The story goes that, in 1957, three five-foot tall humanoid creatures seized a 23-year-old farmer ploughing a field at night near Sao Francisco de Sales, in Brazil.
Fearing for his life, the young farmer tried – but failed – to escape his strange captors, who had descended from the sky aboard an egg-shaped aerial craft.
The farmer’s name was Antonio Villas Boas.
His story – the first account of an alien abduction in modern times – formed part of a magazine series entitled “Flying Saucers’ Terrible Mission.”
The series was penned by a Brazilian writer named João Martins for O Cruzeiro, an illustrated weekly, published in Rio de Janeiro from 1928 until 1985.
Villas Boas’ story begins plainly enough…
He had decided – like many farmers who live in hot climates – to work at night to avoid searing daytime temperatures.
But then, as he worked his tractor up a low hill in the dark, he spotted a strange, luminous aircraft in the night sky.
The farmer says he watched the craft land on the field not far from where he was working. Suddenly finding himself face-to-face with the unthinkable, he tried to flee, swinging the tractor around in terror. The engine died as he threw the machine into gear.
The frightened young farmer jumped off and scrambled to escape on foot but was soon overtaken by three aliens dressed in grey space suits. He was captured and dragged to the waiting spacecraft.
Once aboard their ship, the extraterrestrial kidnappers conducted a series of experiments on their young captive. These included taking samples of his body tissue and exposing him to a gas that made him double-up in pain, violently ill.
As bizarre as the preceding events were, they were about to get even stranger. After bombarding his lungs with an unknown gas, the otherworldly creatures then forced the young farmer to have sexual intercourse with a female alien.
She was, Villas Boas recounts, very attractive – with blonde hair and gleaming blue, cat-like eyes.
Before Villas Boas left, his alien paramour pointed at her belly, at him, and then at the night sky. He took this to mean that she would have his child somewhere in outer space.
(Illustration by Ebel for James E. Gunn’s Breaking Point/Wikipedia)
Tails, Moon Bases, and Sex Slaves
Villas Boas’ story provided the blueprint for what would later become an archetypal alien abduction report.
In the years since 1957 – the height of the ‘Flying Saucer’ era, numerous people have claimed to have had sex with aliens.
Some claim to have fathered hybrid children. Others claim to have been subjected to humiliating abuse.
Today, accounts of alien abduction are in vogue. By the 1990s, in fact, some 3.7 million Americans believed they’d experienced alien abduction, according to a poll conducted by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Some of the accounts can be uncannily detailed.
In October 2015, a former radar tracking officer for the Unites States Air Force went public with allegations that she had been abducted by aliens.
Niara Terela Isley further claims her abductors took her to a base on the dark side of the moon, where they raped and enslaved her.
Isley was posted at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. She says that, at one point, she realized she was unable to recall much of the time she spent in facility. She underwent hypnosis in a bid to retrieve her memories.
Media reports indicate that it was during the hypnosis sessions that Isley realized that she’d been abducted by humanoid aliens. She describes her abductors as having tails and vertically slit yellow eyes.
Isley says her captors wouldn’t allow her to sleep. Instead, she was passed around for sex on their moon base. She says she knew that she had to get back to her daughter. That was why she did not do anything that could get her killed.
A Troubling Trend
Psychologists have long argued that these abductions stories are no more than powerful hallucinations. Mixed evidence supports the theory that fantasy-prone people engage in elaborate imaginings and often confuse fantasy with reality.
But if each perceived abduction is just the latest in a series of hallucinations, what is it that triggers the dream or delusion? How is an alien abduction story born?
While some of these accounts might induce some giggles and guffaws, others – like those of Isley – are decidedly more troubling.
In a typical case, an abductee recounts lying in bed one night, overcome by an eerie feeling, and alien beings appear out of nowhere. The extraterrestrials transport their captive to a spacecraft, where they subject the prisoner to a battery of physical and psychological tests.
After what seems like hours, the captive is returned to his or her bedroom unharmed, and discovers that the whole ordeal transpired in minutes.
Social psychologists Leonard Newman and Roy Baumeister explored some of the possible scientific explanations behind the reported abductions. The results of their study are contained in a fascinating paper published in the journal, Psychological Inquiry, in 1996.
Implanted Memories or Anal Implants?
In their paper, Newman and Baumeister point out that many people who report UFO abductions recalled or “recovered” their experiences during hypnotic states.
These are precisely the circumstances under which memories can be manipulated or false memories implanted.
The two psychologists also suggest that some people simply have a more difficult time distinguishing dreams from reality.
One explanation is that when people believe they have had an experience of alien abduction, they have jumbled their dreams or misinterpreted real or imagined events.
Several studies report that “experiencers” do not typically differ from non-experiencers on objective psychopathological measures. However, one intriguing characteristic associated with abduction experiences is a tendency toward sexual sadomasochistic sex fantasy.
Escape from self-awareness is one of the defining elements of masochistic activities, such as being bound, humiliated, or subjected to pain, say psychologists.
One particularly telling example is that of the horror novelist, Whitley Strieber.
In his book ‘Communion,’ Strieber famously described being abducted by aliens who inserted a footlong anal probe into him. The probe seemed to be a living entity, so when his captors retrieved it, he was surprised to see it was a mechanical device.
“The main features of masochism – both actual activities and fantasies – are pain, loss of control, and humiliation,” Newman and Baumeister write in their report. “All three of these themes dominate UFO abduction accounts.”
Plausible Explanations, More Questions
True enough, when you look at the situations that abductees describe, pain is often one of the main features. People frequently say they were taken by force, then subjected to unpleasant and painful activities aboard UFOs.
They often report being restrained – tied or pinned down – in a way that makes them lose their sense of control.
The abductees are frequently subjected to humiliating sexual acts, such as being led around by the genitals or having unwanted devices inserted in their rectums.
Finally, they recount that they were somehow compelled to have sex with their captors. Quite a few have claimed their captors forced them to have sex with animals.
While many might not see these as enjoyable daydreams themselves, other normal, healthy human beings do enjoy similar sadomasochistic sex fantasies.
In fact, such fantasies are among the most common across the world’s cultures.
“I surveyed more than 4,000 Americans about their sexual fantasies for my book Tell Me What You Want, and among the many things I asked about were fantasies involving aliens,” says Lehmiller.
“Alien fantasies were correlated with having more fantasies in general about receiving pain, being humiliated, and being tied up.”
None of this says that the many people who believe they have experienced alien abduction are liars, much less sexual deviants. Scientists are merely saying that these accounts and experiences can be explained through recourse to theories rooted in a rational basis.
There are many logical, plausible scientific explanations for such experiences. None of these rely on the existence of rapist, kidnapper aliens.
However, not all reported alien abduction experiences can be easily explained by any scientific theories. Can all 3.7 million Americans be wrong? Some of their stories give rise to many more questions worth investigating.
Until then, we can only look to the skies and wonder – and maybe dream of blonde, blue-eyed alien sex kittens who want to have our babies.
What’s your story? Are you waiting for Scottie to beam you up? Why not share a little of yourself by reviewing this article.
