Alien Abduction

Alien abduction is a familiar theme in popular culture. As described by those who claim to have experienced it, alien abduction (in this entry, abduction, for short) is the physical seizure, or kidnapping, of a human being by an extraterrestrial intelligent being. Since the advent of space exploration in the mid-20th century, the subject of abduction has waxed and waned in popularity as the focus of newspaper reports and magazine features, true confessions and science fiction, television documentaries and big-budget Hollywood movies, and millions of World Wide Web sites.

John E. Mack (1929–2004), the most authoritative scientist to study this subject (see “Research and Information”), called abduction a “phenomenon.” Using this nomenclature, Mack established abduction as a subject suitable for scientific study, and nothing more. By the time he concluded his program of research, he had not solved the mystery of abduction. To date, no one has been able to explain this phenomenon in a way that satisfies experiencers, believers, and skeptics alike. No one has proved that alien abduction is real. And no one has proved that it is not real.

Alleged abductees (henceforth, abductees) and their advocates argue that extraterrestrial intelligent beings do exist and have, indeed, visited Earth and have taken human beings from the planet. It is widely accepted in the space science community that life may exist somewhere beyond Earth. No one, however, has found any evidence as of yet that extraterrestrial life exists. And even scientists who accept the possibility of extraterrestrial life may not necessarily accept the idea of extraterrestrial intelligent life or the possibility of travel by such beings over distances measured in light-years.

Assuming that science is the best authority to defer to on the question of the reality of abduction, it is the case that science has not obtained any evidence, or otherwise validated any claims, of extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial intelligent life, extraterrestrial vehicles or other technologies, or terrestrial visitations by extraterrestrial intelligent beings. The possibility of the existence of any and all of these things remains an open question for scientists and others to explore.