Some time ago I saw an article, written I think by a psychiatrist or
psychologist, that explained why people believe they?ve been kidnapped
by aliens and taken aboard their spaceship and examined or whatever?
This may have been in the New York Times Magazine but I can?t
remember. I?d like to find this article but I would also be interested
in other articles on this subject of why people believe these things.
Like for example why do they believe they?ve  been followed by a
spaceship and even seen UFO's up close.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 04 Mar 2006 06:58 PST

Hello Ezeques,
I assume this article explains alternative theories to UFOs, saying
that the phenomenon is actually hallucinations or mental images caused
by "normal" phenomena, like electrocution, magnetic fields and other
such things, is that correct?

One of the most plausible theories is that many of these people wake
up in a state of sleep paralysis. I recall an article on this subject
in the New York Times within the last year. I was able to find a
reference to an article that appeared in the August 9, 2005, Science
Times called "Explaining Those Vivid Memories of Martian Kidnappers".
It was a review of a book called "Abducted: How People Come to Believe
They Were Kidnapped by Aliens". Unfortunately, I was not able to find
the full text of the article. As I recall the theory, it runs like
this, briefly. Your body is paralyzed during REM sleep. Sometimes you
wake up while still paralyzed. This is extremely disorienting. In
addition to being scared to death because you are paralyzed, you can't
move your head, which prevents you from seeing the context of what you
are looking at, which makes it nearly impossible to sort out what you
are seeing. You may easily misinterpret the back of your partner's
head as something or someone completely foreign. This, coupled with
all the ridiculous books, TV shows, and movies causes people to
believe they have been abducted by aliens for some nefarious purpose,
often sexual in nature.

What befuddles me is, why do people think aliens would travel light
years because of their interest in human sexuality? Isn't it more
likely that the humans who think this are the ones interested in human
sexuality?

Here are two references of interest in the New York Times on this subject:

Scientists Offer Explanation for Alien Abductions
http://search.nytimes.com/library/national/science/070699hth-sleep-paralysis.html

Explaining Those Vivid Memories of Martian Kidnappers
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40813FA3C5A0C7A8CDDA10894DD404482

I think this is the article.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40813FA3C5A0C7A8CDDA10894DD404482

A related article 

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2005/09.22/11-alien.html

Oh yes I forgot, the really spooky thing.....maybe they are being taken.

I have to mention here that I have 4 diagnosed and documented sleep
disorders, been to the sleep lab, been treated for them for years.
Sleep paralysis is one of my 4 disorders. I have had the sensation
kottekoe describes, including full-blown out-of-body experiences, but
I have never mistook any of it for an alien abduction experience. It
is though, very spooky. The only thing you can move is your eyes, you
can look wherever you can see without moving your head. Your body
feels like a bumblebee, kinda vibrates silently. The sleep paralysis
is the one that sent me to a Sleep Specialist, after I had a house
fire I was terrified I would burn up alive if it happened during
another fire.

Here's a relevant page:

Sleep Paralysis and Associated Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences 
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html

I found this site to be invaluable:

http://www.stopabductions.com/

This may be of interest:

http://www.stopabductions.com/

Dr. David Gotlib (an M.D.) was often quoted on this topic; he used to
edit the Bulletin of Anomalous Experience.  He was at one time at
Johns Hopkins and now is at St. Joseph's Hospital in Toronto.  You
might try the NEW YORK TIMES archives for his name to see if that
turns up the article you're looking for.

C. G. Jung theorized that a belief in UFO?s spoke to a deep unmet
psychological need.  See his book ?Flying Saucers:  A Modern Myth of
Things Seen in the Skies?.

I guess that title proves that not everything Jung wrote was wacko.

It sounds like you're referring to some of the work by Dr. Michael
Persinger at Laurentian University in Northern Ontario, Canada.

If you google him, you'll find references to his work.  He's shown
that electromagnetic radiation influences certain parts of the brain
that can give people feelings of paranoia.  That coupled with active
imaginations, and probably dreaming can couple together to feed
stories of abductions, little grey visitors and the like.

His work is published in peer reviewed journals, and is well covered
in pop-culture TV and print articles.

The idea of the sleep paralyzation is a nice idea except I have
experienced this before you are disorientated for a couple moments,
but then you come too and can even remember everything perfectly when
you awake the next morning.  Its really creepy when it happens though,
you cannot speak or move anything, your back feels like it has a brace
in it.  But to come up with the alien thing? That would mean your
actually still in REM sleep.