Talk:Alien abduction

old talk
Shouldn't this page be called "Abduction phenomenon", with a lowercase P? -R. fiend 02:47, 25 February 2005 (UTC)

Re-sited comments
Resited the following comment to here, as it is not well-phrased. It may be true, but is pure unsourced opinion and therefore more of a discussion point: CORRECTION: 1. The contact/abduction phenomenon goes back to Zarathustra (Iran) who was confronted by entities which are extraterrestrials and they fly what we call UFOs. It even goes back farther then Zarathustra. 2. It is sad to see all these educated comments that they have no right to make or claim because they are using others good or bad experience with what were known as GODS in ancient times for their monetary gain. A visit is good for the good and bad for the bad and all of you are missing out on why we are here. 3. You should all stop referring our great ancestors as ALIENS. 4. CUFOS has no clue to what is going on our planet and to get an award for sharing others experiences is disrespectful.


 * This would need to be supported by reliable sources. — Paleo  Neonate  – 07:13, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

Systemic difficulty with sources
A number of popular researchers seem(ed) to believe in interdimensional or spiritual beings and mind manipulation conspiracy theories, yet there are numerous even less credible sources (UFO cults and radical politics) out there. Even popular researchers are usually "in-universe", it's a challenge to find very credible ones who treat it in a rational naturalist way that avoids revisionism of much of science, while taking in consideration all of psychology, psychiatry, neurology, sociology and culture, tradition, religion and politics (as well as the problems of "regression therapy" and of "abductees" needing to fit their story within stereotypes in attempt to be considered credible; their own subjective culture/fear influenced personal experiences and their interpretations). It's also understandable considering the stigma researchers may face if perceived to take any of it seriously (a problem Mack apparently also faced). And the obvious fact that there's till a lot to learn about the brain and human behavior. This means that it's difficult to find reliable independent sources with significant coverage of the topic and to balance the article for a non-partisan mainstream encyclopedia. Finding sources is as important as editing, so I welcome interested editors to help finding and listing them. Thanks, — Paleo Neonate  – 17:48, 11 February 2020 (UTC)

Abductee narrative
I didn't rework that section other than converting an undue and style-discouraged box to prose, but there are problems: some researchers or organizations expect certain criteria and abductees will tend to feel pressured to satisfy those, which is not really covered. These steps and phases also appear to be presented as factual sequencial events rather than as common points from the reports literature, a type of living tradition. Since some people do live profound personal experiences, a part also has to do with related cognitive aspects... I'm not sure yet how to present this and quality sources are difficult to find (see my above query for more sources). Thanks, — Paleo Neonate  – 17:58, 11 February 2020 (UTC)