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A Lecture by Johannes
Fiebag, Ph.D.
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Dr. Johannes Fiebag was born in 1956, and is Germany's leading abduction research specialist. He has published many books about alien contact in ancient and modern times, and four books specifically about the abduction phenomenon in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Dr. Fiebag founded the CE-IV-Report, a newsletter for abductees, and he also organizes an annual meeting called Project Exchange that allows abductees to network with one another. In addition to CE-IV-Report and Project Exchange, Dr. Fiebag has also formed an interdisciplinary organization of Psychiatrists, psychologists and other medical professionals who work to help abductees.
UFO abductions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - Introduction Exactly fifty years ago, the modern UFO age began. At that time, on the 24th of June in 1947, an American pilot named Kenneth Arnold observed several crescent-shaped objects. Arnold described the objects as looking like a saucer might look if it were skipping across the water. The media adapted the term "flying saucer," hence, from this sighting a new term was born. [1] In the middle of the sixties, a new aspect of the UFO phenomenon became known, which until that time, nobody had any knowledge about. However, it was not until the seventies that UFO researchers became interested in it. This aspect - one that could be considered a sub-phenomenon - is the abduction of a human being into a UFO by alien beings. Today the abductions themselves appear to be at the heart of the UFO phenomenon. Without a deeper understanding of abductions, it is difficult to explain the presence of the UFOs. Abductions What occurs during an abduction that causes the individual to feel both alarmed and euphoric? What kinds of changes occur to individuals who experience an abduction? What happens to their environment and with the people who are with them? To be honest, we do not really know the answers to all of these questions. We have only the reports from those people who have encountered this phenomenon first-hand. We have statistical results, identical statements from people who do not know one another, and experiences that seem to repeat themselves. However, we still do not know why the abductions are occurring in the first place. Abductees almost always report the same thing: strange figures appearing in their room; they are taken - kidnapped - from their environment to suddenly find themselves inside a strange room. Once there, they are subjected to bizarre physical and psychological procedures. For example: the artificial insemination of women, followed by the removal of the grown embryo months later. After such procedures the abductee is then returned to their home or to their car in each case. However, with all this in mind, we must be aware that until now, only a sub-set of experiences representing the phenomenon has been made public, and even this sub-set may be an illusion: it may not correspond to what really happened to the abductee, but rather, what they "believe" occurred to them. The Hill Case Abductions by alien beings has been known since the early sixties. The famous Hill case is now considered a classic case. Betty and Barney Hill encountered a landed UFO on a secluded highway in 1961 in Canada. If we want to believe their report, they claim to have been forced - under mental control - into the landed object. In separate rooms, they were subjected to physiological tests. Betty was also was shown a star map and was asked by one of the UFO occupants if she recognized where she was on the map. Betty said she did not know. Later, Betty and Barney were returned to their car. It is believed that the aliens made them forget most their experience by the use of a post hypnotic suggestion or command. Only when the Hills arrived home, did they notice they were three hours late. Barney began to have nightmares and after some time, he developed a gastric ulcer. Betty and Barney went to a doctor, but he referred them to a psychiatrist named Dr. Benjamin Simon. Dr. Simon used regressive hypnosis on Betty and Barney Hill (during separate visits) and took them back to the events that transpired that night they saw the UFO. Current Reports Today we know that most abductions occur where one expects them the least. They begin where we feel secure: at home. The aliens penetrate the bedrooms of the abductees, in most cases appearing as small gray beings with huge heads and big black eyes. It is mostly the memory of the aliens' entering into the abductee's home that remains preserved in the conscious memory of the abductee. The beings bring the abductee, using an unknown technology, into strange rooms. They subject them to medical tests, physical experiments, and psychological tests. Then they return the abductee in the same unknown manner. The abducted person awakens in the morning and can remember very little about the events from the night before. [Although there are a few people who remember a lot of details.] However, for the most part, the abductee will only detect an unusual injury, a wound or scars that were not yet there the night before. It has also become clear that abductions are not single events. They usually begin in early childhood and occur episodically again and again throughout the individual's life. Conventional Explanations Inadequate There are numerous conventional explanations that have attempted to explain abduction experiences. However, these approaches are not able to explain all of the different aspects of the abduction process. Sometimes the people behind these conventional explanations manipulate the events in order to make the explanation fit with the experience. Let's have a look at some of the hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the abduction process:
Many abductees report a similar type of paralysis. They awake from sleep to find that their body is paralyzed and at best, are only able to move their eyes back and forth. It is during this moment of terrible fear that the strange beings approach them or step onto their bed. The question automatically arises: Have all of these people really experienced temporary sleep paralysis? Did they awaken from a dream to find that they could not move, and then become terrified? Then later they tell stories of small gray beings standing next to their bed? Is this what really constitutes the heart of the visitor phenomenon? Certainly not. We simply have too much information that contradicts this assumption. First, the perception of the bedroom visitor itself. His appearance is automatically by no means combined with sleep paralysis. Even more important is the simultaneous perception of these intruders by married couples, siblings, friends and acquaintances; as well as the simultaneous paralysis of several persons. The paralysis and hallucinations of one individual can hardly explain this. In addition, during an abduction paralysis also occurs in the waking state, for example, immediately after an abductee goes to bed, or after they have already awakened. And finally, we must take into account, the many abductions that have occurred in broad daylight without the abductee being in their bed. Important questions we must ask during this discussion are: Are all of these people who are experiencing sleep paralysis having completely identical hallucinations? Can so many people be sick in exactly the same manner? Do all of them suffer from identical hallucinations? Do all of them dream about identical figures which do the same thing to them every time? To accept these beliefs is much more improbable than the simple hypothesis that these people have experienced an alien abduction. Abductions in Europe The phenomenon of alien abduction is not limited to America. I am currently working with several abductees in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. They are very normal people like you and me. This sketch [slide] shows the evaluation of an investigation that I undertook with the German test psychologist Gerd Höchsmann, on 100 people who claimed to have been abducted. The Maudsley Personality Inventory or MPI matches the test subject to one of the different psychological and psychopathological groups we know exist. You can see that only five of the subjects who were tested classified as psychopathic, and therefore, were psychologically ill. Clearly, the majority of the test subjects are in the upper field. In other words, they are completely normal people. The distribution tells us that out of this sample, 95 percent of the subjects who claim to have had abduction experiences are psychologically healthy individuals. The number of abductees who go public with their information is also very small. Hardly anyone wants to put him or herself in the spotlight of this type of "fame," which in the final determination has very doubtful consequences in our society. However, in one respect, they all seem to be ahead of the rest of us. They have met the unknown - they have met with The Others. Important Cases At this point, I would like to provide you with some brief examples and descriptions of a few cases. Nicole is a 38 year-old television journalist from Munich. She invited me to a TV program about the abduction phenomenon in January of last year. After the television show she reported to me that she has experienced something similar to an abduction. During a vacation to Hawaii, Nicole had to go to the bathroom one night and she looked at the window. She then saw a round object with a dome-like structure at the top. It landed on a hill, one hundred meters away from the house. Something like a porthole opened. Nicole stated,
If anything else occurred that night, Nicole cannot remember it. Most of these experiences and subsequent abductions in the individual's life are somehow deleted from their memory. Nevertheless, my conversation with Nicole caused a spontaneous memory of an earlier experience to surface. Nicole wrote to me a short time later. In her letter she said,
Many people have had similar bedroom visitor experiences. In numerous cases, the abductions began in their early childhood. For example, Eva-Maria from Berlin, remembers an event that occurred when she was about five years old:
Hans-Joerg is a retail businessman and lives in Dortmund. He reported the following to me:
Thirty-six year old Carola is a photographer from a small village in the German state of Mecklenburg. She had a very impressive experience at the end of March of 1994:
Scientific evidence of alien abductions does not appear to exist. At best, we have circumstantial evidence like the broken tree limbs on the roof terrace belonging to Nicole. This lack of pure scientific evidence makes it difficult for us to study this phenomenon. It continuously slips away from our grip. Every time we think we are making progress and gaining understanding, it slips back into the darkness and we stay in a fog of ignorance and confusion. But something continues to occur at night when we sleep at night...when we enter into that strange and extraordinary dream world. Historical Perspective I want to back up in time and give you a historical perspective of this phenomenon. It would seem that UFO abductions were occurring as far back as the Middle Ages. At that time in history a great number of people were being abducted by airships. They were thought to be powerful magicians from the mythological Magonia land, far away and beyond the horizon. Similar events occurring today are attributed to powerful extraterrestrials from far away beyond the stars. When we compare ancient chronicles, myths and legends, to what is occurring today, it seems we going through the same mystical visitations yet again. In past centuries people believed they were being taken away by fairies, dwarfs and elves. Fairies were said to have robbed pregnant women of their newborn children in order to raise them as their own. It is even possible that the tales about Incubi and Succubi, so well known in the Middle Ages, may have originated by these earlier forced sexual contacts with alien beings. Originally, they were interpreted as demonic beings. Masked as pretty young women or men, they generated lustful dreams and then engaged in sexual intercourse with their sleeping victims: Succubi with women, Incubi with men. Even the German religious reformer Martin Luther believed that demons provided human sperm, and became procreative in hopes of obtaining human or human-like offspring. It sounds strange, but the behavior of the Succubi and Incubi, as well as the imaginations, dreams, and memories of their victims, resemble reports of the modern abduction and bedroom visitor phenomenon. The stories parallel one another in such a striking manner that it appears appropriate to state that they may be one in the same. Our current theories, based on the reports from abductees worldwide, shows us that the same phenomenon is occurring today. Sperm is supposedly tapped from men, and numerous female abductees believe they have been artificially inseminated by strange looking alien beings. Two or three months later, the fetus is then removed. It is indeed, a traumatic experience. The scenario that is emerging in so many of our present-day abduction accounts is this: years after these "terminated pregnancies" by alien beings, many of these same women are shown their children again: and they are described as looking like strange hybrid beings who are part human and part alien. This belief of the fertilization of women by heavenly or divine, as well as demonic beings, has pervaded throughout the course of human history. The legend of the virgin birth of Jesus of Nazareth and his conception by the holy spirit can be viewed as the incorporation of much older ideas that have been scattered throughout the ancient World. Many famous men of antiquity were believed to have had "heavenly fathers." For example, God himself went to Sarah, Abraham's wife, in order to beget a son with her. And, according to the legends, Buddha, Krischna, Alexander the Great, and Mohammed were also children of a similar "heavenly" union. In the mythological imaginations of the common people, strange beings like the Puk originated from such contacts. The description of a small naked gnome with big eyes, a giant head and a comparatively slight body, is certainly similar to the descriptions of the small Greys of our present-day UFO abduction accounts. Again, if we believe the abductees, the beings may be the result of an artificially induced combination between aliens and humans. During the Middle Ages women were confronted with Succubi and men were confronted with Incubi - demons. The same thing is occurring today in the modern UFO phenomenon. A Male Victim Ulrich is a 21 year-old man from Switzerland. Since he was a child he has had numerous experiences, many of them very frightening to him. He has since gained better insight into his experiences through regressive hypnosis.
What Is It? What are we confronted with here? Is it a genetic breeding program for the evolution of a new race? If so, why would it be occurring for a millennia now? I do not believe this "genetic breeding program" theory holds up due to the enormous amount of time these visitations have been occurring. If this were the case the beings would only require a few cells from our bodies. Even hair samples would satisfy their need if this was indeed all these beings are doing. Isn't this precisely what we expect from extraterrestrial beings: they come from other planets; they are somehow different (but perhaps a little bit like ourselves); they fly in shining spaceships; and they land on our Earth to examine us? Centuries ago we believed in fairies - and it was fairies who appeared to the people. At the end of the 19th Century we believed in the coming of Jules Verne's airships - and it was exactly those types of vehicles that were responsible for the first UFO wave in America in 1896. Today, our high-technology civilization has taken our astronauts to the moon and has given us genetic technology. Also consistent with our modern belief systems, we now have ships from Zeta Reticuli, or the Andromeda galaxy whose occupants carry out genetic experiments and manipulate the human race. It appears to me that the UFO phenomenon adapts itself to our fantasies and ideas. It uses our dreams, our fears, and our individual beliefs. It uses the contradictions which dwell within each of us. Apparently, this intelligence, which I like to term "The Other Ones," uses a kind of mimicry or camouflage behavior. This enables these beings to operate within the maximum range of possibilities and also allows them to conceal much of their activity. This alien intelligence must be far more advanced than we are - perhaps hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years ahead of us. It seems to have learned to intervene in reality. Or better said, unlike us, it knows that reality as we know it, does not exist at all. Reality, as we define it, is merely a construct of our brain - of our perception. Whoever gains the knowledge of that fact is able to manipulate what we call "reality." And - they can manipulate it whenever and wherever, and however they wish. What we consider reality, may be for "The Other Ones" nothing more than a play-ground similar to a cyber space simulation or a virtual reality scenario in our culture. We can only imagine what kind of rules govern this strange "game." "The Other Ones" can appear however they (or we) want them to. They can appear as magicians from Magonia, as mysterious aeronauts of the 19th century, as night goblins, as fairies, as small Greys, or beings in shining ships from the stars. The figures that are being observed in this phenomenon are obviously not "The Other Ones" themselves. What we really see are only their projections. Projections formed according to our social, cultural and religious belief systems during the moment of their apparition. These are the shadow masks they conceal themselves behind. Shapeshifters, Transformers and Camouflage Some of the abductees who - during their frightening experiences - found the courage and the strength to ask questions about the deeper meaning of their experience; questions for "why" these things were happening to them, usually received the stereotypical answer: "It is our right!" If it is truly their right, we must ask who has given them this right. In a case that Professor David Jacobs quotes, an abductee reacted with a very frightened response to the Greys when she shouted at them: "Your are transformers!" This is exactly what they are: transformers! They are not what they seem to be. Their camouflage and their behavior conceals what they really are. And who or what is hiding behind the camouflage? We may never find an answer to that question. The explanations we offer will most likely be wrong. This makes the study of this phenomenon all the more complicated. The deeper we attempt to penetrate this phenomenon, the more confusing it may become. However, one thing is certain: these events are happening and they leave their victims with physical and psychological aftereffects. These events occurred in the distant past and they continue to occur today. Combined Experiences There is another subject that is important to mention at this time. The abduction phenomenon appears to be connected with other boundary-type experiences involving human beings. Ina from northern Germany describes an abduction from the year 1991. What's really unusual is that it seems to have been a combined out of body / near death / UFO abduction experience, since the event includes elements of all of these experiences. Ina reported to me:
Modification of reality - what does this mean? Abductees are describing this effect again and again. For the first time, it was recognized by the British UFO researcher Jenny Randles and called "The Oz Factor" according to the old English tale of the magic land of Oz. It is possible that a real modification of the individual's environment is made or that the consciousness of the person is extended in some way. Both possibilities are conceivable, and both would lead to The Oz Factor. The modification of the subject's reality begins the actual event for the experiencer. Back to Ina's experience:
What did Ina experience here? An out of body journey during which her soul floated through the window? A near death experience during which she was accompanied by a being of light into another dimension of existence? It is exactly these types of experiences that are described by many people who have stood at the threshold of death and returned with conscious memories of their mysterious journey. Was it a classical UFO abduction during which she was taken into an object hovering over her house or was it a combination of all of these? Ina reported further:
It is difficult to decide where precisely the boundaries are between the so-called "classic" abduction model and experiences such as this one, which may possibly take place in the brain or with the soul of the experiencer. It may indeed, be a combination of an abduction, out of body and a near death experience. It may be that these boundaries are so liquid and blurred, that at the present level of understanding we are unable to recognize or define them. It is also possible that what is occurring with abductees may be the beginning of something much larger. It may be the beginning of a global modification plan which will eventually include more and more people. Some estimates from the United States indicate that approximately 20 percent of all Americans are already describing events related to the abduction phenomenon. From my own work with abductees I believe that a similar number of individuals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland may also be involved. In the past three years, more than 200 people have contacted me, all reporting nearly identical experiences with the unbelievable. This is, however, only the tip of the iceberg. Twenty percent is much more than a single hypothesis can explain. "Perhaps," as Harvard psychiatrist Professor John Mack wrote, "we are all abductees - in one manner or another." Conclusion * I am convinced that the alien intelligence behind the UFO phenomenon is in the process of preparing for something very big. In all myths, and in all religions, it says the gods promise to return. I cannot help but believe that this is exactly what we are facing. It may not occur in my lifetime, but it is possible that it will occur very soon after. We should be prepared for this event, because whatever occurs, should concern us all. All of us. That means we will share a global or even universal event - and we still know very little about what is going to occur. At the very least, it is time for everyone to consider the possibilities that await us. Since the beginning of history, people have been taken into the hands of gods and devils, of fairies and elves and goblins. Today, it is extraterrestrial beings. Sometimes, the witnesses only hear a thunder or see something like a bright flash of light. Sometimes they see airships in the clouds above them and believe the ships are from Magonia or some other mysterious place. Sometimes they observe bizarre air ships hanging in the sky, or they may come in contact with spaceships from Zeta Reticuli. These material manifestations only have a secondary meaning. They are dependent on the time in which the person lives. They are dependent upon the subject's beliefs, knowledge, and their hopes and fears. The basic model of contact between these elusive intelligence's and us has been the same for millennia. We can choose to deny the reality of this model. We can believe that the abductees were only drunk or had visions, or that they dreamed, hallucinated, or made up fairy tales. We would also have to believe that these people - from all over the World - have attempted to make fools of us and they have attempted to do this for many centuries! If you wish to believe this you may. It is your decision as to how you will deal with this information. No matter how you decide to deny their existence, it will not hinder "The Others Ones." They will continue to appear among us with their array of masks and deceptive camouflage. They will continue to abduct humans and they will continue on their own mysterious path. In all the millennia of human history no one has been able to analyze these beings. We are the first ones who have begun to suspect something and who have questioned their behavior. And - what if it is our own questioning and our own suspicion that brought them to us in the first place? Could their actions only be a mirror of our actions; our interaction with nature? Could this intelligence be a frightening reflection of ourselves - reflected back to us in the UFO phenomenon? Although we are asking the questions and seeking the truth about "The Other Ones" we are still, ladies and gentlemen, light-years away from the answer.
* Dr. Fiebag first published his conclusion - what he terms "The Mimicry Hypothesis" - in 1990, in Ancient Skies, a magazine of The Ancient Astronaut Society. Dr. Johannes Fiebag is the author of several books about the UFO phenomenon and the abduction phenomenon. His latest two books are titled Sternentore [Stargates] and Das UFO-Symdrom [The UFO Syndrome]. Both books were published in German, in 1996. Update: http://www.sagenhaftezeiten.com/fiebag/
From the Ancient Astronaut Society's 24th Anniversary World Conference Brochure: "Johannes Fiebag studied Geology, Paleontology, Physics and Geophysics at the University of Wurzburg, earning a Ph.D. in 1988, with his thesis in a special branch of Planetology. He has written many scientific papers in his field, and currently is a freelance science writer, as well as being the author of several books, not only alone, but with his brother, Peter. His latest book, written with Torsten Sasse, is Mars - Planet de Lebens. Dr. Fiebag is one of the most well-known researchers in the field of contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences in the German-speaking countries of Europe. He is also the Chief Editor of the German-Swiss-Austrian editions of Ancient Skies and Scientific Ancient Skies." For more information about the Ancient Astronaut Society's 1997 Conference call (800) 231-7883
by Johannes Fiebag, Ph.D. © 1997 NOTES: [1] I have included the following article from The Oregon Journal for historical reference - KW "ARNOLD INSISTS TALE OF FLYING OBJECTS O.K." "PENDLETON, OR: JUNE 27 (AP) -- Kenneth Arnold, a veteran pilot and fire control engineer, Thursday clung stoutly to his story that he saw nine shiny crescent-shaped planes or pilotless missiles flying in formation at a speed of at least 1,200 miles per hour over the Mt. Rainier region. 'It's God's truth -- I will swear it on a Bible. I saw them and I clocked them. They traveled 48 to 50 miles in 1 minute and 42 seconds.' (A plane traveling 48 miles in 1 minute and 42 seconds would be moving at a speed of 1,692 miles per hour.) Arnold said he saw the objects flying in a 'weaving formation' in a line at 10,000 feet as he piloted his own small private plane over Mineral, Washington. He said he flew at a right angle to the line of flashing objects. When he landed at Pendleton, in route to Boise, Idaho, Arnold told his story and stuck to it. 'Some of the pilots thought it over and said it was possible. Some of them guessed that I had seen some secret guided missiles. People began asking me if I thought they were missiles sent over the North Pole. I don't know what they were, but I know this -- I saw them.' Arnold, general manager and owner of the Great Western Fire Control Company, said he first saw the objects when they flashed in the sun low over the slopes of Mt. Rainier. 'Then I saw them, weaving and ducking in and out as they came south not more than 500 feet over the plateau. They looked like they were rocking. I looked for the rails but suddenly realized they didn't have any. They were half-moon shaped, oval in front and convex in the rear. I was in a beautiful position to watch them. I thought they might be jet planes, and I clocked them. Then when I saw they had no tails and I realized how fast they were going, I knew they were like nothing I had ever heard of before. There were no bulges or cowlings; they looked like a big flat disk. They were larger than the ordinary jet plane but slightly smaller than a DC4, if you don't count the rear fuselage.' Arnold said that the objects waived 'like the tail of a Chinese kite.' 'They hugged the horseback [the curvature of the terrain] between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams, and the flashing they made in the sun reminded me of the reflection of a great mirror.' " |
