Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 16:46:04 -0500
To: "Sensible And Nothing Else UFO Research Into Abductions":;
From: Joseph Polanik 
Subject: Dr John Mack and the Investigation of Abductions, 2/n
While researching the parallels between Out of Body Experiences,
OBEs, and Alien Abduction Experiences, AAEs, I came across an
interesting document written by legendary Out-of-Body
Experiencer, Bob Peterson, whose book, _Out-of-Body Experiences:
How to Have Them and What to Expect_, long available on-line, has
now been published by Hampton Roads Publishing.
The document is in three parts. The URL to the first part is:
http://www.winternet.com/~rsp/ufoobe1.html.
Each part links to the next.
Peterson's plan is simple. He will undertake a systematic
comparison between the OBE and the AAE. He uses a book by
researchers Gabbard and Twemlow, _With the Eyes of the Mind: An
Empirical Analysis of Out-of-Body States_, as his reference for
the common features of the OBE. He uses _Abductions_ by Dr John
Mack as his source of information on the common features of the
AAE.
Gabbard and Twemlow list 19 features that turn up time and again
in OBE reports and provide a figures for the frequency with which
that feature was reported in their sample.
     Number        Common Features of OBEs         %
     1.    Experience was more real than a dream  94
     2.    OBE Body similar to physical body      76
     3.    Same environment as physical body      62
     4.    Felt a sense of energy                 55
     5.    Wanted to return to body               54
     6.    Felt able to pass through objects      50
     7.    Felt vibrations in body                38
     8.    Part of awareness was still in body    37
     9.    Was aware of presence of beings        37
     10.   Heard noises in early stages           37
     11.   Experienced a change in time sense     33
     12.   Saw a brilliant white light            30
     13.   Felt the presence of guides or helpers 26
     14.   Dark tunnel with white light at end    26
     15.   Felt attached to phyical body          21
     16.   Felt able to touch objects             18
     17.   Felt that others were aware of them    14
     18.   Felt a sense of border or limit        14
     19.   Experienced panoramic vision           14
And, for each one of these features, Peterson cites cases where
Dr Mack's clients reported the same phenomenon in _Abductions_.
                          *  *  *
This analysis occupies the first two sections of the document. In
the third section, Peterson does the reverse analysis. He
abstracts a list of 16 features of the AAE from chapter 16 of
_Abductions_, where Dr Mack discusses this subject, and discusses
the extent to which the features of an AAE can be found in OBE
reports.
This is the list:
Number                Common Features of Alien Abductions:
1.  "Shift in consciousness"
2.  "Hum or other odd sound"
3.  "Appearance of a light for which no usual source can be found"
4.  "Sense of a presence or even the sight of one or more alien beings"
5.  "A strong vibratory sensation in the body"
6.  "Abductees are always sure that they are not dreaming or imagining"
7.  "Rather they experience that they have moved into another reality.
     This is a waking reality, but a different one."
8.  "Experiencer is taken by some force, often a beam of light or some
     other energy at the disposal of the alien beings."
9.  "Through walls, doors, or closed windows."
10. "Experiencers may see their home and the earth itself recede before
     them as they are transported into a spacecraft..."
11. "Once inside the craft the abductees see varying numbers of alien
     beings..."
12. "Telepathic communications of various sorts."
    "Various procedures administered under the control of a slightly
13.  taller and older-appearing alien, spoken of by abductees as the
     doctor or leader." (Mack goes on to describe the varieties of the
     procedures that can have medical or surgical-like quality).
14. "In some cases a person is known to have been missing, can recall,
     with ot without hypnosis, an abduction experience"
     In some cases "has returned with bodily lesions for which there
15.  seems to be no other explanation. But in other situations,
     'complete' abduction does not appear to occur."
16. "The individual may have an out-of-body experience while others see
     that he or she has not left the house."
After conducting this part of his analysis, Peterson concludes:
    Interestingly enough, except for the references of spacecraft,
    bodily lesions and medical procedures, the features of alien
    abductions given by Mack also appear in the list of features common
    to OBEs.
Peterson goes on to discuss other similarities between OBEs and AAEs and
the differences between them.
Here is his overall conclusion:
    When we closely examine the symptoms of the typical out-of-body
    experience, and compare those symptoms to those of a typical alien
    abduction, the similarities are astounding. However, based on
    physical evidence, it's not reasonable to conclude that all alien
    abductions are really OBEs in disguise, nor that all OBEs are alien
    abductions in disguise. However, the similarities are strong enough
    to suggest that perhaps a fair number of alien abductions have been
    incorrectly reported as OBEs, and that a fair number of OBEs have
    been incorrectly reported as alien abductions.
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