Psychologist sez: Alien hallucinations related to mom

[Rover_Wow]

Space.com makes this call. Hmm...


Space Aliens: The 'Mother' Of All Hallucinations?
By Bill Christensen
posted: 28 November 2005
10:22 a.m. ET

People who claim to have been abducted by space aliens seem to invariably describe a very similar picture. Space aliens are described as having large heads, big eyes, gray skin, smooth features and small mouths.

Psychologist Frederick Malmstrom, currently a visiting scholar at the U.S. Air Force Academy, believes that these 'visions' of space aliens are actually the image of the prototypical female face that is hardwired into every baby human's brain. When Malmstrom altered a picture of a woman in a way consistent with the characteristics of a newborn's vision (astigmatism and a shallow focal plane), the result looked very much like a big-eyed alien.

Malmstrom was asked why people see this prototypical mother face, rather than some other important figure. He replied that the answer had to do with the fact that cases of abduction that are considered credible enough to study were those in which abductees reported that they were falling asleep, or were under hypnosis.

[Style]

Interesting hypothosis. I'd like to see it further explored. It postulates an interesting explanation for the uniform visions of the "Gray alien visitors."

On the other hand? Occam's razor might suggest that it's just simpler to say that abductees are right, they were visited by aliens, and that's what that race of aliens looks like. I suppose I have always rejected that hypothosis for one reason: I think aliens could and probably do exist, but could never reach earth, because the problem of faster-than-light travel is insurmountable at any level of technological advancement.

[Roman Legion]

Has anyone ever presented any decent evidence for there even being a prototypical female face? Some people fail to appreciate just how much variation exists among human faces, even within a given gender and age group.

Furthermore, this psychologist would do well to look for similar visual correlations with alien abduction-like stories from other cultures in the past. If the phenomenon is hardwired into the brain, such evidence should exist.

--Romey