Have you had contact experiences and want to chat with someone in anonymity? Michigan MUFON State Director and author of Experiencer: Raised in Two Worlds Bill Konkolesky has had 44 years of personal remembered personal UFO and other paranormal encounters and two decades of active participation in the Mutual UFO Network, the world's largest civilian UFO Research organization. In this time, he has met and spoken with hundreds of other experiencers. It's understandably difficult to find someone will listen without judgment but gets what you're going through. Konkolesky's available for you and connected with a community of individuals who will listen, as well. We are not alone and neither are you. Email. Call. Chat. Free. Today!
email:contact@experiencer.us phone:248.658.UFOS
Abduction Research Needs Renewed Focus
In the timeline of abduction research, the 1980’s and 1990’s were, in some ways, as much of a detour as they were groundbreaking. Investigators during this era became so focused on such a tight set of parameters relating to abductions that they thought they knew what was safe to discard, when really nothing should have been discarded.
Open-mindedness seemed to be more prevalent in the 1970’s when names like Vallee, Keel, and Steiger were among the key mouthpieces of close encounters with unknown beings. Their bizarre and sometime hair-raising reports demonstrated that investigators had no idea what to make of was going on.
Then a revolution of sorts happened in the 1980’s. Hard-working investigators kicked into high gear and the bounty of alien abduction books from the 1980’s and 1990’s brought into clear focus what was apparently the big picture. The abductees and investigators writing these books during this period built off each other’s research and seemingly crafted a polished explanation that covered most of the questions: Earth was being visited by an off-world species who were creating a hybrid species between themselves and us in order to renew their lost emotional side and also to develop a new being that would allow something of mankind to survive out in space after a certain but vague impending disaster befalls us.
Who could argue that this wasn’t substantial progress? It did, however bring about some unintended consequences.
Firstly, in an odd sort of way, the bar raised to be an abductee worthy of attention. Suddenly, abductees couldn’t just have missing time to be considered relevant, but were also pressured to have in their portfolio an implant and a hybrid baby. Having these on one’s checklist became a sort of status symbol (as if it wasn’t enough to be simply taken aboard a flying saucer!). While implants and hybrids are inarguably parts of some experiencers’ narratives, too many people had been focusing too hard on these aspects.
Additionally, a major aspect of the abduction phenomenon is all the data that is disregarded by investigators because it is highly strange and/or just doesn’t fit well with the polished narrative. For example, one abductee once told me that sometimes only portions of the entities materialize to him (as in, the being’s left-half is standing in his living room, staring at him). For all I know, this doesn't happen to others, as well, and it's just not being shared publicly. It is not uncommon that a UFO abductee also encounters spirit activity, cryptids, and other anomalous odds and ends.
I’m not claiming investigators were on the wrong track with their abduction research, just that nobody seemed to be paying attention to the scenery whizzing by. I also know all too well and respect that it is difficult enough to catalog and cross-reference abduction data without opening to the floodgates to any manner of anomalous event that an abductee may encounter. But I really think that some of these things that have been traditionally marginalized may tell us volumes.
In short, we need to stop thinking we have enough data to make sense of what’s going on. We need all the details we can get, even if that takes us to some high strangeness destinations.
- Bill Konkolesky
In the timeline of abduction research, the 1980’s and 1990’s were, in some ways, as much of a detour as they were groundbreaking. Investigators during this era became so focused on such a tight set of parameters relating to abductions that they thought they knew what was safe to discard, when really nothing should have been discarded.
Open-mindedness seemed to be more prevalent in the 1970’s when names like Vallee, Keel, and Steiger were among the key mouthpieces of close encounters with unknown beings. Their bizarre and sometime hair-raising reports demonstrated that investigators had no idea what to make of was going on.
Then a revolution of sorts happened in the 1980’s. Hard-working investigators kicked into high gear and the bounty of alien abduction books from the 1980’s and 1990’s brought into clear focus what was apparently the big picture. The abductees and investigators writing these books during this period built off each other’s research and seemingly crafted a polished explanation that covered most of the questions: Earth was being visited by an off-world species who were creating a hybrid species between themselves and us in order to renew their lost emotional side and also to develop a new being that would allow something of mankind to survive out in space after a certain but vague impending disaster befalls us.
Who could argue that this wasn’t substantial progress? It did, however bring about some unintended consequences.
Firstly, in an odd sort of way, the bar raised to be an abductee worthy of attention. Suddenly, abductees couldn’t just have missing time to be considered relevant, but were also pressured to have in their portfolio an implant and a hybrid baby. Having these on one’s checklist became a sort of status symbol (as if it wasn’t enough to be simply taken aboard a flying saucer!). While implants and hybrids are inarguably parts of some experiencers’ narratives, too many people had been focusing too hard on these aspects.
Additionally, a major aspect of the abduction phenomenon is all the data that is disregarded by investigators because it is highly strange and/or just doesn’t fit well with the polished narrative. For example, one abductee once told me that sometimes only portions of the entities materialize to him (as in, the being’s left-half is standing in his living room, staring at him). For all I know, this doesn't happen to others, as well, and it's just not being shared publicly. It is not uncommon that a UFO abductee also encounters spirit activity, cryptids, and other anomalous odds and ends.
I’m not claiming investigators were on the wrong track with their abduction research, just that nobody seemed to be paying attention to the scenery whizzing by. I also know all too well and respect that it is difficult enough to catalog and cross-reference abduction data without opening to the floodgates to any manner of anomalous event that an abductee may encounter. But I really think that some of these things that have been traditionally marginalized may tell us volumes.
In short, we need to stop thinking we have enough data to make sense of what’s going on. We need all the details we can get, even if that takes us to some high strangeness destinations.
- Bill Konkolesky
BEYOND COSMIC