Are Alien Abductions True?

Are alien abductions actually true? Or are they the figment of people’s imagination? Do you believe in the existence of life (aliens) on other planets? This has been a question on so many minds for so many years. Extraterrestrial life, or aliens, as they are more commonly called, are defined as “any form of life that may exist and originate outside the planet Earth” (New World Encyclopedia, 2016). The history of alien abductions, the arguments against them being real, and the future impact for all of us humans if they are not, is the focus of this paper.

The very earliest alien abduction stories began surfacing as early as the 1940-50’s. In 1946, “Planet Comics” had a comic strip about “abduction”; in 1954, a comic strip in the “Daily Express”
out of the U.K., in which there was an “abduction” of a Royal Air Force pilot; and in 1961, a New Hampshire couple claimed they were abducted. Many more stories began surfacing over time. Most of these “abductions” supposedly happened during the very earliest years of the “Space Age” also. According to most psychologists, these “abductions” are nothing more than “lucid dreams” or “hallucinations”, due to “awareness of other people’s similar experiences”, no matter how real the “abductees” think their experiences were. In a recent experiment (as recent as 2012), subjects who were trained in “lucid dreaming techniques”, were able to “dream up” some very “vivid alien encounters” (Wolchover, 2012). Could this quite possibly be a means for these abductees to get their “30 seconds” of fame, and/or maybe make an easy buck authoring a book about the experience?

Although he was “’captured’ by notion of life beyond Earth”, Carl Sagan was doubtful of there actually being aliens out there, in an interview conducted before his death.
He also was skeptical of there being any actual abductions of human beings by aliens. “Someone says something happened to them, and people can say anything. The fact that someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true. Doesn’t mean they’re lying, but it doesn’t mean it’s true”. In this interview, he also related how he had been involved in sending spacecraft to other planets to search of life, and also involved in the radio searches for “extraterrestrial intelligence” (“Carl Sagan on Alien Abduction”, 1996). He went on to say physical evidence is needed so that scientists can examine it, to be able to prove it. There’s just no proof available, just
stories.

Are we actually alone in this great big universe of ours? Or is there someone/something out there? According to Jeffrey Kluger, Editor at Large for TIME Magazine, just because there are trillions of planets in the cosmos, there is no guarantee of life on more than one of those planets. Simply because we have been searching for life, even sending out all those here-we-are signal flares, doesn’t mean anyone will answer. They can’t if they aren’t there to begin with. So many scientists have been searching for so long (SETI is the one example used in this article), actually crunching the numbers, attempting to prove there is intelligent life out there. They have come up with nothing, i.e., there is no proof whatsoever. Mr. Kluger does mention, however, that the Earth may be the only wilderness preserve in the universe, and it’s now the time to act as this planet’s responsible caretakers, so this “biological light” of ours won’t be snuffed out (Kluger, 2015).

Although there have been countless stories of alien encounters/abductions over the years, in the form of books written, movies made, and so many countless scientists searching for life “out there”, the fact is, we obviously ARE alone in the universe, whether we want to accept it or not.
Also, the idea of only being one planet that is able to sustain life, should make all of us consider taking care of “mother Earth”, while we still can. Because if we don’t, we won’t survive. Plain and simple. There is just not ANYONE out there to rescue us, to pick us up and take us to their planet. No “knight-in-shining-armor” at all. It’s ALL up to us to keep our planet
healthy!