Thousands of people around the world are convinced they were abducted by aliens. Researchers from Spain – José Latorre and María Vellisca – decided to analyze these stories. As the authors note, such stories are fascinating, but they are usually not taken seriously and often have more to tell us about the human psyche than life on other planets.
The scientists tested 19 people who consider themselves victims of alien abduction. In the scientific community, the most popular explanation for such cases is deception or psychological disorders. But Latorre and Vellisca have suggested alternatives, one of which is sleep paralysis (SP). SP happens upon falling asleep or waking up and can last for several seconds or minutes. Symptoms of SP include auditory and visual hallucinations, immobility, fear, a feeling of floating, a third-party presence or pressure on the chest. Such an experience can be interpreted as an episode of alien abduction.
Interestingly, among other possible explanations, the authors included hypnosis, distorted memories under anesthesia, as well as natural phenomena: tectonic plate movements can result in strong electromagnetic fields that affect the temporal lobe of susceptible individuals, causing hallucinations. Contrary to expectations, however, the test subjects were found to have a low level of suggestibility, which rules out most of the abovementioned options, but not the hypothesis of sleep paralysis.
The scientists added that it is important in future studies to make a clear separation of cases of “abduction” as a result of SP from other cases that cannot be explained by this phenomenon. In a recent Phase Research Center experiment, 114 volunteers encountered aliens in a lucid dream (which is a phase state, like sleep paralysis). And since it can be initiated intentionally, then, certainly, such situations occur by chance.
All of the authors’ hypotheses are possible. But which do you think is most likely to explain UFO stories?
The article was published in October 2021 in the journal EXPLORE.
