Different Child by Sandy Nichols explores his 1996 awakening into the alien contact in his life.

At this point in his life, the author was lost and alone. He found himself at a bookstore buying books on the alien abduction phenomena, but had no idea why. Despite wanting to read the books, he stored them in a closet for six months.

Thus began Mr. Nichols eventual quest into the alien abduction experience. With the help of a professional counselor, Mr. Nichols probed his childhood experiences through hypnosis and learned more about what had happened to him. Mr. Nichols struggled with the terrifying memories that were unleashed.

The popular notion that the truth will set you free does not pertain to revelations of trauma. Instead, the truth becomes its own trauma. Knowing more truth than before heightens the trauma as Mr. Nichols discovered.

Mr. Nichols' abduction experiences began in early childhood where he became adept at providing quick, logical explanations for his bloody noses, strange scratches and marks. Mr. Nichols' adolescence was fraught with self-doubts and a belief that he was a screw-up because his parents had always told him so.

Mr. Nichols explores abduction areas familiar to readers: Unexplainable scalpel-type cuts on his body, sperm extraction, paralysis, strange dreams, floating, awakening to a buzzing sound, seeing strange lights, insomnia, etc.

Mr. Nichols bought a biorhythm chart and adjusted the wheel to the correct number and date for his physical, mental, and emotional indicators. In reviewing his journal over the previous seven months, he noticed his abduction experiences coincided 65% of the time within two or three days of the highest and lowest points on the chart. This seemed to be a pattern indicating when he was likely to be abducted.

With the help of the professional counselor, Mr. Nichols delved into his past experiences. He learned his recall after hypnosis was only 5% to 10% and was grateful for the counselor's notes on his sessions.

Mr. Nichols mentioned a key feature of UFOs not found in other abduction books. This was that he could feel the inside walls of the UFO as if they were "somehow alive and a living, breathing entity." This observation of a UFO structure as having biological characteristics, was corroborated in Lt. Col. Corso's book, The Day After Roswell which is also reviewed at this web site. Lt. Col. Corso reported the Roswell crash disk was described as a biological entity that interacted with its alien crew.