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Signs and
symptoms
In some close-encounter cases witnesses report
bizarre experiences, which are sometimes followed by
signs and symptoms, such as violent headaches, nausea and
vomiting, and diarrhoea. In most cases, though, symptoms
following the experience appear to be minimal or
completely absent. Where unpleasant symptoms do appear,
many ufologists tend to attribute them to the effects of
getting too close to the UFO and being subject to some
mysterious, harmful radiation. It does not occur to them
that there could be more mundane explanations for at
least some of those close encounters which are not
obvious hoaxes.
Classical
migraine
Consider the following incident which is reported to
have taken place in Brazil in 1965. A 15-year-old boy was
lagging behind a party of youths who were going to a
cinema. As he passed across a piece of open ground he
heard a strange hum and saw two cones of white light in
the sky and then saw two roundish craft land not far from
him. Entities emerged, inspected one of the craft, then
re-entered and the craft took off at a fantastic speed,
disappearing in a few seconds. The boy joined his
companions in the cinema, but soon developed a violent
headache, which lasted for five days. (1)
Here we have
a very strange experience, followed by a prolonged
headache. We are not told if there were any other
symptoms but we are informed that a doctor eventually
treated the boy for a disturbed heart. However, this
report appears to be a description of what is known as a
classical migraine. Most people are aware that migraine
usually consists of a violent headache accompanied by
nausea - a sick headache. However, in a classical
migraine these symptoms are preceded by what is called an
aura, which usually consists of disturbances of vision,
but can in some cases be of a highly complex nature.
Examples
The information about migraine for this paper is
taken from the book Migraine by Dr Oliver Sacks. (2) It
is interesting to compare some of his case histories with
other accounts which have been interpreted as encounters
with UFOs. For example, compare the following reports.
The first is taken from an account by one of Dr Sacks's
patients. (3) The second and third are taken from the UFO
literature. (4)
It was a late
summer afternoon, and I was winding along a country road
on my motorbike. An extraordinary sense of stillness came
upon me . . . I felt that this summer afternoon had
always existed and that I was arrested in an endless
moment. When I got off the bike, a few minutes later, I
had an extraordinarily powerful tingling in my hands,
nose, lips and tongue. It seemed to be a continuation of
the vibration of the motorbike . . . the vibrating
sensation was growing stronger every moment . . . My
sense of vision was then affected . . . The hum of
crickets was all around me, and when I closed my eyes,
this was immediately translated into a hum of colour . .
. After about 20 minutes . . . the visual world resumed
its normal appearance . . . I had a come-down feeling and
the beginnings of a headache.
Clay,
Alabama - Summer 1962, 1800
Dean Self was walking home along the Clay-Palmerdale
road after visiting a friend, when he heard a sound like
a wind in a pine tree, then an unnatural silence.
Looking up he was terrified to see an object 30 m above
him. It was 12 m long, with a cabin about 2 m high at the
front. It had a smooth white surface with multicoloured
lights on the underside, which pulsated in rhythm with a
muted throbbing sound which seemed to affect his whole
body. The object suddenly vanished, the wind was heard
again, then the natural sounds returned.
Sandling,
near Saltwood, Kent, England - August 1962, 2330
Bruce Leggatt (17) had just ridden past Sandling
station on his scooter on this very warm night, when the
air turned cold. He became afraid and accelerated.
Looking over his shoulder, he glimpsed a yellow oval
object, rough in outline, which extended over the width
of the road (c. 6 m). He became more afraid, feeling that
he was being watched. This feeling persisted for some
time after he turned on to a main road.
It must be realised that these descriptions are not necessarily accurate accounts of what was experienced at the time, because of the difficulty of recalling and describing them clearly. Dr Sacks writes of ' . . . free-wheeling states of hallucinosis, illusion, or "dreaming" which may be experienced during intense migraine auras, and be manifest as confused or confabulatory states of which the patient retains imperfect recollection. These states are composed of coherent, dramatically-organised series of images, and are usually compared by patients to intense, involuntary daydreams or daymares.' (5) Dr Sacks also emphasises the exceedingly strange nature of many aura phenomena and he notes that '. . . the sense of strangeness is frequently accompanied by a sense of profoundly-disturbed time perception.' (6)
Scotomata
A type of visual hallucination commonly associated
with migraine auras is the scotoma, which develops as it
appears to move across the field of vision. 'The advancing
margin of the scotoma often displays the gross zig-zag
appearance which justifies the term fortification
spectrum . . .' (7) A report from the UFO literature, of a
case investigated by BUFORA, which seems to describe
migraine scotomata, concerns a man who recalled having
seen 'a ball with spikes' coming out over Lake Lucerne
while on a school trip about 30 years ago. His recent
sighting occurred one evening when he saw through his
kitchen window an object on a patch of soil in the garden
which was 'wine red in colour and about the size of a
drinks tray'. It remained on the ground for a few
minutes, then suddenly '. . . it took off, like a coin
being flipped, and spun up into the air, revealing its
underside with a series of "reinforcements" on the
rim.' It then seemed to head for the window and gave out a
blue flash. (8)
The report of
this sighting is accompanied by a small sketch showing an
oval object surrounded by zigzags. It bears a remarkable
resemblance to a reproduction of a painting described as
a classical zigzag fortification pattern in Sacks's book.
Isolated
auras
In this case the witness reported that he suffered no
ill effects, which means that, if it was a migraine aura,
it was not followed by the usual headache, or other
symptoms and signs. This is an important point. Sacks
points out that it has been estimated that the incidence
of classical migraine is about one per cent of the
general population, but this gives no indication of the
incidence of isolated auras, which are probably much more
common. Obviously, if the aura is not followed by any
unpleasant symptoms it is unlikely to be diagnosed as
migraine or anything else. Most people do not like to
consult their doctors when they have no symptoms. Sacks
mentions discussing the subject with a colleague, who
immediately recognised his diagram of a scintillating
scotoma and said that he had often seen this himself as a
young man, but that it never occurred to him that there
was anything unusual about them; he presumed that
everybody saw such things. (9)
More than
one witness
Many ufologists will no doubt consider it odd that
that I should propose migraine as an explanation for
close-encounter UFO reports in view of the fact that a
high proportion of them involve two or more witnesses.
However, the presence of other persons does not
necessarily rule out migraine as a factor involved in
generating the reports. Few of the write-ups of
multi-witness cases give any detailed, separate accounts
by all of the witnesses. Sometimes other alleged
witnesses are strangely reluctant to talk to
investigators. In other cases one suspects that the
witnesses have concocted a dramatic story from a minor
incident by a process, perhaps unconscious, of
confabulation, aided by faulty and confused memories.
Also, the strange behaviour of the person experiencing a
migraine aura could evoke hysterical reactions from other
people present. Someone with a forceful personality might
persuade others that an unusual or unexpected light is
really a flying saucer. (This effect will be familiar to
many who have indulged in UFO skywatches.) There are many
such possibilities.
Conclusions
I am not suggesting that all, or most,
close-encounter reports have anything to do with
migraine. I have no time for catch-all explanations which
can be force-fitted to any case that comes to hand. There
are many rational explanations for UFO reports and I
think that this one should be added to the list.
I merely
offer this paper as a basis for discussion and
investigation. All I am saying is that there appears to
be much in common between descriptions of migraine auras
and many reports of experiences which have been
interpreted as close encounters with UFOs.
I suggest
that those who wish to argue about this subject should
read Dr Sacks's book first, if possible. Comments and
information are welcome, particularly from medically
qualified readers.
References
1. Creighton,
Gordon. "The Humanoids in Latin America", Flying
Saucer Review: The Humanoids, October/November 1966,
41
2. Sacks, Oliver. Migraine, Picador, London,
1995
3. Ibid., 86
4. Rogerson, Peter. "INTCAT", cases 1028 and 1052, Magonia,
6, 1981
5. Sacks, op. cit., 79
6. Ibid., 71
7. Ibid., 59
8. Case 9303, Northern UFO News, April 1993, 14
9. Sacks, op. cit., 88
A reader's response to this article
THERE HAVE
been individuals frustrated by the behaviour of
ufologists who level the charge that their beliefs are
unfalsifiable. Advocates say this or that case is
unexplainable or this or that pattern cannot be explained
by conventional means. Solve the case, show the pattern
is explicable, do they accept this negates their
position? They will probably just come up with a new case
or pattern. This is annoying behaviour, but does it
really constitute evidence of unfalsifiability? We are
dealing with the proposition that intelligent beings are
surreptitiously flying around the world and are actively
trying to prevent their detection. Maybe the evidence is
ambiguous, but aren't we allowed the faith that someday
someone will build the better mousetrap that will capture
the proof that will silence the cynics?
Efforts to
find them in photographic sky surveys have met with no
success. Efforts to videotape aliens capturing repeat
abductees don't seem to be working. One researcher has
suggested that maybe we can put radar-tracking devices on
abductees and capture their transport to hovering craft.
Maybe someday spy satellites can be used to monitor
potential abduction sites and capture images of their
craft. Okay, what if these are implemented and also fail?
Will the advocates accept defeat or fall back on
selective visibility and other magical supertechnology?
Is there any conceivable test that will prove the ETH
wrong?
If the
ambition is for an absolute
all-doubts-and-all-potential-excuses-removed surefire
alien mousetrap, I suspect such a thing is indeed
inconceivable and the ETH potentially unfalsifiable.
Let's suggest however that a more modest conception of
falsification can be said to exist. Call it a more
pragmatic and operational, a
what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? approach to
falsification. Has the ETH provided us with anything
useful or interesting in the way of prediction?
The answer to
this is surely no. Nobody has yet come up with a working
saucer drive mechanism from a consideration of the
testimony of witnesses despite several attempts. (1) ETH
proponents have offered theories that they hoped would
predict when the next flap would take place. Early
proponents talked about UFOs monitoring atomic tests and
the Air Force even set up a reporting net at a test site
to test that possibility. Nothing was seen at the test
site. Predictions that saucer reports would increase in
response to future scheduled tests were total failures.
Some offered predictions that saucer sightings increased
when Mars got close to Earth. The bolder predictions
failed and the weaker ones got results equivalent to
random chance. Still weaker interpretations involving
flaps as a way to desensitise humans to their fearful
presence are not consistent with well-known findings in
human psychology. Recent flap scholars are silent about
these failures and seem to insist flaps are not
psychosocial in nature, yet they have proposed nothing to
suggest the ETH can explain the timing of flaps. Jerome
Clark has recommended Bullard to me as my superior in
these matters, so, Challenge Time! How about it, Eddie,
can you give us a useful ETH theory of flaps? (2)
Proponents
have repeatedly proposed that the phenomenon was
escalating in a pattern that suggested we would soon
either be invaded, there would soon be a mass landing, or
there would soon be no doubt of their existence. (3, 4)
All have failed. There have been many suggestions that
flying saucers are, in one sense or another, omens for
potential catastrophes. Each ufologist seems to offer a
new variant: supernova (Heard), magnetic fission of the
planet (Scully), Earth knocked out of orbit (Keyhoe),
mass A-bomb attack (Keyhoe), cosmoplastic Earth nova
caused by L-bombs (Wilkins), extermination due to
inferior ethics (Michel), cosmic storm (Jessup),
catastrophic changes in the Earth's surface (Lorenzens),
war of the worlds (Steiger and Whritenour), a disaster
beyond imagination (Fawcett), the violence of the final
generation (Keel), climactic confrontation between Good
and Evil involving the inner earth (Trench), collapse of
civilisation (Clark and Coleman, Rogerson), Binder
(rampaging natural forces), nuclear Armageddon with
psychic time ripples (Randles), black hole collision
generating a universal dissolution to which not even the
gods are immune (Andrews), sterility (Fowler),
environmental collapse and death of living Earth (Mack),
catastrophe, hybrid integration and takeover, and control
by big-bug aliens (Jacobs). (5, 6) All have failed to
date, thank goodness.
As early as
the 1947 Wave, there was already talk that the government
would soon reveal what the saucers were. Louis E. Starr,
commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
revealed on 5 July of that year that he was expecting a
telegram concerning the fleets of flying saucers and it
would help explain the discs . (7) Keyhoe, in his first
book, thought he saw a pattern in Air Force statements
that suggested to him the government had an intricate
program to prepare America - and the world - for the
secret of the disks . In his view, The official
explanation may be imminent . (8) This has been a
continuing refrain among ufologists (FSR, 1957; Lorenzen,
1974; the Blums, 1974; Walter Andrus, 1983). (9)
(Psychics, contactees, and numerous minor figures have
also predicted this, (10, 11) but these should probably
be considered off the ledger in assessing the value of
the ETH in serious ufology.) A very significant
possibility for why these predictions fail is that the
ETH is false and the government has no more to reveal
than it already has.
The upshot is
that the ETH has generated dozens of predictions which
time has tested and found invalid. It has been falsified
consistently where it counts - how will it prove its
importance to mankind. The landing never comes. The
invasion is postponed. The flaps don't conform to
schedule. The government stays mum. The revolutionary
saucer drive is never built. The world doesn't end. This
may not be falsification in an absolute sense, but it is
surely falsification in the ways that matter most.
References
1. Vallée,
Jacques. Revelations, Ballantine, 1991, 283-284
2. Kottmeyer. "UFO Flaps - An Analysis", The
Anomalist, 3, Winter 1995-96, 64-89
3. Kottmeyer. "What's Up, Doc?", Magonia, 44, 45,
46
4. Clark, Jerome. "The Last Decade", International UFO
Reporter, 15, 2, March/April 1990, 3, 20, 23-24
5. Kottmeyer. "Dying Worlds, Dying Selves", UFO
Brigantia, 47, January 1991, 24-32
6. Andrews, George. Extraterrestrial Friends and
Foes, Illuminet, 1993, 240. Fowler, Raymond. The
Watchers, Bantam, 1990, 357. Emory, C. Eugene.
"Harvard Launches John Mack Attack", Skeptical
Inquirer, 19, 5, 3-4. Jacobs, David. The Threat,
Simon & Schuster, 1998, chapter 12
7. Bloecher, Ted. Report on the Wave of 1947,
author, 1967, I-9
8. Keyhoe, Donald. The Flying Saucers are Real,
Fawcett, 1950, 6, 14
9. Klass, Philip J. "The Cloudy Crystal Ball", Skeptics
UFO Newsletter, 14, March 1992, 8
10. Sheaffer, Robert. UFO Sightings - The Evidence,
Prometheus, 1998, chapter 11
11. Cooper, Vicki. "1992 Predictions", UFO Magazine,
7, 1, 24-29