Budd Hopkins

Hopkins exhibited his paintings and sculptures in museums, galleries such as Andre Zarre, Levis Fine Art and Poindexter (New York) and Jan Cicero (Chicago), and universities throughout the United States.[8][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]

Hopkins had a major retrospective exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum in mid-2017.[23]

The Whitney Museum,[16] Washington Gallery of Modern Art,[16] Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the British Museum,[3] include Hopkins' work in their permanent collections.[4][24]

Budd Hopkins and John Mack, hypnosis session, Istanbul

Hopkins is often credited with popularizing the idea of alien abductions as genetic experimentation[3][4][45][46] through the publication of his book Intruders.[2] He has been dubbed "father of the abduction movement" by some.[43]

Hopkins, along with Elizabeth Slater, who conducted psychological tests of abductees,[33] likened these experiences to rape,[45] specifically for the purpose of human reproductive capabilities.[32][46] In fact, Hopkins was inclined to dismiss his clients' conscious memory of abuse for more alien explanations.[32] He was an alarmist, rather than a spiritualist, in his approach to the alien visitations, believing the visitations to be apocalyptic[32] and that no good could come of these encounters.[3] He described victims' experiences as severe and nightmarish.[47]

While both men and women reported to Hopkins abductions by aliens that included sexual encounters, allegedly for some form of extraterrestrial eugenics,[3][4][29] women in particular seemed to be a part of a "highly technological colonization scheme."[34][48] These victims were, reportedly, taken to spaceships, impregnated by extraterrestrials,[33] then later as the hybrid baby developed, returned to the ship to have the fetus removed and given up to the alien parent.[2] The alien parents, purportedly, had the ability to communicate telepathically with their child.[34] On occasion, according to victims' reports as told by Hopkins, the human parents were allowed to see their human-alien hybrid, or transgenic, children.[49] Once a victim, according to Hopkins, abductees were powerless over the intrusions and susceptible to additional kidnappings[4] which may extend to their (human) children.[40] "If people have had one abduction experience," Hopkins said, "then they will have others."[20]

Critics of Hopkins' views on alien abductions state that the alien abduction phenomenon is not as mysterious as Hopkins makes it out to be. Much of the phenomenon can, according to researchers such as Ronald K. Siegel of the University of California, Los Angeles, be explained as the consequence of "normal hallucinatory powers of the brain."[43]

Sleep paralysis, for example, can produce the feeling that one is paralyzed or has difficulty moving. It can also produce the effect of floating or the sense of an out-of-body experience.[36] Sleep paralysis occurs in a transition time and the person is in a dream-like state, hallucinations can occur just before falling asleep (hynogogic hallucination) or just after (hypnopompic hallucination).[36][50] These hallucinations feel real to the person experiencing sleep paralysis and can often be accompanied by sensory features: musty smells, shuffling sounds, visions of ghosts, aliens, and monsters.[36][51] Neuroscientist Michael Persinger of Laurentian University[2] in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, believes that these sensations can spontaneously occur in some people, given the right set of circumstances, leading to the kind of feelings of "tremendous meaningfulness and fear" sometimes expressed by alleged alien abductees.[51] Hopkins rejected the idea of sleep paralysis, calling it "the big explanation du jour", and an inadequate explanation for those who experience abductions outside the bedroom.[30]

Hopkins partnered with David M. Jacobs, history professor at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, and John Mack, psychiatry professor at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA,[2] to design a Roper poll to find out how many of the nearly 6,000 respondents surveyed had experienced what the three believed to be symptoms indicative of alien abductions.[36] The poll was released in 1991. If generalized to the population at large, the survey results indicated that several million Americans are regularly affected by alien abductions.[2][36]

Critics of the survey questioned the validity of the survey questions themselves and pointed out the implausibility that an average of 340 Americans could be abducted daily, given the fact that no physical evidence to date exists for any UFO abduction.[36]

Hopkins with new abductee

Hopkins met and encouraged self-proclaimed abductees to discuss their experiences by holding free monthly group therapy sessions.[33][20][47][51][52] Groups such as this were reported at the time as the most recent development in UFO-mania.[47] Attendees represented people from all walks of life: attorneys, police officers, teachers, airline pilots, psychologists, psychiatrists, and the like.[2] Drawing as many as 20 people each month, these support meetings were, according to Hopkins, like other New York social events, complete with "dinner and a lot of social chatter."[47]

Hopkins, trained as an artist not as a psychotherapist or social worker,[51] described the people who attended these groups as veterans of trauma.[47] They were, in his view, victims who experienced often intrusive and painful physical examinations by their alien abductors[33][42] and whose stories were best told through hypnosis.[4][47][51] Abduction memories, according to Hopkins, rarely emerged unaided and may, at first, present to the abductees as "vague anxieties, specific phobias, bad dreams, fragmentary and disturbing memories, or what seemed like an explicable episode of missing time."[2][4][36]

Many of his attendees contacted Hopkins after reading his books[32] or newspaper advertisements that included his books as reference material,[53] seeing him on television programs such as Will Shriner,[54] Sally Jessy Raphael,[55] the Marsha Warfield Show,[56] Charles Grodin[57] and others.[47][58] Some critics interpreted these television appearances as a way for Hopkins and other UFO authors such as Whitley Strieber to recruit possible abductees.[58]

Still other support group members attended the many UFO conferences held within the United States and internationally at which Hopkins was a speaker.[35][58][59][60][61]

Hopkins, hypnosis with abductee

Although Hopkins had no formal psychological training,[51] he watched other professionals over an eight-year period and developed his own techniques.[40] In his opinion, these professionals, notably Robert Naiman, Aphrodite Clamar, and Girard Franklin were quite skeptical of the reality of abduction claims, yet all uncovered detailed abduction scenarios from their patients.[62]

According to Hopkins, any feeling of uneasiness about a place, or any sense of lost time (that is often accounted for by daydreaming), could be attributed to alien abduction.[4] He believed aliens were capable of blocking or submerging memories in the people they abducted.[20][51] Despite critics' warnings that practices such as the ones in which Hopkins engaged may cause serious psychological damage to the alleged abductees,[63] Hopkins insisted that regressive hypnosis[40] could unlock the experiences of his clients.[4][40] He gave little credence to experts such as psychologist Robert A. Baker, University of Kentucky,[63] whose scientific inquiries into the subject revealed that hypnosis can "transform a dream, a hallucination or fantasy into a seemingly-real event."[63] This transformation is known as the fabrication of spurious memories and is particularly common under hypnosis.[36]

By 1995, Hopkins had worked with hundreds of abductees.[33][47] It was during these hypnosis sessions that Hopkins' belief in UFO abduction deepened. To him, the purported similarities among client stories[29] lent credibility to the abductees' stories. In actuality, the details of abductee stories varied greatly.[32]

The idea of repressed memories has, largely, been dismissed by the scientific community.[45] Psychological research demonstrates that, rather than forget what has happened in a traumatic event, most people find they are unable to stop thinking about it.[45] What concerns critics is that the details of UFO abduction stories, such as the ones Hopkins describes in his work, usually occur only after consultation with some sort of UFO investigator[36] who already has an inclination to believe in alien abduction scenarios. UFO critic Philip J. Klass characterizes these practices as a dangerous game.[63]

UFO abductee stories are well-documented in the psychological literature and are considered culturally based. In other parts of the world, fairies, leprechauns, and other creatures replace aliens as abductors.[2] Some liken extraterrestrial abduction to a secular version of the religious dream.[2][44] According to Baker, "These people are literally talked into believing they've been abducted."[63]

The hypnotist can also, knowingly or unknowingly, create "memories" of an event that never occurred in their patients.[63][64] In May 1987, psychologist and hypnotist Martin Reiser appeared on ABC's 20/20 with host Lynn Sherr, an episode that also featured Hopkins and alleged UFO abductees, asserting that there are reasonable explanations for UFO sightings.[65] His belief was that Hopkins pressured his subjects into believing UFOs exist.[65]

Elizabeth Loftus, on NOVA's Kidnapped by UFOs?, which aired on April 1, 1997 and included a taped hypnosis session conducted by Hopkins, identified "subtle but powerful suggestive cues" as Hopkins worked with two children as part of the investigative portion of the show.[51] She cautioned that someone convinced of a false memory, can react emotionally to it and elaborate on the story as if it were real. Social psychologist Richard Ofshe concurred that suggestive influence may be a factor in Hopkins' support groups.[51]

Of Hopkins' book, Intruders, Bettyann Kevles of The New York Times wrote, "I am willing to believe that he believes everything he has written. I am also willing to believe that Kathie and the others experienced inexplicable time losses and strange dreams that may have not been dreams. But I am wary of the accuracy of the information he gathered through hypnosis. This kind of testimony is disallowed in most courts because hypnosis is not thoroughly understood and has proved unreliable as a source of evidence. Witnesses recall events that never occurred, but that they are later, on being brought out of hypnosis, convinced really happened."[46]

Hopkins responded to critics by saying, "I have often frequently invited interested therapists, journalists and academics to observe hypnosis sessions. Theoretical psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, who has held teaching positions at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and psychiatrist Donald F. Klein, director of research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and professor of psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, are but two of those who have observed my work firsthand. None of these visitors ... have reported anything that suggested I was attempting to lead the subjects."[62]

Scars from different "abductees"

Physical proof of alien abduction for Hopkins, came in the form of scoop marks,[29][30] or indentations of the skin, scars or cuts[29] on the mouth, nose, ears or genital,[2] or unexplained bruises[29] that might clear up in a day,[66] and abductee claims of implants[2][4] interpreted as control or monitoring devices similar to those used by (human) scientists to track and tag animals in the wild.[33][40][58] He also believed the alien spacecraft left marks on the ground where they landed and that the aliens could be photographed.[30]

Hopkins points to "tightly imagined testimonies"[20] by abductees, included victims' stories of observing unconventional objects in the sky,[21] in which they witnessed unusual activity (such as aliens digging for soil samples),[21] flying through the air [51] or being transported to a ship,[42] a sense of being watched or the presence of hooded beings near the bed at night,[42] a sense of paralysis or immobilization while lying in bed or in their cars,[51] impressions of flying or passing through closed windows or walls, a feeling of having been outside upon awakening, invisibility (both alien and human)[67] and, most especially, a sense of missing or lost time.[3][66]

Hopkins believed in his data collection techniques, as outlined in Missing Time,[32] and insisted, despite questions from other researchers and skeptics, that his findings were solidly based in evidence that, cumulatively, was overwhelming.[30] Despite Hopkins' oft-repeated assertion of "powerful evidence" for alien abduction,[39] critics plagued his career with calls for tangible proof, which were never forthcoming: DNA from the hybrid babies,[44][68] proof of implants that were alluded to (particularly in the case of alleged abductee Linda Cortile)[69] but never recovered,[51][70] photographs or videotapes of space craft or aliens.[36] Critics, including his former wife, Rainey, expressed concern that UFO researcher leaders were not held to scholastic, scientific, or ethical standards.[44]

Still others question whether it would be likely that alien abductors could actually float people through solid walls [36] and, if they could, wonder at how these people could escape detection, particularly in urban settings where there would, potentially, be millions of people around to witness the event.[36][68] Hopkins' response to the lack of UFO sightings by bystanders was to suggest that aliens could make themselves and their abductees invisible.[67]

The lack of physical evidence and the inconsistencies and implausibility of the alien abduction stories lead some critics, including Carl Sagan and author Jodi Dean, to question whether these memories are the product of internal, rather than external experiences.[29][51][71]