As soon as the 90s started, conspiracy was all the rage. It arguably began in 1991 with Oliver Stone’s JFK, about the alleged conspiracy to kill Kennedy. That same year, the TV show Sightings featured “investigative reports” on paranormal activity. Two years later was The X-Files, the TV Drama that ran through the decade, about alien abductions and government conspiracies.
UFO and abduction tales were nothing new, Whitley Streiber published his encounters with big eyed creatures in 1987’s Communion. The first book about Roswell, the great UFO story of our day, came out in 1980. By the 90s the phenomenon was in fool force. Books were published, and daytime talkshows were filled with alleged abductees, not just your fly by night hosts either. I remember none other that Oprah Winfrey had an episode about it, complete with an author who studied the phenomenon, and concluded it was real. As a kid these stories freaked me out. At night I’d wonder if big eyed creatures would come in my room and anal probe me!
A few years back I noticed the phenomeon sort of went away, from the mainstream anyway. I wondered what that said for it’s validity. Since the 90s I learned that in the 1950s there was a contactee fad. People claimed they rode UFO’s to Venus and stuff like that, sounds silly looking back on it.
Anyway I just finished “The Abduction Enigma: The Truth Behind the Mass Alien Abductions of the Late Twentieth Century.” It was written by Kevin D. Randle, Russ Estes, and William P. Cone, Ph.D, and published in 1999, interestingly enough.
Without rehasing the entire book let me sum up the main points. Abduction tales are like modern day folklore, stories that evolve and change over time, but are spread faster than older folklore due to the mass media. Stories similar to alien abduction can be found in history involving mythological monsters, demons, witches, and fairies. (Of course Streiber notes fairies himself in Communion, hinting it could have been aliens all along).
In the last century science fiction stories have fed us with big eyed alien abduction stories, several movies are noted. If you look at the early abduction tales like Betty and Barney Hill, the descriptions of the aliens don’t totally match the “Greys” we know today. Their appearance has evolved, if you will.
We also know from harrowing child abuse cases that repressed memories are not reliable, niether are hypnosis techniques used to recover them. (Hypnosis is more reliable for relaxation and treatment for addiction) More unsettling is that abduction stories can be fed to a patient by the therapist, through the use of leading questions. (Similar to how alleged psychics do ”Cold Readings.”) More reinforcement comes from paranormal media and UFO support groups. Sleep paralysis also plays a role in not being able to move and seeing strange things in your room.
The authors do not suggest therapists deliberately trick patients, but that sometimes in the mental health field people are desperate to find answers to help their sick patients. So they unintentionally give in to the latest pop psych trend.
There’s no physical evidence of abductions. Abductee claims of implants are just scar tissue and things like that. Small scars/marks on the body are not conclusive. We all can find strange marks on our body if we really look.
Finally, a logical look at the general abduction tale. Creatures who have mastered interstellar travel abduct humans to repeatedly do the same experiments, and erase memories of the experience. Yet primitive mankind today can do tons of genetic research with but a few small genetic samples, and a weekend course in hypnotherapy can un-erase abduction memories. Also, many abductions have a high sexual component, which is often under-reported. Why would aliens abduct women, implant them with an alien fetus, and send them back to earth where they could fall down the steps or get hit by a car and die and lose the fetus. Why not take a man to bang a hot alien chic. Greys, you know where I live.
(Consequently a true laugh out loud moment is on page 97.
As she lay there, immobile on the table, one of the five foot aliens mounted her, looked deep in her eyes, and what she heard him say was, “What you need is a good f#*k!”)
Though very interesting the book isn’t put together well. There’s a few grammar/spelling mistakes, and after presenting all the arguments, gives us 100 pages plus detailing individual UFO researchers and why they’re wrong. I found that tedious. There’s also a strong lead in early on to Satanic Ritual Abuse, an extremely similar phenomenon, but it’s not followed up on until later. Most confusing is the introduction, where two of the three authors say they do in fact believe in the phenomenon. Estes says on p 18, “If asked the question, do I believe in alien contact? I would respond with a simple “Yes.”"
Randle follows up on p22, “I believe that UFO’s represent, in rare cases, alien visitation…I believe, based on some very compelling evidence, and on some testimony from some very credible sources, that there has been extraterrestrial visitation.”
That confused the greys out of me. I re-read it several times, second guessing myself, but that’s what it says.
When I was real little there was this Buick commercial where a big bird would screech on the screen. I remember a dream I had as a young child where I was laying in my bed at night, and I heard “Jimmy.” I looked up and saw the Buick bird looking at me, and it screeched “Raaahhh.” If the wrong person got a hold of me at the time, they might have convinced my mom I’d been molested. Ten years later they might have convinced me that my dream was a screen for a memory of alien abduction. In it’s own way, either outcome is scarier than what may lurk in the night sky.
