You're right of course, there are similarities, just as there are similarities (stronger, I think) with beings/ events perceived by some people experiencing sleep paralysis and some "abduction" narratives.
(Not sure "mantids" feature often in UFO abduction reports?)
@Area 51/50 has told us about DMT experiences having features of claimed alien abduction reports. I wonder if there might be some underlying common mechanisms shared by
some (i.e. a small minority of) people experiencing "paranormal" phenomena (including high-strangeness UFO/ alien reports), and
some people experiencing altered cognition for some other reasons- acute physiological or psychological stress (including sleep deprivation), sleep disorders, epileptiform events, near-death experiences, use of some hallucinogens (notably DMT), maybe isolated instances of idiopathic altered states of consciousness.
It's possible that identified similarities between strange experiences under these different conditions might give clues to the mechanisms behind some abduction experiences.
Researchers have drawn parallels between DMT experiences and so-called near-death experiences (NDEs; more on these below); see
"Neurochemical models of near-death experiences: a large-scale study based on the semantic similarity of written reports", Martial, C., Cassol, H., Charland-Verville, V. et al, 2019,
Consciousness and Cognition 69 (which in common with much other work states that DMTs psychedelic properties are via agonist effects at cerebral serotonin 2A receptors):
External Quote:
...we determined that the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine consistently resulted in reports most similar to those associated with NDEs. Ketamine was followed by Salvia divinorum (a plant containing a potent and selective κ receptor [kappa opioid receptor, John J.] agonist) and a series of serotonergic psychedelics, including the endogenous serotonin 2A receptor agonist N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
for PDF click here.
See also,
"DMT Models the Near-Death Experience", Christopher Timmermann, C., Roseman, L., Williams, L. et al., 2018,
Frontiers in Psychology 9, 1424
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6107838/:
Timmermann et al. write,
External Quote:
Alleged 'paranormal' experiences have also been associated with higher NDE scores (
Kohr, 1983;
Greyson, 2003) and delusional thinking (measured through the PDI) and younger age have also been shown to correlate with NDE scores. Here, correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between baseline PDI scores and NDE scores after DMT
-where "PDI"= the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (see "Measurement of delusional ideation in the normal population: introducing the PDI (Peters et al. Delusions Inventory)", Emmanuelle Peters, S.A. Joseph, P.A. Garety 1999,
Schizophrenia Bulletin 25 (3),
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10478789/ abstract only; the PDI has since been updated).
In the above quote, Timmermann et al. are saying there is a significant relationship between people who report "paranormal" (not defined, but non-NDE) experiences and people who report NDEs.
There is a significant relationship between a PDI-measured propensity for delusional thinking and experiencing the paranormal,
and there is a significant relationship between propensity for delusional thinking and reporting NDE-type features after taking DMT. ("Delusional thinking" is not
meant to be a pejorative, but a measured variable.)
Evidence for a link between some alien abduction claims and altered states of consciousness from organic/ endogenous causes seems strong:
In
Dark White: Aliens, abductions, and the UFO obsession (Jim Schnabel, pub. Hamish Hamilton 1994), the author relates a rare case of an abduction experience (undergone by an Australian woman IIRC) being observed by others- the experiencer was having an epileptic event; other than her behaviour the witnesses didn't see anything strange.
The 1979 account given by forestry worker Robert Taylor interests me. Walking with his dog* near Livingston, Scotland, he saw a UFO about 480 metres (530 yards) away. Two smaller spheres which he described as "similar to sea mines" rolled towards him, somehow seized him and were dragging him towards the UFO when he blacked out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_incident
Taylor with a picture of what he claimed to have seen (the "main" UFO and the mine-like spheres are not to scale)- I don't know when the photo was taken; he was 60 in 1979, looks older here:
View attachment 67776
Taylor awoke, and returned home with torn muddy clothing and some grazes; his wife called the police and a doctor.
By all accounts, Taylor was a reliable, down-to-Earth man with little previous interest in strange phenomena, and he was always adamant that his account was truthful and accurate.
External Quote:
It was generally agreed that Taylor, who moved away from the Livingston area after his disturbing adventure, was not a man given to concocting fanciful stories.
He never sought publicity or gained financially from the ensuing media interest - and he continued to stand by every word of his account.
Daily Telegraph Obituaries, 23 March 2007: Bob Taylor
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1546390/Bob-Taylor.html
However, medical doctor (and founder of the Edinburgh University UFO Research Society) Patricia Hannaford opined that Taylor had actually experienced an isolated temporal lobe epileptiform event; Taylor remembered a strong acrid smell before passing out, a possible pre-convulsion "aura", and Hannaford thought the estimated time Taylor was unconscious supports this theory. Taylor had previously been ill with meningitis, increasing the chances of him suffering such an attack (Wikipedia, ibid.)
There are other possible clues to a neurological origin; Taylor heard a "swishing" sound immediately before losing consciousness, another possible aura. Interestingly, Timmermann et al (2018, ibid.) write
External Quote:
Commonly described features of the DMT experience include... ...an acoustic perception of a high pitched 'whining/whirring' sound during the onset of the experience
although any relationship between this and Taylor's report must be conjectural at best.
On waking, Taylor tried to get help using a radio in his truck, but found he couldn't talk
( "Dechmont Woods incident: BBC's One Show recreates Robert Taylor 'UFO encounter'",
Edinburgh Live (Reach plc), Neil Pooran, 27 February 2020,
click here to link to website) and had a headache (Wikipedia); the headache is a common post-ictal (post-epileptic fit) symptom, transient aphasia -inability to speak- is a less common, but known, post-ictal symptom.
Taylor described the main UFO as having
External Quote:
...a rough texture like sandpaper
(Wikipedia, ibid) which implies he was very close, even touching it- but he said it was several hundred metres/ yards away. Nevertheless I believe his account was
subjectively truthful- he received a strong impression of the
texture of the UFO's surface.
Then there's the circular motifs- the main UFO was circular (common in UFO reports) but bizarrely had a ring of tiny propellers around its periphery. And the spherical "mines" which rolled towards him. (Elsewhere on this forum
@Duke pointed out that "flying saucer", implying a disc shape, was a press man's misquote of Kenneth Arnold's 1947 description, and raised the excellent question of whether subsequent UFO sightings would have described different-shaped craft if this error had not been made).
Circular percepts, sometimes interpreted as tunnels, are a common feature of "near death experiences", NDEs.
"NDE" is a debatable term; features of NDEs are experienced by some people who are
not near death, and a large majority of people who have been critically ill- e.g., cardiac arrest-
do not report NDEs:
External Quote:
Results: 11.1% of 63 survivors reported memories. The majority had NDE features.
"A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors", Sam Parnia, D.G. Waller, R. Yeates, P. Fenwick,
Resuscitation 48 (2) 2001,
link here (abstract only).
Parnia et al.'s majority is the majority of 11.1% of the total subjects (n=63). 11.1% of 63 =7 allowing for rounding; a majority of 7 might be 4 (6.35% of 63); a relevant Wikipedia article supports that number
External Quote:
Four had experiences that, according to the study criteria, were NDEs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-death_experience
There are two important points regarding the author's apparent claim that 6.35% of cardiac arrest survivors studied gave accounts with "...NDE features."
(1). None of those four individuals reported an out-of-body experience (OBE).
(Parnia et al. had attached pictures, face-up, to the ceiling above some hospital critical care beds to see if anyone reporting an NDE, including an OBE, would be able to describe the pictures afterwards.)
(2) What of the three individuals who reported memories which we are told did not have NDE features?
They were experienced at a time when those individuals were objectively close to death. It would seem that in this study, an NDE is something that conforms to the researcher's a priori criteria, not
any reported experience of awareness / ideation during cardiac arrest, which seems odd -although it does in effect keep NDEs limited to "canonical" features, arguably perpetuating a narrative of what a "real" NDE is by deciding that near-death experiences
without these canonical features are not NDEs.
External Quote:
There appeared to be no differences on all physiological measured parameters apart from partial pressure of oxygen during the arrest which was higher in the NDE group.
Parnia et al., ibid. So individuals with higher blood oxygenation were more likely to report some degree of cognition.
If
any cognition occurs more than a second or so post-onset of cardiac arrest (there isn't a consensus about this AFAIK), and if cognition is dependent on cerebral perfusion with oxygenated blood, we might expect this finding which links higher blood oxygenation to residual cognition.
Nonetheless, Parnia et al. continue
External Quote:
The occurrence of NDE during cardiac arrest raises questions about the possible relationship between the mind and the brain.
Well, it does for Parnia et al., but not for many others.
Sam Parnia has continued an active career in resuscitation research, and has undoubtedly contributed to the saving of many lives. He has also continued to investigate NDEs, and theorises that the mind is not necessarily dependent on the brain, very much a contentious minority view amongst his peers.
DMT is an endogenously-produced chemical in humans and at least some other animals (and plants).
External Quote:
DMT may play a role in a variety of non-ordinary states of consciousness such as dreaming, psychosis, spiritual experiences, encounters with non-human intelligence (e.g. alien and unidentified flying object (UFO) encounters), extrasensory perception, out-of-body experiences, and near-death experiences (
Gallimore 2013;
Grammenos and Barker, 2015;
Luke, 2008,
2011,
2012;
St. John, 2016,
2018;
Strassman, 2001,
2008;
Timmermann et al., 2018). However, it is not clear that DMT occurs endogenously in sufficient concentrations to produce pharmacological effects (
Barker, 2018;
Nichols, 2018).
From Davis, A.K., Clifton, J.M., Griffiths, R.R. et al., "Survey of entity encounter experiences occasioned by inhaled N,N-dimethyltryptamine: Phenomenology, interpretation, and enduring effects",
Journal of Psychopharmacology 34 (9), 2020,
already linked to by Area 51/50
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881120916143
Maybe in specific circumstances, the nature of which we do not fully understand yet (but often involving stressors of some sort) some people are more susceptible to the cognitive/ emotional effects of their endogenous DMT. Or maybe exogenous DMT, in affecting (impairing) our normal cognition mimics some of the perceptual changes that (hypothetically) might occur during abduction experiences, sleep disorders, NDEs, etc. etc.
-Back to circular motifs and improbable circular/ spherical machinery, Rick Strassman, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, has investigated hallucinogens and accounts by hallucinogen users for many years,
including government-funded research into DMT, 1990-1995
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Strassman (he might have coined the term "spirit molecule").
Strassman believes there's
External Quote:
...a similarity in his study participants' descriptions of mechanized wheels, gears and machinery in these encounters, with those described in visions of encounters with the Living Creatures and Ophanim of the Hebrew Bible, noting they may stem from a common neuropsychopharmacological experience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N,N-Dimethyltryptamine
Although Ezekiel in the Old Testament gives us the phrase "wheels within wheels" (King James Bible "wheel in the middle of a wheel", other translations vary), and ancient astronaut enthusiasts have long linked Ezekiel's descriptions with alien tech, there
isn't a description of mechanized wheels or gears in the Old Testament, excepting a potter's wheel in Jeremiah.
This does not exclude the possibility that Ezekiel's visions (which included the four-faced, winged Living Creatures) might have had some connection with (theoretical) processes that cause people experiencing sleep paralysis/ NDEs/ alien abduction/ DMT usage to perceive unusual beings/ strange circular or spherical mechanisms or (in NDEs and instances of religious ecstasy,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_ecstasy) religious figures.
We simply do not know. Many ancient cultures were aware of epilepsy (at least in terms of generalised seizures) but there is no indication that Ezekiel was described as having epilepsy.
It's broadly accepted that much of the imagery in the Book of Revelation is deliberately metaphorical and has meanings that were clear to the faithful, maybe the same applies to Ezekiel. I think it's unlikely that Hebrew prophecy was significantly influenced by use of hallucinogens (and certain it wasn't helped by aliens). Much prophecy seems to have occurred at times of great communal and individual stress.
Strassman's comments about "mechanized wheels, gears and machinery" and the "wheels within wheels" phrase did make me think of Bob Taylor's UFO with its strange ring of tiny propellers and tumbling "sea mines".
I found this account on Reddit (reddit r/DMT) from user catnip_addicted, in response to this pic posted (with 3 others) from
"r/oddlyterrifying 4 yr. ago Bible accurate angels be like: "DO NOT BE AFRAID" (I have no idea how reddit works),
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DMT/comments/ii7z5s/saw_this_post_on_bible_accurate_angels_and_they/?force_seo=1
[Edited to add: Wow, I didn't expect that chunk of Reddit page to appear.]
View attachment 67789
catnip_addicted had taken some DMT, and claimed to see this, which is an artist's impression of one of the eye-studded wheels /wheel within a wheel described (not at all clearly) by Ezekiel.
External Quote:
4 yr. ago
DMTryptamines
Saw this post on bible accurate angels and they looked way too familiar to me/
catnip_addicted
4y ago
...I saw the "thing" that I see in the first picture. I 've never been really able to describe it until some months ago I saw this picture. I remember "it" to be like a clock mechanism. It was moving, all the wheels were rotating and I could sense it.
It told me me that if I've kept looking at it as soon as it would have completed a full "cycle" and the the ringing in my ears would have reached the max pitch I would have seen all the truth. I was with my eyes closed [when] I was having this vision
As I was reaching the end of the cycle I felt an immense fear and I opened my eyes, interrupting the vision. So I didn't see all the truth (sigh).
The illustration looks a bit like the trans-dimensional drive (or whatever it was) in SF-horror film "Event Horizon" (1997)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_(film)
View attachment 67793 View attachment 67795
(Black rectangle 2nd pic= masking unpleasant detail not needed for this post).
I wonder if the "Event Horizon" drive and the artist's conception of Ezekiel's wheel within a wheel are connected in any way?
Maybe catnip_addicted was recalling the film at some level.
This would be an example of a cultural cause of an unusual perception, not an underlying neurological cause.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
@Area 51/50 referenced
Davis et al., ibid.
This would be a startling find in the general population.
However, this wasn't an experimental trial but a survey. Davis et al.
only recruited DMT users who (1) reported having had a "breakthrough" experience and (2) reported encountering beings who "seemed to act autonomously".
