Well, by now a number of you have read the PDF articles from my last post. I want to make a few observations with respect to the first one (Bullard: “The Supernatural Kidnap Narrative in Technological Guise”).
The article does two things, fundamentally: (1) it provides a fairly detailed overview of the abduction experience, and even a bit of its history, and (2) it discusses how reports of this experience overlap with other “supernatural kidnapping” stories of the past. It will be obvious to those who read Bullard’s article that there are a number of parallels between alien abductions and pre-technological “supernatural kidnappings.”
Here is a sampling from the article:
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Abduction Experience |
Non-Technological Supernatural Kidnap |
| 1. Capture. Strange beings seize and take the witness aboard a UFO.
2. Examination. These beings subject the witness to a physical and mental examination. 3. Conference. A conversation with the beings follows. 4. Tour. The beings show their captive around the ship. 5. Otherworldly Journey. The ship flies the witness to some strange and unearthly place. 6. Theophany. An encounter with a divine being occurs. 7. Return. At last the witness comes back to Earth, leaves the ship, and re-enters normal life. Missing time. 8. Aftermath. Physical, mental, and paranormal aftereffects continue in the wake of the abduction. |
1. Fairies, dwarves, and elves capture humans.
2. No real clinical exam, but same “reproductive parasitism” – fairies mate with humans, carry human women to fairy land, exchange their elderly for human babies. Some babies are “hybrids” in that they are fairy-human mix and have unusual powers. 3. Conversations occur at various points. 4. Captives are shown the fairy world. 5. Visit to and from Other World. No mention of flying ships. Mostly subterranean, but other world may be somewhere in the air (but not outer space). 6. Encounter with earth spirits/gods, fairies, spirits of the dead. Supernatural but mortal cohabitants of earth (an under-world). 7. Return with missing time, but typically disproportionate time lapse between the two worlds. 8. (negative) Injuries, dementia; (Positive) psychic abilities or knowledge of the future. |
|
THEMES |
|
| 1. Focus on reproduction
2. Dying Planet 3. Prophecies and Warnings 4. Deceit and Indifference |
1. “Reproductive parasitism” (Lesser scale than abductions)
2. 3. 4. Deceit and indifference. |
Observations and Questions:
1. There are two obvious omissions: the “dying planet” and “apocalyptic warning” theme. With respect to a folklore comparison, we could ask when the “alien experience” in general took up those themes. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know-the late 1940s and 1950s, with the advent of nuclear technology. However, both these themes are part of older theosophical and occult traditions which, as we have seen in previous posts, have significant overlaps with the ET contact and alien abduction narratives.
2. The article also points out that the “dying planet” and “apocalyptic warning” themes also have strong parallels in science fiction literature of the 1950s.
3. If the fairy stories “really” ALSO reflect space alien interventions and contacts (i.e., the fairy stories are attempts by people centuries ago to describe alien contact), why is it that aliens, advanced as they were to come in spaceships BACK THEN lacked modern clinical and surgical procedures for breeding with humans? This is a strange omission if these older stories are really about ETs.
4. Likewise it is strange to not have spaceships in the older fairy stories.
5. If the older stories are about ETs, why do the ETs come from subterranean places, with no mention of coming from outer space?
6. If EITHER narrative is about space aliens, why is paranormal contact (of a “non-outer space” nature – e.g., ghosts) a follow up of the abduction experience?
7. It appears the incongruities between the narratives revolve around advanced technology that we, as moderns in the technological age, would be familiar with. When this is juxtaposed against the greater number of congruent items, it seems as though we have an experience with common features and themes that is played out against “cultural familiarities” or “cultural expectations” at different times. If this was all about space aliens, this would make no sense, since those aliens are supposed to have possessed advanced technology all the way back to our stone age. The point is that, if we are dealing with space aliens here, the pattern should be the same at all points at all times of occurrence (and especially not lacking technological elements) since the perpetrators had such technology at all stages of human history.
8. Number seven in turn suggests that these experiences, if they are perpetrated by a true intelligence, has nothing to do with outer space, but perhaps “inner space” or other dimensional realities. This intelligence (or these intelligences) “adapt” the experience / visitation / mental imagery to the cultural or technological level of the experience.
9. Conversely, if this the experiences through time are all due to sleep paralysis or some other natural stimulation, how is it that the experiencers have so many narrative elements that overlap? Why would someone two centuries ago dream the same narrative elements, often in the same sequence? Is there a part of the brain that governs supernatural kidnapping dreams?
Let’s chat!
Michael:
The Bullard material doesn’t really tie abduction experiences together by similarities.
While abductees all experience a form of “kidnapping,” that’s about it.
The beings, the examinations, the environments, etc. all differ in substantial ways: large-headed beings, small-headed beings, benign scrutiny of abductees, malevolent examination of abductees, and so on.
And, as you note, fairy stories and other early events Bullard cites aren’t even close. (You have it right when you point out that fairy stories don’t mention flying crafts or visits from the skies.)
Abduction stories need to be studied in some unique way, a way that gets at the phenomenon without all the UFO accretions that have taken hold of the stories.
Trying to provide a continuum of likeness from early accounts of contact by strange beings with UFO abductions is a stretch that doesn’t quite add up when one looks at the anecdotes.
The common elements don’t gel.
Bullard is thorough, but discursive, and undercuts his attempt to bring together all events he presents by showing how they are not alike.
UFO abductions are one thing; fairy abductions or The Hag encounters are another.
You agree, of course?
Rich (RRR)
I may have an idea where you are going with all this, BUT, IF someone is using these abduction encounters to push forward an agenda, and abductions are therfore nothing more than propaganda, then how does one explain the previous encounters such as those described in the article?
archetype:a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches.
If it is this, then what was the original “archetype” (also from dictionary.com archetype=the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype;???) Is this all just some form of hallucination that is passed down from generation to generation? I don’t believe that, but then again, I am not convinced that alien abductions are real either.
Am anxious to see where you go with all this…
@RRRGroup: I believe I would agree. While there are similarities, that wasn’t the main point of the exercise. The main point was showing that the notion of “hey, there are aliens abducting people way back into history– like the fairy stories” isn’t very coherent. There are other types of stories that are much closer to abduction narratives (harvesting of sperm, marks on the body, sexual themes, etc.). These are visitations from demons (the term most used for such things — not to be confused with fairies and other narratives, for which they had vocabulary).
@Catherine_B: Good question. Since I think there is no one answer to abductions, I won’t offer one solution. My goal is to show what is LEAST likely and then discuss the more coherent options. I also have a goal to share my thoughts on (you used an important word) how the alien scenario is useful propaganda — and even beyond that.
I read most of the Nazi folklore article, I’m not sure how that specific article will play into this, it was a little dry and the main thing I got out of what I read was that they were tying to mold some kind of cultural heredity based on their specific national origin. One thing that came to mind was the fact that abductions occur in other countries as well, so I retract what I say about the government using this phenomenon for propaganda. It would not explain why then, this is happening elsewhere. However, I would tend to think that it might be being used for some kind of spiritual propaganda, perhaps, by the dark side??
The first article does an interesting job of comparing the modern phenomenon to historical and folklore accounts that bear a certain resemblance. However, I think it’s a grave mistake to look to history for an explanation of a modern day phenomenon we have the tools to study today.
It’s quite certain that there isn’t a single cause that covers all similar phenomena mentioned. There are a few possibilities.
1. There is an artifact rattling around in the human psyche, transcending time and culture, that give rise to many of these experiences. We have plenty of other psychological artifacts that can be easily observed. The most common phobias, for instance, for which we clearly carry a hereditary predisposition. There are certain auditory and visual cues that can trigger certain behaviors nearly unversally in humans (and other animals). The point is we come pre-wired in far more ways than most of us would like to admit. Call it genetic memory if you want.
2. The phenomenon is real and abductions are being carried out by non-physical, supernatural, intelligent entities. Call them demons or extradimensional aliens or whatever you like. Note that by supernatural I am not saying it is unexplainable; perhaps we just haven’t had the tools to describe the physics, and may not for some time.
3. The phenomenon is real and is being carried out by intelligent beings that are real and physical in a nuts-and-bolts sense. There is far too much 3rd party eye witness and physical evidence to discount this as a possibility.
There’s a strong possibility that #2 and #3 could both be true and give rise to #1. John Mack’s work shows that something beyond the purely psychological is at play here. Although people historically have had vocabulary to describe metallic flying craft, it’s not altogether coherent to eliminate the physical explanation simply on the basis that they don’t use those terms. Historical accounts omitting elements of flying metallic craft doesn’t necessarily constitute proof of their absence. When trying to pierce the fog of amnesia (when trying to verbally recount a dream, for instance), we selectively omit and forget lots of details; elements that are too far outside our frame of reference in terms of our worldview or don’t make enough of an emotional impact/imprint are likely the first to go.
That’s just where I happen to be at with the abduction phenomenon. I’m not ready to hitch my wagon to any single explanation just yet.
i think i know where you’re going here…
let’s say the crash in ’47 was a weather balloon/mogul/test dummies, whatever-it WAS man-made.
if the government WANTS us to believe in a paradigm that will shift us towards one-world thinking/mindset..that would be an awesome chance to start a mythology, introduce it as an underground movement that people can use to latch onto for a reason to rebel against authority.
and start introducing “theology” in a way that people won’t see coming.
if they came out and said”aliens are real…” we would be highly skeptical of it. BUT, if it’s “OUR IDEA”, they wouldn’t have to do nearly as much work to achieve the desired result.
there was an analogy someone used with (not trying to offend anyone) gays.
turn of the century, people rejected.
next generation(my parents) tolerates.
my generation- open acceptance/owning it.
the generation under me–sex changes for those not even having gone thru puberty.
build the mythology…people(peasants)eventually integrate the paradigm and own it, then put the final spin on to gain control of the people -where the nazi paper comes in.
the abduction seems to do what the other paper talked about by mixing 2 close things to have a third scenario enforced.
@free: Not quite; I’ll post this weekend yet to continue.
if one were to get abducted i beleive the extra terrestrial beings wouldn’t be so kind as to give you a tour of their advancements,i beleive they would simply knock you unconsious and do whatever their buisness intended them to do.
plus if an extraterrestrial kind was intellegant enough to build the technologie
to even come to our planet they certainly wouldn’t show you what they have in store on their vehicle.