Unidentified by Mikel J. Wisler Page A

medical examinations. These aliens seem keenly interested in human sexuality and reproduction. There are many stories of alien beings having sex with human abductees. There’s a particularly famous case of a Brazilian farmer who was abducted and then made to mate with a strange alien woman. There’s plenty of other stories of sexual encounters with aliens too. But it all seems a little unnecessary since other stories claim that eggs are extracted from women and semen extracted from men.”
    “Ugh,” Mitchell said, turning to face him with an amused look. “Alien happy ending?”
    “Pass,” Evans grinned. “But it does bring up the question: why bother with sex if they can extract the genetic material they need by other methods? Unless, of course, the sex is the point in those cases.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, everything about the abduction experience seems designed to be cold, horrifying, and degrading. Darkness, paralyses, nakedness, metal examination tables, sharp utensils, and this strange focus they have on sexuality.”
    “So they’re interstellar perverts?” Mitchell shook her head.
    “At least that’s the modern mythology we’ve created,” Evans said.
    “Mythology?” Mitchell raised an eyebrow.
    “In ancient Greece, we had the gods and goddesses, and heroes—half god, half human—brought about by sexual relations between gods and humans. There were supposedly good gods like Zeus and mischievous gods like Hermes. In medieval times, we had goblins, trolls, demons, succubus—all kinds of horrors. In fact, alien abduction stories share many similarities to the succubus narrative. Both come at night while we sleep, cause paralysis, have a sexual interest in their victims, and cause a lot of terror.”
    “So then we’re after a succubus now?” she said.
    “All of these things have served as a means to make our fear of the unknown tangible,” Evans tried to explain. “Our minds constantly work to assimilate information that will help keep us alive. It is, in fact, what our brains are hardwired to do. There’s good evidence in neuroscience that our brains have evolved specifically to glean as much survival information as possible from every situation. In fact, this may well be why storytelling is such a natural draw to us. The human brain latches on to the narrative and empathizes with the characters as a means to glean valuable survival information should it ever find itself in a similar predicament. And stories commonly serve as a means to make sense of our fears—thus the popularity of horror movies. But when we suffer trauma, this effort to find a means to make sense of our fears can have unintended side effects.”
    “Really think all alien abduction cases can be explained this way?” she pressed.
    Evans smiled, enjoying the challenge. “Now I didn't say all cases, but consider this: it was not until our modern technological age that alien abduction stories really took off. We were deep into the Cold War. The space-race was upon us. It’s quite convenient that every abduction story seems to describe technology that is very akin to the existing technology of its day. Compare abduction stories from the 60s and 70s to those of today. While these beings supposedly have far superior technology than our own and travel impossible distances to reach Earth, there are simply too many gaping holes in any UFO scenario that tries to claim these are, in fact, beings from another planet. And that’s without getting into the theories that claim aliens are inter-dimensional travelers.” He couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
    “At any rate,” he continued. “Our brains can often fixate on new information and try to fit things into a particular pattern, especially if we become preoccupied with some new info we perceive as a threat or as exciting. With UFOs, it’s known as the ‘space-flight effect.’”
    “Which is what?”
    “In the late fifties, there was this period of about a month