Post by uforn on Jan 23, 2011 18:48:32 GMT 1
Budd Hopkins
The Pioneer of Abduction Research
The Pioneer of Abduction Research
by Kay Wilson
People who have never experienced an abduction by alien or interdimensional Beings will never understand what it truly feels like. Even after decades of understanding what has been happening to me, and having retained many conscious memories of my experiences for most of my life, there are still times when the experience elicits an instinctive, almost visceral fear. On the other end of the spectrum are positive experiences that cause eustress or extremely heightened pleasant emotions. These experiences are unlike anything else involving the human condition. The one feeling that never goes away - no matter how much we remember and no matter how much we integrate these experiences and come to terms with them - is the feeling that we are different and separate from people who are living "normal" lives. Budd Hopkins is one of the few researchers who I believe came very close to understanding what it was really like to be an alien abductee.
Everyone who knows of Budd Hopkins can Google his name and read all about his life's work, the many works of art he has created, the books he has published and the myriad of articles he has written during his life; therefore, I will not repeat all of that here. What I do want to do is remind people, not of a few misjudgments he may have made along the way, but of how much he has helped people like me. Over the past 20 plus years that I have been actively involved in the field of abduction discovery and research, I have been told the following phrases time and time and time again: "If not for Budd Hopkins, I would not be here today." "Budd literally saved my life."
"I owe so much to Budd Hopkins."
I began keeping a dream journal on the advice of my grandmother. My earliest recall of what has come to be referred to today as an abduction experience was in 1967, and the memory of that event has remained with me ever since. This was my memory and it was remembered consciously. It was quite vivid and I knew that whatever happened to me, it had happened several times by that point in my life. Because I kept a journal of my dreams and memories from my childhood, as well as drawings I created as a child, I have a pretty good understanding of what has happened to me.
The following excerpts are taken from my first book titled The Alien Jigsaw, which was published in 1993. In light of recent events that have occurred within the ufological field of abduction research, I feel it is important to share this particular excerpt with you. I am doing this because I believe Budd Hopkins, who has often correctly been referred to as a "pioneer of abduction research," deserves better treatment than what I have read in recent Internet publications.
It is a straightforward narrative. It is not written in a fancy manner designed to elicit juicy details or anything special from anyone. It is simply the truth written by someone who knew the man, and although I have not had the opportunity to speak personally with Budd since 2003, I still feel the way I did when I wrote this:
From The Alien Jigsaw:
"I purchased the November-December 1987 issue of Omni magazine because there was a questionnaire in it about UFOs and alien abductions. I filled out the interview titled, Hidden Memories: Are You an Abductee? It sat around the house for a while, and finally my fiancé [now my husband of over 20 years] insisted that I mail it."
"Filling out something such as this and mailing it are two very different things. I eventually mailed the questionnaire directly to Budd Hopkins because I thought the fewer people who read it, the better...I ended up sending him pages of answers. I didn't realize how desperate I was to have somebody to talk to about this. I waited in dread for 'the men in the white coats' to arrive because I thought Budd was going to send a couple of shrinks to my house to have me committed to a mental institution."
"I wrote to Budd Hopkins on November 29, 1987. He telephoned me shortly thereafter and told me he would be in [my hometown] in April and asked if he could meet with me when he was in town. Now, I thought, this wasn't the way this was supposed to work out. The 'men in the white coats' never showed up to take me away, and here was this stranger actually telephoning me? [During our phone conversation] I found Budd to be extremely kind and sincerely interested in talking to me. It didn't make sense. It was too good to be true."
"On April 24, 1988, I met Budd Hopkins. He interviewed me for over two hours. I remember trying to read every expression on his face when I would answer his questions. I wanted to know if he believed me or if he thought I was crazy, but it was impossible. Budd didn't volunteer any information to me, and he never showed any reaction to my answers other than being sincerely interested in what I had to say. I didn't know whether I was answering the questions 'right' or 'wrong,' and this made me very nervous."
"Later, after the interview, Erik came home and I introduced him to Budd. He asked me if I would be interested in trying hypnosis, and the three of us agreed to meet later that evening. I didn't do a lot of talking during the hypnosis session and Budd was very patient. We looked into the time I was supposed to go to my Brownie meeting. The following day during [the second] hypnosis session, we looked into the abduction experience that occurred on 9-12-87. The main thing we learned during the second session was there was a blue-skinned baby and a blue-skinned Being. Again, although we didn't uncover anything astonishing, my memories were very salient."
"After my first hypnotic regression with Budd, Erik and I ended up going to bed around one o'clock in the morning. I kept waking up periodically during the night only to find that I had been crying. I was actually crying in my sleep, but it was a good kind of crying. I remember feeling an enormous relief. It was as if twenty-eight years of pain and confusion were being released from my unconscious mind. It is almost impossible to find the words to describe the feelings I was experiencing. For the first time in my life, I was releasing this, and I knew I was going to be okay."
"I continued to keep the journal I began in 1983. I recorded what happened that weekend and my feelings about it. I felt extremely fortunate to have had this opportunity. It was a very positive experience, and Budd was very kind and sensitive. I owe much to him. He reached out to me, a stranger, and offered to listen. I believe my life would be very different today had he, and my husband Erik, not been there to help me through this final stage of my awakening."
"Budd told me he had recently met a woman who lived nearby who was having experiences similar to mine. He felt it was important for me to have someone I could talk to if Erik were ever out of town. He also told me about a woman who was a MUFON investigator..."
"The protective wall around my alien encounters had been breached, and it was time for the memories to tumble out. Over the next several months, I would experience the drain spontaneous memories can have on the mind and body. I would also experience more abductions. Today, I firmly believe the aliens gave me a posthypnotic suggestion which acted like a mental block, and inhibited my ability to completely remember my past abduction experiences. After my hypnosis sessions with Budd, I felt a feeling I can only describe as an enormous release, coupled with a feeling of peacefulness."
I underwent very little hypnosis during my investigation, but my work with Budd was instrumental in my healing process. I was also very fortunate to have the love and companionship of my husband Erik along the way. In a world where the establishment still refuses to admit to the reality of otherworldly or interdimensional Beings, people like Budd Hopkins are one of the few choices we have to find support and understanding. Budd has done an enormous amount of good for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of individuals experiencing alien contact. He never once told me that what I was experiencing was good or bad. He never once told me what I should think about one particular aspect of this phenomenon or another. He was just there. He listened, and he learned. We all learned because of Budd and because of other researchers who built upon his basic findings.
Abduction research - Experiencer research - whatever you wish to call it - is still in its infancy. There are few set and firm guidelines for conducting this type of research. Everyone who has ever been involved in this field has stumbled or misjudged at least one witness or some aspect of the phenomenon along the way. Everyone has. There are, understandably, an increasing number of people who have spent years of their lives investigating these elusive Beings who are growing weary. They are growing weary because, as many of them say, "...nothing new has been learned...it's the same old story." So, a few of these frustrated people leave the field of abduction research, and some of them - nonabductee and abductee alike - have ended up attacking those they left behind. They search for faults because they are obviously there. After all, they didn't find the answers they were searching for. Why should anyone else?
To those who take a different path, I ask that you not take your personal frustrations out on those who choose to keep searching for the truth - and fighting for the truth. Your fellow human beings who are being abducted do not have the luxury of walking away. Budd never forgot that about us. He never forgot about the bigger picture and he always knew that it was much larger than he was. In time, people will realize that Budd gave much more of himself than they could have ever fathomed. He gave those of us who had no voice, a chance to be heard - if only for a brief moment in time. -- Kay Wilson, January 2011
Source:
www.alienjigsaw.com/Articles/PioneerOfAbductionResearch.htm