Alien Abduction Research Articles

Psychophysiological responding during script-driven imagery in people reporting abduction by space aliens.

Is recollection of highly improbable traumatic experiences accompanied by psychophysiological responses indicative of intense emotion? To investigate this issue, we measured heart rate, skin conductance, and left lateral frontalis electromyographic responses in individuals who reported having been abducted by space aliens. Recordings of these participants were made during script-driven imagery of their reported alien encounters and of other stressful, positive, and neutral experiences they reported. We also measured the psychophysiological responses of control participants while they heard the scripts of the abductees. We predicted that if "memories" of alien abduction function like highly stressful memories, then psychophysiological reactivity to the abduction and stressful scripts would be greater than reactivity to the positive and neutral scripts, and this effect would be more pronounced among abductees than among control participants. Contrast analyses confirmed this prediction for all three physiological measures (ps < .05). Therefore, belief that one has been traumatized may generate emotional responses similar to those provoked by recollection of trauma (e.g., combat).

Alien Abduction: Disruption of Native Plant‐Pollinator Interactions by Invasive Species

ABSTRACTThe indirect impacts of Shorea siamensis‐logging on the reproductive ecology of Dipterocarpus obtusifolius, a self‐incompatible butterfly‐, moth‐, and bird‐pollinated tree, were studied in tropical dry forest in Thailand. Pollinator activity at D. obtusifolius trees and subsequent seed production were recorded in three forest areas subject to differing intensities of S. siamensis extraction. The pollinator and plant understory communities in these areas were also noted. Forest areas subject to high S. siamensis extraction intensities had very high understory flowering plant cover, dominated by the exotic invader Chromolaena odorata. Activity of butterfly pollinators at D. obtusifolius trees decreased in these disturbed areas, although their abundance remained comparable to other forest areas subject to only moderate or no extraction. For sphingid moth pollinators, there was no difference across differentially disturbed forest areas in either abundance or in the proportion bearing pollen. Pollinator activity by birds increased at highly disturbed locations but was not sufficient to offset a decline in overall pollinator activity at D. obtusifolius canopies in areas of heavy 5. siamensis extraction. Thus, extraction of S. siamensis indirectly affected the pollination of D. obtusifolius, primarily by causing changes in the foraging behavior of butterfly pollinators rather than their abundance. A shift in the relative abundance of floral nectar resources from the canopy to the understory, a consequence of 5. siamensis extraction and invasion by C. odorata, led to a parallel shift in foraging location of the principal diurnal pollinators, the butterflies, toward the understory. Despite reduced pollination at disturbed sites, behavioral changes did not translate into a D. obtusifolius seed set effect, possibly because pollination by birds (or moths) at the disturbed site compensated for reduced butterfly pollination.

Magic, mystery, and science: the occult in Western civilization

Introduction 1. Egyptians and the Occult 2. Magic and Miracles 3. Numerology, the Cabala, and Alchemy 4. Astrology: The Starry Heavens Above 5. Ancient Evil 6. Satans, Demons, and Jinn 7. Witches and Witch-hunts in the West 8. Spirits, Science, and Pseudoscience in the 19th Century 9. New Age Preludes: Up the Garden Path? 10. ESP and Psi Phenomena 11. Nazism and Ancestral German Memories 12. UFO and Alien Abductions 13. Gnosticism, Old and New 14. NDEs, New Age, and New Physics

Alien Abduction: Disruption of Native Plant-Pollinator Interactions by Invasive Species1

ABSTRACT The indirect impacts of Shorea siamensis-logging on the reproductive ecology of Dipterocarpus obtusifolius, a self- incompatible butterfly-, moth-, and bird-pollinated tree, were studied in tropical dry forest in Thailand. Pollinator activity at D. obtusifolius trees and subsequent seed production were recorded in three forest areas subject to differing intensities of S. siamensis extraction. The pollinator and plant understory communities in these areas were also noted. Forest areas subject to high S. siamensis extraction intensities had very high understory flowering plant cover, dominated by the exotic invader Chromolaena odorata. Activity of butterfly pollinators at D. obtusifolius trees decreased in these disturbed areas, although their abundance remained comparable to other forest areas subject to only moderate or no extraction. For sphingid moth pollinators, there was no difference across differentially disturbed forest areas in either abundance or in the proportion bearing pollen. Pollina...

Review of Alterations of Consciousness: An Empirical Analysis for Social Scientists.

IMANTS BARUSS Alterations of Consciousness: Empirical Analysis for Social Scientists Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2003, 290 pages (ISBN 1-55798-993-1, US$39.95 Hardcover) The author's purpose is to review, as a potential undergraduate text for courses on consciousness, the experimental and phenomenological research on alterations of consciousness, ranging from sleep and dreaming to mystical and near-death experience. There is also a clear agenda announced by the book's subtitle, An Empirical Analysis for Social Scientists. In the view of Baruss, all too often in states of consciousness research a preoccupation with theory has kept investigators from full engagement with the actual data. It is important for scientists...to learn to rely on the data rather than their predilections, and to go wherever the evidence leads them (p. 234) - an incontestable statement in itself. The book, along with the edited review of this literature by Cardena, Lynn, and Krippner, Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence. (2000), also published by the American Psychological Association, and on which Baruss rests much of his discussion, is part of current efforts to re-integrate states of consciousness research with mainstream academic psychology - and perhaps vice versa. This tendency is also reflected in recent multidisciplinary attempts at a more general science of consciousness per se, integrating neuroscience, cognition, phenomenology, artificial intelligence, anthropology, and philosophy, and reflected in journals such as Journal of Consciousness Studies and Consciousness and Cognition and a plethora of conferences and published conference proceedings. Consistent with the author's stated intentions, Alterations of Consciousness provides readable and at times appropriately controversial discussions of empirical literature on dreaming and lucid dreams, daydreaming and fantasy proneness, hypnosis, dissociative identity disorder, shamanism and possession states, psychedelic drug research, parapsychology, trance-chanelling and mediumship, the alien abduction syndrome, classical mystical experience, out-of-body and near-death experiences, and recent attempts by MacDonald and others to assess individual differences in spirituality through multifactor questionnaires. Certainly an undergraduate following this as a course text will be in for a fascinating and thought-provoking ride - each chapter closing with open-ended questions ostensibly left to the reader as to the potential understanding of findings in terms of materialism versus transcendentalism, delusion versus reality, psychopathology versus positive development, etc. As with much in life, however, the strength of the book, its stated empiricism, is also its weakness - and this twice over. First, the breadth of coverage of both recent and past research is too often highly selective. For instance, discussions of experimental research on parapsychology present lengthy accounts of gan/feld and dream telepathy/precognition studies, and, while mentioning methodological critiques in passing, do not state what they might be. The chapter on dream research makes no mention of Solms' widely discussed neurological findings that brings the neuroscience of dreaming back in line with more psychodynamic and holistic cognitive approaches. One would never know of neoFreudian modifications of Freud's original psychoanalytic model of dreaming that have rendered it more open to empirical research. jungian approaches to a possible archetypal basis of dreaming are discussed, but with no mention of the empirical literature on an archetypal-mythological style of dreaming and its cognitive and personality correlates. In an apparent effort to warn against current excesses of MDMA usage (Ecstasy), and in contrast to the more balanced account of LSD research, no mention is made of the original development of MDMA as an empathogen in psychotherapy, nor of empirical studies supporting such a connection. …

Fugitives from Guilt: Postmodern De-Moralization and the New Hysterias

In Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (1997), Elaine Showalter explores range of conditions—chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple personality disorder, recovered memory, satanic ritual abuse, alien abduction, Gulf War syn- drome—that she views as modern forms of hysteria as distinct from the old conversion and anxiety hysterias characteristic of the last fin-de-siecle and associated with the names of Charcot, Janet, Breuer, and Freud. Against the widespread claim that hysteria is thing of the past, having disappeared due to the rise of feminism or level of psychological sophistication incompatible with the forma- tion of hysterical symptoms (except perhaps among culturally backward populations), Showalter argues that, on the con- trary, far from having died, hysteria is alive and well in the form of the psychological plagues or epidemics of imaginary ill- nesses and hypnotically induced pseudomemories that char- acterize today's cultural narratives of hysteria (4-5). Although she provides rich description of the new hysterias—the hystories or hysterical stories of chronic fa- tigue, alien abduction, etc.—Showalter does not pretend to offer depth-psychological account of the psychodynamics underlying these conditions beyond identifying the role of suggestion on the part of physicians and the media in their creation and dissemination. Her definition of hysteria as a An earlier version of this paper, written with the assistance of Naomi Gold, was presented at scientific meeting of the Toronto Society For Contemporary Psycho- analysis, October 2000; and to the Group for the Applications of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, February 2002. The present version, presented at the scientific meetings of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, Vancouver, June 2002, has been substantially revised in collaboration with Jean Hantman Carveth, who also supplied illustrative clinical material.

Dealing with Astrology, UFOs, and Faces on Other Worlds: A Guide to Addressing Astronomical Pseudoscience in the Classroom

Increasing media and student interest in pseudoscience topics such as alien abductions, crop circles, and creationism is forcing astronomy instructors to confront questions for which their graduate training has not prepared them. Yet students have a right to hear a more considered response to their questions in these areas than mere scoffing from those who teach them science. To assist instructors who want to help their students develop better critical thinking skills related to astronomical pseudoscience, a range of ideas and resources is listed in this guide.

Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Paranoia in Postwar America (review)

If asked to reduce Peter Knight's edited collection to an implied coherence, one might say that it boils down to a conversation with Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) and, by extension, Jean-François Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (1984). Organized into four sections—"Theories of Conspiracy Theory" (chapters 1 through 3), which challenges some popular academic theories of conspiracy, "Alien Nation" (chapters 4 and 5), which analyzes alien abduction narratives, "The Enemy Within" (chapters 6 through 8), which focuses on internal conspiracies and elements of popular culture, and "The Ends of Conspiracy" (chapters 9 through 11), which examines the positive potentials of conspiracy as a theoretical and narrative idiom—almost every author attempts to articulate the relationship between the conspiratorial imagination and postmodernity. Understood as either a gradual globalism and post-Fordist stage of trans/multinational capitalism on the one hand, or as a radical break from modernity in terms of an "incredulity toward metanarratives" on the other (Lyotard, xxiv), almost every chapter situates the postmodern condition as a bewildering experience that is best captured by the concept of paranoia.

The Tabloids and “B” Movies Finally Got It Right: Alien Abductions and Man-Eating Tomatoes Are Old News

The Tabloids and “B” Movies Finally Got It Right: Alien Abductions and Man-Eating Tomatoes Are Old News

Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex and the Crisis of Belief

On September 20, 1587, Walpurga Hausmannin of Dillingen southern Germany was burned at the stake as a witch. Although she had confessed to committing a long list of maleficia (deeds of harmful magic), including killing 41 infants and two mothers labour, her evil career allegedly began with just one heinous act - sex with a demon. Fornication with demons was a major theme of her trial record, which detailed an almost continuous orgy of sexual excess with her diabolical paramour Federlin in many diverse places ...even the street by night. As Walter Stephens demonstrates Demon Lovers, it was not Hausmannin or other so-called witches who were obsessive about sex with demons - instead, a number of devout Christians, including trained theologians, displayed an uncanny preoccupation with the topic during the centuries of the witch craze. Why? To find out, Stephens conducts a detailed investigation of the first and most influential treatises on witchcraft (written between 1430 and 1530), including the infamous Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches). Far from being credulous fools or mindless misogynists, early writers on witchcraft emerge Stephens's account as rational but reluctant skeptics, trying desperately to resolve contradictions Christian thought on God, spirits and sacraments that had bedeviled theologians for centuries. Proof of the physical existence of demons - for instance, through evidence of their intercourse with mortal witches - would provide strong evidence for the reality of the supernatural, the truth of the Bible, and the existence of God. Early modern witchcraft theory reflected a crisis of belief - a crisis that continues to be expressed today popular debates over angels, Satanic ritual child abuse and alien abduction.

Aliens and Indians: A Comparison of Abduction and Captivity Narratives

Stories of captivity among North American Indians dating from the 17th century in many ways parallel the more recent narratives of alien abduction. Telling a story inevitably involves elements of selection, and in both Indian captivity narratives and alien abduction narratives the elements included are often analogous. They share a number of common structures, conventions, themes, and images. I will begin by outlining the origin and some of the salient features of Indian captivity and the alien abduction phenomenon. Next, some explicit compar- isons will be drawn between the narratives of Indian captivity and alien abduction. Finally, some interpretations of these similarities are suggested.

Alien abduction experiences: Some clues from neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry

Introduction. Many thousands of people around the world firmly believe that they have been abducted by alien beings and taken on board spaceships where they have been subjected to painful medical examination. Method. Given that such accounts are almost certainly untrue, four areas of neuroscience are considered with respect to possible clues that may lead towards a fuller understanding of the alien abduction experience. Results. First, it is argued that sleep paralysis may be implicated in many such claims. Second, research into false memories is considered. It is argued that abductees may be more prone to false memories than the general population. Third, evidence is considered relating to the mental health of abductees. It is concluded that there is currently no convincing evidence for higher rates of serious psychopathology amongst abductees compared to the general population. However, abductees do seem to show higher levels on some potentially relevant measures (e.g., tendency to dissociate). Finally, claims that alien abduction experiences may be linked to abnormal activity in the temporal lobes is considered. Conclusion. Although the neurosciences provide many clues to the nature of this bizarre experience, further research is required before a full understanding will be attained.

One Point of View: Odds Are Stacked When Science Tries To Debate Pseudoscience

ONE POINT OF VIEW I vividly remember the first time I was hijacked on the radio. I had agreed to participate in a debate for a Florida radio program that specialized in alien visits and U.F.O. sightings. My better judgment suggested that I should be wary. But I thought if I kept my focus purely on the physics challenges involved in space travel, I might be able to persuade some listeners to be skeptical of the claims that aliens were regularly visiting, abducting and experimenting with our fellow earthlings. I should have known better, After 45 minutes defending myself against the claim that I was close-minded, when I argued that science did in fact impose constraints on what is possible, and politely responding to demands that I must first scrupulously review all the specific claims of alien sightings before I could possibly have the temerity to make general statements about plausibility or implausibility, I felt that any uninformed listeners who might have been waiting to be swayed probably found themselves merely confused at the end of the show. In a debate that confronts the results of science with pseudoscience, from alien abductions and crop circles on one hand to the health benefits of weak magnetic fields or young earth creationism on the other, the odds are stacked against science. Part of the problem is uniquely American. We in the United States are constantly regaled by stories about the limitless possibilities open to those with know-how and a spirit of enterprise. Combine that with a public that perceives the limits of science as targets that are constantly being overcome, and the suggestion that anything is absolutely impossible seems like an affront. Indeed, modern technology has made the seemingly impossible almost ordinary. How often have I heard the cry from an audience, Yeah, but 300 years ago people would have said it would be impossible to fly! Although true, the problem with that assertion is that 300 years ago people did not know enough about the laws of physics to make the assertion, so the claim would have been improper. Had they made a simpler claim like Three hundred years from now, if you drop this cannonball off the Tower of Pisa, it will fall down, they would have been right. Science Unfair: All Ideas Are Not Created Equal Although it is probably true that there is far more that we do not know about nature than we do know, we do know something! We know that balls, when dropped, fall down. We do know that the earth is round and not flat. We do know how electromagnetism works, and we do know that the earth is billions of years old, not thousands. We may not know how spacecraft of the future will be propelled, whether matter-antimatter drives will be built or even if time travel is possible. But we do know, absolutely, how much on-board fuel will be needed to speed up a substantial spacecraft to near the speed of light-an enormous amount, probably enough to power all of human civilization at the present time for perhaps a decade. That means that aliens who want to come here from a distant star will probably have to have some better reason than merely performing secret kinky experiments on the patients of a Harvard psychiatrist. As difficult as debating ultimate limits of the possible may be, there is another debate that is even harder to win. But it is a debate that may be even more important. It is a debate on the fairness of science. The reason for the difficulty is simple. Science is not fair. All ideas are not treated equally. Only those that have satisfied the test of experiment or can be tested by experiment have any currency. …

Erotic Dreams And Nightmares From Antiquity To The Present

The history of erotic dreams, nightmares, and erotic nightmares offers a valuable opportunity to study how such dreams tested Western ideas about the self, desire, and self‐control. Like Foucault, I find it more productive to analyse these dreams, and the struggles to introject them, as sites of self‐making rather than of repression. Erotic dreams and nightmares have been inflected by various historical strategies of self‐making, themselves produced by different regimes of knowledge such as Christian asceticism, medicine, or philosophy. Erotic nightmares still proliferate today in reports of alien abductions. A reason for this historical tenacity has been the ease with which the affective sensations of the erotic nightmare – terror and sexual arousal – have jumped between genres as various as monastic handbooks, medieval folk‐tales, gothic fiction, and personal dreams. This study demonstrates the importance of historical perspective for the ability to identify and understand culturally elaborated (‘culture‐bound’) syndromes.

Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens.

False memory creation was examined in people who reported having recovered memories of traumatic events that are unlikely to have occurred: abduction by space aliens. A variant of the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm (J. Deese. 1959; H. L. Roediger III & K. B. McDermott, 1995) was used to examine false recall and false recognition in 3 groups: people reporting recovered memories of alien abduction. people who believe they were abducted by aliens but have no memories, and people who deny having been abducted by aliens. Those reporting recovered and repressed memories of alien abduction were more prone than control participants to exhibit false recall and recognition. The groups did not differ in correct recall or recognition. Hypnotic suggestibility, depressive symptoms, and schizotypic features were significant predictors of false recall and false recognition.

Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live

Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live. By Bill Ellis. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2001. Pp. xv + 291, acknowledgments, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. $38.00 cloth). Bill Ellis has pulled together over twenty years of articles, conference papers, and thinking into a remarkably seamless, strong, coherent, and stimulating study of legend--examining definitions and approaches used in studying legends, investigating uses that people make of legends to comment on and understand what happens to them, and exploring ways in which legends shape and become part of experience. In the first section of the book, The of Legends, Ellis lays a good foundation for the whole, explaining (and questioning) folklore concepts and setting forth a history of theory (describing both an approach and problems with it) with a clarity that is satisfying for both the novice and the professional. Displaying a wide-ranging and thorough grasp of the material, he presents complex ideas with a truly clarifying simplicity. With particular attention to scientific models, he goes over well-known material and material less familiar or, at least, less well accepted, such as memetics, which he shows to encompass long-standing folklore ideas wrapped in new biological terminology. In the second section, Life as Legend, using the specific examples of vanishing hitchhikers, a ghost in a fast food restaurant, and experiences of alien abduction, Ellis explores the manner in which legends are used as culturally comprehensible and acceptable means of describing extraordinary phenomena. In the third section, Legend as Life, a study of various forms of ostensive behavior, he examines cases in which people's behavior and perceptions are affected by legend. Throughout the book, Ellis effectively presents legend as part of a complex communication system, responding to and influencing a whole set of socio-cultural factors both immediate and wider-spread. Maintaining a balance of specific examples and broader concepts, he makes good use of case studies and of actual texts (employing a variety of transcription techniques), both for making his point clear and for demonstrating an analytic approach. He does, however, give more attention to camp horror stories and personal experience narratives than one might expect in a book on legends, though in the former case he uses the genre to scrutinize the role of traditionality in legends, and in the latter he ties them back into discussion of how legend scholars and legend users handle the paranormal. …

The Death of Psychotherapy: From Freud to Alien Abductions

The Death of Psychotherapy: From Freud to Alien Abductions

Satanism: Psychiatric and Legal Views

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: Religion and EthicsFull AccessSatanism: Psychiatric and Legal ViewsMARVIN W. ACKLIN, PH.D., MARVIN W. ACKLINSearch for more papers by this author, PH.D., Honolulu, HawaiiPublished Online:1 Jun 2001https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.6.981AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail In an age of irremediable secularization (1), the mythical roots of the religious and psychopathological imagination are nowhere more obvious than in the phenomenon of satanism. Despite widespread skepticism about the continuing truth value of Christian mythology, the role and influence of the devil continues to be felt throughout contemporary society. A substantial psychopathological literature focused on satanism exists. The 1980s saw the proliferation of beliefs about satanic practices, including satanic ritual abuse. The reality of satanism and satanic ritual abuse has been vigorously debated. Some have described a moral crusade (or panic) against satanism. The attraction of Satan, in association with Gothic and other nihilistic beliefs, exercises a peculiarly powerful influence on alienated and rebellious adolescent males (2).Reflecting the pervasive influence of the occult and associated New Age philosophies, the general public continues to be mesmerized by satanism, ritual abuse (including satanic day-care centers, sexual debauchery, sacrificial murder, cannibalism, and infanticide), satanic influences in rock and roll music, and alien abduction. Some fully accept the authenticity of cult abuse. For example, one psychiatrist (3) noted that the methods employed by “pedophiles and sexual abusers” in ritual occult abuse produce “people with programmable multiple personalities.” Others point to the role of Fundamentalist religion, mass hysteria, use of hypnotically based memory recovery techniques, the role of the mass media (4), and repressed collective rage and fear in the social construction of satanic cult crime (5, 6). An extremely interesting document published by a special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Behavioral Science Unit (7) reported that in more than 12,000 investigated cases involving allegations of satanic ritual abuse, no evidence to support the accusations has ever been found.Satanism: Psychiatric and Legal Views, written by a psychiatrist and a legal scholar, provides a concise overview of myths, cults, and beliefs about the devil, placing the issues into cultural, historical, and psychopathological contexts. Chapter titles include: “Myths, Cults, and Culture,” “The Birth of the Devil,” “God Versus Satan,” “Children in Satanic Rituals,” “Juvenile Satanism,” “Satanism and Criminal Law,” “The Satanist as Criminal,” and “Psychiatric Views of Satanism.” The book is fascinating reading for those interested in the twisted recesses of the pathological and religious imagination. The authors maintain a middle-of-the-road, balanced perspective, elucidating the phenomena and their power but commenting on the psychiatric and legal aspects. The religious and psychopathological literature on satanism is reasonably well covered. The book should be of interest to those mental health professionals who remain interested in the sources and contents of deviant thought and belief. For those truly interested, however, the book is no substitute for, and should be supplemented by, works by academic researchers, ethnographers, and religious historians (8–12).By George B. Palermo, M.D., and Michele C. Del Re, J.D. Springfield, Ill., Charles C Thomas, 1999, 205 pp., $42.95; $29.95 (paper).

Extraterrestrial Beliefs and Experiences: An Application of the Theory of Reasoned Action

The authors expanded the applicability of I. Ajzen and M. Fishbein's (1980) theory of reasoned action by assessing the participants' beliefs, attitudes, and experiences related to sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and to alien abductions. The authors designed and administered a survey on UFO phenomena to 398 Canadian students. The survey contains items relating to each component of Ajzen and Fishbein's model, as well as scales that evaluate paranormal beliefs and social desirability. A majority of the sample believed in UFOs, although most had never seen one. However, only a minority believed in alien abductions–again, most without having had any reported experience. According to path analyses, UFO beliefs originated from societal forces rather than from personal experiences as the model would predict.

UFOs and abductions: challenging the borders of knowledge

The subject of this work is controversial, but its message is simple: the study of UFOs merits the serious attention of the intellectual establishment. Advocating credibility for this much-maligned field of research, historian David Jacobs and his coauthors highlight some of the key events, issues, themes and theories surrounding this elusive and complex subject. Whether interplanetary tourists, interlopers from a parallel universe, or mere misfirings in the brain, UFOs and aliens permeate popular culture. They have made the covers of Time, Life, and the New York Times Book Review; garnered CNN coverage; turned up on Larry King Live and other high-profile talk shows; attracted large audiences for TV's X-Files and Roswell, and for films like ET, Independence Day, Men in Black and Close Encounters of the Third Kind; and swamped the Internet with thousands of websites and discussion groups. Despite this pervasive presense, few scholars have been willing to study the perplexing phenomena behind these cultural signifiers. Wary of a field that seems tainted by suspect methods and outlandish theories, many have logically stayed away. The relative lack of academic participation, however, creates a vicious circle that prevents the development of standards that would attract greater academic participation and, thus, credibility and funding for the field. Meanwhile, the phenomenon, rather than fading from public awareness, continues to grow and evolve. In response, this volume provides a kind of primer for scholars, skeptics and others uneasy about investigating this field. Its authors examine the nature of UFO evidence; discuss the methodological debates; incorporate research from science, history, mythology and psychology; and highlight the reactions of the government and military from the Cold War to the present. It also brings together three bestselling authors - Jacobs, Budd Hopkins and Pulitzer Prize-winner John Mack - widely known for their writings on the highly controversial alien abduction phenomenon.