Date:   Sat Apr 30 1994  09:26:00
From:   John Powell
Subj:   Baker Comment - Spanos Study, 1/3
ABDUCT                         -------------------------------

Thanks to John Stepkowski for this article.
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>Magazine: Skeptical Inquirer
>Issue: Spring 1994 (Vol. 18 No. 3)
>Title: Studying the Psychology of the UFO Experience
>Author: Robert A. Baker

Empirical studies of people alleged to have had UFO experiences are
hard to come by because of the relative rarity of such claimants, the
shortage of interested and scientifically trained investigators, and
the esoteric nature of the subject matter.  A new study by Nicholas
P. Spanos and colleagues in the Carleton University Department of
Psychology in Ottawa, Canada, is noteworthy in that it has managed to
overcome these obstacles ("Close Encounters: An Examination of UFO
Experiences," by Nicholas P. Spanos, Patricia A. Cross, Kirby
Dickson, and Susan C. Dubereuil, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102
(4): 624-632, 1993).  This study is significant, in my opinion,
because it shows that the earlier explanatory accounts accounts of
this phenomenon are somewhat flawed and it also points to the most
probable or "true" explanation for these curious reports.

    Recognizing at the outset that claims of alien encounters and
alien abductions are a social- psychological rather than a material
or physical problem, Spanos et al.  sought to test two general
hypotheses.  The first is that people making such claims are
psychologically of psychosocially disturbed, i.e., pathological.  The
second argues that these people have strong imaginative powers and
are "fantasy prone," i.e., people who are easily hypnotized and who
weave elaborate fantasies around internal sensations and external
suggestions and then are convinced that the fantasies are "real."

    Using 176 adults, one group of 49 UFO reporters recruited through
newspaper ads and two comparison groups -- one of 53 community
volunteers and another of 74 university students -- the psychologists
gave the three groups a series of psychological tests and
questionnaires.  Subjects in the UFO group also received an hour-long
semistructred interview and were asked about their UFO experiences
and their beliefs.  The interviews were scored by independent judges
and were rated for the emotional intensity and subjective reality of
the UFO encounter.

    The psychological measures used are all standard, valid, and
reliable.  Well-accepted measurements were used to determine
psychopathology, intelligence, social and emotional adjustment,
cognitive ability, and fantasy proneness.

    In analyzing the results, the UFO reporters were divided into two
groups: those who simply saw lights in the sky and scored very low on
the belief intensity dimension and those who scored much higher on
the emotional and reality scales.  All four groups were then
compared: 31 UFO-intense subjects; 18 UFO-nonintense subjects; 18
UFO-nonintense subjects; 53 community adults; and 74 students.
Differences between the groups on each of the test battery variables
were analyzed with a series of one-way analyses of variance.

    Both UFO groups held significantly more exotic beliefs than
subjects in comparison groups, and they also attained higher scores
on five of the psychological health variables.  In short, the
findings provide no support whatsoever for the hypothesis that UFO
reporters are psychologically pathological.  Regarding the "fantasy"
hypothesis, no group differences were found on the temporal lobe
lability scale, on the three imaginal propensity measures, and on
three indexes of hypnotizablilty--all recognized measures of fantasy
proneness.  There were, however, major differences between the
intense and nonintense UFO groups with regard to whether or not their
experiences were sleep related.  UFO-intense subjects reported that
their experiences were sleep related significantly more often than
did the nonintense subjects.  Only one subject in the nonintense
group said his experience was related to falling asleep, dreaming, or
waking up; 58 percent of the intense subjects described their
experiences as sleep related.

    In their discussion, the authors interpret their findings as
failing to confirm either the psychopatholgy or fantasy-prone
hypothesis about UFO close-encounter experiences.  Not only were the
UFO groups as mentally healthy as the controls but the UFO groups
were no different from the controls on any of the imaginal propensity
measures.  The finding that did most clearly differentiate the UFO
and comparison groups was belief in UFOs (as alien spacecraft) and in
the reality of alien life-forms.  The authors also suggest that many
of the UFO subjects believed in alien existence long before having
any UFO experiences.  In their own words: (p.  631):

    Our findings suggest that intense UFO experiences are more likely
    to occur in individuals who are disposed to esoteric beliefs in
    general and alien beliefs in particular and who interpret unusual
    sensory and imaginal experiences in terms of the alien
    hypothesis.  Among UFO believers, those with stronger
    propensities toward fantasy production were particularly likely
    to be generated and interpreted as real events rather than
    imaginings when they were associated with restricted sensory
    environments that contributed to confusion between internally
    produced images and sensations and external events (e.g.,
    experiences that occurred at night and in association with
    sleep).

The authors also caution that to understand the elaborate and often
bizarre reports of those in the intense group it is important to note
that most of these reports (60 percent) were sleep related.  Although
some were merely dreams of UFOs and aliens, the sleep-related UFO
experiences involving paralysis were also usually accompanied by
visual or auditory hallucinations, or both, and sometimes by the
sense of a presence that was somehow felt but not seen.

        Baker (1992), in an unpublished but widely distributed paper,
"Alien Abductions or Human Productions: Some Not So Unusual Personal
Experiences," has also called attention to the striking similarity
between reports of alien abductions (as chronicled by clients of
Hopkins [1987], Jacobs [1992], and Mack [1992], as well as Whitley
Strieber, regarding his own abduction claim in Communion) and the
medical reports from people having sleep paralysis with hypnagogic
and hypnopompic hallucinations (Rehm 1991: Segal 1992).  For all
practical purposes, the two sets of reports are identical.  A
comparison of UFO-abduction reports and the medical reports of sleep
paralysis with accompanying hypnagogic and hypnopomic hallucinations
show the two to differ only in the hallucinatory content.  Ghosts and
demons dominate the medical, historical, and folklore narrations;
UFOs and aliens appear in modern reports.  Explorations for other
psychological manifestations alleged to accompany the abduction
scenario are also provided in the Baker report.

        While the Spanos et al.  study adds significantly to our
understanding of the personality characteristics of those individuals
reporting UFO encounters and who believe in the extraterrestrial
hypothesis (which is, after all, the crux of the matter), it should
not be forgotten that people claiming abductions by aliens are
relatively few in number.  This is certainly the case in the Spanos
study.  Most importantly, the Spanos study outcome must not under any
circumstances be construed as providing aid and comfort to these
believers in either the extraterrestrial hypothesis or the
credibility of alien abductions.  This has, unfortunately, already
happened in several instances where the media have left the
impression that if those who believe in UFOs and alien abduction are
neither "crazy" nor "fantasy prone" then their beliefs in
extraterrestrial visitations have been validated.

        The major importance of this study is that it shifts attention
from the false leads of pathology and neurological aberrations to the
true path of false beliefs that are engendered by a common but little
recognized type of sleep disorder.

        The fact that UFO contacts and abductees are not pathological is,
however, not surprising to experienced anomalistic psychologists, who
have long been aware that delusions, i.e., false beliefs, are common
coin and in no way are indicative of pathology.  Unless our delusions
interfere with our social and personal adjustment or are so pervasive
as to endanger our lives and the lives of others, they are usually
ignored.  Often these false beliefs may serve to help us keep our
mental balance and even cope with life's stresses and strains, as in
the case of our religions.  Many noted and distinguished
psychiatrists also hold to what most scientifically trained people
would consider to be false beliefs.  Raymond Moody, in his latest
book, Reunion (1993), says he converses frequently with visions of
his dead relatives.  M. Scott Peck believes in demon possession as
the true explanation for many multiple personality disorders (1983,
1984) and Colin Ross believes that most skilled athletes have and use
psychokinetic powers (1989).  According to the December 27, 1993,
_Time_ magazine, 69 percent of the American public believe in the
existence of angels and 46 percent believe they have their own
guardian angel.  One person's conviction and reality are another
person's fantasy and delusion.  Some people believe they have been
abducted by aliens.  Most of do not.

        It is also important for the public to realize that people who
are pathological or "crazy" are not "crazy" all over or "crazy" all
the time.  We are only "crazy" in spots and only on occasion, not
continuously.  Psychiatric diagnosis is not an easy task, as the
_Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders_, the famous
Rosenhan study (1973), and the difficulties of dealing with
factitious disorders (Feldman and Ford 1994) attest.  In this regard
the Spanos et al.  conclusion, that "among UFO believers, those with
strong propensities toward fantasy production were particularly
likely to generate such experiences" (p.  631), again calls attention
to the important role that imagination and fantasy play in the
production of alien-contact and alien-abduction reports.  A similar
conclusion was also reached by Ring and Rosing (1990) in their survey
of people reporting UFO encounters and abductions.

	Although the two studies are somewhat familiar in intent and 
design, the Spanos et al. study is by far the superior one and sticks
to the mundane three-dimensional world of cold, hard reality rather 
than soaring off into alternate realities and universes to account for
a very worldly human experience based upon beliefs in alien visitation.
These beliefs, say the authors, "serve as templates against which people
shape ambiguous external information, diffuse physical sensations, 
_and vivid imaginations_ [emphasis added [by Baker]] into alien encounters
that are experienced as real events" (p. 631).  Of the experimental and
empirical studies we have of this particular problem, the Spano et al.
study is the best thus far.