Worrisome fad?

Copyright 2023, InterAmerica, Inc.
 
Kathleen Marden – niece of Betty Hill and a full-time ufologist – is promoting/capitalizing on the “UFO abduction” (Experiencer) delusion.
 
This from Facebook 1/30/23:

Kathleen believes that Betty and Barney Hill were actually kidnapped by “alien”  beings in 1961, and the Hills did seem to have experienced something odd, which evolved into the UFO abduction scenario.

 
The problem is that, today, the kidnapped/abduction “experience” has mushroomed into the great fable of the modern era.
 
I’d call it the great delusional hysteria of the 20/21^st Centuries.
 
No one is being abducted by extraterrestrial beings and examined by the creatures or entities as described by Ms. Marden, Preston Dennett, or that fiction writer Whitley Strieber, who continues to milk his tale at conferences, in books, and a popular podcast.
 
A consideration of an actual alien encounter appears in a few UFO episodes that baffle the senses and reality because they derive from credible sources, and are represented by circumstantial events that belabor any consideration of hoax or mental aberration: the 1973 Pascagoula “incident” involving Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, two, good ol’  boys whose recounting their “abduction” is beyond reasonable reproach:
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascagoula_Abduction
 
That event (and a few others) aside, the vast accounting of UFO kidnappings reeks of mimicry and hallucination or worse, sociopathic-fraud..
 
Something seems to have happened to the Hills and something really happened to the Pascagoula boys, and there are other accounts which seem on the up and up.
 
What the events are remains open to speculation surely. Yet, the idea that alien [ET] beings are swarming the Earth to pick up and medically check out humans they grab from their beds or cars seems ludicrous on the face of the recountings.
 
Moreover, the aftermath of such horrendous snatchings do not reconcile with the aftermaths of actual kidnappings by humans upon humans: 
 
Short-term psychological effects, typically with onset within the first month after freedom, include anxiety and post-traumatic symptoms such as physical tension, insomnia, hyperarousal, and recurring thoughts of the kidnapping incident (Van der Ploeg & Kheijn, 1989). Long-term effects to the mental health of survivors are varied, and may be exacerbated by injury, starvation, and other forms of violence and cruelty while in captivity. Cognitive impairment is more than possible, including attention deficits, impaired short-term and long-term memory, and dissociative episodes and derealization (Dinnen et al, 2015; Van der Ploeg & Kheijn, 1989). Further anxiety symptoms are possible, along with avoidance of areas, activities, and people psychologically associated with the kidnapping event and captivity. Depressive symptoms such as irritability, anhedonia, a withdrawn affect, and feelings of helplessness are more than possible after a kidnapping incident. [From An Introduction to the Dangers and Psychological Effects of Kidnapping Benjamin Reissman, Tamanna Akhter, Jin Soo Park, 2019]
 
As readers of UFO abduction accounts can see, there are few if any after-effects of such dire kinds taking hold of alleged abductees, their behavior and subsequent activity hardly traumatic, belying their supposed moments under scrutiny by stupendously odd beings.
 
Even the Pascagoula fellows came away from their seemingly authentic episode relatively unscathed, which allows caution as to what really happened to them physically and mentally.
 
The ongoing hyper-intense of some to encourage or make money from such livid tales goes to the heart of creative malfeasance for economic reward, not a pursuit of some kind of aberrant reality affecting supposedly “millions” of humans on this planet.
 
That we rational followers of the UFO phenomenon allow and even encourage such blatant chicanery is not only sad but almost as pathological as the exploiters of the abduction “insanity.” [Forgive me Thomas Szasz]
 
RR

What are we doing?

Copyright 2023, InterAmerica, Inc.

Scouring my usual go-to UFO sites this morning, I find almost all of them – those outside the Facebook Groups I follow – smudged with old sightings and past activities or highlights by those who’ve posted the material – sort of a glorification of their efforts that they still promote but had little to do with any advancement in the search for what UFOs are or origins or purpose or anything of essence.
 
(Forgive me that paragraph, but I was stunned by the “go back to past efforts just for the glory" – weak as it was – and not for anything else.)
 
My pal Dominick was irked by my note yesterday [1/29] that there are no UFO “experts” and never were, Dom citing Dr. James McDonald who fought the good fight on behalf of the phenomenon but committed suicide for reasons always obscure when one takes their own life, often prematurely.
 
Dr. McDonald was a brilliant advocate for the phenomenon, at a time when the general public and UFO skeptics were ballyhooing the silliness of witnesses and believers.
 
But, as I responded in a comment, Dr. McDonald was no expert – there is no such thing.
 
There are UFO hobbyists but no bona fide experts – not even the noteworthy Jacques Vallee. He, also brilliant, but just as confused by the UFO phenomenon as we peons are.
 
A few UFO aficionados who are relatively unknown or noteworthy continue to wrangle with any view that doesn’t support theirs. They think they’re experts but don’t even show up when UFOs are broached in public or even private venues, such as those Facebook UFO groups or podcasts that are now ubiquitous.
 
UFOs don’t allow, and never have, expertise. The phenomenon is too enigmatic or profound for the lowly I.Qed mentality of UFO enthusiasts.
 
Even the adoring pastiche pile of academics who’ve jumped on the UFO bandwagon are far from the expert category. Their interest is too new and too esoteric to comprehend the significance of the UFO phenomenon.
 
The only academic I find with any worthiness is Avi Loeb but, he too is no expert, just an interesting tyro, who is confounded by the phenomenon because a UFO – the  odd oumuamua intrusion -- entered into Loeb’s bailiwick, our solar system and the astronomical milieu Avi’s expertise does lie in.
 
I’ve followed the flying saucer/UFO things for more years than almost everyone now pursuing the phenomenon. I am, surely, no expert, just a critic of the assumed vanity of those who’d like to be an expert of anything, failures all, at that which makes life significant and notable.
 
There are no UFO experts. And we who are UFO hobbyists have got to accept that, or else we are followers of cultists and ignoramuses who keep us afloat with their repetitious returns to once-upon-a-time minor glories they had when they got something printed in a magazine or a mention in other media.
 
UFOs will continue to intrigue and awe the masses, but no one will get a handle on what they are, unless a government agency or military construct offers their take or accumulation of UFO goodies.
 
And even that is without expertise. UFOs do not allow “experts” to fathom what they are.
 
Their mystery is inherent and beyond the scope of our cro-magnon minds.
 
RR