World renowned UFO researcher Jacques
Vallee has repeatedly referred to the similarities between UFO and
abduction reports and the stories of folklore and fairy tales. I
disagree with Dr. Vallee on many, many points of UFOlogy, but here I
will grant that there is one fairy tale which does have something
important to tell us about the alien abduction phenomenon. It is not,
however, what Dr. Vallee might think.
The story of Hansel and Gretel presents a lesson that every abductee
should heed. These innocent children, wandering lost and frightened
in the forest, came upon a gingerbread house that seemed to offer
them shelter and sustenance. The owner of the house, a wizened old
woman, was frightening to them at first, but their hunger pushed the
children to accept her offer to come inside and be fed.
And so they entered the gingerbread house and promptly became the old
woman's captives. Kept in cages, the two children were abundantly
fed. It was not for their benefit, though. In fact, they were being
fattened up for the oven! The deceptive nature of the gingerbread
house and of the old woman's offer of food worked quite well. It is
the deceptive quality of this story that holds a warning for humans
who are abducted by aliens. Like Hansel and Gretel, we are initially
terrified by our encounter with aliens, but in too many cases, our
fear is overcome by the words of our abductors and by the thoughts
and experiences they present to us.
I, too, am an abductee, and my quest to discover the nature of my own
experiences led me into abduction research over the past four years.
Working with many other abduction cases, I have learned just how
basic the deception of alien actions can be. My family and I also
delved into our own experiences, both past and present. Barbara
Bartholic, a dedicated UFO investigator from Tulsa, Oklahoma, worked
closely with us and helped us fill in the gaps in our recollections
of strange encounters through hypnotic regression. Ms. Bartholic, by
the way, began her own research as an assistant to Jacques Vallee in
cattle mutilation investigations, so her expertise in ufology is
wide-ranging.
I have recently written a book, Into the Fringe, about the startling
and often disturbing results of our personal investigations, and it
will be published by the Berkley Publishing Group in November 1992.
But my interest soon expanded past the merely personal, and for the
past several years I have worked as Ms. Bartholic's research
associate, exploring literally hundreds of sighting and encounter
cases with her. And what I've learned through this work has raised
far more questions than answers. In fact, it has taught me to be wary
of those researchers who do claim to have answers.
I have yet to hear of a single theory or explanation that accounts
for all of the data. Some researchers have pointed out patterns of
events in the abduction experience, such as the physical examination,
the taking of sperm and ova, and the later presentation of a hybrid
baby to the abductee. Other patterns include the training of the
abductee in some way and the delivery of a warning of some upcoming
global disaster. Yes, these events are frequently reported, as one
researcher has said in boringly repetitious accounts, and it is
tempting to think that the explanation for alien abductions may lie
in these patterns.
So the researchers announce that the problem is solved. The aliens
are doing cross-breeding experiments, UFOlogists tell us. Never mind
the overwhelming evidence against the viable commingling of different
species. Or, we are told, the aliens are here to save us from
destroying ourselves and our planet through violence, drug use,
epidemic disease, pollution, and resource depletion. Never mind that
these problems have grown worse, not better, since the ETs began
visiting us. Or, most infuriating of all, we are assured that there
are no actual aliens, that our experiences spring from our own
subconscious turmoil or from our need for fantasy fulfillment. Never
mind that many abductees are young children, too young to be
suffering from such psychological disturbances.
Well, then, the resourceful researcher counters, the imagined aliens
must spring from some collective human super-psyche that is mirroring
our failures and dangers back to us. This particular theory adores
the archetypal gray ET, because it resembles some sickly fetal form
of humanity and must therefore be an objectified warning of what our
species is in danger of becoming if we don't mend our ways. Never
mind that many, many abductees have no dealing with grays, but
instead are victimized by robust reptoids and insectoids. Not to
mention the totally human-looking blond beauties and black-headed,
black-robed clan with the widow's peak hairline.
No, too many researchers seem to find a theory and cling to it in
spite of data that contradict it. And it is the ideas of these
researchers that dominate ufology. But if the public had access to
the raw data, to the first-hand reports of abductees, especially
those unfamiliar with UFO-oriented books, magazines, and lecturers,
they would find a much less neatly organized set of patterns. These
"virgin" cases--people uncontaminated by ufological literature supply
a staggering picture of human-alien contact events.
What follows here is an overview of these "virgin" reports, a list of
recurrent experiences that taken together gives us a close-up view of
what the aliens are doing here on earth. This data doesn't tell us
for certain just what sort of creatures the aliens are, or what their
purpose here may be. But it does tell us what humans are experiencing
and what they are observing in the actions and capabilities of the
aliens. Every detail in the following list has been reported by more
than one abductee, and in many cases the details have turned up quite
frequently.
"ABDUCTION "CHECKLIST"
If these reports can be believed--and there is no reason to doubt the
honesty of the reporters
--the abduction phenomenon includes the following
details.
-- Aliens can alter our perception of our
surroundings.
-- Aliens can control what we think we see. They can appear to us in
any number of guises, and shapes.
-- Aliens can take us--our consciousness--out of our physical bodies,
disable our control of our bodies, install one of their own entities,
and use our bodies as vehicles for their own activities before
returning our consciousness to our bodies.
-- Aliens can be present with us in an invisible state and can make
themselves only partially visible. -- Abductees receive marks on
their bodies other than the well-known scoops and straight-line
scars. These other marks include single punctures, multiple
punctures, large bruises, three- and four-fingered claw marks, and
triangles of every possible sort.
-- Females abductees often suffer serious
gynecological problems after their alien encounters, and sometimes
these problems lead to cysts, tumors, cancer of the breasts and
uterus, and to hysterectomies.
-- Aliens take body fluids from our necks, spines, blood veins,
joints such as knees and wrists, and other places. They also inject
unknown fluids into various parts of our bodies.
-- A surprising number of abductees suffer from serious illnesses
they didn't have before their encounters. These have led to surgery,
debilitation, and even death from causes the doctors can't
identify.
-- Some abductees experience a degeneration of their mental, social,
and spiritual well-being. Excessive behavior frequently erupts, such
as drug abuse, alcoholism, overeating, and promiscuity. Strange
obsessions develop and cause the disruption of normal life and the
destruction of personal relationships.
-- Aliens show a great interest in adult sexuality, child sexuality,
and in inflicting physical pain on abductees.
-- Abductees recall being instructed and trained by aliens. This
training may be in the form of verbal or telepathic lessons, slide
shows, or actual hands-on instruction in the operation of alien
technology.
-- Abductees report being taken to facilities in which they encounter
not only aliens but also normal-looking humans, sometimes in military
uniforms, working with the alien captors.
-- Abductees often encounter more than one sort of alien during an
experience, not just the grays. Every possible combination of gray,
reptoid, insectoid, blond, and widow's peak have been seen during
single abductions, aboard the same craft or in the same facility.
-- Abductees--"virgin" cases--report being taken to underground
facilities where they see grotesque hybrid creatures, nurseries of
hybrid humanoid fetuses, and vats of colored liquid filled with parts
of human bodies.