The Application of Hypnosis to Alien Abduction Investigations by Sean F. Meers

[kruggutter]

To all members and guests of the Paracast UFO forum,

Earlier this year I was asked by a member of the British National Council for Hypnotherapy (National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH))
to write an article for their journal about hypnosis and its application to alien abduction research.

I was very impressed with their interest and open-mindedness about the subject of alien abductions and I took them up on their unique
opportunity to write an article for their journal.

My article is titled "The Application of Hypnosis to Alien Abduction Investigations". It first appeared in the Winter 2016 edition of British
National Council for Hypnotherapy's Journal The Hypnotherapy Journal (Page 20 - 26, Issue 8 Volume 16).

The article covers the hypnosis training of Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs. It also cites legal and clinical cases where details elicited for
the first time under hypnosis were able to be independently verified. Thus firmly cementing the potential accuracy of hypnotically retrieved
memories.

The article is available to read online at the link below:

The Application of Hypnosis to Alien Abduction Investigations

The journal copy of the article is available for download in pdf format at the link below:

http://www.lindacortilecase.com/uploads/3/4/2/0/34208873/journal_article.pdf

The alternate format copy I posted at the Linda Cortile Case website is available for download at the link below:

http://www.lindacortilecase.com/uploads/3/4/2/0/34208873/tahtaa.pdf

I hope you find the article of interest.

Sincerely,

Sean F. Meers

www.lindacortilecase.com

 

[mike]

I've always been fascinated by the use of Forensic Hypnosis in many applications including this genre.

I remember one judge rejecting evidence from a witness who had been subject to hypnotic recall stating “There’s nothing more unreliable than an eyewitness, never mind one who is tainted by hocus-pocus.” One the other hand, I recall another judge who was fascinated by the process and readily accepted the witness evidence, particularly because the information obtained under hypnosis was corroborated by other facts. As in all types of evidence, the key is reliability.
In order to ensure that solid forensic hypnosis used in the investigation of a crime is not devalued, it’s become standard and vital operating procedure that all hypnosis sessions are recorded on video and audio and that the session is witnessed by independent observers. In addition, to further strengthen the case, the hypnosis must be performed by a trained forensic hypnotist.

- See more at: FORENSIC HYPNOSIS FOR MEMORY ENHANCEMENT

 

[kruggutter]

I've always been fascinated by the use of Forensic Hypnosis in many applications including this genre.

Me too. I especially like the incredible role hypnosis has played over the years in certain clinical and legal cases.

 

[Randall]

To all members and guests of the Paracast UFO forum,

Earlier this year I was asked by a member of the British National Council for Hypnotherapy (National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH))
to write an article for their journal about hypnosis and its application to alien abduction research.

I was very impressed with their interest and open-mindedness about the subject of alien abductions and I took them up on their unique
opportunity to write an article for their journal.

My article is titled "The Application of Hypnosis to Alien Abduction Investigations". It first appeared in the Winter 2016 edition of British
National Council for Hypnotherapy's Journal The Hypnotherapy Journal (Page 20 - 26, Issue 8 Volume 16).

The article covers the hypnosis training of Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs. It also cites legal and clinical cases where details elicited for
the first time under hypnosis were able to be independently verified. Thus firmly cementing the potential accuracy of hypnotically retrieved
memories.

The article is available to read online at the link below:

The Application of Hypnosis to Alien Abduction Investigations

The journal copy of the article is available for download in pdf format at the link below:

http://www.lindacortilecase.com/uploads/3/4/2/0/34208873/journal_article.pdf

The alternate format copy I posted at the Linda Cortile Case website is available for download at the link below:

http://www.lindacortilecase.com/uploads/3/4/2/0/34208873/tahtaa.pdf

I hope you find the article of interest.

Sincerely,

Sean F. Meers

www.lindacortilecase.com

Thanks for bringing us that. Like it says:

"Hypnotically retrieved memories can be accurate and they can be inaccurate, just as they can be reliable or unreliable. Their veracity can only be determined by independent verification."
​

That pretty much sums it up.

 

[kruggutter]

Thanks for bringing us that. Like it says:

"Hypnotically retrieved memories can be accurate and they can be inaccurate, just as they can be reliable or unreliable. Their veracity can only be determined by independent verification."
​

That pretty much sums it up.

Very true. Just like normal memories.

 

[Randall]

Very true. Just like normal memories.

Not sure what you mean by "normal memories" but I would suggest that if by "normal" you mean memories that result from fully conscious unimpaired experiences, then I would say that the likelihood of "normal" memories being accurate is substantially greater than memories that have been repressed or forgotten. I'll see if I can dig up some independent studies and post them later.

 

[kruggutter]

Not sure what you mean by "normal memories" but I would suggest that if by "normal" you mean memories that result from fully conscious unimpaired experiences, then I would say that the likelihood of "normal" memories being accurate is substantially greater than memories that have been repressed or forgotten. I'll see if I can dig up some independent studies and post them later.

I think my position would be any and all memories need to be independently verified, be they consciously accessible or inaccessible.

 

[mike]

Its just my personal opinion, but given its proven positive contribution to law enforcement and the judicial process, I consider forensic hypnosis a valid tool in the UFO genre.
Like any component in a case, It needs to be tested and validated. but certainly not discarded outright as some would do.

 

[kruggutter]

My sentiments exactly, Mike.

 

[Randall]

Its just my personal opinion, but given its proven positive contribution to law enforcement and the judicial process, I consider forensic hypnosis a valid tool in the UFO genre.
Like any component in a case, It needs to be tested and validated. but certainly not discarded outright as some would do.

And it has also been shown in law enforcement and the judicial process that false memories have caused serious problems: False memories of sexual abuse lead to terrible miscarriages of justice | Chris French

It seems logical to me that there would be a general qualitative difference between recalling memories stemming from unimpaired fully conscious experiences and hypnotically reconstructed ( or possibly simply constructed ) memory, especially when altered to begin with in order to repress it. Failing to take this into consideration can give the false impression that both types of evidence are of equal value. http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2279&context=law_lawreview

Under the right circumstances however, other experiments claim that accuracy can be improved: An investigation into the influence of hypnosis on the confidence and accuracy of eyewitness recall - Kebbell - 1997 - Contemporary Hypnosis - Wiley Online Library.

Therefore my position on the issue is that information gained from hypnotic recall should be granted lower confidence than clearly remembered unhampered experiences of unimpaired people. In accordance with this thinking USI suggests a confidence rating based on the degree of correlation between recollection and objective reality, with assisted recall and fair correlation rating right in the middle:

USI Mnemonic Rating

 

[mike]

The judicial process gets all sorts of evidence wrong all the time, Its not something you could ever solely base a case on.

But there is no getting around some of the times it has worked

Forensic Hypnosis has been used in famous cases around the world. Two of the most famous cases are the Chowchilla case and Rock vs. Arkansas although it has been used in the Ted Bundy case and the Scott Peterson case as well. Its use has been upheld by the US Supreme court.

In the Chowchilla case (California) a bus driver, Ed Ray and 26 students were kidnapped and buried alive. The bus driver and some of the students managed to dig their way out of the grave to safety. Ed Ray was hypnotized to recall the suspect's van license plate number as he saw the license plate number when the van was in front of the bus. Ed Ray remembered all but one of the characters on the license plate, which helped the police capture and convict the suspects. This is one of the most famous cases ever where forensic hypnosis was used successfully. There was even a movie made regarding this case.

Chowchilla bus kidnap: Survivors of 1976 bus kidnapping speak out about their enduring memories as their captor is freed | Daily Mail Online

 

[Randall]

The judicial process gets all sorts of evidence wrong all the time, Its not something you could ever solely base a case on.

But there is no getting around some of the times it has worked

Forensic Hypnosis has been used in famous cases around the world. Two of the most famous cases are the Chowchilla case and Rock vs. Arkansas although it has been used in the Ted Bundy case and the Scott Peterson case as well. Its use has been upheld by the US Supreme court.

In the Chowchilla case (California) a bus driver, Ed Ray and 26 students were kidnapped and buried alive. The bus driver and some of the students managed to dig their way out of the grave to safety. Ed Ray was hypnotized to recall the suspect's van license plate number as he saw the license plate number when the van was in front of the bus. Ed Ray remembered all but one of the characters on the license plate, which helped the police capture and convict the suspects. This is one of the most famous cases ever where forensic hypnosis was used successfully. There was even a movie made regarding this case.

Chowchilla bus kidnap: Survivors of 1976 bus kidnapping speak out about their enduring memories as their captor is freed | Daily Mail Online

Sure, That's why it wouldn't be fair to dismiss assisted recall entirely, and I imagine the variables in each case would also make a difference. It's just that compared to consciously committing information to memory, hypnosis seems relatively unreliable. Then again, maybe that's why some of the students who were notorious for sleeping through class somehow managed to pass anyway ... lol.

 

[mike]

I agree, And the fact that the SCOTUS has upheld it's use is why i can't dismiss it outright.

It's worth noting that Hypnosis has been used for the treatment of Psychogenic amnesia

Psychogenic amnesia, or dissociative amnesia, is a memory disorder characterized by sudden retrograde autobiographical memory loss, said to occur for a period of time ranging from hours to years.[1] More recently, "dissociative amnesia" has been defined as a dissociative disorder "characterized by retrospectively reported memory gaps. These gaps involve an inability to recall personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature."[2] In a change from the DSM-IV to the DSM-5, dissociative fugue is now subsumed under dissociative amnesia.[3]

The atypical clinical syndrome of the memory disorder (as opposed to organic amnesia) is that a person with psychogenic amnesia is profoundly unable to remember personal information about themselves; there is a lack of conscious self-knowledge which affects even simple self-knowledge

Treatment:

Hypnosis was also popular as a means for gaining information from people about their past experiences, but like 'truth' drugs really only served to lower the threshold of suggestibility so that the patient would speak easily but not necessarily truthfully

In that context i can't rule out the possibility that it may be of value in alleged AP cases where the memory may have been suppressed by some mechanism like Hypnosis itself or something similar.

If some external mechanism has been employed to tamper with conscious memory, It may be that another mechanism may be effective in reversing the effect.

What Is Dissociative Fugue?

But again, it must be noted the risk of creating false memory's are indicated.

Clinical hypnosis: This is a treatment method that uses intense relaxation, concentration, and focused attention to achieve an altered state of consciousness (awareness), allowing people to explore thoughts, feelings, and memories they might have hidden from their conscious minds. The use of hypnosis for treating dissociative disorders is controversial due to the risk of creating false memories.

But it is my limited understanding the risk of creating false memory's can be mitigated if the correct protocols are employed.

 

[Waller]

I think my position would be any and all memories need to be independently verified, be they consciously accessible or inaccessible.

Memories?

There is no such thing as a 'memory', all things, everything, all parallel lives exist Here and Now.

What you call a memory is nothing more than accessing information that already exists. To assist in our physical irreality, we have the illusions of time and space. It's both the time and the space to get rid of old ideas and thoughts, paradigms and beliefs. The concept of 'memory' is one of them.

Or not. Exist in the physical dream you prefer.

 

[marduk]

Memories?

There is no such thing as a 'memory', all things, everything, all parallel lives exist Here and Now.

What you call a memory is nothing more than accessing information that already exists. To assist in our physical irreality, we have the illusions of time and space. It's both the time and the space to get rid of old ideas and thoughts, paradigms and beliefs. The concept of 'memory' is one of them.

Or not. Exist in the physical dream you prefer.

Lol.

 

[marduk]

Thanks for bringing us that. Like it says:

"Hypnotically retrieved memories can be accurate and they can be inaccurate, just as they can be reliable or unreliable. Their veracity can only be determined by independent verification."
​

That pretty much sums it up.

Not quite.

Results reveal that hypnotically responsive Ss showed enhanced performance during hypnosis, whereas nonresponsive Ss did not.

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1984-22357-001

In other words, hypnosis can aid in memory recall if the subject is responsive to hypnosis.

It can also inject memories that weren't there to begin with:

False memories are constructed by combining actual memories with the content of suggestions received from others. During the process, individuals may forget the source of the information. This is a classic example of source confusion, in which the content and the source become dissociated.
Of course, because we can implant false childhood memories in some individuals in no way implies that all memories that arise after suggestion are necessarily false. Put another way, although experimental work on the creation of false memories may raise doubt about the validity of long-buried memories, such as repeated trauma, it in no way disproves them. Without corroboration, there is little that can be done to help even the most experienced evaluator to differentiate true memories from ones that were suggestively planted.

Creating False Memories

And that's the problem.

If I were asked to write an article about using hypnosis in abduction cases, it would be one word: Don't.

 

[Randall]

Not quite ...

Well, actually that quote was directly from the summary of the paper that was the subject of the discussion to begin with, so as opposed to "Not quite." It's more like, "Exact quote" ... lol. But your point is still well taken, and the summation does say that results can swing both ways, and both of your points were touched on earlier in the discussion as well, so I'd say we're pretty much on the same page. Offhanded dismissal of all assisted recall certainly isn't reasonable, especially if there are normal unobstructed memories that are part of the story, and even better if there's some sort of independent corroboration.

 

[marduk]

Well, actually that quote was directly from the summary of the paper that was the subject of the discussion to begin with, so as opposed to "Not quite." It's more like, "Exact quote" ... lol. But your point is still well taken, and the summation does say that results can swing both ways, and both of your points were touched on earlier in the discussion as well, so I'd say we're pretty much on the same page. Offhanded dismissal of all assisted recall certainly isn't reasonable, especially if there are normal unobstructed memories that are part of the story, and even better if there's some sort of independent corroboration.

Sorry, my bad. What I meant to be saying not quite to was the bit about independent verification.

Because for some details -- remembering licence plates, etc, hypnosis can actually be very useful. For detailed stuff.

There's a difference between details you can't recall in events you know happened and events you can't recall at all was what I was clumsily trying to get at.

 

[DROBNJAK]

Here it is, FBI has an active mobile team of about 60 officers specially trained and certified to do use forensic hypnosis:

NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service
The Handbook of Forensic Psychology

It has been used to obtain evidence in bank robbery, serial rape, church bombing cases etc. Obviously, this is not good enough for UFO abduction cases.

 

[marduk]

Here it is, FBI has an active mobile team of about 60 officers specially trained and certified to do use forensic hypnosis:

NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service
The Handbook of Forensic Psychology

It has been used to obtain evidence in bank robbery, serial rape, church bombing cases etc. Obviously, this is not good enough for UFO abduction cases.

And none of it I suspect is considered evidence.
From the referenced page:

THE FBI POLICY STATES THAT HYPNOSIS CAN BE USED ONLY IN SELECT CASES, SUCH AS A BANK ROBBERY WHERE FORCE OR A LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY IS INVOLVED; KIDNAPING, EXTORTION, AND CRIMES OF VIOLENCE WHICH OCCUR WHERE THE FBI HAS JURISDICTION. ONLY KEY WITNESSES OR CRIME VICTIMS CAN BE HYPNOTIZED. NO AGENT MAY PARTICIPATE IN A HYPNOTIC INTERVIEW WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE CRIMINAL DIVISION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW MUST ALSO BE RECORDED, PREFERABLY WITH VIDEOTAPE. THE GUIDELINES SPECIFY THAT A QUALIFIED HEALTH PROFESSIONAL, SUCH AS A PSYCHIATRIST, PSYCHOLOGIST, OR DENTIST, SHOULD BE USED AS HYPNOTIST. THE FBI ALSO HAS 60 TRAINED AGENTS WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SETTING UP HYPNOSIS SESSIONS AND WHO COORDINATE FBI AND HEALTH PROFESSIONAL NEEDS. TO OFFSET THE PROBLEM OF LEADING WITNESSES WHO ARE IN A SUGGESTIBLE HYPNOTIC CONDITION, THE HEALTH PROFESSIONAL EXPLAINS THE NATURE OF HYPNOSIS, SOME MISCONCEPTIONS, AND WHAT WILL HAPPEN DURING THE SESSION. WITNESS PROBLEMS THAT MIGHT PRECLUDE HYPNOSIS ARE EXPLORED BEFORE STARTING. QUESTIONS ARE ASKED BASED ONLY ON WHAT THE WITNESS HAS REMEMBERED. DURING THE SECOND PHASE, THE WITNESS IS ASKED TO RELAX AND TRY TO REMEMBER AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE ABOUT THE INCIDENT. THIS PHASE, WHEN REPEATED, BECOMES THE ACTUAL INDUCTION. THE TIME INVOLVED IS USUALLY 1-3 HOURS. ALTHOUGH THE FBI DOES NOT INTEND HYPNOSIS TO REPLACE NORMAL INVESTIGATIVE PROCEDURES USE OF HYPNOSIS CAN SAVE MANPOWER IN INVESTIGATIONS AND MIGHT HELP REDUCE STRESS AMONG AGENTS INVOLVED IN UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS OR OTHER CRITICAL ACTIVITIES. A COORDINATOR CHECKLIST AND FOOTNOTES ARE INCLUDED. (AOP)

Bolding is mine, but I find it very interesting. It looks like they use it to fill in detail about something they know happened to begin with, and not a mysterious something.