Writing this post about a buddy of mine and how he believes he was mentally compelled to stay in his room for three hours while his parents were having a UFO experience, has been stuck in my head for a week now. Probably because something very similar has happened to me and other abductees I know. And, according to a number of abductees and researchers, this kind of manipulation may be part of the phenomenon itself, not just during an abduction, but during ordinary waking life too. The idea is that ET can influence thoughts, emotions, decisions, and behavior in ways that serve their agenda.
Yes, I know that sounds completely coo-coo. Like, tin-foil-hat, “the aliens made me do it” level nuts. And if I had not experienced some of the things I have experienced, I would probably think the same thing. We have all heard stories about the crazy person claiming aliens made them do this or that. It is practically a cliché. But for abductees and experiencers, the possibility that some of our thoughts or actions may not be entirely our own is deeply unsettling. Especially when you suddenly do something completely out of character.
Control Without Knowing It
David Jacobs, based on the testimony he collected from abductees, wrote that the beings could essentially make people think or do whatever they wanted. He regarded this ability as one of the most frightening aspects of the phenomenon because, in his view, a person could be manipulated without even realizing they were being manipulated. And that is the part that terrifies me.
If ET really has this ability, why would they only use it during an abduction? It would make perfect sense to also use it during ordinary life, too… to influence what abductees say, what they do, who they talk to, what they investigate, what they remember, and whether they ever get close to exposing whatever is going on. In other words, maybe they do not just control the abductee. Maybe they control the narrative.
These creatures are frequently described by abductees and UFO researchers as deceptive. They lie. They disguise themselves. They create false impressions. And if they understand human psychology far better than we understand theirs (our ours), while also possessing some ability to manipulate thought, then what defense would we really have? How do you resist something that can simply make you think, “You know what? Maybe ET isn’t so bad after all.”
I have already had one hypnotherapist tell me that, through some of the abductees she works with, she has received what she interprets as reassuring messages, that they are here for humanity’s benefit and that there is nothing to fear.
Okay.
But what about the people who describe being taken from their homes against their will? What about the terror? What about people describing surgeries or invasive examinations with little or no concern for their fear or pain? Unfortunately, I can personally testify to this.
And then the explanation the hypnotherapist receive is, “Oh, sorry about that. That wasn’t us. Those were the bad aliens.“
Uh-huh. Sure.
What Do They Want From Us?
Some people believe ET needs us for our DNA. That explanation has never made much sense to me because a civilization even a few thousand years ahead of us, never mind millions, would presumably need only a handful of biological samples. Take a few cells, sequence the genome, synthesize whatever you need, grow tissue, simulate it, manipulate it, and move on. They certainly should not need to repeatedly abduct generations of people for decades.
Others suggest they are studying human emotions such as love, bonding, attachment, how parents interact with children. Again, why? A civilization capable of crossing interstellar distances should be capable of learning that very quickly. Give their alien version of AI enough observational data and it could probably simulate human emotional behavior better than we understand it ourselves. Then leave us alone.
A species millions of years more advanced than humanity should not need much from us at all. Seriously. Think about it. If they have survived for that long, crossed enormous distances, in all probibility encountered other civilizations, and probably dealt with intelligent species with psychology not entirely unlike ours, then what could primitive little humans possibly possess that they desperately need? Maybe the answer is not us. Maybe it is the planet.
Maybe They Want the Planet
Abductees are frequently shown images or given messages about humans destroying the Earth. And, frankly, we are not doing a great job disproving the accusation. Earth is an oasis floating in a gigantic dark void. A living planet may be enormously valuable. And for most of human history, we did not have the technological ability to destroy it. Then we learned how to split the atom.
The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945. Soon afterward, the modern UFO era exploded into public awareness, including the famous wave of sightings beginning in 1947. Did splitting the atom get somebody’s attention? Probably.
There are also longstanding reports of UFOs appearing around nuclear weapons facilities and allegedly interfering with missile systems. If even some of those reports are accurate, then perhaps nuclear war is one thing they are determined not to let happen. If so, nuclear annihilation may not be the biggest concern.
Then comes artificial intelligence. The next decade could be extraordinarily disruptive. If humanity eventually develops true AGI, it could trigger technological advances unlike anything in our history. New energy systems. Advanced propulsion. Space travel. And, because we are human, probably weapons that would make today’s arsenal look quaint.
Maybe ET is watching a technological species approach the point where it becomes dangerous beyond its own planet. Maybe they are thinking, “Wonderful. The monkeys have AI now and will be colonizing the galaxy soon.” Could they be trying to stop us from becoming the Klingons of the galaxy? Possibly. But even that has a problem.
If they are millions of years ahead of us, then we probably pose about as much military threat to them as a medieval archer poses to an aircraft carrier. Which leaves another possibility: climate change.
The evidence that humans are changing the climate is overwhelming, and we are making portions of the planet less hospitable. Some researchers warn of severe ecological disruption and cascading extinctions if warming continues unchecked. Maybe the situation is worse than we realize. Maybe from their perspective, watching humanity damage a rare living planet is like watching toddlers play with matches inside a museum.
If Earth is valuable because it supports complex life, preserving the biosphere might be a much stronger motivation than preserving human independence. And that thought bothers me because maybe the question is not, “What do they want from us?” Maybe the question is “How can they control us from destroying the planet?” Control being the key word, or more precisely, controlling humans.
In David Jacobs’s Walking Among Us, one of the recurring themes he reported from abductee testimony was the idea that someday everyone would be happy and everyone would know their place. That is a deeply disturbing phrase because if a civilization had the ability to manipulate human thought, it would not necessarily need chains, prisons, or armies. It could simply make people comfortable with being controlled. You would not feel conquered. You would feel fine. You might even feel happy.
And if ET can influence human thought, then controlling the UFO narrative itself would make perfect sense.
Controlling the Narrative
James Bartley, an independent alien-abduction researcher and self-described abductee known especially for investigating alleged reptilian encounters, claimed that some abductees were pushed away from particular researchers or ideas. He described people suddenly developing hostility toward certain investigators, becoming overwhelmingly sleepy during lectures or while reading certain material, feeling compelled to leave talks, or encountering bizarre disruptions that prevented meetings or regression sessions.
Bartley believed these reactions could function as a kind of information-control system to prevent abductees from comparing notes, keep them away from certain researchers, keep them from learning too much or sharing too much, and just to keep them isolated. And I can absolutely identify with that.
When Walking Away Wasn’t My Decision
I never joined MUFON or any other major UFO organization. Then, nearly a decade ago, while attending Contact in the Desert, something changed. I suddenly wanted nothing more to do with UFO conventions. Nothing more to do with the UFO community. I essentially walked away from all of it, with the exception of staying in contact with one close friend who is also an abductee.
At the time, I simply accepted that as my decision. I was done. That was that. But after learning about these claims, that experiencers may sometimes be manipulated into isolating themselves, avoiding researchers, refusing to compare experiences, or abandoning the subject altogether, I have started wondering whether my withdrawal was entirely my own idea.
I have no way to prove that. Maybe I simply got tired of the UFO community. Maybe I subconsciously wanted a normal life. But knowing what I believe I have experienced, I cannot completely dismiss the other possibility either. What was going through my head back then wasn’t me. It felt different and not natural. So, when I started looking into this, I found many claims of this from abductees and researchers such as James Bartley (whose story I shared above), David Jacobs, Karla Turner, Eve Lorgen, and numerous others who have described the same disturbing pattern.
The overall pattern from what they all describe looks something like this:
induced fear or shame → distrust of researchers or other experiencers → disruption of important relationships → sudden loss of interest or hostility toward certain information → withdrawal from groups or investigation → fewer abductees comparing notes → less information reaching the public.
Yeah. That one hits a little close to home.
At Least We’ll Be Happy
Ultimately, a civilization millions of years more advanced than humanity would almost certainly have mastered the basic problem of survival. They would not need our technology, nor our DNA… they wouldn’t need us for anything. But they might want our planet.
And if the goal were eventually to control humanity, the smartest way to do it would probably not be to suddenly appear on the White House lawn and announce, “Congratulations, humans. You have been acquired.” That tends to create resistance.
A much better strategy would be gradual, slowly normalize the idea we’re not alone, slowly influence culture and industry, slowly shape perceptions, slowly move people toward acceptance. Like the old frog-in-heating-water analogy. And if they really can manipulate human thoughts and behavior, that ability would be an extraordinarily powerful tool for doing exactly that. There is probably nothing we could do about it, but hey, apparently we will all be happy.
