UFO Abductees and Experiencers: The UFO Abduction Syndrome?

U̳F̳O̳ Abductees and Experiencers: The U̳F̳O̳ Abduction Syndrome?
So is there a difference between U̳F̳O̳ abductees and experiencers? In a conversation with the former director of MU̳F̳O̳n\’s experimenter research team, Kathleen Marden, the answer is yes.

Marden led a major study several years ago that we covered on this site and it produced some surprising results, to say the least.

The study was produced in conjunction with Dr. Don C. Donderi, a retired psychology professor and statistician at McGill University.

Respondents reported experiencing various types of contact with non-human intelligent entities (NHI) of supposed ex̳t̳r̳a̳t̳e̳r̳r̳e̳s̳t̳r̳i̳a̳l̳ origin.

Approximately 600 participants were tested with a series of questions with the goal of identifying abductees as a separate group exhibiting the symptoms of U̳F̳O̳ Abduction Syndrome.

It was a multi-year, two-part study that collected information from participants and compared the two groups of experimenters, abductees and contactees.

So most of us would automatically categorize the two groups as one, experimenters. But are abductees and experimenters the same? Interesting question.

Marden says the study questionnaire was designed to exclude those contactees who practiced astral travel, conscious contact with non-physical entities, remote viewing, and shamanic drug-induced contact.

Marden added that “the biggest problem with a survey of this type is the impossibility of measuring the psychological functioning of its participants and the veracity of the statistical data.”

Abductees and U̳F̳O̳ experiencers
One problem with a survey like this is that there will always be potential counterfeiters.

In other words, the skeptics, the people who just want to be “famous” or those who know little about this subject but just “throw a wrench in the works” just to be naughty.

How did Marden and her team solve this problem?

They expected it and came up with a set of what she calls trick questions.

“So we came up with some trick questions. We had 118 questions in total. We wanted to have between 500 and 600 participants and in our trick questions, we were going to be able to pinpoint anyone who was just walking in to mislead and skew our results.”

“And we removed the ones that were incomplete and we removed the ones that were obvious teasers. Then Dr. Don Donderi administered the American Personality Inventory.”

“The American Personality Inventory was developed to determine which self-identified experimenters were abductees and actual U̳F̳O̳ experiencers.”

“This was set against those people who knew a lot about it but we\’re just pretending.”

“And then those in the general population, which was a third group, who knew very little about the subject and maybe they were just trying to fool us.”

“So what he found was that there were a lot of people that were clustered around what they called the U̳F̳O̳ abduction group.”

“We didn\’t have applicants in that group either, although we had a couple who were very close. We were able to identify the abductees rather than the respondents.”

“When we compared their results, we found that those who were in the abductee group had certain characteristics in a much higher percentage than experimenters in general.”

U̳F̳O̳ Abduction Syndrome
So what is the difference between abductees and experimenters? There is one?

One would assume that any type of U̳F̳O̳ experience involving contact would fall under the same banner.

But according to Marden, they found that the group that had U̳F̳O̳ abduction syndrome was correctly categorized under the banner of abductees.

“We only identified those kidnapped from the 118-question survey. We ended up with 516 surveys that we were able to use.”

“The difference is that among all the respondents, there was this group that had U̳F̳O̳ abduction syndrome, which we call the abductees”

“And so the experimenters were different than the abductees.”

“The abductees had the knowledge and emotional impact of being taken onto a ship against their will.”

“We had people who were contacted, who had tried to start their experience.”

“People who were channeling, people who were meditating, and people who were having very positive experiences.”

Did people identify different races of a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳s?
According to Marden, people identified a multitude of different a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳ races.

However, it was interesting that most of the identified a̳l̳i̳e̳n̳ races belonged to what we know as the Greys.

And the most frequently identified group was around four and a half to five feet tall. That seems to match a large percentage of the physical features in the abductee accounts.

This is a fascinating insight into what abductees and experimenters reported, and Marden goes into more detail during the interview.

The following is the full interview I r̟e̟c̟o̟r̟d̟ed with Kathleen Mardeen about this study. It took place about six years ago.