Hey there.

I'm Scribbler, a 34 year old guy living in Pittsburgh, PA. Having just found this forum, I'm not sure what to expect. But I'll give it a go, and start reading some of the posts. I'll contribute my own additions if I think they might be relevant to the topics at hand.

A little more about myself: I suppose you might describe me as an "open-minded skeptic", overall. I'm not religious, but I was for a time in the past. Most conspiracy theories don't hold much weight with me. I take issuse with many subjects which are usually categorized as "paranormal", "supernatural", or "spiritual". This is primarily due to insufficient evidence available. I am convinced that science is the best method we have of understanding the universe we live in, even if it is, like all human activities, often fallible.

Having such a mindset, you might ask why I'm here at a UFO forum. Well, I've been fascinated with the subject for a long time. Read books, watched documentaries and Hollywood films, did a bit of research on the web, listened to Coast to Coast AM.

But this goes beyond just a mere interest. You see, for most of my life I've had...I suppose you could call them "feelings" regarding certain images of "typical gray ETs", or those in some way similar to them. And they aren't good feelings. Let me explain:

As a young child, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I remember seeing a picture in a magazine of the being at the end of Close Encounters of the Thrid Kind. It scared the living crap out of me. When I first saw it, I dropped it in my bedroom, and I refused to go back in. My mother was concerned about this reaction, so she eventually sat me down with the magazine, as I sat there frightened, and calmly explained that it was an "alien". I had never heard of that term before.

There were other images that disturbed me when I was a little kid, as well. The wallpaper in a bathroom at my home was covered in black-and-white cartoon faces. One of them was a little bald man (a cariciture, but still "human") with thick, pointed glasses. It bugged me to a certain degree, and I didn't know why. Another was an illustration I found when I was looking in one of my mother's medical books (she's a physician); it was a proportional growth chart of the human body. On the right was an outline of an adult and at the left was, I believe, a fetus at 3-months gestation. I remember thinking how horrible it looked, and dubbed it "the boy with the big head". Like the magazine with the alien image, I didn't want to be around the book. For some reason my little bother thought it was funny that I was scared, and chased me around with it as I yelled in terror!

That fear, for the most part, abated as a grew up. But there are still some "alien" faces I come across that give me chills, if only briefly. A few of the drawings found in Budd Hopkins' Intruders are particularly creepy, such as the one that looks like its wearing a turtleneck sweater (of all things). Most depictions I've seen in popular culture don't have any effect at all, the stylized or cartoon-like "grays" seem fairly silly to me. Even most of the more "realistic" drawings, or sophisticated movie models and effects, don't illicit any negative reactions. In most cases, there's something "wrong" them; they're not "real" enough, or lack some feature that I would respond to. For instance, the creature on the cover of Strieber's Communion doesn't have a large enough cranium (though it's still a bit spooky-looking).

Now, before you start calling me an "abductee", I should point out that I have practically no other memories of experiences one commonly reads about in the subject's literature. No missing time, no strange marks on my body, no bizarre lights. Most nights I don't have difficulty falling asleep. On occasion, I have seen an odd object in the daytime sky, but nothing I could definitively characterize as otherworldly. Nothing I could not have probably identified if I possessed a set of binocculars at the time.

So, where do I stand on the alien abduction issue? I suppose I remain a fence-sitter at this point. It is still possible that my childhood fears could have a purely psychological explanation, and I must admit, that's how I would prefer it. But I remain compelled, if reluctantly so, by the information I've read and heard from researchers in the field, as well as the supposed-abductees, themselves. The similarites found in most cases intrigue me greatly, and lend creedence to their stories. Something really does seem to be going on, whatever it's true nature might be.

With regard to the "big picture" explanations, based on accumulated individual accounts, there appear to be far too many questions than answers to come to any satisfactory conclusion. There are a few common theories out there, but in most cases many of the details don't quite "fit". I have a few theories of my own, and might post some of them here later on.

Long into over!

Welcome, Scribbler. Being a "fence sitter" is, IMHO, the best position to hold at this point. You made an excellent and informative first post and I'm sure you will make a fine addition to the forum. Take care.

The Admiral

Welcome to Au, scribbler.

Welcome scribbler, that name should be on a batman movie

thanks, folks

Welcome Scribbler! Good of you to join us