With all the recent talk about storming Area 51 and the US military releasing video of UFO encounters, buzz about aliens seems like it’s at an all-time high. But what if the aliens are visiting you directly?
How do you know if you’ve been abducted by aliens? If you believe you’ve been abducted by aliens, you may experience a variety of signs. These include missing time, physical signs like cuts or implants, waking up in a different place than you went to sleep, and many others.
In this article, I’ll explain what an alien abduction is, the different parts of a typical alien abduction experience, and possible signs of an alien abduction. We’ll also look at more scientific or skeptical theories of what causes these experiences, and what conditions can make you more likely to experience an abduction.
What Is An Alien Abduction?
Alien abductions are actually a whole category of phenomenon that can occur, but usually all get lumped together into one thing. For example, people are most commonly visited by the stereotypical “little grey men” aliens with little bodies and big heads and eyes. But being visited by reptilians or other types of aliens also happens.
There are some common psychological and physical things that seem to happen to most abduction victims, though. Abductees normally feel like they’re being visited or kidnapped against their will.
Usually the phenomenon involves a person either waking up in bed with aliens standing around them, or aboard a spaceship having medical procedures performed on them. The medical procedures most commonly involve either anal probing or something to do with the victim’s reproductive organs.
Alien abductions are most common in the US and other English-speaking countries, but does happen around the world.
An alien abduction will typically have some or all of these parts:
Warning Signs. Before an abduction occurs, sometimes people have signs that an abduction is about to occur. The first time a person is abducted they may not realize until after the fact, but in repeat abductions it can be useful for telling when an abduction is imminent. Signs include things like your television or other electronics suddenly acting strangely and turning on and off by themselves. As well as feeling like you’re being watched, or hearing strange humming noises outside of your house or vehicle.
The Capture. During this phase of an alien abduction, the person feels helpless and like they’re being captured. They might be in bed and feel like they’re awake and aware of what’s going on, but unable to move their body or cry out for help. If a person encounters a UFO while driving at night, their car’s engine and electronics may suddenly stop working, and they may either be removed from their vehicle by a bright light, or the entire vehicle may be lifted up into the UFO.
Procedures and Being Examined. Aliens will typically look a person over, similar to a medical checkup. This can involve external examinations of the ears and mouth, reflex testing and similar tests, or internal probes and scopes. Psychological testing may also be done.
Tour of The Craft. Less commonly, aliens will sometimes give abductees a tour of the UFO. Or they may simply be moving them around from one area of the ship to another.
Conversation. Sometimes aliens will speak with the abductee and give them a message. This can vary from warning about the use of nuclear weapons or harming the environment. Or it might be more personal, such as telling the person they have a higher purpose for them, such as if they’ve been impregnated with a child. Usually this message is delivered telepathically, although sometimes aliens are said to speak aloud in the abductee’s language.
Return. After the abduction experience is done, abductees are usually returned to exactly where they were. Although sometimes they may end up in different places or something may be off. For example, they may have gone to bed naked but wake up with their pajamas on.
Experience of Time Loss. Especially for people who are abducted while driving, it’s common for them to end up hundreds of miles from where they originally began. The clocks will indicate that several hours have passed, even if it feels like it has only been a few minutes. Sometimes people will not remember an abduction experience at all, but simply that a large number of hours have passed which can’t be explained. It can simply seem like a gap in their memory that may only later be revealed as an abduction experience later under hypnosis.
Post-Abduction Effects. An abductee may suffer from a variety of physical or psychological impacts of their experience. Abductions can sometimes leave behind physical signs like cuts, scars, embedded microchip implants, or other evidence of medical procedures that have been completed. Cuts on the wrists, back, ankles, and neck that look like they were made by a laser are most common. Sometimes an abductee will feel a sense of connection and love toward the aliens that they’ve encountered. Other times, people can experience extreme fear, confusion, paranoia, PTSD, and worry that the aliens will return again or are watching them. Female abductees may experience reproductive issues. Either suddenly finding themselves pregnant despite not being sexually active, or being suddenly rendered infertile.
A Scientific Explanation For The Alien Abduction Phenomenon
The most common explanation for alien abductions is the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. This is a condition where your mind wakes up but your body is still asleep. As a result, you may be unable to move your body but you’re conscious and can see and hear what’s around you. However it may feel dream-like, and experiencing hallucinations, especially a feeling that someone else is in the room with you, is quite common. It can be a terrifying experience, but scientists do have theories and explanations about why it happens. If you believe you’re experiencing sleep paralysis, it’s normally best to close your eyes and try to wiggle a finger or toe until your body gradually begins to wake up.
In addition to sleep paralysis, out of body experiences or astral projection are also common when waking up or going to sleep. Learn more from my article Astral Projection and Out of Body Experience Beginners Guide
One study from Columbia University suggests that perhaps that the abduction experience is a flashback to previous surgical procedures that a person has had. Many of the reported aspects of an abduction experience like being naked, having medical procedures, and feeling like they’re in an operating room match the description quite well. And we don’t know 100% what happens to the brain and consciousness of a person when they’re under anesthesia. It’s possible some of the experience is recorded to memory and can be re-lived in a dreamlike state later on.
In rare cases, mental illness or intentional deception as a result of psychopathy may be to blame. But most people who claim to have had an abduction experience don’t seem to be suffering from mental illness.
Suggestibility definitely plays a role. In the past people often reported being visited by angels, demons, monsters, ghosts, and old hags in the middle of the night. But in recent times with alien imagery being so common in science fiction movies and TV shows, it’s no surprise that the idea of aliens is part of our collective unconsciousness as a society now.
In the past it was more common for people to be visited by demons than aliens. Learn more in my other article Are Demons Real?
Conditions That Can Make You More Likely To Experience An Alien Abduction
While not much can be done to prevent you from being abducted, there are definitely specific things that make you more likely to have an abduction experience.
Commonly Experiencing Sleep Paralysis. It’s believed that sleep paralysis has a genetic component to it. That means if your parents and other family members have experienced sleep paralysis or hallucinations when waking up, it’s more likely that you will be prone to it too. Feelings of floating, buzzing noises, flashing lights, feeling like someone is in the room, and other experiences can all be a part of sleep paralysis that can give the impression that you’re being abducted by aliens.
Interest in UFOs and Aliens. If you read or watch a lot of material about aliens, either documentaries or fiction, then it’s more likely that you’ll have dreams and other night-time experiences involving them. Just like if you watch a scary movie, it can be hard to go to sleep because you’ll convince yourself that something bad is going to happen. The more you know about the usual alien abduction phenomenon and aliens in general, the more likely it is to be on your mind and impact your thoughts and feelings.
New Age Beliefs. People who are abducted by aliens normally believe in other spiritual, paranormal, or supernatural ideas. Including stuff like tarot cards, energy healing, astrology, and alternative medicine. These people also tend to be more skeptical of scientific explanations for things, but more open to magical or supernatural explanations for things.
Suggestibility. Some people are more prone to daydreaming and fantasy than others. They might have more vivid imaginations and memories, and their brains are better at piecing things together from little bits of information. They may also have false memories that never even happened, but were just suggested to them.
In addition to alien abductions, you might want to watch out for psychic vampires as well. Read my article What Are Psychic Vampires? (And How To Defend Against Them)
Conclusion
By now, perhaps millions of people around the world have experienced the alien abduction phenomenon. Scientists have a hard time either proving or disproving that aliens are behind the experience. Some known phenomenon like sleep paralysis can definitely provide a reasonable explanation in some cases, but not all.
If you’ve experienced missing time or woken up with surgical marks on your body, it’s possible that you’ve been visited by something not of this world.
If you want to learn more about the alien abduction phenomenon, I’d recommend the book Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (Amazon link) by John E. Mack, MD.