We’ve all seen photographs of unidentified flying objects hovering enigmatically over amazed witnesses, but the objects themselves leave much to be imagined as far as what there may be on the inside. Contemporary science fiction has filled in some of the blanks, as well as reports made by UFO abductees and contactees. What can we learn about UFOs and their occupants based on accounts made by witnesses?
For one thing, the craft seem to be surprisingly bare. After reading hundreds of accounts from witnesses, including many who claim to have been offered a chance to wander around the craft personally, it seems the things missing from the craft tell us even more than the things seen within them. Betty and Barney Hill, some of the earliest reported alien abductees reported seeing a mysterious book on the console of one of the ships. Travis Walton described a strange chair that transformed the room he was in into a sort of planetarium. A number of other abductees have reported a series of tests designed to measure mental acuity. Tables are described, but there are very rarely mentions of beds.
One of the stranger things about the UFO experience is the fact that the objects on-board the vessel seem to deal with a very limited range of purposes. They are generally seen as objects directly used for testing or navigation. Hangars are another factor often described, suggesting that some abductees may actually be taken to a far larger facility somewhere else after they are gathered up by the more diminutive flying saucers.
And although human-like beings are described alongside the more traditional “grey” type aliens, these beings are sometimes depicted as being in suits and having much larger eyes than the other aliens. The suits could be environmental, but it seems equally possible they could be employed to keep transferring of germs to a minimum. Humans evolving on Earth have developed a natural immunity to a number of diseases, but these same diseases could cause devastation if exposed to a being never exposed to them before. And even if it weren’t lethal, it may cause enough of a problem to warrant protection against it.
It should be noted that there are a few things markedly absent in most accounts of abductees on the loose in ships. There is rarely mention of facilities like mess halls, bathrooms, bunks, storage facilities, or some other amenities that would allow beings to survive an extended journey through space. This could mean a number of things. First, it could mean that they simply do not require these things on their ships. Among the insider crowd, there are a number who suggest alien greys are not the same biologically as humans in more ways than just appearance. Some have even suggested they are actually artificial in nature.
While any single abduction account is difficult to verify by its very nature, the themes that arise in the community do offer some insight into what people are remembering when they think about their abduction experiences.