Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens
- ISBN-10
- 0674018796
- ISBN-13
- 9780674018792
- Series
- Abducted
- Category
- Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
- Pages
- 179
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2005
- Publisher
- Harvard University Press
- Author
- Susan A. Clancy
Description
They are tiny. They are tall. They are gray. They are green. They survey our world with enormous glowing eyes. To conduct their shocking experiments, they creep in at night to carry humans off to their spaceships. Yet there is no evidence that they exist at all. So how could anyone believe he or she was abducted by aliens? Or want to believe it? To answer these questions, psychologist Susan Clancy interviewed and evaluated "abductees"--old and young, male and female, religious and agnostic. She listened closely to their stories--how they struggled to explain something strange in their remembered experience, how abduction seemed plausible, and how, having suspected abduction, they began to recollect it, aided by suggestion and hypnosis. Clancy argues that abductees are sane and intelligent people who have unwittingly created vivid false memories from a toxic mix of nightmares, culturally available texts (abduction reports began only after stories of extraterrestrials appeared in films and on TV), and a powerful drive for meaning that science is unable to satisfy. For them, otherworldly terror can become a transforming, even inspiring experience. "Being abducted," writes Clancy, "may be a baptism in the new religion of this millennium." This book is not only a subtle exploration of the workings of memory, but a sensitive inquiry into the nature of belief.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2007-04-30
- 192 pages
- Ebook
- Harvard University Press
-
- 2007-04-30
- 192 pages
- Paperback
- Harvard University Press
Similar books
-
A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance
By Edwin A. Locke, Gary P. LathamApplied Precursors The strand of thought stemming from the field of management started with Frederick W. Taylor , the father of Scientific Management . He published his major work , the Principles of Scientific Management , in 1911 ...
-
Domjan and Burkhard's The Principles of Learning and Behavior
By Michael Domjan, Barbara BurkhardAnother mechanism used to explain choice behavior , melioration , was proposed in 1980 by Herrnstein and Vaughan ( see also Vaughan , 1981 , 1985 ) . Melioration refers to bettering a situation . Herrnstein and Vaughan suggested that ...
-
The Risks of Knowing: Developmental Impediments to School Learning
By Karen ZelanWe are all too ready to ascribe learning problems to an inability to learn and leave it at that. This book should go a long way toward convincing us that using such simpleminded explanations and remedial efforts based on them do not work.
-
Structure Of Organizations
By Peter Michael Blau, Richard A. SchoenherrMelinda Blau. APPENDIX C Variables and Sources This appendix contains a detailed description of all the variables used in the analysis of the fifty - three employment security agencies and the 1,201 local offices that met the criteria ...
-
PRIVATE LIVES/PUBLIC CONSEQUENCES
By William H. ChafeA long - established source for understanding Roosevelt's presidency is William E. Leuchtenburg's FDR and the New Deal , 1921-1940 ( 1963 ) . Leuchtenburg concludes that Roosevelt presided over a " halfway revolution " in America ...
-
Sensation and Perception
By Stanley Coren, Lawrence M. Ward, James T. EnnsMuller , H. J. , & Findlay , J. M. ( 1988 ) . The effect of visual attention on peripheral discrimination thresholds in single and multiple element displays . Acta Psychologica , 69 , 129–155 . Muller , H. J. , & Humphreys , G. W. ...
-
Baudelaire and the Art of Memory
By James Andrew HiddlestonIn a note in Les Epaves he tries to dispel any obscene intention, claiming that the poet had simply meant that 'une beaute, d'un caractere a la fois tenebreux et folatre, faisait rever a l'association du rose et du ...
-
괴짜처럼 생각하라
By Steven D. LevittThis follow up to the bestselling and amazingly easy to comprehend economic books, the Freakonomics series, again helps readers approach life in a more out of the box and creative way. In Korean. Annotation copyright Tsai Fong Books, Inc.
-
发现未知的自己
By 肖文键, 马剑涛编译, （美）奥里森·斯威特·马登著本书帮助你发掘自身的潜能,激发你的潜意识,教会你如何运用潜意识来获得幸福,快乐,健康,爱情以及成功.
-
左手画方，右手画圆：神奇的心理平衡法
By 何杰著时候,我会在心里默默地说,我一定坚持得住!我一定能成功!”同时,苏珊的家人也给了她莫大的支持和鼓励。车祸发生两年以后,苏珊竟然离开了轮椅,开始独立行走。除了身体上的变化,苏珊说她的内心也跟以往不同了,她说她的人生又开始了新的旅程,有了新的目标。