By Bill Konkolesky
We are now living in what might as well be called the UAP era of UFO history and the one-time prominent aspect of alien abductions has been widely eclipsed by the current near-exclusive focus on the sightings of lights and crafts. Making this even more marginalizing for the experiencer community is that the discussion is currently being repackaged as Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) and led by the politicians, military, and media who have dismissed all UFO-related phenomenon throughout modern history. UFO witnesses and long-time investigators aren’t being brought to the table as authorities and the discussion suffers for this, particularly in the case of the abduction phenomenon.
Further still, even within the UFO community itself, abductions aren’t being paid proper attention these days. One example of this is Steven Greer’s recently released documentary “Cosmic Hoax.” I was nodding along with the proposition that the U.S. government is manipulating information on the UFO phenomenon…until Greer stated that all reported alien abductions are actually done by human military in a style to hoax extraterrestrial involvement. I understand some of them perhaps, but all of them? As an experiencer who knows many other experiencers, I am disbelief that a prominent spokesperson in the UFO community could make a statement like that. The encounters that I personally had where I was taken against my will were not done by the military.
To be clear, I am not disrespecting Dr. Greer for his point of view. I am wondering, fifty years since the Barney and Betty Hill abduction, how the case apparently hasn’t been sufficiently made for the reality of alien abduction. How many years and how many abductees will it take?
The names of credible abductees who have publicly shared their stories is far too long to list but I will point to one encounter that I think is an outstanding example of alien abduction reality, the Allagash Maine abduction of 1976. Four men were abducted together while camping along the Allagash River and, as they were all artists, produced eerily matching sketches of their shared encounter with strange beings. If these men are being honest, then they were abducted by aliens. And if people are being abducted by aliens, then isn’t this interpersonal aspect the most meaningful feature of the UFO phenomenon?
What makes this perhaps more puzzling is that abductions were once very much in the spotlight. From the late 1970s through late 1990s, the abduction phenomenon enjoyed two decades of prominence before fading.
We did lose two high-visibility investigator champions from that era in Budd Hopkins and Dr. John Mack and perhaps a movement needs public figures like these to rally around. While I honor and thank the many investigators and abductees who currently work hard to try to promote the topic, the majority are situational celebrities at best, known sometimes very well within the UFO community but not outside of it.
By all means, there is indeed good in keeping the current dialogue of UAPs going. Please, however, also recognize that folks are persistently being taken by non-human entities. This is worth paying some serious attention to…right? I guess those of us in this corner just need to shout a little louder these days.