The Controllers - A New Thesis of Alien Abduction by Martin Cannon

The Controllers - A New Thesis of Alien Abduction by Martin Cannon


audiobook:

Among ufologists, the term "abduction" has come to refer to an infinitely confounding experience -- or matrix of experiences -- shared by a dizzying number of individuals who claim that travelers from the stars have scooped them out of their beds (or snatched them from their cars) and subjected them to interrogations, quasi-medical examinations, and "instruction" periods. Usually, these sessions are said to occur within alien spacecraft. Frequently, the stories include terrifying details reminiscent of the tortures inflicted in Germany's death camps. The abductees often (though not always) lose all memory of these events. They find themselves back in their cars or beds, unable to account for hours of "missing time". Hypnosis (or some other trigger) can bring back these haunted hours in an explosion of recollection. And as the smoke clears, an abductee will often spot a trail of similar experiences, stretching all the way back to childhood.

Perhaps the oddest fact of these odd tales is that many abductees -- for all their vividly-recollected agonies -- claim to "love" their alien tormentors. That's the word I've heard repeatedly: love.

Within the community of "scientific ufologists" (those lonely, all too little-heard advocates of reasonable and open-minded debate on matters saucerological), these claims have elicited cautious interest and a commendable restraint from conclusion-hopping. Outside the higher realms of scientific ufology, the situation is alas quite different. In the popular press, in both the "straight" and sensationalist media, within that journalistic realm where issues are defined and public opinion solidified (despite a frequently superficial approach to matters of evidence and investigation), abduction scenarios have elicited 2 basic reactions: that of the Believer and the Skeptic.

The Believers (and here we should note that "Believers" and "abductees" are 2 groups whose memberships overlap but are in no way congruent) accept such stories at face value. They accept despite the seeming absurdity of these tales, the internal contradictions, the askew logic of narrative construction, and the severe discontinuity of emotional response to the actions described. The Believers believe despite reports that their beloved "space brothers" use vile and inhuman tactics of medical examination -- senseless procedures most of us (and certainly the vanguard of an advanced race) would be ashamed to inflict on an animal. The Believers believe despite the difficulty of reconciling these unsettling tales with their own deliriums of benevolent off-worlders.


specs: 3.9 hours, Mac computer voice


books: text files included