Bronze-level articleAlien abduction

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An '''alien abduction''' is a claim that [[extraterrestrial]] aliens have taken a human (or group of humans), usually forcibly, and usually to perform experimentats on them. Alien abduction stories are rife, many are almost entirely inspired by what is seen on X-Files,<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_incident The Exeter Incident]</ref> but they are unsubstantiated and consigned to the [[Twilight Zone]] by [[rational]] observers.
 
An '''alien abduction''' is a claim that [[extraterrestrial]] aliens have taken a human (or group of humans), usually forcibly, and usually to perform experimentats on them. Alien abduction stories are rife, many are almost entirely inspired by what is seen on X-Files,<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exeter_incident The Exeter Incident]</ref> but they are unsubstantiated and consigned to the [[Twilight Zone]] by [[rational]] observers.
  
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A person is lying in bed at night, their favourite episode of the Outer Limits on DVD lies next to their TV. Suddenly, a bright light comes through the window. They're paralysed, unable to move, suddenly, the light disappears and they glance at their clock and it's over an hour later... what other explanation could there be?
 
A person is lying in bed at night, their favourite episode of the Outer Limits on DVD lies next to their TV. Suddenly, a bright light comes through the window. They're paralysed, unable to move, suddenly, the light disappears and they glance at their clock and it's over an hour later... what other explanation could there be?
  
, repeatly returning to the therapist to unlock yet more elaborate secrets.
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After recounting the even to an overeager friend, the victim is referred to a [[crank|therapist]] who says can unlock secrets hidden in their mind during the abduction. The victim, under hypnosis, then recounts the story of them being taken aboard the spaceship, probed, told the [[2012 Apocalypse|world is about to end]], taken for a zip around the galaxy and then through time, shown their own child, meet their dead father and returned to the spot. The therapist then publishes in a magazine and the victim becomes a {{f|Starting a new religion|true believer}}, repeatly returning to the therapist to unlock yet more elaborate secrets.
  
 
==Motives==
 
==Motives==
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Some, however, have more plausible theories about alien abductions:
 
Some, however, have more plausible theories about alien abductions:
  
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==Realistic explanations==
 
==Realistic explanations==
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[[Image:Aliens or ghosts.jpg|thumb|A photograph of some aliens.<br/>{{lie}}]]
  
 
===Bright lights in the window...===
 
===Bright lights in the window...===

Revision as of 16:06, 23 August 2010

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An alien abduction is a claim that extraterrestrial aliens have taken a human (or group of humans), usually forcibly, and usually to perform experimentats on them. Alien abduction stories are rife, many are almost entirely inspired by what is seen on X-Files,[1] but they are unsubstantiated and consigned to the Twilight Zone by rational observers.

Contents

An example abduction

A person is lying in bed at night, their favourite episode of the Outer Limits on DVD lies next to their TV. Suddenly, a bright light comes through the window. They're paralysed, unable to move, suddenly, the light disappears and they glance at their clock and it's over an hour later... what other explanation could there be?

After recounting the even to an overeager friend, the victim is referred to a therapist who says can unlock secrets hidden in their mind during the abduction. The victim, under hypnosis, then recounts the story of them being taken aboard the spaceship, probed, told the world is about to end, taken for a zip around the galaxy and then through time, shown their own child, meet their dead father and returned to the spot. The therapist then publishes in a magazine and the victim becomes a true believer, repeatly returning to the therapist to unlock yet more elaborate secrets.

Motives

Many "survivors" and "victim" claim various motives for alien abduction, often quite elaborate

  • To perform various research tests on them, often involving the anus. Seriously, who in their right mind would want to stick a probe up your anus? The ability to cross from one star system to another, just to stick something up there? Unless these aliens are performing colonoscopies pro bono, it's not gonna happen.
  • To breed with humans. Quite common are stories of human-alien hybrids. In these stories, aliens are described as cold, and unable to feel emotion so need humans to breed with. Still, it never occurs to them to pick emotionally stable individuals to work with.
  • To reveal secrets: Aliens know that ex-president George Bush was a secret warlord from another galaxy and they have to stop him. The Shrub may be weird, but he's not that weird.

Some, however, have more plausible theories about alien abductions:

Realistic explanations

A photograph of some aliens.
Do You Believe That?

Bright lights in the window...

The phenomenon of being paralysed in bed is not just restricted to UFO and abduction stories, some can report it with ghosts and others with religious stories. The most widely accepted, rational explanation for this is sleep paralysis. This is the state that the human body must enter while sleeping, without releasing the hormones to paralyse the body during sleep, it would enact its dreams (and considering what some people dream about, this is essential). On occasion, this will misfire, someone's eyes will open and they will be awake although their body is paralysed. Although a scary experience, anyone aware of the fact will relax and quickly wake and gain control of their body, more impressionable people may panic and begin to confuse reality with their previous dreams. Or, you could use your sleep paralysis for your advantage and attempt to enter a lucid dream.[2]

Missing time

You're 4 hours late for dinner, do you want to tell your wife the truth that you've been out banging a whore while on a coke binge? But seriously, people misread the time, fall asleep for an hour without noticing and many other things all the time. The point about not realising you're asleep is well known phenomenon and often cited in safe driving awareness campaigns, people can sleep for several seconds or several minutes at the wheel without noticing. As people in this state generally don't actually notice that they sleep, without a frame of reference to say that you were sleeping, time can appear to skip.

Physical evidence

On occasion, doctors or examiners will pull a piece of alien technology from someone. Never has one of these things looked remotely like a tracker, a microchip or the bug from The Matrix. Usually they look like glass shards or grit and tests on it will be "inconclusive" - almost invariably these "tests" aren't carried out by anyone qualified to do the testing, especially ones where the tests come back as "oh, it's strange, it's like nothing we've seen on Earth!".

It is very, very likely that it's just grit or glass that got wedged in an open wound, nothing more.[3]

Origins

The UFO phenomenon is barely 60-70 years old and the abduction phenomenon is slightly younger than that. Pre-1960, it's likely that anyone claiming to have been abducted by aliens would have used the term "demon"[4] to describe the aliens or "airship"[5] to describe the UFO. This is a sure sign that, whatever is happening, the terminology is skewed by pop culture and the current state of human technology.

Advocates

John Edward Mack, M.D. was an American psychiatrist, and Professor at the Harvard University School of Medicine. He was a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, and a leading authority on the spiritual or transformational effects of alleged alien encounter experiences, sometimes called the Abduction Phenomenon. [6]

See also

Footnotes

  1. The Exeter Incident
  2. Look it up. Just don't buy into all the woo and New Age bullshit that some people try to throw at you.
  3. Fore example, this is one of the more convincing ones.
  4. Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (1996)
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_airship
  6. James Gleick on Dr.Mack
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