Diary of an Abduction: A Scientist Probes the Enigma of Her Alien Contact Paperback – January 1, 2001

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UK-born Angela Thompson Smith became an American citizen in mid-life and now lives and works in Nevada. She is best known as a successful remote viewer who has written books and lectured widely on the subject. She is also a lifelong abductee, and her catalogue of personal experiences and deep reflections on this phenomenon are the subjects of this book.`Diary of an abduction' (DoaA) is essentially a first-person narrative in diary format spanning the years 1986 to 1999. Intermingled with the abduction history is the author's life story in outline - and sometimes in detail - plus her reflections on people she met and spent time with over years of personal investigation: Walter Andrus, John and Victoria Alexander, Ted Bloecher, John Carpenter and Budd Hopkins to name only a few. Some are referred to only by letters such as `T' or `Dr. X' to maintain confidentiality about their IDs.Many ideas about the phenomenon expounded here are deeply considered and interesting, and this is at core a serious work about a serious subject by an intelligent author. She worked in parapsychology for most of these years and was professionally involved with the experimental investigation of ESP etc. Her own recounted personal experiences are so numerous and complex that they are difficult to summarise. They included many `interfaces' - the author's chosen term for what most people would call `abductions' or `encounters' - with both alien and human abductors. The purely alien experiences she refers to as `Abduction 1' type and those with human abductors - which some refer to as `Mil-abs' - as `Abduction 2' type (many of these read like screen memories). The author carefully analyses major points of difference between the two related phenomena.The author did not seek out hypnosis to assist with memory recovery, but trained herself to recall through meditative practices to initiate lucid dreaming, etc. so it is uncertain how many of these memories might be either confabulated or implanted screens. In parenthesis, the bodily scarring common to abductees seems to have been a regular occurrence and examples of the author being involved in some multiple-person abductions are also described.The style of the book is literate but rather dry: one is reminded of the highly scientific but non-engaging style of writing in Jacques Vallee's book `Challenge to Science' (nb most of Vallee's later works are better written, and some of them truly great), so the casual reader might need persistence to get through the book's 320 pages. The book has no illustrations and no bibliography, but there is a `glossary of terms' at the beginning, and a good index.Overall this is an interesting addition to the growing sub-genre of `confessional abductee literature', commendable in particular for its insight into the interest shown by intelligence services in what is happening to abductees: the author believes (with good reason) that they know something real is going on but don't have a clue what it is, and intend to ensure the phenomenon and abductees' experiences are ridiculed and marginalized as much as possible.DoaA is difficult to recommend unreservedly because of the limitations imposed by its deeply personal focus, the author's dry writing style which demands some persistence from the reader and the fact that, at the end of the book, the serious student of these phenomena might have learned little that is new and not previously reported by others. Tighter editing to cut out some of the repetition and less relevant episodes, together with some pertinent illustrations - photos of the bodily scarring, and perhaps drawings of remembered experiences up to the standard of those supplied by Betty Andreasson for example - might have moved this book up into the `essential reading' category. As it is, it's just OK-verging-on-good.

This book helped me understand an important researcher of our planetary transformation. We are changing to a kinder, gentler species with help from our galactic neighbors.

"Offering the immediacy of freshly-lived experience, the precision of scientific reporting, and the high intrigue of top-notch mystery writing, Smith's real-life Diary of an Abduction is a riveting and provocative journey into the sky, into the soul, and beyond." That's what the back cover says. Sounds exciting. However, I found the book really boring. It meanders along, nothing much happens. I kept thinking, something's got to start happening soon, but around the halfway mark the realisation set in that absolutely nothing of interest was going to transpire.Smith writes about going to see the movie Communion. She says it's "good low-key propaganda for the phenomenon and may act as a catalyst for abductees to 'come out of the closet.'" What does that mean?! Good low-key propaganda! And why "come out of the closet"? Does she consider that abductees are closet homosexuals?The book was just daft at times. She "interfaces" with an alien simply known as "Wise One". She says she read Robert Monroe's Journeys Out of the Body and then "attempted to interface with the Wise One and asked about Monroe". At no point does she contemplate that the "Wise One" might just be a figment of her imagination.She rambles on about something she read on the internet about the Bayan-Kara-Ula stone disk. Gordon Creighton exposed this as a myth in an issue of Flying Saucer Review, but she seems to think the story is true. She also ponders at one point as to why she was abducted and gives three reasons: 1- she's a woman; 2- she is of high intelligence; 3- she has a Celtic background and is of "sturdy farming stock". The impression I got was of a woman who maybe has experienced disappointments in one form or another and for consolation is consoling herself that she is special enough to be picked by aliens for some special abduction experiences. At the end, she writes that a new paradigm is needed: "a change in mind-set from the militaristic thinking of the current leadership to one that is more open and trusting".Open and trusting people who think they might be special enough to have been abducted, based upon dreams of aliens, will probably enjoy this as it will feed into their beliefs. I can't see the book being of any interest to anyone else, except those interested in the psychology of those who think they have been chosen for some reason by the Grey aliens.

Since my awakening in September 2009 i made it my mission to scour the book-world for answers to some of my questions pertaining to this subject, most of the books i read were either done by 3rd hand reporting or at the very worse has been written by those who are out to promote the fear and sell their books, and this is where this one is different. Angela has written this book thoughtfully and with thorough research. Angela is a scientist, so she had access to privileged information and access to resources that would be out of reach to the average person. The last chapter captivated me the most with her trials of blind remote viewing, her results were startling and if only a fraction of her work can be proved then we still have a phenomenon that is beyond the comprehension of most people. I for one know this persons work to be accurate, 100%, i have had interactions with other-wordly beings for quite sometime, and other members of my family too have had such interaction since childhood spanning 6 decades. I am fortunate enough to have had my eyes opened further and my mind stretched beyond its limits, and the whole "show" is bigger than anyone can possibly imagine. We have been visited on Earth for 1000s years, Infact since the dawn of mankind we have had the "Council" or "Custodians" watching over us, for they are our creators, they are not to be feared. The only reason i gave this book 4 instead of 5 stars was because the word "Abduction" in the title suggests a negative slant, and while i am not saying there are not any negative races who are also interacting with humans, for their own ends, because there are but they do not work with the light, there is so much wonderful life out there that the few bad ones are inconsequential, they are bound by their own doing and will never progress, but then the same can be said for mankind, we have good people and not so good, Earth is a diverse a place, and is more of a meeting place for different races than we can ever imagine possible.