David M. Jacobs

David Michael Jacobs (born August 10, 1942) is an American historian and retired Associate Professor of History at Temple University specializing in 20th-century American history. Jacobs is a prominent figure in ufology and the study of the alien abduction phenomenon, including the use of hypnosis on subjects claiming to be abductees. Jacobs has authored several books on the subject.

Career Jacobs studied at University of California, Los Angeles and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1973, in the field of intellectual history. He wrote his dissertation on the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America. A revised edition of his dissertation was published as The UFO Controversy in America by Indiana University Press in 1975.

As a faculty member of the Department of History at Temple University, Jacobs specialized in history of 20th-century American popular culture. He stated that his current research interests "involve a delineation of the role of anomalous experiences in personal and cultural life."

Ufology Jacobs has a high profile in the field of ufology. He has lectured widely, been interviewed, and participated in numerous television and radio shows on the subject of alien abductions.

Jacobs has written five books on the topic of UFOs and alleged alien abductions. In recent years, Jacobs has publicly argued that the evidence from his research, which sometimes includes utilizing hypnotic regression with alleged alien abductees along with traditional interview techniques, purports that alien-human hybrids were engaged in a covert program of infiltration into human society with possibly the final goal of taking over Earth. He asserts that some of his research subjects are teaching these hybrids how to blend into human society so that they cannot be differentiated from humans, and that this is occurring worldwide.

Carl Sagan, Susan Clancy, Martin Gardner and George have criticized the methods used by Jacobs and other abduction researchers. Sagan asserted that sightings and experiences could be attributed to mistaken identity and faulty memory. Clancy has highlighted problems associated with abduction research, such as faulty memory retrieval when hypnotists "lead" the patient, and a failure to consider sleep paralysis as an explanation. Gardner explains: "Although Jacobs has had no training in psychology, psychiatry, or hypnotherapy, he uses hypnotism to induce his patients (now more than seven hundred) to develop strong memories of horrendous abductions even though many patients had no such memories until hypnotized (Though many abductees have claimed to remember bits and pieces of the abduction experience without the implementation of hypnotherapy). Jacobs is convinced that five million Americans have been kidnapped at least once by aliens. One female patient, who worked in retail sales, had, according to Jacobs, one hundred abductions in one year, an average of one every three days!"

Jacobs has argued that Clancy's methodology was flawed, stating that in numerous cases people report they were abducted when fully awake and conscious, and that therefore sleep paralysis is not a tenable hypothesis.

Written works

Translation

Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of UFO Abductions (1992) was translated into French under the title Les kidnappeurs d'un autre monde, présenté par Jimmy Guieu (literally: Kidnappers From Another World), 1995, Paris, Presses de la Cité. .