Saturday, June 23, 2012

My Alien Abduction Terror: A Study in PTSD


I'm WAAAAAATCHING YOOOOUUUUU!!!!! Hehe hehehe...NOT!

Some of you have read about my horrific experience 22 years ago, wherein I shook hands with Death via a violent home invasion and rape. But it might interest you to know that the aftermath included something that seems unrelated but must truly be directly influenced by the trauma. In short, I spent a week hiding out at my grandmother’s house in Florida, sleeping in her guest bedroom where I had slept many times before. Only this time, I was visited with visions of grey aliens every night. I could not sleep for fear of waking up in the grip of several jabbering aliens with needles and restraints. If you think I’m exaggerating, I might, at this late date, be inclined to agree. But at the time, it was a dark obsession; every time the lights went out, I saw aliens. 

The disconnect might join up for you if you realize that my mother had given me her copy of Whitley Strieber’s Communion to read shortly before this. Mom was always into paranormal, magical and other weird stuff. She even had a tarot deck and a Ouija board. I don’t think she ever used the Ouija board though; it sits in my garage…somewhere. The infusion of a breathless, emotional account of Strieber’s abduction experiences wormed their way into my ravaged, stressed-out post-trauma brain and lodged in my dreams. As a result, I slept with abduction anxiety for a week or so. If I were more credulous, I would have affixed great significance to the fact that I heard my father’s voice in my head so loudly it caused me to roll violently out of bed, only to see him pulling out of the driveway early one morning during my stay at Grandma’s house. Surely, the sensitivity of the traumatized brain is amazing, or I experienced telepathy .

These and other experiences have led me to believe that humans indeed possess capabilities that might be deemed paranormal, but I would not go as far as calling them supernatural. By definition, anything that happens in the natural world is “natural.” Thus, I keep my mind open to the possibility of paranormal phenomena. But many times, the most obvious explanation is the right one. If you’re ever traumatized like I was, I don’t recommend reading Whitley Strieber books, ok?

2 comments:

  1. Great Advice Sadie, I'll keep that in mind. Although I think I might have read it years ago, the freaky one for me was the movie about the small town in Alaska. That, I just, well, it just freaked me out.

    The mind is an incredible machine. I've often wondered how a person could tell if they were actually crazy, or if there mind wasn't right, my only answer is, you have to ask another person to tell you. But you have to trust the person enough to trust their judgement, and that's a whole nuther ballgame.

    Interesting delima.

    Thank you for sharing your story. I didn't know you had been through that so many years ago. But I do know you still think about it everyday of your life, and I'm very sorry you are one of the unfortunates.

    People that have not experienced this type of thing always say or think "It won't happen to me" but it happens to someone everyday, every hour, every minute.

    Thanks again for sharing your story, and for the great recommendation on the read :)
    ~e

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Elaine! Another truth about being in this situation is that you don't know what you're going to do in advance. Anyone who judges someone for doing or not doing a certain thing in a certain situation is looking at life in too self-centered a manner. I also try not to judge, and those who claim to have had abduction experiences may have authentic memories, although I reserve the right to doubt whether they're factually real if the evidence isn't there. It is interesting how the two worlds collide, so to speak.

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