John Mack - Hypnosis and "alien abduction" research
In this clip from footage I shot of the press conference at the 2001 MUFON Symposium in Irvine, California, Dr. John Mack answers a question about the efficacy of using hypnosis for "alien abduction" research.
I wonder if this debate around hypnosis is actually more evidence of our greater discomfort with what we still don't understand about our reality. Being a therapist, and knowing what hypnosis looks like, I'm fairly certain the level of concern isn't warranted here. It's not that complicated. The whole topic seems to have been souped-up, warped and mythologized to create the drama needed for a reaction in this niche media marketplace. The deeper themes around the growing distrust of hypnosis as a research tool, however, seems to be following a deeper thread of distrust of the subjective experience. The 1st person narrative. Whatever the reason, this trend doesn't seem to be limited to the observations around anomalous events. It's a pattern running amuck in our culture. The same thought as a tagline might read, "We no longer trust the human voice." And we seem to keep sticking ourselves into tighter and tighter corners with these types of conversations, first with the suspicions of hypnotically-derived memory content, then all of it, then the public incriminations of those choosing to use hypnosis in their work. And now more recently, in our collective glomming onto new research that further trumpets the fallibility of waking memory in the recollection of short and long term events. Why does progress represent the cultivation of progressively deeper degrees of distrust of the human experience for us? Perhaps what these events do create are opportunities for us to address what we're missing in our zeal to capture some ultimate hidden truth - a place for ourselves within these mysteries! If so, this would be a perfect example of missing the evidence right in front of our nose.
I think that the debate around hypnosis is about the fact that it is known to lead to the creation of false memories.
I have published audio files from my hypnosis session with Dr. David Jacobs which clearly show him leading me to create false memories.
I myself am an experiencer, and I believe there is a real phenomenon that we still do not understand. I have no problem with that. In fact, I wish that the phenomenon was studied properly.
Jeremy Vaeni and Jeff Ritzmann who helped expose Dr. Jacobs' misuse of hypnosis are also experiencers. I do not believe that they have any issues to do with the actual phenomenon.
At the end of the day. hypnosis is known to cause false memories.
Hypnotic false memories of sexual abuse and satanic ritual abuse, and false diagnoses of MPD, have destroyed people's lives. False memories of alien abductions have caused unnecessary trauma in people.
I think that Ufology needs to catch up with the rest of the world, and stop using hypnosis for "memory" recall. Perhaps then, we can find research tools that further our knowledge of the phenomenon, and that do not harm people in the process.
2 comments:
I wonder if this debate around hypnosis is actually more evidence of our greater discomfort with what we still don't understand about our reality. Being a therapist, and knowing what hypnosis looks like, I'm fairly certain the level of concern isn't warranted here. It's not that complicated. The whole topic seems to have been souped-up, warped and mythologized to create the drama needed for a reaction in this niche media marketplace. The deeper themes around the growing distrust of hypnosis as a research tool, however, seems to be following a deeper thread of distrust of the subjective experience. The 1st person narrative. Whatever the reason, this trend doesn't seem to be limited to the observations around anomalous events. It's a pattern running amuck in our culture. The same thought as a tagline might read, "We no longer trust the human voice." And we seem to keep sticking ourselves into tighter and tighter corners with these types of conversations, first with the suspicions of hypnotically-derived memory content, then all of it, then the public incriminations of those choosing to use hypnosis in their work. And now more recently, in our collective glomming onto new research that further trumpets the fallibility of waking memory in the recollection of short and long term events. Why does progress represent the cultivation of progressively deeper degrees of distrust of the human experience for us? Perhaps what these events do create are opportunities for us to address what we're missing in our zeal to capture some ultimate hidden truth - a place for ourselves within these mysteries! If so, this would be a perfect example of missing the evidence right in front of our nose.
I think that the debate around hypnosis is about the fact that it is known to lead to the creation of false memories.
I have published audio files from my hypnosis session with Dr. David Jacobs which clearly show him leading me to create false memories.
I myself am an experiencer, and I believe there is a real phenomenon that we still do not understand. I have no problem with that. In fact, I wish that the phenomenon was studied properly.
Jeremy Vaeni and Jeff Ritzmann who helped expose Dr. Jacobs' misuse of hypnosis are also experiencers. I do not believe that they have any issues to do with the actual phenomenon.
At the end of the day. hypnosis is known to cause false memories.
Hypnotic false memories of sexual abuse and satanic ritual abuse, and false diagnoses of MPD, have destroyed people's lives. False memories of alien abductions have caused unnecessary trauma in people.
I think that Ufology needs to catch up with the rest of the world, and stop using hypnosis for "memory" recall. Perhaps then, we can find research tools that further our knowledge of the phenomenon, and that do not harm people in the process.
Post a Comment