Over the past few months, the Internet has
been filled with material from a woman who is on a campaign to
defame me. This has become an issue that will not go away, and
there are false rumors about my competence. As a result of this
woman's obsessive behavior, in which she relentlessly piles
false allegations upon false allegations, I have no choice but
to respond. I do so in the essay below. I've kept it as short
as possible to explain the situation adequately. If you intend
to read my essay, you might want to read the following blog
for background information first:
BPD
Distortion Campaigns,
also at
BPD Distortion Campaigns (angiEmedia).
Since 1986 I have helped some 150 people
who have reported suspected UFO abduction experiences recover
their memories of these events. Most of these people have been
grateful that they had the opportunity to gain intellectual and
emotional control over situations that have intruded upon their
lives since they were children.
I have met all of these people
face to face, except one. The one exception is the woman who is
mounting the defamation campaign against me. I call her “Alice”
in this essay. I have never met her because she lives in another
country, 8,000 miles away.
The Beginning
Alice's therapist first wrote
to me about his client in 2002. He was convinced that quite
unusual things had happened to her and he was writing on her
behalf because she wished to remain anonymous. She had wanted
to get in touch with me or with Budd Hopkins to try to help her
explain some of these events. A few months later she contacted
both Budd Hopkins and me directly. After series of phone
conversations with her in late 2004, she sent us large boxes of
identical material on her case. There were over 700 pages
covering in detail a vast amount of intimate information about
herself and her unusual experiences. The material spanned
a period of years. Some of the material was typed, some was
handwritten, and some was on scraps of paper. Upon Alice's
request, her therapist had signed each description of an unusual
experience in order to authenticate it. On some pages the
therapist’s signature appears as many as five or six times.
I had never received such an overwhelming
amount of information. Apparently her habit of
extreme information mega-sharing is an ongoing one, as anyone
presently receiving her massive e-mail defamation campaign
against me can attest.
My first reaction to Alice's request for
help was to be wary of working with someone so far away and who
seemed overly obsessed with her possible UFO experiences. Still,
I was sympathetic to Alice’s situation. Because I knew no one
who was familiar with the UFO abduction phenomenon where Alice
lived, I decided to try to help her. I could conduct memory
recovery via telephone. Hypnotists widely use the telephone to
work with clients at a distance. Of course, telephone
communication alone is not optimal because the hypnotist can't
observe the person's facial expressions and deportment, both of
which can help indicate emotional problems.
Before I continue, it's important to
explain how I work. I'm not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or
psychotherapist. My work with UFO abductees is focused on
helping them recover and understand their memories. I've been
researching abductions and working with potential abductees
since 1986. I spend many hours over a period of months, even
years, with each person who seeks out my help. The possible
abductee can stop seeing me at any point. I don't charge for my
services. In fact, in some situations—Alice is one
example--I've donated video and audio recording equipment to
potential abductees. If the potential abductee is seeing a
therapist, my standard procedure is to ask the possible abductee
to talk to the therapist about whether there is potential for
harm. Memory recovery of abduction experiences can elicit a
great deal of emotional and psychological turmoil.
It's also important to understand Alice's
circumstances. When I began to work with her in December 2004,
she shared the information that she was 43 years old, divorced,
and had no children, few friends, and virtually no social life.
She lived alone in a two-room apartment. She didn’t work and was
on disability for "allergies." I assume she is still in this
situation.
As a first step, I normally
require a person's therapist to agree to the process. In Alice's
case though, her ex-therapist was aware of what was happening
from the beginning and later wrote to me that doing hypnosis
over the phone was, in his opinion, "unlikely to be harmful."
He did not monitor her formally, but if he noticed any harmful
effects in the contact he had with her, he stated he would
mention them immediately.
Bizarre Behavior
When I started to work with Alice she
seemed reasonable and intelligent, and she sounded articulate.
But I gradually began to suspect that she was suffering from
deep-seated emotional problems as her behavior became more and
more bizarre.
One example is her telephone calls to me.
Alice had an arrangement in which she could make calls to the
United States for a very small fee. When we first started
working together, she limited her calls to scheduled sessions;
but as our time of working together neared the end, she called twice, three times, and
sometimes five times a week; as her behavior deteriorated, she called as many as five times a day. It was
difficult to get off the phone with her. It seemed that she had
boundary issues. Alice finally agreed to limit her calls
to two a week, but that limit didn't last very long and soon she
started calling more frequently. My family remarked on the
inappropriateness of her behavior. I began to realize that her
behavior indicated that she was growing more obsessed as time
went on. I haven't experienced this kind of troubling behavior
in all the years I've been working with men and women who
describe possible UFO abduction experiences.
Another example of Alice's
troubling behavior comes from her interactions with her alleged
abductors. In the following section I provide some context to
make this clear.
Reported Threats from her Abductors
Some information is needed to fully
understand the reported threats.
First, some background on Alice's
abductors: From the beginning of our sessions, she described
human-looking aliens (“hybrids”) who were visiting her almost on
a nightly basis. Abduction researchers have heard accounts of
such hybrid beings since the early 1980s, and over
the years a number of abductees have indicated to me that hybrid
activity had increased dramatically.
Second, some background on Alice's
"Record," as she called it: For a number of years she had been
regularly keeping a "diary" in which she wrote about her ongoing
unusual experiences. Early on I invited Alice to put her Record
on my website. I thought it would be instructive to others to
learn how one person recovered memories through both conscious
recall and hypnosis sessions. Alice accepted the
invitation. I agreed to edit her material, and my website
manager "Elizabeth," who empathized with Alice's situation,
generously offered to do the necessary programming free of
charge. It was no small task dealing with her text, graphs,
illustrations, and charts but we felt that we were helping.
One set of threats was directed at writing
her Record. According to Alice, the hybrids visiting her
conveyed displeasure that she was keeping a record. She told me
that these hybrid beings wanted her to stop writing about her
experiences. Of the 50 abduction events that occurred after we
started working together, 32 of them included warnings from her
abductors about writing her Record.
A second set of threats was
directed at her working with me. Alice reported that when her
abductors discovered she was talking to me, they showed serious
concern and wanted to know everything about me. They
began to pressure her intensely to stop working with me. She
said her abductors threatened her with physical punishment if
she did not comply with their wishes; later she described the
actual physical violence they committed against her for not
obeying them. She also told me about threats that her abductors
made against me directly; these threats included scenarios in
which I was dead. Of the 50 abduction events that occurred
after we started working together, 24 of them included warnings
from her abductors about working with me.
In October 2006 I began to
receive aggressive e-mails from her e-mail address--Alice said
she did not remember writing them. In all, I received 31
e-mails with 12 different messages, all forceful and
disturbing. I also received hang-up calls in the middle of the
night--nine in one early morning at 3:00 am and five in another
early morning. Alice maintained that she did not know who
was e-mailing or calling but she was able to trace the e-mails
to her own computer and some of the phone calls to her phone.
Regardless of whether actual hybrid beings were the source, the
situation was becoming intolerable for me.
I felt in a bind. On the one
hand, to Alice her Record was a lifeline; she told me that it
was so important that if she had to stop writing it, she would
simply give herself over to her abductors and stop mentally
fighting to maintain her independence. On the other hand, there
was my well-being and the ominous threats from the hybrids, if
true. It seemed to me that stopping our sessions might be the
best thing for me and my family; yet I felt that I could not
leave Alice without support.
Meltdowns—And Rage
It was at this time (around
October 2006) that Alice began to show signs of having an
emotional breakdown, which I thought might be related to the
e-mails and phone calls. She called these incidents “meltdowns.”
Because my family, my website manager, and I were feeling
anxious, I told Alice that in order to calm things down, I had
decided not to update her Record with new material for the
upcoming week. She flew into a rage--crying and angrily accusing
me of making decisions about her life without her input. To me,
her response was irrational: It was my website; I was trying to
help both of us. But she was so distraught that I acceded to
her wishes and continued posting her Record as before.
This exchange marked the
beginning of a complex series of events concerning her Record
and my website. Alice's meltdowns became more frequent. During a
few of these incidents, Alice told me that she had suicidal
thoughts. This led me to immediately contact her ex-therapist,
relate what she had said, and ask him to look in on her even
though she no longer had a professional relationship with him.
He assured me she was not suicidal. But for me it was a
worrisome new aspect of her mental state.
If the situation Alice
reported was true and actual “hybrid beings” were threatening
her, I felt I had to try to protect her from them. And obviously
if Alice's reports were true, I had to try to protect myself as
well. If abduction research can be trusted, alien beings have
telepathic abilities and know what people are thinking;
therefore, protecting both Alice and myself was a major
challenge.
I thought long and hard
about what, if anything, I could do. I decided that one approach
would be, during hypnosis, to give Alice ideas to think about
that would throw "mind-readers" off my trail. I explained my
thinking to her before I acted. Then at one point during a
hypnosis session I told her that as a researcher I was
interested not in abductions but in multiple personality
disorder. I chose this because it is believable--the disorder
has characteristics in common with the effects of abductions. I
hoped that she would be able to keep this idea in her mind and
convey it to her abductors, thereby relieving some of the
pressure both she and I felt. At no time did I think that Alice
had multiple personality disorder, and of course neither did
she. She knew exactly what was happening and why.
In
hindsight, I realize that Alice's
reports of alleged alien threats and physical abuse resulted in
a heightened sense of urgency that led me to act quickly,
perhaps too quickly. As it turned out, the
multiple-personality-disorder ploy I invented as a defense
was useless. Although the ploy was an ineffective
defense against her alleged tormentors, ironically it has become
an effective weapon against me. Through selective editing and
misleading claims, Alice has turned it on its head and is using
it to defame me.
My Decision
By January 2007, Alice was
beginning to become more erratic, more fragile, and even
paranoid. She was acting in a way that was well beyond my
expertise, and she seemed to be spiraling out of control. Even
though I still wanted to help her, I knew that I couldn't and
had to extricate myself from the situation. We stopped working
together in February 2007.
I told the story of my work
with Alice to a mental health professional, who advised me to
stop all communication with her immediately. Unfortunately, I
didn't take that advice because I failed to understand at the
time the destructiveness that would ensue. I continued to answer
her calls for a few more months, not conducting hypnosis
sessions but talking with her about her situation. It was a
grave mistake.
During those few months before
our work together ended, Alice came to believe that Elizabeth
had duped me and turned me against her. In fact, I had been
duped—not by Elizabeth but by Alice. During the last few calls
that I had with Alice I learned that she had been secretly
taping every private phone call she made to me outside of the
hypnosis sessions. She tried to wiggle out of the revelation by
proclaiming--falsely--that she had asked me if it was okay and I
had said yes. Although I was amazed and angry that she had done
such a thing, I foolishly talked with her at least two more
times.
I investigated the legality of
the secret tapes. The attorneys advised me that the legal
methods available were expensive, lengthy, and would yield
almost nothing, even if I prevailed. I decided the best way to
proceed would be to finally take the mental health
professionals’ advice and never, ever, communicate with her
again. I have not responded to her phone calls or e-mails since
June 2007. I have never revealed her real name or even her
pseudonym in public. In fact, I have never spoken in public
about the problems I had with her. Yet since 2007 Alice has
dedicated herself to destroying my reputation by writing
defamatory letters and essays about me.
Cyber-Stalking
Alice started her defamation campaign in
late 2007 or early 2008 by joining Internet UFO forums and
urging the members to visit her new website against me (she
abandoned one I had bought for her in late 2006).
She also began cyber-stalking me. She discovers when and where
I'm to be interviewed or speak in public. She then sends the
host of the show or the directors of the organization a
defamatory e-mail in which she accuses me of being
irresponsible, unethical, and a dupe. She outlines my alleged
crimes and misdemeanors, along with those of my website manager.
She falsely charges that I even threatened her family! She
manipulates interviewers into e-mailing her if I should ever
mention her name. Her e-mails have evolved from several pages
into diatribes that are twenty pages long or even longer.
Escalating Her Campaign
After a year of limited success in
convincing people to visit her new website on which she posts
her diatribes against me, Alice escalated her campaign in
October 2008 by writing a formal complaint to Temple University,
my employer of 35 years. In her complaint she not only charged
that I had threatened her family but that I had psychologically
abused her as well. She included a large number of materials
and a list of questions for the Temple investigators to ask me.
Nearly all of the questions focused on whether I had mentioned
her name at talks I had given, to friends of mine in private
conversations, to acquaintances of mine, to colleagues of mine,
to my literary agent, and so forth. She also wanted to know
whether I had a manuscript or a book about her. Because the
complaint was formally filed, Temple University was forced to
investigate. I was called in and answered the questions.
Temple found no improprieties and sent Alice a letter saying
so. Her response was to conclude that Temple was engaged in a
“cover up.”
Getting no satisfaction from
Temple University, Alice apparently decided to escalate her
vengeful defamation campaign further. She put together a package
of materials that is staggering in its quantity.
I was told that the dossier has over 150 pages. It contains
out-of-context snippets of illegally recorded phone
conversations, out-of-context sections of confidential hypnosis
sessions, and any other false information that would put me in a
bad light. In October 2009 she went so far as to send the
dossier and a complaint to the United States Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS)! In this complaint she added a
new accusation—that I led her to false memories. Because it was
a formal complaint, the HHS was required to begin an
investigation at Temple University. Ultimately, the HHS found
that the situation was not within its jurisdiction and took no
further action.
After being unsuccessful with
Temple University and the United States Department of Health and
Human Services, Alice took a more personal approach. In late
January 2010, she e-mailed the dossier to every member of the
Temple University Department of History, even including retired
members. The Chair of the History Department forwarded her
material to the University’s legal department (her e-mails fit
the Pennsylvania criminal harassment statutes). Temple
also sent her a letter saying it would no longer respond to her.
Gaining no satisfaction from HHS, Temple, or the History Department, Alice
expanded her campaign even further in early 2010 by sending her
dossier to every member of the UFO and abduction community that
she could find in the English-speaking world. I do not know how
many dossiers she sent out, but it seems to be hundreds.
Breaking My Silence
This is the first time that I'm publicly
addressing Alice's destructive behavior. I'm doing so upon the
urging of friends and colleagues and because of her false
allegations impugning my competence and even my sanity.
Although I could write a multitude of pages, provide broad
documentation, and prove without a shadow of a doubt that her
charges are defamatory, it would most likely lead to more
defamation on her part. The truth is not her goal.
What is Alice's goal? Why is she
deliberately trying to discredit me? To find an answer to these
questions, I've consulted confidentially with a variety of
psychologists, psychiatrists, and therapists. The overwhelming
consensus is that Alice's stalking and obsessive behavior is
consistent with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), although
these medical professionals cannot, of course, make a formal
diagnosis without seeing her. According to the experts and the
medical literature, people who have this emotional disturbance
can be “persuasive blamers” who sometimes engage in
“vilification campaigns” in which they try to defame and even
psychologically destroy the object of their obsessive hatred
through information that is specifically selected for that task.
An obsessive person with perceived psychological injuries often
plays the victim while victimizing his or her
target—and in my experience with Alice, this is exactly what she
has been doing. I do not know whether she has BPD or not. What
I do know is that I am the target of her obsession.
The only motive I had when I
worked with Alice was to help her make sense out of what she
says are painful and disturbing experiences and to learn from
them. I worked with her as long as I could, but in the end I
was unable to help her. Her problems ultimately went beyond my
abilities. Other researchers, including abduction researcher
and Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, have had their own seriously
problematic people, although this seems to be a very small
population.
This is the first time in my work with
possible abductees that I have experienced anything like this.
I know that as a consequence of writing this essay, Alice will
most likely find a way to take every word out of context and
twist its meaning, send out yet more e-mails, and stalk me more
intensely than she did before. If she does have a severe emotional
disorder, I will probably be the target of her obsession for
many more years. Alice's constant attacks, built upon a
wonderland of defamatory accusations and coupled with selective
“evidence” from secretly taped phone conversations and from
hypnosis sessions, are extremely distressing to me and to my
family. We personally are all suffering because of her. I
think that, sadly, Alice has done a disservice to abduction
research and to abductees everywhere.
I sincerely hope that Alice
will one day receive the help she so obviously needs. This is
my last word on the subject. I will have nothing more to say
about her again.
This is a very short account of my
working relationship with Alice. Issuing this statement is
contrary to the advice I've received from the many mental health
professionals I've consulted on the subject: They have told me
not to respond to her in any way. For more information on
vilification campaigns, please see Stop Walking on
Eggshells, by Paul T. Mason and Randi Kreger.
April, 2010
