Why Does Memory Matter to Us? In UFOs and Popular Culture, Scott Scribner notes that linear time (and its quirks) became central to human philosophical life following the establishment of Christianity; the faith was essentially a countdown to the End Time and Second Coming. Thus, missing time acquires religious significance for many. Religion is a … Read more
Abductions: Post-Abduction Torment Imagine the distress of Charleston, South Carolina, resident William J. Hermann, who witnessed UFOs five times during 1977–78, and was then taken (via a blue- green beam of light) into a craft on March 18, 1978. Hermann was a sober young man of twenty-eight, a Sunday school teacher and deacon at his … Read more
Pain From the 1970s into the 1990s, abduction investigators noticed a sharp uptick in accounts involving dire physical insult. In such cases, a victim’s fright over loss of liberty is intensified by physical pain. Terry O’Leary, Sandy Larson, and Jackie Larson (Sandy’s fifteen-year-old daughter)—three North Dakotans abducted in August 1975—recalled under hypnosis that they traveled … Read more
Familiar Elements That Follow Alien Abduction Dreams that reveal fresh details of the abduction, or elaborate on existing memories Imprints of alien faces on windows and window screens A sense of having traveled Sleepwear or other clothing worn incorrectly Memories of head restraints, needles, or drills Thirst or dehydration Unexplained body implants Subdermal fluorescence Pain … Read more
Familiar Elements of Alien Abductions Victims’ ability to walk through walls and other obstacles Body brushed by rapidly moving alien fingers Concentrated eye-to-eye contact with alien examiner Physical torture (this seems to be uncommon, though sexual contact might certainly fit the bill) Unwanted sexual intimacy (aliens sometimes conduct sexual investigation psychically rather than physically) Body … Read more
Familiar Elements That Precede and/or Follow Alien Abduction Personal sighting of a UFO Sudden desire to travel A newly developed interest in extraterrestrial civilizations A newly developed interest in UFOs and interstellar travel Sudden psychic ability Out-of-body experiences A sense that deep relationships with other people are distractions from something more important Hypervigilant behavior, such … Read more
Strieber’s Communion Professional writer Whitley Strieber found solid, early commercial success as a horror novelist, with The Wolfen (published 1978) and The Hunger (1981). Warday, a 1984 collaboration with James Kunetka, is a fictional account of America following nuclear war. Strieber’s first book of nonfiction, Communion, appeared in 1987, and became an enormous best seller. … Read more
Assaults on Masculinity The Betty Andreasson case is dramatic, and like the Barney and Betty Hill incident, is particularly piquant because a woman is the focal point. Men, though, are no less apt to be abducted. On November 5, 1975, aliens removed Arizona forest ranger Travis Walton from Sitgreaves National Forest and held him against … Read more
“We Wish to Mate with You.” The experience of Barney and Betty Hill quickly became a popular topic of public conversation. After the case became well known, abduction tales multiplied, and many of those stories had sexual aspects. On a summer night in Michigan in 1966, a woman named Jean Sheldon was removed from her … Read more
Incubi and Succubi Alien abduction inevitably encourages conjecture about extraterrestrial interest in human sexual behavior. Ordinary criminal abduction is an intimate crime: abductors manhandle their victims, deprive them of their liberty, and force them to submit to an unsympathetic agenda. Alien abduction heightens the intimacy factor, particularly insofar as the victim endures confinement to a … Read more
