The Man From Outer Space

Harvard psychiatrist John Mack claims that tales of UFO abductions are real. But experts and former patients say his research is shoddy.

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Later, at a support-group session, Bassett confronted Mack about mixing research and therapy. According to Bassett, Mack billed insurance companies for some support-group sessions, claiming they were "therapeutic" rather than "research." Yet some members of the support group complained about the lack of therapy following their traumatic hypnosis sessions. "That I can't do everything that each person needs does not mean that what I'm doing is not therapeutic," Mack said. "There are too many of you, and I'm also doing research."

Bassett's account is supported by others who had close encounters with Mack. "He had a hidden agenda," says Dave Duclos, who left the experiment when he became disenchanted. "He was against anybody who said anything negative about the aliens. Once he said to me, 'If you think the aliens are bad, Mr. Duclos, keep thinking about it until you realize they are good.' "

But what of the surprising consistency of the stories Mack elicited? "Dr. Mack is ignoring the high level of suggestion and imagery that surrounds the way in which he deals with these people," says Fred Frankel, 70, a Harvard Medical School professor and psychiatrist in chief at Boston's Beth Israel hospital. "Hypnosis helps you regain memories that you would not have otherwise recalled . . . But some will be true, and some will be false. The expectation of the hypnotist and the expectation of the person who is going to be hypnotized can influence the result."

To many experts, the abduction scenarios bear a striking resemblance to stories of satanic rituals and child abuse -- stories that can be shaped by all sorts of outside influences, from movies and TV shows to the suggestive questioning of a therapist. Says Ofshe, who is an expert in hypnosis: "If you convince someone they've been brutalized and raped, and you encourage them to fully experience the emotions appropriate for this event -- and the event never happened -- you've led them through an experience of pain that is utterly gratuitous."

Confronted by TIME with the news that Bassett had faked her abduction experience, Mack declined to discuss her case, though he hinted that he had doubts about her reliability. (Hers is not among the 13 case histories recounted in his book, but tapes of her sessions leave little doubt that Mack took her seriously.) In general, he insists, there is no evidence that the core memories he elicited are distorted. "When ((the subjects)) talk about this -- and other people in the room with me have witnessed this, including several psychiatrists -- the experience is that of a person who has been through something deeply disturbing." While acknowledging that he is not "an expert on hypnosis," Mack scoffs at the debunkers. "The attacks on hypnosis didn't begin until it began to reveal information that the culture didn't want to hear."

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