home esoterica Original binnallofamerica.com Audio the United States of Esoterica merchandise contact

Lesley

Grey Matter

Wake Up Now!
UFO/Paranormal Conference

Albuquerque, NM: April 29, 30 & May 1

Bookmark and Share

2.23.11

Same as it Ever Was

I am not going to relive the whole Emma Woods mess here. This isn't really about Emma, who I believe and support. This is about what I see as unreal expectations that some people have due to the Emma Woods story.

I have now heard several people say things like "this is going to change Ufology forever." Well, no, it isn't. First off, many people that consider themselves Ufologists never believed in literal abduction to begin with. There are people in Ufology that study abduction, but there are also many that only study nuts n' bolt type crafts sightings, crashes, incidents, secret bases and so on. Just because they are mainly interested in crafts doesn't mean they believe or disbelieve in abduction, they seem to try to ignore it as much as possible except for maybe Betty and Barney Hill.

So it is doubtful that Ufology will change.

I also seriously doubt that even alien abduction research will change (and yes, I do see Ufology and alien abduction research as two different things). Oh, I am sure there may be some people that will try new approaches, but the hypnotic regression people will probably continue just as before.

I say that because there are truly big cases like the McMartin Preschool trial that were massively covered by the mainstream media and people could see for themselves that these children had been led to believe (partly through hypnotic suggestion and implanting of false memories) that things occurred that never really did occur.

There have also been big media stories of implanting false memories in adults which made them believe they had been sexually and in other ways abused as children. Most of these cases were years ago and they were big stories covered by all the media, but the practice of such therapies has continued, just as before. So if that didn't stop the practice, I don't really understand why people think one woman, or even several women/people, claiming such abuse in the relatively small field of alien abduction is going to change anything, even if it is only Ufology. I just don't see it happening.

I think we all know what the reaction of the general public would be if the Emma Woods story was ever reported by the mainstream media. Eyes would be rolling. There would be a lot of laughing about what else would she expect, going to someone that specialized in alien abduction. Haha. Silly Emma, not a victim, except of her own making. Oh, there would be some sympathy, but I think over all people would ignore it. It would be too weird for them. Even McMartin was too weird and confusing for most people, they were only interested for the weird spectacle of it.

Of course, I have asked myself the question of whether it should be completely stopped or if just because certain people may abuse it, does that mean it is totally useless?

I really don't know. What I do know is that I am friends with several people that were patients of Budd Hopkins and they love him dearly and believe that he helped them greatly. Am I supposed to argue to them that they weren't helped and really they were probably harmed? I wouldn't presume to do so.

In closing, so the Emma supporters don't lose all hope - although, we may not see Ufology changed forever (if that is what you were hoping for) or even hypnotic regression stopped, you may see some small changes like some brave abduction researchers that may try new and promising approaches to that mystery. You may even see that some of the people that really believed in hypnotic regression and alien abduction start to question things a little bit more than they did before. I don't believe there will be any massive noticeable change, but I have been wrong before or so I am told. :-)

  • Check out Lesley's Blog HERE

    As well as her Beyond the Dial blog

  • Lesley is also a columnist for UFO Magazine. Check it out !