Skeptics, Old SF Movies, and UFO Reports

After the experience of Betty and Barney Hill was reported in The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller, skeptics forwarded the hypothesis that the origin of the recovered memories of the Hill's were nothing more than those of forgotten memories of an Outer Limits episode with Sally Kellerman featuring an actor in big eyed alien costume.  The theory goes that once viewed a highly shocking and dramatic visual experience such as a really good TV show is lodged in the collective consciousness to resurface, slightly altered, in hypnotically recovered memories.  The Hill's, as reported in Captured, by Stan Friedman and Kathleen Marden denied ever watching that show.  Another accusation was that the memories came from The Invaders from Mars. (1953)  Responding to this Betty Hill denied ever watching science fiction movies, ever.  This of course slowed down the skeptics not at all.  (The Hill's experience was in 1961.  The Outer Limits episode was broadcast in 1963.  Most of the hypnotic regression sessions occurred in 1964.) Since then UFO reports, sightings of greys, and reports of abductions have been blamed on the apparently traumatic influence of Close Encounters, Star Wars, Star Trek, and virtually every other SF movie or TV show with anything or anyone even remotely extraterrestrial as a character.

An alien in The Bellero Shield from The Outer Limits threatening Sally Kellerman (Google)

I frankly do not believe that there is anything to the belief that watching a movie can plant a subconscious memory that can later be interpreted as real. (Planting false memories under hypnosis is another matter,)  I believe that this takes a much stronger experience such as real trauma that can induce post traumatic stress disorder.

Killers From Space (Google)

Having said that in fairness I have found an SF movie that does fit the profile of an alien abduction and is old enough to have been seen by all of those who have reported abduction experiences if they can overcome their intense boredom while watching it. The film is Killers From Space. This film was released in the early fifties and starred Peter Graves. Graves is a scientist working on a nuclear experiment. He acts strangely and is given truth serum to discover why. Under the serum he relates being abducted by aliens with large eyes and taken to their underground base.  His experiences there are terrifying.  After interrogation he is sent by them under a form of mind control to sabotage the experiment he is working on.  Of course, since he is the hero, he recovers his will and defeats the aliens.

Killers From Space (Google)

To say that this film is a low budget "B" movie is to be exceptionally generous.  The aliens are stock bad guy actors wearing close fitting hoods and ping pong balls cut in half as their bulging eyes.  The terrifying monsters Graves' character is shown are magnified images of ordinary earth creatures like frogs.  Only the basic plot of the film has the form of a typical alien abduction.  The subject is taken,  he is examined, his memory is altered, he is released and later recovers his memory using a therapeutic aid in this case truth serum instead of hypnosis.


The problem with this film having any effect on collective memories is that it is so consummately bad.  It really is difficult to sit through.  You can watch it on You Tube and other sources online and see for yourself.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Alien in Hocus Pocus and Frisby. (Wikipedia)

Another alien abduction story that has a little greater chance of having an effect on the collective unconscious is a Twilight Zone episode called Hocus Pocus and Frisby.   Frisby does not refer to the flying saucer in the story.  That, it seems in pure coincidence.  Frisby, played by Andy Devine, is a teller of tall tales.  He loves to relate how he singelhandedly won World War Two and was instrumental at many other great turning points of history.  He is a pathological liar.  The aliens watching him do not understand this and capture him thinking he is the greatest human alive.  He escapes before the saucer has lifted off, when he discovers that the sound of his harmonica is intensely painful to the aliens.  If he had a set of bagpipes it might have been lethal and he might have had the saucer to support the tale he inevitably tells to his usual audience at the small town general store.  Without proof their reaction is predicable.

An interesting aspect of this story is the appearance of the aliens once their human disguises are removed.  The eyes are something like those of the greys.

Still I have trouble believing that memories of science fiction movies and plays can have any real effect on memories.  Involved in the science fiction culture as I am I know many, many, people who live and breath science fiction.  Very few of them accept UFOs as a reality or have reported a UFO experience of any kind in spite of he fact that they have read hundreds of SF stories and have seen all of the movies and TV shows.   I myself became fascinated with SF at the age of four when I watched Godzilla.  Yes I remember it vividly. Thus far I have yet to experience my first alien abduction even though I have investigated a dozen or so.

Why Do They Look Like Us?

Skeptics often pose the question: If we are being visited by aliens from another planet or dimension, why do they look so much like us? Why should they walk upright on two legs, with two arms, two legs, a head with two eyes all placed in the same general location as our own? Its reasonable question. All of the alien types we believe exist, the reptilians, The mantis-like insectoids, the Nordics and the iconic grays share with us the same basic configuration in spite of the likelihood that they evolved completely independent of humanity. shouldn't they instead look completely different from us? shouldn't they appear alien?



Science fiction never had this problem. In his classic War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells reasoned that a being from another world should look otherworldly.  He described a tentacled bear shape like a brain crawling. Taking Wells as inspiration SF writers imagined a zoo of intelligent species.  Edgar Rice Burroughs gave his Martians four arms and improbable tusks,  Frederick Brown described a globular being with tentacles, Heinlein depicted a noble giant dragon capable of extremely delicate work using its incongruously tiny hands.  Larry Niven, in his Known Space stories described his Puppeteers as tripedal, two feet in front, one in back, with the brain between the shoulders.  An eye and a "mouth" with manipulating mandibles were set in each of two tentacles coming from both sides of the shoulders.  Descended from grazing animals like deer the entire species were natural cowards.

Our collective experience with interviews of those people who have been contacted by aliens reveal none of these.  All of the aliens are bipedal humanoids.

Evolution fills niches like water naturally seeking it's own level.  A species will evolve into a certain appearance that functions well in the niche it lives in.  A land predator has four legs, sharp binocular vision with eyes that can be raised above it's body so that the rest of it will remain concealed.  The ears are designed for maximum sound gathering and can swivel, but are most efficient when directed forward.  It has very capable claws and teeth.  Jaguars, tigers, wolves, Tasmanian  wolves, hyenas, and dogs all share these characteristics because they are the ones that work and survive to pass these traits along to the next generation.  Similarly all birds have the same basic form expressed in many variations. 

The so called humanoid form is simply the best that we can imagine for and intelligent species.  First it is bipedal allowing the being to stand up straight and have the greatest field of view.  the eyes and ears are close to the brain so that the information from them will be received soonest.  The brain in at the top to allow for maximum cooling and is protected in a hard skull.  The forelimbs, freed from walking or running can be used for manipulation of objects which in later evolution inevitably become tools igniting the further evolution of grater intelligence.  The bipedal upright humanoid for may in fact be the only form an intelligent species may take.