from a woman:
Betty: Oh no! They're putting something on that baby's mouth!...
They can't allow the baby to take a breath of air... they're
putting needles in the top of it's head and ears... and they're cutting the eyelids away!
After this, Betty goes on to see more fetuses in similar circumstances:
Betty: Why do you have to do such a terrible thing? And one of them is saying "We have to, because as time goes by, mankind will become sterile. They will not be able to reproduce."
(Fowler, 1990)
The subject of breeding between humans and these entities has occurred throughout the modern accounts, beginning with the Boas case described earlier (Randles, 1997). There has been much speculation that these experiences are part of a massive hybrid evolutionary breeding program. To date, no physical evidence produced has substantiated this claim, although none has negated it, either.
Fowler asserts that from recovered experiences uncovered in the Andreasson Luca case, the following information about the technology or capabilities of these entities is indicated: Communicate telepathically; Place humans in suspended animation; Instigate OBEs (out of body experiences) in human beings and interface with humans' "other selves"; Proportionately increase or decrease the size of humans and complex machinery (The Alice in Wonderland Effect). (Fowler, 1982;1990)
Psycho-Physical Effects of "Abduction" Experiences
While many disregard the tide of reports of these experiences, the continuing retrieval of hard evidence has strongly suggested that this is not entirely a psychological phenomenon. Besides strange cuts and retrieved implants, researcher Kenneth Ring has studied the psychological and physical changes in the body reported by many abductees following their experience. He found, among other things, that 37.1% had problems with causing electric or electronic malfunction, 36.1% had decreased sleep periods, 47.4 % had changes in their nervous system, and 49.5% had an increase in light sensitivity. (1992) Ring also tested for commonalities in the personalities of abduction claimants, under the hypothesis of the Fantasy-Prone Individual, and failed to find significant pre-existing similarities. Other studies have similarly failed to present a pre-existing similarity in these individuals, either based on social factors (Jacobs, 1992) or personality type (Basterfield, et al, 1988; Rodhegier, et al, 1991) although it has been remarked upon that the proportion of alcohol users amongst this group is substantially lower than would be found in the general populace.
Later studies demonstrated that after abduction experiences, 50-60% suffer Vitamin A deficiencies (90 % of female abductees), resulting in nyctalophia, night blindness (Gugliaro, 2002; Duke, 1999). Almost all have allergic or abnormal response to procaines such as novocaine, to which allergies are extremely rare (Leir, 1998).
The existence of all the common features found- from modern "abduction" and "UFO" phenomenon, as well as the Fairy faith in Europe and the shamanic experience of the Yanomamo, combined with the physical data, suggests a common physiological or neurological correlate to complement the common perception.
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