Date:   Mon May 30 1994  09:34:00
From:   Jim Doyle
Subj:   ABDUCTION MEMORIES
UFO                            -------------------------------

        To anyone interested in the use of hypnotic recall
        in abduction investigation, I am posting some interesting
        observations along with sources for further investigation
        if so inclined.

        No one yet knows exactly how human memory works in all its details,
        but the view of hypnotic recall as potentially highly fallible
        is also supported by clinical experience and experimental data.

        Milton Erickson called the vivid experiences under hypnosis
        'vivification,' and describes how a vivified image is experienced,
        regardless of whether remembered or constructed :

                "... They are subjectively experienced as external
                 events rather than as internal processes, with a
                 consequent endowment of them as reality experiences."

                "... They identified it with actual past experiences
                 and thus endowed it with a subjective validity."

                "... They 'created a reality' that permitted a responsive
                 functioning in accord with the demands of the experiment."
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        Are there identified physiological correlates for such vivid
        recollections or re-creations of past events ?  One controversial
        researcher, Michael Persinger, has written hundreds of articles
        on the subject of neurophysiological correlates of extraordinary
        experiences of all kinds.  He has reportedly reproduced something
        like ecstatic mystical states with the help of electromagnetic
        stimulation of the cortical temporal lobes of human subjects,
        and facilitated vivid imagery akin to UFO abduction experiences.
        He is not alone in the observation of what is sometimes known
        as 'clinical mysticism,' which is seen in some forms of temporal
        lobe epilepsy and in mechanical stimulation of areas of the temporal
        lobes, but he is somewhat unique in his repeatedly published
        insistence that all or virtually all unexplained pheonomena and
        seemingly false memories can be traced to electromagnetic effects
        on the brain.  For an article particularly pertinent to the issue
        of hypnotic recall, see :

        Persinger MA. Neuropsychological profiles of adults who report "sudden
        remembering" of early childhood memories: implications for claims of se
        abuse and alien visitation/abduction experiences. Perceptual & Motor
        Skills.  75(1):259-66, 1992 Aug.

        "Six adults, who had recently experienced sudden recall of preschool
        memories of sex abuse or alien abduction/visitation, were given complet
        neuropsychological assessments. All experiences "emerged" when hypnosis
        was utilized within a context of sex abuse or New Age religion and were
        followed by reduction in anxiety. As a group, these subjects displayed
        significant (T greater than 70) elevations of childhood imaginings,
        complex partial epileptic-like signs, and suggestibility.
        Neuropsychological data indicated right frontotemporal anomalies and
        reduced access to the right parietal lobe. MMPI profiles were normal.
        The results support the hypothesis that enhanced imagery due to tempora
        lobe lability within specific contexts can facilitate the creation of
        memories; they are strengthened further if there is also reduction in
        anxiety."   (Taken from an on-line abstract).

        If there is anything to this 'temporal lobe lability' hypothesis,
        it seems well worthwhile investigating its relationship to
        hypnotic suggestibility, and the hypothetical 'Fantasy Prone
        Personality' of Barber and Wilson.
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        As for recall under hypnosis, the experimental observation seems
        to be that the subject is uniquely motivated to remember details,
        but also uniquely capable of making up details and experiencing them as
        if they were remembered.

        In Lynn and Rhue's 1991 _Theories_of_Hypnosis_, Robert Nadon et al.
        discuss a representative example of experiments in eyewitness
        recall with the aid of hypnosis.   Subjects were shown a videotape
        of a mock armed robbery.  They were then asked to recall specific
        aspects 6 times :
                Twice immediately after seeing the film.
                Twice a week after seeing the film.
                Once during hypnosis.
                Once after hypnosis.

        The result was that high hypnotizability subjects (SHSS:C)
        recalled more cumulative items in hypnosis than they
        did just before hypnosis.  Low hypnotizability subjects
        did _not_ remember more during hypnosis.  This matches our
        expectation of hypermnesia, that hypnosis facilitates recall
        for good hypnotic subjects.

        Most interestingly, _both_ high and low hypnotizability subjects
        also made more cumulative _ERRORS_ during hypnosis than just
        before hypnosis, though the effect was stronger with
        highly hypnotizable subjects.

        One explanation of this kind of result from experiments
        is that the hypnotic context causes subjects to adopt a looser
        reporting criterion, and they are motivated to produce more
        information, containing both correct and incorrect (where
        there is no clear memory) details.  See Klatzky and Erdely,
        1985, "The response criterion problem in tests of hypnosis and
        memory," _International_Journal_of_Clinical_and_Experimental_
        Hypnosis_, 33, 246-257 for further discussion of this
        report criterion issue.
                                                         Jim


