While there have been a reported four million American alien abductions since the 1940’s, are such encounters legitimate? Or is there another, science related, reason behind such instances? Alien abduction stories have surfaced for decades…a farmer abducted out in the fields while working, a woman taken out of the comfort of her own bedroom…the scenarios go on and on but always possess the same underlying story. The majority of alien abductees claim after being taken against their will by extraterrestrial creatures, a series of physical and psychological tests are preformed on them before they are returned to their location of abduction. The majority of alien abductees are returned physically unharmed. In some instances, as in the case of two teenage boys living in Venezuela, the aliens do in fact out in violence and injure the victims. While walking in nearby woods, the two boys were forced to fight off “small hairy aliens” after finding their space craft. In another story, a man was woken in the middle of the night to find intruders in his room. The unknown creatures forced him to come with them against his will and ultimately kidnapped, tested, drugged and raped the man before returning him.

Despite the wide vary of alien abduction stories and the consistency of such stories, science can in fact explain such extraterrestrial encounters. Alien abductions are not real. Alien abductions are hallucinations and lucid dreams which are experienced during sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis, an alarming and terrifying sensation for those experiencing the disorder, occurs when one becomes “aware” before his or her REM cycle ends. While the disorder can last seconds to minutes, the victim of sleep paralysis finds him or herself “paralyzed” in his or her own body, with the exception of the mobility of the eyes. There are two different points in which one can experience sleep paralysis over night. Hypnagogic sleep paralysis occurs while one is falling asleep while hypnopompic occurs while one is waking up.

In a recent study, an Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles preformed an experiment which studied twenty volunteers while sleeping and attempting to stimulate lucid dreaming. Of the twenty volunteers, seven were able to “come in contact” with aliens during their hallucination in just one night of lucid dreaming.

During sleep paralysis, the threat-detection systems in the amygdala are activated which causes the ability for one to think that he or she is hearing footsteps, seeing or hearing the presence of evil intruders in the room or experiencing out of body sensations and levitation. “Old Hag” is a popular case of sleep paralysis in which an old woman is appeared to be trapping the victim by sitting on his or her chest and attempting strangulation.

Scientists in the United States, Japan and China have proven that at least 40 to 50 percent of people experience sleep paralysis. Furthermore, a study done by Jan Dirk Blom shows that humans fear what they know. As a result, those who are more exposed to alien culture, whether it be books, movies, documentaries, are more likely to have hallucinations during their sleep paralysis which are alien abduction related, thus waking up believing they truly had an alien encounter.

All in all, Americans do not need to fear alien abduction. Science of sleep paralysis can prove it all. To all the Doomsday Preppers- have no fear!