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In correspondence with experiencers as part of the abduction response team, I hear a lot of different perspectives. There are a lot of beliefs among experiencers. Some believe that the visitors are evil, diabolical, or similar. Others believe that "They" - whoever they are - are here for our benefit, benevolent, altruistic, etc. There are many variations on these themes, but at the core of each is pure belief.
Belief can be a coping mechanism - a way to rationalize events in life that would otherwise be incomprehensible. Throughout history, we have attributed the random forces of nature - weather, earthquakes and volcanoes, etc. - to the will of the gods. We form beliefs in many other ways to help us understand a reality beyond our own control. Beliefs are one way we make sense of the world. They help us cope with the world around us. And what's most important, they work.
Like other areas in life, we see the belief process used to cope with the visitor experience, as well. Why would beings from a realm beyond our own swoop in and divert a person's life. Why would they subject the experiencer to the reality shattering experience of the close encounter? What is going on, and how does one come to terms with such an experience? In many cases, the answer is to form (or adopt) some form of belief. And just as in other times in our history, beliefs do help to cope with that shattered reality.
In short, beliefs work. But they bring with them their own price. They constrain a person's view of the world, potentially reducing one's understanding of that world. When dealing with the close encounter phenomenon, especially, the comfort of belief comes at a very high price - it limits potential understanding of the phenomenon. It restricts our view of the phenomenon to a limited range of possibilities.
In recent correspondence of the MUFON Abduction Response Team with one experiencer, I found members of the research community coming under criticism for advancing their own beliefs about the phenomenon. The gist of the criticism was that each researcher was somehow coloring their research on the phenomenon with their own beliefs. The person was very critical of the work of Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs (the aliens are evil), John Mack (the aliens are benevolent), etc. Among them, I also received criticism that I have focused a lot on fear management - implying that fear is an important element of the phenomenal interaction. Thus, like the other distinguished company on his list, I too am bringing my own agenda to the phenomenon.
Perhaps, in a way, I am. I am human and I have beliefs just like everybody else. Specifically, in the last ten to fifteen years, I have become progressively more active as a healer. And I believe that the hypnotherapist needs to be a healer first - a researcher second.
Each person's life is unique. One person may simply be curious - wanting to understand that strange event that happened as a child on the way to grandma's house. Another person may be badly traumatized - afraid to look up at the sky, and yet unable to understand why that is the case. Still another may be experiencing unexpected and unexplained gifts in life - psychic or spiritual awakening somehow traceable to phenomenal interactions. Each case is unique, each person has their own needs, and for each, the approach needs to be different.
Yet people rarely come to see a hypnotherapist because their life is too wonderful. Usually, there is a degree of pain, fear or similar issue in a person's life. This tends to be true regardless of whether the person is seeing the hypnotherapist to help them quit smoking, to relieve a phobia or a mind-body illness, or whether they want to better understand some unexplained events some time in the past.
Where fear, pain or trauma management is needed, I believe it must come first for the wellbeing of the experiencer. Yet when this is not present - and in some cases this is truly the case - I certainly do not believe trying to fix what isn't broke. There are many fear management tools in the hypnotherapy tool box but if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.
Is the phenomenon good or evil? To me, that depends upon the perspective of the person asking the question. Lying naked on an alien examining table, looking up at a pair of big black eyes, with their owner holding some type of ugly-looking surgical instrument, "evil" might be a good description - at least for that moment. Yet years later, that same experiencer may end up with a deep spiritual awakening - directly traceable to the phenomenon - something that they would definitely classify as "good." Many describe the phenomenon as being a mixed bag, different things in different ways at different times.
If I hold any particular belief about the phenomenon, it is that we simply do not understand it. It appears to transcend our understanding at the present time. I do not believe I am qualified to judge it beyond that. Yet I do believe that each person deserves to be treated with the dignity and respect due any conscious being. As a friend of mine once said, we are sentient beings in a free-will universe. We each have the right to self-determination and sovereignty over our own life. In that respect, I believe that each experiencer has the right to determine what relationship with the phenomenon they would like to have. And yet, each client is unique, so as a hypnotherapist I need to temper whatever belief or agenda I might have and adopt a fully client-centered perspective.
All I can do is try to understand each person's interactions through their own eyes. What relationship do they have with "Them" at present? What relationship do they want to have with "Them"? How can the experiencer come to terms with what is happening in their life? And what does that question even mean in the context of that person's life?
For each experiencer, the questions appear to be different. For some, the relationship is negative, fear-based, exploitive, etc. For others it is positive. It is at least acceptable to them. And in that case, as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it..."
