Accidental awareness or alien abduction?

Could a patient who awakens during surgery later believe that they had been abducted by aliens ?

The idea that alien abductions might actually relate to instances of patients regaining consciousness during medical operations was put forward by Columbia University psychoanalyst David V. Forrest in his 2008 book Alien Abduction: A Medical Hypothesis.

Abductees frequently recall being examined while lying on an operating table, something that could be connected to latent memories of a prior surgical procedure.

One of the best known alien abduction cases was that of Barney and Betty Hill who believed they had been taken aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft after being abducted in 1961.



Betty had later described being rolled over on to her back by an examiner with a long needle while her husband had a similar experience. Both recalled lying on a table underneath a bright light and undergoing some form of surgical examination by beings who were standing over them.

While most accidental awareness patients do not associate their memories with an alien abduction event there are certainly remarkable commonalities between the two experiences.

Barney Hill himself even likened his abduction experience to that of a previous tonsillectomy.

"Like that, but my eyes are closed, and I only have mental pictures," he said.

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