While the media and the scientific community cling to their skepticism like wreckage in a storm, abduction stories continue to mount. There are frightening hints that abductions may be quite common -- much more common than usually thought.
Are abductions widespread? That is the question this article will attempt to answer.
The late J. Allen Hynek was undoubtedly one of the world's best known UFO investigators. In William Steinman's book, 'UFO Crash at Aztec', a conversation between Paul Bennewitz and J. Allen Hynek is recounted. When Hynek was asked how many people he thought have been abducted, Hynek allegedly replied without hesitation, "about one out of forty".
Whitley Strieber, the author of 'Communion' and 'Transformation', is a strong believer that UFO encounters are common. In an interview with 'UFO Magazine', Strieber is quoted as saying, "I will tell you this: there are a lot of people who have already had this experience -- a lot more than even the UFO community realizes. I am now poring through something like 5,000 letters -- I often get 40 and 50 a day, even now. People again and again, write 'a friend of mine told me about you and now I can write and tel somebody what happened to me', and it goes on and on. I don't know how many people have been involved with this, but I'm sure it's in the hundreds of thousands."
Budd Hopkins is one of the best known investigators of UFO abductions. He has also become convinced of the high frequency of UFO encounters. In his book, 'Missing Time', Hopkins writes of the case of Steve Kilburn, who was abducted and left with no conscious memory of the event. Hopkins was astounded by this, and made the obvious conclusion. Says Hopkins, "This opened up the possibility that the experience, whatever it is, has been suppressed in others, and that abduction is widespread."
Because Steve Kilburn had no recollection of the event, Hopkins concluded, "This meant that almost anyone can have suffered such an experience and yet be totally unaware of it for all practical purposes. What before was thought of as a rare event might be infinitely more common than anyone has supposed."
In 'Missing Time' Hopkins states, "I have described UFO abductions as constituting an epidemic; in fact, we have no idea how many such 'kidnappings' may already have taken place, but I believe tere are vastly more than the number of incidents reported."
Because people generally don't report their experiences, Hopkins states, "We can logically theorize that there may be tens of thousands of Americans whose encounters have never been revealed."
Jacques Vallee is definitely a leading expert in the field of UFOs. Vallee is very skeptical of the extraterrestrial theory, but he does take the position that UFO landings are quite common. Says Vallee, "...the UFOs, if they are spacecraft engaged in a general survey of our planet, they must have landed here no fewer than three million times in two decades."
Another famous figure in ufology, Dr. Leo Sprinkle, acknowledges the possibility that there may be "hundreds of thousands" of people who have been abducted and have no conscious memory of the experience."
David Webb has asserted his belief that "one out of eight" UFO witnesses may have been abducted".
According to the 1973 Gallup Poll, 15-million people believe they have seen UFOs. If 15-million people have seen UFOs, and one out of every eight have been abducted, then one could conclude that 1,850,000 people have been abducted!
When I heard all these statements, I was very skeptical. I could believe UFOs were real, but I wasn't ready to accept any rumors of a rampant epidemic. And yet the rumors have persisted. According to one source, 60 UFO sightings are reported across America everyday!
I was initially skeptical of UFOs. But as my interest grew, I began asking all my friends and family if they had ever had any encounters. To my utter astonishment, I discovered that over one third of the people I knew had encountered a UFO. By a sort of informal survey, I uncovered over 50 UFO cases. I found that I knew five people who had been abducted.
All of this points to one thing: UFO ecounteres are quite common. Most abductee researchers agree that a vast number of people have been abducted. Hopkins theorizes tens of thousands. Strieber theorizes hundreds of thousands. Hynek allegedly estimated one in forty.
It is uncertain exactly how many people are abductees, but it should be evident that UFO encounters are by no means rare. I think it safe to say that millions of people have been abducted by UFOs. The invasion is occurring -- here and now -- all across our planet!