About Alien abduction
Alien abduction is the claim that individuals are taken against their will by non-human beings aboard a spacecraft to undergo physical and psychological procedures. Reports of these events occurred worldwide between 1952 and 1995, with the first widely publicized case involving Betty and Barney Hill in 1961. While most scientists and mental-health professionals explain these experiences as false memories, sleep paralysis, or suggestibility, a small number of researchers and psychiatrists have taken the claims seriously.
- Also known as
- abduction, abductions, abductee, abductees
The full story, section by section
The story of Alien abduction in 5 parts. Tap any part to read it in full.
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HistoryThe term did not become widely known until the 1960s, but later writers looked back at older stories, which UFO historian Jerome Clark called "paleo-abductions." In 1896 a Stockton, California, newspaper printed Colonel H.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
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The abduction narrativeThe Center for UFO Studies defines an abductee as someone taken against their will by apparent non-human beings to a place perceived as a spacecraft or otherworldly.Read this part →
A modern depiction of a grey alien abduction · Photo: Robystarm07, CC0, Wikimedia Commons -
AbducteesThe number of claimants is uncertain.Read this part →
Artistic depiction of an alien abduction (Travis Walton). · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons -
ExplanationsMany abductees recall their experiences through hypnosis.Read this part →
Nicolai Abildgaard's Nightmare (1800): earlier cultures blamed sleep-paralysis visitations on demons and spirits · Photo: Nicolai Abildgaard, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons -
DeclineBy the end of the 1990s, the Boston Globe wrote, "the alien abduction bubble had burst": The X-Files' ratings fell and, after 11 September 2001, interest waned.Read this part → Illustration drawn for this site — not a photograph.
Key people
The people at the centre of the story — witnesses, investigators, officials and sceptics:
- John MackJohn Edward Mack was an American psychiatrist, author, and Harvard Medical School professor who won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1977. Beginning in the early 1990s, he became a prominent academi…
- Jerome ClarkJerome Clark is an American writer, editor, and songwriter who specializes in UFOs and other anomalous phenomena. He is best known for writing The UFO Encyclopedia and has served on the board of the …
- Budd HopkinsElliot Budd Hopkins was an American abstract painter and sculptor who became a leading figure in the study of claimed alien abductions. Beginning in the 1960s after his own UFO sighting, he published…
- David JacobsDavid Michael Jacobs is an American historian and retired associate professor who became a well-known alien abduction researcher. Using hypnotic regression, he argued that aliens were breeding human-…
- Whitley StrieberLouis Whitley Strieber is an American writer known for his horror and speculative fiction, as well as his 1987 best-selling non-fiction book, Communion. In the book, he described being taken from his…
- Dan ShermanThis article is about Dan Sherman, a former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant and electronic intelligence analyst who served from 1982 to 1994.
- Robert BigelowRobert Thomas Bigelow is an American businessman from Las Vegas who made a fortune in real estate and the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. He founded Bigelow Aerospace to develop expandable spac…
- Jenny RandlesJenny Randles is a British author, researcher, and former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association who has written dozens of books on UFOs and the paranormal. She investiga…
- Leonard StringfieldLeonard Stringfield was an American ufologist from Cincinnati, Ohio, who directed the civilian UFO group CRIFO in the 1950s and later worked with organizations like NICAP and MUFON. He is best known …
- David ClarkeDavid William Clarke is a British investigative journalist, folklorist, and associate professor at Sheffield Hallam University. He is known for using Freedom of Information requests to secure the rel…
- Richard DotyRichard Doty is a retired U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations special agent who operated primarily at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico during the late 1970s and 1980s.
- Paul BennewitzPaul Bennewitz was an American businessman and UFO investigator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who came to believe he was filming alien craft and uncovered a secret underground alien base near Kir…
- Hans-Adam IIHans-Adam II is the reigning Prince of Liechtenstein and one of the world's wealthiest heads of state. Born in Zürich in 1945, he succeeded to the throne in 1989 after his father handed him governmen…
- John LearJohn Lear was an American aviator and UFO conspiracy theorist born in 1942 who set flying records and later promoted claims about government cover-ups of extraterrestrial life. He became a prominent …
Related cases & events
Events and sightings linked to Alien abduction:
🛸 Case · 16 min readBetty and Barney Hill incidentThe Betty and Barney Hill incident occurred on the night of September 19–20, 1961, along U.S. Route 3 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
🛸 Case · 12 min readTravis Walton incidentThe Travis Walton incident involves the claim by Arizona forestry worker Travis Walton that he was abducted by a UFO on November 5, 1975, and went missing for five days. Six co-workers reported seeing a glowing craft and a beam of light strike Walton as he ap…
🗓️ Event · 9 min readPascagoula abductionThe Pascagoula abduction is the claim by two Mississippi shipyard workers, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker Jr., that they were taken aboard an oval craft by robot-like beings while fishing on the night of October 11, 1973. The event took place in Pascagoula…
🛸 Case · 8 min readAllagash abductionsThe Allagash abductions is an alleged alien encounter involving four young men during a canoe trip in northern Maine in August 1976. While night fishing on Eagle Lake, the group witnessed a bright globe of light and later recalled, under regression hypnosis, …
🗓️ Event · 10 min readRoper Organization abduction survey (1991)The Roper Organization abduction survey was a 1991 study of American adults funded by Robert Bigelow and an anonymous co-sponsor to ask about unusual personal experiences like sleep paralysis and missing time. Researchers Budd Hopkins and David Jacobs analyze…
🛸 Case · 9 min readAntônio Vilas-Boas abductionThe Antônio Vilas-Boas abduction refers to the claim by a 23-year-old Brazilian farmer that he was seized by humanoid beings and taken aboard an egg-shaped craft on the night of October 15, 1957, near São Francisco de Sales, Minas Gerais. According to the acc…
🛸 Case · 5 min readEmilcin abductionThe Emilcin abduction is a well-known Polish UFO case involving a farmer named Jan Wolski, who claimed he was taken aboard a hovering white craft and examined by small beings early on the morning of May 10, 1978, in Emilcin, Poland. While Wolski believed unti…
🛸 Case · 17 min readCattle mutilationsCattle mutilations refer to a phenomenon where livestock are discovered dead with missing body parts and seemingly precise wounds, with reports surging in the western and midwestern United States from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. While some ranchers and…
🗓️ Event · 8 min readValdamar Valerian's Matrix booksValdamar Valerian's Matrix books are a series of publications, including Matrix II dated January 1991, attributed to an alleged former intelligence community member named John Grace. According to a UFO timeline submitted to the House Oversight Committee, the …Programs, organizations & documents
The official programs, groups and papers involved:
🏢 Organization · 6 min readCenter for UFO StudiesThe Center for UFO Studies is a privately funded American research organization founded in 1973 by astronomer J. Allen Hynek. It collects and analyzes global UFO reports and maintains a library and archive of UFO materials for researchers.
🏢 Organization · 13 min readU.S. Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the air service branch of the U.S. armed forces that became an independent service in September 1947.
🏢 Organization · 8 min readNational Security AgencyThe National Security Agency is a United States intelligence organization responsible for signals intelligence and protecting communications, growing out of wartime code-breaking units and formally established by President Harry Truman in 1952. In 1980, the g…
🏢 Organization · 15 min readCentral Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the United States civilian foreign intelligence agency created in 1947. Between the late 1940s and 1960s, the agency closely monitored UFO reports primarily for national security reasons, such as potential Soviet threa…
🏢 Organization · 7 min readBigelow AerospaceBigelow Aerospace was an American space technology company founded in Nevada in the late 1990s by Robert Bigelow to develop expandable space station modules. The company successfully launched prototype modules and the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM)…Books, films & documentaries
Where to read and watch more:
🎬 Book or film · 6 min readCommunion (book)Communion: A True Story is a 1987 non-fiction book by American author Whitley Strieber about being taken from his cabin in upstate New York by non-human beings on December 26, 1985. The book became a major best-seller, selling over two million copies and feat…
🎬 Book or film · 5 min readThe X-FilesThe X-Files is an American science-fiction drama series created by Chris Carter that originally ran on Fox from September 1993 to May 2002. FBI agents Fox Mulder, a believer, and Dana Scully, a skeptic, investigate unsolved paranormal cases and uncover a gove…🎬 Book or film · 6 min readAbove BlackAbove Black is a 1997 book by former U.S. Air Force sergeant Dan Sherman detailing his alleged involvement in a secret National Security Agency program called Project Preserve Destiny between 1992 and 1995.
🎬 Book or film · 6 min readCoast to Coast AMCoast to Coast AM is an American late-night radio talk show focusing on the paranormal, conspiracy theories, and UFOs. Created and hosted by Art Bell beginning in 1988, the program has since been hosted mainly by George Noory and distributed by Premiere Netwo…
🎬 Book or film · 5 min readMirage MenMirage Men is a 2010 book and 2013 documentary film that argue U.S. military and intelligence insiders fabricated modern UFO folklore to deflect attention from classified projects and discredit investigators.Related topics & places
Ideas, terms and places that come up in the story:
📖 Term · 6 min readGrey alienGrey aliens are purported extraterrestrial beings depicted as small, hairless humanoids with large heads and black eyes, becoming popular cultural icons through modern abduction reports and media. The image spread significantly following the 1961 Betty and Ba…
📖 Term · 4 min readReptiliansReptilians are reptile-like humanoids that feature in fantasy, science fiction, ufology, and conspiracy theories. The idea that shape-shifting reptilian aliens secretly control the Earth was popularized by British conspiracy theorist David Icke. The concept t…
📖 Term · 3 min readNordic aliensNordic aliens are described in UFO literature as tall, human-like extraterrestrials with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin who are said to originate from the Pleiades star cluster. These benevolent figures were prominent in 1950s contact claims, particular…
📖 Term · 17 min readUnidentified flying objectAn unidentified flying object, or UFO, is an unexplained phenomenon or object seen in the sky, with the modern craze originating in the United States in June 1947. While popular culture often equates UFOs with alien spacecraft, most investigations reveal them…📖 Term · 9 min readDisinformationDisinformation is false information spread deliberately to mislead, specifically relating to government agents and intelligence operations hiding classified projects or feeding false UFO stories to researchers from 1950 to 2022. Documented and suspected cases…
📖 Term · 13 min readUnidentified anomalous phenomenaUnidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) is the U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects or events in the air, space, or underwater.
🧭 Topic overview · 22 min readBeings & bodies (topic)This topic overview covers reports and claims about non-human beings, bodies, and biological material spanning from 1947 to 2023. It outlines various second-hand and anonymous accounts involving crash-retrieval stories and alien abductions, mostly centered in…
🧭 Topic overview · 7 min readRemote viewing & psi (topic)This article provides an overview of remote viewing, psychic research, and consciousness studies linked to UFOs from 1950 to 2022. It details government-funded initiatives like the Stargate Project, which ran from the 1970s until it was canceled in 1995 after…
📍 Place · 4 min readPascagoulaPascagoula is a city on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi that serves as the county seat of Jackson County and home to major shipbuilding and industrial operations. The city is best known for an alleged October 1973 UFO incident where two fishermen, Charles Hicks…🗓️ Alien abduction on the UAP timeline
- Vallée says Liechtenstein's prince funded a study of alien abduction claims through Robert Bigelow. Read the article →
- Sherman says his messages seemed to involve alien abductions. Read the article →
🛸 UFO sightings about Alien abductions
Sightings that mention Alien abduction
More in the encyclopedia
Other articles that link to or mention Alien abduction:
- Dan Sherman and abduction messagesFormer Air Force electronic intelligence specialist Dan Sherman claimed in his 1997 book that he was genetically prepared to serve as a telepathic communicator with grey aliens between 1992 and 1994.…
- Dan Sherman and the telepathy breeding claimFormer United States Air Force specialist Dan Sherman claimed in his 1997 book that he was genetically bred before his birth for telepathic communication with aliens. According to his account, an unn…
- Dan Sherman's NSA analyst trainingFormer U.S. Air Force sergeant Dan Sherman claimed that his 1992 National Security Agency training served as a cover for his role in a secret extraterrestrial communication program called Project Pre…
- Dan Sherman's July 1994 communicationFormer United States Air Force electronic intelligence specialist Dan Sherman claimed in his 1997 book that he participated in a secret program involving telepathic communication with an alien entity…
- Doty's psychological operations claimFormer Air Force agent Richard Doty claimed in the 1980s that an intelligence unit ran psychological operations to trick civilians who saw classified aircraft into believing they had seen UFOs in ord…
- Whitley Strieber's childhood memoriesThis article is about author Whitley Strieber's recollections of strange childhood episodes and encounters in San Antonio, Texas, which he suggested may have involved testing by military or intellige…
- Spread of the Bennewitz disinformationIn the 1980s, U.S. Air Force counterintelligence agents fed false information to Albuquerque businessman Paul Bennewitz to distract him from classified projects near Kirtland Air Force Base.
- Advanced Theoretical Physics groupThe Advanced Theoretical Physics group was an informal, unfunded working group of U.S. government officials, scientists, and defense contractors organized in May 1985 by Army Colonel John B.
- Secrecy & cover-up (topic)This overview page covers official secrecy, classification, and cover-up claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena from 1947 to 2023. It outlines historical classified studies, released gover…
- Thomas WilsonThomas Wilson is a retired U.S. Navy vice admiral and former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
- Wilson–Davis notesThe Wilson–Davis notes are a 15-page document that surfaced online in 2019, presenting a physicist's record of a 16 October 2002 conversation with retired Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson. The notes des…
- Philip Corso's Roswell claimsPhilip J. Corso was a U.S.
- Nick RedfernNick Redfern is a British author and journalist born in 1964 who writes about UFOs, cryptozoology, and conspiracy theories. He has campaigned for official UFO disclosure, helped bring once-classified…
- Laurance RockefellerLaurance Spelman Rockefeller was an American businessman, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and conservationist who helped pioneer American venture capital and became a leading conservationist. Lat…
- Corso's doubts about autopsy reports (1997)Retired U.S. Army officer Philip J.
- Non-human intelligenceNon-human intelligence (NHI) is a term used to describe non-human beings or systems, which has become prominent in recent discussions and whistleblower claims regarding unidentified anomalous phenome…
- Southaven Park crash claimThe Southaven Park crash claim is a 1992 allegation that an alien spacecraft crashed in a New York park, promoted by UFO advocate John Ford. Despite reports of unusual lights, noises, and a brief par…
- Ray Boeche's meeting with two DoD scientistsOn November 25, 1991, Anglican priest and ufologist Ray Boeche met with two Department of Defense scientists who claimed to be part of a classified program involving non-human entities. According to …
Questions & answers
What is Alien abduction?
Alien abduction is the claim that individuals are taken against their will by non-human beings aboard a spacecraft to undergo physical and psychological procedures. Reports of these events occurred worldwide between 1952 and 1995, with the first widely publicized case involving Betty and Barney Hill in 1961. While most scientists and mental-health professionals explain these experiences as false memories, sleep paralysis, or suggestibility, a small number of researchers and psychiatrists have taken the claims seriously. Read: Alien abduction →
What else is Alien abduction called?
Alien abduction is also known as abduction, abductions, abductee, abductees.
Who is John Mack?
John Mack: John Edward Mack was an American psychiatrist, author, and Harvard Medical School professor who won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1977. Beginning in the early 1990s, he became a prominent academic studying people who reported alien abduction encounters, founding a research program and publishing books on the subject. His work led Harvard to conduct a 14-month review that ultimately ended with the dean reaffirming his academic freedom. Read: John Mack →
Who is Jerome Clark?
Jerome Clark is an American writer, editor, and songwriter who specializes in UFOs and other anomalous phenomena. He is best known for writing The UFO Encyclopedia and has served on the board of the Center for UFO Studies. Additionally, he has written country and folk songs recorded by notable artists like Emmylou Harris. Read: Jerome Clark →
Who is Budd Hopkins?
Budd Hopkins: Elliot Budd Hopkins was an American abstract painter and sculptor who became a leading figure in the study of claimed alien abductions. Beginning in the 1960s after his own UFO sighting, he published books such as Missing Time and Intruders that popularized the idea of repeated alien abductions for genetic experimentation. Critics and skeptics heavily criticized his reliance on hypnosis and untrained practitioners to uncover these claims, noting the lack of any physical evidence. Read: Budd Hopkins →
What was Betty and Barney Hill incident?
Betty and Barney Hill incident: The Betty and Barney Hill incident occurred on the night of September 19–20, 1961, along U.S. Route 3 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Read: Betty and Barney Hill incident →
What was Travis Walton incident?
Travis Walton incident: The Travis Walton incident involves the claim by Arizona forestry worker Travis Walton that he was abducted by a UFO on November 5, 1975, and went missing for five days. Six co-workers reported seeing a glowing craft and a beam of light strike Walton as he approached it. While Walton maintained his account was real, skeptics and some of the crew members later called the event a hoax. Read: Travis Walton incident →
What is Center for UFO Studies?
Center for UFO Studies: The Center for UFO Studies is a privately funded American research organization founded in 1973 by astronomer J. Allen Hynek. It collects and analyzes global UFO reports and maintains a library and archive of UFO materials for researchers. Read: Center for UFO Studies →
What is U.S. Air Force?
U.S. Air Force: The United States Air Force is the air service branch of the U.S. armed forces that became an independent service in September 1947. Read: U.S. Air Force →
What is Communion (book)?
Communion (book): Communion: A True Story is a 1987 non-fiction book by American author Whitley Strieber about being taken from his cabin in upstate New York by non-human beings on December 26, 1985. The book became a major best-seller, selling over two million copies and featuring a famous cover painting that helped popularize the image of the "greys." Although widely read as an alien abduction account, Strieber drew no definitive conclusion about the identity of the beings, while critics offered explanations such as sleep phenomena and unreliable memories. Read: Communion (book) →
What is The X-Files?
The X-Files is an American science-fiction drama series created by Chris Carter that originally ran on Fox from September 1993 to May 2002. FBI agents Fox Mulder, a believer, and Dana Scully, a skeptic, investigate unsolved paranormal cases and uncover a government plot involving extraterrestrial life. The highly rated and critically acclaimed series became a major 1990s pop-culture touchstone that helped bring conspiracy theories to a mainstream audience. Read: The X-Files →
What is Grey alien?
Grey aliens are purported extraterrestrial beings depicted as small, hairless humanoids with large heads and black eyes, becoming popular cultural icons through modern abduction reports and media. The image spread significantly following the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill case and later appeared in various books, films, and conspiracy theories. Psychologists and skeptics view the appearance as a cultural product shaped by science fiction, early literature, and human associations with intelligence. Read: Grey alien →
What is Reptilians?
Reptilians are reptile-like humanoids that feature in fantasy, science fiction, ufology, and conspiracy theories. The idea that shape-shifting reptilian aliens secretly control the Earth was popularized by British conspiracy theorist David Icke. The concept traces its origins to pulp fiction and occult writings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Read: Reptilians →