2021 was an interesting year for BUFORA, the total number of sightings decreased again last year. During 2020, annual sightings were 583 and 2019 produced over 1000 sightings. One of the main reasons for the huge number of sightings during 2019 were the launches of the Starlink Satellites, which, unsurprisingly produced huge numbers of reports to BUFORA, as huge numbers of these satellites moved across the sky.  As the public became aware of the Starlink Satellites, numbers of sighting reports decreased during 2020 with recorded sightings almost halved from 2019.

  

Now, returning to 2021, sightings tumbled again during this year.  BUFORA received 259 sightings and I have itemised the categories as below:

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General Sightings   100

Sightings with Photographs/Video Footage   103 

Historical Sightings   37 

High Strangeness   19

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It is interesting that there were 19 reports of high strangeness experiences, as this figure means that over 7% of reports to BUFORA last year were those reports that witnesses felt were incidents that were more curious than an unexplained light or object in the sky.

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However, some of these reports were requests for hypnosis in order for the witness to understand the reality of what had occurred.  BUFORA has held a moratorium on the use of hypnosis to elicit an objective understanding of these perceived high strangeness experiences, since 1982 and this has become a critical directive within the BUFORA Code of Practice.  Therefore, BUFORA always advises extreme caution towards those requesting regression hypnosis as an investigative method to discover the reality of a strange experience. However, we are always happy to email or talk with witnesses, who feel they wish to pursue this avenue of investigation, to explain the very significant reasons why hypnosis should not be used in these circumstances and how it can create a false narrative and understanding of these experiences.  Also, why it can also be dangerous in a percentage of cases.

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An extract from the British Journal of Psychiatry about autobiographical memory states the following:

Memory is known to be fallible, altered by the passage of time and subject to error and distortion.  Two interacting components, personal memories and autobiographical facts, are described.  Individual autobiographical memory is unreliable; people will sometimes have startlingly accurate memories of some events yet be unable to remember considerable parts of their past experiences.  Newly acquired facts may alter personal memories through reorganisation, reappraisal and revision.  Autobiographical memory develops over the preschool years and becomes more detailed with age. It becomes enriched through social construction and through active reinterpretation of experiences while remembering.  However, confidence in one’s memory does not correlate with the accuracy of the memory, nor does the detail involved in the memory or its emotional strength give any indication of its accuracy.

 

It is becoming more apparent that we need to understand the functions of memory and memory retrieval with more clarity in order to realise the fallibility of hypnosis and accurate memory retrieval, specifically in relation to close encounter experiences or perceived ‘abduction events’.

 

The 'Hypnosis article' addresses the many problems concerned with this issue, including the ‘abduction’ debates and an in depth look at memory and beliefs and how these can all come together to play a role in how people perceive puzzling, extraordinary human experiences.  In addition, we look at how these experiences then go on to be reported to a UFO organisation, often based on beliefs and imagery downloaded into our consciousness from the huge number of UFO motifs and information ‘thrown’ at us from the media and thousands of blogs, articles and internet sites.

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