Can alien abductions be elucidated scientifically as a product of sleep paralysis, false memory, dreams, or just an overactive imagination? The abductees say that they were awakened from sleep and transported to an alien spacecraft. The description of which usually begins with what sounds like an episode of sleep paralysis. Up to 60 percent of people have experienced sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis transpires just prior to falling asleep, or while awakening (Spanos, Cross & DuBreuil, 1993). The brain and body temporarily desynchronize when waking from REM sleep. This causes the body to remain paralyzed during REM sleep, and allowing the mind to be fully cognizant of its surroundings. Technically this experience cannot be classified as either awake or asleep. A small percentage of people who experience sleep paralysis do so in juxtaposition with terrifying hallucinations (Perina, 2003). These hallucinations vary, for example; people often feel tingling sensations, weightlessness, hear buzzing noises, and see flashing lights and figures around one’s bed. This rarely lasts for long, no more than a few minutes at which point the hallucinations and paralysis end. The individual believing something transpired during sleep may see a hypnotherapist to gain understanding of the experience (Clancy, McNally, Schacter, Lenzenweger, & Pitman 2002). During hypnotic regression, memories of abduction may surface. They can be so terrifying that the experiencer may believe they are afflicted with a serious neurological problem. Rather than accepting the prospect of insanity, they believe aliens abducted them, as it seems less outlandish (Perina, 2003). It is believed by some that trauma can lead to amnesia, blocking memories that ar... ... middle of paper ... ...riven imagery in people reporting abduction by space aliens. Psychological Science (Wiley-Blackwell), 15(7), 493-497. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00707.x Otgaar, H., Candel, I., Merckelbach, H., & Wade, K. (2008). Abducted by a UFO: Prevalence information affects young children’s false memories for an implausible event. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, 115-125. doi: 10.1002/acp.1445 Perina, K., (2003). Cracking the Harvard x-files. Psychology Today, 36(2), 66. Spanos, N. P., Cross, P. A., Dickson, K., & DuBreuil, S. C. (1993). Close encounters: An examination of UFO experiences. The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102(4), 624-632. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.102.4.624 Steffens, M. C., & Mecklenbräuker, S. (2007). False memories: Phenomena, theories, and implications. Zeitschrift Für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology, 215(1), 12-24. doi:10.1027/0044-3409.215.1.12
Wilson J.T.L., Teasdale, G.M., Hadley, D.M., & Wiedmann, K.D., Lang, D. (2012). Post-traumatic amnesia: still a valuable yardstick. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 56, 198-201
The article “How Our Brains Make Memories” explains how traumatic events and the memories they hold can become forgotten over time. Karim Nader recalls the day that two planes slammed into the twin towers in New York City and like almost every person in the United States he had vivid and emotional memories of that day. However he knew better than to trust his recollections of that day because he was an expert on memory. He attended college at the University of Toronto and in 1996 joined the New York University lab of Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist who studies how emotions influence memory. Fast forward to 2003, Nader is now a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, where he says “his memory of
Karl Albrecht, Ph.D. "The (Only) Five Basic Fears We All Live By." Psychology Today (2012).
False memories being created is obvious through many different ways, such as eye-witness testimonies and past experiments that were conducted, however repression is an issue that has many baffled. There seems to be little evidence on the factual basis of repressed memories, and many argue that it does not exist. The evidence for repression in laboratories is slowly emerging, but not as rapidly as the evidence for false memories. It has been hard to clinically experiment with repressed memories because most memories are unable to be examined during the actual event to corroborate stories. Experimenters are discovering new ways to eliminate this barrier by creating memories within the experiment’s initial phase. This is important for examining the creation of false memories during the study phase. This research study will explore the differences between recovered memories and false memories through research and experiments. Other terms and closely related terms will be discussed, while examining any differences, in relation to repressed memories. The possibility of decoding an actual difference between recovered memories and false memories, through biological techniques. Because false memories can be created, examining these creations in a laboratory setting can shed light on facts overlooked. Exploring these issues will also help with the development of better therapeutic techniques for therapists in dealing with memories. This can lead to an easier process for patients and therapists if they must go through the legal system in relation to an uncovered memory.
The false memory and recovered memory literature is marked by controversy. It examines the phenomenon a variety of patients have exhibited: purportedly “losing” memories of trauma, only to recover them later in life (Gavlick, 2001). In these cases, temporary memory loss is attributed to psychological causes (i.e. a traumatic event) rather than known damage to the brain (Gavlick, 2001). While some assert that the creation of false memories through therapeutic practice is a serious concern and founded associations like the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) in the U.S. and the British False Memory Society (BFMS) in order to advocate against psychological malpractice, other researchers contend that the evidence for “false memory syndrome,” or the recovery of untrue memories, is weak (Brewin & Andrews, 1998; Pope, 1996). The debate arose largely in the 1990s, though a consensus in the literature still has not been reached.
Answers to these questions are complex and incomplete. As an anxiety disorder, PTSD has its foundations in fear and "emotional memory." Like factual memory, emotional memory also involves the storage and recall of events and details; this has been termed the explicit or conscious memory (2). Emotional memory, though, has a second, distinct component. This facet, t...
Imagine having a memory of a very traumatic event resurface in your mind after forgetting about it for twenty years. That is what happened to Eileen Franklin in 1989 when she had recovered what is called a repressed memory of her father, George Franklin, killing her friend in 1969, which eventually lead to her father getting a sentence of life in prison (Beaver, 1996). A repressed memory is a memory that is not forgotten, but is a memory of something traumatic that is blocked and not recovered unless triggered by something. Although her descriptions of the event were very vivid, describing colors and sounds, most of what she described could be proven inaccurate. Some of what she described was information that was misreported in newspapers that she had probably read or been told about in the past. This is an example of the misinformation effect. Misinformation effect is when someone is misled by information about an event that they witnessed and has an effect on how they remember that event later. This is just one example of how the misinformation effect can change how an event is described.
After doing a little research I have come across a very interesting topic which is Fear-Induced Hallucination. What this paper is going to focus on is How Sleep Paralysis Triggers Hallucination. After researching, I learned that hallucination actually starts during an episode of sleep paralysis. As stated in the textbook, sleep paralysis is often compared to being an evils work of art. It results from some errors of the neural transmission in the brain during REM sleep. Also, during a frightening state of sleep paralysis, one experiences total body immobility and cannot speak or move besides little eye movements and respiration.
All abduction scenarios are not the same, however, the experiences of those who claim to be abducted by aliens are somewhat similar to each other. Each case has enough in common so that a general idea as to what happens when one gets abducted is formed. These accounts usually start with the presence of a bright light and strange beings (Newman and Baumeister). The abductee is usually paralyzed at this point and is taken onto the alien’s craft by force (Newman and Baumeister). Most claim that all different of kinds tests were performed on them while on they were on craft (Newman and Baumeister). Most abductees explain that somehow, the aliens were able to wipe out their memory of what exactly happened when they were on the craft (Orne).
Anterograde Amnesia (AA) is commonly known as short term memory loss. It is the inability to form any new memories after a neurological or psychological trauma in the brain. “Current definitions of anterograde amnesia emphasize the presence of severe and permanent deficits for the recall of recent events (typically with poor recognition) that contrast with intact short-term memory, IQ, semantic memory, skill learning, simple classical conditioning, perceptual learning, and priming” (Aggleton, 2008, p. 1442). Also, according to Aggleton, AA causes the inability to recall autobiographical events (episodic memory). Research shows that damage to the diencephalon or frontal lobe can cause AA. Damage to the diencephalon impairs memory performance because it encodes new experiences for future recall and damage to the frontal lobe of the brain weaken memory performance because the it is involved in regulates access explicit memory (Mendev 2007). Duff, Wszalek, Tranel & Cohen (2008) stated...
An alternative view to this debate, are from practicing therapist who argue that most recovered memories are true, and that there is still some evidence to support the concept of repressed memories (Briere & Conte, 1993). They claim that traumatic memories such as sexual abuse tend to be different from ordinary memories because they are encoded in a way that prevents them from being accessible in everyday life. In addition, they argue that certain procedures during therapy are necessary in order to bring the repressed memories back into conscious awareness, and this is deemed necessary in order to help the patient recover. Despite these claims, there is little evidence to support the validity of reported cases of recovered memories, and most of the theories are mainly based on speculation rather than scientific evidence. However, there have been some cases in which a recovered memory did corresponded to an actual event that occurred. For example, an article by Freyd (1999), reported a case in which a man called Frank Fitzpatrick recovered memories of sexual abuse from childhood. Although this
Those who have had such an experience often describe the strong sense of fear or even terror such presences provoke (Davies, 2003). Ramsawh found the variability of the “realness” of episodes is also present in ISP, as sleepers “occasionally report uncertainty as to whether sleep paralysis has actually occurred, or whether they dreamed its occurrence” (Ramsawh, 2005). Davies discovered a smaller proportion of people describe out-of-body experiences, where they float above their beds and look down upon their bodies. People describe such sensations as “flying, accelerating, rising, lifting, spinning, swirling, being hurled through a tunnel, being light-headed or dizzy”, but the experience is usually pleasant, even blissful (Davies,
Imagine a quiet night with nothing but the sound of your friends’ laughter and the soft crackle of a campfire. All around you is darkness lit only by the moon and stars. Now imagine a bright light beaming down on you from above. The next thing you remember is waking up from a daze next to your friend, unable to explain what just happened. This is just one of many examples of what many people call alien abduction experiences. Despite the hundreds and thousands of people who have claimed similar abductions, scientists and skeptics still attempt to answer this mystery with more earthly explanations. Even though many people claim very similar alien abductions, researchers can reasonably explain this phenomenon.
A first genre is the analysis of the social psychology of UFO belief. Jung (1991) was among the first to take this approach with his psychoanalysis of saucer reports, though he also focused on the psychological profiles of self-identified UFO witnesses. His broader analytic work has served as a point of departure for later studies of the symbolic content of UFO reports, alien folklore, and sci-fi entertainment. Studies in this latter group often point out the structural similarities between alien contact narratives and fairy lore, treading the frontiers of psychoanalysis, folkloristics and ufology (compare Rojcewicz 1995 to Vallée 1993 [1969]).
Arousal disorders are the most common type of parasomnia. These disorders include: confusional arousals, sleepwalking, sleep terrors and nightmares. Experts believe that each is related and share some symptoms. Essentially, they occur because a person is in a mixed state of being both asleep and awake, generally coming from the deepest stage of non-dreaming sleep. The individual is awake enough to act out complex behaviors, but asleep enough not to be aware of or remember them.