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MANY thousands of people around the world are convinced they have been abducted by extraterrestrial beings, taken on board alien spacecraft, subjected to painful medical examinations and then returned. Why should a scientist at Harvard University be interested in such claims?

Susan Clancy’s slim volume on the alien abduction experience provides some compelling answers. She describes not only what she has learned about the psychology of this bizarre phenomenon but also what she has learned about herself carrying out her research.

Her book is a delight. She presents a convincing psychological account and offers her own, often humorous, reflections. She is careful, however, not to ridicule those who say they have experienced alien contact. She always treats her participants with utmost respect, pointing out that the vast majority are sane and intelligent people who are as perplexed by their stories as anyone else would be.

A truly scientific approach requires an open mind, even if the stories appear unlikely. In fact, some of the academics who have considered claims of alien abduction have concluded that the accounts are essentially true. One such was the late Pulitzer prize-winning psychiatrist John Mack, also of Harvard. But Mack was one of a small minority: the same evidence that persuaded him has failed to convince most others.

Does that mean that we should simply dismiss the claims as unworthy of further study? No, it does not. From a psychological point of view, they are even more interesting once it is accepted that they may not be true. Alien abduction experiences are one example of the type of claim covered by anomalistic psychology, the study of extraordinary behaviour and experiences, including (but not restricted to) phenomena that are often labelled “paranormal”. It attempts to provide testable models of what is happening during these experiences, based primarily on psychological factors.

Clancy’s own work is a prime example. She argues that detailed memories of alien abduction are often the result of an attempt to make sense of a baffling experience, such as an episode of sleep paralysis. During sleep paralysis, sufferers enter a state between sleep and wakefulness in which they become aware they cannot move. Although essentially transitory and harmless, sleep paralysis is often accompanied by terrifying visual and auditory hallucinations, a strong sense of some malign presence and intense fear.

For some, these symptoms indicate that the sufferer has been the victim of an alien abduction and that his or her memory of the rest of the event has been erased. Those sufferers who find such an idea plausible may then attempt to unearth the hidden memories. They may turn to techniques such as hypnotic regression in the mistaken belief that it provides a key to unlocking repressed memories. In fact, hypnosis and related techniques provide the ideal context for the formation of false memories, and it is therefore not surprising that detailed memories of alien abduction are often the end result.

There are excellent reasons for studying weird beliefs and experiences. As public opinion polls repeatedly show, most people believe in paranormal and related phenomena, and a sizeable minority claim to have had direct experience of things such as extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis – the ability to control objects by thought alone – and contact with the dead. Similar beliefs and experiences are found in all known societies. They are an important part of human experience.

After all, these experiences touch upon fundamental questions concerning our place in the universe. Are we being visited by intelligent life forms from other planets? Do we survive bodily death, and is it possible for the dead to communicate with the living? Do we have powers such as ESP that conventional science refuses to acknowledge? According to anomalistic psychologists, the answer to all these questions is maybe, though probably not. But by studying these beliefs and the anomalous experiences that often underlie them, we can learn a great deal about human psychology.