WEBVTT - Alien Abduction Experience, Part 1 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.880 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:14.400 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.599 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.560 seger In. Today we're talking about a topic that most 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:25.040 science podcast listeners would think, Wait, what why? Alien abductions? 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.120 Really you guys are going to take that seriously? Well, 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.839 I think the tone is the question, right, because a 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:37.239 lot of a lot of science brands will discuss alien abduction, 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.120 but they'll take a very hard, skeptical approach, And certainly 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:44.840 science is the bedrock of the show, and I feel 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:46.800 like we we tend to take a skeptical approach with 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.640 most topics. Now that being said, we always try and 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:56.480 make a point of of acknowledging that with paranormal experience, 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.600 there's still some sort of an experience going on. There 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.320 is off some sort of a memory, there's something something 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.560 that goes on in the human psyche that makes it 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:10.720 quasi real or real for the individual, and so we 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.360 always make a point of trying to honor that and 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.440 and respect that as much as possible while also keeping 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.440 you know, one foot firmly planted on the earth. Yeah, exactly, 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:22.920 And alien abduction is similar to some of the other 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:30.360 topics we've covered before, like say, uh, satanic panic and exorcisms, demons, angels, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:32.200 also like the stuff that we did with John d. 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.039 And what's interesting to look at here is that there 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:40.760 is a quantifiable large amount of academic research into this topic. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:44.080 It's it's actually interesting. Um. One of the pieces that 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.080 I looked at for this episode is by someone named J. D. Finkelstein, 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.400 and they basically look at a review of all the 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.920 academic literature in the last like, let's say, thirty five years. 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:58.240 And the thing that's interesting is they said, there's really 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.880 not that much available by me, like there is too 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.680 much to read for this episode. There was so much 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:05.840 out there. I mean I just saw in all the 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.959 research databases that we have access to, there's just wall 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.639 to wall uh information and really like what we put 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.480 together for this, it's gonna fill up probably two episodes, yes, yeah, 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.120 because because there are basically two large categories we have 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.600 to discuss. On one hand, there is the the the 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:28.400 experience side of it. So individuals claiming to have experienced 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:31.280 an alien abduction and generally in the process have seen 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.720 a UFO as well, uh, and they are so they're 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:36.680 all the various ways we can try and understand that 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.320 from a skeptical standpoint, you know what sort of hallucinations 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.160 or memory um false memory scenarios are going on to 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.160 make that possible, the power of belief, et cetera. And 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:49.960 then on top of that, there's this cultural idea too, 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:53.000 because you can you can certainly we'll get into this 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.040 more as we progress here, but you can go back 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.519 through history. You can find plenty of examples of individuals 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:02.119 having um wondrous or tariff and some often sexual encounters 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.600 with demons, angels, ferries, what have you. But it's only 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.440 in the twentieth century and a little bit beyond here 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:12.640 that we have had these experiences with extraterrestrials and UFOs. 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:14.760 So then he starts saying, well, okay, if this is 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:16.880 just the coding is this, if this is just the 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:21.120 sock puppet that we end up putting over this abnormal 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:24.320 sensory experience, then where does the sock puppet come from? 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.920 What are all the various cultural threads that come together 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:31.240 to weave that unique form. Yeah, it is. It's fascinating 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.320 when you look at it from that perspective, and it's 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.880 still fascinating. I think even if you, like some researchers, 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.720 think you've totally nailed it down and you've figured out 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.840 exactly how to explain what's happening here right Um. And 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.960 what's interesting is that even though we've got all this 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:52.000 fiction that really kind of slowed down I'd say a 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.640 little bit before two thousand, um, right around when the 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.920 X file started to fade. Uh, you know, we have 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.880 all this this alien abduction fiction that was really big 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.960 X Files, Close Encounters, etcetera. Um. Fire in the Sky, 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.920 which neither of us have seen you, but I'm planning 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:10.760 to check out before we do our trailer talk. Yeah, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.360 that's what I want to watch before next week. In communion, 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:15.640 I've never seen either, have you seen that? I have not, 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:17.880 I'm familiar with I haven't read the book either, but 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.160 I'm I'm familiar with his story. I've read I want 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:22.320 to say, I read an Atlantic piece about him a 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.239 couple years back. But so there was a lot going 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.520 on between the probably like mid seventies up until the 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.680 end of the nineties that was in our entertainment about this. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.120 So we all kind of think we know what this 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.120 is all about. We we we understand the alien abduction narrative. Yeah, 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.800 I remember as a kid watching a lot of Unsolved 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.440 Mysteries and uh, you know a lot of those episodes 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.080 that dealt with just unsolved normal crimes, and occasionally Matthew 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.440 McConaughey showed up right to reenact it. But they would 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:54.640 get into these supernatural elements and they would get into 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.880 alien abductions, and I remember just being um like terrified 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.719 and amazed by these tales because they presented them in 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.120 that kind of like hard boiled detective narrative way, where's like, 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.560 this is this is really happening. We don't understand it, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.520 but this is what these people say happened to them. 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:14.240 And it made me. It made me kind of terrified 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:15.960 as to sleep at night for a while, because I 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.400 would imagine the aliens coming for me. I would I 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.160 would get a little nervous if I stared up into 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:22.760 the night sky too much, because it would be like, 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.760 all right, if I glimpse them, they'll know I saw them, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:27.840 and then they will come for me. They're like, all right, well, 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.240 you forced our hands. Now we've got to abduct you. 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:32.479 I don't know what it is, but I've never been 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:38.560 susceptible to the scary factor of alien abduction. Yeah, like 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.880 when you didn't did you watch and solve mysteries? Because 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.359 I did. But like, I think that there was a 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.560 part of me, even at that age that was kind 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:49.799 of like, whatever happens, it's going to be pretty interesting. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.880 It's interesting. Like like, and I guess too that I 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.320 was so immersed in Star Wars and Star Trek and 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.599 other science fiction that my mind wouldn't allow me to 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.360 go to the really horrific areas that alien abduction narratives 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:07.000 go to, right, Like I see a movie like what 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:08.839 was it, Dark Skies that came out like two or 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.479 three years ago, I think that was like maybe the 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:14.120 latest of these kind of horror movies, or that there 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.960 was one recently, the Phoenix Incident. I think it's like 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:18.720 a found footage one. Yeah, And then there was one 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:23.000 that came out a few years back, um, the Fifth Kind, 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.560 I want to say, Okay, yeah, And those have never 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.040 really resonated with me in the way. So, for instance, 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.440 the Demon Possession movies do right, And that's because I think, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.360 like the way that my cultural background was set up, 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.520 that narrative was far scarier to me. Even though that 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:44.400 narrative could be placed on top of similar psychological experiences, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.279 right in the way that alien abduction narratives are. Yeah, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:50.560 you know, I guess it just really depends on how 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.960 you approach you, like, what your background and the culture is, 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:58.320 because certainly, growing up in rural Tennessee in the nineties, 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.000 I I've discussed before how there was definitely this this 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:05.279 this sense within certain circles that the demons were real, 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.520 that that the supernatural realm was real within the confines 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.640 of sort of fundamentalist Christian upbringing. But then at the 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.560 same time you were there were these voices of you know, 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.040 I want to say, you know, more scientifically sound, reasonable 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.200 voices that filter through into into stuff like unsolved mysteries, 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.200 and you watch that and you're saying, Okay, well, you know, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:29.520 this seems like it could be true as well. So 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.160 it just I guess it depends on like where you're 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:35.760 firmly entrenched. Yeah, And so for that reason, I think 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.720 it's important for us to start off here with just 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.640 a bare bones basic description of what we're talking about 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.560 here with alien abductions. So, and alien abductions specifically is 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.559 when a person claims to have been taken by any 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.040 being from outside Earth against their will, and these surged 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:55.880 in the nineteen sixties and then waned through the years 0:07:55.920 --> 0:08:00.040 with the expansion of space technology and exploration. But you 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.520 have to be clear here, there's no physical evidence that 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:09.240 supports claims of alien abduction or even that extraterrestrial intelligence exists. Now, 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:13.320 skeptics say that these reports are either hallucinations or their lies. 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.560 On the other side of it, some scientists have attributed 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.920 these experiences to sleep paralysis or repressed trauma. And this 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:22.440 is probably a good point where we should say that 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.520 our sibling podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.679 has covered this extensively over the years. So if there's 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.000 other stuff you want to look for, podcasts also videos, 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:32.880 they've done a lot of videos. Yeah, it's kind of 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:37.000 bread and butter right exactly now. Before those of you 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.080 out there, and I felt the same way when I 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.040 was going to the research. Get too judgmental about our 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.319 friends and neighbors out there who have experienced this. I 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:45.840 want to throw a couple of stats at you that 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.199 you might find surprising. A twenty National Geographic poll found 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.760 that seventy seven percent of Americans believe that aliens have 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:59.920 visited Earth, so that's huge, and eighty percent believe that 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:05.640 alien life exists on other planets. A twenty fifteen IPSOS 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:10.000 poll found that fifty six percent of Americans believe in UFOs. 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.319 So either way you cut that, it's the majority of people. 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:16.280 Now for me, I guess like I fall on that, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.600 Like I don't know if aliens have visited Earth or not, 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:20.720 but yeah, I mean we do the science podcast. We 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.120 talk about the possibilities of alien life all the time. 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.560 If I had to like vote one way or the other, 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.520 I would probably say yes, Yeah, I tend to fall 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.080 the same way. I think, well, yes, that's given what 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.280 we know of of life and based on the research 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.240 that we've we've done and the sources we've looked at, uh, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.160 it seems entirely possible that there's life out there in 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.800 the universe somewhere. Now it gets a little more complicated 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.880 from there on out, because then you say, well, okay, 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.920 if there's life, then is it intelligent life? And then uh, 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.480 and you can say, all right, well, based on our model, yeah, 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:57.800 you can tweak the Drake equation in different ways. Look 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:02.360 at could could this intelligent life form actually evolve? And 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.600 then is it still around Okay, so maybe there's it's 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:07.960 not just a slime mold on another planet. Maybe there's 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:09.679 something out there that's capable of looking up into the 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:14.400 night sky and forming its own um anxiety ridden dreams 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:18.319 of visitations from other worlds. But then that visitation becomes 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:23.480 the next realm. Right, is it possible that this, this creature, 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:27.280 this alien life is capable of visiting our world? And 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:28.920 in this we get into an area we discussed a 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.960 little bit in our Interplanetary War episode, because even if 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:35.600 space faring aliens do exist, could they reach us? And 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.040 part of the problem here is distance staggering in the 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:42.239 interstellar distance and the lack of any concrete, proven technological 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.200 means to traverse those distances at a reasonable pace. Even 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:50.880 the more conservative estimates, and like the closer you know, 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.880 planetary homeworlds or out bases for for some sort of 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.560 civilization like this, it would still result in a trip 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:02.079 of years. Right, And if they did have spacecraft capable 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.520 of performing the sort of highs, the high speed maneuvers 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:09.040 that are described in UFO sightings, then physicist Michio Kaku 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.400 insists that technology for such a craft and the ability 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.640 for a living passenger to survive, it's g forces. Well, 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.840 those are well beyond humanities modern technology as well. So 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.520 do you think that they've visited Earth? Then like that's 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:28.679 a that's sort of are they capable of visiting Earth? No? Right, yeah, 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.600 and then would they want to or have that? Yeah? Well, 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:33.199 I mean if I mean, if you get to the 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.080 point where you say, yes, they exist, yes they're intelligent, 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:38.839 Yes they have spacecraft capable of visiting us, then we 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.240 again we come back to basing. We have to base 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.400 an alien life form more or less on how we 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.120 think and behave, and we know that we would want 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:47.920 to check them out, so they would probably want to 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:49.600 check us out. So yeah, I can, I can buy 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.000 into that, but it's coming over that that technological step, 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.600 that technological leap that is required, it's hard hard to 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.040 get past. Yeah, that's kind of where you get to that. Uh. 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.400 I guess I'm thinking along the lines of independence day 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.520 rather than communion, Right, So, like we jump to the 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.959 point of like where we've imagined a society that has 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.960 the technology, but all we can picture is ourselves. So 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:14.720 then subsequently we we apply our own reasoning this connect 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.679 BacT as fall Bard, this fall Bard episode, we do 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:18.640 a couple of weeks ago. Why would we go there 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.680 to exploit its resources? Right? Uh? So, I mean, but 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.920 we would love to think otherwise, right, like that they 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.480 they just want to communicate or do experiments on us. 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.360 But but the thing is, we come back around to 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.280 the proof. Right, if they've if they've visited the planet 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.680 in the past or are visiting it now, where is 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.120 the hardcore proof? And uh And likewise, if they've abducted 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.280 people for experiments, where's the proof? Because from a scientific standpoint, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.040 there's just insufficient evidence to make a case for alien visitation. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:50.480 I'm not saying there aren't people out there that are 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:55.240 attempting to provide evidence, but most UFO sidings depend on 0:12:55.280 --> 0:13:00.479 infallible human accounts, imperfect footage, and just rampant conspiracy theory. 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.800 All of it tends to crumble under the scrutiny of 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.320 the scientific method. And and that's our best way of 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.320 determining what's reality and what is ultimately fantasy. And uh. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:12.640 And also it's it's worth reminding everyone that you know, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.400 scientific inquiry hinges on something called the null hypothesis, which 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.680 means the burden of proof is on anyone making a 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.120 positive claim. So if you say a dog gate your homework, great, 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.640 where's the testable evidence you saw an alien spacecraft? Excellent, 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.560 let's test and validate your story. So, in other words, 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.480 it's up to individuals who have seen the UFO. It's 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.320 up to individuals who have experienced the abductions or buy 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.000 into these stories. It's up to them to provide the proof, 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.040 and we just don't have it, you know, along the 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:44.720 same lines as an hypothesis, the scientific world doesn't go 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.120 on the defense every time someone sees a ghost, even 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.160 at the presence of testable evidence. Perfectly. Terrestrial claims demand 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.240 rigorous testing and a high degree of certainty and the results. 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.720 So I guess to put a cap in our position 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:01.760 going into this episode looking at the research. You know, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:03.720 as I've said in the past, when we've talked about 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.840 sort of paranormal phenomenon and then try to shed a 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:11.120 scientific light on them. I may not believe in this, 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.200 but I believe that the people who believe are being honest. 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:19.320 I believe they believe. And uh, It's important to note 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.120 that most of the research has focused on attempts that 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:26.160 are either trying to prove or disprove the existence of aliens. 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:29.800 Rather than what's actually going on. What what makes us 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.160 want to focus on this is that it's an opportunity 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.320 to learn about our own psychology, right, That's what's really 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.480 interesting about the alien abduction narrative. And I wanna put 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:41.960 in a quote here that's from that J. D. Finkelstein 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.960 piece that I read for this. They said, in the end, 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.480 while the events abductees report are unlikely to have occurred, 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.320 the earnestness with which they endorse these memories is a 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:57.600 strong indicator that memory is a malleable and complicated phenomenon 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.840 with implications for a wide range of psychological topics. That 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:05.680 alone seems like it begs for stuff to blow your 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:07.920 mind to examine it. Yeah, every time I engage with 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.080 this topic or topics like this, I'm always left with 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:15.000 with the realization that approaching this kind of thing from 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.480 a skeptical, scientific, but open minded point of view, you 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.640 end up leaving the topic not feeling like you're you 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:23.640 have a safe distance from it, you know, like you 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.680 have a safe distance from an alien abduction experience touching 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.120 your life. You end up realizing, oh, well, it's actually 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.400 not that far away anyway. When you take into account 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:37.920 all of the all of the various psychological events that 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.040 can play into it, like the the basic, the basic reality, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.960 that perception of reality is its own form of hallucination. 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:47.920 When you start counting all of that in and just 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.640 how how easily memory can be manipulated by yourself or others, 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.960 then you realize, oh, well, I'm not safe from this 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:57.040 kind of experience. It could it could easily, It could 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.400 easily happen under the right scenarios. Yeah. Absolutely, Actually, in 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:03.960 preparation for this episode, I revisited one of my favorite 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:09.200 X Files episodes, uh, jose Chung's from Outer Space, which 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.600 if if nobody out there is seeing it, I highly recommend. 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:13.720 Even if you've never seen any X Files, you don't 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:17.680 need to. It's in season three, uh right, smack in 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.320 the middle. I think it doesn't connect to any other episodes. 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.960 It's written by Darren Morgan, who, in my opinion, is 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.280 one of the best writers of the show ever, and 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:30.720 it is a fantastic but also relatively amusing examination of 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:32.800 a lot of what we're going to talk about here today. 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.560 And they look at it from that perspective that, like 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:40.960 human psychology and how we perceive the world is so 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.160 inherently skewed that there's a lot of different ways to 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:46.960 take a look at this, and in the in the 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.640 episode itself, there's sort of like three or four different 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.000 viewpoints of the alien abduction narrative, right, and like how 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:54.760 it could play out. I don't want to say too 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:56.840 much more than that, other than that it's I love it. 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.560 It's a fantastic episode, and it has a Jessie the 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.240 Body venture and it too. Why I was hoping you'd 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.159 get a chance to check out because he's sort of 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.480 a surprise figure that pops up as he shows up 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.439 as a man in black. All right, well, maybe I'll 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:11.480 get to watch it for next week. Yeah, that'd be cool. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:13.520 I think it's time for a visitation of our own 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.440 here though. We should probably take a quick commercial break, 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.600 and when we come back, we will dive into the topic. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.119 We'll start talking about some of the recurring elements of 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:26.480 the sort of standardized alien abduction UH experience, and then 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:32.520 go from there. Sounds good than all right, we're back, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:35.320 so let's get into the recurring elements. And now this 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.439 is one of the fascinating things for somebody like myself, 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.359 who's you know, I've seen a lot of X files. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.600 I thought I kind of knew everything, you know, that 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:45.600 there was to know, but like, really looking at the 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.320 homework here, there are parts of the recurring elements that 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:50.760 I wasn't quite aware of. Well, one of the interesting 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:52.760 things here is that you kind of have two levels 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.639 and they're not they're not isolated from each other. So 0:17:55.680 --> 0:18:00.639 you have what people began reporting about alien abduction scenarios 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.440 across the decades, and then you have what was portrayed 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:07.840 in the media and in science fiction. And then the 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.680 media portrayals begin to influence the experience, so it becomes 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.520 a little messy there. But it's like a weird or 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.600 a borrows that's like eating itself. Yeah, yeah, it's true. Well, 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.960 all right, let's go down. Here's some bullet points just 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.560 about like what are recurring elements that we're going to 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.080 unpack so that we can get a sense of what's 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.760 actually happening here. Now, alien abduction stories usually involve the 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:35.160 alien abductor conducting experiments or other procedures on the abductive Okay, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.800 that's one that we all pretty much know, right. They 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.920 usually occur in an isolated area, with very few cases 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:46.040 involving more than one person being reported. Now that's interesting because, 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.840 as we'll talk about later, the very first big case 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.080 of this involved two people, but usually they involve people 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.359 on their own. They usually begin with the sighting of 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.040 a UFO or some kind of lights in the sky, 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.040 and then most report it's involved an individual being placed 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.840 in a trance like state while they're being experimented on. Now, 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.639 some people report that the the exams and stuff like 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.560 that that happens in their homes rather than on a 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.640 ship or something like that. Here's one of the things 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:18.080 I always had a problem with with with these explanations. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.080 The assumption is that you're taken into outer space when 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:24.760 this happens, right, But I always thought, well, what that 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.280 seems like a lot of work for the aliens. Wouldn't 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.040 they just stay in orbit or stay like stay within 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:33.639 the atmosphere somewhere, you know what I mean? Like like 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:35.159 it seems like why do they have to fly all 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:36.760 the way down and all the way back up again? 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.800 Well two answers. If I'm gonna go with just the 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.000 straight up sort of skeptical technological uh profile here, I 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.080 would say, well, their ships are apparently crazy powerful anyway, 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.400 able to grip around it unbelievable speeds, So going back 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:52.560 into orbit for them is no big deal. Maybe if Yeah, 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.240 the other side of this would be that you look 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.600 back at these past paranormal experiences and what one has 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.440 taken to the fairy realm. One is one sends into 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.399 heaven and therefore this this matches up more with their 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.639 mythological expectations for visitation. Right, absolutely, So that's why I 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.880 think it's maybe more surprising when it occurs in the home, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.480 right that that's like less along the lines of what 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:20.320 we're expecting. But then again, when the angel visited Mary 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:22.680 in the Bible, it was just in the home. She 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.760 didn't get to go visit orbit or heaven. Hey man, 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.120 that was a one of a kind thing. Uh. Look though, 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.600 other common factors that show up in these narratives are 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.120 beams of light, and the beams of light can both 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:39.960 paralyze and make you float, as well as abductors, implanting devices, 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:44.080 collecting tissue samples, and as we know, probing orifices using 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:49.160 strange machines. Now, some people also report psychological experiments related 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.560 to memory or pain. Now, this is that was one 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.360 thing that I had never heard of before. So that's interesting, 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.600 and then once the procedures are done, the abductees are 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:01.480 usually returned home. Now, the aliens are usually described as 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:06.399 small figures with smooth, shiny skin, large heads, and bulging eyes. 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.320 This is the similar gray aliens that were depicted in 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:14.760 early science fiction films. And there's a hierarchy that's sometimes 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.320 described between the aliens, where the small ones perform menial 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.160 work while the large ones are the leaders. They are 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.639 usually said to communicate telepathically. Now, of course, Robert and I, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:27.480 one of the first things that we started talking about 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:29.800 when we were prepping this episode was, gosh, I guess 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.200 it's two years old now, maybe that Saturday Night Live 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:37.520 uh skit with Kate McKinnon and Ryan Gosling. Uh. They're 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.280 they're playing alien abductees who are explaining their experience to 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:43.840 like the Pentagon or something like that, and they have 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:47.720 vastly different experiences, right, Yeah, Like most of them have 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.440 this pleasant, hippie dippy kind of experience and then one 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.879 of them has this more traumatic experience with the aliens. Yeah, 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.439