Off-topic: I’d always wondered, if alien abductions were valid, why they’re such a recent phenomenon. Not that I know much about it, y’understand. I pondered cheap jokes about anal probes, then remembered the “devil visitations” that always seemed to feature sex in some form.
On that purely inane note, back to the OP: nope.
The only time I can ever remember being Twilight Zone scared was when my pragmatic, non-SF fan Mom was so shaken up by a dream. She was so upset the next day, she told me she’d dreamed she was back around the farm area where she was born (at least 60 years earlier). I don’t remember the details, but she dreamed she ran away from town, into a field and hid. “Things” came down from the sky while she hid in a ditch and cried because (in her words) “things would never be the same again.”
FWIW. That could be interpeted in lots of ways. (I know how I interpret it.) But you might find it interesting.
Whitley Strieber (sp?) is neither a redneck nor trailer trash. I read Communion, and although I’m not sure I believe it all or not, I do think he must truly believe what he said in that book. He has stood by his claims of alien abduction for over a decade, so I think if it was a sham or a publicity stunt, he would have come clean by now, or at the least exposed as a hoax.
I must admit though that the thought of those damn aliens sneaking into the house and snatching me out of my bed have kept me up way past my bedtime many times
Rose
I saw the movie “Communion”…and it’s truly scary. I know Hollywood tends to overdramatize, so I don’t know how the movie compares to the book. But, as I said…really scary. learae
Um…am I the only person appalled by this sort of attitude, this shameless flaunting of ignorance? The reality of alien abductions aside (which, mind you, I don’t care that much about in the first place), your brand of chronic thickheadedness exhibited with this last post is probably representative of your stillborn mindset in regard to many multifaceted societal issues, ones that require a great deal of patience, understanding, and reserve, traits you don’t seem to demonstrate. It all makes me wonder why you inhabit a website dedicated to the eradication of your exact behavior.
In answer to your question, from what I’ve read, abductees come from all ranges of life. Of course, without delving into any of the research, by just letting the information come to you, what you’ll receive are the stereotypical “uneducated hick sees bigfoot” type accounts, the reason being that the media, along with the average human mind, often filters out anything uncomfortable or unexplainable. What the media and the mind do not prohibit, however, is tawdriness, a definite characteristic found when “bucktoothed” Arkansas moonshiners report cattle mutilations, etc. The account is tawdry and laughable (and thus entertaining), because the claimant is automatically perceived as being lower than us, mentally, socially, etc., and therefore, must be lying (or, more entertainingly so, mistaken).
In addition, say for example a doctor is involved in what he or she believes to be an alien abduction scenario…how many of these hypothetical folks do you think would report the incident? Your sort of thinking would most definitely prevent that from happening. He or she’d be laughed out of the profession forever.
As for Streiber (sp?), his accounts are fascinating in that he refuses to accept an explanation, insisting that, regardless of their origin and event-reality, they have changed him for the better, an insistence that, in his mind, makes them real enough. Thanks for bringing him up, Blue and learae. I’d forgotten about “Communion.” By the way, the movie is an almost perfect adaption of his accounts.
In regard to your question, TVeblen, the contemporary nature of the described “alien gray” is interesting, indeed. This reflects one of a number of possibilities:
Physically existing aliens just got here (some claim they didn’t have a reason to visit until we detonated the atomic bomb…note the UFO era didn’t begin until Kenneth Arnold’s sighting in 1947)
They are delusions, Jungian manifestations, or any number of psychological phenomena stemming from postindustrial anxieties, etc. (the aliens do often warn against ecological destruction, etc.)
They’ve always been here (either real aliens or the reoccurring motif of tiny intruders) but have been referred to in the past as “fairies,” “gnomes,” “demons,” “angels,” etc.
Either way, my head’s starting to hurt. I don’t know. I don’t think I care, anywmore. All I know is that, Wally, your attitude is pretty disappointing. It’s pretty sorry when even a supposed hub of intelligence contains those as contrary to the advance of knowledge as you seem to be.
p.s. Yeah, DB Cooper (actually, Dan Cooper was his name…we’ve been using the wrong name all along) was the poor schmuck who jumped out of that airplane with all the stolen dough. We are not one and the same, though, as everyone knows the famed hijacker most likely became part of the surrounding area’s water table that evening.
As a long-time Art Bell listener, long-time non-believer I have to say my policy has always been to disregard any abduction tale (or any of the other kinds of tales told on his show) that begins with the phrase “I was sleeping when . . .”
If you exlude stories starting with those words you will be down to about 10% of abduction stories. Usually that phrase is followed by “and I know it wasn’t a dream!”
To answer the OP: No, I have never been abducted. I have woken up in the middle of the night unable to move, however; but that is just because baglady forgot to untie me. I have seen some spectacular UFOs, though (two comes to mind) but I doubt they were of intelligent extraterrestrial origin.
Oh, please. Pretentiousness is a poor substitute for scientific investigation.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. There has never been a shred of evidence, extraordinary or otherwise, to show that alien abductions are anything more than hoaxes or delusions.
I’m not even going to get into the physical aspects of interstellar travel, because I doubt that you would even care. People like you think the Universe is governed by the hopes and dreams of men. It isn’t. It’s governed by physical laws.
Further, your opinion on this matter is not more valid than mine. Unless you have some proof that this “phenomenon” is real, people everywhere have a right to question it. As I have. And unlike you, I didn’t find it necessary to appeal to authority, with “doctors, writers and whatnot.”
If you post this in Great Debates where it belongs, you might be able to get a dialogue going, and perhaps learn a little on how to present a case.
I know that the Universe governed by physical laws. See, the difference between you and me is that you, not even remotely educated on the subject (as you’ve repeatedly demonstrated and to which you’ve admitted), immediately reject it as the product of hoaxes or delusions, unless it can be decidedly proven otherwise.
I, on the other hand, know enough about the phenomena to admit that a trite, knee-jerk dismissal won’t cut it. I DON’T KNOW if 1000s of people across the world are falling prey to the exact same delusion despite their lack of communication between one another. I DON’T KNOW if a hoax of unprecedented proportions is underway. I can admit that I don’t know what’s going on.
I can also say to myself, “Hey, not knowing isn’t bad, and it doesn’t mean that I have to simply reject the claims as balderdash. The frequency with which this is reported, along with it’s dynamics, seem to fly in the face of the delusion theory, the hoax theory, etc. This might be interesting to look into” You don’t know what it is, either. This frustrates you, and it’s easiest for your comfortably limited world-view if you simply ignore it. Know what? I don’t even think it’s physical aliens responsible. Note that I never offered support to the ET hypothesis. Note that I offered a number of possible theories, never adhering to one in particular.
I know I was warned against doing this, but you are an incredible ass, Wally. You know, I can post a list of the presenters at the conference in lieu of my intentionally nebulous role-call of “doctors, writers and whatnot.” I didn’t do so in the OP because I never expected to be attacked, never expected to have to defend any part of my statement. As the moderator stated, the OP was meant as an invitation to share experiences. And how did you respond?
What the hell? Who cares why I think it’s fascinating? If you wanted to DEBATE why I thought it was interesting, then perhaps you should have e-mailed me, or posted in the Great DEBATE forum. Arguing about the validity of the experiencers’ claims was not my intention. Perhaps this is that “treat-the-new-folks-like-shit” stuff that I hear goes on at this site. If so, well, come on…like anyone cares that you’re a long time poster on an internet BBS. Nobody gives a damn when you flaunt your long-time tenure or your thousands of posts. I mean, any other losers who revel in doing the same thing might, but no respectable people.
As for any misspelling in the above reply, I’m too angry to give a fuck.
I don’t get it. DBCooper posted a perfectly reasonable post, in a perfectly reasonable way, even going so far as to cover all his bases and defining exactly what his intention was in asking for these anecdotes, and Wally just goes all a bit off-kilter at him?
Guano, I thought that Mr. Cooper’s reaction to my first post was out of proportion. It seemed to me that he has a chip on his shoulder about this subject. If we can’t discuss differing viewpoints, somebody has to back off. I did.
I read in the World Weekly News that aliens have removed heads for experiments that take hours upon hours to complete although the abductee swears it was only for a minute. Some even obtain an unnatural love for soccer.
[Moderator Notes:] DBCooper, I’ve posted one warning to you already. Apparently you have chosen to ignore it, so here’s a second. Knock off the damned name calling and personal attacks; if you wish to trade insults go to the BBQ Pit. That is the designated place for activity of this type. The BBQ Pit is there to keep the other forums realtively clean of offensive behavior. Continued flaunting of the rules will result in closure of this thread and possible termination of your posting privileges. I’m serious. Stop it now.
I’M personally attacking someone? How’s about you go back to the OP and start reading, Unclebeer, the second reply in particular? I was defending myself. If anyone is guilty of affronting other BBS members, it’s Wally. If anyone is guilty of composing inappropriately themed postings, it’s Wally.
DBCooper, I am talking specifically about name-calling and personal attacks. Yes, you are guilty and in fact, you made the first post in this vein, not Wally. I think Wally’s initial post was made to question the value of researching this phenomenon, perhaps a bit strongly or over-the-top, but there is nothing personal in it. Your subsequent post is where things got personal, specifically you called Wally, “a close-minded nimrod.” A clear over-reaction. Wally then made, what I see as, an almost light-hearted response to that, but maybe a bit personal. Then Wally makes a post admitting, he’s “uneducated” on the subject and rolls off a few of the stereotypes associated with alien abductees. Nothing personal here, but maybe a bit offensive or sarcastic. (Sarcasm is something you’ll need to learn to appreciate if you wish to have an enjoyable experience here.)
Now we come to my first warning; to both of you. And then we have Wally’s apology. He was, however, apologizing to me, not to you. So maybe it doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, but as I showed above, you posted the first personal insult, not him, and in fact, there isn’t much for him to apologize to you over anyway. At that point I thought the thing was behind us. Not entirely on topic, but the end of the personal ugliness.
On to your next post at 6:12pm on Friday.
This is a nothing more than a personal insult, a flame if you will. Wally responded, not in kind, but with yet another difference of opinion. He is attacking ideas, not personalities.
Your response was reasonable until we come to this:
Thus stating, that while you knew the rules, you chose to disregard them. This does nothing to support your current argument of holding a defensive posture.
You also posted this:
Yep, it appears this is what was happening in this thread. It’s also exactly what I was trying to head off with my initial warning to both of you. That is one of my functions here. However, the fault does not lie solely with Wally, you must share some of the blame for overly strong reactions to attacks on ideas and for recurrent personal insults.
Let me make a small summarization: Attacks and question of ideas and beliefs are fair game in this and all other forums. Personal insults and hostility are tolerated only in the BBQ Pit, and even then, only to a certain degree.
If you wish a further distinction, please e-mail me at rseaney@teamsigma.com and I’ll try to go into more detail on the differences, as well as what is allowable and what is not. If you feel that I may be biased, there is another moderator for this forum, he’s available at eutychus55@aol.com
Allow me to ROFLMAO for a minute there
But I thought they developed an unnatural HATE for soccer (football!)??
I would, however, advise anyone to develop a NATURAL love for soccer (football!). Alien or not, abducted or not. Can you tell I just watched the opening match for Euro 2000??
I’m moving this to the Pit anyway. I think UncleBeer has been more than patient and given enough warnings. If you wnat to discuss the reality of Abduction experiences and compare notes, post it in IMHO. If you want to discuss the pros and cons, try Great Debates. I think there is much to be said on both sides, but this is far too pointed for this forum. This is supposed to be pointless, remember?
