Aliens & UFOs: A Christian Perspective (Part 2)
How does this explain alien abduction cases when people are claiming to have been physically brought on board ships and experimented upon? An important aspect to note about alien abductions is not so much the details of what is occurring in the abductees’ recollections (although we’ll get to that in a minute) but the method utilized to recall those experiences: hypnosis. As a matter of fact in the vast majority of cases, hypnosis is the only method through which abductees “remember” their traumatic encounters. This raises another important question: Why can’t they remember on their own? In other words, if the events of an alien abduction are physically occurring why is it necessary for people to resort to hypnosis to remember them?
Hypnosis has always been controversial for the obvious reason that the participants are susceptible to suggestion; hence the term hypnotic suggestion. Hippolyte Bernheim, one of the leaders of hypnotherapy in the 19th century, once said: “I define hypnotism as the induction of a peculiar psychical [i.e. mental] condition which increases the susceptibility to suggestion… It is suggestion that rules hypnotism.”[1]
This explains why testimony under hypnotic suggestion is not considered to be reliable in a court of law. Many experts believe that “repressed memories” discovered via hypnosis are actually experiences created in one’s imagination, composed of either events that never happened or a combination of dreams, illusions, and real experiences.It should be noted that one is not justified in simply dismissing all abduction experiences as problematic due to hypnosis. While the vast majority of abductees “recall” their experiences this way, some do not need to be hypnotized to remember. So at this point we can infer that people around the world are experiencing something but, for many, their accounts of alien abductions may not be the best explanation for what’s really taking place.
Let’s briefly examine a few problems with the Classic Abduction Syndrome (CAS). During “capture”, which usually happens at night while the abductee is driving in a car, sitting at home, or sleeping in bed, a light or UFO appears and the abductee blacks out. Only later through hypnosis (or sometimes through a triggered event) do they remember what happens next.
They are paralyzed and levitated out and upward in a beam of light. Many have claimed to have been transported through solid objects, like a wall, roof, or car (which is more in line with an out-of-body experience as opposed to a physical event). The “aliens” themselves sometimes appear out of thin air and walk through solid objects to get at their captives. Abductees are then brought to a waiting “ship” where they are surrounded by a group of aliens; but it should be noted that aliens’ appearances change depending on what country one is abducted in. For instance, in America aliens are small, gray beings with huge black eyes and small slits for mouths. In England and Europe, they are tall, blonde and Nordic-looking, and in South America, aliens resemble Bigfoot or other monster types. Why the difference in appearance from the same supposed race of beings?
Abductees are then experimented on with primitive surgical tools. This in itself is odd considering the seemingly advanced nature of these “space travelers”. The aliens usually tell their captives that their intentions are good, they are here to help us, and that they created life on Earth. Some have even disguised themselves as Jesus Christ, the pope, or other well-known celebrities including dead spouses in order to gain trust from the abductees.But why is there a need to elaborately manipulate people? Former abductee-turned-researcher, Dr. Karla Turner asked the same question: “Before we allow ourselves to believe in the benevolence of the alien interaction, we should ask, do enlightened beings need to use the cover of night to perform good deeds? Do they need to paralyze us and render us helpless to resist?… Are fear, pain, and deception consistent with high spiritual motives?”[2]
The aftereffects of an abduction are the most revealing as the abductee usually experiences a change in his personality and overall philosophical outlook. “Abductee surveys have revealed that the overwhelming majority of abductees have shown an interest in paranormal activities, Eastern religions, and [the] New Age world-view.”[3]
Praying Bible
UFO author Gary Bates elaborates further: “There is a clear pattern. Impartial research shows that most abductees have, in the past, dabbled in what is commonly known as the occult, even if it was on a relatively minor basis.”[4] So dabbling in the occult appears to be a common prerequisite for a CAS and only intensifies afterward.At face value, UFO sightings and CAS cases are baffling and contradictory; but nowhere near as confusing when considering who, specifically, is targeted for a CAS. A prominent alien abduction research group known as CE-4 (standing for: Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind) discovered that strong Christians appear to be immune from alien abduction: “The Christians reporting the abduction experience tended to be people who intellectually espoused the existence of God, but didn’t apply it personally. But there seemed to be an obvious absence of devout, Bible believing, ‘walk the walk’ Christians. Where were they in this equation?”[5]
An even greater startling revelation was discovered by CE-4 when they found a man who had stopped his own alien abduction in its tracks. For Bill D. at Christmas in 1976, his CAS started normally. He was levitated out of bed while his wife lay asleep next to him. He was so afraid that he cried out for Jesus Christ to help him: “When I did, there was a feeling or a sound or something that either my words that I thought or the words that I had tried to say or whatever, had hurt whatever was holding me up in the air… And I felt like it was withdrawn and I fell. I hit the bed, because it was like I was thrown back in bed… my wife woke up and asked why I was jumping on the bed.”[6]
After CE-4 went public with this particular finding, more people approached them with similar experiences – abductions that had been stopped by invoking the name of Jesus Christ. Wesley Clark explains: “… in every instance where the victim knew to invoke the name of Jesus Christ, the event stopped. Period. The evidence was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.”[7]
Why would extra-terrestrial travelers from another planet be so affected by the name of Jesus Christ that it would stop them in their tracks and cause them to flee? Perhaps it’s time for an alternative explanation to this phenomenon given to us by the Bible. The apostle Paul wrote: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 6:11-12
For “aliens” that can walk through solid objects and are conveying messages that they are the true creators, for UFOs that can appear and disappear at will, and for abductees who are overwhelmingly prone to embracing New Age and occult practices after their experiences, Paul provides an explanation. We are witnessing the spiritual forces of darkness intent on carrying out the schemes of the devil.
Modern attempts to answer this “alien” phenomenon have obscured a much more ancient definition, which is: these are evil spirits or demons. When Jesus was on this earth, He cast out demons that had the power to control people in the first century. Satan attempted to manipulate Jesus in the wilderness for forty days by pointing out his supernatural control over the entire population of the world. This “spiritual warfare” that the Bible depicts has not stopped. People are still being manipulated by the wicked forces that Paul described in Ephesians.
Even UFO believers recognize the overwhelming similarities between abduction cases and ancient stories of demons and evil spirits. UFOlogist John Keel writes:
“The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar, if not entirely identical, to the UFO phenomenon itself. Victims of demonomania (possession) suffer the very same medical and emotional symptoms as the UFO contactees… The devil and his demons can, according to the literature, manifest themselves in almost any form and can physically imitate anything from angels to horrifying monsters… Strange objects and entities materialize and dematerialize in these stories, just as the UFOs and their splendid occupants appear and disappear, walk through walls, and perform other supernatural feats.”[8]
Christians have always held the key to properly identifying this strange phenomenon. In contrast UFO enthusiasts and organizations have had six decades to study this anomaly and still have not come up with any conclusive physical evidence of either “alien” craft or the little, gray beings themselves. No smoking gun exists. UFOlogists admit that UFOs display a lack of corporeal qualities when they defy physics by maneuvering at ridiculous angles and speeds, appearing and disappearing at will. The same can be noted of so-called “aliens” that appear, disappear, and walk through solid objects.
The answer, therefore, is not a hypothetical race of beings that have invented impossible technology but rather spiritual beings not bound to our physical laws. We are dealing with an age-old problem of manipulation by a pervasive evil that the Bible has defined for us going back to the beginning of time.
[1] Hyppolyte Bernheim, Suggestive Therapeutics: A Treatise on the Nature and Uses of Hypnotism, trans. Christian A. Herter (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1906), 15.
[2] Karla Turner, “Aliens – Friends or Foes?” UFO Universe, spring 1993 quoted in Gary Bates, Alien Intrusion (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, Inc., 2004), 242.
[3] Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, Alien Encounters (Indianapolis, IN: Koinonia House, 2003), 109.
[4] Gary Bates, Alien Intrusion (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, Inc., 2004), 255.
[5] Wesley M. Clark, “The Premise of Spiritual Warfare,” CE4 Research Group, http://www.angelfire.com/on2/ce4/premise.html (accessed September 9, 2014).
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] John Keel, Operation Trojan Horse (Lilburn, GA: Illuminet Press, 1992), 192.
