Mack explains that abductees often face powerful emotional waves as memories surface. These emotions appear before imagery or narrative details, creating a state like a vivid dream where feelings dominate the experience.
The emotional surge may include terror, awe, or relief. Experiencers sense that these feelings originated during the encounter, even when imagery is unclear. The state blends dreamlike immediacy with traumatic charge.
Mack sees this emotional-first pattern as evidence that abduction memories operate more like dream events—symbolic, nonlinear, and emotionally centered—than like historical recollections.










