There have been many people over the years who have reported alien abductions. According to their own testimony, a craft not of human origin, housing a life form not of human origin, took them aboard by force. Within this general statement of fact the details may vary, but eventually the person claims to have been released back to Earth. How then can we assess these claims and how likely is there to be any truth in them?
While absolute proof for the existence of non-human life forms is lacking, human knowledge is sufficiently lacking that their existence is definitely within the range of the possible. Humanity has reached only a small fraction of all the worlds that exist and therefore there is no justification for making absolute claims regarding the existence or lack thereof of life forms of alien origin. While our current knowledge gives us no basis upon which to believe that non-human life forms exist, it is clearly within the range of the possible for them to exist in locations we have yet to visit.
Having established the possibility of life forms of non-human origin existing, it does not exceed reasonable expectation that such a life form might have technological capabilities greater than our own. The ability to travel over long distances is something that we as human are quickly gaining in our ability to understand. While at one time the idea of going to the moon seemed pure fantasy, we are now able to send unmanned space craft over unbelievably long distances and our understanding of how to achieve even more continues. There could be something in non-human anatomy that enables such life forms to gather knowledge quicker, travel long distances more easily, or any number of other factors that might explain why alien life forms would have the capacity and interest to visit our planet.
One factor often sighted against the truth of abduction claims is that they occur in isolated areas away from large population segments. This is not to say that reports of unidentified flying crafts do not come from populated areas, but abduction incidents are generally reported away from large population centers. While this could be interpreted as coming from isolated people looking for attention or who are not completely right in the head, it could just as easily be considered a safer and more practical area on which to land an alien craft on an unknown world. In the absence of knowledge of another species of people, it would be safer to land in an unpopulated location. This demonstrates that facts are often interpreted in relation to a person’s preconceived notions of what can or can’t be and not merely upon the facts as represented.
Those who make claims of alien abduction are often described as being mentally unbalanced or out of touch with reality. While this may be true, it could just as easily be explained by contact with a non-human life form. It is impossible to understand what an encounter would do to a person’s thought processes. When a person encounters something far outside a preconceived belief pattern, the shock to the mind can often be quite shattering. Unless someone has had a similar experience, care must be taken in judging the reaction of someone who claims to have had such an experience.
While the current facts argue against the reality of non-human life forms in general or specifically the reality of alien abductions they cannot be rejected out of hand. The facts do not eliminate their possibility, but merely indicate that given our current state of knowledge they are highly unlikely. Each case must be given reasonable respect, while continuing to search for clear fact amid the report. Alien abductions at this time continue to be within the range of possible, but highly unlikely occurrences on our planet.
