As a researcher and hypnotherapist I have worked with people who claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials. I have interviewed UFO researchers, scientists, authors, and people who claim to have secret information.

Physical evidence seems to support many case histories, though some experiences may actually be caused by dreams, mental problems, media indoctrination, or misinterpretation of what the person has seen. All leave an imprint on the psyche of the person, or persons (multiple abductions involved).

Most countries have reports of alien abductions. They occur in large cities as well as the rural areas.

Abductions occur at any time of the day or night.

Many abductions are not reported, because there is no one to tell, or the abductee fears ridicule from others, especially if they feel they have been sexually violated.

People wo have been abducted many times keep journals to determine patterns or timetables. They sometimes write books about their experiences.

Abductees have tried many interesting techniques to protect themselves, but to date, I know of no one specific approach that prevents these experiences.

Abductees have reported attempts to video or photograph the events. Some abductees have experimented with infrared film. Most footage is useless.

My opinion of this experience: We are all part of a a biogenetic experiment - the abduction phenomena a metaphor for the greater experience. The Grays are part of the programmed illusion as all is a virtaul experience in time and emotion.

Often abductees are told that the experience is for some 'greater good'. Always remember that anyone who does anything to you without your permission - or makes your soul feel uncomfortable - does not have your best interests at heart. Be careful what you believe.

The abduction phenomenon is an umbrella term used to describe a number of hypotheses, claims or assertions stating that non-human creatures kidnap individuals, sometimes called abductees, usually for medical testing or for sexual reproduction procedures. Many such encounters are described as terrifying or humiliating, but others describe them as transformative or even pleasant. Reports of the abduction phenomenon have been made from around the world, but have perhaps seen most mainstream attention in the United States. Most abduction cases show these patterns:

• Capture (Abductees taken from room/area and find themselves in the "ship")Examination (Probes inserted in different areas, etc.)
• Communicate ("Aliens" speak with abductees)
• Tour (Not always described but some abductees claim to be shown the ship)
• Missing Time or Loss of Time (Many abductees suffer from periods of time removed from their memory, often coming back to them later)
• Return (Returned, sometimes with environmental changes)
• Aftermath (Sickness, new phobias, ridicule, etc.)

Such alleged abductions are often closely connected to UFO reports, and are sometimes supposedly conducted by so-called Greys: Short, grey-skinned humanoids with large, pear-shaped heads and enormous, dark eyes.

Skeptics tend to doubt that the phenomenon occurs literally as reported, and a wide variety of alternate explanations have been proposed (see below). Rather, such skeptics often argue that the phenomenon might be characterised as a type of modern-day folk myth (like the historic belief in vampires).

The alien abduction phenomenon has been the subject of conspiracy theory and as such has become a staple of popular science fiction works such as 'The X-Files.'

While few mainstream scientists believe the phenomenon literally occurs as reported - some experts contend the field is rife with kooks and pseudoscience - there is little doubt that many apparently stable and sincere persons report alien abductions they believe are utterly genuine: as reported in the Harvard University Gazette in 1992, Dr. John Edward Mack investigated over 60 claimed abductees, and "spent countless therapeutic hours with these individuals only to find that what struck him was the 'ordinariness' of the population, including a restaurant owner, several secretaries, a prison guard, college students, a university administrator, and several homemakers ... 'The majority of abductees do not appear to be deluded, confabulating, lying, self-dramatizing, or suffering from a clear mental illness,' he maintained. He has encountered only one person who showed psychotic features."

I met Dr. Mack on several occasion in the 1990's while working as a hypnotherapist with patients of my won in that field. I was saddened to hear about his untimely death in 2004. He was a skeptic, destined to become a believer.

Stigma and self-doubt may be obstacles to more widespread study and/or reporting of the phenomenon, whatever its origins or explanation.Some abduction reports are quite detailed. An entire subculture has developed around the subject, with support groups and a detailed mythos explaining the reasons for abductions: The various aliens (Greys, Reptilians, "Nordics" and so on) are said to have specific roles, origins, and motivations. Abduction claimants do not always attempt to explain the phenomenon, but some take independent research interest in it themselves, and explain the lack of greater awareness of Alien Abduction as the result of either extraterrestrial or governmental interest in cover-up.

Others still are intrigued by the entire phenomenon, but hesitate in making any definitive conclusions. Emergency room physician Dr. John G. Miller asks, "How can a person have any firmly held belief about this when it's so mysterious? The opinions of the true believers are hard to swallow; and the opinions of the die-hard skeptics are not based on reality either. There is some middle ground ... It's clear that this is some sort of powerful subjective experience. But I do not know what the objective reality is. It's as if the evidence leads us in both directions." (Bryan, 162) Similarly, the late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack concluded, "The furthest you can go at this point is to say there's an authentic mystery here. And that is, I think, as far as anyone ought to go." (emphasis as in original)(Bryan, 269)

Putting aside the question of whether abduction reports are literally and objectively "real", literature professor Terry Matheson argues that their popularity and their intriguing appeal is easily understood. Tales of abduction "are intrinsically absorbing; it is hard to imagine a more vivid description of human powerlessness." After experiencing the frisson of delightful terror one may feel from reading ghost stories or watching horror movies, Matheson notes that people "can return to the safe world of their homes, secure in the knowledge that the phenomenon in question cannot follow. But as the abduction myth has stated almost from the outset, there is no avoiding alien abductors." (Matheson, 297)

Even hearing a tape recording of (or watching a video recording of) a hypnotic regression session can be a chilling experience, leaving little doubt to some observers that the individual is either an accomplished actor, or genuinely believes they are reliving a horrifying experience. Once hypnotized and supposedly recalling an abduction event, some people relate the event calmly, while others may beg pathetically for the event to stop, cry in apparent horror, shout angrily or tremble with fear.

Matheson writes that when compared to the earlier contactee reports, abduction accounts are distinguished by their "relative sophistication and subtlety, which enabled them to enjoy an immediately more favorable reception from the public."

Know one knows has far alien abducitons and experiments go in the history of humanity, but it would seem that these events have occurred since the beginning of time, as if human DNA is part of an 'alien experiment'.

Some people trace alien abduction accounts to the 1930s if not earlier. Many people they go back to the time of pre WW II and Hitler's underground projects - though no tangible proof has been given.

The so-called Richard Shaver Mystery of the 1940s has some similarities to later abduction accounts, as well, with sinister beings said to be kidnapping and torturing humans.

The UFO contactees of the 1950s claimed to have contacted aliens, but the substance of contactee narratives were often quite different from alien abduction accounts.

Neither the contactees (people who report conversations with aliens) nor these early abduction accounts, however, saw much attention from ufology, then still largely reluctant to consider close encounters of the third kind, where occupants of UFOs are allegedly seen.

The notion of being kidnapped by extraterrestrials goes back at least to the mid-1950s, with the Antonio Villas Boas case (which didn't receive much attention until several years later).

In the early years, abductees were afraid to come forward and tell their stories. They feared ridicule by family, friends, and co-workers or government threats to keep them quiet. There were no support groups and no where to turn. As the years passed that all was destined to change.

Widespread publicity was generated by the Barney and Betty Hill abduction case of 1961 (again not widely known until several years afterwards), culminating in a made for television film broadcast in 1975 (starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons) dramatizing the events. The Hill incident was probably the prototypical abduction case, and was the first in which the beings explicitly identified an extraterrestrial origin (the star Zeta Reticuli was later suspected as their point of origin.)

As the story goes ... On September 19, 1961 on US Route 3 near the village of Lancaster. Barney and Betty Hill of Portsmouth, New Hampshire were traveling home after a vacation in Canada when they saw a moving light in the sky. Every now and then they would stop and check on the unusual light that seemed to "fly" an erratic course. They drove on towards the White Mountains, noting that the object was now much larger and following a parallel course to their car.

Approaching Indian Head, the light appeared directly ahead of them Barney Hill left the engine running and got out of the car to observe the strange object with a pair of binoculars. He observed what he described as "5 to 11 figures moving behind a double row of windows".

Betty Hill, who was observing her husband from her side of the car, heard her husband repeating, "I don't believe it! I don't believe it! This is ridiculous!" She, however, was unable to see the figures or the descent of the UFO. The object was now approximately 70-feet overhead and about 100-feet distant when Barney Hill ran back to the car exclaiming, "They are going to capture us!". He got back in the car and drove away at a 'break-neck' speed.

During this time Betty Hill was still unable to see the object but her husband thought that it was directly over the car. They heard a loud beeping noise, similar to the sound of a "tuning fork", and then they felt very drowsy. When they awoke, they found themselves driving near Ashland, two hours later. Ashland is 35- miles south of Indian Head, a twenty or thirty minute drive. They continued their drive home, feeling somewhat uneasy and confused about their missing two hours.

The next day they reported their experience to officials at Pease Air Force Base. A few days later, an investigator from the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) documented both of their stories.

Their experience was far from over. Within ten days of the incident, Betty Hill began having recurring nightmares in which 8 to 11 "men" would stand in the middle of the road and stop the Hills' car. They would then be led into a disk-shaped craft and examined.

Samples of hair and skin would be taken. Continued anxiety led both of the Hills to seek the help of Dr. Benjamin Simon, a Boston psychiatrist who specialized in treating personality disorders and amnesia through hypnotherapy, which was becoming popular.

Their treatment lasted for six months. With time regression hypnosis, many details of their encounter were revealed. The detail in which both Hills described their abductors and the subsequent examination matched closely to each other as well as to Betty Hill's nightmares. Betty Hill, under posthypnotic suggestion, was able to draw a "star map" detailing the origin of the alien abductors. The amazing configuration of Betty's map was not to be realized for some years.

An astronomical investigation, based on information that was not available in 1961, produced a controversial match between Betty's "star map" and a cluster of previously unknown stars near two stars called Zeta Reticuli.

Dr. Simon later stated that his professional opinion of the Hill's abduction account was that it was mere fantasy. As a prominent Boston psychiatrist, it would be particularly damaging to his reputation to 'believe' that the Hill's story was anything but a product of their collective imaginations. His reasoning for his conclusion was that "people do not necessarily tell the factual truth while they are under hypnosis - all they tell is what they believe to be the truth.

Grey Aliens from Zeti

Through the years I spent time with some of the noteables in UFO research, hardworking people whose destiny it was to unfold the mysteries of the alien abduction scenario and its effects on humans. As a hypnotherapists I have similar stories to report as my fellow researchers. I was never abducted nor have ever encountered a gray alien ... so far.

Josef Allen Hynek (May 1, 1910 - April 27, 1986) was a U.S. astronomer, professor, and well respected ufologist in the old days. He also as scientific advisor to Project Blue Book from 1952 to 1969. n response to many Unidentified Flying Object sightings, the U.S. Air Force established Project Sign in 1948; this later became Project Grudge, which in turn became Project Blue Book in 1952. Hynek was contacted by Project Sign to act as scientific consultant for their investigation of UFO reports. Hynek would study a UFO report and subsequently decide if its description of the UFO suggested a known astronomical object. Hynek was the founder and head of the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). Founded in 1973 and based in Chicago, CUFOS is an organization stressing scientific analysis of UFO cases. CUFOS extensive archives include valuable files from civilian research groups such as NICAP, one of the most popular and credible UFO research groups of the 1950's and 1960's.

Dr. Leo Sprinkle, a University of Wyoming psychologist, became interested in the abduction phenomenon in the 1960s. For some years, he was probably the only academic figure devoting any time to studying or researching abduction accounts. Sprinkle became convinced of the phenomenon's actuality, and was perhaps the first to suggest a link between abductions and cattle mutilation. Eventually Sprinkle came to believe that he had been abducted by aliens in his youth; he was forced from his job in 1989.

The 1980s brought a major degree of mainstream attention to the subject.

Budd Hopkins - a painter and sculptor by profession - had been interested in UFOs for some years. In the 1970s he became interested in abduction reports, and began using hypnosis in order to extract more details of dimly remembered events. Hopkins soon became a figurehead of the growing abductee subculture. he lives and works here in NYC. Works by Budd Hopkins, Whitley Strieber, David Michael Jacobs and John Mack presented alien abduction as a genuine phenomenon; the very popular X Files television program featured alien abduction as a central theme.

I met Budd Hopkins at a MUFON meeting in Manhattan in June 1989 then spoke with him several times after that. His support group Intruders still exists and several of my clients work with his hypnotherapist as part of ongoing abductions.

The mid and late 1980s saw the involvement of two esteemed academic figures: Harvard psychiatrist John Mack and historian David Michael Jacobs. With Hopkins, Jacobs and Mack, several shifts occurred in the nature of the abduction narratives. There had been earlier abduction reports (the Hills being the best known), but they were believed to be few and far between, and saw rather little attention from ufology (and even less attention from mainstream professionals or academics). Jacobs and Hopkins argued that alien abduction was far more common than earlier suspected; they estimate that tens of thousands (or more) North Americans had been taken by unexplained beings.

Furthermore, Jacobs and Hopkins argued that there was an elaborate scheme underway, that the aliens were attempting a program to create human­alien hybrids, though the motives for this scheme were unknown. There were anecdotal reports of phantom pregnancy related to UFO encounters at least as early as the 1960s, but Budd Hopkins and especially David Michael Jacobs were instrumental in popularising the idea of widespread, systematic interbreeding efforts on the part of the alien intruders.

Despite the relative paucity of corroborative evidence, Jacobs presents this scenario as not only plausible, but self-evident. Hopkins and Jacobs have also been criticised for selective citation of abductee interviews, favoring those which support their hypothesis of extraterrestrial intervention.

The involvement of Jacobs and Mack marked something of a sea change in the abduction studies. Their efforts were controversial (both men saw some degree of damage to their professional reputations), but to other observers, Jacobs and Mack brought a degree of respectability to the subject.

Dr. John Mack was a well known, highly esteemed psychiatrist, author of over 150 scientific articles and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of T.E. Lawrence. Mack became interested in the phenomenon in the late 1980s, interviewing dozens of people, and eventually writing two books on the subject. Mack was somewhat more guarded in his investigations and interpretations of the abduction phenomenon than the earlier researchers. Mack notes when alternative interpretations are viable; throughout Abduction, his first book on the subject, he allows and even considers likely that alien abductions are a new type of visionary experience.

I would agree with Matheson that unlike earlier abduction researchers, Mack was generally quite cautious in his interpretations of physical evidence and corroborative testimony. He places little value in the scars and scratches often attributed to alien "medical" exams, and argues that trying to prove the actuality of alleged "implants" placed in abductees is largely a futile effort. Mack argued that the abduction phenomenon might be the beginning of a major paradigm shift in human consciousness, or "a kind of fourth blow to our collective egoism, following those of Copernicus, Darwin and Freud." (Bryan, 270) Mack also noted that, after an initial period of terror and confusion (a phase he dubbed "ontological shock"), many abductees ultimately regard their experiences more positively, saying that their experiences broadened their consciousness.

In June 1992, Mack co-organized a five-day conference at MIT to discuss and debate the abduction phenomenon. The conference attracted a wide range of professionals, representing a variety of perspectives. (In response to this conference, Mack and Jacobs were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 1993). Writer C.D.B. Bryan attended the conference, initially intending to gather information for a short humorous article for The New Yorker. While attending the confernece, however, Bryan's view of the subject changed, and he wrote a serious, open-minded book on the phenomenon, additionally interviewing many abductees, skeptics, and proponents.

The Roper Poll -- In 1991, Hopkins, Jacobs and sociologist Dr. Ron Westrum commissioned a Roper Poll in order to determine how many Americans might have experienced the abduction phenomenon. Of nearly 6,000 Americans, 119 answered in a way that Hopkins et al interpreted as supporting their ET interpretation of the abduction phenomenon. Based on this figure, Hopkins et al estimated that nearly four million Americans might have been abuducted by extraterrestrials. The poll results are available at this external link: The Roper Poll: UFOs & Extraterrestrial Life, Americans' Beliefs and Personal ExperiencesHowever, critics have argued that there were significant problems with the poll's methodology which should invalidate the results. Writing in Skeptical Inquirer, psychologist Susan Blackmore notes that based on her analysis, "I conclude that the claim of the Roper Poll, that 3.7 million Americans have probably been abducted, is false."

As a UFO researchers I have heard most of these conclusion and find them viable.

There have been a variety of explanations offered for abduction phenomena, ranging from sharply skeptical appraisals to uncritical acceptance of all abductee claims. Others have elected not to try explaining things, instead noting similarities to other phenomena, or simply documenting the development of the alien abduction phenomenon.

• Some have argued that alien abduction is a literal phenomenon: extraterrestrials kidnap humans in order to conduct studies or experiments. This is a well-known popular explanation, but has seen very little support from most mainstream scientists or experts.

• Proposed psychological alternative explanations of the abduction phenomenon have included hallucination, temporary schizophrenia, and parasomnia - near-sleep mental states (hypnogogic states and sleep paralysis). Sleep paralysis in particular is often accompanied by hallucinations and peculiar sensation of malevolent or neutral presence of "something," though usually people experiencing it do not interpret that "something" as aliens. Occasionally the abduction phenomenon is also theorized to be a confused memory of past events (such as sexual abuse).

• It is possible that some alleged abductees may be mentally unstable or under the influence of recreational drugs, though, as noted above in one sampling of abductees studied by Mack, only a very small minority are anything other than "ordinary" people without obvious mental illness.

• Especially criticised as unreliable is frequent reliance on hypnosis. It has been demonstrated that false memories are often very easily created, and that hypnosis can unintentionally aid in confabulation. Some abductees, however, report vivid, detailed accounts without hypnosis.

• UFO researcher Jenny Randles cited "an interesting study in which individuals were asked to describe imaginary alien abductions." (Bryan, 49) If these invented scenarios were similar to allegedly genuine abduction accounts, it might demonstrate that supposedly genuine accounts were indistinguishable from invented accounts. The study, however, found little in common between the two types of narratives. Bryan writes "Randles's findings strike me as significant: people who are asked to describe imaginary abductions do not come up with the scenarios, sequences or Beings described by the overwhelming majority of abductees. The 'medical examination,' such a major, recurring aspect of the abductees stories, is entirely absent from the imaginers accounts."

• Many events reported during purported abductions often have parallels in anthropology, folklore and religion - especially frequently correlate with certain imagery persistent in shamanic experiences (e.g., surgery-like procedures, foreign objects implanted in the body) and faerie contact stories, for instance. John Edward Mack, for one, suggested that modern abduction accounts should be considered as part of this larger history of visionary encounters.

• Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote about the theory that the alien abduction experience is remarkably similar to tales of demon abduction common throughout history. "...most of the central elements of the alien abduction account are present, including sexually obsessive non-humans who live in the sky, walk through walls, communicate telepathically, and perform breeding experiments on the human species. Unless we believe that demons really exist, how can we understand so strange a belief system, embraced by the whole Western world (including those considered the wisest among us), reinforced by personal experience in every generation, and taught by Church and State? Is there any real alternative besides a shared delusion based on common brain wiring and chemistry?"

• Terence McKenna described seeing "Machine Elves" while experimenting with Dimethyltryptamine (also known as DMT). The description of Machine Elves is often consistent with the description of "grey" aliens. In a 1988 study conducted at UNM, psychologist Rick Strassman found that approximately 20% of volunteers injected with high doses of DMT had experiences identical to purported Alien Abductions.