Aliens live among us and other unsupported baloney

Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Stories are cropping up everywhere about UAPs or UFOs or whatever they call alleged evidence of extraterrestrial sightings. A retired general, a CIA operative, and other so-called experts testify that we are not alone. Pictures of aliens that look like Disney creations abound on the internet. My current favorite is Congresswoman Luna’s insistence that there is evidence of what she refers to as interdimensional beings, whatever that is.

I have been hearing these stories for years. A woman I dated tried to convince me that she had been abducted by aliens who implanted electrodes in her head. Her story was filled with minute details of her experience. She was angry that I attempted to question her instead of just taking her word for it. If statistics are to be believed, as many as four million people have been abducted in the U.S. alone, with many more kidnapped worldwide. Not one shred of hard evidence has been produced in support of these alleged events.

Thanks to X-Files and Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters movie, the whole business of alien interaction has entered the popular imagination. There are many explanations for the abduction stories. Many abduction believers may have had the memory implanted by a parent, under hypnosis, or by cultural sources such as a church or the media. Mental illness may be a contributor, as in the case of mathematician John Nash’s psychotic delusions portrayed in the Oscar-winning film, A Beautiful Mind. Repressed memory of a physical injury, sexual or emotional abuse, or a medical procedure can become locked in the subconscious, and then translated by the conscious mind into an alien abduction.

People who are inclined to unusual beliefs tend to be fantasy-prone. Being fantasy-prone is not an abnormality, and in fact, the vast majority of humans are fantasy-prone, otherwise they would not believe in a variety of irrational ideas. A person can function normally and yet hold many fantastic, irrational beliefs, as long as the fantasies are culturally accepted delusions. Astronomer Carl Sagan attributed stories of alien abduction to this kind of shared cultural delusion based on common brain wiring and chemistry. Being kidnapped by aliens is a culturally shaped manifestation of a universal human need.

People in all cultures have expressed hope that “out there” something exists that is bigger and better than us and that, whatever that something is, it cares about us. Some have called this religion. Others have called it mysticism. We have historical references that can be compared to the alien encounter stories of today. Ancient Greeks thought they were duped into making love with animals. Medieval nuns believed they had been seduced by devils. In the Massachusetts Colony, it was believed that some women were witches. The mere fact that people believe in the reality of their paranormal experiences is not evidence of the authenticity of those experiences.

And now we come to the latest avalanche of unusual sightings, called “Unidentified Anomalous (or Aerial) Phenomena” (UAP). Military pilots report seeing craft that move in unexplainable ways. Reports abound of alien spacecraft in places like Area 51 in Nevada. Can they be regarded as genuine? As of this date, we have no conclusive evidence of non-human visitors. NASA has found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial beings or spacecraft. The sightings are unverifiable, and most can be explained by misidentified aircraft, weather patterns, drones, or other mundane factors. Contrary to expectations, recent government releases of previously-classified documents are not providing conclusive evidence.

A substantial percentage of Americans believe in the existence of alien visitors. “Belief in a cover-up is even higher than belief in alien visitation,” according to The Conversation. A Gallup poll found that a staggering 68% of Americans believe that “the US government knows more about UFOs than it is telling.” Around 10,000 sightings of UFO/UAPs are reported in the U.S. each year, says Seth Shostak at NBC News. “Could it be,” he asks, “that all these witnesses, some of whom are pilots and astronauts, are wrong?” Shostak believes the answer is a resounding YES. People who say that aliens are in plain sight should consider that none of them are picked up by the myriad satellites that scan Earth every day. Think about that.

On the other side of the question, we have “experts” like CIA quantum physicist Dr. Hal Puthoff, who insist that non-human intelligent life has been here for a long time, living secretly alongside humans with technology so advanced that humans could not have created it. Puthoff’s cronies claim that federal officials have recovered four separate types of extraterrestrial life: Nordics, Grays, Insectoids, and Reptilians. Nordics are alleged to bear the most resemblance to humans, with some “experts” claiming that they are walking among us. Others, like Congresswoman Luna, argue that the aliens are not from outer space but rather from another dimension or from the future. UFO “researcher” Dr. Steven Greer claims that “alien-human breeding” programs have been conducted by the U.S. military. Could your Aunt Millie be a hybrid in disguise?

Okay, Dr. Puthoff and friends, put up or shut up. Where is the proof? Despite all the claims of alien sightings, there is no evidence. “I had a conversation with an alien in my garage” is not proof. A blurry photo of an aerial sighting is not proof. A live TV feed of President Trump having lunch in the Oval Office with a three-foot-tall praying mantis would help. Until that video is available, with proof that it is not AI-created, I will remain a skeptic. Extraterrestrial visitations may exist, but until we have proof, we should not be wasting our time confusing personal testimonies and cartoonish pictures of aliens with hard evidence.

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Ed Brodow

Ed Brodow is a conservative political commentator and author of eleven books including his latest, THE PROPHET WANTS YOUR HEAD IN A BASKET: Islam’s Frightening Plan to Conquer America.