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The Truth Behind ‘Alien Abduction Stories’ Explained

Tripti
First Posted: Feb 04, 2017 03:50 AM EST

A recent study suggests that about 3.7 million people in America believe that they were abducted by aliens. While these people describe their own elaborate alien abduction stories as being sucked by a beam of bright light coming from a UFO, after which the aliens scanned their butts with tubes and what not, science has a different explanation to it. Psychologists believe that these stories are all hallucinations, which are common in fantasy-prone people.

When the news of the U.S. military capturing and studying aliens and UFOs in a secret base surfaced in the 1940s, the society was divided into two halves. One half believed in the existence of aliens and UFOs, and the rest denied it. Soon people started sharing their own experience of spotting UFOs and being abducted by aliens.

One of the oldest and most famous alien abduction stories is of 'Betty and Barney Hill' who supposedly witnessed floating lights, followed by the experience of "missing time" and " lost memory." These all are considered as most common physiological indications of a possible alien abduction, Science Alert reported.

While skeptics believe that these stories are all made up for monetary gain and social popularity, psychologists have a different opinion. According to leading psychologists across the world, "fantasy-prone people engage in elaborate imaginings and often confuse fantasy with reality."

This usually happens when people are trapped in sleep paralysis, the state between sleeping and being fully awake. This happens when people wake up before their sleep cycle is finished. "This can be an exceptionally scary time for those afflicted with this weird phenomenon, but despite former beliefs, the feeling of paralysis is not caused by supernatural beings," Live Science reported.

According to Medical Daily, the symptoms of sleep paralysis like "a sense of being awake, not dreaming, and realistic perceptions of the environment" are similar to what usually people describe when they were allegedly abducted by aliens.

This is what medical experts make out of alien abduction stories. But the UFO experts have a completely different take on the same. Only time will tell which one of them is true.

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