Aliens: Fact or Science Fiction? (Research paper I did for ENG comp class

I had to do a research paper for my English Comp 2 class, did mine on alien abduction. This was supposed to be a short paper but ended up being 9 pages without the refrences, done in APA format. Its purpose was to provide an argument for and against whether or not its a real thing, and to get the reader interested in the subject, if theyve never read about it before.
Let me know what you think

Alien Abduction: Fact or Science Fiction?

With television shows like X Files, Taken, and movies like The Fourth Kind, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Fire In The Sky, alien abduction has become a popular subject in the media. Thousands of people claim to have been abducted and examined by extraterrestrials. Many of those people also claim these beings have left scars with them, both physically and mentally. Psychologists that have interviewed these alleged victims of these abductions claim these individuals have signs of something similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In abduction circles, this is known as 'Post Abduction Syndrome' (PAS).

While there is no concrete proof these individuals have been taken by aliens, something traumatic has happened to them, and while conscious memories are blocked, they experience something similar to flashbacks triggered by sound, sight smell or taste, and relive the horror of their experience.

The question is: what has happened to these people to cause them to claim that they have been abducted by extraterrestrials? Has something happened them so traumatic that their brain compensated for it be 'remembering' an abduction by extraterrestrials, or has someone implanted a 'false memory' using a post-hypnotic suggestion, or have they watched a movie or television show that the subject was about alien abduction, and while they dreamt their subconscious 'creates' an alien abduction episode in their subconscious, or have some people actually BEEN abducted by otherworldly beings and examined, such as our own biologists do with wildlife?

Alien abduction wasn't heard of until the 1960's when a couple, Barney and Betty Hill, while driving to their home in New Hampshire, returning from a trip to Canada, claimed they saw a light in the sky that followed them. After some time, they heard a set of beeping tones coming from the rear of the car. Then they heard the beeping tones again, and realized they drove 35 miles without realizing it, and the normal 4 hour drive to their home from Canada to New Hampshire took 7 hours, with no explanation as to where the missing three hours went.

When under hypnosis, Mr. and Ms. Hill described being taken from their car by black clothed humanoids, with huge wraparound eyes, small ears, an almost nonexistent nose and slits for mouths. They claim they were taken aboard the craft they spied earlier and given physical examinations. Ms. Hill claimed to have a conversation with a being she called 'The Leader', where she asked where the aliens were from. He proceeded to show her a star chart, which she later recalled under hypnosis.

The couple were eventually returned to their car and resumed their drive home. The couple remembered vague dreams of what had happened, but didnt fully recall the incident until later while under hypnosis (Fuller, 1974).
Skeptics dismiss the Hill case because like other alien abduction cases, there is no solid tangible proof they were abducted. Betty Hill claimed the leader allowed her to take and keep a book she found on the craft, only to have him take it back right before releasing them. They have also claimed that the light they saw was an aircraft beacon on top of the mountains they drove thru on their way home. The alien they described looked similar to one that was shown on the TV show The Outer Limits. So in conclusion, the case was dismissed as a false story claimed by a sleep deprived couple driving long hours into the night. (The Iron Skeptic - The Betty and Barney Hill Super Page. (n.d.).

But, can EVERYTHING in this case be dismissed as a hoax or dream? When the Hills arrived home in New Hampshire, Betty discovered stains on her dress she didn't recall being on there when she put the dress on. The 'stains' have been analyzed by 5 different laboratories. One chemist states the stain was of an unknown source.

Barney Hill discovered a series of circles on the trunk of their car. When he would put a compass near the circles, the need would spin rapidly. When he moved it away, it stopped (Fuller, 1974).

The biggest factor in the Hill case is the Star Map Betty Hill claimed to see on board the craft. At the time, Ms Hill has virtually no background in astronomy, and immediately the map was dismissed. In 1968, Marjorie Fish, after reading a book about the incident, decided to try to find where the locations of the star map lay in the known universe. After a year or two, she finished the map and deduced the beings were from was the Zeta Reticuli system, a binary star system only viewable from the Southern Hemisphere (Dickinson).

Did the couple hallucinate the incident after driving long into the night, on a dark and lonely mountain highway?
If the Hill case was an isolated case, one might think so, but after the Hill case was publicized, many others stepped forward and said they have too been abducted be grey skinned beings with huge eyes. Were all these people telling the truth, and if so, are we being observed by a higher intelligence like we observe animals in the wild?

Psychologists say no, many of these so called 'abduction' incidents are the result of what's described as 'false memory', meaning the brain substitutes a false memory in place of something traumatic that happened to the individual. One psychologist claims that alien abduction memories might be the brain replacing the memory of being sexually abused as a child, due to the fact some of these 'abductees' claim they have been rectally or vaginally probed by these extraterrestrials.
The after effects of an abduction are called Post Abduction Syndrome, or PAS.

Victims that have said they've experienced abduction often complain or experience the following afterwards:
• Persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event characterized by flashbacks
• Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma
• Denial of the event
• Phobic avoidance of areas or situations where contact occurred
• Refraining from sleep at the time contact occurred
• Emotional reaction to literature, pictures, or videos about alien entities
• Numbing of emotions characterized by inability to feel intimacy, pleasure, or to express
emotions
• Diminished interest previously enjoyed activities
• May have no expectation of normal life events or normal life span
• May fear abduction with no return or lengthy abduction
• Hyper-vigilance, exaggerated startle response, irritability, and/or panic attacks

(continued)

The symptoms are remarkably similar to that of PTSD, and experts in the alien abduction field feel that those that experience these after effects should be treated the same as someone with PTSD (Neilsen, 2007).

The neuroscientist Michael Persinger claims that abnormalities in the temporal lobe can cause unusual mental activity to make a person feel like they're experiencing paranormal activity or alien abduction (Farooqi, 2011).

While this might be true in some cases, what about those cases where the abductee comes back with unexplainable scars on their body and in other cases an implant is discovered in their body which in some cases gives off a radio frequency wave. After analysis, some of these alleged implants have an earthly origin, while others are made of unknown materials (Piacenza, 2013).

Is this the 'smoking gun' proof of abduction?
Again, sadly no its not. Some of the implants are so tiny they look like metal shavings or fragments, and are of earthly origin, and are destroyed when analyzed.

So are extraterrestrial biologists coming to our planet, observing us in our everyday environment, occasionally capturing individuals to examine them then 'release' back into the wild? Until we actually catch one on video, or witness the abduction in a major metropolitan area, the debate will continue.

References:
Boyle, A. (2003, February 26). Alien memories leave real scars - Technology & science - Science | NBC News. Retrieved January 25, 2014, from www.nbcnews.com...

Blackmore, S. (1998, June). Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis? - CSI. Retrieved January 25, 2014, from www.csicop.org...

DiBlasio, N. (2012, June 26). A third of Earthlings believe in UFOs. Retrieved January 25, 2014, from usatoday30.usatoday.com... survey/55843742/1

Dickinson, T. (n.d.). The Zeta Reticuli Incident. Retrieved January 25, 2014, from www.nicap.org...

Farooqi , S. (2011, June 8). ALIEN ABDUCTION OR FALSE MEMORY SYNDROME? Retrieved January 25, 2014, from lifepsychologyandalotmore.blogspot.com... memory.html

Fuller, J. G. (1974). The Interrupted Journey. New York: Berkley Pub. Corp.

good job...

HomerinNC

If the Hill case was an isolated case, one might think so, but after the Hill case was publicized, many others stepped forward and said they have too been abducted be grey skinned beings with huge eyes.

But Barney Hill did not describe his abductors as being the classic "grey aliens".

reply to post by Toxicsurf


If you read his description, and look at the drawings he made under hypnosis, it looks very similiar

reply to post by HomerinNC


Good stuff. You could extend it to include themes that run through abductions like the fact that animals get frightened when the aliens appear; car's electrical systems fail; the 'Oz Factor', as Jenny Randles calls it, is often reported (people notice an eerie silence as all sounds cease and time often seems to stand still)

HomerinNC
reply to post by Toxicsurf

 

If you read his description, and look at the drawings he made under hypnosis, it looks very similiar

Similar however is not the same. This is a huge revisionist history attempt by much of the current UFO abduction community.

The "Hill Aliens" stood at normal human height 5' 5"-5'10" (rather than 3 or 4 feet tall) and had eyeballs. They also wore military type uniforms and had hats.

When have you ever heard of greys wearing hats?

The description of the Hill aliens is different enough than the "grey" stereotype that it would be treated as a separate species more similar looking to us than the insect looking greys.

I've talked about that in this post: The Hill Star Map and Exoplanets

JadeStar

AthlonSavage
Is the better barney hill case the first reported abduction and encounter by the grays.

No.

This is a big misconception. The Hill's description of their abductors were quite a bit different from the stereotypical description of the "greys".

The description from the Hills presented a much more human looking alien than the greys, their eyes were more widely separated than our own but they had fairly human-like features.

Here are some depictions of the "Hill abduction" aliens based on their descriptions and sketches:

Now contrast that with the stereotypical "grey":

Quite a big difference.

I'm pretty sure the Hills also described the height of their abductors as around normal human height 5' 5" to 5' 10" tall. The greys are described as shorter than this.

From a completely speculative (but rooted a bit in what we know about different stars and planets) standpoint....

The Hill abductors would have come from a planet not much different than our Earth in terms of mass, gravity, atmospheric density and stellar flux from either a G or K star.

The "greys" would have come from a Super Earth type of planet, with higher mass, gravity and atmospheric density than our Earth around an M-Star with a higher than normal Ultraviolet output.

This would explain the short body (higher than Earth gravity), large eyes (due to their M-star being dimmer than our sun) with built in sunglasses apparently (due to the higher UV output of their M-star) and lack of a defined nose (due to higher than Earth atmospheric density).

If the Hill aliens come from an Earthlike planet around one of the stars of Zeta Reticuli then perhaps the "greys" come from Gliese 581 g or Gliese 667 c. (If anyone starts using that to sell a book please send me part of your royalty check lol)

Just some fun speculation based on astrobiology

First, I see an improvement in your writing skills, Homer, so I thought I'd tell you that. I get the impression that you're having a blast as a returned student. So have one on me.

I hope that before long a third option is offered for those time lapse experiences such as a weakening dip in the magnetosphere or something to that effect that's affecting motors and brain waves, but who knows?

BTW: Worth mentioning is that Terrence Dickenson was the editor of Astronomy magazine and Marjorie Fish (who built the model of Betty's drawing which correlated with the stars of Zeta Reticuli and other nearby star systems) was a technician at Oak Ridge National laboratory for 20 years until retiring. She also built a model of the nearest stars to our Sun and that model was on display at Ohio State University's observatory from the mid 70s to early 80s.

Fish was also a UFO as Aliens skeptic.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Nice paper Homer, S&F mate!

reply to post by HomerinNC

I am curious if it was a High School or College class? And what grade did you get?

reply to post by mysterioustranger


college class, hasnt been graded yet
its mainly being graded on how the paper is formatted, in this case APA format, which I cant duplicate here, you all just got the text

reply to post by JadeStar


Yes you are correct, I need to revise my paper before turning in my final paper

ETA: for speculation, maybe they are ALL the same species, just different races, like what we have here on earth, we are all the same species, just different races ie Caucasian, Asian etc

reply to post by HomerinNC

Great. Very good from what I see. All I can suggest is my $.29 worth...always write from an unbiased viewpoint-POV. The "observer" reports the facts, and an "experiencer" reports on personal experience.

Not always, but it seems the best grades are gotten when one writes from an outside-looking-in viewpoint, leaving the final interpretation to the reader after providing all of the information to them.

Good luck on the grading! (ps Let us know how you did!)

reply to post by mysterioustranger


Thats EXACTLY my whole idea, let them decide, I write about the subject, give the explanations, and let the reader to decide themselves, or look further into it

reply to post by HomerinNC


If I was grading that paper, you would get a A. Good job bro!



-SAP-

reply to post by HomerinNC

I think one of the best compliments one can get is "Your writing really made me think!".

PS And FYI- I have written 4 books myself, so I know a bit about the process...(and blog writing and songwriting etc...its all the same, but with a different take on each one)

reply to post by mysterioustranger


What have you written? fiction? nonfiction?

reply to post by HomerinNC

Ive sent you a detailed reply privately. Check your mail...MS

reply to post by mysterioustranger


Got it, thank you

Nice paper. The Hill case is a good one to hitch a wagon to... Could have also pointed out that they weren't seen by just any old psychologist, but one of the top military guys in the field. Also, there is SOME tangible proof as well, such as unexplained radar, etc. in the area. I've got an old, dusty thread on the case somewhere here in this forum...