From: Greg Sandow <greg@gregsandow.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 14:39:30 -0700
Fwd Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 21:55:43 -0400
Subject: UpDate: Re: Abductee Files/Our Children - Sandow


 >Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 09:25:21 -0500 (CDT)
 >From: Chris Rutkowski <rutkows@cc.UManitoba.CA>
 >Subject: Re: Abductee Files/Our Children
 >To: updates@sympatico.ca

 >The abduction of children by aliens is accepted as fact by most
 >abduction "experts" and propagated among avid readers of the UFO
 >genre and those listening with rapt attention to lectures about
 >these claims. Of course, as I have pointed out in various
 >publications, it doesn't seem logical to embrace these stories
 >without much thought.

Note the mildly derisive tone.

 >One person who has noted children's abductions is John Mack:

 >"A two-year-old boy that I interviewed said that he was taken
 >into the sky by a man who bit his nose. A not-yet-three-year-old
 >boy said that owls with big eyes (it is common for children to
 >remember the alien beings disguised in animal forms) take him up
 >to a ship in the sky, and he is afraid he will not be able to
 >get back to his mother."

 >Mack, John. (1992). Why the abduction phenomenon cannot be
 >explained psychiatrically. PEER. Website:
 >www.peer-mack.org/mit92.html

Interesting citation. Budd has also written about alleged
abductions of children, and a quote from his writing would very
likely seem more persuasive. To quote a passage only about
reports from two year-olds more or less loads the dice -- who in
their right mind would, if these were the only reports being
considered, take any of this seriously?

 >But as I noted in my most recent book:

 >"As for abductions occurring in children as young as three years
 >old, I can only note that in my own experiences with
 >three-year-old children, I have found they can come up with some
 >really imaginative things.

 >For example, when I asked my three-year-old what he had for
 >lunch, I could easily convince him that he had a grilled-cheese
 >sandwich, when he really had eaten spaghetti (and vice-versa).
 >Sometimes, he even gave me a wrong answer without any prompting.
 >So, I personally have to doubt whether or not the testimony of a
 >young child in recalling an alien abduction is very accurate.
 >Yet, Mack has described abduction experiences in even younger
 >children."

I'm extraordinarily surprised to read this from someone as
sensible as Chris. Not that he's wrong -- it's just that what
he's writing here is, to put it mildly, not exactly news.
Moreover, it's written without any reference whatever to what's
surely a large body of literature on children's accuracy. There
surely are papers in psychological journals, and also law
journals, given the number of children who've testified in court
cases about sexual abuse. I've read enough here and there to
know this is a very complex issue. In no way can it be
adequately dealt with by telling a couple of personal anecdotes.

What Chris gives us, in the end, is no more than this:

John Mack believes two year-olds when they report what sound
like abductions. However, I, Chris Rutkowski, have been able to
get my own three year-old to believe things that aren't true. So
we can't believe John Mack.

Which leaves the larger subject of children's abductions almost
entirely untouched.

Greg Sandow