text:
The terms alien abduction or abduction phenomenon describe "subjectively real experiences" of being secretly kidnapped by nonhuman figures (aliens) and subjected to physical and psychological experimentation.[1] Most scientists and mental health professionals explain these experiences by factors such as suggestibility (e.g. false memory syndrome), sleep paralysis, deception, and psychopathology.[2] Skeptic Robert Sheaffer sees similarity between the aliens depicted in science fiction films, in particular Invaders From Mars (1953), and some of those reported to have actually abducted people.[3] People claiming to have been abducted are usually called "abductees"[4] or "experiencers".
Typical claims involve forced medical examinations that emphasize the subject's reproductive systems.[5] Abductees sometimes claim to have been warned against environmental abuse and the dangers of nuclear weapons.[6] The contents of the abduction narrative often seem to vary with the home culture of the alleged abductee.[3]
Reports of the abduction phenomenon have been made around the world, but are most common in English speaking countries, especially the United States.[3] The first alleged alien abduction claim to be widely publicized was the Betty and Barney Hill abduction in 1961.[7]
- 1 Overview
- 2 History
- 3 Abductees
- 4 Abduction narrative
- 5 Trauma and recovery
- 6 Role of hypnosis
- 7 Perspectives
- 8 Testimonials
- 9 Notable abduction claims
- 10 Notable figures
- 11 See also
- 12 Footnotes
- 13 Further reading
- 14 External links
|CUFOS definition of an abductee[8]
|A person must be taken:
|These beings must take the person to:
|In this place, the person must either:
|These experiences may be remembered:
Mainstream scientists reject claims that the phenomenon literally occurs as reported. However, there is little doubt that many apparently stable persons who report alien abductions believe their experiences were real. As reported in the Harvard University Gazette in 1992, Dr. John E. Mack reports that of the 60 cases of claimed abductees he had worked on, that after a battery of psychological tests, "no psychiatric or psychosocial explanation for these reports is evident. These people are not mentally ill. He has spent countless therapeutic hours with these individuals only to find that what struck him was the 'ordinariness' of the population, including a restaurant owner, several secretaries, a prison guard, college students, a university administrator, and several homemakers … 'The majority of abductees do not appear to be deluded, confabulating, lying, self-dramatizing, or suffering from a clear mental illness,' he maintained."[9] "While psychopathology is indicated in some isolated alien abduction cases," Stuart Appelle et al. confirmed, "assessment by both clinical examination and standardized tests has shown that, as a group, abduction experients are not different from the general population in term of psychopathology prevalence."[10] Other experts who have argued that abductees' mental health is no better or worse than average include psychologists John Wilson and Rima Laibow, and psychotherapist David Gotlib.[11]
Some abduction reports are quite detailed. An entire subculture has developed around the subject, with support groups and a detailed mythos explaining the reasons for abductions: The various aliens (Greys, Reptilians, "Nordics" and so on) are said to have specific roles, origins, and motivations. Abduction claimants do not always attempt to explain the phenomenon, but some take independent research interest in it themselves and explain the lack of greater awareness of alien abduction as the result of either extraterrestrial or governmental interest in cover-up. Mack has cited more mundane reasons for the lack of general awareness concerning the data: "The most intense demand for alternative explanations tends to come from those who are either unfamiliar with the rich complexity of the abduction phenomenon, or from those who are so wedded to a worldview" that they find the phenomenon prima facie unacceptable.[12]
While "alien abduction" did not achieve widespread attention until the 1960s, there were many similar stories circulating decades earlier. These early abduction-like accounts have been dubbed "paleo-abductions" by UFO researcher Jerome Clark.[13]
- In the November 27, 1896, edition of the Stockton, California Daily Mail, Colonel H. G. Shaw claimed he and a friend were harassed by three tall, slender humanoids whose bodies were covered with a fine, downy hair who tried to kidnap the pair.[13]
- In the October 1953 issue of Man to Man Magazine an article by Leroy Thorpe titled "Are the Flying Saucers Kidnapping Humans?" asks the question "Are an unlucky few of us, and perhaps not so few at that, being captured with the same ease as we would net butterflies, perhaps for zoological specimens, perhaps for vivisection or some other horrible death designed to reveal to our interplanetary invaders what makes us tick?" [14]
- Rogerson writes that the 1955 publication of Harold T. Wilkins's Flying Saucers Uncensored declared that Karl Hunrath and Wilbur Wilkinson, who had claimed they were contacted by aliens, had disappeared under mysterious circumstances; Wilkins reported speculation that the duo were the victims of "alleged abduction by flying saucers".[15]
Two landmark cases[edit]
An early alien abduction claim occurred in the mid-1950s with the Antonio Vilas Boas case, which did not receive much attention until several years later.
Widespread publicity was generated by the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case of 1961, culminating in a made-for-television film broadcast in 1975 (starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons) dramatizing the events. The Hill incident was probably the prototypical abduction case and was perhaps the first in which the claimant described beings that later became widely known as the Greys and in which the beings were said to explicitly identify an extraterrestrial origin.
Though these two cases are sometimes viewed as the earliest abductions, skeptic Peter Rogerson[16] notes they were only the first "canonical"[clarification needed] abduction cases, establishing a template that later abductees and researchers would refine but rarely deviate from. Additionally, Rogerson notes purported abductions were cited contemporaneously at least as early as 1954, and that "the growth of the abduction stories is a far more tangled affair than the 'entirely unpredisposed' official history would have us believe." (The phrase "entirely predisposed" appeared in folklorist Thomas E. Allard's study of alien abduction; he argued that alien abductions as reported in the 1970s and 1980s had little precedent in folklore or fiction.)
Later developments[edit]
R. Leo Sprinkle, a University of Wyoming psychologist, became interested in the abduction phenomenon in the 1960s. Sprinkle became convinced of the phenomenon's actuality, and was perhaps the first to suggest a link between abductions and cattle mutilation. Eventually Sprinkle came to believe that he had been abducted by aliens in his youth; he was forced from his job in 1989.[17]
Budd Hopkins had been interested in UFOs for some years. In the 1970s he became interested in abduction reports, and began using hypnosis to extract more details of dimly remembered events. Hopkins soon became a figurehead of the growing abductee subculture.[18]
The 1980s brought a major degree of mainstream attention to the subject. Works by Hopkins, novelist Whitley Strieber, historian David M. Jacobs and psychiatrist John E. Mack presented alien abduction as a genuine phenomenon.[18] Also of note in the 1980s was the publication of folklorist Dr. Thomas E. Bullard's comparative analysis of nearly 300 alleged abductees.
With Hopkins, Jacobs and Mack, accounts of alien abduction became a prominent aspect of ufology. There had been earlier abduction reports (the Hills being the best known), but they were believed to be few and far between, and saw rather little attention from ufology (and even less attention from mainstream professionals or academics). Jacobs and Hopkins argued that alien abduction was far more common than earlier suspected; they estimate that tens of thousands (or more) North Americans had been taken by unexplained beings.[18]
Furthermore, Jacobs and Hopkins argued that there was an elaborate process underway in which aliens were attempting to create human–alien hybrids, the most advanced stage of which in the "human hybridization program" are known as hubrids,[19] though the motives for this effort were unknown. There had been anecdotal reports of phantom pregnancy related to UFO encounters at least as early as the 1960s, but Budd Hopkins and especially David M. Jacobs were instrumental in popularizing the idea of widespread, systematic interbreeding efforts on the part of the alien intruders.
The descriptions of alien encounters as researched and presented by Hopkins, Jacobs and Mack were similar, with slight differences in each researcher's emphasis; the process of selective citation of abductee interviews that supported these variations was sometimes criticized – though abductees who presented their own accounts directly, such as Whitley Strieber, fared no better.
The involvement of Jacobs and Mack marked something of a sea change in the abduction studies. Their efforts were controversial (both men saw some degree of damage to their professional reputations), but to other observers, Jacobs and Mack brought a degree of respectability to the subject.
John E. Mack[edit]
Matheson writes that "if Jacobs's credentials were impressive," then those of Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack might seem "impeccable" in comparison.[20] Mack was a well known, highly esteemed psychiatrist, author of over 150 scientific articles and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of T. E. Lawrence. Mack became interested in the phenomenon in the late 1980s, interviewing over 800 people, and eventually writing two books on the subject.
Mack devoted a substantial amount of time to investigating such cases and eventually concluded that the only phenomenon in psychiatry that adequately explained the patients' symptoms in several of the most compelling cases was posttraumatic stress disorder.[21] As he noted at the time, this would imply that the patient genuinely believed that the remembered frightening incident had really occurred – the position Mack came to endorse.[22]
In June 1992, Mack and the physicist David E. Pritchard organized a five-day conference at MIT to discuss and debate the abduction phenomenon.[23] The conference attracted a wide range of professionals, representing a variety of perspectives.
Writer C. D. B. Bryan attended the conference, initially intending to gather information for a short humorous article for The New Yorker. While attending the conference, however, Bryan's view of the subject changed, and he wrote a serious, open-minded book on the phenomenon, additionally interviewing many abductees, skeptics, and proponents.
The precise number of alleged abductees is uncertain. One of the earliest studies of abductions found 1,700 claimants, while contested surveys argued that 5–6 percent of the general population might have been abducted.[2]
In a study investigating the motivations of the alleged abductors, Jenny Randles found that in each of the 4 cases out of 50 total where the experiencer was over 40 years of age, they were rejected by the aliens for "what they (the experiencers) usually inferred to be a medical reason."[24] Randles concludes "[T]he abduction is essentially a young person's experience."[24] Given the reproductive focus of the alleged abductions it is not surprising that one man reported being rejected because he had undergone a vasectomy.[25] It could also be partially because people over the age of 40 are less likely to have "hormonic" or reproductive activity going on.
Although abduction and other UFO-related reports are usually made by adults, sometimes young children report similar experiences.[26] These child-reports often feature very specific details in common with reports of abduction made by adults, including the circumstances, narrative, entities and aftermaths of the alleged occurrences.[26] Often these young abductees have family members who have reported having abduction experiences.[26] Family involvement in the military, or a residence near a military base is also common among child abduction claimants.[26]
Mental health[edit]
As a category, some studies show that abductees have psychological characteristics that render their testimony suspect, while others show that "as a group, abduction experients are not different from the general population in term of psychopathology prevalence".[3][10] Dr. Elizabeth Slater conducted a blind study of nine abduction claimants and found them to be prone to "mildly paranoid thinking," nightmares and having a weak sexual identity,[3] while Dr. Richard McNally of Harvard Medical School concluded in a similar study of 10 abductees that "none of them was suffering from any sort of psychiatric illness."[27]
Alleged abductees are seen by many pro-abduction researchers to have a higher incidence of non-abduction related paranormal events and abilities.[28] Following an abduction experience, these paranormal abilities and occurrences sometimes seem to become more pronounced.[28] According to investigator Benton Jamison, abduction experiencers who report UFO sightings that should have been, but are not, reported by independent corroborating witnesses often seem to "be 'psychic personalities' in the sense of Jan Ehrenwald."[28]
Abduction narrative[edit]
Although different cases vary in detail (sometimes significantly), some UFO researchers, such as folklorist Thomas E. Bullard[29] argue that there is a broad, fairly consistent sequence and description of events that make up the typical "close encounter of the fourth kind" (a popular but unofficial designation building on Dr. J. Allen Hynek's classifications). Though the features outlined below are often reported, there is some disagreement as to exactly how often they actually occur.
Bullard argues most abduction accounts feature the following events. They generally follow the sequence noted below, though not all abductions feature all the events:
- Capture. The abductee is somehow rendered incapable of resisting, and taken from terrestrial surroundings to an apparent alien spacecraft.
- Examination and Procedures. Invasive physiological and psychological procedures, and on occasion simulated behavioral situations, training & testing, or sexual liaisons.
- Conference. The abductors communicate with the abductee or direct them to interact with specific individuals for some purpose, typically telepathically but sometimes using the abductee's native language.
- Tour. The abductees are given a tour of their captors' vessel, though this is disputed by some researchers who consider this definition a confabulation of intent when just apparently being taken around to multiple places inside the ship.
- Loss of Time. Abductees often rapidly forget the majority of their experience, either as a result of fear, medical intervention, or both.
- Return. The abductees are returned to earth, occasionally in a different location from where they were allegedly taken or with new injuries or disheveled clothing.
- Theophany. Coinciding with their immediate return, abductees may have a profound sense of love, a "high" similar to those induced by certain drugs, or a "mystical experience", accompanied by a feeling of oneness with God, the universe, or their abductors. Whether this is the result of a metaphysical change, Stockholm syndrome, or prior medical tampering is often not scrutinized by the abductees at the time.
- Aftermath. The abductee must cope with the psychological, physical, and social effects of the experience.
When describing the "abduction scenario", David M. Jacobs says:
The entire abduction event is precisely orchestrated. All the procedures are predetermined. There is no standing around and deciding what to do next. The beings are task-oriented and there is no indication whatsoever that we have been able to find of any aspect of their lives outside of performing the abduction procedures.[30]
Abduction claimants report unusual feelings preceding the onset of an abduction experience.[31] These feelings manifest as a compulsive desire to be at a certain place at a certain time or as expectations that something "familiar yet unknown," will soon occur.[31] Abductees also report feeling severe, undirected anxiety at this point even though nothing unusual has actually occurred yet.[31] This period of foreboding can last for up to several days before the abduction actually takes place or be completely absent.[31]
Eventually, the experiencer will undergo an apparent "shift" into an altered state of consciousness.[31] British abduction researchers have called this change in consciousness "the Oz Factor." External sounds cease to have any significance to the experiencer and fall out of perception.[31] They report feeling introspective and unusually calm.[31] This stage marks a transition from normal activity to a state of "limited self-willed mobility."[31] As consciousness shifts one or more lights are alleged to appear, occasionally accompanied by a strange mist.[31] The source and nature of the lights differ by report; sometimes the light emanates from a source outside the house (presumably the abductors' UFO), sometimes the lights are in the bedroom with the experiencer and transform into alien figures.[31]
As the alleged abduction proceeds, claimants say they will walk or be levitated into an alien craft, in the latter case often through solid objects such as walls, ceilings or a closed window.[31] Alternatively, they may experience rising through a tunnel or along a beam of light, with or without the abductors accompanying them, into the awaiting craft.[31]
The examination phase of the so-called "abduction narrative" is characterized by the performance of medical procedures and examinations by apparently alien beings against or irrespective of the will of the experiencer. Such procedures often focus on sex and reproductive biology. However, the literature holds reports of a wide variety of procedures allegedly performed by the beings. The entity that appears to be in charge of the operation is often taller than the others involved, and is sometimes described as appearing to be of a different species.[5][32]
Miller notes different areas of emphasis between human medicine and what is reported as being practiced by the abductors.[5] This could result from a difference in the purpose of the examination—routine diagnosis and/or treatment versus scientific examination of an unfamiliar species, or it could be due to a different level of technology that renders certain kinds of manual procedures unnecessary. The abductors' areas of interest appear to be the cranium, nervous system, skin, reproductive system, and to a lesser degree, the joints.[5] Systems given less attention than a human doctor would, or omitted entirely include cardiovascular system, the respiratory system below the pharynx and the lymphatic system.[5] The abductors also appear to ignore the upper region of the abdomen in favor of the lower one.[5] The abductors do not appear to wear gloves during the "examination."[5] Other constants of terrestrial medicine like pills and tablets are missing from abduction narratives although sometimes abductees are asked to drink liquids.[5] Injections also seem to be rare and IVs are almost completely absent.[5] Dr. Miller says he's never heard an abductee claim to have a tongue depressor used on them.[5]
Subsequent abduction procedures[edit]
After the so-called medical exam, the alleged abductees often report other procedures being performed with the entities.[30] Common among these post-examination procedures are what abduction researchers refer to as imaging, envisioning, staging, and testing.[30]
"Imaging" procedures consist of an abductee being made to view screens displaying images and scenes that appear to be specially chosen with the intent to provoke certain emotional responses in the abductee.[30] "Envisioning" is a similar procedure, with the primary difference being that the images being viewed, rather than being on a screen, actually seem to be projected into the experiencer's mind.[30] "Staging" procedures have the abductee playing a more active role, according to reports containing this element.[30] It shares vivid hallucination-like mental visualization with the envisioning procedures, but during staging the abductee interacts with the illusionary scenario like a role player or an actor.[30]
"Testing" marks something of a departure from the above procedures in that it lacks the emotional analysis feature.[30] During testing the experiencer is placed in front of a complicated electronic device and is instructed to operate it.[30] The experiencer is often confused, saying that they do not know how to operate it.[30] However, when they actually set about performing the task, the abductee will find that they do, in fact, know how to operate the machine.[30]
Child presentation[edit]
Abductees of all ages and genders sometimes report being subjected to a "child presentation."[30] As its name implies, the child presentation involves the abduction claimant being shown a "child."[30] Often the children appear to be neither human, nor the same species as the abductors.[30] Instead, the child will almost always share characteristics of both species.[30] These children are labeled by experiencers as hybrids between humans and their abductors, usually Greys.
Unlike Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs, folklorist Thomas E. Bullard could not identify a child presentation phase in the abduction narrative, even after undertaking a study of 300 abduction reports.[25] Bullard says that the child presentation "seems to be an innovation in the story"[25] and that "no clear antecedents" to descriptions of the child presentation phase exist before its popularization by Hopkins and Jacobs.[25]
Less common elements[edit]
Bullard also studied the 300 reports of alien abduction in an attempt to observe the less prominent aspects of the claims.[6] He notes the emergence of four general categories of events that recur regularly, although not as frequently as stereotypical happenings like the medical examination. These four types of events are:[6]
- The conference
- The tour
- The journey
- Theophany
Chronologically within abduction reports these rarer episodes tend to happen in the order listed, between the medical examination and the return.[6]
After allegedly displaying cold callous disregard towards the abduction experiencers, sometimes the entities will change drastically in behavior once the initial medical exam is completed.[6] They become more relaxed and hospitable towards their captive and lead him or her away from the site of the examination.[6] The entities then hold a conference with the experiencer, wherein they discuss things relevant to the abduction phenomenon.[6] Bullard notes five general categories of discussion that occur during the conference "phase" of reported abduction narratives: An interrogation session, explanatory segment, task assignment, warnings, and prophecies.[6]
Tours of the abductors' craft are a rare but recurring feature of the abduction narrative.[6] The tour seems to be given by the alleged abductors as a courtesy in response to the harshness and physical rigors of the forced medical examination.[6] Sometimes the abductees report traveling on a "journey" to orbit around Earth or to what appear to be other planets.[6] Some abductees find that the experience is terrifying, particularly if the aliens are of a more fearsome species, or if the abductee was subjected to extensive probing and medical testing.
Eventually the abductors will return the abductees, usually to exactly the same location and circumstances they were in before being taken.[33] Usually, explicit memories of the abduction experience will not be present, and the abductee will only realize they have experienced "missing time" upon checking a timepiece.[33]
Sometimes the alleged abductors appear to make mistakes when returning their captives.[33] Famed UFO researcher Budd Hopkins has joked about "the cosmic application of Murphy's Law" in response to this observation.[33] Hopkins has estimated that these "errors" accompany 4–5 percent of abduction reports.[33] One type of common apparent mistake made by the abductors is failing to return the experiencer to the same spot that they were taken from initially.[33] This can be as simple as a different room in the same house, or abductees can even find themselves outside and all the doors of the house are locked from the inside.[33] Another common (and amusing) error is putting the abductee's clothes (e.g. pajamas) on backwards.
Realization event[edit]
Physician and abduction researcher John G. Miller sees significance in the reason a person would come to see themselves as being a victim of the abduction phenomenon.[34] He terms the insight or development leading to this shift in identity from non-abductee to abductee the "realization event."[34] The realization event is often a single, memorable experience, but Miller reports that not all abductees experience it as a distinct episode.[34] Either way, the realization event can be thought of as the "clinical horizon" of the abduction experience.[34]
Trauma and recovery[edit]
Most people alleging alien abductions report invasive examinations of their bodies[35] and some ascribe psychological trauma to their experiences.[36] "Post abduction syndrome" is a term used by abductees to describe the effects of abduction, though it is not recognized by any professional treatment organizations.[36] People who have a false memory which makes them believe that they have been abducted by aliens develop symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. People who believe they have been abducted by aliens usually have previous New Age beliefs, a vivid fantasy life, and suffer from sleep paralysis, according to a 2003 study by Harvard University.[37]
Support groups[edit]
Support groups for people who believed they were abducted began appearing in the mid-1980s. These groups appear throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.[38]
Role of hypnosis[edit]
Many alien abductees recall much of their alleged abduction(s) through hypnosis.[39] Due to the extensive use of hypnosis, and other methods which they view as being manipulative, skeptics explain the abduction narratives as false memories and suggestions.[40]
Argument against the use of hypnosis[edit]
Alleged abductees seek out hypnotherapists to try to resolve issues such as missing time or unexplained physical symptoms such as muscle pain or headaches. This usually involves two phases, an information gathering stage, in which the hypnotherapist asks about unexplained illnesses or unusual phenomena during the patients lives (caused by or distortions of the alleged abduction), followed by hypnosis and guided imagery to facilitate recall. The information gathering enhances the likelihood that the events discussed will be incorporated into later abduction "memories".[41] Seven steps are hypothesized to lead to the development of false memories:[40]
- A person is predisposed to accept the idea that certain puzzling or inexplicable experiences might be telltale signs of UFO abduction.
- The person seeks out a therapist, whom he or she views as an authority and who is, at the very least, receptive to this explanation and has some prior familiarity with UFO abduction reports.
- Alternatively, the therapist frames the puzzling experiences in terms of an abduction narrative.
- Alternative explanations of the experiences are not explored.
- There is increasing commitment to the abduction explanation and increasing anxiety reduction associated with ambiguity reduction.
- The therapist legitimates or ratifies the abductee's experience, which constitutes additional positive reinforcement.
- The client adopts the role of the "victim" or abductee, which becomes integrated into the psychotherapy and the client's view of self.
Argument for the use of hypnosis[edit]
Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack counters this argument, noting "It might be useful to restate that a large proportion of the material relating to abductions is recalled without the use of an altered state of consciousness, and that many abduction reporters appear to relive powerful experiences after only the most minimal relaxation exercise, hardly justifying the word hypnosis at all. The relaxation exercise is useful to relieve the experiencer's need to attend to the social demands and other stimuli of face-to-face conversation, and to relieve the energies involved in repressing memories and emotion."[42]
There have been a variety of explanations offered for abduction phenomena, ranging from sharply skeptical appraisals, to uncritical acceptance of all abductee claims, to the demonological, to everything in between.
Some have elected not to try explaining things, instead noting similarities to other phenomena, or simply documenting the development of the alien abduction phenomenon.
Others are intrigued by the entire phenomenon, but hesitate in making any definitive conclusions. The late Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack concluded, "The furthest you can go at this point is to say there's an authentic mystery here. And that is, I think, as far as anyone ought to go." (emphasis as in original)[43] Mack was unconvinced by piecemeal counterclaims, however, and countered that skeptical explanations naturally need to "take into account the entire range of phenomena associated with abduction experiences," up to and including "missing time," directly contemporaneous UFO sightings, and the occurrence in small children.[12]
Putting aside the question of whether abduction reports are literally and objectively "real", literature professor Terry Matheson argues that their popularity and their intriguing appeal are easily understood. Tales of abduction "are intrinsically absorbing; it is hard to imagine a more vivid description of human powerlessness." After experiencing the frisson of delightful terror one may feel from reading ghost stories or watching horror movies, Matheson notes that people "can return to the safe world of their homes, secure in the knowledge that the phenomenon in question cannot follow. But as the abduction myth has stated almost from the outset, there is no avoiding alien abductors."[44]
Matheson writes that when compared to the earlier contactee reports, abduction accounts are distinguished by their "relative sophistication and subtlety, which enabled them to enjoy an immediately more favorable reception from the public."
Some writers[45][46] have said abduction experiences bear similarities to pre-20th century accounts of demonic manifestations, noting as many as a dozen similarities.[47] One notable example is the Orthodox monk Fr. Seraphim Rose, who devotes a whole chapter in his book Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future[48] to the phenomena of UFOs and abductions, which, he concludes, are manifestations of the demonic.[49]
Abduction researcher Brian Thompson claims that a nurse acquaintance of his reported that during 1957 in Cincinnati she encountered a 3-foot-tall (0.91 m) praying mantis-like entity two days after a V-shaped UFO sighting.[32] This mantis-like creature is reminiscent of the insectoid-type entity reported in some abduction accounts.[32] He related this report to fellow researcher Leonard Stringfield.[32] Stringfield told him of two cases he had in his files where separate witnesses reported identical circumstances in the same place and year.[32]
While some corroborated accounts seem to support the literal reality of the abduction experience, others seem to support a psychological explanation for the phenomenon's origins. Jenny Randles and Keith Basterfield both noted at the 1992 MIT alien abduction conference that of the five cases they knew of where an abduction researcher was present at the onset of an abduction experience, the experiencer "didn't physically go anywhere."[50]
Brazilian researcher Gilda Moura reported on a similar case, the Sueli case, from her home country. When psychologist and UFO researcher Don Donderi said that these cases were "evidence of psychological processes" that did not "have anything to do with a physical alien abduction," Moura replied "If the Sueli case is not an abduction, I don't know what is an abduction any more."[50] Gilda Moura noted that in the Brazilian Sueli case during the abduction UFOs were observed.[50] Later, she claims the experiencer had eye burns, saw lights and there seemed to be residual poltergeist activity.[50]
Attempts at confirmation[edit]
It has been argued that if actual "flesh and blood" aliens are abducting humans, there should be some hard evidence that this is occurring.[3] Proponents of the physical reality of the abduction experience have suggested ways that could conceivably confirm abduction reports.
One procedure reported occurring during the alleged exam phase of the experience is the insertion of a long needle-like contraption into a woman's navel.[5] Some have speculated that this could be a form of laparoscopy.[5] If this is true, after the abduction there should be free gas in the female's abdomen, which could be seen on an x-ray.[5] The presence of free gas would be extremely abnormal, and would help substantiate the claim of some sort of procedure being done to her.[5]
Notable abduction claims[edit]
- 1956: Elizabeth Klarer (South Africa)
- 1957: Antonio Vilas Boas (Brazil)
- 1961: Betty and Barney Hill (US)[7]
- 1973: Pascagoula Abduction (US)
- 1975: Travis Walton (US)
- 1976: Allagash Abductions (US)
- 1978: Valentich disappearance (Australia)
- 1979: Robert Taylor incident (Scotland)
- 1970s–1980s: Whitley Strieber (US)
- 1994: Meng Zhaoguo incident (China)
Notable figures[edit]
See also[edit]
- Alien abduction claimants
- Alien abduction entities
- Alien abduction insurance
- Alien language
- Anal probing
- Grey alien
- Hypnotherapy
- List of reported UFO sightings
- Recovered-memory therapy
- Sleep paralysis
- Temporal lobe epilepsy
- Witchcraft – similarities include the involvement of sexual contact with non-human creatures in historical accusations of witchcraft.[3]
- ^ Appelle, Stuart. "The Abduction Experience: A Critical Evaluation of Theory and Evidence". Journal of UFO Studies, n.s. 6, 1995/96, pp. 29–78
- ^ a b Appelle, 1996
- ^ a b c d e f g Sheaffer, Robert. "A Skeptical Perspective on UFO Abductions." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 382. –388.
- ^ "Alien abduction – Define Alien abduction at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Miller, John G. "Medical Procedural Differences: Alien Versus Human." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. pp. 59–64.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bullard, Thomas E. "The Rarer Abduction Episodes." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 72–74.
- ^ a b "Testament for Believers". Time. November 18, 1966. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
On the night of Sept. 19, 1961, Barney Hill and his wife Betty were driving home to Portsmouth, N.H., after a holiday in Montreal. A brilliant waxing moon sailed through a cloudless and star-fretted sky. As the Hills watched, first idly and then in terrified astonishment, one of the stars detached itself Tom [sic] the firmament and came down to earth—so near that the Hills could see it was no star.
- ^ Rodeghier, Mark. "Who is an Abductee? A Set of Selection Criteria for Abductees." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. p. 22.
- ^ Lord, Deane W. "John Mack on Abductions" (Harvard University Gazette, 1992) URL accessed Jan 23, 2006
- ^ a b Appelle, S., et al. Alien abduction experiences. In Cardeña, E., Lynn. S. J., & Krippner, S. (Eds.) (2000). Varieties of Anomalous Experience. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. P. 268.
- ^ Huyghe, Patrick, "The Dark Side" URL accessed Jan 23, 2006(1993)
- ^ a b Mack, 1995. p. 431
- ^ a b * Colvin, T. "UFOs And Fairies/Legends/Supernatural – Pt. II". Retrieved 2010-03-27.
- Colvin, T. "UFOs And Fairies/Legends/Supernatural – Pt. I". Retrieved 2010-03-27.
- ^ Gross, Loren E. (1990) UFOs: A History, 1953 August-December Pp. 43-44.
- ^ "magonia.demon.co.uk". Archived from the original on April 27, 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ Peter Rogerson (June 1993). "Fairyland's Hunters – Part One". Archived from the original on April 27, 2006. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ Bryan, 145fn
- ^ a b c Schnabel 1994
- ^ Jacobs (2015), p. 31. entire chapter 2 "Abductees, Aliens, and the Program" (pp. 15-46, especially Table 2, is helpful).
- ^ Matheson, 251
- ^ Mack, John. E. Abduction Humans Encounters with Aliens (Revised Edition). (1995). New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-39300-7. "Third, neurophysiological explanations do not account for hyperarousal and anxiety triggered by [events] linked to abduction. With the integration of the [traumatic experience] these reactions sometimes resolve, as predicted by theories of post traumatic stress disorder." p. 433.
- ^ Mack, 1995. After many hundreds of hours of work" with abductees, "I have no basis for concluding as yet that anything other than what experiencers say happened to them actually did." p. 434.
- ^ "cufos.org". Archived from the original on 17 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
- ^ a b Randles, J; Pritchard A; Pritchard DE; Mack JE; Kasey P; Yapp C (1994). "Why are They Doing This?". Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 0-9644917-0-2.
- ^ a b c d Bullard, Thomas E. "The Well-Ordered Abduction: Pattern or Mirage?" In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 81–82.
- ^ a b c d Truncale, Deborah Bruce. "Alien/UFO Experiences of Children." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 116–126.
- ^ McNally, R; et al. (2003). "Psychophysiological Responding During Script-Driven Imagery in People Reporting Abduction by Space Aliens". Psychological Science. 15 (7): 493–497. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.531.1262. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00707.x. PMID 15200635.
- ^ a b c Basterfield, Keith. "Abductions: The Paranormal Connection." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 149–151.
- ^ his essay is reprinted in Clark 1998
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Jacobs, David M. "Subsequent Procedures." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 64-68.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nyman, Joe. "A Composite Encounter Model." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 83–85.
- ^ a b c d e Bullard, Thomas E. "The Variety of Abduction Beings." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 90–91.
- ^ a b c d e f g Hopkins, Budd. "The Abduction Experience: Return." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 77–80.
- ^ a b c d Miller, John G. "The Realization Event -An Important Historical Feature." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 42–45.
- ^ Barbeito, PF (2005). ""He's Making Me Feel Things in My Body That I Don't Feel": The Body as Battleground in Accounts of Alien Abduction". Journal of American Culture. 28 (2): 201–15. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.2005.00164.x.
- ^ a b Nielsen, R (2007-01-23). "Alien Abduction: The Need for Healing". UFO Digest. Archived from the original on 2017-05-03. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ Shaoni, Bhattacharya (17 February 2003). "Memories of alien 'abduction' cause physical effects". NewScientist. Denver, Colorado. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
People who believe they have been abducted by aliens show some of the physiological changes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), US researchers have found. … Their findings show that the physical intensity of a recovered belief does not depend on whether the trauma was real or not. Intensity cannot therefore not be used to judge whether a memory was true.
- ^ Bader, CD (2003). "Supernatural Support Groups: Who Are the UFO Abductees and Ritual-Abuse Survivors?". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 42 (4): 2–14. doi:10.1046/j.1468-5906.2003.00210.x.
- ^ Linse, P; Loxton D (2006). "Alien Abduction Part 2". Skeptic. 12 (4): 81–98.
- ^ a b Kirsch, II; Lynn SJ (1996). "Alleged Alien Abductions: False Memories, Hypnosis and Fantasy Proneness". Psychological Inquiry. 7 (2): 151–5. doi:10.1207/s15327965pli0702_8. Archived from the original on September 21, 2009.
- ^ Spanos NP (1996). Multiple Identities & False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective. American Psychological Association. pp. 122–3. ISBN 978-1-55798-340-4.
- ^ "The UFO Abduction Phenomenon". Retrieved 2013-06-26.
- ^ Bryan, 269
- ^ Matheson, 297
- ^ Keel, John A. (1996). Operation Trojan Horse (PDF). ISBN 978-0962653469. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-20.. Originally published in 1970 [1].
- ^ Clifford A. Wilson; John Weldon (1 January 1978). Close Encounters: A Better Explanation, Involving Trauma, Terror, and Tragedy. Master Books. ISBN 978-0-89051-041-4.
- ^ "Articles Home". danielrjennings.org.
- ^ Fr. Seraphim Rose (2004). Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. ISBN 978-1-887904-00-1.
- ^ Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna. "Alien Abductions and the Orthodox Christian". orthodoxinfo.com.
- ^ a b c d Hall, Dick & Randles, Jenny & Basterfield, Keith & Moura, Gilda. "Panel on Cross Cultural Patterns in Abductions." In: Pritchard, Andrea & Pritchard, David E. & Mack, John E. & Kasey, Pam & Yapp, Claudia. Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the Abduction Study Conference. Cambridge: North Cambridge Press, 1994. Pp. 193–195.
Further reading[edit]
- Bryan, C. D. B. (1995). Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M.I.T.. New York: Knopf. ISBN 978-0-679-42975-3.
- Clancy SA (2005). Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01879-2.
- Jacobs, David M. (Ph.D.) (2015), Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity, Disinformation Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC; The Disinformation Company Ltd., ISBN 978-1-938875-14-4.
- Terry Matheson (1998). Alien Abductions: Creating a Modern Phenomenon. Buffalo, N.Y: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-57392-244-9.
- C. J. Stevens, The Supernatural Side of Maine, 2002, about alien abductions and people from Maine who faced the supernatural.


text:
From Russia to New York City...With Love
Once upon a time in St.Petersburg lived a mythical woman – Mari Vanna. She was known for her warm hospitality – everyone was welcomed as a dear guest at her home. Her visitants were treated divine traditional Russian dishes, served on her finest china and linens. Not a single person left Mari Vanna's home disappointed and many returned again and again back to this cozy retreat. Those, who were frequent guests in her home, were given a key of their own, thus becoming a part of Mari Vanna's family.
In present days, Mari Vanna resides hidden on a beautiful block in Manhattan's Flatiron area. As you step through her doorway, you will find yourself in a different place and era - an archetypal Russian apartment, adorned with old photographs, Matrioshka dolls, dazzling chandeliers, and an elaborate library where you can discover old Russian literature, a violin and a 1924 camera. The dim candlelight and quiet Russian music in the background will bring you to the Russian grandmother that you always wished to have – only for you she has prepared some delicious treats. And you will never want to leave.
Mari Vanna's menu offers many classics, among which is the flavorful Borscht – a traditional Beet soup, prepared with Beef, Broth, Cabbage, Potatoes, and Carrots,garnished with Dill and Sour Cream on the side (Mari Vanna has an exceptional way of serving this masterpiece of Russian cuisine). Do not forget to sample the beloved Beef Stroganoff – Filet mignon Strips, cooked in creamy Mushroom Sauce and served with old-style Grechnaya Kasha. And what better way to end a unforgettable mean than with a stack of Blini and an assortment of sweet condiments – Homemade Jams, Honey, Sweetened Condensed Milk, and Nutella. And finally, for those who want to fully immerse in Russian culture, Mari Vanna has created an extraordinary selection of house infused vodkas. Ranging form sweet to savory to spicy, there is a perfect " vodka match" for each guest. Naturally flavored with Horseradish, Pear & Vanilla, or Pickle & Garlic, Mari Vanna's large vodka canisters cover the bar wall and dare everyone to find his favorite taste.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The strategic planning model is due for a "new release," one that enables companies to keep pace with changing environments, quickly create and adapt strategy and empower people throughout the organization to make effective choices.
In many companies, the corporate planning department has gone the way of the dot-matrix printer. But if the analyst-driven, top-down, formal process of the previous era is dead, what have companies replaced it with? Not much, according to recent surveys of executives and managers of global companies. Many companies still hew to the decades-old annual strategic planning process, only now the responsibility for creating plans falls on group managers and department heads, with little central support. Other companies have jettisoned formal strategic planning altogether — centralizing strategy discussions to a few top executives or replacing planning with a hodgepodge of informal or semiformal retreats, executive leadership councils and board committees. Some observers have gone so far as to argue that strategy making is simply too uncertain and complex to be handled by a defined process. Unfortunately, senior managers may be throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water. The fact that the process is failing doesn't mean that strategy making is resistant to a process approach.
Consider software development. Around the same time that managers were losing confidence in strategic planning, software development went through its own crisis, as the demand for faster design and integration of increasingly robust systems began to make the traditional "waterfall" approach to software development obsolete.(See "The 'Waterfall' for Software Development/Strategic Planning.") The crisis in software prompted a few visionaries to rethink how software gets built. They didn't abandon a process approach to the problem; rather, they invented new development processes, such as rapid application development, extreme programming and agile software development, to confront the new realities.
The pressure to accelerate and at the same time cope with increased uncertainty and complexity led to the decline of traditional software development in some settings — and similar pressures seem to have played a pivotal role in the demise of formal strategic planning. What's interesting, though, is how differently people in these distinct worlds responded. Software developers went to work rethinking how software should be created. But strategy making didn't really change.
The insights upon which new software development approaches are based may point the way for the development of newer, faster and more effective strategy-making processes. Over the past six years, my colleagues and I have experimented with some of these principles to streamline the strategy-making processes at around 60 companies, in industries including hospitality, heavy manufacturing, financial services, education, healthcare and distribution.


text:
Spa therapies promote deep sleep & mental calmness
Aromatherapy Massage uses aromatic essential oils from plants, flowers and herbs to bring about mental relaxation. Unique therapies such as Shirodhara promote deep, peaceful sleep.
Spa therapies help you manage stress
Sitting all day in front of a computer, commuting to work & back, target & deadline pressures and financial worries are common stress culprits. Spa therapies relax your body & rejuvenate your mind.
Massage therapies reduce body pain & boost energy
Spa therapies such as Swedish Massage improve blood circulation and reduce pain. Thai Massage and Foot Reflexology Massage are great ways to improve flexibility and reduce fatigue.
Spa therapies help with immunity, detoxification & skin health
While Ayurvedic Massage boosts immunity, therapies like facials, body polishes and body wraps offer great ways to detoxify and get healthy, glowing skin.
Our unique benefit-based menu offers spa therapies for pain relief, anxiety relief, fatigue reduction,immunity, age reversal and skin whitening.
With our prices 20-40% lower than those at other spas in your city, you can now make regular spa therapies part of your health regime.
All the therapists undergo a rigorous training at a spa training academy owned by the company.
Pain is one of the most bothersome symptoms of stress that can limit our routine activities. A hectic lifestyle that includes sitting for long hours, frequent travel, lack of physical activities, etc. can contribute to pain. Although we know, that our lifestyle contributes to pain, we cannot avoid certain activities such as traveling to work or carrying laptop every day. Since painkiller drugs are associated with several side effects, most of us try to avoid painkillers unless it is the last resort. Therefore, we present Pain-Relief Programme that includes some effective modalities of pain management. Since all the therapies are natural, the possibility of side-effects is totally eliminated.
Stress is a natural phenomenon. It is very natural to get worried during stressful situation. But, when the feelings of worry get to an extreme level it can lead to anxiety, which is harmful to health. People who worry too much tend to have problems such as high blood pressure, unexplained pain, lack of concentration, gastric problems , headaches, etc. It is best to manage anxiety before it starts showing its physical consequences. We present Anxiety-Relief Programme that includes therapies that effectively reduce mental tension and also manage some of the physical symptoms caused by anxiety.
Did you know that adequate sleep is as important as physical activity and diet for healthy body and mind? People who get unsatisfactory sleep at night tend to be lethargic and less motivated during the day. With hectic jobs, travels, work shifts and living circumstances, at times it becomes difficult for many people to intimate and maintain undisturbed sleep for adequate amount of time. Better Sleep Programme includes therapies that have been proven to induce and maintain better sleep.
Human body is like a machine that needs regular maintenance for normal functioning. Our modern lifestyle is so stressful and hectic that we hardly give any time for our body and mind to relax. Over period, the muscles and joints get exhausted and we feel extreme tiredness to carry out our routine activities efficiently. At times some people develop a condition called adrenal fatigue and constantly rely on stimulant to stay alert and awake. In Anti-Fatigue Programme we offer therapies that naturally boost your energy levels and make you feel rejuvenated.
Toxins are all around us. We eat them through unhealthy foods and inhale through polluted air. Our body too produces some free radical toxins, but the antioxidants mechanism can fight against them. However, when the level of toxins or free radicals get too higher, body loses its capacity to fight it and leads to a state of imbalance called oxidative stress. Excess levels of free radicals in the body can be really harmful as it damages the cells and tissues in the body. Build-up of free radicals can also lead to several chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, etc. A.O. De-Toxification programme offers natural therapies that effectively remove the toxins and also repair any damage caused to the body.
Immune system plays a very vital role in managing our health. However, a stressful and sedentary lifestyle that includes too much work pressure, poor dietary habits, no physical activity, lack of sleep, smoking, etc. leads to compromised immunity. Since it is not possible to completely eliminate stress from life, it is important to maintain health through strong immunity. The Immunity-Booster Programme offers therapies that stimulate the production of white blood cells and improve the defense mechanism of the body.
Although it is not possible to change the natural colour and tone of your skin, experts have developed some therapies that can add an extra glow to your skin. Skin-Whitening programme includes therapies that make use of natural ingredients to impart glow to skin and make it look very supple and healthy.
Nothing can stop the natural phenomenon of ageing. But, due to stressful lifestyle and unhealthy habits many people tend to look older than their actual age. Signs of skin ageing such as sagging skin, fine wrinkles, pigmentation, dryness, etc. can be surely prevented through some special therapies. Age-Reversal Programmes includes therapies that have been carefully selected to target and prevent the signs of skin-ageing.
A perfect gift for all occasion. Buy now & schedule later option available!
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text:
Privacy and accountability are widely believed to be opposing goals in identity systems. On one hand, service providers require users to be identifiable to reduce fraud; on the other, users want to limit tracking while minimizing the amount of information disclosed about them. As a result, debates on identity become a rope pulling effort with privacy proponents on one end and security ones on the other. We will illustrate that this opposition is in fact an illusion.
Modern cryptography makes it possible to achieve both strong security and privacy to any degree desired. In this paper, we present a system allowing honest users to access online resources anonymously, but when a user contravenes to the terms of service or acts fraudulently, an auditor can de-anonymize and then ban the misbehaving user from the system. We also describe a prototype using a mobile phone as a second factor of authentication implementing this system.
This paper showcases a new ID escrow system to verifiably encrypt user pseudonyms for an auditor, and an efficient revocation accumulator scheme compatible with the U-Prove technology.


text:
Friday, May 28, 2010
WOMAN'S PICTURE Sources: My Grandmother's Violet Perfume
The last third of Woman's Picture involves an incident with a bottle of perfume.
The bottle sits out on Miriam Masterson's dresser, away from everything else. It belonged to her mother. Miriam doesn't seem to wear it, but at night, sitting there alone, she sniffs from it, stepping into some parallel dimension of stillness beyond regret, self-doubt, and the hamster wheel of ceaseless daily thoughts which keep her outside herself. During these private moments--the only time you see her alone--she gets a faraway look on her face; later, when you watch her selling perfume on TV, you believe in her sincerity, because she goes to the same faraway place, and you see that she finds ways to genuinely relate her own solitary experience to her viewers, however heightened and well-rehearsed the delivery.
She visits her mother in a nursing home every day. She sits on the edge of the bed, staring at her. Mentally, her mother has left the building. She's in her own distant place, and you know on some level that the perfume allows Miriam to go there, too, looking for her. Later, when her stoner boyfriend of five years breaks the bottle, Miriam flips. It's a trigger. A portal to another world closes. There's no getting back through. Russell can't understand why she's so upset. A pothead has his own parallel universe and the door is always a bong hit away.
Miriam wakes him up on the couch. You could hear him snoring when she came in, right before she discovered the broken bottle in the bathroom sink. Miriam spilled what was left of the perfume--mere drops--as she picked up the pieces of glass, and as she and Russell fight she keeps thrusting her hands into his face. You get the idea the perfume is evaporating as they speak. He'll buy her another bottle, Russell keeps saying. There was a little bit left: did she see? He doesn't get it. That was her, Miriam says. That was her in a bottle. There will never be another bottle like that. Your mother? says Russell. What are you talking about? The house is full of her shit. You never even liked that woman, he says. All she ever did was tell you what a fuck up you were.
The bottle I picked out for the scene at an antique store was totally different than the one I remember. It had a cut-glass stopper, shaped like a dagger. The stopper was bigger than the bottle. The bottle I remember was a tiny thing. It fit comfortably in the palm of my hand. My grandmother kept it in her medicine cabinet, hidden between pill bottles, ointments, band-aids, bobby pins. I used to lock myself in the bathroom to smell it. I never put it on. I couldn't risk being discovered smelling of it. But for years I enjoyed it behind closed doors. It smelled of violets and faint aldehydes, powdery and sweet, and reminded me not of my grandmother exactly, but of fantasies I entertained about her.
Toward the end she was frail. She seemed to have always suffered from arthritis but by her seventies her hands were so disfigured that she couldn't button her own shirts. She managed to light her cigarettes but it took her several minutes. You didn't dare offer to help. She spent the year before her stroke in a brace. She was so weak she couldn't hold her head up, and the doctors worried she'd break her neck. She never wore perfume. I have no idea where she got the bottle in the bathroom, but I know it must have meant something to her because it was very old, maybe older than she was, and whatever else changed in her house, whatever else moved around, that bottle was always in her cabinet, in precisely the same place.
I imagined she probably locked herself in the bathroom to smell it, the way I did, afraid that if she wore it some secret part of her self would incriminate her. My grandmother was a tough woman--always wise-cracking, always a wry smirk, a chain smoker. I never saw her in anything but pants and shirts--save for the times she square danced, and that was more theatrical than persuasive. It was as if she would be mistreated, like a woman, were she to act and dress like one. She was mistreated anyway, but at least in male clothing she could pretend, like a man, not to be bothered.
I like to believe she had hidden reserves of sensitivity she couldn't afford to declare. She was surrounded mostly by men, with only her daughters and the wives of male friends to give her away. The year before she died, I stole the bottle. I knew no one would give it to me, and I couldn't let her know it meant something to me. I think it would have been thrown out when my mother and her sisters took inventory. I was willed a stuffed coyote instead (also in WOMAN'S PICTURE); a more masculine legacy. I brought the violet perfume home and put it in my own bathroom cabinet. I want to say it was about an inch and a half tall, but practically full. I kept it there after she died.
Early one morning, she had a stroke. She was alone, in the bathroom, of all places. My mother arrived and found her on the floor. She wasn't wearing her neck brace and couldn't keep her head up. She was lucid for moments at a time but mostly disappearing into nonsense or silence. She was rushed to the hospital and put on life support for several days. Seeing her in the hospital was horrifying, because it wasn't her anymore. It wasn't anybody. I was glad I'd taken the perfume.
We were cleaning house one day and I heard glass break. It had a weird sound of finality to it. I rushed into the bathroom and my boyfriend was already making excuses. The bottle had fallen out of the cabinet, shattering on the sink. He'd saved what was left, he kept telling me. I can't explain how I was feeling, other than to say it was like someone had killed my grandmother. I don't think I've ever gotten any nearer to what people mean when they say they flew into a rage. I was essentially possessed. The bottle hadn't even been labelled. I still don't know what the perfume was called.
Ten years later, as we filmed the confrontation between Miriam and Russell, I kept taking Ann Magnuson, the actress who played Miriam, into an adjoining room. It was near the end of the shoot and I was exhausted. Various resentments had been stuffed to get through the thing, but I let them out in the controlled environment of that room, trying to free her up into some irrational anger, some response or place beyond justification, cause and effect. It had to be primal. It wasn't about the relationship. It was about losing someone. I wanted her to fly into the room, to poke Russell awake as though she were stabbing him. I wanted the camera to linger on the broken bottle, the spilled perfume, the finality of it never being whole again. The bottle I found was perfect; only the stopper remained intact, shaped like a weapon to drive home the injury.
I wanted a special kind of cluelessness to Russell's response. How can anyone be prepared for that--or truly be blamed? How can anyone know what the bottle held for you? It's the curse of trying to maintain some sense of significance in a world full of stupid spinning collisions, where flimsy things are broken on impact, their parts flying off in opposite directions. I remember my grandmother's body jerking from the life support machine, as fragile as that stupid bottle, no more or less impermanent, certainly just as tiny in the larger scheme of the universe. I relate to the smile on Miriam's face as she sells some other bottle of perfume on a TV show which offers that fantasy of attachment and personal investment to anonymous viewers. There was a running dialog as we filmed, questioning whether Miriam was for real. It was such a non issue for me, ultimately. She seems to be locked in a bathroom of her own making, and you could just as easily ask how real the world outside the door is. Who's to say the film we were shooting wasn't real, invested with those ghosts?
(Photo: Ann Magnuson in WOMAN'S PICTURE. Hair and make-up by Alicia Boldreghini George)
Posted by a blog by Brian Pera at 8:36 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
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text:
Hey everyone,
I want to start getting some feedback!
Here is what I'd like to hear in this particular thread:
Feedback on weapons that need balancing the most, reasons and how you'd fix it.
Fixes should be simple to implement, like changing some numbers.
Let me give you a format:
Weapon Name [Buff/Nerf/Balance]
In time I will ask for more detailed feedback or about another topics.
So I ask you to focus on what I'm asking.
Good Samples:
QuoteDisplay More
Railgun - [Buff]
+50% damage
When I hit with Railgun the target's account is not banned immediately, so I suggest more damage
Spy Dagger - [Balance]
More normal damage (small increase)
Less Right click damage
Spy Dagger right click allows too easy kills because it's too fast. If it's slow, it will lose its meaning so maybe damage can be lower
Above change would make it too weak, so normal damage increase would help
(OK rail gun isn't a good sample because it's trying to be funny, but you get the idea!)
Bad samples:
QuoteDisplay More
nerf melee weapons omg
[Super constructive post about Esper chips]
To Fix breaker, make it so that the jump attack stuns the target first, then follows by a slow and after 2 seconds, another stun.
Counter Sword
You can now counter rockets


text:
Johnny Rotten needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 88 designs submitted by 29 freelance designers.
We are looking for a impressionable logo for our new blog, http://www.rantrooms.com
A Place to Vent About Anything!
Desired Style:
please use your creative ideas without restriction
Accepted File Formats:
.psd, .eps, .tif - Windows
Rant Rooms is going to be a place to vent all of your frustrations about any topic that you please. Please make the logo fun and impressionable. This site is about getting out all of your pent up frustration and relieving the stress. Rant about your boss, your wife, husband, politics, religion, bankers, lawyers, your dog that craps on your new carpet, we don't care just Rant!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Computer Blank Transparency Film
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text:
"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you." – Friedrich Nietzsche
"Many a man proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy man?" – BibleJack and Jill were having a serious conversation at the dinner table. They had only been married a short time, and already Jill was having a problem believing her husband. A mutual friend had mentioned casually that she had seen Jack sitting at a lunch table with an old girlfriend of his. Jill was clearly upset because when she first asked Jack about his day he didn't mention his noon meeting at all until Jill asked him directly.
Jack replied a little defensively and with some irritation that it was just a harmless coincidental encounter and a chance to get caught up on some mutual acquaintances. He hadn't told Jill because he guessed she would be upset.
Jill may be demonstrating a little jealousy here, probably not all that uncommon with newlyweds. Jack was not demonstrating sensitivity to his new wife and was starting down the path of "harmless" deceptions – which can eventually lead to tragedy.
Trust is an extremely valuable commodity in any relationship. In fact, George MacDonald, 19th century author, poet and Christian minister, said, "To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved." Trust is difficult to maintain and even harder to restore once it's been broken.
The rules to maintain trust in a marriage are fairly easy to understand. The application is a lot more difficult. First of all, rules for behavior must be established. The best and simplest rule is to agree to honor one another; don't ever think, say or do anything that might hurt the other person. This may require discussion, since husband and wife often have different ideas on what "honoring" means.
The next rule is to communicate! Don't keep secrets. If we mess up on the first rule (and we all will), be quick to admit it, repent, apologize and do whatever is necessary to make amends.
There are other practices that will enhance trust, but commitment to love and honor one another unconditionally and to engage in frequent, open and intimate communication will go a long way toward a successful happy marriage.
If trust is broken, how can we repair it? Steve Arterburn with New Life Ministries suggests four simple steps.
Step 1: Sincerely confess the truth. This does not necessarily mean every intimate detail, but certainly enough to show your spouse that you are not keeping any secrets. If your spouse wants details, provide them. As they say in a court of law: the truth, nothing but the truth, and the WHOLE truth. The offending spouse is not off the hook if he claims his wife failed to ask the right detailed question, so he never told her – and hence never "lied" to her. That's not the WHOLE truth.
Step 2: Be completely open. The offender must give up control of that part of his life that has broken the trust. If the offense is with money, e.g. the offender overspent the budget and didn't tell his spouse, then he must relinquish any responsibility for their finances until he has demonstrated responsive change.
Step 3: The offender must truly repent and be sorry for what she did. The ultimate goal is true repentance on the part of the offender and true forgiveness from the one who is offended. The repentance must by definition include a change in the behavior in question.
Step 4: Rebuilding trust takes time and patience. If the offense is a simple lie, it may be easier to repent and forgive than if an affair was involved. Broken trust leaves a wound that takes time to heal. Even after the wound is healed the scar may remain. Boundaries and additional behavioral rules may be needed for a long time.
The best approach is prevention: honor your spouse and communicate regularly and with meaning.
The Family and Marriage Coalition of Aiken, Inc. (FAMCO) provides resources for you to succeed in your marriage and families. Roger Rollins, Executive Director, FAMCO, 803-640-4689, firstname.lastname@example.com, www.aikenfamco.com.


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Please Note: There are several recipes listed on this page. Please scroll down the page, to find the recipe you are seeking. Thank you!
Zucchini Fettuccine with Fresh Tomato Salsa
This raw side dish is low in calories, a breeze to prepare, and fabulous fare on a hot summer night. The zucchini strips really do look and taste a lot like fresh pasta.
2 medium to large zucchini
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
10 to 14 leaves fresh basil, minced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (optional, see note)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1⁄8 to 1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Shave the zucchini lengthwise with a vegetable peeler to make the "noodles." Put the zucchini in a large bowl. Add the tomatoes, basil, oil, and garlic and toss gently until thoroughly combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
NOTE: For an oil free version, omit the olive oil
Arugula-and-Walnut Pesto Pasta
Arugula adds a peppery bite to this pesto without overwhelming the flavors of the other ingredients, and the wheat germ adds extra nutrition and a subtle crunch. This recipe is special enough to serve to guests yet is also quick to prepare. Serve it with crusty whole-grain bread and a simple romaine salad for a satisfying meal.
1 pound whole-grain pasta
21⁄4 ounces (3 cups, lightly packed) baby arugula
1 cup fresh basil, lightly packed
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 to 2⁄3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄4 cup toasted wheat germ
2 tablespoons water
2 cloves garlic
1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 small tomatoes, cut into wedges
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the pasta. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but firm.
Meanwhile put the arugula, basil, walnuts, oil, wheat germ, water, garlic, and salt in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender jar or work bowl as needed. (Depending on the size of your blender or food processor, you may need to process the mixture in batches.) Season with pepper to taste.
Drain the pasta well and transfer to a large bowl. While it is still piping hot, add the arugula mixture and toss gently until thoroughly combined. Transfer to a large, shallow serving bowl and arrange the tomato wedges around the edge. Serve immediately.
NOTE: The arugula mixture can be prepared up to 4 hours in advance. Just store it in a covered bowl in the refrigerator. Bring it back to room temperature before mixing it with the pasta
Garden Vegetable Gazpacho
4 ripe tomatoes, quartered
4 stalks celery, with leaves, coarsely chopped
1 small onion, quartered
1⁄3 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, lightly packed
1⁄4 cup fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon reduced-sodium tamari
1 clove garlic
Sea salt
Several grinds freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh basil, for garnish
Put the tomatoes, celery, onion, parsley, basil leaves, vinegar, oil, chili powder, optional brown sugar, tamari, and garlic in a large bowl and stir to combine. Put half of the mixture in a blender and process until slightly chunky. Pour into a large bowl or pitcher. Repeat with the remaining mixture, then stir the two batches together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 4 to 12 hours before serving.
About 30 minutes before serving, chill four to six bowls or mugs. To serve, ladle the gazpacho into the chilled bowls. Garnish with a bit of chopped basil and a drizzle of olive oil if desired. Serve immediately.
NOTE: For a low-fat version of this gazpacho, omit the olive oil.
Autumn Apple Crisp
Featuring a crisp and sweet oatmeal topping, this is one of my favorite recipes to make all year 'round. My grandmother had a big, beautiful apple tree in her backyard, and every fall she made a variety of desserts from its bounty of apples. One of my favorites was her apple crisp. This "veganized" rendition is true to the delicious texture and taste of her version. Top it with vegan ice cream if you like. Any leftover crisp is nutritious enough to serve for breakfast, doused liberally with nondairy milk.
4 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
3 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1⁄4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats
1⁄3 cup vegan margarine, at room temperature
3 tablespoons unsalted roasted sunflower seeds (optional)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
1⁄8 teaspoon sea salt
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat a 10-inch square baking pan or 12 x 9-inch casserole dish with vegan margarine.
Put the apples, raisins, maple syrup, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and stir gently until well combined. Transfer to the prepared pan, spreading the mixture in an even layer.
Put the oats, margarine, optional sunflower seeds, brown sugar, flour, and salt in a medium bowl and mix with your hands until thoroughly combined. Using your hands or a rubber spatula, spread the mixture evenly over the apples.
Cover and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the apples are soft. Uncover and bake for about 10 minutes, until the topping is crisp. Serve warm or at room temperature. Covered tightly and stored in the refrigerator, leftover crisp will keep for about 5 days.


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After winning the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition in 2014, this bluegrass/Americana band has been a Telluride favorite! Don't miss out as this quintet takes the stage at the Sheridan Opera House with songs from their new album.
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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
The ideal candidate should be available for 3 to 5 hours for 3 or more days a week as mutually agreed for the program's need.
For more information you can contact Carrboro Recreation and Parks at 919-918-7364 and fill out our Volunteer Application Form.


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The Best Place To Swim With Dolphins In The Wild
The WildQuest Experience Of A Lifetime!
The Human-Dolphin Connection
Check dates and prices for all dolphin swim weeks.
World Class Swimming With Dolphins Experience
Meeting the big pod is an incredible experience. Watching them socializing with each other, the mind cannot really grasp what's going on. What are they doing? There's some spectacular drone footage as well as amazing underwater shots. Don't miss the end when Sandy – our dog – joins the dolphins for a swim.
And thank you Trine Opsahl for her wonderful harp music that goes so beautifully with the grace of the dolphins.
Subscribe to the WildQuest Newsletter
Get the latest dolphin news.
What Our Guests Say
I keep going back to Bimini since 2010. To swim with free dolphins is a magical and transforming experience. The Wildquest Team does an outstanding job. I especially appreciate their respect and awareness for nature as well as for the dolphins. Whoever has the dream to swim with free dolphins, there is only one place to go to: Wildquest on Bimini Islands.
There is a place where you can be seen. You matter. The love and acknowledgement by the dolphins who may wink at you as they swim by is perfectly mirrored by the staff who also look you in the eye and radiate love and deep passion for what they do. They know that being with the Dolphins is a transformative experience and they provide the perfect environment for your heart to open and for you to begin to take in that profound unconditional love and acceptance for being JUST WHO YOU ARE.
Swimming with the dolphins is a wonderful and magical experience that touches the very core of your being. I absolutely loved the way the Wild Quest team showed respect for the dolphins.... The Wild Quest team looked after all their guests individually and collectively. Excellent food!
This adventure in the water with the dolphins is one of the most amazing experiences of my life! The loving staff at Wildquest effortlessly support our daily adventures out on the boat and connections with these beautiful beings. The dolphins, workshops, sailing, jumping off the boat for a swim, being towed behind the boat, Tara's massage, the food, watching the colors of the setting sun over the water back at the retreat center, the camaraderie of the group, it was all a magical experience.
Beautiful shades of blue, both the ocean and the sky, balmy breezes. This was my 2nd time at WildQuest. The crew is fantastic, always willing to answer questions or help you learn how to snorkel. DolphinQuest, their 42 foot catamaran is quite comfortable. The dolphins – what can I say, they are just amazing to see and swim with in the wild. It's a once in a lifetime experience.


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More and more people are making a point of telling me how much they miss the little peeks into my personal insanity and what is On My Plate. I feel as if I have really let you all down during my unplanned hiatus. This entry could detail all that has transpired, but for now, I will just say that since my last post in October, I have experience sickness and health, life and death, chaos and calm, and bouts of cooking madness countered with frozen pizzas thrown into an oven that wasn't even preheated. Life has run the gamut for me and will probably never be the same, but it is time for me to find some balance and get back into the swing of things that are important to me...and in case you hadn't figured it out by now, food ranks pretty highly in my list of important things. Sharing it through this blog has been a surprisingly fun and enriching experience. I miss this and want it back. It is time for me to get my brain back in gear and to get back to business.
If I want my brain to pull itself from the squalor that kept me from babbling here, I need to feed it well. Salmon is a perfect brain food. High in Omega-3 and low in saturated fat, it is a smart protein choice that will only make you smarter.
I feel especially smart when I whip up Spiced Glazed Salmon. It is as simple as mixing a few simple pantry ingredients, rubbing the salmon, and roasting. That allows for a great meal and time to deal with all of the other craziness that occurs in our (my?) lives. It is easy to get Back to Business with Spiced Glazed Salmon On My Plate.
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 (6 ounce) salmon fillets
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon melted butter
Combine the paprika, chili powder, ancho, cumin, garlic powder, and brown sugar.
Place salmon on lightly sprayed sheet pan. (I cover mine with foil or parchment for easier clean up.)
Sprinkle the salmon with salt, then rub with spice mixture.
Combine melted butter and maple syrup; drizzle each fillet with the mixture.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until salmon flakes with a fork.
(Can garnish with chopped green onions, if desired.) Serves 4.


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Virginia state police say they have found the body of the third passenger of a hot air balloon that drifted into a power line, burst into flames and fell into a heavily wooded area about 25 miles north of Richmond.
DOSWELL, Va. � Virginia state police say they have found the body of the third passenger of a hot air balloon that drifted into a power line, burst into flames and fell into a heavily wooded area about 25 miles north of Richmond.
State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the searchers found the body at 11 a.m. Sunday. The two other passengers had previously been found.
Police have not released the victims' names, but family members and the University of Richmond said associate head coach Ginny Doyle and director of basketball operations Natalie Lewis were passengers. Veteran hot air balloon pilot Daniel T. Kirk was at the controls.
Preparations for the University of Richmond's graduation ceremony were tinged with sadness Sunday.
"Words cannot begin to express our sorrow," Keith Gill, the school's athletic director, said in a statement. "We are all stunned by the tragic news. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their loved ones."
Donald Kirk on Sunday said his son, Daniel T. Kirk, was piloting the balloon. The balloon was registered to Daniel at an address in the Dover, Delaware, area. His company's website said he had been a hot air balloon pilot for more than 20 years and had a commercial balloon pilot license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Two bodies have been found so far. Searchers continued to look for the third body Sunday. Undergraduate commencement at University of Richmond was scheduled for later in the day.
Lewis just completed her second year as director of basketball operations for the women's team, according to a profile on the university's website. The Buffalo, New York, native was a four-year letter winner and two-time captain of the Spiders' swim team.
Lewis was "an amazing person and a strong person, an athlete engaged to be married," according to family spokeswoman Julie Snyder.
Doyle, who graduated from Richmond in 1992 after a standout basketball career, served on the team staff for 16 years after that � including nine winning seasons. She earned all-conference honors twice as a player.
"As alumnae, classmates, and colleagues � and as invaluable and devoted mentors for our student-athletes � Ginny and Natalie have been beloved members of our community," university president Edward L. Ayers said.
The university canceled two weekend baseball games and held a moment of silence at commencement Saturday for its law school.
Amber Battle, who will be a senior next season, said from her home in Apex, North Carolina that her coach, Michael Shafer, was keeping the team updated via text messages.
He told them that he was also at the balloon festival.
"I just can't believe this happened," she said.


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Silver Cat Decorative Hook
Dimensions: 16.5cm
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