Abducted: How People Came to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens [Hardcover]

Susan Clancy's book investigates the modern "alien abduction" phenomenon sweeping America. As a psychologist, her research is rigorous and scientific and yet at the same time she writes well, with clarity and humour. She investigates the claims and the motivations of the well-known regression hypnotists in this field such as Hopkins and Mack and she conducts detailed interviews, profiles and studies of abductees. Clancy investigates the role of the creative media in the creation and promotion of UFO and abduction stories through TV and film, in effect "teaching" the modern American public what to expect from an abduction, and how regression is the way in which the truth can emerge. She explains how what begins as a a number of much more vague phenomena such as physical anomalies e.g. sleep paralysis, dreams or emotions often leads the subject to seek or be referred to hypnotic regression therapy. This in turn "reveals" the abduction scenario, which in turn gives a spiritual dimension to the abductees' lives, making it an almost religious phenomenon.

My only criticism is of the author's possible fall into the same trap she says exists for her subjects. That is, the abductees want to believe something strongly so they head off and do the research they believe is necessary to "prove" their convictions. Clancy herself states right from the off that she doesn't believe that real alien abduction is possible; she doesn't believe in the possibility of the extra-terrestrial hypothesis (that is, that unidentified flying objects are of otherworldly origin), and thinks it highly unlikely that life could possibly exist elsewhere in the universe, based upon our current data. This means of course, that - even though personally I think her findings on abductees are probably accurate - she was pretty biased from the start. She is also a little unfair towards those that don't share her personality typing, those she calls "new-age", "magical", and controversially even vegetarians are termed "weird" in her book.

Despite this, the book is a concise, easy read - it's also quite a short book - and a wholly absorbing piece of research, one that I would recommend to anyone interested in psychology, false memory, forteana, or indeed the nature of spirituality and belief.

Oh dear, I found the books writer started from a stand point that all abductees must be suffering from some sort of ilness or misguided belief due to reading or watching to much TV, films etc. The author also undervalues hyponic regression, even though both the police in the US and UK use it to get witnesses remember details about crimes - so its good enough for law enforcement but not good enough for the author.
Good research can only be arrived at if one starts from a ballanced viewpoint - and in this book thats just not the case - if you want to learn more about abductions, and the UFO situation then this is not the book to get.

I disagree with the first review in that the Alien Abduction "phenomenon" is not only sweeping America but in fact the world. Alien abductions, interbreeding, and extra -terrestrial worship are nothing new and extend far back in our ancient history. Lots of evidence still exists so long as one has enough of an open mind to want to research the martial and evidence found outside the mainstream.

Aliens are depicted and mentioned in every culture and religion on the planet - mainly because the origin of the fairy tales are the same but with slight differences to create variation for the ultimate tool of control - DIVIDE AND CONQUER. Aliens did not first appear on Earth in 1947 as Project Bluebook and MJ12, lead by the blood sucking Henry Kissinger like to have you believe. Extra-terrestrials were worshiped and feared as Gods in the not too distant past and still are by those who know the truth about the origin of humanity. Not the official story taught in our schools and repeated to us every second by the fear driven media - controlled by the people who know the truth - but what they do and what they teach us have to be very far apart for our minds to not accept the truth when we are confronted. It is all a psychological system!

Most certainly he truth can not be found in books such as this one written by this highly misguided author who clearly did no research but in fact put in her own version what the mainstream wants us to believe. They sure love people like this and this is how such stupid research can even be published. I think some call it disinformation.

A "phenomena" is just a meaningless word made up by limited and closed minded scientists who refuse to open their minds beyond their hypnotized conceptual envelope, and so anything they can not explain is tagged as a "phenomena' and dismissed as such. The most baffling part of this trick is the people's acceptance of this explanation. Even if the Alien Abduction "phenomena" is nothing but self created illusions in the minds of these people the fact that it reaches to our past, extends the globe, and effects millions every day, surely it must be taken very seriously by the World Health Organization, or at the very least the scientific community. If it is not then something more is going on.

How can any book less than 300 pages explain this "phenomena"? How can any author who admits how close minded she is truly research something like this with no bias or preconceived ideas made real only by her perspective of life. As if life, the multi-verse, spirituality, and the human mind are all as limited as how humanity thinks in a given decade. Not long ago we thought the world was flat and many authors wrote about how flat it was and provided great explanations as to how the flatness was possible, but it was all relative and only fed the minds of those who thought the same way. Those who did not were considered on the edge, crazy, and executed. In every generation there are those who not only see outside the box but those who literally do not even see a box there. The author who wrote this book not only sees a box but her entire life is lived from inside one. She doesn't believe that alien abductions are possible, and thinks it unlikely that life could exist elsewhere in the universe based upon our current data.

She says it is highly unlikely that life could POSSIBLY exist elsewhere in the universe but goes on to say "BASED ON OUR CURRENT DATA". Our current data shows that the universe is not only filled with life but is alive itself. Like wise there is a mountain of evidence that shows the history and the continuous involvement of ET's with humans. Did she look into this data before making a personal statement about her beliefs, or writting a book about Alien Abductions? I highly doubt it! The author falls in to a category of people who will only always believe what she has been told to be true per given moment and never will she actually look outside the box to formulate her own decisions.

To end this long review, I believe this book is crap. It is not a serious book that has even touched the surface of how deep this "phenomena" really goes. This book will be good for people who also live inside a box and are happy with the explanation of life offered by mainstream sources.

I would not buy this book if you paid me!