Do the roots of how we have come to perceive the UFO abduction phenomenon lie elsewhere, not between the stars but buried in the folklore and superstition of a suppressed people?
Secularists too often disregard Folklore as a collection of superstition, colloquialisms and “local color,” with nothing substantive to offer today. Such a viewpoint misses the rich historical insights the field provides, at the least, and perhaps its greater philosophical—dare we say “spiritual?”—insights into the shared human condition. Folklore is Truth disguised as fable. There is much of value to be learned from Folklore.
The “Alien abduction” scenario is seen as a recent phenomenon, but it really isn’t. Once human beings achieved the “space age,” our boogers and bugaboos simply changed their disguises, becoming “aliens” from other planets instead of Fairies from within the veil or vampires returned from their graves. What they maintain in common is the tendency to prey on human beings in the night. Another commonality: Our continued helplessness in the face of such predation. What aliens are today and vampires were to European peasants of centuries past, the “Night Doctors” were to poor blacks in the South in the slavery era. Whether sucking blood, kidnapping infants or harvesting organs, these “things that come in the night” remain as terrifying as ever.
Now, if you really wanna talk terrifying—What if there’s really something to the whole shebang?
I think some of the experiences people have had of this sort relate to sleep paralysis, where you are essentially awake, but your brain has not turned off the sleep paralysis that prevents you from acting out your dreams. I had a few incidents of that as a child that were truly disturbing.
As for the Night Doctors, after Tuskegee and other horrifying experiments, I can understand black people being afraid of secretive doctors who visited at night. I think there is a kernel of truth to that. Have you read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks?