AudioBlog: Conscious Recall vs Hypnotic Regression

It has been determined by many researchers in the scientific community that during hypnosis, false memories are very likely to be generated, and distinguishing them from real memories is difficult, if not impossible without some means of confirmation. This is, for instance, the conclusion of a report for the U.S. Department of Justice by Martin T. Orne et al. titled “Hypnotically Refreshed Testimony: Enhanced Memory or Tampering with Evidence?” published January 1985 in Issues and Practices in Criminal Justice. With the above in mind, it is helpful for researchers attempting to evaluate a case when a distinction can be made between elements of the report derived from conscious recall and elements derived through the use of hypnosis. A case where this can be easily done is that of Judy Kendell of Zamora, California, thanks to a newspaper article announcing her intention to undergo hypnosis to recover around four hours of missing time, and another article in a different paper after the procedure, which was, apparently, well attended. Read more →

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Conscious recall versus hypnotic regression in an abduction case by
Charles Lear. It has been determined by many researchers in
the scientific community that during hypnosis, false memories are very
likely to be generated, and distinguishing them from real memories
is difficult, if not impossible, without some means of confirmation.

(00:22):
This is, for instance, the conclusion of a report for
the U. S Department of Justice by Martin t Ornett
Hall titled Hypnotically Refreshed Testimony, Enhanced Memory, or Tampering with Evidence,
published January nineteen eighty five in Issues and Practices in
Criminal Justice. With the above in mind, it is helpful

(00:43):
for researchers attempting to evaluate a case when a distinction
can be made between elements of the report derived from
conscious recall and elements derived through the use of hypnosis.
A case for this can be easily done is that
of Judy Kendall of Zamora, California, thanks to a newspaper
article announcing her intention to undergo hypnosis to recover about

(01:05):
four hours of missing time, and another article on a
different paper after the procedure, which was apparently well attended.
According to the article by Spencer c S headlined hypnotist
will help woman find four hours lost during trip, published
in the January twenty sixth, nineteen seventy seven Davis, California,

(01:26):
Yolo County Shopping News. Kendall was scheduled to be hypnotized
that Saturday to find four hours that experts think may
have been stolen from her by space creatures who abducted
her in an unidentified flying object. The term front loading
comes to mind, but the circumstances that led Kendall to
contact Center for UFO Studies director j Allen Heinik looking

(01:50):
for answers are described in detail. According to c S,
Kendall drove her two sisters hummed A, Zamora one pitch
black night in nineteen seventy after leaving their grandmother's house
in Bodega Bay at five thirty p m. Although the
trip should have taken about three hours, they arrived in
Zamoras seven hours later at twelve thirty a m. The

(02:12):
youngest sister, twenty two, was reportedly asleep, as Judy twenty three,
and her older sister twenty five, all ages are at
the time of the article, found themselves driving much longer
than expected as they looked for the turn off for
Zamora after crossing the Cash Creek Bridge on Interstate five
O five. Sis says they agreed that they should be

(02:34):
getting there, and then quotes Judy as saying shortly after that,
we were back in front of the flashing yellow light
in front of the bridge again. According to Sias, when
they got home, their parents were angry and thought their
story was beloney. Kendall said her father called her grandmother
and confirmed they left at five thirty, and then checked

(02:54):
a map to see if they had driven in a
circle and concluded that wasn't a plausible explanation. Kendall added
that if they had driven for seven hours straight, they
would have run out of gas with no explanation and
everyone safe at home. The mystery is said to have
been forgotten until nineteen seventy five, when Judy and her
older sister went to sea escaped to which mountain featuring

(03:17):
a Winnebago taking off into the sky, and remembered the
ride at the same time. Ceas says, curiously, whenever Judy
talks about her experience, she refers to setting down in
front of the flashing light again, as if they were
floating in the air. According to CEUs, Kendall saw a
UFO that summer that she didn't report, but it reminded

(03:39):
her of her experience. She talked with some friends and
one of them suggested that she write to Heinech. Although
Heinig didn't reply himself, his fellow researcher, Alvin H. Lawson,
an English professor at California State University, contacted her and
expressed an interest in her case. Lawson is reported to
have contact did researchers in Los Angeles who checked out

(04:02):
Kendall's credibility, and she is said to have agreed to
be hypnotized that coming Saturday to see whether she remembers
being aboard a spacecraft. Her hypnosuscession is described in the
article headlined woman in Trance tells a Space Ordeal in
the January thirty first, nineteen seventy seven Davis, California Enterprise.

(04:23):
According to the reporter, Kendall underwent hypnosis shivering on her
warm living room couch in front of a room full
of calm UFO researchers and incredulous friends. The article is
written as if the reporter was present, so this seems
to have been quite the public spectacle. In this account,
the events are said to have taken place on a Sunday,

(04:45):
November nineteen seventy one or nineteen seventy two. The rest
of the brief account matches the one in the Shopping News.
According to the reporter, Kendall realized for the first time
during the hypnosis that she was kidnapped by a space
She is described as shielding her face to avoid seeing
a space creature she described as having a bulbous head

(05:07):
with saucer sized, red, pupiled, gelatinous eyes. She is reported
to have said it at holes for ears, an almost
translucent white face with a mask covering the lower part,
red veins on its neck that were not like the
purple ones. We have a human like body and hands
like ours with five fingers. Kendall reportedly said she was

(05:30):
told by the creature in English, it's okay, it's okay,
in a voice that sounded like it was muffled and
coming through a distant megaphone. She is described saying, but
it's not okay in a small, tight voice, and then
grabbing her right side and leaning over as if in pain.
According to the reporter, the hypnotist doctor D. W. McCall

(05:53):
asked her what was happening, and she replied that she
felt like she got poked, because said to have taken
her through her experience repeatedly, and the story is told
that she relaxed after being poked and was lying on
a cold table with a sheet over her, and in disgust,
announced that she was being catheterized and having urine taken

(06:14):
from her. She reportedly saw three creatures at the foot
of the table and couldn't describe their faces, and also
saw a human woman with blue eyes and straight black hair,
who handed the creature a tube of colorless fluid that
you can't see through. Kendall is said to have been
mystified as to how the woman knew her name as
she tried to reassure her. Kendall was reported to have

(06:36):
described the creatures looking at her feet throughout the experience,
and have said that they probed her ear with something
cold and hard, and that one creature put a heavy
machine over her eyes with what sounded like a quiet
motor whirring inside. Macaus said to have asked is it
a brain reading machine, to which Kendall replied, I don't know.

(06:57):
According to the reporter, she described being in a round
room circled with windows and seeing two bucket seats on
one side, with a console with a lever like a
car gear shift in the middle. She is said to
have pointed to her left and described seeing a table
with what looked like doctor's probes on it, along with
a black box that had speaker holes in it. Kendall

(07:21):
is quoted talking about her sister, who, according to the reporter,
wished to remain anonymous and wanted nothing to do with
the hypnosis. I can hear calling my name. She is crying.
She is really upset. She sounds far away. I hope
she is all right. The next thing Kendall reportedly recalled
was finding herself behind the wheel of her car, without

(07:42):
knowing how she got there. Nicholls said to have ran
her through the experience again, whereupon she remembered being carried
by three creatures dressed in gray who threw her into
the car. She is quoted as saying they must have
carried me because I couldn't walk. According to the reporter,
Kendall's utter sisters seemed to suddenly materialize, and when they

(08:03):
were in the car, it was pitch black. Kendall in
a disbelieving voice is quoted as saying, we just landed
on the road in my car, and with certain amazement,
adding in my car. Lawson is reported to have said that,
in the reporter's words, Judy's story could be as much
an idiosyncrasy in human make up as an abduction by

(08:26):
space creatures. The other researchers are described as being in
many ways as mysterious as the story itself, and not
saying for certain how they felt about Judy's story. McCall
is reported to have said that he had hypnotized about
six others who had similar stories. Charles Lear is the
author of The Flying Saucer Investigators, available in its second

(08:50):
edition at Amazon dot com.