Satanist abuse and alien abduction: A comparative analysis theorizing temporal lobe activity as a possible connection between anomalous memories

Abstract

SUMMARY This paper compares two sets of scarcely believable reports: those of satanist abuse survivors and those of people with apparent memories of alien abduction. There are striking parallels between the two phenomena, which are explored in some detail. Whilst the comparison may be unexpected, and will no doubt provoke scepticism in some readers, the similarities are difficult to ignore; and I suggest that they give rise to unavoidable questions about the nature of both kinds of experience. The paper therefore concludes with a sketch of some neurophysiological and psychological research which may help to account for them. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to some striking parallels between two sets of phenomena which, as far as I am aware, have not been systematically compared before. The analysis is based entirely on library sources, and I can make no claims to personal experience in either case, whether as an empirical researcher or a therapist. The fact that a comparison can be made, and that the parallels are so marked, raises interesting questions about the nature of the phenomena con cerned. I will return to these questions in the later part of the paper.