Alien Abductions
Source: Cross Current http://www.historytoday.com/article/article.cfm?article_id=1620
Parallels in contemporary accounts of abductions by space aliens with European narratives of captivity by Indians and Aboriginals in early America and Australia. In 1976 four students went on a camping trip in a wilderness area of northern Maine. One night they spotted a curious bright object in the night sky. Later they witnessed an oval object of brightly coloured light hovering above them.They then experienced a period of 'missing time' in their conscious memory. It was not until years later in hypnosis sessions that they relived
traumatic alien abductions during that 'missing' period. They reported being transported aboard a UFO, where strange humanoid creatures examined them.
Such Sightings have a long history. At various times they have been reported as chariots, sailing schooners and religious visions. In the 1890s there were widespread reports in the US of cigar-shaped airships. Similar sightings emanated from England in 1909. During the 1930s so-called 'ghost fliers' were spotted over Sweden, and during the Second World War reports of glowing objects called 'foo fighters' became common. The term 'flying saucer' was coined in 1947 to describe strange objects spotted by a pilot over the American state of Washington. More recently, the UFO phenomenon has been dominated by stories of alien abduction.
While claims of alien abduction are relatively new, stories of contact with other-worldly beings are not. Visitations by angels have been reported throughout history. In many cultures there are beliefs in people being transported to other dimensions and ascension myths in which humans confront gods in the heavens. Even before the abduction phenomenon, some individuals claimed to be in contact with extra-terrestials from advanced worlds. George Adamski, for instance, became famous in the 1950s for his stories of meeting beings from Venus and visiting the far side of the Moon in their spaceship.
'Contactees' like Adamski claimed they travelled through space at their own volition. 'Abductees', on the other hand, lack any choice in their encounters with aliens. Abductees might be taken in remote areas or simply 'beamed up' from their own bedrooms. The alien abuductors assume a range of shapes and colours, but are typically described as short, grey, hairless and with large black eyes. Frequently memories of abduction are elicited through hypnotic regression.
The first abduction case to receive wide publicity in the US involved a married couple, Betty and Barney Hill, in 1961. Since then, stories of alien abduction have proliferated.The phenomenon gained further prominence following the publication of Whitley Strieber's personal account in the best-seller Communion (1987). While the US has by far the most abduction reports, followed by South America, the phenomenon
in Britian dates from the mid-1970s. Some researchers estimate that cases worldwide run into the millions.
There is intense disagreement about whether abduction experiences relate to real physical events, psychological interaction, altered states of consciousness or simply delusional fantasy. They may be compared, however, to other incidents of transculturation where individuals suddently find themselves in alien surroundings. In terms of narrative structure and imagery, stories of alien abduction echo the captivity narratives of early America. Richard Slotkin in his book Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier 1600-1860 (Harper Perennial, 1996), claims captivity narrative as the first coherent mythic literature of America. Beginning with Mary Rowlandson's immensely popular account of her life among American Indians (1682), hundreds of captivity narratives recounted stories of kidnapping by Indians. They remained a staple of popular literature into the nineteenth century. Captivity narratives became the stuff of folk tales and legends. In this genre are novels like James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans (1829) or films such as A Man Called
Horse (1969).
While most associated with North America, other frontiers have generated their own captivity narratives. In Australia, for example, one of the most famous captivities followed a nineteenth-century shipwreck on the Queensland coast. A survivor, Mrs Eliza Fraser, lived for some time among Aborigines. She was popularly represented as a vulnerable victim of cruel savages. Her story later provided the inspiration for Patrick White's novel A Fringe of Leaves (1976).
On the face of it, alien abduction stories may appear quite dissimilar to early captivity narratives. Some captives of Indians remained missing for twenty years or more before returning to European society, while a typical alien abduction lasts only a couple of hours. On the other hand, some report abduction experiences beginning in childhood and extending through their lifetime.
Just as alien abduction has become a favourite topic of the tabloids, the captivity motif furnished the subject matter of pulp thrillers and penny dreadfuls. Modern narratives of alien abduction share many of the sensational, melodramatic and traumatic qualities of captivity narratives. In both cases individuals are forced against their will into a foreign world on the other side of their cultural frontier.
Once taken prisoner, there commonly follows a phase of mortification. Both the Indian captive and alien abductee are often stripped. This divests them of the outward trappings of their culture and heightens a sense of vulnerability. The captives of Indians, at least in the
narratives, might suffer savage tortures. These physical torments find their analogue in the invasive and humiliating quasi-medical procedures commonly reported by alien abductees. In some cases they are examined by a giant eye device or report being probed with instruments and having tracking devices implanted in their bodies.
While vulnerable white women frequently figured as the victims of Indian captivity narratives, reproductive experiments and hybrid breeding programmes loom large in accounts of alien abduction. Female abductees frequently report the taking or implantation of eggs in their uterus, while males may have sperm samples taken. Some abductees report sexual encounters with aliens.
Those taken in both captivity narratives and abduction stories often express ambivalence toward their captors, combining fear and desire. Indians were often represented as demonic fiends. Mary Rowlandson referred to them as 'wild beasts', 'devils' and 'hell hounds'. From the beginning, though, some narratives admired and romanticised Indian lifestyles.In a similar way the responses of alien abductees range from horror to love toward their abductors. While some abductees represent aliens as bent on the Earth's conquest, others see them as offering salvation from human violence and destruction.
Both Indian captivity and alien abuction are frequently associated with personal and spiritual growth. In the early New England captivity narratives suffering could lead to redemption. Captives faced temptations of assimilation, sometimes symbolised by marriage to an Indian. For the Puritans, the trials of captivity often initiated a figurative re-birth and have a clearly religious dimension. Mary Rowlandson titled her captivity account The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Alien abductees also frequently claim a profound transformation, ranging from healing powers to spiritual insight, and a new awareness of humans' potential for destruction.
Among those taken captive by Indians, many were said to have undergone a process of 'Indianization'. They not only adapted to an Indian lifestyle, but refused to rejoin white society. Similarly alien abductees often sense a change of identity. Some identify so strongly with those taking them that they come to believe they are themselves part 'alien'. Much of the popularity of early captivity narratives can be attributed to their encapsulating contemporary anxieties. These included the isolation of the wilderness, and the identity of Europeans in the New World. The UFO phenomenon is often explained in terms of nuclear-age and Cold War fears. The first flying saucer
sightings coincided with the development of atomic weapons and growing tensions between the Soviet Union and West.
For early Puritan ministers such as Cotton Mather, captivity narratives were a warning to the faithful of what might happen to the lax. Indian captivity becomes a form of divine punishment. The reported experience of alien abductees, on the other hand, is often specifically related to warnings about the earth's ecology. According to many abductees, aliens warn that unless people change their ways the planet may face dire consequences. Many abductees become staunch environmentalists. We can draw a parallel here with the captivity
narrative in Kevin Costner's film Dances With Wolves (1990), with its emphasis on Native Americans' harmony with nature. As is often the case, the Indians in the film symbolise a 'new age' lifestyle.
In a case reported in Harvard psychiatrist John Mack's book Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens (1994), an abductee claims that their experiences occured on Native American sacred ground. The trance states reported by abductees echo those of Indian shamanism. The mythic power once associated with the Western frontier has been largely displaced in contemporary consciousness by outer space.
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