By KEN KORCZAK
Dirty Little Secret seems an unlikely name for a book that’s a harrowing account of a woman’s lifetime of encounters with alien beings.
However, after reading the story of author Erin Montgomery, I get it.
Implied in her provocative title are nuances of thought and multiple meanings.
Some of them include:
- A woman’s titanic struggle to come to grips with something that simply isn’t supposed to be real — yet denial is just not an option.
- The constant vexation of having to question her own sanity when she is certain that she is completely sane.
- The fervent desire for “It” to just go away — yet it belligerently refuses to do so.
- The tacit agreement inherent in society that requires her to keep her experiences a secret if she wants to remain in good standing among a “normal” community.
- The struggle with a sense of self-loathing that is borne out of a certain “brand” of guilt that makes one come to believe she may have somehow invited, caused or even created the problem.
- The difficulty of keeping secrets that are fantastically weird and thus beg to be shared with others if only to provide an outlet, and to make a natural appeal for support.
- The central element of extreme sexual violation that so often accompanies alien abduction encounters.
So many secrets to keep!
Furthermore, Erin Montgomery and others like her also feel a sense of duty to their fellow humankind — especially to their children, partner or family — to warn them, to protect them.
I can easily imagine she often felt an obligation to shout out that we are not alone in the universe — that Homo sapiens clearly are not at the apex of the evolutionary food chain on this planet earth.
Abductees often think:
“Don’t I have a moral obligation to let others know about this so they can be prepared if it happens to them? How can I keep this a secret?”
And:
“Shouldn’t everyone be cognizant that we must come to grips as a species that we’re facing some kind of fundamental and existential shift that has monumental implications for the entire human race?”
But wait a minute!
The “Dirty Little Secret” has yet another layer.
As difficult as this may be to accept, Erin Montgomery and other abductees find themselves traversing an arc that brings them around to a point of acceptance — a hard-to-acknowledge, begrudging admission that all this may be positive after all!
Yes!
After all the suffering, the epistemological shock, the years of dismal psycho-trauma, contactees/abductees may come to comprehend a larger purpose — a deeper meaning — about what is happening to them.
Is it Stockholm Syndrome? Psychologists define this as a coping mechanism adopted by a person who is being held captive or who endures a long-term abusive situation. They cope by developing positive feelings toward their abusers over time.
In the event of alien abduction, I think we can dismiss Stockholm Syndrome. It’s more complicated than that. I would cite the work of Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Mack. He counseled hundreds of patients struggling with abduction experiences.
In the majority of his cases — after being guided by the care and understanding care of a professional therapist — most patients transitioned from a state of denial and fear/loathing to a place of acceptance. They often go onward to embrace an evolved view of reality and the meaning of our existence in the universe.
Beyond Mack, there are numerous examples across the UFO lit genre with many new books coming out every month. It’s ordinary people from all levels of society coming out with their own “dirty little secrets,” hidden personal realities they have kept under wraps for decades.
For example, here are just three cases of authors who describe an event trajectory that evolves from negative to positive similar to the path traveled by Erin Montgomery:
Nancy Tremaine: She tells of her 50 years of interaction with a reptilian alien. It started after she witnessed a fantastic UFO appearance in her small town when she was 12 years old. Her book, Symbiosis, is an eloquent account of her journey from shock and fear to a loving relationship. My review of her book here: TREMAINE.
Matthew Roberts: A U.S. Naval intelligence officer who faced down an epic and monumental confrontation with “alien beings” whom he came to identify as “the Progenitors.” His book, Initiated, is a riveting account. My review here: ROBERTS.
Yossi Ronen: Israeli electronics engineer whose life was invaded suddenly by “The Others” when he was 19 years old. It changed his life forever and took him decades to come to grips with the deeper meaning of his interaction with nonhuman intelligences. I review his book here: RONIN
Other contactees/abductees have entirely different experiences that range from all wonderful and loving from the get-go to a sort of middle ground. A good example of the latter is Canadian Steve Boucher.
In his book, The Extraterrestrial Firewall (See my review here: BOUCHER), he describes a range of emotions related to his encounters with aliens, from stunned surprise and confusion to a sense of extreme weirdness — but he concludes ultimately that, taking all into account, the aliens treated him more fairly and even with greater kindness than many of his fellow human beings.
As for Erin Montgomery, she developed a resolve to be an agent of caring and compassion for her fellow contactees. She earned a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and completed clinical hypnosis training. She combines that professional training with her own personal experiences to help others who are struggling with the same.
Montgomery’s Facebook site as a place where people can connect with her to seek help and advice: Dirty Little Secret on Facebook.
Finally, (and because this is supposed to be a book review!), I’ll close by saying that Dirty Little Secrets is well-written, edited and offers a compelling narrative that makes this among the best in the UFO genre.
You can find the book here: Dirty Little Secrets