A review of "Abducted by Aliens: UFO Encounters of the 4th Kind"
This is a dragging and repetitive documentary about
the alien abduction phenomenon. Essentially, it's an extended interview with
two authors and abductees, William Konkolesky and David Twitchell. It also
contains footage of the late John Mack, the Harvard psychiatrist who took alien
abduction stories seriously and was almost persecuted as a result.
The interviews with Konkolesky and Twitchell are interspersed with the standard “explanations” and speculations: UFOs in the Bible, Erich von Däniken's ancient astronauts, government conspiracies, cattle mutilations etc. At one point, the narrator stumbles on the truth, comparing the aliens to the “medieval” belief in incubi and succubi. If alien abductions are real at all (rather than some kind of delusion, perhaps of a sexual nature), they should be seen as spiritual experiences. The documentary is brave enough to admit that some UFO/alien experiences are benign or even mystical, involving contactees rather than abductees.
There are no “extraterrestrials” in a literal sense, which explains why even believers are forced to postulate journeys through other dimensions by which the “aliens” reach our planet. Material beings can't travel faster than the speed of light. Comparisons to shamanic experiences, where the soul of the future shaman is “abducted”, tortured and dismembered, could prove more instructive. So could folkish stories of meetings with the faery. The fairies act in ways strikingly similar to the aliens, yet nobody thinks they roam the skies in huge mechanical craft!
It feels that “Abducted by Aliens” is firmly stuck in…the vast expanses of empty space.
The interviews with Konkolesky and Twitchell are interspersed with the standard “explanations” and speculations: UFOs in the Bible, Erich von Däniken's ancient astronauts, government conspiracies, cattle mutilations etc. At one point, the narrator stumbles on the truth, comparing the aliens to the “medieval” belief in incubi and succubi. If alien abductions are real at all (rather than some kind of delusion, perhaps of a sexual nature), they should be seen as spiritual experiences. The documentary is brave enough to admit that some UFO/alien experiences are benign or even mystical, involving contactees rather than abductees.
There are no “extraterrestrials” in a literal sense, which explains why even believers are forced to postulate journeys through other dimensions by which the “aliens” reach our planet. Material beings can't travel faster than the speed of light. Comparisons to shamanic experiences, where the soul of the future shaman is “abducted”, tortured and dismembered, could prove more instructive. So could folkish stories of meetings with the faery. The fairies act in ways strikingly similar to the aliens, yet nobody thinks they roam the skies in huge mechanical craft!
It feels that “Abducted by Aliens” is firmly stuck in…the vast expanses of empty space.
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