Anaheim 1977

Some people are prone to being hypnotised and some people aren't ...

Some Are More Susceptible To Hypnosis ....

... why that should be the case, isn't really understood but studies are under way to see if it can be identified.

Also what happens in the brain when people are apparently hypnotised isn't truly understood, but psychiatry does claim to understand the general characteristics of hypnosis - perhaps broadly defined as being a relaxed trance like state, characterized by extreme suggestibility, and heightened imagination. The hypnotic subject is mentally alert the whole time, but in some studies (not all), electroencephalographs (EEGs) from subjects under hypnosis, showed a boost in the lower frequency waves associated with dreaming and sleep, and a drop in the higher frequency waves associated with full wakefulness ... however this is not confirmed by all studies.

The hypnotised person is able to exclude most of the external stimuli around them, and concentrate solely on the question being asked or subject discussed. Under hypnosis, the suggestions of the hypnotist, or their own ideas, are treated as if they were reality by the subject. This, combined with lowered inhibitions, is why the hypnotists in stage shows can get people to do stupid things, like believe that they are turning into chickens etc. 

Some practitioners even claim that hypnosis can help subjects to achieve past life regression, unearthing memories from their previous lives. It is also commonly used on people who claim to have been taken by aliens .... but some researchers say that hypnosis can be very effective in inducing false memories and then convincing the individuals of the truthfulness of these fictitious recollections.

It is these claims that created the Anaheim experiment in 1977. Eight young students (both men and women), who had shown susceptibility to being hypnotised, were taken to Anaheim University Hospital by a group running an experiment on UFO's, particularly close encounters of the third (UFO encounters in which an alien entity is present e.g Alien pilots), and fourth kind (a human claims abduction by a UFO or its occupants). None of the eight had previously consciously ever claimed any UFO experiences prior to the experiment.

Under hypnosis however, they all produced 'memories' of UFO's under the questions. Their answers included recollections of

• Aliens using breathing apparatus.
• Trails of smoke being exuded from the back of UFO's.
• Samples of their bodily fluids being taken by aliens.

 

These recovered memories were consistent amongst the group, and with the wider public reports of abductions by our alien overlords.

 

Now the point of this was, that as the students had never actually ever been abducted by aliens, and even if one had a suppressed memory of such an event, the chances that all eight had as well is highly unlikely in the extreme. So how had they all described very similar events in the imagined close encounter, if not because they were all taking their cues from their shared cultural background ideas about such and event?

 

This was backed the fact that the eight all had one thing in common, they had all been tested and picked because they were "creative, verbal types." So when hypnotised, they had been encouraged to describe a non-existent UFO experience. They had all answered and described the events in such convincing terms, that had the interviewers been Ufologists/UFO believers, then they would likely have recorded the events as being credible descriptions of third or fourth kind encounters, and therefore likely 'the real thing'. See the Barney and Betty Hill claims.  

Now various interpretations have been made of the experiments results. The most obvious being from Alien UFO sceptics, who point out that it appears that given the right cues under hypnosis, the subjects were able to use our cultural backgrounds (Star Trek, old movies etc), to construct in their answers a fully coherent UFO event, that although it never happened, the subjects could be made to believe had really happened, and potentially convince others that it had as well. 

So the question is, does the same apply to those who reconstruct past lives, or even those who recall crimes under hypnosis. Are the 'memories' created being simply cued by the questioners, rather than being real? To my sceptical eyes the answer is very possibly yes (if not necessarily crime recollections which may be conducted more carefully). In earlier ages, these same people would have been asked about religion, or life after death, ghost encounters etc, and I suspect with much the same results.

So for instance, asking eight Victorians under hypnosis about a fictitious ghost encounter, and there would very likely be a commonality about the answers and the characterisations of a ghost encounter, that would match closely with descriptions given by others who had claimed and reported real ghost encounter. 

Of course no one will ever pay for such experiments, but to my mind, Anaheim 1977 is just another spanner in the works for the whole idea of alien UFO's.