>From Jed:
> Regarding this subject as a whole, I would like to say that I do not deny > the possibility that someone may have been abducted. I doubt it, but it is > conceivable. On the other hand we know for a fact that some people who say > they have had these experiences did not. People such as Ms. Hatoyama dreamed > up the whole thing. I expect she sincerely believes it, but I am sure it did > not happen. In other words, testimony of the person about his or her > experience is not valid evidence. > > MRI truth detector technology is improving rapidly. In a few years I expect > we will be able to test people such as Ms. Hatoyama and find out if they are > telling the truth or lying. This should work much better than today's polygraph > lie detector machines. I expect we will find that many people who claimed they > were abducted are telling the truth, but with people like Hatoyama, it will > only prove that people have false memories. We know they do already. It is > well established. Perhaps we will find a physical difference between false > memories and real ones, but I doubt it. I wish more skeptics could be as neutral as you try to be on this contentious subject. The fact that you express a healthy amount of doubt is reasonable and most logical under the circumstances. I have yammered on long and hard, preaching my own unique flavor of what might be going on, but in the end it still a mystery to me. Until we collect more information on the subject I would imagine discussions are likely to remain occasionally contentious. The following is additional personal conjecture on my part: As for Ms. Hatoyama's experiences, it's my suspicion that she is simply expressing a personal interpretation, one that is both visionary and rich in mythic symbolism. As far as I know, no one appears to have actually asked her point blank if she truly believes the hellishly hot Venus, the one we see in the skies and know to be the morning and evening star is the same wonderfully "green" Venus Ms. Hatoyama experienced. As far as I can tell it would appear that everyone who has listened to Hatoyama's account of having experienced a wonderfully "green" Venus has simply rolled their eyes and chose not to pursue the matter any further for fear of... well who knows for fear of what! And besides it a great bizarre story as-is - so don't spoil it with additional clarifications, etc... Had they done so It's quite possible Ms. Hatoyama might simply say something to the effect that, well yes, of course she understands that from the scientific astronomical perspective the surface of Venus is a hellish 800 degrees hot and that it also possesses an atmosphere filled with CO2 "green house" gasses - but that's not the wonderful "green" like Venus that she was personally transported to. But even if she does sincerely believe her own vision of a wonderfully green Venus is the correct one (I mean that in the scientific sense), there still lies a tantalizing mystery that I will try to elaborate a tad more on. I find it interesting that Ms. Hatoyama's vision interpreted Venus as wonderful and "green" - as if on some unconscious level she was getting part of the "green house" message, but chose to transform or reinterpret that aspect of the information into a collection of personal paradigms that would be of more use to her. IOW, of what practical use might it be for Ms. Hatoyama to envision a hot run-away "green house" gas-filled planet, the one we call Venus, when she could just as well transform all that that hellishly hot "green house" atmospheric information into something perceived as more hospitable from her POV, perhaps something wonderfully "green", a paradise like. It's possible my conjecture is likely to upset some on this list who possess a more practical-minded perspective, particularly because it might seem so devoid of reality as we understand it to be, but such "interpretations" amuse me. In any case, Ms. Hatoyama does seem to be her own lady. ;-) --- Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
