Alternative Explanations for Contactees

[DBTrek]

Below is my attempt to take an Occam’s Razor approach to the UFO Contactee phenomena. Clearly many people believe that they have been contacted/abducted by extra-terrestrial beings. Unless a large segment of the population is predisposed to embarrassing themselves by telling fantastic (and unsubstantiated) stories it stands to reason that many of these people have in fact experienced exactly what they describe.

Yet this is not hard evidence of alien contact.

We must consider what other possible explanations exist for these experiences. Obviously many choose to believe that aliens are in fact traveling over vast distances and/or time to torment/enlighten human beings for unknown purposes. I believe there are more likely culprits.

I offer the following as possible alternative explanations for these experiences:

Drugs – Many hallucinogenic drugs (LSD, psilocibin, Salvorin A, and DMT in particular) are known to cause very realistic and fantastic experiences. Could some portion of these contactees have been unwittingly exposed to such agents without their knowledge? I don’t see why not. The US Government is known to have experimented on it’s own citizenry using hallucinogens, see the MK-ULTRA project.

EM Warfare - Testing of electro-magnetic weaponry on the populace would be a more viable explanation than interstellar travelers. Dr. Michael Persinger’s “god helmet” demonstrated the stimulating the temporal lobes of humans with magnetic fields could create bizarre hallucinations. EM weapons are real, and the descriptions of several others can be found here.

Mental Illness – Contactees are human, some humans are mentally ill.

These alternate explanations do not require a conspiracy of global governments working in concert with aliens to hide the “truth” from the populace. Therefore, to me, they seem more reasonable than the explanation of “aliens grabbed me and then left without a trace”. Precedents for government experimentation on civillian populations exist. Drugs exist. EM weapons exist. Mental illness exists.

Alien craft capable of bridging time and space are speculative.

Thoughts?

-DBTrek

[CapnG]

You forgot sleep paralysis.

[Koji K.]

I would rule out drugs and EM warfare experiments (not for every case, but as a general explanation for all cases) because they would require a conspiracy of a geographic and temporal scale beggaring belief almost as much as the "government in league with aliens" conspiracy. Further, the government doesn't necessarily have to be in league with aliens for people to be contacted by them. But people have been reporting alien contact for many decades at least, so if drugs or EM warfare experiments were the explanation, it would involve a massive conspiracy spanning the globe (people outside the US, of course, report contact experiences), and throughout time.

I do believe the phenomenon may be closely related to EM effects as well as biological effects however, so these explanations may be a useful piece of the puzzle IMO, if not the full explanation.

As for mental illness, there has been a lot of research done on this possibility in the literature, but as far as I can tell the jury is still "out there" on that one. Certainly it is an explanation for some, possibly many, instances, but I do not think all.

Just my 2 cents.

[DBTrek]

Originally Posted by CapnG

You forgot sleep paralysis.

I did. I also forgot "self aggrandizement", for taking in to account those who would fabricate a story for attention/publicity/fame/notoriety. That gives us five possibilities that take far less explaination (or strecthing of the imagination) than the popular belief that highly advanced alien civilizations are contacting humans and then vanishing without a trace.

-DBTrek

[Koji K.]

Self aggrandizement would, again, account for some cases, but not all- many contactees remain anonymous, and telling their stories brings them much pain and social or economic hardship.

[DBTrek]

Originally Posted by Koji K.

I would rule out drugs and EM warfare experiments (not for every case, but as a general explanation for all cases) because they would require a conspiracy of a geographic and temporal scale beggaring belief almost as much as the "government in league with aliens" conspiracy.

I disagree on this point. We have evidence of governments performing exactly these types of experiments, and it required no grand conspiracy . . . just the CIA, or military units willing to use people a guinea pigs and then hiding the evidence the best they could. Of course, they obviously didn't hide it well enough because we have knowledge of the experimets now.

Further, the government doesn't necessarily have to be in league with aliens for people to be contacted by them. But people have been reporting alien contact for many decades at least, so if drugs or EM warfare experiments were the explanation, it would involve a massive conspiracy spanning the globe (people outside the US, of course, report contact experiences), and throughout time.

You raise a good point. The EM testing theory would only apply to experiences within the last 50 years or so. Previous to that it's not a viable explanation.

I do believe the phenomenon may be closely related to EM effects as well as biological effects however, so these explanations may be a useful piece of the puzzle IMO, if not the full explanation.

I agree.

Good points.

-DBTrek

[Aaron LeClair]

Originally Posted by DBTrek

Below is my attempt to take an Occam's Razor approach to the UFO Contactee phenomena. Clearly many people believe that they have been contacted/abducted by extra-terrestrial beings. Unless a large segment of the population is predisposed to embarrassing themselves by telling fantastic (and unsubstantiated) stories it stands to reason that many of these people have in fact experienced exactly what they describe.

Yet this is not hard evidence of alien contact.

We must consider what other possible explanations exist for these experiences. Obviously many choose to believe that aliens are in fact traveling over vast distances and/or time to torment/enlighten human beings for unknown purposes. I believe there are more likely culprits.

I offer the following as possible alternative explanations for these experiences:

Drugs - Many hallucinogenic drugs (LSD, psilocibin, Salvorin A, and DMT in particular) are known to cause very realistic and fantastic experiences. Could some portion of these contactees have been unwittingly exposed to such agents without their knowledge? I don't see why not. The US Government is known to have experimented on it's own citizenry using hallucinogens, see the MK-ULTRA project.

EM Warfare - Testing of electro-magnetic weaponry on the populace would be a more viable explanation than interstellar travelers. Dr. Michael Persinger's "god helmet" demonstrated the stimulating the temporal lobes of humans with magnetic fields could create bizarre hallucinations. EM weapons are real, and the descriptions of several others can be found here.

Mental Illness - Contactees are human, some humans are mentally ill.

These alternate explanations do not require a conspiracy of global governments working in concert with aliens to hide the "truth" from the populace. Therefore, to me, they seem more reasonable than the explanation of "aliens grabbed me and then left without a trace". Precedents for government experimentation on civillian populations exist. Drugs exist. EM weapons exist. Mental illness exists.

Alien craft capable of bridging time and space are speculative.

Thoughts?

-DBTrek

Uh oh... Many people here don't like Occam's Razor. I'm not one of them.

In my experience, Contactees are often simply liars. Simply put. Abductees generally less so.

"Alien craft capable of bridging time and space are speculative."

So's assuming this is some sort of daunting task for aliens.

[DBTrek]

Originally Posted by A.LeClair

In my experience, Contactees are often simply liars. Simply put. Abductees generally less so.

"Alien craft capable of bridging time and space are speculative."

So's assuming this is some sort of daunting task for aliens.

You're right of course, assuming anything about alien beings is nothing more than taking a shot in the dark. We can look at other probabilities though (the few we understand).

In order for other sentient life forms to be visiting us several coincidences have to happen at the same time. For example:

* The aliens visitors must exist right now. Out of the estimated 14 billion years the universe has existed the aliens must co-habit the same time general period we do. Odds of that happening roughly 1 in 1.4 million (assuming a 10,000 year existence for modern humans on earth). Those are bad odds, even in Vegas.

* They must have a way of determining that sentient life inhabits Earth. Odds are incalculable due to the fact that we still have no idea how large the cosmos is. Supposing an advanced alien race does co-habit this time period with us, how would they find us if we are at opposite ends of the universe?

* Supposing the aliens exist in our time period, are aware of us, and are only a short 5 million light years away, they must still have a means for travelling to our location while we are still in existence. If it takes them 5+ million years (at the speed of light) to reach our planet we may well be gone by the time they arrive.

* They have to be able to keep their arrival completely secret and leave behind no hard evidence of their visits.

Possible? Yes. Likely? No.

I find it far more likely that most contactees with genuine experiences are being effected by unknown factors here on earth. This eliminates trying to explain the vast improbabilities of interstellar/temporal travel. It also opens up for discussion "What might the cause of these experiences be"?

-DBTrek

[CapnG]

Originally Posted by DBTrek

* The aliens visitors must exist right now.

Not if they're time travelers...

Originally Posted by DBTrek

Out of the estimated 14 billion years the universe has existed the aliens must co-habit the same time general period we do. Odds of that happening roughly 1 in 1.4 million (assuming a 10,000 year existence for modern humans on earth). Those are bad odds, even in Vegas.

Yes but in a galaxy of billions and billions of stars, and countless trillions of galaxies those "odds" are practically a guarantee.

Originally Posted by DBTrek

* Supposing an advanced alien race does co-habit this time period with us, how would they find us if we are at opposite ends of the universe?

Through means unknown to human science. If they can traverse space, this should be a snap for them.

Originally Posted by DBTrek

* Supposing the aliens exist in our time period, are aware of us, and are only a short 5 million light years away, they must still have a means for travelling to our location while we are still in existence. If it takes them 5+ million years (at the speed of light) to reach our planet we may well be gone by the time they arrive.

Assuming they don't have some sort of "super-science" that eliminates this barrier, which they would have to have in order to get here, rendering this point irrelevant.

Originally Posted by DBTrek

* They have to be able to keep their arrival completely secret and leave behind no hard evidence of their visits.

Why? Do they have a Prime Directive or something? That's completely assumptive and basically wrong, since obviously sighting reports exist on every CE level. Certainly they would appear to be attempting to maintain a low profile but they aren't necessarily succeeding.

[DBTrek]

Originally Posted by CapnG

Not if they're time travelers...

Quite so. Though which do you find to be more likely . . . time travelling humans coming back to earth, or a completely alien species of time traveller crossing space and time to come to earth? If backwards time travel is in fact possible (this is highly disputed) then I would think that humans from the future would make far more likely visitors than a time travelling alien species. Humans have far more invested in the historic deeds of humanity than an outside race.

Yes but in a galaxy of billions and billions of stars, and countless trillions of galaxies those "odds" are practically a guarantee.

Quantify that, it sounds like pure conjecture. We're not talking about the possibility of "life" existing elsewhere in the universe, we're talking about a time-travelling, space jumping, highly technologically advanced civilization pinpointing earth out of the entire cosmos and coming here. I find that possibility to be far from 'gauranteed'.

Through means unknown to human science. If they can traverse space, this should be a snap for them.

This assumes quite a bit for which we have no evidence. It's easy to say "If [x] has supernatural or god-like technology/powers than [x] can easily do [anything]". Sure . . . but what in the observable universe even hints at that being the case?

Assuming they don't have some sort of "super-science" that eliminates this barrier, which they would have to have in order to get here, rendering this point irrelevant.

Again . . . if [x] has godlike powers of perception, detecting life in the cosmos, and traversing space/time. . . sure. Of course, this would make them indistinguishable from 'god', and we woould now be discussing a matter more akin to religion than alien technology. 'God' can do anything . . . and so could aliens with 'god's power.

Why? Do they have a Prime Directive or something? That's completely assumptive and basically wrong, since obviously sighting reports exist on every CE level. Certainly they would appear to be attempting to maintain a low profile but they aren't necessarily succeeding.

They're doing just fine at concealing the evidence of their abductions/contacts. They've managed not to leave a shred of hard evidence so far in the thousands (if not tens of thousands) of claimed contacts/abductions.

-DBTrek