It is the purpose of this paper to use these consistencies in the establishment of a model experience to be called the Latent Encounter Experience (more commonly known as an "abduction") and to elaborate on its stages. The model (Table 1) will be heuristic in the sense that it will suggest certain tests that may serve to modify the model itself.
First, a word about terminology the word "abduction" has, in the writer's opinion, become distended and misshapen after so many months of nurture at the bosoms of the media. Indeed, as we all know, one debunker with no apparent understanding of the claims or claimants, has focused on the point that these "abductions," having not been reported to the FBI, can't be taken seriously. Totally ignored is the fact that the vast majority of percipients have little or no' immediate recollection of their experience, and have enormous difficulties in later articulation (see the Table 3 summary of difficulties that typically must be overcome, in part or in total, by the percipient).
"Abduction", of course, carries the notion of unwillingness and by implication the notion of complete postevent memory. The writer's study of encounter claims, images, and memories, indicates that the former is not always the case and the latter hardly ever the case. Use of the term "latent encounter", while having the disadvantage of implying an experience, has the advantage of being neutral enough to deter the sensationally inclined and sidestep meaningless arguments.
To be most objective, since indisputable verification is lacking, an even more neutral term would probably be better - on the order of "latent encounter imagery", implying something hidden, something met, and mental associations linking the two. For convenience, however, the author will use "Latent Encounter", or "LE".
Although some of the information used to prepare this model has come from the percipients' conscious memory, most has been collected as the result of having claimants attempt to relive an unresolved experience. The setting used has been one in which the concerned individuals have been initially given suggestions causing them to relax, focus their attention and memory on the unresolved experience, and then form a chain of associations to the unresolved experience which might contribute to its resolution.
After ten years of work with individuals whose statements have been incorporated into this model, the writer has gained some insight into their motivations and willingness to expose themselves and their lives to scrutiny and possible ridicule. In all cases but one (almost certainly a hoax) their major motives were judged to be: a) fear for their own sanity, although the great majority were functioning well in life, and b) the need to have an unresolved, puzzling experience explained.
Table 2 supplies an indication to the reader of how a number of percipients have reached the point of active investigation.
With the above in mind, let's move forward to the proposed model and its stages.
Table 1 is a summary representation of the eight stages of the model. Associated with each stage number is a short descriptive characteristic.
1. Anxious anticipation of something unknown (forewarning).
2. Transition of consciousness from normal awake state. The transition is mostly from fear and terror to immediate calmness and acquiescence.
3. Psycho-physical imposition and interaction.
4. Overlay of positive feelings, reassurance. A sence of source and purpose given.
5. Transition of consciousness to normal waking. An aftersense of fear, pleasure, happiness, lingers.
6. Rapid forgetfulness of most or all memory of experience.
7. Marker stage: what little is remembered is remembered as an incongruity, with unresolved conscious memories, repetitive dreams.
8. Cycle repetition at very specific ages.
Let's now amplify each of these stages based on the author's investigations.
Stage 1. The percipient experiences a subtle urge or prompting, as if originating from within, to: a) be in a certain location at a certain time, and b) expect something strangely familiar but yet unknown. This forewarning is usually accompanied by anxiety with no apparent source.
Stage 2. At the required place and time, the percipient experiences an unusual phenomenon followed by a transition in awareness such that the individual proceeds from a state of normal wakefulness with its concomitant functions of volition, emotion, and memory to a state characterized by calmness, acquiescence, and limited mobility (what the author calls the CA state). There are consistent physical and mental effects described by a number of percipients in this stage that the author will not elaborate on here.
Stage 3. This is the stage about which books are written and movies made. Rich with bizarre imagery, and emotion-filled, this stage is the most difficult for the percipient to relive. It is replete with images of mental communication, and involuntary submission to physical procedures.
This is the stage of the "table", the "scar", the "needle", the "machine", the "probe", etc. This is the stage of the "ova", and the "sperm", and the "baby"!
Stage 4. The physical procedures have been completed. The percipient is ready to return, but not before a positive bias is mentally imposed to be the lasting emotional remnant of the experience. This "veneering" can be a multi-part process involving dcrecognition", "explanation", and "understanding". It can also include the projection of "love", the "guided tour", and the "life review". It is conducted by that entity who has that "special relationship" with the percipient. The nature of that relationship is beyond the scope of this paper.
Stage 5. In the case of an LE intersecting normal waking activity the transition from CA state to normal can be, to use Budd Hopkins' perfectly descriptive term, seamless.
1. Puzzlement - The percipient has been puzzled or upset by his/her marker experience(s) for months or years.
2. Puzzle Solving Action - The percipient has attempted to resolve the in- congruity without success.
3. Decision - The percipient has reached the point of needing to resolve the incongruity.
4. Readiness - The percipient is willing to come forward to find out what happened.
It seems as if there has been no intervening experience. Yet there remains an afterimage resulting from the emotional veneer imposed in Stage 4, a cover story to explain anything unusual or inconsistent resulting from the encounter itself. The afterimage includes a feeling of prohibition against discussing or remembering any aspect of the experience. This last extends to members of groups that have just shared an experience. The result: no exchange, no discussion, "no happening"!
LE's proceeding from bedroom intrusions end by returning the awakened sleeper to a state of sleep. The resulting morning memory is one of unease or nightmare.
Stage 6. Within minutes of the Stage 5 waking transition, most, if not all, conscious memory of the encounter has become latent in memory. As fleeting as a dream trace, the LE imagery is locked away and superceded by routine or sleep. Generally, the CA state leads back into the percipient's pre-encounter situation.
Stage 7. In most cases, and despite the positive veneering, an anxietyprovoking fragment remains. Sometimes it is painted by memory to conform to an image the percipient finds more palatable and less threatening, other times it is a nameless fear or feeling of something unresolved, an experience that the mind returns to over and over again without conscious resolution. More generally, this signal in conscious memory, or marker memory, as the author likes to call it, is an incongruous image, accompanied by a nameless anxiety that appears to have no conscious resolution, and which forces itself to mind repetitively. This is the point from which investigations begin.
1. The percipient feels that if one admits to the experience it is an admission of one's own insanity.
2. If the percipient has enough conviction and strength of character to know that one is not insane, there is always the feeling that others may not be so kind.
3. The percipient wants to repress the trauma and helplessness of the experience.
4. The percipient has difficulty in remembering something that took place in another state of awareness, much like the difficulty in remembering dreams.
5. The percipient has a feeling of prohibition - one shouldn't remember!
Stage 8. Continuing work has now made it clear that the individual LE is only one of a sequence of such experiences that take place at specific intervals in an individual's life. It is far from a random process! What has come very sharply into focus is that at least a portion of these specific intervals occur at ages that can be directly related to the formation and maturation of the human sexual function! At this time it is probably not wise to publish these ages as a check to further case work.
The interval between LE's is punctuated by claims of two types of exotic phenomena, one of which manifests objectively, but rarely, and the other of which is purely subjective and seemingly continuous. The objective phenomenon manifests mostly in telekinetic effects, while the purely subjective can be described as "consciousness monitoring" in which the percipients feel themselves to be "observed" and "directed". The latter, subjective awareness is often characterized by shifts in interest and life direction.
The author feels that, initially, Stage 7 provides the suggestion for an interesting test. Two groups, one of which is identified as having marker memories, the other of which is identified as having none, can be subjected to identical association-inducing procedures. The marker memory group would be expected to have significantly more images relating to this model than the non-marker memory group. The design of an experiment with this end in mind is planned shortly.
A study proposal is now in preparation by a well-known psychologist to survey percipient transformative effects. This is expected to reflect directly on Stage 8 concepts.
The author would be pleased to hear from others suggesting other tests and experiments. Please e-mail any response to 'Abductees' Anonymous.