Ubiquitous Abductions: Let’s Just Suppose. . .

Probably most of us are jaded about alien abductions by now. Doesn’t matter if you’re a skeptic, debunker, UFOlogoist, or everyday citizen with passing, if any, interest in the subject; we’re all used to the motif of the alien abduction that it elicits an amused -- or bemused, depending -- shrug of a little laugh.

We see the little inverted triangular faces with the queen bee eyes everywhere; on candy wrappers, tee shirts, skateboards, jewelry, note cards, advertising. Comedians make jokes; the references to being probed and abducted are everywhere in pop culture.

Belief” is not an issue; the point is moot. Everyone knows what one means when commenting on alien abductions. No need to go further.

Then there are those who study this thing. Mostly sociologists and psychologists; theorizing on things like sleep paralysis, fantasy prone personalities, victims of the onslaught of entertainment media images as explanation. These all go into some subconscious soup that produces the ‘belief” that some of us have been abducted. The sane, the rational, the serious don’t literally think -- not for one darn second -- that humans are being abducted by aliens. At best, it’s just damn silly, at worst, it’s a dangerous plunge into superstition, the harbinger of a retro-Dark Ages cultural attitude that is on equal footing with Intelligent Design, religious fanatics and global warming apologists.

Oh, wait a minute. Then there are the abductees themselves. Those who believe they’ve been abducted by aliens, or decidedly non-human beings of some kind. They believe it so strongly, so firmly, because, as they tell us, it really did happen to them just as they said it did.

Yes, it is preposterous. But let’s just do a huge ‘what if . . .’

There are pretty much only three possibilities here. One, everyone who insists they've been abducted are liars. There’s probably a few out there who are. There always are. But to accept wholeheartedly every single abductee on this planet is a liar is almost as amazing as the abduction scenario itself.

Then there’s the theory these people are suffering from a sleep disorder. Or something. Anything. It’s gotta be