Sunday, March 6, 2011

"Leave Alien Abductions Out of UFOs..."

Amongst the debris from the Jacobs-Woods-Hopkins-Rainey events, are comments I've come across in various places regarding alien abductions.  Comments like (to paraphrase) "Leave alien abductions out of UFO research," or "Abductions have nothing to do with the UFO phenomena."

 It may turn out that what we call alien abductions have nothing to do with UFOs, but for now, we have no idea what we loosely call alien abductions are. How can someone say that UFOs and abductions have nothing to do with each other? Thousands of accounts from witnesses that contain: aliens, UFOs, kidnapping. So far, the connection between UFO and alien abduction obvious.

We're calling strange entities "aliens" that usually mean ET from another planet, and that may or may not be what is happening. Witnesses may be led to believe they're being abducted by ETs and taken aboard UFOs, and if so, who's doing the leading and why? MILABS, possibly. Satan? Elves? Is the abduction experience some sort of metaphysical phenomena that doesn't have anything to do with outer space, ET, or spaceships in any way? If any of those theories turn out to be the answer to the abduction puzzle, then and only then can we say "UFOs have nothing to do with abductions." But actually, the two do have something to do with each other, even if only in the fact that one (abductions) likes to manifest itself as part of the other (UFO event.)

Whether we're interpreting abductions as UFO events or dutifully accepting the scenarios presented to us by whatever force is responsible for abductions as alien-UFO based, there is still a connection. There is a valid relationship between the two, whether it's symbolic or literal.

None of this is to say I think the alien abduction scenario is a literal event (though even that is possible) but it is a phenomena that is being not only experienced by humans all over the planet, but manipulated by some kind of "other" (non-human) as well as  humans.

Are we going to go back to the days when researchers left out elements of witness accounts of abductions because they were found to be too off the wall, embarrassing, and just plain weird?

The obvious leading of witnesses by some researchers, whether intentional in order to support a personal bias, or unintentionally because that's a hazard in this field (as is losing it completely by falling so far down the rabbit hole there's no chance of ever getting out) isn't enough reason to disregard abduction accounts. 

We have no idea what's behind abductions, but we do know that aliens and UFOs appear in these narratives. An obvious relationship. Whether or not that relationship is true remains to be discovered. Until then, it seems both ignorant and arrogant to insist "UFOs have nothing to do with abductions." I find it persistently curious that some have the assurance of what are, and what aren't,   valid elements of the UFO phenomena.

Who are we going to pass alien abductions off to? If those UFO researchers who insist abductions have nothing to do with UFOs reject those accounts, and, continue to be disinterested in the subject, we're still left with the existence of the phenomena.

Science, well, so far they've done a poor job. At best, passing if off as aspects of sleep disruptions. By definition, science will never acknowledge the Fortean/UFO elements of abduction unless it's given a label that designates it as a disorder. Accepting the reality of esoteric, metaphysical, or UFO phenomena isn't the job of science. Neither is accepting the reality of conspiracies, like MILABS.

What if abductions turn out to have nothing at all to do with UFOS, but everything to do with ... Satan? (In that I'm being flip, but not much. While I don't believe in a literal devil framed within a Christian or other religion mythology I don't discount the reality of negative energies/entities.)

So we discover that MILABS are at the key to understanding abductions, which means an insidious and illegal action has been taken against global citizens. Wouldn't we care about that? In this not quite so hypothetical scenario, humans are "hoaxing" UFOs, manipulating the idea of an alien presence to fit their own terrifying agendas. UFO researchers are quick to expose the hoaxers and fakes, the liars and the hucksters, why afraid to tread the cold murky waters of so-called conspiracy in this case?

7 comments:

Joseph Capp said...

Dear Regan,
The alien abduction experience is very much part of the UFOs phenomenon. the UFO community's most credible, documented cases include UFOs and beings.
I don't like the idea that some people want to rewrite what this experience is about.
There are thousands of cases of so called abductions with very little proof. There could be all kinds of explanations for their experience other than UFOs.
But for the UFO community to ignore the classic cases for what is reported now is an insult to all the laughter and insults these classic historic abduction witnesses had to go through.
I don't know what criteria the new abduction experience researchers are using but they don't have a Dr. Mack looking over their shoulders to make sure they are doing it right, like Hopkins did.
I read "Messages" and the research done on the case is disgraceful.
I sent some of his "equations" from aliens to a physicist friend and they didn't mean anything.
So for me as far as the alien abduction phenomenon as it is research today by the new breed of researcher leaves me unconvinced they are abductions at all.
Thank you for bringing this subject up. I agree there is no way to prove these are ETs but all the other explanations are stretches to say the least.
Thanks
Joe
UFO Media Matters

Mike Clelland! said...

Regan,

I agree completely with this post.

The flip side of this is the way researchers, authors and web-sites will PUSH the UFO thing in a way that seems off-putting. The cover art on too many books is so lame, and overtly exploitative, even among authors I like.

This stuff just screams that UFOs and abductions are ONE AND THE SAME. And this is a slippery kind of communication.

In my own experience, I have very little to connect abduction and UFOs. But, I have a lot of experiences where the paranormal will overlap with my waking life, and often there is a "hint" of the UFO phenomenon (whatever that means).

I am glad you don't have bad computer airbrushed alien images on your site. The Orange Orb is a nice "neutral" title.

Red Pill Junkie said...

Very nice input.

I'm finding myself a bit annoyed with some leading voices in Ufology —Clark, Randle, even Leslie Kean— strongly advocating for a return to a 1950's kind of attitude, of focusing investigative research ONLY on close encounters of the 2nd kind, and considering all possible interactions with the beings aboard these objects as pure crap —or "experiencial" phenomena, as Clark puts it.

Although there's probably many reasons to put into question and revise the gathered lore on UFOs and aliens, I don't think we can go as far as keeping all those close encounters of the 3rd kind on indefinite hold until a consistent case for the physical reality of UFOs has been established —because God knows that day may *never* come.

Deirdre said...

What's that old saying about paranormal phenomenon? Something like:

"If you think you have all of the answers -- you don't."

That would apply very well to those who easily discount abductions as something relative to UFOs (or Ufology). In arguing that abductions do not belong in UFO research, it implies knowledge of what the UFO phenomenon actually is.

Are abductions literal actions performed by EBEs? Fuck if any of us know. Personally, my own opinion is drifting away from the classic scenarios and considering that we are manifesting our own imaginings onto some other kind of experience.

But hey, maybe it really is as simple as aliens performing surgeries and tests on unsuspecting humans -- though, it would make me suspicious of the claims that they are technologically far superior to us.

Even if reliable data came out that suggested abductions are not being performed by ET, the phenomenon does still warrant research.

Anonymous said...

I don't see how "abductions" and "aliens"(whatever ones definition is of an alien) can be honestly separated from UFOs.

If we go back back to the 1960s and early 1970s there are written cases where abductees/experiencers recall (without hypnosis) being taken into a ufo and seeing 'alien' beings.

I think one of the best books to demonstrate this is 'Encounters with UFO Occupants' by Coral and Jim Lorenzen, APRO, 1976. The cases within the book go back into the 1960s.

One of the most chilling is of a family being stalked by a ufo while they're on a road trip. They actually remember being taken up through the car - out of body (first obe 'abduction' I ever recall reading) into a craft where praying-mantis type beings are.

Another excellent early book is
The Tujunga Canyon Contacts by D. Scott Rogo and Ann Druffel. Published in the late 1970s, which included cases that have been investigated back in the 1960s. Many of them contain conscious sightings of ufos and aliens (the small gray variety).

Most people who claim or suspect they might be abductees/experiencers [including me] have noted a ufo component....a sighting, maybe a close encounter combined with "missing time". Some even are conscious. And some even have other people with them that are also part of the frightening event.

We shouldn't separate UFOs from Abductions ,as unrelated, because Dave Jacobs is a hybrid/sex-obsessed creep ('The Threat' pretty much proved that before Emma Wood's horrible experiences with him). And there shouldn't be a separation because Hopkins willfully chooses to believe in his best buddy Jacobs or in his own charming~trickster "abductee" Linda Napolitano. For those who may not know what's been buzzing for many years with The Brooklyn Bridge case & book read the sci-fi book 'Night Eyes', published in 1989, and compare it to Napolitano's account. Also, the independent investigation of the Linda Napolitano case, done nearly 2 decades ago:
http://www.tricksterbook.com/ArticlesOnline/LindaCase.htm

It's one thing to look at Hopkins and Jacobs and their agendas with skeptical eyes and dismiss some or most of their 'work'. But to separate UFOs from Abductions misses the point and seems to simply be an opportunistic move by those in the field who don't believe in the possibility of abductions anyway.

~ Susan

Red Pill Junkie said...

Re. the "Linda Cortile (Napolitano)" case, which some are now treating as the lowest point in Hopkins' career as a researcher, it is intersting to read in Richard Dolan's lauded book UFOs and the National Security State Vol. II that he (Dolan) personally interviewed three alleged witnesses to the abduction --page 505-- and found their statements to be consistent.

Just wanted to add this little input, for what it's worth :)

Anonymous said...

UFOs and actual, physical "aliens" have been paired together too many times to be something we all toss out because some people just can't deal with the reality of it.

Brownie makes many excellent points up to mentioning Hopkins. UFO-logy politics aside, to dismiss hundreds-- if not thousands-- of people's memories, scars, landing traces, and other evidence is devastatingly disrespectful at the most fundamental levels.

If you say UFOs and aliens aren't related, then you're just outright calling people like me who have seen them together LIARS or CRAZY and that's just not an explanation that I'm ever going to embrace.