What is an “alien abduction”? Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, Consciousness and the Future of Our Civilization
Joseph Burkes MD. 2020, updated 2024
Is it a purely physical act in which alien beings presumably fly their “craft” into our neighborhoods and paralyze us, while rendering our companions unconscious? Next, we’re supposedly whisked away to a faraway place, only to be returned hours later. Or is it a theater of the mind production in which non-humans, using tremendous psi abilities, co-create with us what is essentially a shared psychic event? If this second explanation is true some of the time, then perhaps many people go nowhere when “abducted.” They are, however, left with false memories that might convince some that their encounters are exclusively physical events. Or perhaps so called “abductions” are a combination of both mechanisms i.e., physical, and mental. If that were the case, then physical and psychic components could be mixed in such ways that it could be nearly impossible for us to sort things out.
Unless we address these questions, contact experiencers and researchers alike will forever be jumping to conclusions about these strange encounters. Thus, they might forever confound us.
From my own contact experiences as well as studying the alien abductionist literature, I have proposed that UAP associated non-human intelligences can psychically fabricate a strong form of what is called “virtual reality.” I call this particular mechanism a Virtual Experience of the Second Kind.
Based on the FREE Experiencer Survey’s reports of medical healings that Preston Dennett and I described in the compendium “Beyond UFOs”(Chapter Six) and considering the latest advances in terrestrial memory science, I am convinced that UAP intelligences can implant memories into the minds of experiencers. These recollections, like those generated during the “virtual reality” mentioned above, have created a variety of beliefs about UFOs that are likely based on such false recollections.
These proposed “virtual” mechanisms, if valid, undermine whatever confidence experiencers might have about their contact encounters. Nevertheless, UFO fans constantly debate what various types of beings “look like”, and what are the alleged “agendas” of different “races” from various star systems. This all might be comical if it weren’t in my view such an incredibly waste of human resources. In other words, we should always approach this topic with a sense of humility about the great uncertainties that Close Encounters confront us with.
The Virtual Experience Model that I propose here and described in an address to the 2019 MUFON International Symposium, is not likely to be a popular theory, at least in the short term. If Virtual Sightings using holographic technology are truly being staged (Virtual Experiences of the First Kind) then the Mutual UFO Network has been chasing non-material visual displays for over 50 years.
These are not happy prospects for those of us that are strongly attached to our beliefs about UFOs. Unfortunately, many people defend these beliefs as if they were their true identities. I am suggesting an alternative. Instead of identifying with beliefs, i.e. thought forms, I propose that we identify with the wakefulness that is consciousness itself, that which has no form. I believe this kind of realization is the spiritual development required, if we are to find our true place in what might turn out to be a multiverse.
Spiritual evolution requiring an expansion of human consciousness has practical considerations as well. Humanity is facing terrible times resulting from the consequences of global warming. Unless radical collective action is taken to limit the destructive effects of burning fossil fuels, hundreds of millions of us are likely to die prematurely from famine and wars triggered by environmental collapse. We need to create social movements that will succeed in limiting the destruction that we are currently bringing upon ourselves. Those that play a prominent role in organizing these campaigns (note I am not calling them “leaders”) will have to be spiritually evolved to the point where they will work for the benefit of humanity as a whole, not just themselves as individuals.
These are tall tasks that might seem impossible to accomplish given the enormous obstacles that we face for both personal and societal change. Nevertheless, I sense that a fierce determination is arising within the human spirit that will “make it so.” I feel that inspiration when I look into my grandson’s eyes. I know that many others in the future will take up this call to work for internal transformation and societal change.
Comments:
Reinerio Hernandez: Interesting that Kathleen Marden, Mary Rodwell and Barbara Lamb are no longer seeing abduction cases like they did in the 1990s and 2000s. Abduction cases are now very rare to these researchers who started off mainly working abduction cases. Most of their cases are now Consciousness based Contactee cases. What does this fact tell you?
Joseph Burkes MD: One of the points made by the authors of the controversial book “Abduction Enigma” is that the narratives generated by “abduction” researchers to a great extent reflect the belief system of the investigators involved. This is especially true when hypnosis is used to retrieve what are believed to be “suppressed memories.” Thus, the doom and gloom school of “researchers” like Hopkins and Jacobs consistently generated narratives of abuse by the alleged ETs. In contrast, Dr. Mack, who had an interest in the potentially transformative aspects of the contact experience, found that his witnesses viewed contact in a more positive light.
The essence of hypnosis is to place a subject in a highly suggestible state by a hypnotist that is viewed as an authority figure. If memories of contact are vague or fragmented, it is understandable that the subject will fill in the blanks to please the hypnotist. This can occur without the investigator deliberately leading the subject, although this undoubtedly occurs as well. When someone like Budd Hopkins, who had no professional training in academic peer review psychology programs, openly declares that his focus is on trauma, he will ensure that he gets narratives reflecting his bias.
Many of Hopkins’ subjects, according to the authors of “Abduction Enigma”, came from support groups in which abductees readily shared stories of abuse. New members thus were psychologically primed by these horrific tales. Not surprisingly they incorporated such negative material into the narratives generated under hypnosis.
As to why more positive accounts are being elicited by the above-mentioned researchers Mary Rodwell and Kathleen Martin, my guess is that as the result of contactees coming forward and sharing their positive stories of contact, there may have been a change in the views of investigators and thereby the accounts they generate become more positive.
This is clearly a very complex subject, unfortunately the UFO subculture in the past has been heavily invested in promoting a simplistic stereotype of marauding ETs physically abducting hapless victims. This approach sells books, screenplays for Hollywood movies, and tickets to lectures at UFO “Congresses.”
Reinerio Hernandez: Yes, Joseph I also agree with the viewpoint of the authors of “Abduction Enigma.” I believe that we were led like the Pied Piper down an imaginative path of a physicalist abduction. Many folks on this board have never read the many arguments that Jacques Vallee has clearly stated in his arguments against the physicalist abduction phenomenon. I take one step further and argue the Consciousness based components of our reality.
To read more on these topics, researcher Rey Hernandez has made available free of charge the multivolume anthology, “A Greater Reality.” My chapter with references can be read/ downloaded at:
To access the entire first two Volumes of “A Greater Reality” go to the Consciousness and Contact Research Institute’s site at:
