In Response to an Email Request

And no, it's not a photo of me flashing my tits.

Last week I received an email from a man who thought I might be able to help him understand something about the abduction phenomenon and the claims therein. To protect his privacy, I will not be including his name or contact info, but only the body of his email (including the part where he says I'm attractive).

His email is as follows:

Hi,

I am contacting you just to see if you are a real person, I was not aware there were such attractive women involved with this UFO thing.

Anyway, my major reason for contacting you is to find someone who will answer my question as to why abductees do not have CCD video to provide proof of their claims of a felony kidnapping/abduction committed against them or their loved ones. If any of these people are allowing this to happen without contacting the police I believe this is also a felony or an 'indictable offense' in Canada; i.e., a serious crime, also not reporting a felony is a crime.


-Name withheld

It is doubtful you will find many non-abductees who can answer this question in a way that might better satisfy you, but you may also find that many of those who do consider themselves abductees would not be able to give you an adequate response either. I am no great expert on the abduction topic, but I am deeply interested in it and am familiar with a number of cases and common elements associated with abduction claims -- so, let me give it a shot:

First of all, we should note that there are two main types of abductions - those occurring in the bedroom (or more specifically, those who had been sleeping prior to the event) and those that occur during the waking states, such as with the Betty and Barney Hill and the Travis Walton cases. Those two categories are further broken down into those who have a fairly clear recall of the events, and those who have recall of the event only through (or mostly through) hypnotic regression. The latter presents a unique problem: the validity and usefulness of hypnosis. Many within ufology and abduction research are beginning to question claims brought forth through hypnosis, citing it as an unreliable tool to recover lost or blocked memories. The human mind is extremely susceptible to suggestion and the concern there is that those performing hypnosis -- especially individuals who are not mental health professionals -- often 'lead' the patient, whether intentionally or not).

I should also clarify that I do not consider myself an abductee. While I have had many strange experiences, and have witnessed bizarre things in my room upon waking, I have no recollection of ever being aboard a ship or taken out of my physical environment in any other way. This leads me to believe that it is possible I am suffering a kind of sleep paralysis and that (in my case) paranormal/contact events that occur upon waking are a product of the hypnagogic state, or in simpler terms: lucid-dreaming.

The question as to why those claiming abduction and contact do not provide proof is a fairly common one, but frankly, in most cases, people are not aware when an event might take place. Some claim they experience abduction frequently, while others experience the phenomenon over longer periods, sometimes even years.

Some obvious explanations as to why a smoking-gun recording (audio, video, or both) has not surfaced would be:

• The individual does not have the funds or means to obtain a reliable recording device.
• The individual does not know when she or he will experience an 'abduction.'

Now, there have been many people who have tried to capture an event on film or audio media, and either the film has been proven (or largely suspected as) a hoax, or there has been some unexplained mishap with the equipment -- such as inferior-quality video recording devices that do not work well in low light conditions, power outages, and so on.

But let's play Devil's advocate here a moment: If abductions are really occurring, and they are being performed by extraterrestrials of higher-intelligence and technology, it is very conceivable that they will be able to locate and disable recording devices prior to entering the subject's room. It may also be conceivable that devices they may carry with them or utilize to gain entrance into the home may cause electrical interference. While this may sound like a 'cheap' explanation, it is something one has to take into consideration if the argument includes a highly advanced civilization interacting with our planet.

Of course, with so many unknowns, it's all really straw-grasping as to what would interfere with recording devices. If extraterrestrials are visiting people, we really have no idea what they are like or what they have to work with (technologically speaking). As humans, we have a tendency to anthropomorphize when it comes to the concept of 'aliens,' assuming they would have elevated technology but with core characteristics of our own technology, and that they would think or act similarly to ourselves. The truth of the matter is, none of us really knows how an alien being would operate -- and those who claim they do know have not provided proof or evidence that would hold up in the court of science (or even the court of law).

You ask why those claiming abduction have not contacted appropriate law enforcement agencies. In actuality, many have, but when it comes to claiming alien abduction, a topic regarded as pure fiction by the majority, law enforcement agencies tend to brush it off, chalk it up to psychological issues, or lay the blame on substance abuse. In those cases where police have investigated claims, they have found no evidence that an extraterrestrial entity has invaded a home and taken members of the household. In some situations, there have been signs of intrusion, higher levels of radiation, strange substance residues, and other items, but nothing that supports the reality of actual extraterrestrial interference.

One of the problems inherent with evidence of alien beings is that evidence has to be measured against what we know and understand. If we find a peculiar substance, it doesn't mean it's necessarily alien to our own planet, as the universe is all made up of similar stuff. What that means is if, say, an alien got mud on it's shoes on planet Glorpenburgh (yes, I totally made that up), then later that day tracked mud into an Earthling's bedroom, that mud may be made up of a similar composition to our own. If the being could live and function in our environment without some kind of life sustaining apparatus, you'd have to kind of assume that they are made up of elements common to our own biology and come from a place similar to Earth in composition.

To go a bit further, say that someone was abducted and on one occasion, nabs a device from the alien ship. Then, after the abduction, presents the device to the scientific community for analysis. There is really no test we could perform that would tell us exactly where the materials of that device came from or who constructed it. Laboratory testing may tell us that the device is made up of some unknown materials, and possibly materials of a non-earthly origin, but this doesn't rule out the possibility that the materials were found on Earth, such as materials from a meteor. Also, without knowing the exact level of advancement of our own technology, we wouldn't know for sure that the device wasn't manufactured by the military (our military is often said to have technology farther ahead of what is given to the public. Take for instance the Internet, which was in existence decades before it became popular on home computers).

See, we have nothing to measure a proposed alien artifact to, because we don't know what an alien artifact is (and if we do in fact know, then it's a secret closely guarded by the government and/or military and not available for the general public and science communities). Sadly, we are often at the mercy of what we are allowed to know by our respective governing bodies.

Another thing I want to mention -- as long as we are talking about the military -- is it has been suggested that some abductions do actually occur, but are not performed by anyone or anything of extraterrestrial origin, but are instead MILABs. The acronym 'MILABs' is given to the term "Military Abduction(s)." These are abductions supposedly performed by military or paramilitary organizations made to appear as a paranormal or extraterrestrial event to either hide the fact the military is abducting people, or to convince people of an extraterrestial presence for whatever reason.

This does beg the question: "Why would the military abduct people?" If it is really happening, who can say? I suppose some possibilities might be to try out new technologies such as teleportation, or for psychological purposes like mind control. Perhaps even for other kinds of illegal testing where human subjects are desired.

To throw even more things into stew, there are a growing number of people within UFOlogy who do not feel abductions are taking place by alien beings from another world, but are instead inter-dimensional beings, cryptoterrestrials (cryptoterrestrials are theorized yet-undiscovered sentient beings that exist on Earth, but in locations we have little to no knowledge of, such as deep underground or within the oceans), or even the product of an entity known as The Trickster. The Trickster theory is not one I am very knowledgeable about, so there's not much I can elaborate on there.

So, unfortunately the abduction phenomenon is not as straightforward as one might assume (and hope). There probably isn't anyone who can really provide you with the answer you, me, and many others require, because of the large number of unknowns and the varied circumstances and stories.

At this point it's probably apparent that I haven't subscribed to any one theory. It is an interesting phenomenon, and one that is sometimes too easily written off as sleep paralysis. But sleep paralysis alone does not explain abduction or contact claims that occur during waking hours, or situations in which two or more persons are involved. Personally, I believe something real is happening to some percentage of these individuals, but am I comfortable simply laying it off on an extraterrestrial presence?

Nope.