1992: UFOs Under Analysis at MIT

In June 1992 the prestigious Massachusetts Institutes of Technology was host to a symposium that spent five days discussing and dissecting the abduction phenomenon.

Over one hundred psychotherapists, abductees, researchers and investigators from around the world gathered to present their experiences and the results of their analyses.

Psychologist Dr David Hufford presented his research, which compared the sensations of people who suffer 'old hag' or 'incubi' experiences with abductions. He found direct correlations.

Folklorist Dr Eddie Bullard compiled a database of abductions, expecting them to show normal folklore patterns. They didn't, convincing Bullard that abductions were not myth in the making, but interaction with an objective phenomenon.

New York psychiatrist, Dr Rima Laibow tackled the question of whether abductions by aliens were really a fantasy created by the mind to dilute actual childhood abuse by adults. She said her research argued that if this was the case, the mind would have removed the horrific physical examinations, not merely dressed up the perpetrators as extraterrestrials.

The symposium was viewed as the first signs that abduction research was coming of age and attracting serious scientific enquiry. Paper after paper was produced, which demonstrated that abductees were ordinary citizens with no detectable psychopathic disorders.