Ancient Aliens (2009–…): Season 13, Episode 9 - The Taken - full transcript

Abduction stories around the world are analyzed.

I remember raising my hand up

and pulling back the curtains,

and that's when I came
face-to-face

with what we now know
as a Grey.

Millions of people claiming

to be abducted
by extraterrestrials.

How many of you have had
an experience

- of having been abducted?
- Wow.

Ancient stories
of humans brought off planet

by otherworldly beings.

Angels, demons, spirits...



are these the same
extraterrestrial entities

who are interacting
with us today?

My mother and I both had this
dreamlike experience

of being taken to a craft.

And I saw these
nonhuman entities.

Could these incredible
stories really be true?

And if so, why are humans
being taken?

You have to ask yourself

what is really going on here?
Because these cases

simply defy explanation.

Pasadena, California.

June 16, 2018.

Thousands of people from all
over the world gather

for AlienCon,



a three-day event to discuss
and explore the possibility

that intelligent life exists
beyond our planet,

and may have visited Earth
in the distant past.

It's one thing for people to say

that not only have they
seen a UFO,

but they've had an experience,
a contact...

During one panel
led by former

Ministry of Defence
investigator Nick Pope,

a group of experts talk about
a significant

and controversial subject:

alien abductions.

Looking out at all of you,

one of the things that we would
like to know is,

how many of you have had
an experience you think

might involve
having been abducted?

Can you all put your hands up
who think that you have been?

Wow, that's a lot of people.

If anyone feels comfortable

about coming up
to the microphone,

we would love to hear
your stories.

So, uh, please, yeah.

My name's, uh, Alice Green.

And, um, 40 years ago,

uh, when I was 15, I, um,
I had an abduction experience.

There was a huge spaceship
over my house,

and, uh, one minute I'm in my
bed and the next minute

I'm up in the spaceship.

I wanted to call it a dream,

because I didn't want to call it
an abduction experience

for a long time.

I started having
one of those experiences,

out of body, but not just in
the vicinity.

I kind of started entering
the space realm,

and I just kept going.

And it just got scarier
and scarier for me.

I didn't know what was going on.

The alien that I spoke to

was about to my shoulder,

maybe four and a half feet tall,

and he had three fingers.

He was like
your typical grey alien.

And I had several encounters
over the course

of the next couple years.

I never wanted to tell anybody
because I thought my friends

and family would think
I was crazy.

Millions of people

taken by
extraterrestrial beings?

If alien abductions
are happening,

as experiencers at this panel

and many other
alleged abductees claim,

what evidence is there
to support their stories?

As the number of recorded
abduction cases has increased

over the last several decades,
experts in a variety of fields

have worked
to find this evidence.

In 1991, my colleague
Budd Hopkins and I

got funding for a national poll
about the abduction phenomenon

through the Roper Organization.

We found that at least two
percent of the American public,

and at most, perhaps even five
percent of the American public,

were abductees.

Even with two percent, we're
dealing with an enormous number

of people who've been abducted
throughout the world.

Of course, when people
from the outside

look at
the abduction phenomenon,

they think that
this is just neurological.

I wish that was the case.

That would be wonderful
if that were the case.

I can say, from having
interviewed now

about 1,600 people
in the abduction syndrome,

there are common denominators.

I would say the vast majority
don't know details.

They just remember pieces.

They might remember,
"I saw these eyes,

and they were big and black
and slanted."

They will hear either
a buzzing sound,

or there might be a clicking.

Or in the room, there might be,
like, a little orb of light,

or several orbs of light.

They won't be able to move.

And the paralysis is always
described the same way.

They can move their eyes,
they can see.

They can't move their head.

They will say they see their
bedroom wall just disappear.

Or they are taken
right through the wall.

Or they're taken
through a window.

Or they are taken
through the ceiling.

And then 100% of people,

their next consciousness is
waking up, often the sun is up,

and they know
something's happened,

but they don't know what.

Well,
when you start adding it up

across 40, 50,000 cases,

the number one piece
of compelling evidence

is the credibility
of the individual.

We have doctors,
lawyers, politicians.

So these are people
who have a lot at stake

if they were to say,
"Hey, I've been abducted

by an alien,"
or something like this,

so you have to take
those people seriously.

There are really only two
possibilities here.

Either we're dealing
with a mass delusion

on an unprecedented scale,

or what these people are saying
is actually literally happening

in a physical sense, and these
alien abductions are real.

But if millions
of people have been abducted

by extraterrestrials... or even
a fraction of that number...

what could be
the reason behind it?

And why now?

While what we call
alien abductions

may only have been reported
in modern times,

ancient astronaut theorists
claim there is evidence

that this phenomenon
has been happening

for thousands of years.

In ancient biblical texts,

and also in other textual
references, we have accounts

of people ascending and
descending from and to the sky

with fiery chariots
and flying type of craft.

And that to me indicates that
what these accounts refer to

are similar
to modern-day abductions.

Those accounts
are eyewitness accounts.

They're not told
in the third person,

but it's actually
"I, Ezekiel, witnessed."

"I, Enoch, witnessed."

"I, Abraham, did this."

"I walked through there."

Also, in ancient China,
and also, in ancient Egypt,

are there stories of people
having been visited

or having gone up to the sky to
visit with the so-called gods.

What better way to describe
an extraterrestrial encounter?

So today, we call it
an "alien abduction."

In previous centuries, it was
called by different names.

But we recognize
from the experience

that they are identical.

And therefore, it adds validity

to this not being a modern myth,
but a very ancient problem.

Why today, then,
is it such an important issue?

It very well may be that we did
not recognize in the past

how widespread
these experiences were.

Or it could be that there
is a stepping up of the agenda,

and that the experience
is spreading greater,

farther and wider
than it was in the past.

Could these
extraordinary accounts,

both past and present, be
describing an ongoing program

of human abduction,
in spite of the skepticism

with which they are
viewed by the public?

And is there a smoking gun
that will finally establish

that this phenomenon is real,
and still underway?

Perhaps further clues
can be found by examining

one of the most well-documented
cases on record.

Sheffield, Massachusetts.

June 11, 2018.

Well, we're pretty much
here now.

Author and researcher Mike Bara

has joined abduction experiencer
Thom Reed to visit the site

where Thom says he and members
of his family were abducted

after encountering a strange UFO
nearly 50 years ago.

Does it evoke any memories or
emotions, bring back anything?

Like an anxiety.

- Really?
- Or nervousness I guess.

The UFO was reportedly seen,

not only by the Reed family,

but also by multiple witnesses

all across
Western Massachusetts.

Okay. So, I guess here we are.

- This is the spot, right?
- This is it.

Can you kind of paint me
a picture of what was going on

that night,
what happened the day

- you drove up this road?
- Sure.

Well, first of all,
it was, like, 90 degrees.

It was a really hot night,
and there were

an awful lot of families outside

because it was Labor Day.

It was September 1, 1969,
which was a Labor Day holiday.

Okay. Can you describe what
people saw? I mean, did they see

- just a light in the sky?
- They all saw something

- a little bit different.
- What do you remember

about what happened to you
and your family?

There's a lot of time
that went by,

and I only remember
little pieces of it.

But, uh, we were coming
right down this road here,

and we were heading
through the bridge.

- Mm-hmm.
- And, uh, let-let me show you.

- Okay. Sure.
- All right?

At 9:00 p.m.
on the night of the sighting,

ten-year-old Thom
and his mother, grandmother

and brother were just minutes

from getting home
when they crossed the bridge.

Well, I was in the back seat
behind the driver, my mother.

- Mm-hmm.
- And my grandmother,

who was sitting
in the passenger seat,

was the first one to notice
that there was a...

an odd light
that didn't seem to make sense.

There was a bleed of light
coming through the bridge.

So light was coming
through places

it should not have been
if it was just headlights.

Yeah, it was coming
through the walls a little bit,

coming through the floorboards.

Then we exited the bridge.

This is the spot right there.

This is where
we first saw it, Mike.

So, um,

- can you describe what you saw?
- Yeah.

It was like an orb,
if you would, or a sphere,

and it was about, I'm gonna say
maybe 30, 40 yards round.

It was a perfectly round sphere,

and it had rods of light
that seemed to fire from it.

So it looked like a shiver cone,
or an ice cream cone.

So, none of you has ever seen
anything like this before?

No, not like that, no.

As Thom's mother continued

driving slowly down the road,

the object flew on a route
parallel to theirs

until it took an abrupt turn,
cutting them off.

The car comes to a stop,

and there's a feeling
that came over the car,

which was like a...
some type of a field.

And we were just gone.
We aren't in the car anymore.

And I remember seeing a light
or a door of some kind.

And I was grabbed like this
on my left arm.

And I was kind of pushed
towards this door.

I went into the door.

And I was sitting on...
almost like a-an autopsy table.

And I saw what looked like

some type of a large insect,
like an ant, if you will.

Very stick-like legs,
bamboo almost.

And that's what frightened me,
and then I was out.

Then I remember waking
in the back of the car.

If you could... remember

every single detail,
every single thing that happened

- to you, would you want to?
- I want to know,

but at the same time,
I'm not sure I...

that's a good thing
at this point.

It's-it's confusing.

You know, I kind of need to know
everything that happened,

but at the same time, there's
really no way for me to do that.

For years following
the reported event,

a number of local authorities
and UFO investigators

tried to find evidence

that would validate the Reed
family's incredible account.

One of these was a local judge
named Kevin Titus,

who has spent decades
interviewing eyewitnesses

and verifying their testimony.

It is his belief that enough
evidence exists to conclude

that something otherworldly did,
in fact,

happen on that summer night
nearly 50 years ago.

Everybody couldn't explain
what they were seeing.

People were saying...
calling in WSBS radio,

and telling them

that there's something going on
over in this area.

And, uh, nobody was able to

completely say what it was,
but everybody saw it.

There was well over 250 people
that called in.

They were scared, hysterical.

Some people couldn't explain
what they saw.

They called the police.

And they called
the Army Reserve Air Base.

It's a fact, it did happen.

When you have over 250 people
that saw something the same day,

how can you say it wasn't true?

Over 250 callers?

And all reportedly seeing the
same unidentified flying object?

For abduction researchers
and local authorities,

the incredible number
of witnesses

gave the Reed family's case

an uncommonly high level
of credibility.

So much so
that on November 3, 2015,

Massachusetts Governor Charles
D. Baker issued a citation

which formally recognized

that a verified UFO event
had taken place,

just as the Reed family
and many others had described.

To date, no other
alien encounter has received

this kind of acknowledgement.

What I think is important
in all this is

that we were the first to be
state-inducted as a true event.

And I think that opens doors,
and paves the way for a lot

of other people who deserve
to be taken more seriously.

Do the verified accounts

of the Sheffield incident
refute skeptics

who claim that abduction stories
are unreliable?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes, and they suggest

that even more compelling
evidence can be found

by examining memories buried
deep inside... the human mind.

At one of the AlienCon panels

examining
alien abduction phenomena,

a member of the audience shares
what he believes

to have been
a real-life alien encounter,

one involving missing time.

In about 1996,

I saw a UFO, and it scared me
bad enough that I called 911.

And it just flew
around a water tower

across the street from my house,
and went

into Oak Riparian Park,
and, uh, I grabbed

my flashlight. I wanted
to see it, and I chased it.

And the next thing I remember,

I'm-I'm walking back.
But I have this thing.

Every time I go back
to that same park,

I feel like
I'm missing something.

It's a very common thing,

missing time
with the abduction experience.

And so, yeah, so, I've been
helping a lot of people going...

you know,
go through the regression.

There's different ways
that you can do regression,

but I definitely encourage you
to do that.

Caroline Cory is an expert

in hypnotic regression...
a meditative practice used

to release missing time memories
that have been suppressed,

but are still present
in a person's subconscious mind.

For the past 16 years,

she has specialized in helping
people remember and understand

what they believe
to be an incident

involving extraterrestrial
abduction.

When people have a trauma,

they tend to push it back
into the subconscious mind,

because, on a conscious level,

it is associated with fear,
anxiety.

Hypnotherapy allows you

to bring the mind
to a certain level

so that the person is
so relaxed,

they're almost in a trance.

Then they can tap
into their subconscious mind

and relive the experience.

When you relive the experience,
you...

right away,
you begin to heal it.

That is what happens
in hypnotherapy.

- Hey, Joe. How are you?
- Hi, Caroline.

On June 11, 2018,

Caroline met with Joe Cerletti

for a hypnotic
regression session.

Joe has had difficulty
remembering the details

of an incident that happened
in the spring of 2008,

when he and two friends were
driving on a dark highway

just after midnight
near Oakland, California.

We were just driving down
the road at an average speed,

65, maybe 70 miles an hour,
and instantaneously,

we weren't driving anymore
and the car was shut off.

And we were parked
about 45 minutes away

in a parking lot for an
amusement park after hours

and we were locked
inside the gate

with no explanation how
we got there at that time.

Joe realized
that he and his friends

may have been abducted
by extraterrestrials,

extraterrestrials
which he believes

deliberately blocked his memory.

Today, Caroline will use
hypnotic regression

to hopefully help
Joe remember more

about what happened
on that night.

You ready?

- I am.
- Okay, here we go.

So, we're gonna sit up straight

with the feet flat on the floor.

And close your eyes.

And take a deep breath
in through the nose.

And exhale through the mouth.

As you exhale...

...you let go of the stress,
the tension.

Focus on your hands,
on your arms...

on your heart.

We are now in the year 2008.

You are driving
with two friends.

And then what happens?

A very bright flash of light

just surrounds us
and absorbs us.

Okay.

I'm getting
these thoughts in my head

that I've never heard before.

- I'm trying to...
- Don't try.

Don't assess or judge
or analyze.

You are in the experience,
in the feeling.

You feel safe, protected.

And the light,
where is the light coming from?

Almost like
a portal being opened.

It's being opened by a ship.

Okay. What is the next thing
that you experience?

I'm starting to actually get
a visual of...

guess you could call them faces.

- Who's there?
- Just beings.

Do you get a sense
of why you ended up there,

not someone else?

They're showing me just, like,
a line from my family.

Goes,
they're just going back in time.

They're saying that there's
always been a connection to,

a close connection,
as far back as it goes.

Okay.

The biggest question that
the abductees have is, "Why me?"

Why did this happen to me?"

If they can sense that this
happened not just to them,

but to their parents
and their grandparents,

it brings some sort of closure,
it starts to make sense to them

and they start to feel
that there's a real connection.

It wasn't a random thing.

Breathe in through the nose.

As you exhale through the mouth,

you're purging
all of this energy.

Let it go, let it go, yes.

And slowly, slowly, whenever
you're ready, open your eyes.

Wow.

- Excellent.
- Yeah.

Wow.

- Well, you did amazing. That was awesome.
- Thank you. - You did...

- thank you so much.
- Absolutely.

There was a time where
I was scared to find the answers

because, I think,
the whole unknown factor

is a basic human fear:
not knowing,

the unknown, the abyss,
the dark.

But I needed those answers
'cause I needed some sort of

explanation for what happened
that night.

- All right, I think we're done for today.
- Okay.

For Joe Cerletti,
and others like him,

hypnotic regression
is an important tool

in unlocking memories that may
be buried due to trauma.

But are there other,
even more authoritative methods,

that might help prove that alien
abductions actually take place?

Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes,

and point to recent experiments
that collect

convincing scientific data
from the human brain.

Of the featured guests
at AlienCon 2018,

three claim to have had
firsthand experience

with extraterrestrials:

consciousness researcher
Caroline Cory,

Kathleen Marden, the director of
Experiencer Research for MUFON,

the Mutual UFO Network,

and Bret Oldham,
a man who claims to have had

more than a dozen
abduction experiences

since the age of five.

So many, in fact,

that he has authored
three books on the subject.

Uh, I was first taken
when I was five years old,

and the memories were suppressed

all the way up
until I was in my early 20s.

And it was through the therapy
that I discovered the truth

of what had been
happening to me.

The psychological damage
of being taken

and having sexual experiments
performed on you,

and being subjected to a lot
of things like that.

I decided not to become
a victim to it.

And it took me 20, 20 some years
to get enough nerve

to come forward and face
what was out there,

because I wanted
to become a voice

for others who have had
these experiences.

For more than a decade,
Bret Oldham has been an advocate

for those who claim to have
had similar experiences.

Like all abductees, he has faced

both skepticism and scorn
from the public.

This is a worldwide phenomena,
it's happening

in a grand scale and it's
happening to all walks of life.

Thank you very much.

Earlier this year,
in an effort to learn

if his abduction memories

could be clinically proven,
Bret agreed

to submit to a scientific test.

- Why don't you come on back?
- Sure. -Great, thanks.

If successful, the test,

involving an EEG scan
of Bret's brain,

could go a long way

toward proving that
extraterrestrial abductions

are actually taking place.

Conducting the test is
neuroscientist Dr. Dario Nardi,

under the supervision

of former British Ministry of
Defence investigator, Nick Pope.

Okay, we will be using, um, this
little piece of equipment today.

Are you familiar with EEG?

I'm familiar with it.

There are no wires or whatnot,

there's just these
little sensors.

And I will be placing this
on your head like this.

Okay.

An EEG,
or electroencephalography,

is a noninvasive method
of measuring

the electrochemical activity
of the neurons in the brain.

It works by placing
a network of electrodes

over areas of the scalp,
which can, in turn, register

not only the area of the brain
that is being stimulated,

but also the degree
of stimulation.

We can make a couple
of inferences

when we see the brain activity.

One is, if we see
what are called alpha waves

in particular, in the temporal
regions of the brain,

then that's gonna give us
a good idea

that the person is recalling
something from memory.

On the other hand,
if we see, uh, activity more

in the front of the brain,

where there's maybe not
those alpha waves

of some other kind of activity,

then that's gonna suggest that
the person is crafting something

or coming up with an answer
or explanation in the moment.

So we can differentiate sort of

storytelling versus
accessing the memory.

Nick will ask Bret
a series of questions

about his abduction experiences,

and Dr. Nardi will observe
the neural activity

that occurs
during Bret's responses.

If, for example,
Bret is inventing or making up

his answers,
it should show up as activity

on the part of the brain most
associated with imagination.

Okay. We are ready to go.

Well, perhaps, uh,
first of all, Bret,

was there a single incident
that started this?

Uh, there was.

Um, we lived
in Southern Illinois,

in an old farmhouse surrounded
by just cornfields and soybean

and stuff like that, and
I'd lived a pretty innocent life

up until that point.

One night, I heard a voice,

and I actually thought
it was my stepdad,

'cause it's very, very quiet
out in the country.

Did the voice say something?

The voice was coaxing me
to come to the window.

I got up
and I walked across the floor.

I could see a light
coming through.

It just kept coaxing me to come,

and I was just
a curious little boy.

And I remember
raising my hand up

and pulling back the curtains,

and that's when I came
face-to-face

with what we now know as a Grey.

- So what did you think it was?
- I had no idea.

I had never seen anything
like that before.

And before I could scream
for help or anything,

the next thing I remember
was laying on a table,

surrounded by these things.

And you said, uh,
before you could scream,

so I presume
from what you're saying

- that you were very scared.
- Very scared.

That first incident made such
an indelible mark in my psyche

that I-I had
nightmares about it,

up until just several years ago.

Even now, after all the time,

how does it make you feel
looking back on that incident

and what's your,
what's your bottom line on this,

in terms of what you think's
going on?

I don't think anyone really
knows what their true agenda is.

You know, some people speculate

that they're gonna
take over our planet.

Uh, I don't.

I-I think if they were
gonna do that,

- they would have already done it.
- Right.

After Nick and Bret
finish their session,

Dr. Nardi shares
the EEG results,

and what they reveal
about Bret and his story.

So we had about
45 minutes worth of data.

You asked questions that truly
were speculative questions,

versus ones that were asking
for literal recall.

And we saw that, really,
they were activating

in very different parts
of the brain.

Consistently,
when you asked him to speculate,

like, "Why do you think
that they do this,"

then clearly, we see
this region of the brain

in the left hemisphere sort
of by the left temple here,

that that would get active.

So that, that was
a really good baseline.

In contrast, there were
at least a half a dozen moments

which really strongly activated
over on this side instead,

which is associated more
with literal recall.

In other words, uh,
we're just gonna give the facts,

and the details, or rather,
recall without embellishment.

Indicative of an actual memory?

Most of the time.

"Recall without embellishment?"

Could this result be evidence
that Bret's story is true,

and that these abductions
really took place?

Those moments that you described
like sitting with the tall Grey,

that's what that
looked like in the brain.

By differentiating between
memory and speculation,

in one sense the EEG machine
acted as a sort of polygraph.

The fact that the part
of the brain involved in memory

lit up and was activated,

says to me that this
is a genuine experience.

This is not a hoax.

This is not somebody who's
making the whole thing up.

Well, Dario,
thank you very much.

This has been very interesting,

and I think we've got
lots of great data here.

- Thank you.
- Absolutely.

- It's my pleasure.
- Really appreciate it.

The journey is always
going to continue for me.

I'm always going to want to
delve deeper into these events,

into what I remember, and
find out what I don't remember.

And I still don't have
all the answers.

If, as the EEG data suggests,

Bret Oldham's claims

of extraterrestrial
abduction are true,

does it help prove that alien
abductions are really happening?

But why?

And for what purpose?

Perhaps further clues can be
found by examining evidence

that aliens have been altering
human biology.

And not just for generations,
but for thousands of years.

Lancaster, New Hampshire.

September 19, 1961.

Betty and Barney Hill
are driving late at night

when a large flying saucer
intercepts them

and hovers over their car.

Above them, the Hills observe

otherworldly figures
in the windows of the craft.

Days later, the couple
reports missing time

and after participating
in hypnotic regression,

they claim to realize

that they were abducted
by extraterrestrials.

In the decades that follow,
the Betty and Barney Hill case

becomes the most well-known and
investigated abduction encounter

in modern history.

But according to Betty
and Barney's descendants,

the incident in Lancaster
is only one part

of a much larger story,

a story that actually
began three years prior

with an incident
involving Betty's sister.

Betty Hill was my aunt,
my mother's sister.

Something that we have
never revealed before

is that my mother had
a close encounter in 1958.

She saw this huge,
cigar-shaped craft

hovering over a field.

She had no explanation for what
had happened as far as she knew.

She had gone shopping
and she had driven home.

My mother eventually
underwent hypnosis

and through hypnosis,
she recalled

having been abducted as well.

And I also had this uncanny

sort of dreamlike experience

of being taken to a craft.

It bothered me
for many, many years.

Eventually, I did talk
to my family about it

and that's when I found out that
my mother had the same memory.

Could it be
that extraterrestrial beings

are abducting
not only individuals,

but also families?

And if so, why?

The abduction phenomenon
is intergenerational.

When a man and a woman marry

and either the man
or the woman is an abductee,

their children
will be abductees.

It seems that specific
bloodlines are involved here.

And if that's the case,

it raises
the intriguing possibility

that the extraterrestrials are
interested in human biology,

that they are monitoring
specific genetic lines

for some purpose.

For ancient astronaut
theorists and UFO researchers,

the notion that
extraterrestrials

are conducting experiments
involving human biology

is not a new one.

Many believe the practice
has been going on

for thousands of years.

Maybe there's some truth
to these entities

which we call shedim.

These are old legends

of people who are abducted,
sexually seduced

and some taken away.

And when we hear today
about the numerous stories

of alien abductions
throughout history,

they are identical.

For proof that their theories

about the biological nature
of alien abductions are valid,

researchers point to the fact

that a relatively high number
of abductees, more than 60%,

have an extraordinarily
rare blood type:

Rh negative.

The subject kept coming up from
the abductees: "I'm Rh negative."

"Could it have anything to do
with why I'm being abducted?"

I got to collaborate with a
doctor, Dr. John Altshuler,

and he did pathology;
he did blood work.

And he gave the conclusion
that Rh negative blood

might actually be
a genetic data point

about why humans
could be hybrids,

that every Rh negative

would be coming
from a history of abductions.

Rh negative
is a very peculiar thing.

First off, it didn't exist
until 35,000 years ago.

It may have been
that 35,000 years ago,

E.T. introduced this
into our society

through whatever breeding
programs they've been running.

The ancient astronaut
theory suggests

that for thousands of years,

extraterrestrials
meddled with our DNA.

There was a time when
we were Homo sapiens.

And then we became
Homo sapiens sapiens.

And that happened
within only 50,000 years,

which by Darwinian
evolutionary standards,

is too short of a time span
for that to happen.

Our brain volume increased
by up to 30%

in 50,000 years,
which is absolutely crazy.

Now, the reason why I think

that modern-day abductions occur

is because maybe we are still
being manipulated with our DNA

from extraterrestrials

in order to turn us
from Homo sapiens sapiens

into Homo sapiens
sapiens sapiens.

Have extraterrestrials
been abducting people

in order to monitor the
evolutionary progress of humans?

Or have they been deliberately
manipulating our biology

in order to achieve
some ultimate purpose?

Ancient astronaut
theorists claim

that both possibilities are
likely true and for this reason,

it is more important than ever
for us to hear the stories

of those who say
they have been taken.

Pasadena, California.

June 16, 2018.

Throughout a discussion
about alien abductions

during a panel at AlienCon,

both the panelists
and members of the audience

remark on how difficult,
but also important it is

to speak out about abductions.

I hesitated coming up here
for a couple reasons.

Um...

Every topic
that you guys have mentioned

has connected dots
actively right now today.

As far as lineage,
as far as bloodlines,

as far as families,
so generational.

My mom, um, myself, my daughter.

I had night terrors as a child,

missing time as a child
throughout my life.

I literally have
short-term memory deficits

and specific things,
real spontaneous phenomenon

that ultimately touches
on everything that

- you guys are talking about.
- Thank you very much.

These hardly ever seem
to be one-off experiences.

Thank you
for sharing your story.

I'd like to say, uh, I applaud
you guys for your courage

to come forward in front
of all these people

and share your story.

I'm blown away
by the amount of people

that, uh, show up at this panel.

And when I see this kind of, uh,
support, it's very encouraging

and I think
that's very important

to bring this phenomenon
out into the light

where it needs to be
because a lot of answers

lie with the experiencers.

So I just thank you for that.

Coming forward to admit
that you've had some type

of a close encounter,
whether it is seeing something

or maybe you've been abducted,

that is a very difficult
thing to admit.

And that is why I think

we really should look at all
the other pieces of evidence:

abduction cases
or close encounters

and say, "Okay, what if?"

I'm happy today that
I'm finally able to say

it's not only real,
it's happening.

Great. Hearing those stories
is of help

to any of you out there who have
had these strange experiences.

And you are not alone with this,
as you can see.

So thank you to you and thank
you to my fellow panelists.

When you look
at the vast body of data

that we have on this phenomenon,

it's difficult
to avoid the conclusion

that something is going on here.

Why should we, therefore,

cast away the stories
of the abductees

just because we may feel
a little uncomfortable

with the place that takes us?

Each year, thousands of people

are bravely coming forward

with personal accounts
of alien abductions.

But is the world's
growing willingness

to hear them and
believe them a sign

that humanity
might be on the brink

of an exciting new period
in its evolution,

one where we will discover
that centuries of alien contact

has changed us in ways
we could never

have previously imagined
or accepted?

Perhaps a greater acceptance

that alien contact is being made

will prepare us for the future,

a future where we will become

the extraterrestrials
on other worlds

and encounter other life-forms
not so different from our own.