Do UFO Encounters Cause Trauma and Nightmares?

Term: Psychophysiological response: a measurable body reaction, such as heart rate or sweating, that accompanies an emotion.

Term: Script-driven imagery: a research method in which people hear or read a description of an experience while their body reactions are recorded.

Term: PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety condition that can follow a terrifying event.

Do UFO Encounters Cause Trauma and Nightmares?

Many people who report UFO or abduction encounters describe years of fear, nightmares, and anxiety, and their distress is real. A 2004 Harvard study found that people who said they had been abducted reacted physically to their abduction stories about as strongly as trauma patients react to theirs. The researchers concluded that this shows the power of belief. It does not prove the event happened.

The Harvard study

In 2004, psychologist Richard McNally and his colleagues studied people who reported abduction by aliens. They measured heart rate, skin conductance, and facial muscle activity while the participants listened to scripts of their experiences. The abductees reacted more strongly to their abduction scripts and to stressful scripts than to positive or neutral ones. Their responses were comparable to those of PTSD patients hearing scripts of real trauma.

What the researchers concluded

The authors wrote that believing you were traumatized can produce emotional responses similar to those produced by remembering a real trauma. They also cautioned that a body reaction cannot be taken as evidence that a memory is authentic. The study showed that the fear is real. It did not show what caused it.

The Travis Walton case

On November 5, 1975, Travis Walton, a member of a seven-man logging crew in Arizona, disappeared for five days after the crew reported a UFO. He reappeared confused and weak, and he described being taken aboard a craft. He reportedly suffered deep psychological trauma for years, and some crew members who saw the event were also affected. Walton has always stood by his account.

An older parallel

The Bible describes terror in the presence of a spirit. In Job 4:13 to 15, Eliphaz describes a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls on men. He says fear and trembling came upon him and that the hair of his flesh stood up when a spirit passed before his face. Some Christians compare this to modern abduction accounts. In the 1500s, Martin Luther wrote that the devil tormented him at night, waking him with fear, accusations, and despair. These accounts describe night-time terror. None of them says anything about lights or craft.

What is solid and what is not

The fear and stress are documented, and researchers have measured it. The cause is not established. It could be a real encounter, a frightening misperception, or a belief that grew over time. Fear, anxiety, and nightmares are among the nine effects I discuss in my book Disclosure: They Are Not Extraterrestrials. This post gives the evidence and its limits. Disclosure is available on Amazon. You can find more of my work at ckqbooks.com.

Sources

Richard J. McNally and colleagues, Psychophysiological Responding during Script-Driven Imagery in People Reporting Abduction by Space Aliens, Psychological Science (2004). Wikipedia and case files on the Travis Walton incident. Job 4:13 to 15 (King James Version).