Your Mama Looks Like E.T.
Sunday, November 20, 2005; Page B05
Accounts of people who claim to have been abducted by aliens have one eerie similarity. When serious researchers like psychologist Frederick V. Malmstrom have asked self-proclaimed abductees what their out-of-this-world kidnappers looked like, they inevitably describe beings with large heads, big eyes, gray skin, smooth features, a barely visible or absent mouth and smallish bodies.
Malmstrom, a visiting scholar at the U.S. Air Force Academy, now thinks he recognizes that face. It's Mommy -- or at least the image of a "prototypical female face" that's hard-wired into a baby's brain and helps newborns instantly respond to their mothers.
(Aynsley Floyd - AP)
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Scientists have known for years that animals are born with certain visual recognition "templates" that help them survive. In one famous study, a scientist found that newly hatched chickens automatically cowered from shadows in the shape of a predator (such as a hawk) while the shadow of a non-predator -- a goose -- elicited only yawns (or the chick equivalent).
There's similar evidence that human babies are programmed to react to a generalized face. Studies show that up until 2 months of age, an infant will react favorably to anything resembling a human face -- even a Halloween mask -- while showing little consistent interest in other shapes.
The key, researchers have concluded, is the eyes and nose. A newborn's blurry vision tends to soften facial features and smudge the eyes into large dark blobs. In fact, when Malmstrom optically altered a photo of a woman in a way consistent with the characteristics of a newborn's vision -- astigmatism, an extremely shallow focal plane -- the resulting face looked remarkably like those big-eyed aliens drawn by self-declared abductees, he reports in the latest issue of the magazine Skeptic, which features scholarly articles on the paranormal and other extraordinary claims.
Okay, professor -- two questions. First, why do these adults who claim to be abducted "see" their mothers, or at least this prototypical female face, and not some other important figure, say a prototypical pacifier?
The answer, he asserts, has to do with another familiar feature of alien-abduction accounts. Virtually all of the cases considered credible enough to study occurred when the abductees reported they were either falling asleep or were "remembered" while the subject was under hypnosis. The feeling of being halfway between wakefulness and sleep is called a "hypnagogic dreamlike state" and shares many of the same characteristics of being hypnotized.
Malmstrom suspects that "the alien face perceived in hypnagogic dreamlike states is also produced from the same primitive facial recognition template." In this state, the mind reverts to basics to make sense of its imagined out-of-this-world surroundings, in this case summoning up the image of the archetypal mom, says Malmstrom.
Well, maybe. Your Unconventional Wiz isn't quite convinced, and even Malmstrom says his theory merits "further research."
Oh, my other question: If they're seeing Mother, then why do these descriptions of close encounters with aliens often sound so unpleasant, as in those ghastly accounts of anal probes or forced sexual relations? Do we have issues with Mommy Dearest even at birth?
"There does seem to be a sexual element to it, but I don't know," Malmstrom laughed. "That's an excellent question for a doctoral dissertation."
You know ten years ago, i heard on this TV show called "Sightings" that some scientists actually theorize that alien abductions may actually be some people remembering their births. There is some merit to this because the stories are the same. The Tunnel, the Light, and the Examination on the table.
The Tunnel which is the Birth Canal, The Light which is the light used in the delivery and the examination on the table by the aliens which is the examination by the doctors. The Aliens is actually the mother and the doctors being distorted by a newborns eyes which havent formed the ability to focus and see color. It is then seen as Greys with black eyes, small noses and small mouths. I think sleep and or some event triggers the rudimentary memories of being born and people interpret this as being abducted.
