The “aliens” or star beings often told them they should not remember what had occurred, either for their own protection or the protection of their families. Sometimes the experiencers felt they were disobeying the star people, whom they felt connected to on a very deep level, when they cooperated with Mack. Mack reassured them that no harm had ever come to anyone when the work was done in an appropriately supportive context.

  I don’t know the difference between what Billy Meier experienced and what John Mack’s patients experienced, except for one thing. Billy always drove toward the craft and was then taken up. He wasn’t abducted, seemingly against his will, though many of the experiencers went willingly, too. Many of them remembered encounters since childhood; some star beings were playmates or “little people,” healers and teachers. However, when these children reached puberty, a fear set in, particularly when their parents told them they were only dreaming, and the beings weren’t real. Mack said abductees and contactee experiencers run in families, sometimes over three generations or more.

  The abductees complain of the switching off of memory and consciousness, and of a feeling of being floated through walls, doorways, and windows. Many of them have a feeling of inexplicable love as though they had gone home. They also experience great cycles of birth and death and relive powerful past life experiences.

  The crafts vary in size. They are described as silvery or metallic, cigar-shaped, saucer-shaped, dome-shaped with colorful lights emanating from the bottom through portholelike openings. Then they are “floated” or “beamed” into the craft. Once inside, the abductee witnesses “alien” beings who are busy doing various tasks. The beings are described as all sorts. I remembered that Semjase had said over 108 different star being species are visiting Earth. Mack’s research with his experiencers bears that out. The aliens seem fascinated with the humans, staring at them extensively, close to the human’s head, with large eyes. The abductees feel that their minds are being read, even taken over.

  I believe from most of Mack’s experiencer descriptions that the predominant “abductors” are what is known as the “Greys.” They are short (three to four feet high), and they move in a robotical way. There seems to be no gender difference. They are hairless with no ears and have rudimentary nostril holes and a thin slit for a mouth, which rarely opens or is expressive of emotion. The most prominent feature of this species are the huge black eyes that curve upward and are more rounded toward the center of the head and pointed at the outer edge. They seem to have no whites or pupils although sometimes one can see a life within the eye, as though the outer eye is a kind of goggle. The eyes seem to have a compelling power which the abductee, more often than not, wants to avoid, because of a feeling of loss of will and identity. There is a leader or a doctor who is in charge and toward whom the abductee feels a kinship bordering on love. Yet at the same time, the abductee resents the control the leader has over him. The communication between the two is done telepathically, with no common language necessary. They have large, pear-shaped heads that protrude in the back, long arms with three or four long fingers, thin torsos, and spindly legs. Feet are usually covered with single-piece boots. External genitalia are rarely observed. These beings have been portrayed in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and I wondered how the filmmakers conjured up the appearance.

  As I’ve said, there seem to be many different species of “abductors.” Some are tall and humanlike, some translucent, some solid. Some seem reptilian and carry out mechanical functions. Some are blond and Nordic-looking. But by far the most common “abductors” are the “Greys.”

  The experiences that Dr. John Mack told me about were nothing like what Billy Meier told me. But then his experience was with the Pleiadians, a different (and probably more advanced) species altogether. The procedures with the “Greys” vary slightly but they are generally probing and surgical-like. Skin and hair samples as well as samples from within the body are taken. Instruments are used to penetrate virtually every part of the body: nose, sinuses, eyes, ears, head, arms, legs, feet, abdomen, genitalia, and chest. Surgical procedures are done inside the head, which make the abductees feel as though their nervous systems have been altered. The most common procedures involve the reproductive system. They seem to be more interested in how we procreate than anything else. Sperm samples are taken from men and eggs are removed from women.

  Abductees often report having been impregnated by the alien beings and later having the fetuses removed. I have had several women over the years call me with the trials of that experience. Some knew they were virgins, felt strange, had a sonogram that proved there was a fetus growing, and a few months later it disappeared. The same abductees later see a fetus (which they feel is theirs) in an incubator of some kind aboard the craft when they are abducted again. They feel they are seeing hybrids that belong to them. Experiencers say they see older hybrids, adolescents and adults, which the aliens tell them are their own, too.

  John Mack feels that these Greys are incubating a hybrid race, either because they need more life on their planet or because they may be sensing the end of human life here on Earth. The “procedures” seem to have to do with some sort of genetic engineering for the purpose of creating human/alien hybrid offspring. All of the abductees talk about the information imparted to them concerning the fate of the Earth. They say humans are destructive and uncaring about nature. They show screens with images projected showing the ultimate fate of the Earth unless we change our ways. Scenes of Earth devastated by a nuclear holocaust, vast panoramas of lifeless, polluted landscapes and oceans, and apocalyptic images of giant earthquakes, firestorms, floods, and even fractures of the planet itself. These images are deeply disturbing to the abductees, who are sometimes given assignments to prevent such catastrophes.

  When I was in Peru, I met several men who were taken aboard crafts and shown the same apocalyptic scenes on screens. One was shown a future scene that was to happen in his own village. It did happen, exactly as he was shown, some weeks later. Does this mean, I asked John Mack, that we have an already-determined future that can change only with a massive shift of consciousness? That makes the Bible Code, the prophecies, and the Bible (Revelation) a code that is really a PLAN. But who made the Plan? And was the Plan determined by the consciousness of the human race a long time ago? And by whom?

  Abductees are often convinced that some sort of implant has been placed in their bodies so that they can be monitored. Many have consulted doctors who have indeed found foreign objects and removed them.

  Mack said there were five consistent phenomena that occurred in all abductees:

  High degrees of detailed consistency that was reported with emotion appropriate to the experience.

  The absence of psychiatric illness or other apparent psychological or emotional factors that could account for what is being reported.

  The physical changes and lesions affecting the bodies of the experiencers, which followed no evident psychodynamic pattern.

  Independent observation of crafts by witnesses while the abductions were taking place.

  The reports by children as young as two or three of having been abducted.

  I met with Mack many times over a few years. He’d come to New Mexico or we’d arrange to meet in Los Angeles when we were both there. I admired his courage so much in the face of the ridicule he was tolerating from the academic community. But much to their credit, Harvard kept him on so that he could proceed with the pioneer work of studying perhaps the most important phenomenon on the planet—the “we are not alone” phenomenon.

  He was kind and available to the abductees, who also sought solace with each other as they attempted to blend their experiences in with their lives. Many felt total isolation and estrangement from their families and friends. The children who were abducted were usually told they were either dreaming or lying, which motivated them to keep their mouths shut. Even adults were reluctant to talk except in the company of Mack or other abductees.

  Not all of the abductees experienced invasive physical procedures, which led them and Mack to believe that certain of them were “selected” for either programming, seeding, enlightenment, spiritual leadership, or a deep study in the intricacies of human fear. Those spouses who were “selected” found it very difficult to carry on an intimate relationship with the spouse who wasn’t selected. There was a decided resistance to accepting the reality of the experience by the spouse who didn’t experience. Also, many marriages and relationships were disrupted because the experiencer’s personal development was much more swift, leaving the other spouse behind.

  Many abductees felt profound love for the alien beings, in some ways deeper than the love they felt for any human. Yet when their sperm or eggs were taken, they were conflicted by the intrusion, while at the same time feeling privileged to participate in the creation and evolution of new life. They spoke of a new understanding of universal love and connectedness. Mack thought it was possible that he was seeing relationship processes that were evolutionary in nature and not comprehensible in the linear terms of our familiar emotional constructs. For example, he said many of the abductees experience past lives with their alien friends, and that is the reason for the profound recognition and love. They felt that the cycles of birth and death gave them a different perspective about time and nature and the secrets of their own identity. The nature of their soul without a body became clear to them, enabling them to drop their ego and feel a sense of continuity with all life, and not just in this lifetime. Some of them felt they had gone home and experienced profound joy, and when they left the craft, often they wept with sadness because they were leaving their cosmic home. The alien identity seemed somehow to be connected to the soul and identity of the abductee. To me, this would explain who was “selected” and who wasn’t.

  One of the things each abductee reported was a feeling of the collapse of time and space, of being in multiple times and places simultaneously. This is what Einstein said: “All time is happening concurrently.” The alien star beings told the abductees that they would remember what they needed to know. Most of them remembered more than they wanted to know. However, each abductee knew that the star beings were telling them the truth about what we were doing to our world with our politics, our food, the way we treat each other, and the pollution of our environment. They said the laws of the universe were different than ours on Earth and if we kept going as we were, the catastrophe would be inevitable. They said we have to spiritually rebalance ourselves before it is too late.

  Mack admitted that in psychiatry it is very difficult to admit when we don’t know or understand something. There is a tendency to fit psychological data or emotional phenomena into familiar categories. Total uncertainty is very uncomfortable. He said the star being alien abduction phenomenon was a rich source of information regarding how we understood ourselves and our surrounding universe. We had to admit that we really knew very little about nature, ourselves, and how we participated in the universe.

  The abductees, regardless of the trauma of their experience, felt they were opened up to something, like they’d been given an intense jump into a spiritual realm they were not ready for. They wanted to become more spiritual even though they didn’t know what that meant or how to do it. Some were shown pictures on a screen of their “real” alien family. Some said they’d always known they were different, that they weren’t from here. They’d always wanted to run away—but to where?

  Some said the aliens told them with great sadness that they had destroyed their own planet because of “something they had built.” They were deciding whether they could live on this Earth with humans, but they found the humans too lonely, too incapable of sharing. In the alien world there were no secrets, everyone knew what everyone else was thinking. Humans were afraid of being hurt, not getting what they wanted, not opening up, and afraid of love. If we didn’t change ourselves, nature would change us. Fear doesn’t live as much in the consciousness of other worlds as it does here. And fear is difficult to live around. There is so much more freedom when there is less fear.

  Mack was genuinely concerned for children that had been taken aboard crafts, whose parents then subjected them to doctors who gave them tests, destructive treatment, countless hours of medical examinations, wrong diagnoses, and inappropriate evaluations. He was saddened by the denial that most Earth families live in.

  Many of his patients began to have dreams that covered a vast range of existential subjects: the nature of time, space, the cycles of birth, death, creation, the mystery of truth, spirit and soul, the limitations of material science. Some believed they were told to write about such things, and the information would be there for them. They were told that each of their souls was part of the whole, and they should give birth to their thoughts. One person received the information that “technical data does not lead to the discovery of other beings. Spiritual data does.”

  While some abductees felt love and compassion from the star beings, others felt they didn’t care about them. They felt like specimens of interest and curiosity, but not with any compassion or heart. Most felt the star beings were superior and behaved that way, never asking if they could proceed with a procedure, just doing it. It was the feeling of helplessness that drove most of the abductees to terror. They felt they were not the masters of their own lives. However, after their experiences they began to feel an empathy for life itself on a more universal and global scale. They became troubled as to the fate of the Earth. Then they reevaluated their feelings of fear and loss of control because they felt the star beings were trying to do what they could to prevent the human suicide that was occurring on Earth. The genetic experiments and reproductive activity, then, were part of a bigger plan to help us humans.

  The rage and anger that many of the abductees felt regarding the invasion of their privacy, the paralysis that was induced and the overall lack of respect for their will was exceedingly difficult for them to overcome. But little by little most seemed to agree that if they acted with rage and hostility, nothing could be accomplished. All said the problem was their own fear. They needed to learn a fear mantra. They all agreed the aliens were more advanced spiritually and emotionally and that they were trying to serve the future for humans as well as themselves.

  As their attitudes changed, so did their own sensitivities. They began to feel other people’s energy, their emotional states, their “auras,” and, yes, their fears. They said if they processed the abduction properly, they felt themselves open up to a new world of sensitivity.

  It sounded as though the star beings were putting many abductees through an examination of their deepest fears. Fear, they teach, is at the bottom of most human ills. But even if humans are saturated with it, they can get beyond it. Fear is the great barrier to enlightenment and understanding of oneself.

  Many of the abductees expressed the fear of “facing themselves.” The star beings used screens on which were projected scenes not only of events from the abductees’ childhoods but also scenes from other lifetimes that the abductees knew were real. In this way they began to understand their “soul’s journey” through time. I had heard of the screen teachings from many other people who had been taken aboard crafts, willingly or unwillingly. I began to wonder what “unwilling” really meant. Did it mean that a person was out of touch consciously with what he or she unconsciously had contracted to do? So many of us are not in touch with what we really want, need, or have, on a soul level, agreed to do. The abductees are served a lesson in time and space and experience that they are either ready for or desire to be ready for. Dr. John Mack was the observer and helpmate in those contracts. I asked him why he was the doctor who had agreed on such a deep level to hear and treat these experiences. What was his cosmic role in all of this? Why had he created this reality for himself, which could actually get him fired from the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard? He said he didn’t really know except he always liked to help people who had experiences beyond the normal. John even arranged for some of his experiencers to speak to a psychiatry seminar group at the Cambridge Hospital in Boston. The largely skeptical psychiatrists and other mental health professionals were surprisingly open to the disarmingly sincere, yet astonishing stories the abductees told. The group of doctors was open to the “expansion of their own reality.”

  One of the abductees said “the alien beings were closer to the divine source than human beings seem to be, and it was possible that their presence among us, however cruel and traumatic, may be part of a larger process that was bringing us back to God, a journey that had taken many far from God and that many are tired of and are now working, flowing, and struggling to bring themselves back to their source.”

  Some of the abductees were more educated than others. The more educated an abductee was, the more complex was his assessment of what was occurring. “They are Earth gardeners,” said one abductee of the aliens. “They are trying really hard to instruct us to find a plenitude and not to be caught in the human impulses toward extinction.” If we explode this Earth paradise, it is a loss for the universe. The Earth is essential to the unity of the universe. We are in an apocalyptic final hour, and this must be met and challenged. We are experiencing a paradigm of initiation. We are being initiated while we initiate. When we accomplish our initiation, we will be less predatory and destructive. We need to gain a perspective as to where we belong in the universal order.

  Many of the abductees were left with nightmares, severe stress syndromes, headaches, gastrointestinal symptoms, neuropathies, psychosexual dysfunctions, and, of course, fears. At the same time there was real evidence that the abductees had been healed of conditions ranging from pneumonia, leukemia, paralyzed limbs due to poliomyelitis. Many of them became healers themselves.