Date : 23-Apr-93 20:16
From : John Powell
To   : All
Subj : Abduction Article

"Alien Abductions in the Gingerbread House"; by Dr. Karla Turner.

(UFO Universe, Vol. 3 No. 1 Spring 1993.  Copyright 1993 by Charlotte
Magazine Corp., Inc.  1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.  Published
quarterly with a subscription rate of $14/yr.  815-734-1103.)

     World renowned UFO researcher Jacques Vallee has repeatedly
referred to the similarities between UFO and abduction reports and the
stories of folklore and fairy tales.  I disagree with Dr. Vallee on
many, many points of UFOlogy, but here I will grant that there is one
fairy tale which does have something important to tell us about the
alien abduction phenomenon.  It is not, however, what Dr. Vallee might
think.

     The story of Hansel and Gretel presents a lesson that every
abductee should heed.  These innocent children, wandering lost and
frightened in the forest, came upon a gingerbread house that seemed to
offer them shelter and sustenance.  The owner of the house, a wizened
old woman, was frightening to them at first, but their hunger pushed
the children to accept her offer to come inside and be fed.

     And so they entered the gingerbread house and promptly became the
old woman's captives.  Kept in cages, the two children were abundantly
fed.  It was not for their benefit, though.  In fact, they were being
fattened up for the oven!  The deceptive nature of the gingerbread
house and of the old woman's offer of food worked quite well.

     It is the deceptive quality of this story that holds a warning
for humans who are abducted by aliens.  Like Hansel and Gretel, we are
initially terrified by our encounter with aliens, but in too many
cases, our fear is overcome by the words of our abductors and by the
thoughts and experiences they present to us.

     I, too, am an abductee, and my quest to discover the nature of my
own experiences led me into abduction research over the past four
years. Working with many other abduction cases, I have learned just
how basic the deception of alien actions can be.

     My family and I also delved into our own experiences, both past
and present.  Barbara Bartholic, a dedicated UFO investigator from
Tulsa, Oklahoma, worked closely with us and helped us fill in the gaps
in our recollections of strange encounters through hypnotic
regression.  Ms. Bartholic, by the way, began her own research as an
assistant to Jacques Vallee in cattle mutilation investigations, so
her expertise in ufology is wide-ranging.  I have recently written a
book, Into the Fringe, about the startling and often disturbing
results of our personal investigations, and it will be published by
the Berkley Publishing Group in November 1992.

     But my interest soon expanded past the merely personal, and for
the past several years I have worked as Ms. Bartholic's research
associate, exploring literally hundreds of sighting and encounter
cases with her. And what I've learned through this work has raised far
more questions than answers.  In fact, it has taught me to be wary of
those researchers who do claim to have answers.  I have yet to hear of
a single theory or explanation that accounts for all of the data.

     Some researchers have pointed out patterns of events in the
abduction experience, such as the physical examination, the taking of
sperm and ova, and the later presentation of a hybrid baby to the
abductee.  Other patterns include the training of the abductee in some
way and the delivery of a warning of some upcoming global disaster.
Yes, these events are frequently reported, as one researcher has said
in boringly repetitious accounts, and it is tempting to think that the
explanation for alien abductions may lie in these patterns.

     So the researchers announce that the problem is solved.  The
aliens are doing cross-breeding experiments, UFOlogists tell us. Never
mind the overwhelming evidence against the viable commingling of
different species.  Or, we are told, the aliens are here to save us
from destroying ourselves and our planet through violence, drug use,
epidemic disease, pollution, and resource depletion.  Never mind that
these problems have grown worse, not better, since the ETs began
visiting us.

     Or, most infuriating of all, we are assured that there are no
actual aliens, that our experiences spring from our own subconscious
turmoil or from our need for fantasy fulfillment. Never mind that many
abductees are young children, too young to be suffering from such
psychological disturbances.  Well, then, the resourceful researcher
counters, the imagined aliens must spring from some collective human
super-psyche that is mirroring our failures and dangers back to us.
This particular theory adores the archetypal gray ET, because it
resembles some sickly fetal form of humanity and must therefore be an
objectified warning of what our species is in danger of becoming if we
don't mend our ways.  Never mind that many, many abductees have no
dealing with grays, but instead are victimized by robust reptoids and
insectoids.  Not to mention the totally human-looking blond beauties
and black-headed, black-robed clan with the widow's peak hairline.

     No, too many researchers seem to find a theory and cling to it in
spite of data that contradict it.  And it is the ideas of these
researchers that dominate ufology.  But if the public had access to
the raw data, to the first-hand reports of abductees, especially those
unfamiliar with UFO-oriented books, magazines, and lecturers, they
would find a much less neatly organized set of patterns.  These
"virgin" cases--people uncontaminated by ufological literature--supply
a staggering picture of human-alien contact events.

     What follows here is an overview of these "virgin" reports, a
list of recurrent experiences that taken together gives us a close-up
view of what the aliens are doing here on earth.  This data doesn't
tell us for certain just what sort of creatures the aliens are, or
what their purpose here may be.  But it does tell us what humans are
experiencing and what they are observing in the actions and
capabilities of the aliens.  Every detail in the following list has
been reported by more than one abductee, and in many cases the details
have turned up quite frequently.

ABDUCTION "CHECKLIST".

     If these reports can be believed--and there is no reason to doubt
the honesty of the reporters--the abduction phenomenon includes the
following details.

     --   Aliens can alter our perception of our surroundings.

     --   Aliens can control what we think we see.  They can appear to
us in any number of guises, and shapes.

     --   Aliens can take us--our consciousness--out of our physical
bodies, disable our control of our bodies, install one of their own
entities, and use our bodies as vehicles for their own activities
before returning our consciousness to our bodies.

     --   Aliens can be present with us in an invisible state and can
make themselves only partially visible.

     --   Abductees receive marks on their bodies other than the well-
known scoops and straight-line scars.  These other marks include
single punctures, multiple punctures, large bruises, three- and four-
fingered claw marks, and triangles of every possible sort.

     --   Females abductees often suffer serious gynecological
problems after their alien encounters, and sometimes these problems
lead to cysts, tumors, cancer of the breasts and uterus, and to
hysterectomies.

     --   Aliens take body fluids from our necks, spines, blood veins,
joints such as knees and wrists, and other places.  They also inject
unknown fluids into various parts of our bodies.

     --   A surprising number of abductees suffer from serious
illnesses they didn't have before their encounters.  These have led to
surgery, debilitation, and even death from causes the doctors can't
identify.

     --   Some abductees experience a degeneration of their mental,
social, and spiritual well-being.  Excessive behavior frequently
erupts, such as drug abuse, alcoholism, overeating, and promiscuity.
Strange obsessions develop and cause the disruption of normal life and
the destruction of personal relationships.

     --   Aliens show a great interest in adult sexuality, child
sexuality, and in inflicting physical pain on abductees.

     --   Abductees recall being instructed and trained by aliens.
This training may be in the form of verbal or telepathic lessons,
slide shows, or actual hands-on instruction in the operation of alien
technology.

     --   Abductees report being taken to facilities in which they
encounter not only aliens but also normal-looking humans, sometimes in
military uniforms, working with the alien captors.

     --   Abductees often encounter more than one sort of alien during
an experience, not just the grays.  Every possible combination of
gray, reptoid, insectoid, blond, and widow's peak have been seen
during single abductions, aboard the same craft or in the same
facility.

     --   Abductees--"virgin" cases--report being taken to underground
facilities where they see grotesque hybrid creatures, nurseries of
hybrid humanoid fetuses, and vats of colored liquid filled with parts
of human bodies.

     --   Abductees report seeing other humans in these facilities
being drained of blood, being mutilated, flayed, and dismembered, and
being stacked, lifeless, like cords of wood. Some abductees have been
threatened that they, too, will end up in this condition if they don't
cooperate with their alien captors.

     --   Aliens come into homes and temporarily remove young
children, leaving their distraught parents paralyzed and helpless.  In
cases where a parent has been able to protest, the aliens insist that
"The children belong to us."

     --   Aliens have forced their human abductees to have sexual
intercourse with aliens and even with other abductees while groups of
aliens observe these performances.  In such encounters, the aliens
have sometimes disguised themselves in order to gain the cooperation
of the abductee, appearing in such forms as Jesus, the Pope, certain
celebrities, and even the dead spouses of the abductees.

     --   Children abductees sometimes show a new and obsessive
interest in their own genitalia after alien encounters, saying that
their abductors who come at night have been touching these parts of
their bodies.

     --   Aliens perform extremely painful experiments or procedures
on abductees, saying that these acts are necessary but giving no
explanation why.  Abductees' eyes are painfully removed from the
sockets, allowing the aliens to scrape the area or implant devices
into the area before the eyeballs are replaced, for instance.  Some
abductees are subjected to painful constrictions, often around the
head, chest and extremities. Painful genitalia and anal probes are
performed, on children as well as adults.

     --   Aliens make predictions of an imminent period of global
chaos and destruction.  They say that a certain number of humans- -and
the number varies dramatically from case to case--will be "rescued"
from the planet in order to continue the species, either on another
planet or back on earth after the destruction is over.  Many abductees
report that they don't believe their alien captors and foresee instead
a much more sinister use of the "rescued" humans.

     In every instance from this list, there are multiple reports from
unrelated cases, confirming that such bizarre details are not the
product of a single deranged mind.  These details are convincing
evidence that, contrary to the claims of many UFO researchers, the
abduction experience isn't limited to a uniform pattern of events.
This phenomenon simply can't be explained in terms of cross-breeding
experiments or scientific research into the human physiology.

SPIRITUALLY ENLIGHTENED?

     And it becomes clear from these details that the beings who are
doing such things can't be seen as spiritually enlightened, with the
best interest of the human race in mind.  Something else is going on,
something far more painful and frightening, in many, many abduction
encounters.

     There is a theory current in ufological research that says
abductees who perceive their experiences in a negative way only do so
because they themselves aren't spiritually or psychically advanced.
Persons with higher cosmic development have positive alien encounters,
so the theory goes, and those who have painful or frightening
experiences are merely spiritual Neanderthals. This is a pet theory of
researchers who claim that aliens, whether objectively real or not,
serve as "mirrors" of our spiritual nature, on an individual or a
species-wide basis. Strieber has voiced this theory, for instance, in
Majestic, where he says, "In the eyes of the others [the aliens], we
who met them saw ourselves.  And there were demons there."

     Having worked with so many decent, honest, positively oriented
abductees, however, I believe this theory is wrong.  It is worse than
wrong--it is despicable, as despicable as blaming a rape victim for
the violence committed against her.  This attitude leaves many
abductees feeling doubly violated, first by the aliens who took them
and then by the UFO researchers to whom they turn for explanations and
help.

     But it is easy to understand why such a theory would be so
popular. Humans have a deep need to believe in the power of good.  We
need for the aliens to be a good force, since we feel so helpless in
their presence.  And we need for some superior force to offer us a
hope of salvation, both personally and globally, when we consider the
sorry state of the world.

     I think the aliens know this about us--they know that we want and
hope for them to be benevolent creatures--and they use our desire for
goodness to manipulate us.  What better way to gain our cooperation
than to tell us that the things they are doing are for our own good?
But looking at the actions, the results of alien interference such as
the long list above.  There is a great discrepancy between what we
desire from them and what they are doing to us.

     Not all abduction reports are filled with frightening or painful
events, of course.  Many people say that their alien encounters felt
benevolent, that their abductors treated them kindly or at least with
a scientific detachment.  Some abductees recall being told that they
were "special," that they were "chosen," and that they have an
important task to perform for the benefit of humanity.

     Given such a positive message, the abductees may ignore the fear
and the pain of their encounters and insist to themselves and to
others that a higher motive underlies the abduction experience.  And,
in some cases, all that an abductee remembers is a benevolent
encounter and so has no reason to assume any negative action has
occurred.

     But intensive research shows that at the core of the human- alien
interaction there is a clear pattern of deception.  We know, for
instance, that "screen memories" are often used to mask an alien
abduction.  Such accounts abound, in which a person sees a familiar
yet out-of-place animal, like a deer or owl, a monkey or a rabbit, and
then experiences a period of missing time.  The person often awakens
later to find a new, unexplained scar on his body.

     Uneasiness about the encounter will persist, however, and far
different memories may start to surface in dreams or flashbacks, and
then the person seeks help to explain the uneasiness.  Quite often,
hypnotic regression is used to uncover the events behind the "screen
memory," and that is when a typical alien abduction surfaces.

     The most recent research in which I've been involved has turned
up yet a second sort of screening process.  If it turns out to be
accurate, then thousands of abduction cases are in urgent need of re-
examination.

     The typical scenario of undergoing the regressive hypnosis
usually results in penetration of the initial blocked memories.

     The abductee then recalls an encounter, hitherto unremembered,
such as undergoing a physical examination of some sort, perhaps having
body tissues removed or having a gynecological exam.  Other typical
reports include the taking of sperm and ova, of being told of an
important task to be carried out, or of receiving a warning of
upcoming disaster.

     And in most cases, both the abductee and the investigator come
away from the hypnosis session feeling that they have discovered the
truth about the experience.  Rationalization leads them to believe
that the aliens' purposes must be scientifically objective or
benevolent.  The less threatening and more benevolent the hypnotically
recalled event seems, the more satisfied are the investigator and the
abductee.  "That wasn't so bad, now, was it?  These beings are our
friends, or at least they are not our enemies."  And everyone goes
away with a sense of relief.  I have yet to hear of a researcher who
actually questions the uncovered scenario.

     But from several recent cases, it is apparent that these
recovered memories may well also be yet another screen, masking events
that are much more reprehensible.  I will explain one such case, to
make the point clear.


A STRANGE REPORT.

     A man in his late 40's came to us to explore several alien-
related events in his life, and in the interview he told of a strange,
although not apparently alien-oriented, episode that had haunted him
since childhood.  When he was ten years old, his grandmother came to
visit in his home, and since the house was small, she shared his bed
on the first night of her visit.

     During the night, the boy was awakened by a loud male voice. He
couldn't understand what the voice was saying, but it sounded angry
and was addressing the grandmother lying beside him.

     The next morning, he asked his grandmother, "What was that voice
in the bedroom last night?"

     His grandmother, with tears in her eyes, pulled him tightly to
her and said, "That was the devil."  She said nothing more about the
episode, but she did insist that her son take her back to her own home
immediately.  It was an unreasonable request, and her son tried to
talk her out of it.  But the grandmother was adamant, and finally her
son agreed to take her home the following day.

     The entire family made the trip of over a hundred miles back to
the grandmother's farm, and within an hour of their arrival, the
grandmother suffered a massive stroke and died.  Ever since that
event, the man had felt a heavy burden of guilt associated with his
grandmother's death. Yet there was no conscious reason for him to have
felt that way.  The entire event was poignant and mystifying, but in
all the alien encounters he had subsequently undergone, he had felt
that the aliens were his friends and were helping him by expanding his
psychic abilities.

     A regression session was arranged, and in the course of the
hypnosis, he was asked to look at that childhood experience. What he
recalled was an abduction in which he and his grandmother were taken
to a spacecraft in the company of reptilian aliens. He remembered the
aliens telling his grandmother that they were interested in learning
about her knowledge of medicinal herbs.

     And they offered to exchange medical information of their own.

     They gave the boy and the grandmother a liquid to drink,
explaining that it was beneficial and would make the grandmother feel
young and attractive again.  So both of them drank the liquid, and the
man remembered seeing his grandmother indeed looking much younger.
That was the extent of his recollection.

     Both he and Ms. Bartholic, who was conducting the regression,
were puzzled by this, because there was nothing in the episode to
account for the guilt he had felt about the grandmother's death.  So
Ms. Bartholic deepened the man's trance level and asked him to look at
it again, with much clearer vision.  And what he then recalled was
much more disturbing.

     The abduction, at first, followed his initial recollection. But
when the liquid was drunk, he now remembered a very strong feeling of
change in his body.  And he saw that the grandmother didn't actually
look younger.  Instead, she was placed on a table and approached by
one of the reptilian aliens who wanted to have intercourse with her.
The liquid had acted as an aphrodisiac, yet the grandmother resisted
and said that since her husband's death she would not have sex with
anyone. The reptilian laughed and disappeared from the room
momentarily.  When he returned, he was accompanied by a man who looked
exactly like the dead husband.

     At this point, the grandmother agreed to have sex, but as the act
was in progress, she suddenly realized that the image of her dead
husband was a cruel illusion.  It was actually the reptilian on top of
her, and she cried out in great resistance for him to leave her alone.
Once he was finished with her, he lifted up the little boy and placed
him on top of the grandmother, forcing another sex act upon the both
of them.

     Then the grandmother was removed from the table and the little
boy was victimized himself by the reptilian, forced to have anal and
oral sex.  The grandmother protested violently, pushing the reptilian
away from her grandson and interposing her body between them.  "By
Jesus," she shouted, "you will not touch this boy!"

     That must have been the wrong thing to say, because the reptilian
became very angry and threatened her.  "You will die for that!" he
told her, and the two people were returned to the bedroom from which
they'd been taken.  The next morning, the grandmother told the little
boy that the devil had been there the night before, and that was when
she insisted upon being taken home.  And, as it turned out, she did
die immediately thereafter.

     This, then, was the cause of the man's lifelong sense of guilt
about her death.  He had been forced to have sex with her, and her
death had followed shortly after.  But none of this story would have
emerged if Ms. Bartholic had done as most investigators do and stopped
the regression after uncovering the story about the exchange of
medicinal knowledge.

     There are other cases in our files that show a similar deception
at work in the initial hypnotic recall.  We cannot trust that first
memory, it is clear, for like so much else in the abduction
experience, there may well be further maskings of events.

     Before we allow ourselves to believe in the benevolence of the
alien interaction, we should ask, do enlightened beings need to use
the cover of night to perform good deeds?  Do they need to paralyze us
and render us helpless to resist?  Do angels need to steal our
fetuses?  Do they need to manipulate our children's genitals and probe
our rectums? Are fear, pain and deception consistent with high
spiritual motives?