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Which, then, is more likely: that we’re undergoing a massive but generally overlooked invasion by alien sexual abusers, or that people are experiencing some unfamiliar internal mental state they do not understand? Admittedly, we’re very ignorant both about extraterrestrial beings, if any, and about human psychology. But if these really were the only two alternatives, which one would you pick?

And if the alien abduction accounts are mainly about brain physiology, hallucinations, distorted memories of childhood, and hoaxing, don’t we have before us a matter of supreme importance, touching on our limitations, the ease with which we can be misled and manipulated, the fashioning of our beliefs, and perhaps even the origins of our religions? There is genuine scientific paydirt in UFOs and alien abductions - but it is, I think, of a distinctly home-grown and terrestrial character.

11

The City of Grief

…how alien, alas, are the streets of the city of grief.

Rainer Maria Rilke, ‘The Tenth Elegy’ (1923)

A short summary of the argument in the preceding seven chapters appeared in Parade magazine on 7 March 1993. I was struck by how many letters it evoked, how passionate were the responses, and how much agony is associated with this strange experience whatever its true explanation might be. Alien abduction accounts provide an unexpected window into the lives of some of our fellow citizens. Some letter writers reasoned, some asserted, some harangued, some were frankly perplexed, some were deeply troubled.

The article was also widely misunderstood. A television talk-show host, Geraldo Rivera, held up a copy of Parade and announced I thought we were being visited. A Washington Post video cassette reviewer quoted me as saying there’s an abduction every few seconds, missing the ironical tone and the following sentence (‘It’s surprising more of the neighbours haven’t noticed’). My description (Chapter 6) of on rare occasions seeming to hear the voices of my dead parents - what I described as ‘a lucid recollection’ - were keynoted by Raymond Moody, in the New Age Journal and in the Introduction of his book Reunions, as evidence that we ‘survive’ death. Dr Moody has spent his life trying to find evidence of life after death. If my testimony is worth quoting, it seems clear he hasn’t found much. Many letter writers concluded that since I had worked on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, I must ‘believe’ in UFOs; or conversely that, if I was sceptical about UFOs, I must embrace the absurd belief that humans are the only intelligent beings in the Universe. There’s something about this subject unconducive to clear thinking.

Here, without further comment, is a representative sampling of my mail on the subject:

• I wonder how some of our fellow animals may describe their encounters with us. They see a large hovering object making a terrible noise above them. They begin to run and feel a sharp pain in their side. Suddenly they fall to the ground... Several man-creatures approach them carrying strange-looking instruments. They examine your sexual organs and teeth. They place a net under you and then let it take you in the air with a strange device. After all the examinations, they then clamp a strange metal object on your ear. Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, they are gone. Eventually, muscle control returns, and a poor disoriented creature staggers off into the forest, not knowing [whether] what just transpired was a nightmare or a reality.

• I was sexually abused as a child. In my recovery I have drawn many ‘space beings’ and have felt many times I was being overpowered, held down, and the sensation of having left my body to float around the room. None of the abductee accounts really come as a surprise to someone who has dealt with childhood sexual abuse issues... Believe me, I would much rather have blamed my abuse on a space alien than have to face the truth about what happened to me with the adults I was supposed to