Alien abduction accounts take major hit:

New research suggests repressed memories don't exist. Since most "abductees" discover their ordeals under hypnosis this represents a major blow to those who claim alien abductions are real and widespread. I've met dozens of claimed "abductees" and always suspected most of them are mentally ill, this just strengthens that belief.

www.abc.net.au...

Good news !
If it means it also puts an end to psychanalists and hypnosis.

reply to post by wasco2


Well, research being what it is, I still back the first hand accounts I have been told. Two people very close to me in my life are the victims of horrendous abuse by other humans. They do indeed have gaps in their memories and some of those memories have come back on their own while others are still missing.

I do however agree with this comment in the article:

He maintains false memories can easily be created by inept therapists

If it were true the brain cannot repress memories, how does one explain multiple personality, when one of the multiples in a trance/not front?

Some repressed memories ar created out of trauma, and thus why the memory is splintered off and "repressed".

Yes, "repressed" memories can be inadvertently created by mental health professionals. OR they can be created by the person "experiencing" them, without any sort of medical help at all.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that they do not exist at all. Maybe not in the same way though. Maybe they are not really repressed, in that you do not need some special method to get them out, but rather, you just need to think about what happened at that time and it will come back to you. Because you purposefully did not think about it.
Children of abuse have these memories all the time, and often they are in cases where someone else saw the situation and can tell them, "yes you are right, that did happen", so obviously the entire idea is not faked. Just some of the instances of it.

Oh, and almost nobody goes through hypnosis because most people think it is bull (myself included), so it isn't to blame for all things.
But I have to point something out about this, because I have an obligation due to my fiance *being* a hypnotherapist. The article says:
"Soldiers returning from war zones, victims of violent crime and sexual abuse, can now be helped by cognitive behaviour therapy, where they learn to assign terrible memories to the past, instead of them crowding their present and future.

Professor Devilly says the therapy is working.

"We're now getting, at the end of between 8 and 12 sessions, 90 to 92 per cent of people no longer meet the criteria for PTSD," he said. "

Hypnosis takes one session. Usually of less than an hour. Even for PTSD. Some hypnotists give themselves 3 sessions, in case they make mistakes twice in a row.

And I have experienced both, CBT just pissed me off, because they kept insisting on asking me questions I didn't know the answer to, like "what MADE you feel that way?" even after I have told them the feeling just washed over me with no discernible cause. Because they refuse to believe that people don't have a full awareness of every mental process they go through.
Hypnosis just doesn't work for me, flat out. I do not go under. Which is probably why I think it is crap, because if it had worked, I certainly would believe in it
The funny part is that my fiance claims it works on everyone, even those who do not believe, as long as they do not have a strong desire NOT to go under. Which I definitely do not, because I don't see any harm in trying.

Then again, I suffer from things so much that I try outlandish junk like crystal healing and self-affirmation.
And before you go all crazy about how great self-affirmation is (because I know how into it this site has been in the past), remember I judge things based on whether or not they work. For ME. Not for others.

reply to post by wasco2


Research? What research? How do you research someone else's experience? What...?...poll ten people and the majority wins?

Life doesn't work this way.
People shouldn't lecture to other people how certain other people should be behaving.

We know nothing. We don't even know why we use less than 10% of our brain. Or only 2 strands of DNA. Or why our hearts stop. Or even how to combat male pattern baldness for gawd sake.
And despite our ignorance, we allow our arrogance to KNOW.....how other people feel and why? Amazing.


This is how walls get built, tunnel vision forms and brainwashing takes hold.
Everyone is different. I get so upset with the educational institutes in the world. What they do is train their students to think one way and one way only.

And this is a prime example where modern man takes one step forward and three steps backwards.

reply to post by Human_Alien


We don't just use 10% of our brains.
Read and learn.

Scientic American

So is it all lies and liars that we are listening to.
I read of only one person that wouldn't sign off on any contract
that said they saw little green men in a Tesla ship.
Then there is the Walton story about probes and grays but was
actually brought to a base and saw only humans and three types of ships.
One non abduction but cause for concern by the secret holders
and one getting in the alien lie to discount the base ships.
All done by part of the Secret Government sworn to hold on to unreleased technology.
This is the fun part watching the Secret Government scurry around
plugging up youtube and photo captures of their ships.
We don't see no ships here only some new shiny balloon some
irresponsible person put a flame in and launched over our cities.
Or new aircraft that is all lights.
Or a bug fly by.
The irresponsible people are the Secret Government back at the Walton base
sending out ships to capture people's imagined fears.
Well once admitting the possession of the ship everyone will want one so
we can see that would be a problem.

So if we don't remember something that happened, that everyone else knows happened, and we have tried to remember for 30 years, what is that, if not a repressed memory?

To elaborate further, the night before my mom passed away, I talked to her in her hospital room for about 1/2 hour. No one else was in the room, so no one can tell me what we talked about. The rest of my family remembers this (me going into her room to talk privately). I don't even remember being at the hospital that night. She told the family we had a good talk. I wish I knew what about.

I think that qualifies as repressed memory.

They can't just pick what a person can or can't have a repressed memory about. If it's aliens or abuse, it doesn't exist
But if it's something else somewhat traumatic........

Originally posted by wasco2
New research suggests repressed memories don't exist. Since most "abductees" discover their ordeals under hypnosis this represents a major blow to those who claim alien abductions are real and widespread. I've met dozens of claimed "abductees" and always suspected most of them are mentally ill, this just strengthens that belief.

www.abc.net.au...

What if an abductee remembers without hypnosis does that mean they are lying or mentally ill?
What is your perspective on that please op

Originally posted by saphic

Originally posted by wasco2
. Since most "abductees" discover their ordeals under hypnosis

What if an abductee remembers without hypnosis does that mean they are lying or mentally ill?
What is your perspective on that please op

Well that's why I said "most" and not "all". And yeah, I do think those who claim conscious memories of alien abduction are lying or mentally ill.

reply to post by Human_Alien


I suggest you acquaint yourself with a topic i made a while back that discusses different psychology myths. The first one on the list is the 10% Myth.

Psychology Myths

Also, I made a topic on this a little over a week ago.

Research Finds Repressed Memories Don't Exist

reply to post by wasco2




Well does that mean that we can discount the findings and revelations of the much respected Dr John Mack who found that most of his patients were in fact behaving like they were suffering from what he termed as" real experiences" and NOT suffering from illusions,mental illnesses or fantasy's.What a clever way of debunking abductions, get it known that regressed memories do not exist , game set and match for the debunkers and those who would keep this reality/possibility of the unknown under wraps.Too many witnesses describing similar experiences , Bud Hopkins had cases where here was physical marks and anomaly's where present in some abduction cases, are these people ALL lying and mental ill, i feel that to believe that suggestion says it all.

We hear the expression "consensus reality" used to distinguish the conventional Western/Newtonian/Cartesian world view from other possible philosophies or frameworks of thought. The frequent bracketing of these words in writing and conversation implies that there is one accepted version of reality that includes a social agreement about what the mind may or may not legitimately countenance.

Dr John Mack phd;

link source;
www.passporttothecosmos.com...

What about those folk who experience "alien abduction" and don't get hypnotised?

Originally posted by OldDragger
reply to post by Human_Alien

 

We don't just use 10% of our brains.
Read and learn.

Scientic American

The last thing I'll ever entertain is reading what others have to say. Please! To that one article you inserted, I can insert 5 more dispelling that! So, what's the point? They're all opinions from a bunch of people who know no more than any of us.

Science is written with a pencil and eraser.
Science once thought the world was flat.
Science once thought Humans evolved from apes.
Science once thought Pluto was a planet
Science once thought, sneezing was the devil coming out

I'm not going to waste anymore time telling you what "science' once thought but you get my drift.

I had an experience and 'science' is not about to come in and eradicate my experience. Sorry. Not going to happen.

Carry on believing what 'they' tell you to believe. After all, 'they' tell you everything else so...........might as well JUMP!

Originally posted by Human_Alien
The last thing I'll ever entertain is reading what others have to say.

This is perhaps the most closed-minded, ignorant post ever written on ATS. Ever.

reply to post by Human_Alien


We know the 10% myth isn't true because we can put a person in an fMRI and see the entire brain light up. Not to mention that putting a lesion almost anywhere on the brain will cause noticeable effects. As for your other claims:

1. Science hasn't thought the Earth was flat since at least the Greeks. A time before the scientific method was created.

2. Science never claimed that humans evolved from apes. It claimed that humans and apes have a common ancestor, which is true.

3. The only reason Pluto is not a planet anymore is due to classifications created by scientists. Everything about it is planet-like. It's not a "planet" anymore because it's small. If Pluto was classified as a planet, then Sedna, Eris, and a number of other celestial objects would have to be labeled as planets.

4. Superstitions and religious belief are not science.

Furthermore, science is an ever evolving field. If we already knew everything then there would be no need for science. Now, since you seem to have a big problem with science why don't you go outside and cut the power lines to your house since that electricity you're using is because of scientific discoveries. Now, science says that you'll be electrocuted if you try to cut the power lines, but what does science know? I'm sure you'll be fine.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
If it were true the brain cannot repress memories, how does one explain multiple personality, when one of the multiples in a trance/not front?

There is much controversy over multiple personality syndrome, its diagnosis and if it is actually a real mental condition.

Even if we are to accept it as a true condition, the sufferer does not actually repress memories. Their mind creates different "personalities" to deal with certain emotions or memories; nothing is actually repressed.

Rational analysis and the scientific method are the only tools we have to try and understand things like this. When "believers" disparage science it only proves they are not interested in the truth and are only interested in living in delusion or deliberately perpetuating frauds for personal or monetary reasons.

As for the nature of this topic: I'm not surprised, abductions have always been one of the silliest parts of Ufology and we have not a single piece of evidence to support the claims of these people.

Abductions can be explained in terms of:

-Sleep paralysis + overactive imagination (likely the majority of cases)
-Mental illness + unscrupulous "investigators" and therapists leading people into these fantasies
-Outright lying

I wouldn't be surprised if some "abductees" have committed suicide or have turned to drugs or alcohol abuse to deal with their issues. In this case, Ufologists and hypnotherapists have done grievous damage to their fellow human beings.

This may have been more or less stated above but...

One thing to keep in mind is that most people who end up undergoing hypnosis and seeing these things usually have other indications that they are being abducted prior to the first time they undergo hypnosis.

Things such as missing time, experiences of 'waking up' in locations they don't remember going to, oddly shaped scars they can't explain, post traumatic stress disorder (without any logical reason for it), or even memory flashes of abduction experiences...

As in most cases of trying to dismiss the phenomenon they fully disregard all the unexplained items that lead up to undergoing hypnosis in the first place... They're explaining away a piece of the puzzle while pretending the remaining pieces are somehow not even there...