Date: Sat Nov 20 1993 00:58:00 Subj: Comment/Correction, Dr. Baker ABDUCT - (Mutual UFO Ne

Date:   Sat Nov 20 1993  00:58:00
From:   John Powell
Subj:   Comment/Correction, Dr. Baker
ABDUCT                         -------------------------------

From: Letters to The Mufon UFO Journal

(Mutual UFO Network UFO Journal, Number 306, October 1993, Copyright
1993 by the Mutual UFO Network, 103 Oldtowne Rd., Sequin, Texas 78155,
published monthly with a membership/subscription rate of $25/yr.)

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY

        Regarding John Carpenter's "Abduction Notes" in the August 1993
Journal: When one is maligned in print and accused of offenses one did
not commit or had no part of, or when words are put in one's mouth that
he did not utter, or when statements made over the telephone to a
reporter are garbled in the time interval between utterance and
publication with no opportunity for perusal or clarification - one has
no choice but to try to set the record straight.

        In reference to the statement attributed to me by reporter
Huznik in the USA Weekend Report, it went in correctly but came out
confused. What I intended to say or did say (which was garbled), or what
I meant to say was simply that "It is possible for two people in the
same situation at the same time, for example a haunted house, who are
exposed to the same environmental situation and who have the same set of
expectations (about ghosts, for example), when exposed to the same
stimulation (a flash of light from a passing car) to report they saw a
'ghost'.  When the true believers then discuss and compare their
experience reinforcement and confirmation is the only predictable
outcome."

        Concerning my professional background and training and
experience with hypnotic regressions and as a "clinical or direct
practice psychologist" - all Carpenter had to do was to call or write
me. Instead he made it appear that I have had no experience of any sort
"in the real world." In my 40 years of applied psychological practice I
have worked as a clinical psychologist for 4 years, forensic
psychologist for 8 years, industrial psychologist for 8 years, and
military applied psychologist for 16 years. I have been an American
Psychological Association Fellow for the last 25 years and a member of
the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis for many years and have
carried out research on hypnotic regression and progression, memory,
memory distortion, confabulation, hallucinatory phenomena and delusions
over the past 20 years. Moreover, in the process of doing this research
on hypnosis and memory I have "hypnotized" well over a thousand
individuals and have studied their fantasies and imaginative productions
such as "past lives," "future lives," "early memories," "false
memories," "delusions and hallucinations."

        In the course of these investigations I have encountered a
number of clients who imagined: 1) they were living on another planet in
a distant galaxy; 2) they were being pursued by an invisible demon who
would only show himself whenever they attempted sexual intercourse; 3)
they could control any and all electrical devices via mind power alone;
4) they were the reincarnation of their own grandmother on their
father's side; and 5) they personally had been empowered by God to
control the course of floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. Interestingly
enough, none of these individuals were so deranged or disturbed that
they were in need of either hospitalization or medication. They all were
fully capable of holding their jobs, interacting successfully with
others, caring for themselves and their needs, and they were in no way
dangerous to themselves or others.

        Mr. Carpenter may find this hard to believe, but over the past
decade and since the publication of Strieber's Communion I actually did,
honest to God, encounter six, repeat six, perfectly normal but deluded
individuals who recalled, after so-called "hypnosis," memories strangely
like those that have been widely reported in the media as "alien
abductions." Two of these individuals suffered sleep paralysis with the
accompanying familiar hypnopompic hallucinations; two others gave
reports that were based on their extensive readings of the UFO
literature, and as for the other two, one had persistent hypnogogic
dreams of alien visitations and interviews with the alien on the cover
of Streiber's book, and the last one suffered from insomnia brought on
by the fear that if she did, indeed, fall asleep she would be abducted
and raped by alien monsters. All six of these clients were assured that
no abductions took place, that the human imagination and normal sleep
and memory processes can prove to be very deceptive, that they were in
no way crazy or insane, and that they had nothing whatsoever to fear.
None of the six continue to believe their fantasies and delusions and
hallucinations were or are veridical.

        Other stories of this sort any interested reader can find in my
two books, _They Call It Hypnosis_ (Prometheus, 1990) and _Hidden
Memories (Prometheus, 1992). In closing, I would like to encourage Mr.
Carpenter and other therapists to be very skeptical of stories they are
told by clients who fall into the category known as The Eccentric
Personality (Schizotypical Personality Disorder). These people hold
strong beliefs that resemble the delusions seen in schizophrenia, but
they are otherwise completely rational and have none of the cognitive
deficits or other problems of the truly psychotic. Their fatntasies
should not, however, be believed.

                                             -- Robert A. Baker, Ph. D.
                                                     Professor Emeritus
                                               Department of Psychology
                                                 University of Kentucky