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From: Joseph Polanik <jpolanik@mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1999 21:32:25 -0500
Fwd Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 15:57:14 -0500
Subject: Abduction Researchers: The Good, the Bad and the


It is undeniable that some people report positive encounters
with alien beings and that some people report negative
encounters with alien beings.

Unfortunately, some researchers (e.g. Dr. Boylan) claim that all
encounters with aliens are really positive and that those who
report negative experiences are mistaken, deluded or lying,
while other researchers (e.g. Dr Jacobs) claim that all
encounters with aliens are really negative and that those who
report negative experiences are mistaken, dluded or lying.

Are experiencers deluded or are researchers closed minded?

I'd like to put the matter in perspective by referencing the
history of research into Near Death Experiences, NDEs.


When researchers such as Raymond Moody and Kenneth Ring first
presented their findings, they presented only positive cases.

Moody (Reflections on 'Life After Life', p. 36):


"... in the mass of material I have collected no one has
ever described to me a state like the archetypical hell."


Ring cites Moody (erroneously attributing the above quote to
Moody's first book, 'Life After Life') and adds:


"(Moody's) failure to obtain any such accounts was duplicated in
the present investigation ... as I have repeatedly emphasized,
both the affective tone and the visionary aspects of the
near-death experience tend to be predominantly and highly
positive. Even in suicide-related cases, no one described (to
Ring) a mainly unpleasant or hellish experience."

                     Life at Death, p.192-3


Ring then goes on to explain his reasons for dismissing the
reports of unpleasant or hellish experiences presented by
cardiologist Maurice Rawlings. Among his reasons: Rawlings is a
born again Christian and the people he cites were hallucinating:


"... though it is true that some near-death survivors state that
various aspects of their experience were frightening, such
features appear to have been, in the main, *hallucinatory
visions*, which were qualitatively discriminable from the core
experience itself."

                        Life at Death_, p.195


Anyway, time moves on and more and more cases of hellish NDEs
come to light. And a certain segment of fundamentalist
Christianity seizes upon these cases as evidence that the
Afterlife is run by the God of the Old Testament.

Naturally, they accuse Moody/Ring & Co. of pushing an anti-Christian
theology. And they discredit the people who reported a positive NDE by
saying that they were deluded by demons.

The tactics are the same: Accuse the other researchers of pushing a
private agenda and allege that their interviewees are hallucinating.

Now, I believe that the field of NDE studies has matured
somewhat recently, but history is repeating itself in another
area: Alien Abduction studies. One group, represented by Dr.
Richard J Boylan among others, claims that the aliens are all
benevolent and that experiencers who report negative experiences
are either dis-information agents or victims of mind-control
experiments by rogue intelligence agents. Another group, of
which Dr. David Jacobs is the outstanding example, claims that
the aliens are all evil and that those who report positive
experiences, are victims of mind-control by the aliens and need
to see a competent hypnotist who will convince them of that
'fact'.

As the Kottmeyer study demonstrates, the experimenter's
theoretical perspective determines what he or she will see. I
strongly suspect that Ufology will achieve no respect as a
disciplined inquiry until this experimenter bias can be greatly
reduced.


<.>^<.>__<.>^<.>__<.>^<.>__<.>^<.>__<.>^<.>__<.>^<.>__<.>^<.>

Joseph Polanik, <jpolanik@mindspring.com>
Trionic Research Institute, <http://trionica.com>