Grand Illusions
Sub-Figura vel Liber VIII


by Dr. Gregory L. Little

1994

Excerpt from:
Grand Illusions: The Spectral Reality Underlying Sexual UFO Abductions,

Crashed Saucers, Afterlife Experiences, Sacred Ancient Sites, and Other Enigmas
-1994 by Dr. Gregory L. Little
ISBN 0-940829-10-X
White Buffalo Books, POB 9972, Memphis, TN 38190
 


UFO Abductions Through The Ages

The abduction stories form a continuum with old legends and beliefs ...They do contain a message ...given to us by the hidden parts of our being.
-- John Rimmer - (The Evidence for Alien Abductions - 1984)


Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore - While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
-- Edgar Allan Poe - (The Raven)

 

"We stepped into the fringe of reality," Karla Turner replied to a questioner -- after relating her incredible story to an immense group at the 1992 Ozark UFO Conference. "Our book comes from my journal that I kept (about these events)."

Karla [now deceased; a victim of the insidious cancer many "abductees" mysteriously succumb to -B:.B:.], who holds a Ph.D. in English, hypnotized her husband Casey in the mid-1980s to attempt to find the source of Casey’s anxiety and tension. Casey, a computer software consultant, had been seeing a therapist at the time and was suffering with a variety of nervous problems. What they found in the hypnosis was not what they expected.

Casey had numerous memories of alien contact -- sexual contact. One of his earliest memories was a white-haired, old woman appearing in his bedroom when he was 13 years old. She had a deeply wrinkled face and deep, piercing eyes. Unable to resist, he had sexual intercourse with her. Casey also recalled other times that creatures entered his bedroom and forced him to have sex. One such experience left him with claw marks on his back, while another incident in 1987 resulted in a painful scar on the back of his leg.

Interaction with the abductors wasn’t limited to Casey. Karla told of walking into her home at night when a being grabbed hold of her arm. The creature told her it was her mother, but Karla stated that it looked like a giant grasshopper. Another time, Karla was coming home through her back yard when she felt like she,

"had hit an electric fence. I wasn’t feeling right...wasn’t moving right ...there was a glow everywhere ...I stopped...and saw four gray beings standing side by side in my backyard."

"I assumed I was having a hallucination (but) I’m awake -- why? I felt I could see through them and they talked to me telepathically."

"Greetings, we are your ancestors," they said. "We are a part of you, but we are real."

"I couldn’t move as I normally do," Karla continued. "Then two females behind me came up close -- they started buzzing."

"They are giving you some instructions," they told me.

Karla and Casey have become involved with a variety of MUFON investigators since the uncovering of their memories as well as conducting a variety of their own investigations. They have somewhat specialized in sexual abductions and been influenced by the popular books Intruders, Missing Time, and others. Karla told a story about a grandmother with her young grandson. The grandmother had been a widow for several years when she was forced to drink a liquid handed to her by an alien who appeared in her bedroom late one night.

After she drank the thick fluid, she became young again. A reptilian-like alien then attempted to have intercourse with her but she resisted. Then the alien brought in her dead husband who began making sexual advances to her. The grandmother had intercourse with the creature that appeared as her husband, but eventually saw that it was a reptilian. After finishing with the grandmother, the reptilians had anal and oral intercourse with her young grandson.

At the 1992 Ozark UFO Convention, cattle mutilation expert Linda Moulton Howe also focused on sexual abduction stories. She told a story about one man who had become so plagued by a particular female alien coming to him each night that he repeatedly masturbated before sleeping so that he would have trouble getting an erection when the aliens appeared. This so disturbed the female alien and her mantis-like "keepers" that they made an agreement with the man. Howe stated that the aliens are probably collecting genetic material from cattle and humans.

In discussing how the beings appear, Howe said that "the air itself is like a curtain they can go behind." They come out of "tears in the air."

The "modern" aliens associated with sexual abductions now appear to fall into three broad categories. The traditional grays are nearly always present. Male grays seldom engage in intercourse, but some female grays do. The grays often connect bizarre devices to the sex organs of abductees and insert needles in an apparent attempt to collect sperm and ovum samples. Then there are the more sinister creatures described as reptilian, grasshopper-like, or mantis-like. These creatures, whose sexual organs are described as ice cold, often have intercourse with humans.

 

Finally, there are creatures that, except for their dress, would be indistinguishable from humans. They are sometimes described as Nordic in appearance -- tall blondes with blue eyes. These abductors have, at times, had intercourse with abductees. All of the appearances taken on by abductors appear to be fluid and plastic; that is, they can easily change their shape to whatever they wish.

Aileen Garoutte, director of the abductee support organization UFOCCI, has interviewed and used regression hypnosis on numerous abductees who have claimed sexual contact with the aliens. One couple was abducted during a drive between Princeton and Penticton in British Columbia, Canada. Two hours of missing time occurred during their trip that was later "remembered" as a "classic" abduction. Both were given a special drink, medical exams, and had sexual encounters with the aliens. The woman became pregnant as a result of the abduction though she had been using two different types of birth control. After their abduction she had spots on her body over her ovaries and her husband had a ring of spots across his groin. Literally dozens of similar stories have been uncovered by UFOCCI.


Sexual Abduction Experiences Aren’t New

Given the current intense interest in alien sexual encounters, many people seem to feel that such reports are relatively recent. They aren’t. Sexual encounters with alien abductors are not new to ufology. On October 15, 1957, 23-year old farmer Antonio Boas was plowing a field at his farm near Minas Gerais in Brazil. It was night as Boas was trying to catch up on the plowing. Looking up into the sky, Boas saw a brightly lit red object descending from the sky. It was his third UFO sighting that week. This time, however, the object landed in his field. Out of the egg-shaped object came four aliens fitted in metallic space suits with helmets.

As the creatures glided toward him, Boas tried to escape on the tractor, but it stalled. Boas jumped off and started running. A few moments later he was captured and dragged into the spaceship. There he was taken into a circular room where he was restrained while one of the creatures took a blood and skin sample from his chin. Then he was stripped and moved to another room where only a white, plastic couch sat in the center of the room. His body was sponged with a clear, oily liquid and then the four creatures left.

A few moments later clouds of gray smoke filled the room causing Boas to vomit. Then a hidden slit opened in the wall through which a beautiful, naked, alien woman walked. She had blond-white hair parted in the middle, large blue eyes, thin lips, high, prominent cheekbones, and a pointed chin. She was under five feet tall. Boas clearly remembered her blood-red pubic hair and her well-separated, pointy breasts.

The female began rubbing her body against Boas and he quickly embraced her. According to Boas they had intercourse two times during which the alien barked and growled like an animal. After the second time she got off the couch and walked to the hidden door. She pointed to her stomach and then to the sky. Then she walked out.

Moments later two of the space suited aliens returned with his clothes. He dressed and was given a tour of the ship after which he was released.

In the month that followed his encounter, Boas became ill with symptoms similar to radiation sickness. In addition, small purplish wounds developed on his hands.

In his book The Ufonauts, Hans Holzer related the May 2,1968 abduction of teenager Shane Kurz. Under regression hypnosis Ms. Kurz told of being abducted while walking through a field and being levitated into a saucer. Inside the saucer several gray aliens placed her on a table, stripped her, and rubbed a thick liquid on her. She was told that the liquid was a stimulant and that she was being tested for pregnancy with a device that was lowered on her. Then the leader told her that they wanted to make a "half" with her. One of the beings quickly sexually penetrated her. He made animal sounds and a humming noise during the act. Kurz was then released. Shortly after this incident (which she did not remember at the time) her menstrual period stopped for a year. She had a sudden, unexplained weight loss exactly 9 months after her abduction. It was the weight loss that led her to a doctor and eventually uncover the memory of the abduction.

Budd Hopkins’ Intruders (1987) and Missing Time (1981) are filled with distinctively sexual abductions. And if you don’t look at the long-term perspective of the phenomenon, it is easy to be misled into thinking the sexual abductions are a recent happening:

"Intruders makes what appears to be happening in UFO abductions more clear. Genetic experimentation is being conducted on unwilling human subjects by an extraterrestrial civilization far different from our own.... Through the process of interbreeding, the technology involved in producing test tube babies, and cloning, they are producing a hybrid race." (Little, 1990)

But appearances can be deceiving


Abductions Through The Ages

UFO-like abductions and alien sexual encounters are nothing new. Witches supposedly were taken into the air for meetings with the devil. People who had been abducted by fairies were left with distinctive body scars similar to those in UFO abductees. And the incubus and succubus of medieval times did the exact same things to their abductees as today’s sexually-inclined aliens do to their abductees.


According to fairy lore, fairies create a circular cluster of small bruises as their mark. The phenomenon is known as "fairy bruising" and is a sign of either favor or disfavor. The ring of bruises is often found around the genitals. They did this, according to various 17th century accounts, by pinching their victims:

If lustie Doll, maide of the Dairie,
Chance to be blew-nipt by the fairie.
Marston’s Mountebanks Masque

An Encyclopedia of Fairies (Briggs, 1976) gives numerous ancient examples of fairy abductions. Almost always a special drink was given to the abductee. This drink, usually described as a thick liquid, was an essential part of the fairy abduction. Women are abducted much more often than men and some fairies take special delight, in repeatedly capturing women for amorous motives. In short, some fairies simply liked having sexual relations with mortals.

Fairies abduct their victims through paralysis; then they simply carry (levitate and fly) the abductee away into "fairyland." Fairyland is always nearby; under normal conditions we can’t see or perceive it. The paralysis induced on the victim is how fairies get their abductee to enter fairyland. The modem word "stroke" (meaning paralysis) is derived from the ancient terms "elf-stroke" and "fairy-stroke." Fairies travel in circular globes of light, sometimes called "will-o-the-wisp."

There are so many different types of fairies that going through them would be tedious. Some of them, however, are virtually indistinguishable from what have been described as demons. One particular type, the "bogie," looks a lot like the traditional bigfoot. Virtually every society has some lore of these "little people" and myths of them forcing their sexual attentions on human victims.

Fairy lore has a tradition of thousands of years. Fairies have been said to be abducting humans, human babies, flying in lighted globes, striking paralysis and amnesia on their victims, forcing strange drink on their victims, and having sexual relations with humans for all time. If we could remove the mythological aspect from fairy abductions and dress them a little differently, the folklore reports of a thousand years ago would be virtually indistinguishable from present UFO abduction reports. The same thing could be said for the reports of demons.

As my eyes fell on the demon drawings in Plancy’s Dictionaire infernal (1863), I was struck by their similarity to the famous 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville UFO case. Imagine the demons as gray in color, and they would also fit the description of the ubiquitous grays in recent abductions.

There are many in the UFO field (as well as various religious leaders) who believe that the creatures associated with UFOs are demons. The similarity of some demons to the grays of UFO reports are probably no coincidence.

The resemblance between modern UFO abduction reports and ancient accounts of demonic visitations are striking, indeed. Ulrich Molitor’s De Laniis et phitonicis mulieribus (1489) shows the first known engravings of demons who abduct and then have sexual relations with humans. Olaus Magnus’ Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555) contained engravings of the devil and demons carrying women (witches) away for sex. The early accounts of these are similar to UFO abductions; however, in that era it was not seen as a good thing to happen to you (as contrasted to many UFO abductees who view it as a positive and special experience).

In the early days of the church, people who told of having visitations by "demons" were tolerated. Somewhat later, they were fined or removed from the church. It was in the 15th century that the church was no longer content to simply throw the "witches" and "sorcerers" out of the church. From that point onward they sought to wring confessions out of suspected witches and then burn or hang the accused. To have sex with a demon meant you were a witch or a sorcerer. Witches almost always had sexual relations with the demons or Satan himself and they were said to have some power over elemental demons. It is the lower orders of the demons that supposedly take on the appearance of UFO-like beings and fairies. In fact, in many of the witch trials in the 15th and 16th centuries, the "lower orders" of demons were described as leprechauns, gnomes, and other fairies.

According to this ancient witch lore, Satan and demons had their favorite humans for sex. Both women and men were abducted for sex, but women were favored. Most victims were unwillingly abducted in their bedrooms at night. Many victims described several demons (of different types) being present at the time of their abduction. Some of the demons "stood by" just watching during the act.

The first written mention of Satan himself forcing sex on a victim was probably at the trials of Artois. The writer Vignate (1468) chronicled the trial. Here too, was the first mention of Satan’s sexual organ as being cold as ice. This statement is similar to what some UFO abductees have said about their abductors who forced sex on them -- particularly the insects or grasshopper-like creatures.
 

Far more frequent was mention of sexual intercourse forced on victims by demons known as incubus or succubus.

"Essentially the incubus is a lewd demon or goblin which seeks sexual intercourse with women ...the corresponding devil which appears to man is the succubus"

(Dictionary of Witchcraft & Demonology).

Guazzo’s (1608) Compendium Maleficarum stated:

"(The demon) can assume either a male or female shape; sometimes he appears as a full-grown man, sometimes as a satyr."

St. Augustine firmly believed that demons abducted people and forced sexual relations on them:

"(Demons) have often injured women, desiring and acting carnally with them."

Virtually no one disputed the existence of these sex-seeking demons. Martin Del Rio (1599) wrote of the reality of incubus in the Disquisitionum Magicarum,

"...to disagree (with their existence) is only obstinacy and foolhardiness; for it is the universal opinion of the fathers, theologians, and writers on philosophy, the truth of which is generally acknowledged by all ages and peoples."

Peter Binsfeld’s De Confessione Maleficarum (1589) stated,

"(The incubus) is an indisputable truth which is not only proved most certain by experience, but also is confirmed by history.."
 

Ancient Crossbreeding & Genetic Experimentation


Just like modern UFO abductors do, demons have long been collecting sperm samples from male victims. According to the ancient reports, the succubus gathers semen from the male victims so that the demon can fully perform the sex act and sometimes impregnate its female victim when acting as an incubus.

 

In Thomas Aquinas’ 13th century book Summa Theologica he wrote:

...if sometimes children are born from intercourse with demons, this is not because of the semen emitted by them, or from the bodies they have assumed, but through the semen taken from some man for this purpose, seeing that the same demon who acts as a succubus for a man becomes an incubus for a woman.

It was believed even then that a crossbreeding of sorts was occurring between the demons (fairies) and humans. Tradition has it that the magician Merlin was the result of crossbreeding between Satan and a human female. And most readers are familiar with the many matings of the Greek and Roman "gods" with humans. Their offspring spurred many of the great legends and myths of old.


For several thousand years there have been reports of alien abduction for sexual purposes. Because of the number of reports coming from early church members, much attention was given the phenomenon during the 1200s and 1300s. Here are a few summaries by the church from this time period:

De Trinitate: "Devils do indeed collect human semen...therefore devils can transfer the semen which they have collected and inject it into the bodies of others."

Bonaventura wrote:

"Devils in the form of women yield to males and receive their semen; by cunning skill, the demons preserve its potency, and afterwards,... they become incubi and pour it into female repositories."

Just as in modern UFO reports, the incubus desiring to have sex with a human will adjust its shape to one that lowers resistance of its victim. In 1698 Johann Klein reported on a court case where a woman claimed to have been impregnated by her long-gone husband. A creature taking his form appeared to her at night in her bedroom where she simply couldn’t resist. Many other victims of an incubus claimed that the incubus appeared to them as a person (deceased) they knew and loved.

Some of the most interesting reports about the incubus come from nuns. During the mid-1400s, many nuns in certain sites were victims of incubus attacks with the nuns often displaying amnesia over the event. The copious amounts of semen present left no doubt that something physical actually happened.

Other accounts of incubus attacks leave one with the definite impression that something physical was happening rather than the experience being a purely psychological event. One impressive account had numerous witnesses. The writer Sinistrari wrote of a nun that was locked into a small, nearly barren cell after dinner. She was alone when they closed the door; shortly thereafter, however, sounds of passion (between two people) came from the cell. When the cell was immediately opened for inspection, no one but the nun was in it.

 

Another nun then bored a small hole through the wall and was astonished to see a youth "appear" on the bed with the nun. Quietly, the nun gathered other sisters to view the scene in the cell between the locked-up nun and the "youth." When they went back into the cell, the youth again disappeared. However, the nun confessed that she had been intimate with an incubus for some time and that he appeared as the youth that they had seen. None of the nuns recognized the youth, nor was he seen again. In addition, that report indicated that there was no way that anyone could escape the cell holding the nun. He simply appeared and then vanished.

Another interesting feature of medieval witch reports that parallels modern UFO reports is the so-called Devil’s mark. This is not the same thing as a witch’s mark, but is rather a mark conferred upon victims by the devil himself. According to ancient beliefs, the devil marks his victims for identification. The mark is scratched on the victim with a talon. The marks are usually a straight scar in an odd spot, typically not seen without some difficulty, or some sort of a tattoo. Daneau (1564) stated in Les Sorciers that,

"(Not a witch exists) upon whom (the devil or a demon) doth not set some note or token of his power and prerogative over them."

Sinistrari’s De Demonialitate stated that the mark of the devil..."is imprinted on the most secret parts of the body."

Were we not in "modern" times, the marks seen on many UFO abductees would be seen as the marks of the devil. Cuts on the back of the leg, purplish circular spots, bruises, circles of warts and spots surrounding the abdomen and genitals, facial holes, and nasal cavity holes all would have qualified. These were the exact same marks and areas of the body used for the Devil’s mark. These are also similar to the "fairy bruises."


Musings On Abductions


For a number of reasons, most people studying UFO abductions are deeply disturbed by the parallels between ancient and modern UFO abduction reports. They are so disturbed that they refuse to even see that any relationships exist. I am astonished at how many contemporary investigators -- professionals who should know better -- simply refuse to see the historical perspective of this phenomenon. It is easy to be smug and say,

"This is different, we aren’t superstitious anymore, these are modern times."

But in 500 years a lot of what we deeply believe will be laughed at and ridiculed.


Many, many people want to believe that UFOs are crafts from other worlds carrying advanced extraterrestrial beings. Many want to believe that the sexual abductions represent genetic experimentation and crossbreeding by extraterrestrials. The simple fact is that believing that is far more comforting than accepting the possible reality of what has been described in the prior few pages. Most of us don’t want to really believe that there are actual beings that exist that have been called "demons" or "fairies" or a "devil." Contemplation of such possibilities is deeply disturbing. It touches the darkest and most remote areas of our psyche. It energizes the most fearsome and powerful psychological processes of our minds.

"Nuts and bolts" ufologists avoid studying or even acknowledging abductions by stating that these aren’t "true" UFO reports. I have heard numerous urologists state over and over,

"We know these (UFOs) are physical craft, they are spaceships. The psychic and parapsychological stuff doesn’t have anything to do with these craft. Anything but what I’m studying is ’new age’ bunk."

It’s as if they stick their noses down and look at the little piece of the gigantic puzzle before them, refusing to open their eyes to the fact that they are ignoring the big picture.

It is important to understand that I am not saying that UFOs are piloted by demons. I am not saying that fairies and demons are the rapists who force themselves on their abducted victims. There is a real problem with terminology here -- most of us have a preconceived idea of what a fairy or a demon is, and I really don’t want to conjure up that image.

What I am saying is that there is a process that has been ongoing -- probably for all of humanity’s history -- that manifests itself through the appearance of archetypal creatures and beings. John Keel was one of the first to recognize this. Others, including Vallee, Clark, and many British ufologists have long pointed out the resemblance between modern UFO reports and the ancient traditions.

 

It doesn’t really matter what we call the process underlying UFOs, abductions, and all of the related phenomena, but it is important to see that they all tie together. Even the dreaded and paranoia-producing "government" has long-recognized this connection in their earliest reports (although changes in policy precluded too much future mention of it). John Keel’s UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse cites the preface from a 1960s publication by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research called UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography. In that report it was stated:

A large part of the available UFO literature is closely linked with mysticism and the metaphysical. It deals with subjects like mental telepathy, automatic writing, and invisible entities, as well as phenomena like poltergeist manifestations and possession.... Many of the UFO reports now being published in the popular press recount alleged incidents that are strikingly similar to demonic possession and psychic phenomena which has long been known to theologians and parapsychologists.
 

Abductees and the Paranormal


In July 1990, ufologist Brent Raynes published the results of a statistical survey he conducted on 46 people who reported contact with or sightings of UFOs in the publication UFO Perceptions. A little over a quarter of them were abductees, with the rest having some close contact with UFOs. Raynes’ survey clearly showed that people who have any sort of UFO experiences also have a variety of other "paranormal" experiences. Here are some of the results:

  • 87% had repeating psychic experiences

  • 72% had telepathic experiences

  • 70% had more than one UFO experience

  • 70% reported some precognitive experiences

  • 63% reported "out-of-body" experiences

  • 59% reported experiences with poltergeists

In addition, Raynes conducted a survey of his UFO percipients’ medical and psychological histories. Most of his medical findings were within normal expectations of a sample of adults randomly drawn from the population. However, the psychological findings appear to strongly suggest a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cluster of findings. Here are a few findings from Raynes’ extensive statistical list:

  • 4% admitted to drug abuse

  • 7% had been institutionalized at some point for mental problems

  • 9% admitted to alcohol abuse

  • 17% had asthma

  • 20% admitted to suicidal impulses

  • 22% were sleepwalkers

  • 26% engaged in compulsive behaviors

  • 28% experienced amnesia

  • 28% experienced severe depression

  • 35% had insomnia

  • 37% had anxiety attacks

In recent years, PTSD has become one of the favorite diagnoses of recovery-oriented mental health professionals. When the symptoms are seen, childhood abuse (sexual, physical, and emotional) are often immediately suspected. Many professionals (myself included) view this quick diagnosis tendency as a temporary fad; however, there is no denying the trauma that childhood abuse inflicts upon its many victims.

Over a decade ago, Rick Rotter, a former MUFON Section Director, suggested to me that all UFO abductees are reliving a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome. This is not really a new idea. But what was rather unique about Rick’s idea was that he felt abductees were experiencing the abduction because of long-standing trauma due to childhood sexual abuse. That is, the memory of a UFO abduction (and the sex that occurs during the abduction) represents a reliving of a childhood memory of an adult human who perpetrated sex abuse on the young child.

 

Because the memory of the person perpetrating the abuse (usually the child’s father, mother, grandparents, or other relative) is so traumatic, their memory is twisted and adjusted so that a "monster" or otherworldly creature is believed to have performed the act on them. "Inner Child" theory and other pop psychology beliefs relate to this idea.

A review of classic abduction cases can certainly lend some support to this view. Just reading the sexual abductions in the beginning of this chapter can support this belief. The problem is that perhaps somewhere between 10% to 25% of the entire population has had some form of childhood sexual abuse. (There is great disagreement as to the reliability of childhood sex abuse statistics -- virtually all should be seen as unreliable guesstimates.) Thus, statistically speaking, 10% to 25% of abductees should show childhood sexual abuse. Most abductees are screened for childhood sexual abuse and the results seem to show that between 10% to 25% were victims -- not the much higher numbers expected with the sexual abuse trauma hypothesis.

I have more than a passing interest in childhood sexual abuse. I co-authored a chapter in a medical text, Sexology (Bianco & Serrano, 1990), on treating sexual abuse disorders and co-authored another paper in a hypnosis journal on it. Alcoholism, drug abuse, and various relationship and personal problems are quite frequently seen in victims of childhood sexual abuse -- therein lies my professional interest in the issue. But are UFO abductions related to it? Not in my experience or my colleagues’ experience. Because childhood sexual abuse is a hot topic right now in recovery circles, it is invoked for virtually every single problem seen in adults.

 

Victims’ groups (sometimes called survivor’s groups) believe that almost every physical and medical problem, relationship difficulty, psychological problem, and career problem is caused by childhood sexual abuse. When someone is seen with any kind of problem, they say that it must be as a result of childhood sexual abuse.

 

What this boils down to is this:

Ufologists investigating abductees should almost always see the symptoms of PTSD if the abduction was experienced as traumatic by the abductee.

But PTSD symptoms only indicate that some sort of trauma occurred -- not what the trauma was. Because an undetermined percentage of people (probably between 10% to 25%) were victims of childhood sexual abuse, that same percentage should show in people who claim UFO abductions.

Today, most ufologists investigating abductees screen out the abductees who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. Most professionals who have investigated ufology to any depth agree that the childhood sexual abuse problem has next to nothing to do with UFO abductions. I agree with most professionals on this.

Rotter’s Sexual Trauma Hypothesis bears a striking resemblance to another abduction explanation. In the early 1980s, an English professor, Dr. Alvin Lawson, suggested that abductees are reliving the trauma of birth. Here,

"the fetus is unwillingly taken from a place of security (the womb) to an uncontrollably unknown world (the outside)"

(Little, 1984).

Lawson explains the humanoid abductor’s appearance as symbolically representing a fetus. Of course, when you are born you can’t see your appearance (as a fetus). And all of us were born -- so we might expect many more people to have abduction experiences. Few people today take Lawson’s hypothesis seriously.


Abductions: Separating Wheat From Chaff


There is no doubt that a lot of abductions have occurred. The 1992 Roper Survey suggested that at least 2% of the population has been abducted. Thus, over 5 million Americans alone may have had the experience. Are there really that many visitors from other worlds here? If 2% of the world’s population has been abducted over the last 40 years (as has been suggested by ufologists), then at least 90 million people have been abducted in the world. This means the clever aliens are grabbing 2.25 million of us each year (assuming we each get to have only one abduction).

 

Over 6,000 abductions are then occurring each day with about 257 abductions occurring each and every hour. Are all of these abductions caused by extraterrestrial beings flying around in craft -- or do they represent something else? Are modern UFO abductions just a modern version of a phenomenon that has occurred and been documented over thousands of years? I am certain this is what they are.


Before the modern era of UFOs, those who claimed contact with non-human entities were placed in occult, spiritualistic, apparitional, hallucinatory, psychotic, or pixilated categories. Some ufologists -- again, those who adhere to the extraterrestrial hypothesis -- argue that abductions aren’t part of the UFO phenomenon. They are wrong. For abductions are an integral part of the UFO myth. Abductions are almost always cited as evidence of alien contact, and ufologists will use cases that fit their theory while discarding the rest as unrelated, purely psychological, or hoaxes.

 

This is another example of selective perception and confirmation bias -- attending to only those facts or tidbits of information that already confirm your beliefs. It’s time that we began fitting all of the pieces of the gigantic ufology puzzle together. It’s time we recognize that we are interacting with something that is very real, but it’s not alien extraterrestrials.
 

 

About the author:

Dr. Gregory L. Little holds a Master of Science Degree in Psychology and a Doctor of Education Degree in Counseling from Memphis State University. He works in criminal justice as a trainer, publications editor, and researcher. He has published and presented over 200 papers and reports in numerous professional journals and publications on the topics of psychopharmacology, mental health, substance abuse treatment, antisocial personality treatments, and criminal justice.

 

In addition, he has published articles on archaeology, UFO abductions, and other paranormal phenomena. He is also a licensed private pilot and part Seneca Indian.

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