Dreamcatcher

3. The abductees may actually experience themselves as returning to their cosmic source or “Home.” an inexpressibly beautiful realm beyond, or not in, space/time as we know it. When this occurs during a hypnosis session, powerful, inexpressibly joyous, even orgiastic, feeling occurs. Conversely, abductees may weep with sadness when they experience having to leave their cosmic home, return to Earth and become embodied once again..

4. “Past lives” are experienced during the sessions with strong emotion appropriate to what material is emerging. This is most likely to occur when the investigator picks up on cues in the sessions during which encounters from infancy are being reexperienced. Complaints or simply observations of being here on Earth “again,” of being “back” or having “resumed,” are voiced (about which I then inquire). The “past lives” that emerge seem to have relevance to the personal development or evolution of the experien ces, as I have seen in the cases of Dave and Joe.

5. Past life experiences provide abductees (and the investigator) with a different perspective about time and the nature of human identity. Cycles of birth and death over long stretches of time can thus be relived, providing a different, less ego derived sense of the continuity of life and the smallness of an individual lifetime from a cosmic perspective. Consciousness is experienced as not coterminous with the body; the notion of a soul with an existence separate from the body becomes relevant.

6. Once the separateness of consciousness from the body is grasped, other kinds of “transpersonal” experiences become possible; identification of consciousness with virtually endless kinds of beings and entities through space/time and beyond often occurs. Paul (chapter 10), among my cases for example, found himself during our sessions identified with dinosaurs or dinosaur-like reptiles from another era and experienced himself present at the site of a UFO crash several decades ago when alien beings were destroy ed by human fear and aggression. Another abductee, a young Brazilian man, found that his alien encounters opened him to the identification with the myths and spirit entities of his culture’s folklore, from which his Western scientific and intellectual training had cut him off.

7. A distinct but important aspect of this kind of transpersonal experience is an abductee’s sense of possessing a double human/alien identity. In their alien selves they may discover themselves doing many of the things that the “other” aliens have done to them and to other human beings, such as studying their minds or even carrying out reproductive procedures. The alien identity seems to be connected in some way with the soul of the human self, and one of the tasks the abductee then confronts is the integration of their human and alien selves, which takes on the character of a reensoulment of their humanity.

8. The reliving of abduction material leads abductees to open to other realities beyond space/time, realms that are variously described as beyond a “veil” or some other barrier which has kept them in a “box” or in a consciousness limited to the physical world. When asked about these experiences abductees have trouble finding the words to describe what has occurred and speak of the “collapse” of space/time, of the nonrelevance of the notions of space and time, and of being in multiple times and places at the same moment.

The result of all these experiences for abductees is the discovery of a new and altered sense of their place in the cosmic design, one that is more modest, respectful, and harmonious in relation to the earth and its living systems. Emotions of awe, respect for the mystery of nature, and a heightened sense of the sacredness of the natural world are experienced along with deep sadness about the apparent hopelessness of Earth’s environmental crisis. One of John Carpenter’s cases described herself as having bec ome a “child of the universe” after she had become conscious of her abduction experiences. The meaning and implications of these shifts of consciousness for possible human futures will be discussed more fully in the case examples and in the concluding chapter.

Excerpt from John Mack’s “Abductions” page 31