Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here Our Bookstore is OPEN Over 5000 new & used titles, competitively priced! Topics: UFOs - Paranormal - Area 51 - Ghosts - Forteana - Conspiracy - History - Biography - Psychology - Religion - Crime - Health - Geography - Maps - Science - Money - Language - Recreation - Technology - Fiction - Other - New Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Location: Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1996 -> Dec -> Terminology

UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: SGBConsult@aol.com <Steve Bassett>
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 00:22:40 -0500
Fwd Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 02:02:35 -0500
Subject: Terminology

In a message dated 96-12-30 21:51:58 EST, Greg Sandow wrote:

>  >Dunno about "alleged," though. That also sounds negative to me. The more
>  >I think about this terminology business, the more I'm inclined to go
>  >with "experiencer." It only says that someone has had this experience.
>  >We can use the term with respect, while reserving judgement on exactly
>  >what the nature of the experience is.

Michael Malone replied:

>  Perhaps the problem is with the term abductee.  What we need is a new term
>  that is defined as "one who honestly believes they have been abducted by
>  sentient non-human beings and believe that these beings are either
>  extra-solar, or extra-terrestrial in origin."
>
>  I've struggled to make the "definition" as netural as possible, without
>  being obscure.  Can we even agree on a definition?
_________________

Terminology has the power to self-generate epistemology.

As historical evidence prior to the modern era (1947-1996) is gathered, the
spectrum of encounter experiences continues to broaden.  In this time period
three terms have been most prevalent: contactee, abductee, and experiencer.

"Contactee" as a basis for consensus was weakened by its use during the
"space brother" period and with other later extreme fringe reportage.

"Abductee" has a substantive lineage which gained strength after the Hill
case and further developed with the work of Budd Hopkins and other early
investigators.

"Experiencer" is a much more recent nomenclature which emerged from
support groups with impetus from group members dissatisfied with
"Abductee".  It has been particularly embraced by Dr. John Mack's Program
for Extraordinary Experience Research, one of the most prominent research
and support organizations in the field.

Not uncharacteristically, these terms have created lines of debate.  This
debate is exacerbated by the personal and emotional involvement of the
participants in much of the developing evidence.

Not enough is known about this phenomenon to rely upon narrow nomenclature,
however comforting.   Motivations are ascribed to entities not yet
conclusively proved to exist, for conduct as yet not understood, within
contexts completely outside consensus reality.

The wave/particle conundrum in subatomic physics is a good model.  Until more
evidence is in, a beneficial course might be one of hoping for the specifics
while expecting a protracted period of generalities.

Unlike most fields of scientific research, certain aspects the this sub-field
of UFOlogy place exceptional demands on the education, experience and
personal values each investigator brings to the work.   As such, this pivotal
field of study is both complicated and well serviced by the diverse range of
approaches represented by Sims, Smith, Jacobs, Carpenter, Boylan, Hopkins,
Mack, and others.

The likelihood that any one camp is precisely on target, given the
extraordinary elusiveness, complexity, and paradigm challenging nature of the
unfolding evidence, is slim.

There is a painful need for tolerance at this point.  The community of
UFOlogy is still building the formal structures for ordered investigation and
peer review.  The field has struggled against the effects of advanced
speculation and theorizing running well ahead of the evidence.

Of course, the involved participants have a powerful need to put language to
these encounters - to find some solid ground upon which to stand.  Each must
cope in their own way.   There is, however, something to be said for an
intrinsic nimbleness - a readiness, given the huge potential for
unprecedented intellectual quakes in our very ground of being, to set down on
that piece of earth still intact when the shaking is over.

Steve Bassett
SGBConsult

Afterthought:

There may be merit in a formal, broad based attempt by the community to
expand the CEI, II, III, IV schema so as to describe the full array of
encounters in forms less emotional and open to schism.