Clinical therapist discusses findings and experiences covering 12 years of research 3/28/2000
Written by Wiggz...also known as the AlienZoo prohibitor of dullness.
Among the foremost experts in alien abduction research is John Carpenter, a Springfield, Missouri-based social worker and clinical therapist. Over the last 12 years, Carpenter has worked with 140 abductees, to a large extent through his work with MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network.
What's interesting about Carpenter is that he sees himself as a data collector -- someone who doesn't pass judgment or edit his subject's responses. "People call me an expert," he said at his presentation at the International UFO Congress, held in Laughlin, Nevada, earlier this month. "I still feel like a student learning."
Carpenter has produced six UFO videos, and is in the process of writing a very in-depth book that covers his years of research. He doesn't want to leave anything out; to the contrary, he wants to drag, as he puts it, his readers through the experience of collecting and analyzing details regarding more than 80 cases, including the backgrounds of his subjects. A lot of charts and drawings will be involved. "I will not edit anything out," he says. "Nobody else has done this." He foresees publishing his book in a couple of years.
Carpenter has traveled throughout the world to gather information on alien contactees. In 1996, he produced a video titled Aliens Captured in Brazil?, regarding his research on the Varginha, Brazil case of 1996, in which two extraterrestrials were captured by the military. That same year, Carpenter released Encounters in Australia.
In his UFO Congress talk, Carpenter revealed an in-depth overview of what the 140 abduction cases he's seen hold in common. Remarkably, people who have never seen or read about a Gray before can describe in remarkable detail the one they encountered. In Missouri, Carpenter works with artist Susan Dusenberry, who draws what Carpenter's subjects cannot. The results are often the same: aliens with four fingers, almond-shaped eyes, and "coin-slot" mouths. What's more, a lightning flash, or serpent-like emblem is perceived as being affixed to aliens' uniforms. These aliens are sometimes seen carrying a wand.
Reports given by children are staggering
A key section of Carpenter's talk centered around accounts given by child contactees. Carpenter told the story of visiting a classroom of 30 3-year-olds, whom he asked to draw an image of an alien. Although too young to know about alien TV shows, the children drew fantastic, vividly imaginative renderings of ETs. Most important, none of the drawings matched. "I had 30 wonderful, creative little drawings, and not one of them was a Gray," the therapist noted.
Carpenter contrasted these pictures with child experiencers, who can recall visits with Grays with remarkable detail.
There was 5-year-old Eric, who in 1989 drew "the leaders of the king of the mean ones," who floated the boy through a wall. The beings were rendered as being hairless, and having large, black eyes and white faces.
An 8-year-old boy depicted his Gray abductors with black eyes and four fingers. When Carpenter showed the boy's drawing to an art therapist, she immediately saw telltale signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. The child drew himself with clenched fists, chattering teeth, and disturbed eyes.
A 3-year-old Australian girl revealed to Carpenter her story of being taken up in the sky by a hairless lady with large, black eyes, who spoke to the child with her mind. Further, a young woman showed Carpenter a doodle she drew at a very young age, some 20 years earlier. The image was that of a little, light being; she couldn't explain how the angelic creature could float into her room, so she drew the being as having wings.
Typical Alien Abduction Scenarios
Carpenter points out that abductions take place in stages. In a home abduction, typically, a golf-ball-sized light is seen in a room. Next, a team of three Grays form a triangle around the abductee (so that two walk on the subject's right, and one walks on the left), and float him or her through a wall or window (The window need not be open).
If an abductee is taken outdoors, a bright flash may appear in the sky, and beam of light may lift the subject up. For this reason, some people may have a phobia of falling upward. Carpenter figures that the light ray can be a by-product of some anti-gravity pull.
If a ship is encountered in the woods, that craft may have the capability to appear and disappear, so that the witness may be able to see it only when standing within a 30-foot range.
Once on the craft, abductees may find themselves in a round, cornerless room, with a domed ceiling. A table or two may be present in the typically undecorated room. Aliens may stand over their subject, and stare deeply into his or her eyes. While this is traumatic for many, Carpenter thinks the stare plays a positive role. Aliens have strong hypnotic-telepathic powers; their stare represents an effort to calm their subjects. The stare might conceivably be used to help abductees imagine themselves encountering a white owl -- an image that is much easier for our minds to accept.
In examinations, Carpenter says, it's not uncommon for subjects to see something like a small baby, or hybrid creature. The baby is presented to the subject, but the subject is at first disinterested in it. Soon, though, the subject will want to touch the infant. And, before long, the subject will not want to let go.
Carpenter told the story of a woman who had a baby implanted in her, but the aliens took it away. Around that time, she had dreams of white ants with black eyes congregating around a mushroom table. Although she loved children, she had a fear of becoming pregnant; it turns out that she was afraid of having a child taken from her.
Talking with Carpenter: Helping people find missing time
While at the International UFO Congress, Carpenter graciously spared a moment to talk with AlienZoo about his involvement with abduction research. A majority of our interview is printed here.
AlienZoo: John, how did you become involved with working as a hypnotherapist with alien abductees?
Carpenter: I had been in the field of psychiatry, as a social worker and clinical therapist for a number of years. Then I read that professionals were helping with hypnosis for people who had missing time experiences. I had followed UFOs ever since I was a little boy, so I was already very familiar with things in the field and was willing to help out. So I volunteered. I had no idea [laughs] that I'd be swamped with 140 cases -- and all sorts of things that I could not expect. But I welcomed it, and was open to it, and learned a lot.
AlienZoo: Did your involvement with MUFON help expand your work?
Carpenter: That was one way. I had written to Budd Hopkins, and he sent me cases. And then the MUFON network signed me up right away. Now, I'm promoted to MUFON's board for abduction research. So, yes, that puts me in touch with a lot of people. I don't advertise -- people find me or see me on TV. They see that I'm from Springfield, Missouri, so they look me up in the phone book, or mail me things, or call me.
AlienZoo: What were some of your most memorable cases out of the 140 you worked with?
Carpenter: Probably the 17 multiple-participant cases, which simply means that two or more people were taken at the same time. This creates an opportunity, where you can actually work independently with each person, and compare and contrast stories. This means that you can take things well beyond imagination or hoax, because they have no idea what questions you're going to ask, or what tricks you're going to pull.
What's interesting about these cases is that they see each other on board at different times, and they'll know what each person is doing. I'm just amazed -- people may not know what happened for 20 years, and maybe a different hypnotist worked with them. And their stories will come out. They're not identical; you'll get a set of experiences here, and a set of experiences there. They'll overlap, and maybe one will have seen other things. The stories may not contradict; they're just a part of the experience. I'd compare it to sending 50 people to a movie theater, and as they come out asking them about what they saw. Some people will remember some parts, and some people will have been daydreaming at those points. Some people will be focusing on photography, while others will be focusing on acting or music. People will come out with a different set of memories about the same thing. Or they may have been in different rooms of the craft, and saw different things going on, but they may come back together at a certain moment.
In these cases, maybe one person was taken and one wasn't. Maybe both were taken. Maybe neither were taken. Whatever one says, the other can correlate it. It's almost unbelievable for me to say this, but matching has occurred in 100% of the 17 cases. In 100%, the general story of what happened was the same. To me, it's easier to match what they're recalling than to think of some wild psychological reason as to why that happened.
People don't know what to invent. I will suggest to them very logical answers: "Okay, so they're pulling on your arms while you're in bed, and they take you out of the room, down the stairs, and out of your house, right?" And they will respond, "No. It's like I'm in a blue light, and they float me through the wall into the night air." Now, I know that's typical. They're going against my logic, in telling me this bizarre stuff. They've never heard any of this before. They don't know how it could make any sense. I might try to trick them, too, by asking what color hair they have. And they say there's no hair, and there's no ears, either. I try to trip them up in all sorts of ways. But their stories are very cohesive, and very consistent.
AlienZoo: What are some of the techniques you use to guide someone into a hypnotic state? Is deep breathing common?
Carpenter: Sure. There are a number of classic procedures. You want their breathing to be slow and deepen. You may want them to detach themselves from their present surroundings, and focus on a place that they enjoy being in, that's fun and easy to visualize. And then you start tuning in on their senses: sight, hearing, and smell -- smelling the air, or bedsheets. Doing that helps put them in other places.
And when I try to get people to recall missing time, I'll try to move a little bit further into that period of amnesia by asking, "What did you hear next?" They'll say, "I heard a buzzing sound." And I'll say, "With that buzzing sound, did you see anything?" And they'll tell me about a light in the window. And I'll ask, "Do you feel anything?" They'll respond, "My body is tingling."
Each time they get a new clue, it triggers more of the recollection. The best way to describe this is if you had a dream, and wake up and don't remember it, then walk down the street the next day and see something or somebody who is in the dream. Boom! You go, "I had a dream, and you were in it!" It all comes back.
AlienZoo: Some people feel like they have very positive experiences from an abduction. Others, though, who may be troubled by their experience, will come to you. Do you notice a difference in the way people approach their feelings, when they're positive rather than negative?
Carpenter: Oh, sure. It's like any experience in our lives. If it's positive, you probably want to share it with the people in your life. You're content and comfortable. But if it's not that way -- if it's nightmarish or disturbing -- you're going to want help, either to put it out of your mind, explain it, or put a logical answer to it. People come to me because they know something is not right. They want a logical answer for it. They want that missing time to be explained. They want to be sure that nothing happened. They don't wish for it or want it.
For some people, they just need to go through a process, where they can get over the fear and terror. Basically, these beings do not cause harm or deliberate discomfort. They're not mean. They're not trying to take over the planet. Even though alien abductions have a negative connotation, basically they're not bad experiences. They're perceived as bad. Actually, they're no different from what we do with our wildlife.
AlienZoo: But fears take over.
Carpenter: Oh, yes. When you don't understand something, or don.t have answers, you freak out. You fear the unknown. But when you have more information and experiences, you learn to be more comfortable with it. You may not like it, but you grow more comfortable with it.