Michael S. Heiser's Blog, page 41

Conspirinormal Podcast Interview on Reversing Hermon

This interview is now live.

Giant 5th Dynasty Skeleton from Giza, Egypt

I came across this article tonight — it’s accessible online:

D. M. Mulhern, “A Probable Case of Gigantism in a Fifth Dynasty Skeleton from the Western Cemetery at Giza,Egypt,” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 15 (2005): 261–275.

In contrast to the wild, often absurd speculations of “giant researchers,” this is what actual research into physical remains of individuals taller than most in antiquity actually looks like. This particular individual was possibly 6′ 4″ — considerably taller than the average Egyptian male as the article notes (and for those who actually want real data, see the articles sources for studies of skeletal remains, both average and unusual). This height is quite consistent with Goliath in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The authors write:

The stature of skeleton 2507X is not extreme compared with modern pituitary giants, although stature is very tall compared with other ancient Egyptians. The lower half of the body does not exhibit more pronounced growth compared with the upper half based on stature estimates of the fibula compared with the humerus, radius and ulna. In general, bones show less muscular development than expected for an individual of this size, except for the femora.

The article is useful for both its thorough examination of every part of the skeleton to discern the cause of the height and its collection of other source material. I was struck by the picture of the skull — does it look familiar? It does to me. I believe that it’s been used online in greatly exaggerated (read: fabricated) reports of giants:

But maybe it looks familiar because of the cause of the gigantism — associated with the pituary giantism and acromegaly. I’ve seen a good number of these and they may tend to look the same. But I’ve seen very similar pictures from disreputable researchers.

Part of the conclusion reads as follows:

“This study describes a Fifth Dynasty skeleton of a large male from the Western Cemetery at Giza, Egypt, probably in his late 20s or early 30s, with metric and pathological features consistent with pituitary gigantism. The combination of tall stature, proportional growth, delayed epiphyseal union and a large sella turcica are consistent with a pituitary growth abnormality. Pathological changes superimposed on the skeleton, including advanced arthritis and a transepiphyseal fracture of the left proximal femur, further support this diagnosis. Additional pathological features, including osteopenia and thinness of the parietal bones, may be related to hypogonadism, a condition sometimes associated with gigantism. Comparative measurements of the cranium and mandible show that a tendency toward acromegalic morphology was also present, which means that the effects of excess growth hormone experienced during growth persisted into adulthood.”

Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions: Part 1: Introduction

This is the first of four installments on this topic, all written by David Burnett. This series is based on a paper David read at the Society of Biblical Literature. — MSH

Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:5 in Romans 4:18 in Light of Early Jewish Deification Traditions 1

Abstract:

In Rom 4:18 Paul cites the “promise” to Abraham in the LXX of Gen 15:5 “so shall your seed be (οὕτως ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου)” in relation to what it means to “become the father of many nations” from Gen 17:5. Modern scholars have traditionally understood the relationship Paul sees between these two texts quantitatively, both promising a vast multitude of descendants made up of Jews and Gentiles. Conversely, some early Jewish interpreters of Gen 15:5 (and related texts like Gen 22:17; 26:4) such as Philo, Sirach, and the author(s) of the Apocalypse of Abraham understood the promise qualitatively: not merely speaking of multiplication, but also of transformation into the likeness of the stars and assumption of their power. Reading Paul’s use of Gen 15:5 in light of this qualitative interpretation would place him within the context of already well-established deification or angelomorphic traditions in Early Judaism that see the destiny of the seed of Abraham as replacing the stars as the divine or angelic inheritors of the nations. This tradition may provide a more fitting explanation of the relationship Paul sees between Gen 17:5 and 15:5 in the wider context of the argument of Romans 4. This reading could illuminate the relationship between a complex nexus of ideas that Paul sees implicit in the one promise to Abraham in Gen 15:5. The promise of becoming as the stars of heaven would encompass the inheritance of the cosmos, becoming a father of many nations, and the resurrection from the dead.

PART 1 – Introduction

The “One Promise” of Genesis 15

Romans 4 is rightly understood as a Pauline midrash on the narrative of the covenant promise made to Abraham in the LXX of Genesis 15, with particular focus on Abraham’s response of faith in the promise (ἐπαγγελία) which results in his being credited righteousness:

“Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir (κληρονομήσει); but one who will come forth from your own loins, he shall be your heir (κληρονομήσει).” And he took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And he said to him, “So shall your seed be (oὕτως ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου).” Then he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness (καὶ ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην). And he said to him “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit (κληρονομῆσαι) it” (Gen 15:4-7).2

For Paul, what was the actual content of “the promise” that is to be believed by Abraham and his seed? C. K. Barrett makes an important observation at this point when he states, “Abraham received a promise. Paul never quotes it exactly or in full, but it is important to have in mind (as doubtless Paul does) the whole of Genesis 22:17.3 Barrett goes on to quote the text of Genesis 22:17, as if to suggest that it is the text Paul is primarily drawing upon for his understanding of the promise given to Abraham in Romans 4, a text whose argument is framed by the narrative of Genesis 15. The critical point here is that much of the language used in Romans 4 is found in those reiterations of the promise in Genesis, showing that Paul more than likely read them together and sees them essentially as one promise rather than many. Of particular importance to the present study are the two that repeat the promise of star-like seed. Later reiterated to Abraham in the Aqedah, Gen 22:17 reads: “Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens (ὡς τοὺς ἀστέρας τοῦ οὐρανοῦ) and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess (κληρονομήσει) the gates of their enemies (πόλεις τῶν ὑπεναντίων).” Finally in the promise as retold to Isaac, Gen 26:4 reads: “I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven (ὡς τοὺς ἀστέρας τοῦ οὐρανοῦ), and will give your seed all these lands (πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ταύτην); and in your seed all the nations of the earth (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τῆς γῆς) shall be blessed.” For our purposes it is important to note what seems to be a close connection between being multiplied “as the stars of heaven (ὡς τοὺς ἀστέρας)” and the inheritance or “taking the possession of (κληρονομήσει)” the “cities (πόλεις)” of their enemies, or in other words, to inherit “all these lands (πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν ταύτην).” This will result in “all the nations of the earth (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τῆς γῆς)” being blessed.

In reference to the meaning of the promise, Paul states in Rom 4:13, “For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he would be heir of the cosmos (τὸ κληρονόμον αὐτὸν εἶναι κόσμου) was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” What seemed to refer to the promise of land in Genesis 15 was somehow interpreted to include the cosmos. The promise here also pertains to becoming a “father of many nations” which Paul links to the resurrection from the dead as he states in 4:17, “as it is written ‘I have made you a father of many nations (πατέρα πολλῶν ἐθνῶν) (Gen 17:5)’ in the presence of the God whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist (καλοῦντος τὰ μὴ ὄντα ὡς ὄντα).” He later relates Abraham’s faith to the faith of the believers in the resurrection: “But the words ‘it was counted to him (ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ, Gen 15:6)’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord” (4:23-24). In keeping with the narrative framework of his argument, the ideas of becoming “heir of the cosmos (τὸ κληρονόμον αὐτὸν εἶναι κόσμου),” a “father of many nations (πατέρα πολλῶν ἐθνῶν),” and the hope of the resurrection are not separate promises, but are understood by Paul as constituent parts of (and having been subsumed under) the one promise made to Abraham in Gen 15:5 in becoming as the stars of heaven.4

 

Acknowledging an Overlooked Interpretative Problem in Romans 4:18

 The focus of the present study is here in Rom 4:18, regarding Paul’s quotation of the LXX of Gen 15:5 “so shall your seed be (οὕτως ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου)” in relation to what it means in its immediate context to “become the father of many nations” from Genesis 17:5. The scholarly consensus on the relationship Paul sees between these two texts has been understood quantitatively, both promising a vast multitude of descendants made up of Jews and Gentiles. Many scholars even insert the term “numerous” or a related term into their translations of “οὕτως ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου (4:18)” so the construction reads, “so (numerous) shall your seed be” instead of the literal rendering of the Greek “so shall your seed be,” presupposing the quantitative reading as the only viable interpretive option for Paul.5 Philip Esler, taking for granted the quantitative only view, questions whether it actually accounts for the length to which Paul stretches the Abrahamic promise. He states,

“It is not impossible that having the world as one’s inheritance could be another way of saying that Abraham’s seed would be as numerous as the stars of heaven (Gen 15:5), but this may be pushing the latter promise too far … [later in referring to the argument of 4:14] The reasoning here is not easy to follow. It would be straightforward if the promise referred to were simply that in Gen 15:5 (to have descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven), which could then be related directly to Abraham’s faith in Gen 15:6. The answer, however, is probably excluded given that a promise to ‘inherit the world’ goes way beyond Gen 15:5.”6

While being fully aware of the commonly held explanations for Paul’s alleged expansion of the promise, Esler still does not find in them a sufficient answer to this problem: the promise to “inherit the cosmos” seems to go far beyond the promise to have descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven.

I agree with and wish to take seriously Esler’s contention that the promise to have descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven may collapse under the theological weight that Paul piles on it. I also agree that the answer to this problem is excluded if one is to read the promise of Gen 15:5 as merely quantitative. What this study will seek to demonstrate is that the answer to the problem isn’t excluded from Gen 15:5 per se. A possible answer to the problem, and perhaps a more viable interpretation, gone seemingly unnoticed or neglected by most modern commentators on Romans 4, can be found in a number of early Jewish interpreters of Gen 15:5 (and related promises in Gen 22:17; 26:4), who understood the patriarchal promise of being multiplied as the stars of heaven not merely quantitatively, but also qualitatively, that his seed would become star-like, assuming the life of the gods or angels.

 

I would like to sincerely thank N. T. Wright, Pamela Eisenbaum, and Ward Blanton for their helpful and critical responses to the presentation of this study in the special joint session of the Pauline Epistles section at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature on Sunday, November 23, 2014. I am also especially grateful to Matthew Thiessen, Michael Gorman and Edith Humphrey for their careful and constructive reading of this paper and their assistance in the editing process. Any problems or errors that remain are certainly my sole responsibility. A special thanks to Stanley Porter as well for affording me the time to make any final edits necessary after receiving feedback from my esteemed respondents at SBL. ↩
James D. G. Dunn (Romans 1-8; WBC 38a; Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1988, 197) says of the present text, “the exposition of Gen 15:6 of which chapter 4 consists is one of the finest examples of Jewish midrash available to us from this era”; N. T. Wright (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 2 vols; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013, 1 or 2:996) states that Romans 4 is a “sustained and quite detailed exposition of Genesis 15.” ↩
See C. K. Barrett, The Epistle to the Romans, 2d ed. BNTC 6; Grand Rapids: Hendrickson, 1991), 88. He does note Gen 12:3; 18:18. ↩
“Paul regards the ‘Land’ promise as containing the whole complex of salvation.” See Brendan Byrne, Sons of God, Seed of Abraham: A Study of the Idea of the Sonship of God of All Christians in Paul against the Jewish Background, AnBib 83 (Rome: Biblical Institute, 1979), 160. ↩
Below is a selective, though representative, survey of major modern English commentators since 1932 that presuppose the quantitative view, many of whom insert a term like “numerous” or “many” into their translation. See e.g. C. H. Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, MNTC 6 (New York: Harper & Row, 1932), 89, 92; C.E.B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Vol. I, ICC; London: T & T Clark, 1979), 245; Ernst Käsemann, Commentary on Romans, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 118, 124; Dunn, Romans 1-8, 217; Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 211; Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale, 1989), 56; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 33 (New York: Doubleday, 1993), 383; Peter Stuhlmacher, Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), 69, 74; Brendan Byrne, Romans, SP 6 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996), 143; Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 283; Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, BECNT 6 (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998), 234; N. T. Wright, Romans, NIB 10 (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001), 500; A. Katherine Grieb, The Story of Romans: A Narrative Defense of God’s Righteousness (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 50; Philip Francis Esler, Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul’s Letter (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 191-192, the only scholar here to acknowledge a problem with the quantitative reading, although seemingly without awareness of an alternative; Francis Watson, Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith (London: T & T Clark International, 2004), 178, 209,  211, 215; Ben Witherington and Darlene Hyatt, Paul’s Letter to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 127; Leander E. Keck, Romans, ANTC (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), 129; Robert Jewett, Romans: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 336; Schliesser, Abraham’s Faith, 380; Douglas A. Campbell, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 743; Frank J. Matera, Romans, Paideia (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 116; Mark Forman, Paul and the Politics of Inheritance, SNTSMS 148 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 72; Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 848, 850. ↩
Emphasis added. Esler, Conflict and Identity in Romans, 191-92. ↩

Aliens and Demons: New Documentary

This has been quite a while in coming, and I had to keep it under wraps. My employer, Faithlife (makers of Logos Bible Software) has a relatively new streaming TV channel called Faithlife TV. They’re about to launch a documentary (74 minutes) featuring some of my thoughts on an immensely popular fringe topic of UFOs and alleged alien contact. You can watch the trailer here.

As many readers till know, I’ve had a presence in the UFO community since the publication of my first novel, The Façade[image error]. (For why I bother with writing paranormal science fiction, blogging on UFO Religions, podcasting on paranormal topics, and participating in fringe communities like this, read this).

Those familiar with my involvement / ministry in know that I don’t think the question of an ET reality is a problem for Christian theology. I’ll be lecturing in Roswell, NM this summer during the festival for the 70th anniversary of the “Roswell event” on that and other topics. That said, what passes for contactee messaging  and alien abductions is, in my view, quite sinister, and demonization is one (strong) possibility in my mind for explaining those phenomena. The trailer page describes the documentary in part this way:

In a series of four provocative interviews Dr. Heiser draws together UFOs, Roswell, government conspiracies, alien abductions, ancient alien theories, and enigmatic biblical passages. The documented overlaps between alien abductions, occult rituals, and ancient texts . . .

Faithlife TV is hoping to launch a subscription model to the channel via Aliens and Demons. I hope many of you will subscribe to watch the entire documentary. It’s inexpensive ($4.99 a month). For those wondering, none of that goes in my pocket. The Roswell conference this summer is the ONLY place, so far as I know, that this documentary will be available in DVD. So if you want it in that form, come to Roswell!  Otherwise, it will be exclusively Faithlife TV streaming content.

The subscription gives you access to a lot more content than the documentary. The channel is in its beginning stages, but there’s actually a lot on it already. As the site notes, the channel aims to be “the premier video library for students, scholars, and self-proclaimed Bible geeks. Faithlife TV has more than 1,000 Bible documentaries, dramas, biographies, kids videos, and more.”

Check it out!

 

Aliens and Demons: New 90-Minute Documentary

This has been quite a while in coming, and I had to keep it under wraps. My employer, Faithlife (makers of Logos Bible Software) has a relatively new streaming TV channel called Faithlife TV. They’re about to launch a documentary featuring some of my thoughts on an immensely popular fringe topic of UFOs and alleged alien contact. You can watch the trailer here.

As many readers till know, I’ve had a presence in the UFO community since the publication of my first novel, The Façade[image error]. (For why I bother with writing paranormal science fiction, blogging on UFO Religions, podcasting on paranormal topics, and participating in fringe communities like this, read this).

Those familiar with my involvement / ministry in know that I don’t think the question of an ET reality is a problem for Christian theology. I’ll be lecturing in Roswell, NM this summer during the festival for the 70th anniversary of the “Roswell event” on that and other topics. That said, what passes for contactee messaging  and alien abductions is, in my view, quite sinister, and demonization is one (strong) possibility in my mind for explaining those phenomena. The trailer page describes the documentary in part this way:

In a series of four provocative interviews Dr. Heiser draws together UFOs, Roswell, government conspiracies, alien abductions, ancient alien theories, and enigmatic biblical passages. The documented overlaps between alien abductions, occult rituals, and ancient texts . . .

Faithlife TV is hoping to launch a subscription model to the channel via Aliens and Demons. I hope many of you will subscribe to watch the entire documentary. It’s inexpensive ($4.99 a month). For those wondering, none of that goes in my pocket. The Roswell conference this summer is the ONLY place, so far as I know, that this documentary will be available in DVD. So if you want it in that form, come to Roswell!  Otherwise, it will be exclusively Faithlife TV streaming content.

The subscription gives you access to a lot more content than the documentary. The channel is in its beginning stages, but there’s actually a lot on it already. As the site notes, the channel aims to be “the premier video library for students, scholars, and self-proclaimed Bible geeks. Faithlife TV has more than 1,000 Bible documentaries, dramas, biographies, kids videos, and more.”

Check it out!

 

Reversing Hermon Interview with Shaun Tabatt

I was recently interviewed by Shaun Tabbat about my new book, Reversing Hermon: Enoch, the Watchers, and the Forgotten Mission of Jesus Christ[image error]. Have a listen for some insights into the book and what it’s about!

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 154: Q & A #20

Our 20th Q & A episode is now live.

Naked Bible Podcast Episode 153: Ezekiel 38-39, Part 2

This follow-up to Part 1 on these popular and controversial chapters focuses on the interpretation of the Gog-Magog invasion as a whole. Special attention is paid to how Rev 20:7-10 re-purposes Ezekiel 38-39 and how that re-purposing is consistent with a sound interpretation of those two chapters in their own context. They key to this consistency is recognizing the cosmic-supernatural outlook of elements in Ezekiel 38-39, particularly the description of participants and the burial of Gog and his hordes in the “Valley of the Travelers (Hebrew: ʿoberim)” in Ezek 39:11.

The episode is now live.

 

The Cosmic Mountain and Trees In Old Testament Theology

In a couple of weeks I’ll be filming three courses for Faithlife (my employer; aka Logos Bible Software) that revolve around content threads in my book The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible[image error]. The idea is not to go through the book chapter-by-chapter, but to pick topics that run through both testaments. The first course will be about the motif of the cosmic mountain in biblical theology. That term may be new to many readers. It’s an academic term used to describe the place of God’s presence and his “council headquarters” — the place from which God makes decisions and they are carried out, whether by divine beings or human beings (or both).

The cosmic mountain idea begins in Eden. Yes, Eden is a garden, but it’s also referred to as a mountain in Ezek 28. There’s a reason for that. There are also reasons why Sinai, the Tabernacle, the Zion Temple, and the Church have specific touchpoints with Eden. They are all cosmic mountains. This is why, for instance, the Tabernacle and the Temple are decorated in ways that reminded people (and us) of Eden. I won’t rehearse all the arguments and data here — you can read the book. But I thought I’d post some new material here that I’ll be including in the course even though it isn’t specifically in The Unseen Realm. (This is “sequel” territory).

Have you ever wondered why there are so many spiritual encounters at trees in the Old Testament? Why tree locations are sacred space? Maybe you never noticed. But it’s true. Here are some passages to ponder in light of the Edenic/cosmic mountain idea.

Gen 12:6-7

6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Gen 18:1-4

And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

Gen 21:33

33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

why plant a tree and then call on the Lord?

Joshua 24:25-26

25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. 26 And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.

odd place to plant a tree — next to the sanctuary … or maybe not

Judges 6:11

11 Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

1 Samuel 31:8, 12-13

8 The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa . . . 12 all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. 13 And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.

Why bury these men under “the” tamarisk (the definite article here [הָאֶ֖שֶׁל]  tells us it was a known, specific tree)? Because of the belief that it was a gateway to the afterlife presence of God.

Sleep Paralysis and Alien Abduction

A few months ago my PEERANORMAL podcast did an episode on the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. As is our format, I and the other hosts read several peer-reviewed articles about the topic and discussed them. Below is an article we didn’t discuss, as the episode wasn’t specifically about alleged alien abduction. I offer it here because it is accessible on the internet:

Richard J. McNally and Susan A. Clancy, “Sleep Paralysis, Sexual Abuse, and Space Alien Abduction,” Transcultural Psychiatry vol 42:1 (2005): 113–122

This paragraph (p. 115) frames the article and the study that generated it:

Although other scholars have suggested that reported encounters with space aliens may have origins in sleep paralysis episodes (e.g. Spanos, Cross, Dickson, & DuBreuil, 1993), few have directly assessed any ‘abductees.’ As part of a laboratory study on psychophysiologic reactivity to audio-taped scripts of ‘memories’ of alien encounters, we interviewed 10 abductees who mentioned apparent sleep paralysis episodes accompanied by hypnopompic [“upon awakening” – MSH] hallucinations (six women, four men; McNally, Lasko et al., 2004). Abductees were recruited through newspaper advertisements seeking people who believed that they had been abducted by aliens, and by word-of-mouth via other local researchers who had worked with this population. The hallucinatory content included feeling electrical sensations (sometimes painful), seeing alien beings in the bedroom, seeing flashing lights or glowing objects, and feelings of levitating off the bed. Most abductees had experienced multiple episodes.

The authors also conducted studies of victims of CSA (childhood sexual abuse) in regard to sleep paralysis episodes. From later in the same article (p. 119) they note that “Our studies suggest that people who report having been either abducted by space aliens or sexually abused as children experience episodes of sleep paralysis at higher rates than do those denying histories of alien abduction or CSA.” The authors also discuss possible correlation between belief in alien abduction, CSA, and sleep paralysis.