POLL - The Fourth Kind, Alien Abductions

[doublehelix]

So, when I was a kid I loved watching Project UFO on TV, which was based on Project Blue Book (my brother and I especially liked the whole "Ezekiel's Wheel" bit in the opening credits). The other day, my boyfriend and I were talking about Close Encounters, trying to figure out what the different "kinds" are. Turns out in 1972, a scale of measurement was established for alien encounters:

• When a UFO is sighted, it is called an encounter of the first kind.
• When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind.
• When contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is the third kind.
• Abduction, is the fourth kind. This encounter has been the most difficult to document, obviously.

Apparently, the new movie, The Fourth Kind talks about, well, the fourth kind! Alien abductions in (the middle of nowhere) Nome, Alaska, where since the 60s, a disproportionate number of the population has been reported missing every year.

The movie stars Milla Jovovich, playing a psychologist who videotapes sessions with traumatized patients and in process discovers some crazy disturbing evidence of alien abduction. Kind of like District 9, they mix archival footage and original dramatic footage, and the movie showcases revelations of multiple witnesses. Their accounts of being visited by alien figures are freakily similar, the validity of which is investigated throughout the film.

I am pretty interested in seeing this film - love Milla Jovovich (I especially liked her in The Fifth Element and then Zoolander), and the alien thing is definitely a hook for me. I've never met anyone abducted or anything, but it is intriguing.

-dh

[ouvidizer]

Milla Jocovich is nice to look at, and apart from a few exceptions (most you named) her acting is... well... crap.

I'll probably be wrong, but, apart from the occasional x files nutjob, believing in Alien Abduction is a North American thing.

[BlueSpider]

I'm in the camp that believes 'IF there are (and I love to think there are) Extra Terrestrials out there with technology so advanced that they can do things like defy gravity and build vessels able to fly faster than the speed of light etc...

...Then WHY the hell would it be their business to stick rusty syringes up peoples backsides in the middle of the night? Are we so special that within our rear ends must obviously lie the golden nectar of greater beings?

Basically, I LOVE to believe in life from other planets / other dimensions - or even places that would require a higher level of conscienceless than is within our own (human) capacity to comprehend (!!!)

But I can't get past the thinking that these 'alien abductees' are nothing more than a bunch of freaks using well-trodden tales to explain away anything from genuine, personal health problems (sleep paralysis, night terrors etc) to all kinds of sex-acts-gone-wrong.

That said, I'd love it if I was wrong. For the record, if I was abducted I'd want to have a feer beer kegs and a decent sound system at the ready so I could party with the little fellas just like Christopher Walken at the end of Communion.

[theredhoodx]

The only time I believe is if its late at night and I see anything resembling an alien, then I am terrified. Other than that I gave up believing. I used to love reading about aliens and all stuff like MIB when I was younger. I like to listen to coast to coast am sometimes but I don't usually stay up that late. I miss art bell.

[Indy24NC]

Like most people, I would like to believe aliens are buzzing around... and ghosts are haunting us... and people can see the future... etc. It makes this world more mysterious and exciting. And it makes these stories and movies that much more 'real'. Unlike most people, I can't believe something just because I want to. Come back to me when you get some kind of tangible proof (remember, I have undeniable proof that people lie or even just make mistakes, so don't come at me with "eye witness accounts" ).

[Sano]

Sure I believe in life on other planets. But them coming to abduct us? For the most part no but I don't pretend to know everything and everything regarding how this universe works.

On the other hand I had a big crush on Dani from the Star Wars comics when I was a kid so if anyone out there looks like her um yeah let me know ROFL!

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dani

[Mallfunction]

I always found it weird that people can believe in God while the only "proof" there is, is a book that has been rewriten a dozen times (like they didn´t have good science fiction writter in those days ) yet they don´t believe in aliens.

I think the likelyhood of alien beings being real are more likely than an all powerfull being that we call God.

So yes i believe there are aliens and also believe that if they want to know what makes us tick they would abduct people. Atleast thats the way i would do it with all these psycho´s on this world. Abduct a couple of people and put them back everybody will think there a nutcase anyhow, still beats being blow to bits by some trigger happy idiot if you would actually make normal contact with people.

[Progressive_Reader]

I think we're alone in the Universe. There's no one else out there.

[Perephal]

I don't believe aliens exist.

BUT if they did it seems kind of silly that in all the universe they would come here to perform genetic experiments.

[jemurr]

Memories supposedly recovered from hypnosis are pretty unreliable and can be manipulated even unknowingly by the therapist. The abduction phenomenon is actually quiet similar to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s where people claimed to have repressed memories of child abuse. Also, while UFO folk say people all over the world have been abducted, the Greys (Aliens with big eyes, etc) are largely a North American phenomenon. Also there's no physical evidence. The implants people claim to have often turn out to be scar tissue. Also if we examine are bodies we'll all find little nicks and scars that we wouldn't know where they came from.

Finally if aliens are so advanced why would they be repeating crude genetic experiments and how can someone with a weekend course in hypno-therapy get past alien memory blocks.

All that aside The Fourth Kind looks like a decent scary movie.

[RoiVampire]

I don't know about this kind of thing being strictly a North American phenomenon

http://ufos.about.com/od/aliensalienabd ... eymoor.htm