Unravelling the Mystery of Alien Abductions

This program was clearly a debunking effort, promoting the theory of sleep paralysis as a cause of alien abduction. While clearly pushing an inadequate theory, they were surprisingly open minded in their over all presentation. They admitted in the end that the paralysis theory did not explain all abduction experiences such as daytime abductions and physical trace cases.

The show was also surprisingly devoid of ridicule of both the abductees and the abduction reasearchers, as opposed to the usual smear campaigns (like, for example, initiated by the Nova episode on abductions). So it was rather refreshing in this regard. They also allowed Hopkins and Jacobs to give some good arguments (arguments that were no doubt cut in other programs).

However, though they were honest enough to admit some deficiencies in the paralysis theory, they still neglected a large number of other deficiencies, and overstated the case.

They introduced a number of people with the statement that they were sleep paralysis experiencers, but they failed to support it with any concrete evidence. Thus when these people described their experiences, my first question was: If they had similar experiences to abductees, how do we know that they were not actually abducted as opposed to being merely sleep paralysis sufferers? Or there is even the possibility of both. For this whole process to work, there would need to be a control group of proven sleep paralysis/ non-abducted cases. Since such a group was not provided, this whole method was useless. It was interesting how they showed sleepers in lab-like conditions as if they were the examples in question, but they actually weren't, so it was a deception by the show.

On the other hand they did well to be specific about which characteristics of the abduction phenomenon the sleep paralysis was theorized to be responsible for.

While Paralysis would certainly be a shared trait, what many do not realize is that it is a lot more complex than merely a paralysis. There are actually three types of paralysis: sleep, trance and abduction. A person could experience any one of these and could also experience any combination of the three including all of them, so it can be difficult to sort everything out.

The sleep paralysis that they focused on can occur when a person awakes in the middle of the night, but is unable to move. He will then experience very real sensations, the most common being the feeling of physical contact on some part of the body (e.g. something invisible pushing against the body). He can also hear sounds, most commonly a rushing or buzzing sound, but can also be jumbled sounds, which on rare occasions can include actual words. There is less commonly visual effects, like blotches of light, but I actually don't know of a (proven) case where there was a complete visual halucination. In any case, the experience is very frightening, but a person can wake out of it and then realize that it was a bizarre, yet _internal_ occurance.

Trance paralysis can occur either during sleep (like sleep paralysis) or can be self induced through various techniques, the most common being some form of self torture (practised by shamans in various societies). It also seems to correspond to the near death experience. This experience is a very frightening disassociation from the body and a feeling of loss of control. One becomes aware or awake and unable to move. There is a visual perception that comes vaguely out of the head and sometimes from some other location (often about a meter directly above the body). A person can then awake out of it or return to a normal state of sleep. This is also quite frightening, but has nothing intrinsic about it that would point to aliens.

Abduction paralysis can occur when the person is asleep or awake and is not always the initial event in an abduction experience. A person is often aware of the presence of aliens before the paralysis begins, especially when already awake. There is sometimes a sound with the onset of paralysis, like a series of beeps, or a buzzing sound. This is similar to a sleep paralysis event, but normally subsides in a very short time. Then sometimes the aliens might be observed, but from that point on nothing is remembered. The person will later awake as if from normal sleep. Ironically, except for the initial encounter, the abduction paralysis may be no more frightening than the other types. However, as time progresses, the abduction paralysis has a residual effect. The person will have nightmares which relate to the event and with recurrances of both the paralysis and the associated dreams, a person can become hopelessly terrorized.

To add more confusion, sometimes a person will not see the typical alien. He will instead see a cover image, such as a devil, or even a very non-threatening image. But there is still something odd in the ongoing process which clues the abductee that an abduction event is still occurring. Because of these variations, one might be inclined to consider it as halucination, but it has been found that there is still a commonality that is simply being superficially dressed up.

There is yet further confusion that can be generated. The trauma of the abduction experience will, in some people trigger the other types of paralysis (or altered states of consciousness). Thus an abductee may have a trance paralysis which, because of its initiation in an actual abduction, then reminds him of a previous abduction, which then causes him to think that a new abduction is occurring when it actually is not occurring. It is then a false abduction experience. This can also happen for a sleep paralysis event.

Plus it can be even more complex. Sometimes, a person will simply have a dream about abduction that has virtually no basis in reality, or also have a _dream_ about a trance paralysis, which is not the real thing but simply a dream, but may seem like the real experience.

On the other hand dreams can often indicate that a real abduction has occurred, but to distinguish which details are actually related to a real abduction can be quite difficult.

With this, one can see the inherit complexity of the situation. however in the midst of these experiences, there is a core of commonly shared experiences which can only be attributed to some real external stimulus.

The program brought up the old excuse that this external stimulus was in the common media....and while that might work now, it cannot possibly explain the original observations.

The simple fact is, that the program's main theory of sleep paralysis cannot account for the abduction phenomenon. it only barely covers the paralysis itself... and as for the other observations, it completely fails.