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If a patient had memories of an abduction which were the product of dreams or stories which were unconsciously created as covers for ritual sexual abuse or other trauma...Mack would have been qualified to identify such.

I think the memories of abduction can be explained by sleep paralysis. A person having sleep paralysis can experience extremely vivid hallucinations, and even think they are getting up and moving around--which is known as out-of-body experience. If you reconcile the physical symptoms of "abductees" (they describe being paralyzed), with the knowledge of the hallucinations, then "alien abduction" becomes very explainable.

In past times, people hallucinated succubi and other forms of supernatural beings. People in other cultures have hallucinations consistent with their culture.

Sleep paralysis is not the symptom of a neurological disorder. I think it is genetic... it has affected every member of my family. About 6% of people are susceptible to it.

As a follow-up to your comment, Mack explains why he believes the experiences are not sleep paralysis or hallucinations as follows:

NOVA: You and others have said that there is no other psychological explanation. But that there is some reality to it. What do you think of the work of people like Michael Persinger and Robert Baker who have these complicated theories about neurology or they charge that hypnogogic hallucinations being at the root of these perceived—these experiences?
MACK: These experiences often occur in literal consciousness. Not in a hypnogogic or dreamlike state. The person may be in their bedroom quite wide awake. The beings show up. And there they are and the experience begins. That they're not occurring in any dreamlike state. Now sometimes they do occur when a person is dozing off or in a hypnogogic state. But very frequently not.