Alien Abduction to Ganzfeld Experiment (Paranormal A to Z: Part 1)

There are no hard & fast figures for the number of people who believe they have been abducted by aliens but, in the US, as many as 2% of the population have had abduction-like experiences.  According to the International Centre for Abduction Research, abductees carry a commonality: their mother, father or both parents also claim to have been abducted.  Abduction is thought not to be a one-time event, but rather it begins in infancy and continues into late adulthood, varying in frequency from less than one per month to as often as fourteen times per month.  A ‘typical’ abduction is often reported to include the harvesting of sperm or eggs, along with examination and mindscan.  Some have reported fetal implanation and, during later abduction, fetal extraction.

Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, this is an area of the western North Atlantic Ocean where many strange occurrences and disappearances have been reported.   The legend of the Bermuda Triangle appearing in the media dates back as far as 1950. The most well known early report involved the disappearance of an entire squadron of US Navy Torpedo Bombers on a training mission in 1945 (known as “Flight 19”).  Reports of disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle continue to this day.  Those who have passed through the Bermuda Triangle, or who have made contact before disappearing, have reported compass failure and strange mists.

Clairvoyance, Clairaudience and Clairsentience are the three main types of psychic ability.  Clairvoyance is the ability to “see” things that other people cannot see, such as images of the dead. Some mediums see spirits as images in their head, while others see them appearing as solid as the living.  Clairaudience is the ability to “hear” spirit voices and is the least common of the psychic skills.  Clairsentience is the ability to sense what others cannot, through feeling and touching.

Divination is the art of telling the future.  There are hundreds of methods of divination but the most commonly known and used are Astrology (divination using the planets), Arithmancy (divination using numbers), Geomancy (divination using the line and figures in the earth), I Ching (divination through deep introspection and thought), Necromancy (divination through communication with the dead), Iridology (divination through examining the eye), Ouija (divination through use of a Ouija Board), Palmistry (divination through analysing bumps, lines and contours of the palms), Pyromancy (divination through fire) and Cartomancy (divination using a deck of cards, e.g. tarot cards).

EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena which refers to sounds such as spirit voices which are recorded on tape.  These sounds are not usually audible to the naked ear at the time of recording. In 1980 a device was created by William O’Neil called the Spiricom.  At launch, O’Neil claimed he was able to conduct two way conversations with the dead using the device, however nobody else is known to have achieved the same results with their own Spiricom.

Flying Rods are rod-shaped objects which appear inexplicable in video footage and photographs. Jose Escamilla (a film maker) famously filmed some rods in 1994 and later founded his website, Roswell Rods, which encourages members to contribute their own footage of flying rods.  More than 48 million people have visited his website since launch.  Some people believe that the flying rods are simply insects or birds which have been blurred during the filming to give the impression that they are long and rod-shaped.  Others believe that these rods are a new form of crypid (unknown or unexplained lifeform).

In medicine, Ganzfeld is a type of sensory deprivation where the subject is given “wholly uniform sensory stimuli” then asked to say what they see.  This is achieved by placing half ping pong balls placed over their eyes while headphones are playing white noise to them. This method was adapted by parapsychologists as it is believed to heighten ESP abilities. In a Ganzfeld experiment, a “receiver” sits in one room in the sensory deprivation situation described above, while a “sender” sits in another room is given a random object and attempts to mentally send details of it to the “receiver”.  The “receiver” speaks out loud of whatever he/she can see or feel.  Afterwards, the “receiver” is given a number of objects to choose from, to match which is closest to what he/she could see during the experiment. There are usually three decoys to give an expected hit rate of 25%.  Between 1974 and 2004, a hit rate of 32% was observed over 3,125 tests.

(Hub 3 / 30 for 30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge)