“The Fantastic Imagination”
In the 1970s and ’80s, psychologists led by Josephine Hilgard, and closely followed by Cheryl Wilson and Theodore Barber, became intrigued by what they termed “the fantastic imagination.” They found that as many as 4 percent of Westerners have vivid imaginative fantasies. Further, these people secretly conduct the business of their lives within those fantasies. The fantasies can seem real, and have vivid appeals to sight, touch, smell, and taste. Animals in fantasies often have personalities, even stuffed animals. Sexual fantasy is common. What Wilson and Barber described as the “fantasy-prone personality” encouraged later researchers to invoke the condition to explain alien abduction, as well as night terrors, psychic powers, false memory, out-of-body experiences, and more.
A 1983 study by UFO researcher Keith Basterfield, sociologist Robert Bartholomew, and psychologist George S. Howard looked at biographical information on 154 UFO contactees and abduction victims going back to the 16th century. Of the 154 (some of whom reported extraterrestrials as benevolent and spiritual), 132 had “key symptoms” characteristic of fantasizers. Other studies look at cases involving people who may imagine things more mundane than UFOs, such as fibromyalgia.
Intriguingly, physical aftereffects of alien contact or abduction often jibe neatly with symptoms described by fibromyalgia patients: fatigue, sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, headaches, sensitivity to light, foggy cognition, and pain, particularly in the lower back and neck.