# What is the deal with aliens and anal probing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2002, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618 "2002-12-05T03:44:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/1 "2002-12-05T03:44:31Z")
When the hell did this cliche start and why? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/2 "2002-12-05T03:51:58Z")
Deliverance by James Dickey, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Enkidu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8c91f0/32.png) [@Enkidu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkidu)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/3 "2002-12-05T04:48:40Z")
Dana Gould does a bit where he talks about the alien fascination with this practice. I must paraphrase: We’ve conquered the vast expanses of the universe, but that is nothing compared to the mysteries contained within the human anus! ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/4 "2002-12-05T04:49:16Z")
As someone around here once said, “There’s not a bunch of aliens studying the human body, it’s just one ship going around the world with a crew that has a body probe fetish.” Wish I remember who said that… ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/5 "2002-12-05T06:32:02Z")
I like what Kang from “The Simpsons” had to say about this: “We have reached the limit of what rectal probing can teach us!” ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/6 "2002-12-05T07:07:33Z")
I think the fascination with anal probing says more about the people who report the anal probing than the supposed aliens. Hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little anal pleasure, people. You don’t have to project your desire for anal games onto freaking non-existant ALIENS, for crying out loud. Get over your shame and love your anus, and stop blaming Kand and Kodos. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/7 "2002-12-05T07:42:34Z")
And constrict 100 times for goodbye depression! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/8 "2002-12-05T08:21:23Z")
One of the most famous alleged UFO abduction cases, that of New Hampshire couple Betty and Barney Hill in 1961, recalled under hypnosis, included receiving a medical examination aboard the spacecraft, with biological samples taken from them. Betty said a long needle was inserted into her stomach as part of a “pregnancy test” while Barney said a circular device was painfully attached to his groin. Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson, two fishermen in Pascagoula, Mississippi, claimed to have been abducted into a flying saucer in 1973. Hickson said he was taken into a brightly-lit room inside the ship, and examined by an eye-like device as he floated in the air. The best-selling book _Encounters_ by John Mack, M.D., includes the story of Edward Carlos, a fine arts professor in Pennsylvania, who claimed he was abducted into a spaceship in 1990. Under hypnotic regression, he recalled having an anal examination to determine his health. As he says, “They are clarifying that the inside of me is okay, and they are operating on me… If there is anything not right, the process can be healing.” ---
**Author:** ![effac3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@effac3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/effac3d)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/9 "2002-12-05T09:07:50Z")
Wouldn’t aliens have amazing “MRI” like devices at their disposal? I really don’t see why they would have use for anal probes. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/10 "2002-12-05T11:01:03Z")
Someone once speculated that alien visitations may have been repressed memories of child abuse. Now there’s no doubt a whole bunch of evidence that points against that hypothesis, but the points it made seemed logical to me. Always at night. Extreme fear and being frozen with it. Frightening face with large eyes. Fiddling around with your naughty bits. All of those could be a child’s interpretation that would subsequently be distorted into nightmares and flashes of memory. Maybe. Well, anyway, the way the person described it in the article made a lot of sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![GoldenGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@GoldenGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoldenGael)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/11 "2002-12-05T12:20:21Z")
As I understand it, these space ships run on methane, and the so-called **anal probing** is really a somewhat clumsy **refueling operation**. Trust us hick humans from the backwater of the universe to see things in entirely the wrong light! ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/12 "2002-12-05T13:16:32Z")
Lemur’s post hit it on the head. To the extent these reports aren’t just made up, it’s a combination of projection, imagination or fear. If someone could research when these reports started surfacing, I would bet the farm someone had made up the procedure in a sci-fi book or magazine before the reports or perhaps a comedian did a bit about proctology. Remember the 7000 reports of anthrax? Hardly anyone had heard of it, then within two weeks, we were all watching for it in the mail. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/13 "2002-12-05T13:53:39Z")
IIRC, the first report of alien absduction with anal probing was Whitley Streiber’s **Communion**. The good (?) word got spread when the book was made into a movie with Christopher Walken. Before that, no one _ever_ talked about aliens and rectums at the same time. (Betty Hill said she got probed through the navel). ---
**Author:** ![hammerbach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hammerbach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammerbach)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/14 "2002-12-05T14:30:14Z")
An interesting turn on this subject can also be found in Christopher Buckly’s novel “Little Green Men”. It depicts government agents conducting “alien abduction” exercises in what was originally a disinformation campaign, but has now grown into a political tool… very enjoyable read, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/15 "2002-12-05T15:16:20Z")
Yeah, I also believe it is more indicitave of the person reporting it than actual anal probing. They have little or no imagination to begin with and just go along with whatever the popular lore of the day is. If others had been saying it was oral probing you can bet their stories would say that instead. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/16 "2002-12-05T15:44:02Z")
Getting back to the OP… CalMeacham’s right–Whitley Streiber’s _Communion_ is the source. I’ve rarely come across it in other abduction literature, though–most abductees report alien concentration on the genitals and extracting sperm and ova by various methods. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/17 "2002-12-05T15:58:52Z")
In one of the earliest UFO abduction stories, that of Mr. Howard Menger, who detailed in his classic “From Outer Space,” there is no mention, so apparently alien visitors of the 1950s did not show much interest in that particular orifice. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/18 "2002-12-05T16:06:59Z")
Esprix is an alien? :d&r: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/19 "2002-12-05T16:55:08Z")
I remember a Kids in the hall sketch about this where David Foley is an ET questioning this practice himself. He observes aloud that, of all the thousands of anal probes they have done, all they’ve really discovered is that “…one out of ten don’t seem to mind that much.” He is told that the probes are done because “The Leader wills it.” To which Foley replies, “Well, maybe the Leader is just a demented ass freak.” ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618/20 "2002-12-05T17:25:21Z")
I think it’s a projection of fear regarding the loss of power/control. The vague fear of “will the aliens dominate us?” is turned into the concrete idea that they will use the same methods by which a human could dominate another regardless of sex. Anal penetration is just a step away from the power humping of our chimp friends. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-deal-with-aliens-and-anal-probing/140618.md?page=2)