Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The lore surrounding the mythical Witches' Sabbat and contemporary reports of UFO abductions share three main characteristics: the use of masks, the appearance of “Men in Black,” and references to flight and abduction. We review these three commonalities with particular focus on the aspect of flight and abduction. We argue that narratives of the Witches' Sabbat and UFO abductions share the same basic structure, common symbolism, and serve the same psychological needs of providing a coherent explanation for anomalous (ambiguous) experiences while simultaneously giving the experient a sense of freedom, release, and escape from the self. This pattern of similarities suggests the possibility that UFO abductions are a modern version of tales of flight to the Sabbat.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. (1982) Press Reports, NC. APRO Bulletin, 30, 7.

Anonymous. (1976) New time lapse case from England uncovered. MUFON UFO Journal, 107, 17–18.

Appelle

(1995–1996) The abduction experience: A critical evaluation of theory and evidence. Journal of UFO Studies, 6, 29–78.

Baroja

J. C.

(1964) The world of the witches. ( Glendinning

, Transl.) London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Barry

(1978) Ultimate encounter: The true story of a UFO kidnapping. New York: Pocket Books.

Bartholomew

R. E.

(1991) The quest for transcendence: An ethnography of UFOs in America. Anthropology of Consciousness, 2, 1–12.

Bartholomew

R. E.

Basterfield

Howard

G. S.

(1991) UFO abductees and contactees: Psychopathology or fantasy proneness? Professional Psychology—Research and Practice, 22, 215–222.

Bigelow Holding Corporation. (1992) Unusual personal experiences: An analysis of the data from three national surveys conducted by the Roper Organization. Las Vegas, NV: Author.

Blackmore

(1998) Abduction by aliens or sleep paralysis? Skeptical Inquirer, 22, 23–28.

10.

Bloecher

Clamar

Hopkins

(1985) Final report on the psychological testing of UFO “abductees”. Mt. Rainer, MD: Fund for UFO Research.

11.

Bodin

(1580) De la demonomania des sorciers. Paris: Jacques du Puys.

12.

Bullard

T. E.

(1989) UFO abduction reports: The supernatural kidnap narrative returns in technological guise. Journal of American Folklore, 102, 147–170.

13.

Chequers

Stephen

Diduca

(1997) Belief in extraterrestrial life, UFO-related beliefs, and schizotypal personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 519–521.

14.

Cheyne

J. A.

Rueffer

S. D.

Newby-Clark

I. R.

(1999) Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations during sleep paralysis: Neurological and cultural construction of the nightmare. Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 319–337.

15.

Clark

(1980a) Men in black. In Fuller

C. G.

(Ed.), Proceedings of the First International UFO Congress. New York: Warner Books. Pp. 273–293.

16.

Clark

(1980b) UFO abduction in North Dakota. In Rogo

D. S.

(Ed.), UFO abductions. New York: American Library. Pp. 138–159.

17.

Clark

Coleman

(1975) The unidentified: Notes toward solving the UFO mystery. New York: Warner.

18.

Collins

(1978a) The Aveley abduction: Parts I-II. Flying Saucer Review, 23, 13–21.

19.

Collins

(1978b) The Aveley abduction: Part III. Flying Saucer Review, 24, 5–15.

20.

Craft

(1997) Alien impact: A comprehensive look at the evidence of human/alien contact. New York: St. Martin's Press.

21.

Creighton

(1957) Attempted abduction by UFO entity? Flying Saucer Review, 13, 23–24.

22.

Creighton

(1969) The amazing case of Antonio Villas Boas. In Bowen

(Ed.), The humanoids. London: Neville Spearman. Pp. 200–238.

23.

Creighton

(1977) Teleportations. In Bowen

(Ed.), Encounter cases from Flying Saucer Review. New York: Signet. Pp. 18–23.

24.

Davies

(1996–1997) Hag-riding in 19th century West Country England and modern Newfoundland: An examination of an experience-centered witchcraft tradition. Folk Life, 35, 36–53.

25.

de Becker

(1968) The understanding of dreams or the machinations of the night. ( Heron

, Transl.) London: George Allen & Unwin.

26.

Don

N. S.

Moura

(1997) Topographic brain mapping of UFO experiencers. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11, 435–453.

27.

Druffel

(1980) Harrison Bailey and the ‘flying saucer’ disease. In Rogo

D. S.

(Ed.), UFO abductions. New York: New American Library. Pp. 122–137.

28.

Druffel

Rogo

D. S.

(1980) The Tujunga Canyon contacts. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

29.

Eliade

(1959) The sacred and the profane: The nature of religion. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

30.

Ellwood

R. S.

Partin

H. B.

(1988) Religious and spiritual groups in modern America. (2nd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

31.

Evans

(1984) Visions, apparitions, alien visitors: A comparative study of the entity enigma. Wellingborough, UK: Aquarian.

32.

Evans

(1987) Gods, spirits, cosmic guardians: A comparative study of the encounter experience. Wellingborough, UK: Aquarian.

33.

Fontes

Martins

(1976) Report on the Villas-Boas incident. In Lorenzen

Lorenzen

(Eds.), Encounters with UFO occupants. New York: Berkley Medallion Books. Pp. 61–87.

34.

Fowler

(1983) A landing and close encounter near Aldershot. Flying Saucer Review, 29, 3–5.

35.

Fuller

J. G.

(1966) The interrupted journey: Two lost hours “aboard a flying saucer”. New York: Dial.

36.

Gibbons

(1957) They rode in space ships. New York: Citadel.

37.

Granchi

(1983) An encounter with 'rat-faces' in Brazil. Flying Saucer Review, 29, 6–13.

38.

Granchi

(1984) Abduction at Botucatu. Flying Saucer Review, 30, 22–25.

39.

Hansen

G. P.

(1992) Demons, ETs, bigfoot and Elvis: A fortean view of ghosts. In Henkel

L. A.

Schmeidler

G. R.

(Eds.), Research in parapsychology 1990. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. Pp. 140–141.

40.

Hansen

(1901/1963) Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im Mittelalter. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.

41.

Haraldsson

(1985) Representative national surveys of psychic phenomena: Iceland, Great Britain, Sweden, USA, and Gallup's multinational survey. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 53, 145–158.

42.

Hay

Morisy

(1978) Reports of ecstatic, paranormal, or religious experience in Great Britain and the United States: A comparison of trends. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 17, 255–268.

43.

Houran

(1998) Complement to “ratio of male and female characters in a dream series”. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 86, 1469–1470.

44.

Houran

(in press) Toward a psychology of “entity encounter experiences”. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

45.

Houran

Lange

(1997) Hallucinations that comfort: Contextual mediation of deathbed visions. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 84, 1491–1504.

46.

Houran

Lange

Crist-Houran

(1997) An assessment of contextual mediation in trance states of shamanic journeys. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 59–65.

47.

Houran

Thalbourne

M. A.

(in press) Further study and speculation on the psychology of “entity encounter experiences”. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

48.

Houran

Williams

(1998) Relation of tolerance of ambiguity to global and specific paranormal experience. Psychological Reports, 83, 807–818.

49.

Hueffer

O. M.

(1908/1973) The book of witches. East Ardsley, UK: EP.

50.

Hufford

D. J.

(1982) The terror that comes in the night: An experience-centered study of supernatural assault traditions. Philadelphia, PA: Univer. of Pennsylvania Press.

51.

Hughes

(1973) Witchcraft. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.

52.

Huyghe

(1996) The field guide to extraterrestrials: A complete overview of alien lifeforms based on actual accounts and sightings. New York: Avon.

53.

Janosh

(1979) Schoolroom ‘landing’ in Loreta, Argentina. Flying Saucer Review, 25, 21–22.

54.

Jung

C. G.

(1975) Flying saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies. Princeton, NJ: Univer. Press.

55.

Jung

C. G.

(1979) Preface. In Jaffe

(Author), Apparitions: An archetypal approach to death dreams and ghosts. Irving, TX: Spring.

56.

Keel

J. A.

(1970) UFOs: Operation Trojan horse. New York: Plenum.

57.

Keith

(1997) Casebook on the men in black. Lilburn, GA: IllumiNet Press.

58.

Kieckhefer

(1976) European witch trials. Berkeley, CA: Univer. of California Press.

59.

Kottmeyer

(1994) The eyes that spoke. Skeptical Briefs, 4, 1000.

60.

Kramer

Sprenger

(1486/1951) Malleus maleficarum. (Rev. Summers

, Transl.) London: Pushkin Press.

61.

Lange

Houran

(1996) Role of contextual mediation in direct versus reconstructed angelic encounters. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 83, 1259–1270.

62.

Lange

Houran

(1998) Delusions of the paranormal: A haunting question of perception. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 637–645.

63.

Lange

Houran

(1999) The role of fear in delusions of the paranormal. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 187, 159–166.

64.

Lange

Houran

Harte

T. M.

Havens

R. A.

(1996) Contextual mediation of perceptions in hauntings and poltergeist-like experiences. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, 755–762.

65.

Lawson

A. H.

(1977) What can we learn from hypnosis of imaginary abductees? 1977 MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings. Seguin, TX: Mutual UFO Network. Pp. 107–135.

66.

Lea

H. C.

(1957) Materials toward a history of witchcraft. 3 vols. New York: Thomas Yoseloff.

67.

Leonhard

Brugger

(1998) Creative, paranormal, and delusional thought: A consequence of right hemisphere semantic activation? Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology, 11, 177–183.

68.

Loftus

E. F.

(1980) Memories are made of this: New insights into the workings of human memory. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

69.

Loftus

E. F.

Loftus

G. R.

(1980) On the permanence of stored information in the human brain. American Psychologist, 35, 409–420.

70.

Lorenzen

(Eds.) (1976) Encounters with UFO occupants. New York: Berkley Medallion Books.

71.

Lorenzen

(1977) Abducted! New York: Berkley Medallion Books.

72.

Macer-Story

(1980) Pennsylvania woman healed by alien practitioner. Journal of S.I.T.U. Pursuit, 13, 146–149.

73.

Malmstrom

F. V.

Coffman

R. M.

(1979) Humanoids reported in UFOs, religion and folktales: Human bias toward human life forms? In Haines

R. F.

(Ed.), UFO phenomena and the behavioral scientist. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. Pp. 60–88.

74.

McDermott

K. B.

Roediger

H. L.

(1998) Attempting to avoid illusory memories: Robust false recognition of associates persists under conditions of explicit warnings and immediate testing. Journal of Memory and Language, 39, 508–520.

75.

McGowan

M. M.

(1977) Pierre de Lancre's Tableau de L'Inconstance des Mauvais Angels et Demons: The Sabbat Sensationalised. In Anglo

(Ed.), The damned art: Essays in the literature of witchcraft. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Pp. 182–201.

76.

Meheust

(1978) Science fiction at Soucoupes Volantes. Paris: Mercure de France.

77.

Murray

M. A.

(1921) The witch-cult in western Europe. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

78.

Musgrave

J. B.

(1979) UFO occupants and critters: The patterns in Canada. New York: Global Communications.

79.

Musgrave

J. B.

Houran

(submitted) The witches Sabbat in legend and literature. (Manuscript submitted for publication, Southern Illinois Univer.)

80.

Newman

L. S.

Baumeister

R. F.

(1996) Toward an explanation of the UFO abduction phenomenon: Hypnotic elaboration, extraterrestrial sadomasochism, and spurious memories. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 99–126.

81.

Nickell

(1996) A study of fantasy proneness in the thirteen cases of alleged encounters in John Mack's “Abduction”. Skeptical Inquirer, 20, 18–20.

82.

Nickell

(1997) Extraterrestrial iconography. Skeptical Inquirer, 21, 18–19.

83.

Parnell

(1988) Measured personality characteristics of persons who claim UFO experiences. Psychotherapy in Private Practice, 6, 159–165.

84.

Persinger

M. A.

(1976) Transient geophysical bases for ostensible UFO-related phenomena and associated verbal behavior? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 43, 215–221.

85.

Persinger

M. A.

(1983a) Geophysical variables and behavior: IX. Expected clinical consequences of close proximity to UFO-related luminosities. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 56, 259–265.

86.

Persinger

M. A.

(1983b) Mystical and religious experiences as artifacts of temporal lobe function: A general hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 57, 1255–1262.

87.

Persinger

M. A.

(1984) Geophysical variables and behavior: XVIII. Expected perceptual characteristics and local distributions of close UFO reports. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 951–959.

88.

Persinger

M. A.

(1992) Neuropsychological profiles of adults who report “sudden remembering” of early childhood memories: Implications for claims of sex abuse and alien visitation/abduction experiences. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 75, 259–266.

89.

Persinger

M. A.

(1993) Vectorial cerebral hemisphericity as differential sources of the sensed presence, mystical experiences, and religious conversions. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 915–930.

90.

Peters

(1977) UFOs: The religious dimension. Cross Currents, 27, 261–278.

91.

Peters

(1979) The religious dimension to the UFO phenomenon. MUFON UFO Symposium Proceedings. Seguin, TX: Mutual UFO Network. Pp. 37–45.

92.

Powers

S. M.

(1994) Dissociation in alleged extraterrestrial abductees. Dissociation: Progress in the Dissociative Disorders, 7, 44–50.

93.

Pritchard

D. E.

Mack

J. E.

Kasey

Yapp

(Eds.) (1994) Alien discussions: Proceedings of the abduction study conference at MIT. Cambridge, MA: North Cambridge Press.

94.

Randle

K. D.

Estes

Cone

W. P.

(1999) The abduction enigma. New York: TOR/Forge.

95.

Randles

(1997) The truth behind men in black. New York: St. Martin's Press.

96.

Randles

Whetnall

(1981) Alien contact: Window on another world. London: Neville Spearman.

97.

Ring

(1992) The omega project: Near-death experiences, UFO encounters, and mind at large. New York: Morrow.

98.

Robbins

R. H.

(1978) Witchcraft: An introduction to the literature of witchcraft. Millwood, NY: KTO Press.

99.

Rodeghier

Goodpaster

Blatterbauer

(1991) Psychosocial characteristics of abductees: Results from the CUFOS abduction project. Journal of UFO Studies, 3, 59–90.

100.

Roediger

H. L.

McDermott

K. B.

(1995) Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803–814.

101.

Rogo

D. S.

(1977) The haunted universe. New York: New American Library.

102.

Rojcewicz

P. M.

(1987) The “men in black” experience and tradition: Analogues with the traditional devil hypothesis. Journal of American Folklore, 100, 148–160.

103.

Ross

C. A.

Joshi

(1992) Paranormal experiences in the general population. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 180, 357–361.

104.

Ross

McFarland

Fletcher

G. J. O.

(1981) The effect of attitude on the recall of personal histories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 627–634.

105.

Russell

J. B.

(1972) Witchcraft in the middle ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univer. Press.

106.

Rutkowski

C. A.

(1984) Geophysical variables and behavior: XVI. Some criticisms. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 840–842.

107.

Sanarov

V. I.

(1981) On the nature and origin of flying saucers and little green men. Current Anthropology, 22, 163–167.

108.

Schwarz

B. E.

(1977a) Talks with Betty Hill: 1—aftermath of encounter. Flying Saucer Review, 23, 16–19.

109.

Schwarz

B. E.

(1977b) Talks with Betty Hill: 2—the things that happen around her. Flying Saucer Review, 23, 11–14, 31.

110.

Schwarz

B. E.

(1978) Talks with Betty Hill: 3—experiments and conclusions. Flying Saucer Review, 23, 28–31.

111.

Scot

(1584/1964) The discoverie of witchcraft. Arundel: Centaur Press.

112.

Sergeant

P. W.

(1936/1974) Witches and warlocks. London: Hutchinson.

113.

Spanos

N. P.

Cross

P. A.

Dickson

Dubreuil

S. C.

(1993) Close encounters: An examination of UFO experiences. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 624–632.

114.

Sparks

G. G.

Sparks

C. W.

Gray

(1995) Media impact on fright reactions and belief in UFOs: The potential role of mental imagery. Communication Research, 22, 3–23.

115.

Strieber

(1987) Communion: A true story. New York: William Morrow.

116.

Thalbourne

M. A.

Houran

(2000) Transliminality, the Mental Experience Inventory, and tolerance of ambiguity. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 853–863.

117.

Thompson

R. L.

(1929) The history of the devil. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.

118.

Tolaas

(1976) Dreaming: A psi modality? Psychoenergetic Systems, 1, 185–195.

119.

Ullman

(1973) Societal factors in dreaming. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 9, 282–293.

120.

Vallee

(1969) Passport to Magonia: From folklore to flying saucers. Chicago, IL: Regnery.

121.

Vallee

(1975) The invisible college. New York: Dutton.

122.

Walton

(1978) The Walton experience. New York: Berkley Medallion Books.

123.

Zacharias

(1980) The satanic cult. ( Trollope

, Transl.) London: George Allen & Unwin.

124.

Zimmer

T. A.

(1985) Belief in UFOs as alternative reality, cultural rejection, or disturbed psyche? Deviant Behavior, 6, 405–419.

Flight and Abduction in Witchcraft and UFO Lore

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References