Omega project revisited

Hi readers

It's the weekend, with plenty of time for surfing the net. Today's post takes a look at an article on research into ufo experiencers.

In 1992 Kenneth Ring (click here for Ring's own website) published a book "The Omega Project:Near-death experiences, UFO encounters and mind at large." New York. Quill William Morrow. Ring worked with a number of individuals who reported a near-death experience; or a UFO encounter/abduction; plus a control sample. He found a number of similarities between NDErs and UFO witnesses.

I've only just come across a MUFON Journal article in the March 2008 edition, which replicated part of Ring's 1992 study (minus the NDE component.)Titled "Ring's "Omega Project" revisited: antecedents and consequents of UFO encounters and alien abductions." it was authored by LeLieuvre, Robert B; Larson, Teresa and Remington, Heather.

The article abstract reads:

"In this preliminary study, 30 volunteer participants-comprised of 11 individuals who reported UFO encounters or alien contacts and 19 individuals with an interest in encounters, contacts and abductions but with no experiences-completed instruments used by Kenneth Ring in his 1992 study, published as The Omega Project:Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large."

While the sample size is quite small, the mean scores of experimental subjects on the instruments compared with the mean scores of control subjects were in the expected direction, with the exception of the mean scores on the Psychological Inventory, a measure of dissociation. Childhood antecedent experiences for experimental subjects were seen as more stressful than childhood antecedent experiences in control subjects. Changes in spiritual beliefs and values, likewise, were seen more frequently in experimental subjects than in control subjects, though comparative changes in physical functioning and in traditional versus universal-spiritual religious beliefs were less obvious than in the original study. Encounters were attributed to a purposive, extraterrestrial intelligence.

Given the data-some supporting Ring and some raising questions about the pathway to extraordinary experiences- a more extensive study, with a more broadly derived sample is justified."

These kind of studies are an essential requirement if we are to learn more scientifically about those coming forward reporting such experiences.

For the full report on an Australian study along these lines click here.