Electric UFOs

I love this time of the year when the nights are cold and you can rug up, sit down and read a book which challenges your mind!

This past week's book was "Electric UFOs: Fireballs, electromagnetics and abnormal states" authored by Albert Budden, and published in 1998 by Blandford. ISBN 071 372 7306, courtesy of my local library.

Budden's central hypothesis is "...that alien abduction experiences are induced through prolonged exposure to EM fields in hot-spot locations." p41.

"In the course of my investigations over the past 4 years I have discovered that contactees, or 'abductees' as they have come to be known, have developed an environmental sensitivity syndrome which includes food allergies, chemical sensitivities, electromagnetic hypersensitivity...and symptoms of epileptiform conditions, their subsequent hallucinatory/visionary experiences being a symptom of this syndrome." p19.

MEE -a major electrical event- is one where a person is close to a lightning strike or is electrocuted and survives etc. EH - electromagnetic hypersensitivity - is enhanced in such individuals who have had an MEE. Individuals thus affected are sensitive to general environmental stimuli and begin to report psychic effects. Exposure to fields from EM sources can cause hallucinations/visions. pp21-22.

"It is suggested that the electrically produced fields from transmitters in the environment can carry allergic reactions to the body, which responds by producing hallucinatory experiences involving imagery of aliens...In my previous book...I suggested that, because parts of the brain are repeatedly stimulated the gray as a consistent type of entity is hallucinated." p105.

"Perhaps now we can begin to appreciate the elements which combine to induce the alien-abduction experience as a consistent set of perceptual events. The EH body apprehends the incoming fields as intrusive and alien to its system, especially if they are 'tagged' with an allergic response relayed from allergenic foods and/or chemicals; the resulting visions are driven by these field producing sensations both by direct stimulation of the body via induced body currents and through triggering focal seizures in the brain itself. This mixing and matching induces visual hallucinations." p111.

"However, it must be stated that the precise trigger for alien-abduction experiences per se, as opposed to any other depictions of formed figures, is unclear." p117.

"It is ironic that psychical researchers do not investigate cases in which the percipient encounters aliens, and ufologists do not consider the incidence of ghosts as being within their area of study..." p198.

"The approach presented could be usefully described as a 'unified theory' because it provides commonalities which link UFO/alien encounter experiences, ghosts and poltergeists." p199.

"'Abductees' have allergies, chemical sensitivities, EH and epileptiform symptoms, and I have yet to find one who has not experienced the sense of presence on an episodic basis...Also associated with 'abductees' or 'visitations' as a well-defined cluster of health effects..." p 200

I found the way he lays out his hypothesis made it a little difficult to understand at first glance. I think he is saying:

* An individual
* In an electromagnetic hot spot
*Is exposed to long term to electromagentic fields and becomes electromagentially hypersensitive to these fields. This EH is enhanced in some indivduals who have been in close proximity to lightning strike, ball lighting, suffered major electrocution p21
* This causes allergenic reactions to the individual's body
*Producing hallucinatory experiences. "...perceiving images...from their own unconscious image bank." p 22.
* These are due to induced body currents and triggering focal seizures in the brain
*Some of these hallucinations take the form of alien-abduction experiences. "EM-field-stimulated somatic sensations induce the recurring visionary depiction of an intrusive bodily examination by alien forms..."p24.

What I love about this work, is that the author conducted field investigations; spoke first hand to abductees; took the time to ask heaps of questions not normally asked by the standard UFO researcher; then took a look at the data; came up with what to him is a coherent systematic hypothesis; tested it and found that, in his opionion; it provided a big picture explanation for the data. This is the true scientific method, and Budden is to be congratulated for being bold enough to put this hypothesis out there.

There is much here that I find fault with; however, there seem to be kernels of truth which have been lost to the average UFOlogist. I need some time to digest what I have read and then will come back to it in a future post.

If you haven't read this book, you should. It will get you thinking. Go to your local library and get them to track down a copy for you. I now need to read Budden's previous book "UFOs-Psychic close encounters" published in 1995.