Reflections on the Alien Abduction Phenomenon

The following article was first published in Issue 1 of Katy Elizabeth's new Fortean World magazine. Please support the magazine.

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Recently during the Halloween season, I watched ‘Intruders’ based on the late Budd Hopkins’ book about cases of alleged alien abduction. It is terrifying because it is based on experiences that people really believe happened to them… and I’ve got no reason to disbelieve them… though it raises complex questions about what the word “real” means… can something exist without being physical, and therefore not have to obey the normal laws of physics that govern the physical universe? Is there a non-physical world that has its own separate laws? Are these alien abductions an example of these two linked but separate realities colliding? Is human consciousness a kind of bridge allowing this? These are some of the questions I will be considering as I take a look at some of the films and classic literature in this sub-genre of UFOlogy in this article.

Probably the first Alien Abduction film I ever saw was the 1989 film ‘Communion’ based on the book written by experiencer Whitley Strieber. Watching the film again it is clear to me that the close encounters are not always in the physical world. Instead, they appear to occur in a dreamworld. But these are no ordinary dreams, as these experiences have a real physical impact on the experiencer such as physical injuries. Also, as explained in the film many other witnesses reported having similar experiences, and this was in the 1980s before television series like ‘The X-Files’ cemented the alien abduction phenomenon in popular culture…That said, the phenomenon was not completely unknown in television and film. ‘The UFO Incident’, a 1975 television film based on the bestselling book ‘The Interrupted Journey’ written by John G. Fuller, documented the Betty and Barney Hill alien abduction case, the first widely publicised UFO close encounter of the fourth kind.

Alien abduction author David Jacobs has estimated that perhaps as many as 5% of the American population could be alien abductees. While the large numbers of alleged abductees can be seen as evidence that something real is happening, such large numbers combined with the lack of physical proof (although physical injuries and alleged implants could be considered physical evidence) raises the question: is alien abduction a physical phenomenon involving “nuts-and-bolts metallic spacecraft” piloted by “flesh and blood” alien beings from another planet, or, is something else happening? Although “real” in the sense that the experiences are not delusions or imaginary. Could it be that that alien abductions are a non-physical, paranormal phenomenon?

In other words that a real external intelligence is interacting with human consciousness, but alien abduction experiencers are not physically being taken onboard an alien spacecraft and that alien abductions have more to do with ghosts and demons than extraterrestrials in the sense that they represent a paranormal rather than physical phenomenon.

However, going back to the Hill abduction, there are two points that make me reconsider this conclusion.

The first reason is the dress Betty was wearing on the night of the alleged alien abduction. Betty claimed under hypnosis that a large needle was inserted into her stomach, according to the alien beings this was a pregnancy test. Stains on the dress Betty was wearing in the region where the needle was allegedly inserted is evidence that something physical happened to the Hills.

The second is the famous “Star Map” Betty Hill recalled being shown onboard the UFO, which Betty Hill drew and after years of research was shown to potentially match the positions of real stars, Zeta I and II Reticuli which were unknown to the Hills.

Because of this the writers of the 1979 film Alien decided to set the location of the planet where the crew of the Nostromo encounter the acid for blood Xenomorph for the first time in this start system. Weirdly, the life circle of the fictional alien in the film in some ways echoes the bizarre reproductive experiments reported by alleged alien abductees under hypnosis in the real-world. These experiments often involve the hybridisation of humans with aliens, using human women as incubators before the unborn hybrid is removed and finishes gestating in an artificial womb onboard a UFO. Such bizarre stories are easily the most fringe and controversial aspect in an already fringe enough topic… but the stories are consistent. Assuming these stories reflect something that is a physical reality and are not an attempt to communicate using symbolism via visions and dreams, what do these accounts potentially tell us about the greys and their motives for abducting people?

Could it be that like the fictional alien in the Ridley Scott film, the greys can only reproduce by fusing their own DNA with that of another species and using this other species as a host to gestate their offspring?

Zeta II Reticuli system is estimated to be twice as old as our own sun. Any potential life originating from there then, could potentially be twice as old as life on Earth, which could include intelligent life. Any intelligent life that left their home planet millions of years ago could possibly evolve to make hybridisation with other species possible. It would be the fastest way to adapt to the environment of a new planet and avoid the fate of the Martians in HG well’s novel ‘The War of the Worlds’, where the Martians all died from exposure to Earth’s microbes that they had no immunity to.

One last note about the Hill abduction. Even if you are sceptical about alien abductions, ‘The UFO Incident’ is an excellent film, telling a very real love story. It would just as easily be a good choice for a Valentine’s film as a Halloween film and stars James Earl Jones (Voice of Darth Vader) who just recently passed away.

Probably the scariest of the alien abduction films, ‘Fire In the Sky’, is based on the alleged experiences of Travis Walton as described in his book ‘The Walton Experience’. If not for this case I would probably separate cases of alleged alien abductions into two distinct and separate types of phenomena, one involving “nuts and bolts” physically real but unknown craft. And the other more paranormal kind that involves something (possibly intelligent) external affecting (possibly communicating) with the human mind. In the latter case, whatever it is using popular culture, folklore and religious beliefs to construct a lucid dream so real that it can cause physical injury to the experiencer.

…However, unfortunately it isn’t that easy to separate alien abductions into different types like apples and oranges, and Travis Walton’s experience perhaps best documents why this is. Walton was seen being struck by an energy beam from a UFO by multiple witnesses before being taken onboard the craft where he woke up being examined by classic grey alien beings. It was clearly a physical experience, not a dream or hallucination.

Perhaps then the UFO occupants can choose between many different communication channels to make contact with humans, much in the same way we decide between having a face-to-face meeting or making a phone call or arranging a Microsoft Teams or Skype meeting. The only difference being that the UFO occupants can use consciousness itself as a communication channel when face to face encounters are not necessary or possible.

The Fourth Kind is another disturbing film to watch. I need to take a slight detour here into theoretical physics, but we will return back to the film soon.

If aliens are travelling from other solar systems to Earth, it is impossible for them to be coming in nuts-and-bolts spacecraft travelling slower than the speed of light. UFOs are seen too often and seem to be reacting to current events on Earth too quickly. For example, the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945 and within two years in the same region flying saucers turn up, seemingly investigating our nuclear weapon tests. If these objects came from another solar system, they would need to be at least approx. 4 light years away. Meaning it would take a radio signal at least that time to reach our nearest neighbouring solar system. Then travelling at light speed take another four years to get to Earth. That’s eight years total. As UFOs were being seen in 1947 (and earlier) in the American Southwest and were seemingly interested in nuclear weapons, it would seem to indicate they could send signals and travel faster than light to get here two years after the first atomic bomb test.

While travelling faster than light is impossible in our physical universe, other universes could potentially have different laws of physics that allow objects to travel faster than light.

So, if such a parallel universe existed it could be used as a kind of cosmic motorway. The only problem is how could an object travel between parallel universes?

Arthur C. Clarke famously said: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Could aliens be using what we would call magick (yes with a “k” to differentiate real magick from fake magic conjuring tricks) to open portals into other dimensions? This might sound absurd, but a lightbulb would appear to be magical to someone who had no knowledge of electricity. I’m only suggesting that there might be something to magick which could potentially be developed into another science one day. Perhaps a science of the Mind or Consciousness.

It is interesting that one of the aspects of real-world alien abduction mythology which is highlighted in ‘The Fourth Kind’ is the phenomenon of alleged screen memories. These are distorted memories of real events subtly altered either by the sub consciousness mind to make the memories accessible without driving someone insane, or, perhaps artificially altered by the aliens encountered during abductions to hide their activities. Put simply instead of remembering an alien, abductees remember other mundane things instead in their place. In the film the aliens are replaced in the memories of the protagonist by an owl, something which is widespread in real abduction accounts. Which is interesting because the owl has long been an important symbol in ancient religions. The owl was associated with the Ancient Greek goddess of wisdom Athena. And even today owls are still allegedly ‘worshiped’ in outlandish rituals by the quasi-secret group the Bohemian Club.

It could simply be that the large black eyes of owls lend the creatures to being good standings for the black-eyed grey aliens mostly associated with abductions. But an alternative explanation could be that owl and other esoteric symbolism is somehow being used to generate some kind of energy or power (for lack of a better similarly as this psychic power may not be energy in the scientific sense of the word that can be measured) which is used to phase in and out of our physical universe in ways we don’t yet understand.

Eyewitness accounts of odd symbols resembling Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs on wreckage/debris from alleged UFO crashes like the one at Roswell in 1947 are well known inside the UFO field. What if instead of writing these were occult symbols? What if instead of using physics to travel through space the aliens have developed an alternative science based originally on what we would call magick?

Chemistry is an example of a science that began as a pseudo-science. The treating of illnesses with magical potions. This was the beginning of treating illnesses with specific drugs to remedy a particular disease or other health problem.

There is a certain amount of theatrics involved with cases of alien abductions. Why would the aliens want to scare the people they are abducting? The aliens should be capable of tranquillising the subjects of their experiments, so that they would have no distress or memory at all of anything happening. The way we do with animals, for instance, if a large and dangerous zoo animal needed to be seen by a vet.

It is widely believed in paranormal research circles that poltergeists feed off human fear and anger, and that the best thing to do if you are experiencing such a haunting is to simply ignore it until the poltergeist runs out of energy effectively. Could the aliens seen in abductions be using similar paranormal energies generated by negative human emotion to travel between different dimensions? Perhaps a non-physical realm where the laws of physics do not apply, making interstellar travel possible?

One last thought … it is suggestive that the alleged covert group set up by the US Government to study the alleged UFO wreckage found at Roswell in 1947 was called Majestic 12 … as in Magic or Magick 12.