Why Believing in UAP Doesn't Mean You're Crazy

As a clinical psychologist, my job is to evaluate and treat various mental illnesses, which means (sometimes) gently challenging when someone has experiences that are considered unusual or pathological. Imagine my surprise some years ago, when I sat down with a young man in his late 20’s who told me he had proof of non-human intelligences! Being the trained professional that I am, I approached the topic with a sort of open curiosity while firmly holding to the belief that aliens CANNOT be real. To be honest, I was agnostic on the topic—aside from what I saw on Star Trek or Star Wars, I was of the mind that if there were aliens, they hadn’t shown themselves to humanity as of yet.

In working with this fellow, I decided to provide a psychological examination—surely he was delusional or just outright lying…maybe he was trying to get attention? It didn’t matter what the cause; I would find out what was most likely to be going on using psychological assessment tools—tests, structured interviews, background histories and collateral data gathering from multiple points of view.

To make a long story short, I gave this fella a host of psychological tests, including the most recent edition of the MMPI, the PAI, the Rorschach Inkblot Test (Exner Scoring method, thank you very much), Sentence Completion, a full clinical interview and collateral interviews with family, friends, and a coworker. I had this young man take a drug test—which he happily agreed to given his story was as he acquiesced “wild.” In short, I did everything in my training and expertise to find out why this young man believed in aliens, fully expecting to find a prosaic, perfectly rational explanation.

Now, before I get to the punchline, I want to set this up so there is no misunderstanding here. I went to an APA-accredited school AND internship. My dissertation on children’s drawings was no great work of art, but it got me my degree and I used data to provide something unique to the literature. I am a licensed clinical psychologist, and have been for 12 years as of this coming April. Before that, I was a licensed professional counselor for a handful of years while working on my doctoral degree. I’ve been in this business for over two decades, and I’ve worked in every imaginable setting in one way or another, covering everything from pediatric mental illness, inpatient, outpatient, substance abuse, assessment of all sorts, including up to end-of-life care. I have done more evaluations than I care to count at this point, and I concede that psychological evaluation is my first love. I love data. I love taking puzzle pieces of information and making them “talk” to one another and ultimately, provide answers! So, all this to say, I am not a slouch.

In evaluating this intelligent, very terribly ordinary individual, the testing told me one thing very clearly—this man had no mental illness. None. Now, that isn’t to say he’d never had problems dealing with a breakup or stresses at work, but he simply did not have any type of pathology. He had an average IQ, a reasonably well-adjusted psyche, sufficient coping mechanisms, great supports, and aside from seasonal allergies, he was healthy as a horse! He was devoid of any sort of mental illness that I could discern—aside from this unwavering, unflinching belief that he had experienced non-human entities when he was younger.

Now, at this point, if you’ve made it thus far (thank you), you belong in one of two camps—either you’re a mental health professional questioning why in the hell I’d be writing about this, and thinking surely I made some errors in my data gathering/analysis, or, you are a layperson in regard to mental health and are here for answers to a different set of questions.

Well, what I can say to both sets of readers is this: it’s time psychology pull its head out of the rabbit hole and realize that something is happening in our skies and in our minds. The U.S. government has come out and said that these Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (strange lights, craft people say they have seen, etc.) exit. We have congressional hearings taking place with serious figures like Lue Elizondo and David Grusch (to name a few) who don’t strike me as the unserious types. Whatever is happening, the field can no longer afford to put every single person, case report, and story in the “crazy” bucket. I tried, and it didn’t work. I even went researching down the psychology rabbit hole to see what other psychologists and researchers have said on the matter. Are people who believe in UAP crazy?

The research is clear: these individuals are not typically psychotic, delusional, or cognitively impaired. Instead, they tend to share a distinct psychological profile that may increase their susceptibility to intense, vivid, and sometimes bizarre-seeming experiences—but without meeting criteria for serious mental illness (Clancy et al., 2002; McNally et al., 2004).

Let’s start with what the research tells us. People who report alien encounters often share certain psychological traits: high levels of absorption, fantasy proneness, openness to experience, and a tendency toward dissociation. But here’s the critical distinction that much of the literature glosses over: none of these traits are pathological on their own (Rosedale et al., 2001; Wilson & French, 2006).

Sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations are often trotted out as the “rational explanation” for alien abduction experiences. And yes, these phenomena are real. But they are also incredibly common in the general population (Cheyne et al., 1999; Sharpless & Barber, 2011). Most don’t interpret it as alien contact. So why do some people attach that narrative to the experience?

Much has been made of the theory that alien experiences stem from temporal lobe anomalies or sensitivity (Persinger, 1983). But these findings have often been overgeneralized (Granqvist et al., 2005). There is no evidence that individuals who report alien encounters suffer from clinical temporal lobe epilepsy or damage (French, 2001; McNally et al., 2004).

In a 2007 study by Hough and Rogers, people who reported alien abduction scored within normal limits on major psychopathology scales. Even more interesting? They scored higher in conscientiousness than controls. In another study by McNally et al. (2004), participants who recounted their abduction experiences showed physiological arousal patterns identical to PTSD patients—heart rate, skin conductance, and so on.

This tells us something powerful. These individuals are not necessarily mentally ill. They are often mentally normal people processing emotionally significant anomalous experiences.

Our job as psychologists is not to decide what is or isn’t real. It’s to help people make meaning of their experiences, regulate distress, and lead functional lives. When we label someone as delusional because they interpret an experience differently than we would, we’re imposing a belief system—not a diagnosis. This is becoming a risky practice as time goes on; more and more, there is evidence that *something* unusual is happening in our skies and in our mindspace and serious scientists, politicians, and social experts are taking a look into the matter with earnest effort.

Psychology doesn’t need more clever explanations for why people believe in aliens. It needs more humility, more contextual thinking, and more respect for the vastness of human experience.

People who report alien contact often share traits that are common in spiritual seekers, artists, and empaths. They are not damaged. They are often more open, more sensitive, and more attuned to the unknown than most. That doesn’t make them crazy. It makes them human. Perhaps if the field would stop relying on a biased dataset and pull it’s collective head out of the Assessment Hole, we’d see that.

References:

Cheyne, J. A., Rueffer, S. D., & Newby-Clark, I. R. (1999). Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations during sleep paralysis: Neurological and cultural construction of the night-mare. Consciousness and Cognition, 8(3), 319–337.

Clancy, S. A., McNally, R. J., Schacter, D. L., Lenzenweger, M. F., & Pitman, R. K. (2002). Memory distortion in people reporting abduction by aliens. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111(3), 455–461.

Department of Defense. (2024, March 8). Report on the historical record of U.S. government involvement with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), Volume 1. https://media.defense.gov/2024/Mar/08/2003409233/-1/-1/0/DOPSR-CLEARED-508-COMPLIANT-HRRV1-08-MAR-2024-FINAL.PDF

Department of Defense. (2024, December 15). Department of Defense releases the annual report on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) [Press release]. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3964824/department-of-defense-releases-the-annual-report-on-unidentified-anomalous-phen/

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). FBI records: The Vault — UFO. https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO

French, C. C. (2001). Alien abduction claims: False memories, hypnosis, and fantasy proneness. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 6(1), 1–23.

Granqvist, P., Fredrikson, M., Unge, P., et al. (2005). Sensed presence and mystical experiences are predicted by suggestibility, not magnetic fields. Neuroscience Letters, 379(1), 1–6.

Hough, N. A., & Rogers, R. (2007). Individuals reporting abduction by aliens: Fantasy proneness, emotional intelligence, and the big five personality characteristics. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 27(2), 139–161.

McNally, R. J., Lasko, N. B., Clancy, S. A., et al. (2004). Psychophysiological responding during script-driven imagery in people reporting abduction by space aliens. Psychological Science, 15(7), 493–497.

National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Records related to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) at the National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/research/topics/uaps

National Security Agency. (n.d.). Frequently requested information — Unidentified flying objects (UFOs). https://www.nsa.gov/Helpful-Links/NSA-FOIA/Frequently-Requested-Information/Unidentified-Flying-Objects-UFOs/

Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (2021, June 25). Preliminary assessment: Unidentified aerial phenomena. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf

Persinger, M. A. (1983). Religious and mystical experiences as artifacts of temporal lobe function: A general hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 57(3_suppl), 1255–1262.

Rosedale, M., Sudduth, B., & Weiner, C. (2001). Fantasy proneness and anomalous experiences. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 2(2), 61–76.

Sharpless, B. A., & Barber, J. P. (2011). Lifetime prevalence rates of sleep paralysis: A systematic review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 15(5), 311–315.

Shellenberger, M. (2023, November 13). The United States Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community’s handling of UAPs [Testimony]. U.S. House of Representatives. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO12/20241113/117721/HHRG-118-GO12-Wstate-ShellenbergerM-20241113.pdf

U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. (2023, November 13). Hearing wrap-up: Transparency and accountability needed to provide accurate information on UAPs to the American people [Press release]. https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-transparency-and-accountability-needed-to-provide-accurate-information-on-uaps-to-the-american-people%ef%bf%bc/

U.S. House of Representatives. (2023, July 26). Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency [Hearing transcript]. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/event/118th-congress/house-event/116282/text

Wilson, K., & French, C. C. (2006). Fantasy proneness and belief in the paranormal. Psychological Reports, 98(3), 785–786.