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Oregon Abductee, Kitty Miller Writes: "In 1987, it became crystal clear to me that I was being abducted. At the same time I started having bad muscle spasms in my back and time loss episodes. I started losing the ability to remember words and explain things. From 1991 to 1994, I was visited several times a week. I was in such bad shape with the muscle spasms that I was bedridden almost the entire three years. The more I got visited, the worse I got, and I could see there was a connection. The doctors checked me for everything under the sun and nothing showed up except for Fibromyalgia. I used to work in a job that required remembering many small details at the drop of a hat. Because of my abductions and suffering with Fibromyalgia, I am no longer able to work. My mind changed from being razor sharp to a mind that can't remember shit. It is ironic that I cannot forget the abductions - of those - I remember every detail. When I hosted support groups, I started talking with other abductees. I asked them if they had this disease. Of the people I questioned, I found that all of them suffered the symptoms of Fibromyalgia. I thought this was very significant and should be investigated." -- Kitty Miller [1] I met Kitty Miller several years ago through a support group I hosted for abductees. It was actually Kitty who first suspected there might be a relationship between abductees and the syndrome known as Fibromyalgia. According to the Fibromyalgia Network's brochure:
Other symptoms of Fibromyalgia include irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headaches, and temporomandibular joint dysfunction syndrome. Because deep level sleep or Stage 4 sleep is so crucial for many body functions such as tissue repair, antibody production, and perhaps even the regulation of various neurotransmitters, the sleep disorder that frequently occurs in Fibromyalgia patients is thought to be a major contributing factor to the symptoms of this condition. Treatments and medication are geared toward improving the quality of sleep and reducing pain, but there does not appear to be a complete cure for the disease. [3] Personal Experience My mother (who has also had abduction experiences) was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia several years ago, even though her symptoms first appeared almost thirty years ago. My symptoms began to occur when I was in my late twenties, but like my mother I ignored them, believing them to be nothing more than "aches and pains" that occurred to everyone. It was not until I reached my thirties that my conditioned worsened substantially. When I reached the point where I had difficulty removing the pots from my pot rack in the kitchen, I decided something had to be done. During this same period, the migraine headaches (another symptom of Fibromyalgia) I have experienced since I was eighteen, became more frequent in occurrence and more intense. Like Kitty, it seemed I was spending more time sick in bed than living a productive life. After a year of physical therapy, I now control the symptoms of Fibromyalgia with exercise and medication. I do not live a pain-free life, but rather, a pain "manageable" life. Health Psychology A popular area of study in the field of psychology is called Health Psychology. Psychologists who specialize in Health Psychology research the relationship between psychological factors and physical health. They also assess the psychological and physical effects of stress and develop programs to help people reduce stress in their lives. If there is a relationship between being an abductee and developing Fibromyalgia, a study to determine if a cause-and-effect relationship exists might fall to the specialists in the field of Health Psychology. It was my hope that after a decade of people coming forward with reports of abduction - along with the physical effects of their abductions - that we would have clinical studies involving this subject. With rare exception, [4] the mental health community has only been able to come up with questionnaire based reports; which unfortunately, focus not on helping abductees, but rather on "debunking" the information that abductees freely give them. Sleep Studies Scientists know that sleep is necessary. Studies involving sleep deprivation have shown that humans, when deprived of sleep for long periods of time, develop problems in their ability to think and reason. Some subjects suffered from hallucinations, and developed hand tremors, double vision and reduced pain thresholds. [5] When rats were deprived of sleep they survived for as long as 33 days, and then died. When autopsies were done on the rats, it was determined that they died not from one single cause, but from a variety of causes that included stomach ulcers, an imbalance of body chemistry, and internal hemorrhages. [6] Other theories as to why we need to sleep include: (1) conserving energy; (2) restoring depleted resources - tissue repair, cell restoration and neurotransmitter restoration; (3) to clear the mind; for example, some scientists believe that the heightened electrical activity typical of REM sleep acts as an eraser, wiping away extraneous information that we accumulated during the day; and (4) sleeping to dream. Sleep studies show that we all dream even though we may not remember our dreams. This suggests that dreams serve an important function in our lives. [7] Stage 4 Sleep Since there is a relationship between Fibromyalgia and difficulty reaching or maintaining Stage 4 sleep, or deep level sleep; a review of the sleep cycle may be helpful in determining whether or not the disruption of a person's sleep at particular times of the night, such as an abduction, would have an effect on Stage 4 sleep. For this hypothetical experiment, I will use myself as an example. When I believe I have just experienced an abduction, the time is often between 2:00 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. - what we call "the middle of the night." Of course, abductions take place at all times of the day and night, but as far as my experiences, the majority have occurred during the night. I usually go to bed between 10:30 and 11:30 p.m. For convenience sake, I will use the even figure of 11:00 p.m. to make adding the minutes of each sleep cycle easier.
The light sleep that occurs just after dozing off is called Stage 1 sleep. People are easily awakened during Stage 1 sleep and often do not realize they have been sleeping. Stage 1 sleep normally lasts only a few minutes.
Stage 2 sleep follows and is a deeper level sleep. Eye movements are minimal and muscular activity decreases to an even lower level. Brain wave activity known as the K-complex can occur and is in response to an external stimulus, like the sound of a voice or an internal stimulus like stomach cramps. This cycle progresses into an even deeper Stage 3 level sleep characterized by delta waves. When these waves account for 50 percent of the EEG tracing, a person is in Stage 3 sleep.
When delta waves exceed 50 percent in proportion to other brain waves, the subject is in Stage 4 sleep, the deepest level of sleep. It is difficult to awaken someone from Stage 4 sleep and if they are awakened, they will be disoriented and confused. It takes about fifteen to thirty minutes to reach Stage 4 sleep. People usually remain in Stage 4 sleep for about thirty to forty minutes and then gradually return through Stages 3, 2, and 1 again. The first period of REM sleep, Rapid Eye Movement (when we dream) occurs about 90 minutes after falling to sleep, when we reenter Stage 1.
During the night, we move through about 5 successive cycles of sleep; from Stage 1 to Stage 4, and from Stage 4 back to Stage 1 again. Each cycle lasts about 90 minutes.
Although the first episode of REM sleep may last only five to ten minutes, each time we reenter REM sleep, the cycle lasts longer. At the same time, the deep sleep cycle becomes shorter. The final episode of REM sleep may last as long as 40 minutes or more. It is during the 3rd Cycle of Sleep, when REM sleep and deep sleep are becoming more equal in length, that I suspect many of my experiences are occurring or just beginning to occur:
Although this is during the time (between 2:00 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.) that is often stated by abductees as "the time they come," I'm not sure if this crude experiment really tells us much. When I began writing this, I had no idea where the time sequence, as cut-and-dry as it is, would end up. Perhaps it is coincidental that it turned out to be during the same time frame that many abductees feel they are being abducted.
For the sake of our hypothesis, let us assume that we are being abducted during the 3rd Cycle of Sleep. This would mean that during the time we are experiencing more equal amounts of dreaming and deep sleep, we are not getting it. Could this be why so many abductees say they feel as if they were awake all night? One of the things we need to determine is, what occurs when the aliens (or whoever is abducting us) returns us? Do we immediately go into REM sleep and dream about what just occurred? Do our brains process the experience during this time, placing the memories of the abduction into long term memory? If we awaken just after being returned to our beds, are we likely to retain more or less memory of the event? I have had many experiences immediately after which I could remember many, many details. I have also had a few experiences after which I could not remember much at all, but after deciding to go back to sleep, I would "dream" about what just occurred. VRS: Virtual Reality Scenarios The late Dr. Karla Turner described what she termed Virtual Reality Scenarios in her book Taken: Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda. [9] If VRS are indeed occurring, which I believe is the case, then the abductee's brain would still be "awakened" during the night and the effects might be the same as if a physical abduction was occurring. Remember the Fibromyalgia Network's findings: "...their deep level or Stage 4 sleep was constantly interrupted by bursts of awake-like brain activity. Patients appeared to spend the night with one foot in sleep and the other one out of it." [10] If an abductee has been implanted with an intracerebral device, then the operators of the implant may be able to abduct someone by "abducting their mind" while their body stays in bed. The unexplainable vividness of some abduction accounts may be explained by the electronic implantation of memories into the brain of the abductee, a form of VRS. Certainly this cannot be the case for all abductions, but it may explain a portion of abductions. [11] Finally, we also need to take into consideration the neurological effects of OBEs, out-of-body experiences. Some abductees, most notably Betty Andreasson-Luca, have described experiences with aliens and beings of light during out-of-body experiences. [12] Medical Research Lacking It is impossible to solve the mystery of abductions and their possible relationship to Fibromyalgia in a single experiment, much less a single article. It is clear to me that we will probably not find definitive answers to these questions until sleep studies are conducted on people claiming alien abduction. Of course, it would help immensely if an alien abduction could be filmed or monitored by a group of scientists. [13] This article was written to draw attention to the possibility that there may be a relationship between being an abductee and developing Fibromyalgia. It is yet another example of one of the areas the medical community, (including scientists within in the UFO community) could be studying. The lack of such research demonstrates the scientific community's unwillingness to apply the scientific method to the study of alien abduction. For example, according to the 1995 MUFON Symposium Proceedings, The Mutual UFO Network has the following number of scientific or medical personnel listed on their Advisory Board of Consultants:
I have to wonder why we have not heard from this group of credentialed scientists? Specifically, why aren't abductees being asked to participate in research projects that go beyond reports on their hypnosis sessions and the 'paper and pencil questionnaire'? After more than ten years of abductees going public, it seems that once again, we are left to fend for ourselves. Like post traumatic stress disorder, Fibromyalgia may be yet another syndrome caused by abduction. [14] It is strange how our dreams and so-called 'sleep paralysis' can make so many of us feel so bad, isn't it? Notes: [1] Kitty interviewed over ten individuals whom she knew. -- I would like to thank Kitty for bringing to my attention the possible relationship between abduction and Fibromyalgia almost three years ago. Her strength and encouragement has been an inspiration to me. [2] The Fibromyalgia Network's Brochure, 5700 Stockdale Highway, #100, Bakersfield, California, 93309. [3] Ibid. [4] Elizabeth Slater, "Conclusions on Nine Psychologicals." Final Report on the Psychological Testing of UFO "Abductees" (Mt. Rainier, Maryland: Fund for UFO Research) 1985; Nicholas P. Spanos, Patricia A. Cross, Kirby Dickson, and Susan D. DuBreuil. "Close Encounters: An Examination of UFO Experiences." Journal of Abnormal Psychology 102 (1993): 624-631. In addition, no one can deny the benefits of John E. Mack, M.D. having published his book, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994) and the many abduction related articles that John S. Carpenter, MSW has published. [5] Robert Crooks and Jean Stein, Psychology: Science, Behavior and Life (New York, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1988) 147-152. [6] Gilliland A. Rechtschaffen, et al (Bergmann & Winter) "Physiological Correlates of Prolonged Sleep Deprivation in Rats." Science, 221 (1983) 182-184. [7] Robert Crooks and Jean Stein, Psychology: Science, Behavior and Life (New York, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1988) 149. [8] Ibid. 142-145. [9] Karla Turner, Taken: Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda (Roland, Arkansas: Kelt Works, 1994) 61-79. [10] ] The Fibromyalgia Network's Brochure, 5700 Stockdale Highway, #100, Bakersfield, California, 93309. [11] Kay Wilson, Project Open Mind: Are Some Alien Abductions Government Mind Control Experiments? (1996 ) 24-27. [12] Raymond E. Fowler, The Watchers: The Secret Design Behind UFO Abduction (New York: New York: Bantam Books, 1990) 154-183. [13] My husband and I conducted a video taping experiment in order to catch the aliens in the act of abducting us. This experiment lasted several months. To read the results, please see my article, also published on this web site, titled Video Taping Those Elusive Aliens. [14] Much has been written about PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder and Vietnam Veterans, as well as the disorder showing up in people claiming to be alien abductees. I published my diagnosis with PTSD in The Alien Jigsaw and Puzzle Pieces: How Do I Make It From Here...To There?" Other abductees such as Ed Walters and Leah Haley have also published information relating to PTSD in their books. By Kay Wilson © 1997 |
