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When is an extraordinary event not an extraordinary event? - and then - when does it become yet another mystery?
One of the most common descriptions of close encounters is the late-night intrusion. In the most typical scenario, the abductee is lying in bed. Suddenly he/she (most often, she) finds herself unable to move. A sudden wave of fear sweeps through her, accompanied by a sense of presence. The entity may touch the experincer, then attempting to float her out of the bed and through the wall or closed window and up to a waiting UFO. At that point the abduction experience has begun in full. In total, the opening events of the abduction scenario is often given the label "sleep paralysis."
In most cases of hypnotic regression, this bedroom intrusion is the beginning of yet another encounter between the experiencer and her visitors - most of the time, but not always. Occasionally, once into trance, the experiencer describes the onset of sleep paralysis. I can see the confusion and fear in her face as she relives the paralysis, the fear and the appearance of the - whatever... I usually respond with "please continue" - often adding hypnotic deepening instructions to take the exepriencer further into trance and into the experience. Often the experience deepens and the UFO encounter begins. But sometimes - nothing...
Most often, the best way to develop detail during a regression is by repetition, moving through the events repeatedly, developing detail each pass through. We repeated this several times, and once again - nothing. Increasing detail emerged about the sleep paralysis events, the experiencer's dreams, and the surrounding events of the evening. But nothing further appeared indicating an alien encounter scenario. We repeated the narrative multiple times, looking for detail. We developed the scene as much as possible; then it was not ethical to push any further. And so we left it at that. Was there an alien abduction? We may never know. As far as we can tell, there was only the experience of sleep paralysis. The result at first seems simple, but then again, things are not always as simple as they seem...
In a few cases, even when no event was found, the experiencer may have describeed physical marks on her body. There may be physical evidence or medical side effects. Early this year, in one such case, an experiencer described major scratches on her body, along with the residual fear and other classic overt signs of possible close encounters in her life. This happened multiple times in the previous two years, scratches on her body having no apparent prosaic cause. What was taking place? Again, we don't know...
In this particular case, the experiencer described a presence. While in deep trance, she described a being unlike anything in my case files (or to my knowledge, in the literature). She described the feeling of being scratched, feeling some type of instrument rubbing against her skin and then - again, nothing...
What did this person experience? I don't know - to me this case remains a mystery. It takes its place in my case files as an ambiguous cross between the dream realm and the physical realm, an overlay of realities so often seen in encounter cases. This event doesn't appear to be UFO-related, but what was it? I suspect this will remain unexplained.
Not a UFO abduction, was it something else? Was it a dream? Was it a phyisical intrusion? Or was it something else we do not understand? One mystery has become another. Whatever happened, the truth is not as simple as it seems...
