A blog post at the Mind Hacks website today refers to a unique study published by The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, initially published in 1984, titled Hostage Hallucinations: Visual Imagery Induced by Isolation and Life-Threatening Stress. At a mere glance, the article is already of interest, as in many instances the “hallucinations” described by victims of torture and other intense stress involve out-of-body experiences and related psychic phenomenon. However, of particular interest to Gralien Report readers is the fact that, in addition to studies done with ex-prisoners of war, victims of rape, kidnapping, terrorism and robbery, there are also two cases detailed within the report that deal with “UFO abductions”. The article states that “Case 5, involving a prototypical UFO abduction, was included in order to compare the relatively dramatic, albeit rare and controversial, hostage experiences to those reported by victims in more common verifiable hostage situations.”

In addition to the analysis of two UFO abduction scenarios, I found it interesting that the article also refers to the Biblical account of Ezekiel early on, in a description of the hallucinatory experience among hostages in early history. In addition to being the earliest experience they listed, it is noteworthy that the article also looks at the case taking into consideration the Ufological perspectives insinuated over the years:

To my knowledge, the earliest account of a hostage experience was given in 593 B.C. by the Babylonian priest Ezekiel who described (as reported in the Bible) an abduction by “creatures” in a flying round bronze object. According to some contemporary interpretations, Ezekiel was taken hostage aboard a spaceship-type craft whereas other commentaries emphasize the possibility of hallucinations induced by staring at solar halos. Nonetheless, Ezekiel’s account details shock, feelings of floating, and perceptions of lights, colors, and mystical visions of God.

The UFO abduction case included in the report (Case 5) involves a 52-year-old man and his 24-year-old son, who were abducted while driving a long distance across the Arizona desert. At noon, they described hearing a “strange mechanical noise”, and after stopping to inspect its cause, witnessed a UFO hovering above them. A brilliant light blinded and paralyzed them, at which point the father described dizziness, muscle tremors, and hearing “voices” in his head. The son described only the dizziness. Both men described floating above ground and being levitated into an opening in the UFO, continuing to float down a long metallic tunnel inside the UFO. Upon encountering humanoids bathed in a bright light, both men reported a “flash of their past lives” on a screen before them (it is presumed this meant life experiences, rather “past lives” in the sense of reincarnation). Finally, the screens before them showed the two men stopping their car in the desert earlier that day. They saw themselves sitting in the car, and shortly thereafter came-to sitting in their car again seven hours later, now dark outside.

The report illustrates that “the propensity of long distance drivers to hallucinate as well as the role of optical phenomena created by the sun in generating UFO reports suggest possible stimulus conditions here.” It also points out that neither of the men described seeing one another during their experiences, although their reports were almost entirely similar. The hallucinatory elements (i.e. sunlight, driving for long periods) could indeed evoke a strange, even psychedelic experience of colors, patterns, and other related visual phenomena reported by other hostages in the report. However, isn’t it odd that two men would share an identical experience in the desert of a UFO craft abducting, levitating, and experimenting on them for a period of seven hours, from which they both appeared to emerge seven hours later? If not an actual encounter with alien beings, how could hallucinatory experiences specific to the two men have influenced each other? If there is a more mundane explanation, could the similarities in their experiences still be associated with something psychic in nature (in that their separate experiences were influencing one another psychically during a black-out period)?

It is perhaps interesting to note that the father, two years prior to the frightening experience he shared with his son in the Arizona desert, had been diagnosed with paranoid psychosis, although the son “tested within normal ranges on all measures.” Both men rated strong belief in the paranormal.

You may read the report in its entirety here.