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pierre45
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This is part of a survey I am doing for a class project, wanted to get a sampling from the scientific community. Many Thanks.
Thing is, the "abductions" are more vivid and realistic than you probably suppose. We talk about it in this thread:pierre45 said:I believe my conclusion will be that I'm not sure what terrifies me more, the idea that Aliens beings are cruising the Earth abducting, poking, and prodding people...or the idea that a few percent of the population are so delusional that they believe that they have been abducted.
zoobyshoe said:I voted that bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest absolutely does not exist. The last one of us has finally migrated to San Diego County and we're all called Zoobies now.
I was joking. I actually voted "may exist".Ivan Seeking said:That surprises me. Was it the alleged debunking of the Patterson film?
zoobyshoe said:Thing is, the "abductions" are more vivid and realistic than you probably suppose. We talk about it in this thread:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=108665
You ought to read at least up to my "abduction", and however much of the resultant discussion hold your interest. It should have bearing on your paper.
I think we went into this in that thread. Sleep paralysis with accompanying hallucinations followed by false memories edited in after the fact probably account for many. Then I think I mentioned trance states induced by having lights from airplanes catch your eye while you're fatigued from driving.pierre45 said:But I don't count that as a delusion, it was a dream. I'm more interested in the abduction stories that occur when people claim to have been awake.
If you have the time you might research the phenomenon of Complex-Partial seizures. These are non-convulsive seizures that essentially can throw a person right from full consciousness into a sleepwalking state. Many people perform complex actions during complex partials for which they later have total amnesia. Taking your clothes off and putting them on backwards is completely consistent with the sort of thing they might do. Undressing is common. I read an account by one guy who would take his trousers off, take everything out of the pockets, and arrange all the stuff neatly on a table, then go wandering around with no pants on. In all cases, regardless of the particular thing they do during the seizure, the common thing to all is amnesia for the event after it's over. In other words: missing time.Or people waking up with their clothes on backwards...you know less explicable stuff. They are either bone crazy, or it's happening.
The "proof" part of the question, though, is about them having visited earth, not about the notion of there being life somewhere else.dgoodpasture2005 said:I voted for, alien life exsts and there is concrete proof. Every night that I look up at a clear sky, it is proof enough.
The chances of their not being ET life in the universe are extremely small to the point of the notion that their isn't being somewhat absurd, the problem is the sparsity of life and the distances involved.
People almost have to believe things other people tell them in order to survive in society. It's really not linked to religion at all, but is a habit established by parents. It really takes a tremendous amount of effort for an individual to unhook their ideas about the world from their peers because it means a certain amount of alienation. I was talking to a girl a few months ago who said something like: "What about ghosts, eh? There must be something to that. Just about everybody you know has some kind of ghost story." If someone you know and like says they saw a ghost it can be seen as anti-social to express active doubt.pierre45 said:I found that quite striking, and came up with some arguments to explain why "we" are so seemingly willing to believe. Most of them focused on religious aspects, both on our societies proven ability to take things on faith (widespread belief in God) and the alien subculture as a new kind of religion for a lot of people.
People's private thinking can change dramatically when someone they like come up with a story like this. It's often more intolerable to think about such a person having been hallucinating without realizing it, or even having been fooled by anomalous but ordinary things than to be open to paranormal explanations. If most people in your circle of friends believe in something and have a story, it really becomes an act of an anti-social nature to even think of them all as deluded. More comfortable to say "How about ghosts, eh? Seems like everybody has a ghost story. There's got to be something to it." What I sensed in that girls remark was something to the effect of "I'm not going to be so arrogant as to think they're all deluded or lying." because that would mean cutting herself off from them. So, when she takes the poll she say, yes, there probably something to it.pierre45 said:I think your logic explains immediate personal relations, but not private thinking, especially with the countervailing self congratulating we all get from detecting BS and identifying someone else as full of it.
I don't agree with your assertion that there are only two possibilities. In the case of UFO sightings, the more likely explanation is misidentification of prosaic objects. In the case of alien abductions, many of them may be explained by lies.pierre45 said:Sorry Zoob, didn't mean for that to sound dismissive, they are very vivid and realistic I know. My point is that there are only two possibilities, either they are all delusions of some kind (all of them), or at least some of them (one even) are real. If they are all delusions it is very worrisome, if they aren't then it is truly terrifying. That's all I meant.
Anttech said:why is the chance so small? Ok let me rephrase that, from a statiscal view point it could be argued within a closed system that is true. But I believe this is assuming the fluke nature to our exsistance, ie the Earth happened becuase it was probably going to happen. We can't prove this, as fact. Nor can we prove as fact the assumption that We are the reason the Universe is here, as some Shamanic Tribes believe, if we are the reason for this universe there is no reason for there to be statiscally any Aliens..
My 2 cents.. :p
SGT said:I don't agree with your assertion that there are only two possibilities. In the case of UFO sightings, the more likely explanation is misidentification of prosaic objects. In the case of alien abductions, many of them may be explained by lies.
This is only an opinion. It is also my opinion that life should be quite abundant in the Universe. But when we talk about inteligent life and technological civilizations, the problem is entirely diverse. The Drake equation proposes to estimate the number of technological civilizations. It is a very smart proposal, but relies on several unknown parameters. I have seen one choice of parameters that leads to the existence of only one such civilization in the Universe. Since humans constitute a technological society, there should be no other. Of course, choosing different values fo the parameters we can arrive at other numbers.Schrodinger's Dog said:The chances of their not being ET life in the universe are extremely small to the point of the notion that their isn't being somewhat absurd, the problem is the sparsity of life and the distances involved. I'm not going to start making any definitive claims that ET life has visited Earth unless I start making mashed potato mountains after seeing lots of alien space craft/aliens.
SGT said:This is only an opinion. It is also my opinion that life should be quite abundant in the Universe. But when we talk about inteligent life and technological civilizations, the problem is entirely diverse. The Drake equation proposes to estimate the number of technological civilizations. It is a very smart proposal, but relies on several unknown parameters. I have seen one choice of parameters that leads to the existence of only one such civilization in the Universe. Since humans constitute a technological society, there should be no other. Of course, choosing different values fo the parameters we can arrive at other numbers.
I stick with my opinion that alien life probably exists, but there is no hard evidence for alien visitations on Earth.
SGT said:I don't agree with your assertion that there are only two possibilities. In the case of UFO sightings, the more likely explanation is misidentification of prosaic objects. In the case of alien abductions, many of them may be explained by lies.
And how can you distinguish between a delusional witness and a liar?pierre45 said:delusion: A false belief or opinion.
I think your first example falls squarely under the delusion category, your second example is an assumed possibility, but I was talking specifically about those who THINK they are recounting the truth. Which I think is a high percentage of the cases.
SGT said:And how can you distinguish between a delusional witness and a liar?