Using Psychological Disorders to Explain Alien Abductions - Research Paper Example

Using Psychological Disorders to Explain Alien Abductions The belief of people that they have been abducted by aliens is a false belief, instead, what they experienced is an altered state of mind. According to Blackmore, millions of people globally have claimed that they have been abducted by aliens.1 This group of people firmly believes that aliens have abducted them before and taken them aboard spaceships where they were subjected to a series of painful medical manipulations. The issue is that the claims made by this group of people are false. What is being claimed as being abduction, is actually an altered state of mind. Thousands of people claim that alaiens abducted them Creation of public awareness by clarifying to the public that what they has been cited as abduction by aliens is an event that can be explained under psychological grounds. Four psychological disorders have been cited that can be used to explain the abductions. Holden notes that the disorders include sleep paralysis, false memory, abnormal and unusual activity in the temporal lobes, and psychopathology.2 Sleep paralysis has been cited as one of the most common causes of the confusion. Many abductees actually suffered from sleep paralysis which is a psychological disorder. Abduction by aliens and sleep paralysis share many features. According to Vaughan, one of the common features that they share is waking up and realizing that one cannot move.3 One may also have or experience overwhelming feelings of fear, sometimes feelings of intense pressure on the body are also experienced. There are people who have reported feeling very uneasy and dread some unknown events. Normal sleep paralysis occurs at a point during sleep when the body enters a stage of the sleep cycle known as the REM stage. The rapid eye movement stage is of sleep occurs when the cognitive and physiologic component of REM become desynchronized for a short period of time. During this stage, the brainstem blocks the movement of signals that have been generated in the human brain and travel to the muscles. The blockage means that signals that are required for there to be movement and coordination are absent. It has been argued that the body often enters into this stage during the sleep cycle to prevent an individual from performing certain acts that he/she is dreaming about. A person deep in sleep and in the REM stage of sleep may wake up become conscious but realize that he/she is unable to move. Inability to move at this point is an indication that despite waking up and being conscious the body is still in the REM stage. Many people who have experienced this were frightened and develop strong beliefs that they have been abducted by aliens. Vaughan and Cromie explain that sleep paralysis may be accompanied by hypnopompic hallucinations and hypnagogia.45 People experience hypnopompic hallucinations whist in the process of waking up. The hallucinations take the form of strange bodies, figures, strange voices, and lights. When this is combined with a person’s inability to move, an individual may believe that they have been abducted by aliens. There is now emerging evidence that people who claim that aliens have abducted them may have suffered from distortion of memory. With the increasing number of people claiming to be have been abducted, psychologists have investigated the claims and the findings of their studies indicate that what the people claim to be abduction is not abduction but a memory distortion. Many abductees do not show any symptoms that characterize mental illness disease state. The typical abductee when requested to tell their experience almost always with an explanation that fits sleep paralysis disorder. They mention that during their sleep they work up and realized they could not move. Clancy explains that abductees stated that they felt tingling sensations throughout the body.6 They also experience feelings of levitation, flashing lights, visual figures hovering over ones bed, and loud buzzing sounds. It is however worth noting that the experiences last over very short periods of time, that is, a few seconds to a few minutes. Some abductees seek the help of hypnotherapists who help them recover the memories of what they had experienced. During the hypnotherapy sessions, abductees recover “their memory” and believe that they were abducted. Interestingly, there is emerging evidence that memory distortions occur based on how people store information and then recover. A recent study indicated that people gave false information on experiences they have heard moments after undergoing the experience. Brainerd and Reyna conducted a study in which the participants gave false information on experiences they have head without the intervention of other people like the hypnotherapist.7 The human mind has been noted to be infuriatingly fallible. An individual may forget something that he/she does not want to forget, and will remember events that one does not want to remember. Further still, human memory can make an individual remember an event or a piece of information that turns out to be wrong. According to a recent study on abductees and non-abductees, the investigators tested the memory of the study participants by reading out a list of words and requesting the participants to list the words that they can remember. The study findings indicated that abductees showed a higher rate of recalling and recognizing words that were never part of the study. Vouahgan and Roediger note that abductees experienced higher chances of misidentifying the source of memories.89 This finding suggests that some elements of the abduction experience of the abductees may have been obtained from other sources that could include their own imagination or the media. Distortion of memories could also allow people to reconstruct memories such that a coherent story is created. The reconstruction of memories uses culture as a reference point. Today, the alien abduction experience is a well-known phenomenon among members of the public. Various programs have been aired that focus on the experiences of aliens. These programs create a cultural framework upon which individuals who experience hallucinations can hang their memories from bizarre or traumatic experiences. Despite the general belief that people who claim to have been abducted by aliens have a mental illness, mental illness is the least probable explanations that can be offered to account for abductions. According to previous research, people who claim to have been abducted by aliens have equal chances of becoming mentally ill as the general population. UFO evidence claimed that in 1961 Betty and Burney Hill claimed that the had come across a UFO while on a trip back home. Thy claimed that when they encountered the UFO they could explain what happened to them for a few hours.10 They suffered from nighmares and anxiety. When they finally visited the psychiatrist, apart from the anxiety that they displayed when they met the psychiatrist, they had no other psychological problems and they were declared normal. Vaughan notes that there was no significant difference between abductees and non-abductees in terms of developing a mental disorder.11 However, current research has established that many of the features that were once known to be part indicative of mental illness, are now being seen in the general population. These features appear on a continuum within the public domain with some people expressing some traits more than others. As such, people who claim that they have been abducted have a higher chance of endorsing extraordinary experiences. Cromie states that abductees easily fantasizes and hold onto some unusual beliefs and experiences.12 They are likely to be very suspicious, are creative and imaginative, and have display dissociative tendencies. Temporal lobes of the brain have been cited as one of the sources of problems faced by abductees. When the temporal lobe of the human brain is stimulated by electrical stimulation, auditory sensations are produced. A study by Michael Persinger indicated that magnets can be used to produce strange sensations by influencing the functioning of the temporal lobes. Findings of the study indicate that some of the sensations produced are those of fear and disorientation. People suffering from epilepsy have reported that when they have the seizures of the temporal lobe they experience mystical and out of body feelings, strange atmospheres, strange smells, missing time either before or after a seizure. It is possible that temporal lobe disturbances that epileptic people suffer from can be misinterpreted to mean abduction by aliens. Sharpless and Barber stated that approximately 7.6 percent of the US population has suffered from sleep paralysis.13 However, the number of people who claim to have been abducted is significantly lower. Future research studies need to focus on the observed differences. Such studies would reveal important information regarding the psychological processes that the two groups of people have. The studies might also reveal important information that can be used toenhance the understanding of psychological processes experienced by people who claim to have been abducted. Another exciting area that is available for further research is the association between temporal lobe disturbances and likelihood of these disturbances being misinterpreted to mean abduction by aliens. As it is, there is a possibility that the disturbances of the temporal lobe can be misinterpreted as being alien abduction because the features depicted by people who claim to have been abducted are also present in people who experience temporal lobe disturbances. Thousands of people globally claim that aliens have once abducted them. With such a high number of abductees, it is critical that the public is informed or educated on some of the psychological disorders that share similar features with those presented by abductees. Abductees misinterpret those experiences to be the work of aliens whilst they are suffering from psychological disorders. The belief of people that they have been abducted by aliens is a false belief, instead, what they experienced is an altered state of mind. Bibliography “An Examination of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon and Associated Psychological Theories.”UFO Evidence. Last modified 2011. http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc342.htm Blackmore Susan. “Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis ?”The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Last modified n.d. http://www.csicop.org/si/show/abduction_by_aliens_or_sleep_paralysis Brainerd, C, and Reyna, F. “When Things that were never Experienced are Easier to Remember than Things that were.” Psychological Science 9, no.6 (1998): 484-489. http://idml.medicine.arizona.edu/Articles/When%20things%20that%20were%20never%2 0experienced%20are%20easier%20to%20remember%201998.pdf Clancy, Susan A., Richard J. McNally, Daniel L. Schacter, Mark F. Lenzenweger, and Roger K. Pitman. "Memory Distortion in People Reporting Abduction By Aliens." Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111, no. 3 (2002): 455-61. Cromie William. “Alien abduction claims explained.”Harvard University Gazette. Last modified 2007. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/09.22/11-alien.html Holden, Catherine., and Christopher French. “Alien Abduction Experiences: Some Clues From Neuropsychology and Neuropsychiatry.” Uark.edu. Last modified 2014. http://www.uark.edu/misc/lampinen/read/s03/holden02.htm Roediger, L. Henry., and McDermont, B. Kathleen. “Creating False Memories: Remebering Words not Presented in Lists. ”Journal of Experimental Psychology 21, no.4 (1995): 803- 814. http://psych.wustl.edu/memory/Roddy%20article%20PDF%27s/Roediger%20&%20Mc Dermott%20%281995%29_JEPLMC.pdf Sharpless, A. Brian., and Barber, P. Jacques. “Lifetime prevalence Rates of Sleep paralysis: A Systematic Review.” Sleep Medical Review 15, no.5(2011) 311-315. Vaughan. "The Psychology and Neuroscience of Alien Abduction.” Kuro5hin.org. September 1, 2002. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/9/1/14038/46155 Read More

 

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