OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson wrote: >>From Terry: > >> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/i-have-been-abducted-by-aliens-says-japans-first-lady-1780888.html >> > > Yukido Hatoyama sez: > > "While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped > UFO and went to Venus," she explains in the tome she published last > year. "It was a very beautiful place, and it was very green." > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > I could say something snarky about Hatoyama's experiences, and no > doubt many will and are, but that would be a disservice. While many > UFO abduction researchers might vehemently disagree with what I'm > about to suggest, Hatoyama's dreams (probably those of a lucid dream > nature) reveal classic "abduction" experiences. Such experiences and > the underlying content, IMO, will be interpreted differently depending > on one's educational & cultural background, and emotional integrity. > (As Hatoyama states, she viewed Venus as a wonderful very "green" > place. That should be a dead giveaway that we are witnessing a blatant > personal interpretation.)
It's also a dead giveaway that Hatoyama is appallingly ignorant of the universe we live in. I cannot imagine anyone who actually knew anything about space science taking such a dream seriously -- they would know at once that the experience had been "a mere dream". In general, as I understand it, part of the way we commonly distinguish remembered dreams from real experiences is by "internal evidence": If I wake up remembering a visit to my house by a six foot tall ant I'll immediately dismiss it as a dream, no matter what the emotional content of the memory might be. Someone who is totally clueless about what exists above our own atmosphere might be expected to take a dream of a verdant Venus far more seriously than, say, an astrophysicist would. > > Granted, abduction researchers like Hopkins and Jacobs have compiled > extensive accounts on abduction experiences that seem to point to the > disquieting fact that many abductees experience the same "abduction" > environment, where they encounter the same kinds of individuals > (aliens), and/or perceive the same "tools of the trade". But then, > there are other "abduction" accounts, like those of Hatoyama's which > seem utterly devoid of any realistic-like reality that I suspect most > UFO researchers would immediately conclude it would be in their best > interest to dismiss them as not valid. Good plan, IMO. > > And there's the rub. While UFO investigators are trying their best to > honorably investigate a difficult phenomenon, both scientifically and > objectively, how accurate can such compilations be if they arbitrarily > chose what to include as a "valid" UFO abduction accounts versus what > they might consider to be obviously "invalid" experiences/encounters? But if this reported experience were to be considered *as* *valid* as all other UFO abduction experiences, then the unavoidable conclusion which any knowledgeable observer would come to is that all UFO abduction experience accounts are about as "valid" as opium dreams. Opium dreams are "valid experiences" for the dreamer, but don't seem to have much to do with any "objective reality". In fact, just about anyone who isn't interested in investigating "altered states" is likely to find other people's opium dreams a rather dull topic. > FWIW, this is one of the reasons why I tend to take abduction > accounts, such as those compiled by Hopkins and Jacobs as having > probably been filtered somewhat. > > What I think is more important is the experience itself - what kind of > an emotional/intellectual impact it is having on the experiencer, > regardless of what costume the players are currently decked out in. > Trying to prove scientifically that these experiences are "real" > misses the point. They are real to the experiencer. In the end that's > all that really matters. That's all that matters to *whom*? That's all that matters to the experiencer's shrink; that's a reasonable statement. However, for the rest of us, the possible connection with an objective reality is extremely interesting, and claiming otherwise is kind of silly. > > The rest of us can chose to dismiss such accounts and experiences as > being ridiculous or as nothing more than harmless psychological > aberrations... but I think we do so at our own loss. > > I suspect if Jung were alive today, he would find that significant > portions of the abduction phenomenon would fit in quite well with his > understanding of the Collective Unconscious. That is NOT to be taken > as an insult to those experiencing these experiences. > > Regards > Steven Vincent Johnson > www.OrionWorks.com > www.zazzle.com/orionworks >
