The Praying Mantis Alien

I have a CBS radio show called "Hot Leads Cold Cases" that airs every Friday from 8-9 PM ET.  I have been hosting this show for several years.  The purpose of the show is to investigate mysteries and the style of the people who investigate mysteries.  Topics have ranged from issues in the paranormal, ufology, science, medicine, law enforcement, archeology, and so on.  Recently, my focus seems to have been drawn, inadvertently or not, to issues of alien abduction.  Alien abduction, as I have begun to learn, is like the little pesky stepchild of ufology.  Because it involves a wide variety of issues that involve dreams, hypnosis, psychology, and subjective impressions (as opposed to spacecraft photos, terrain samples, radar videos, etc.), many ufologists have attempted to distance themselves from the abduction investigators. 

However, among those ufologists who are interested in alien contact and not just objective evidence of alien spacecraft, there has been a split.  There are those who refer to contact with aliens as "abductions" and those who refer to such events, more benevolently, as mere "contact" or "experience."  Having spoken with a number of "abductees" who remain terrified by their bizarre and inexplicable experiences, I have a hard time imagining that all contact with aliens is pleasant.  I have heard reports of excruciating pain, humiliation, neglect, resultant permanent scarring, disease, weird implants, mental reorientation, and even death.  So I am not sure all such alien intentions are pure.  I am also friendly with a growing group of grassroots ufologists who are eager for, and actively seek out, alien contact.  They operate on the assumption that alien intentions are benevolent - not malicious as the abductionists would have you believe!  Is it possible they are both correct? 

Skipping over, for a moment, all the problems of sorting out the difference between subjective terror and the ability of aliens to erase or falsify our memories at will, it seems to me the only way to understand these discrepancies of alien intentions is to fit them into a familiar human model of interaction.  Imagine you are a dog.  If you live in America, chances are you will be a spoiled pet in someone's home eating better than half the humans on earth.  If you live in China, there is a good chance you may end up as someone's dinner.  So, this would be very confusing if you were a dog.  Should you beware of humans or not?  Are humans good or evil?  Same goes for aliens.  To me, this explanation is more satisfying, and a bit more sophisticated, than the idea that there are different species of aliens, some good, some evil.  I believe there can be many different motivations within the same species.

It has taken a lot of my own personal mind stretching to even entertain the idea of different alien species.  While I was minimally able to appreciate the 3-4' tall traditional "grays" (such as those made famous by Hollywood), I figured that "reptilians" and "insectoid" aliens were just the products of juvenile overactive sci-fi minds.  Having read and spoken with a number of abductees who swear by these recollections, I am now more confused.  And it is getting worse.  Given the ability of aliens to apparently create deliberate amnesia, partial recollection or false memories of traumatic encounters with aliens, ANYTHING is now possible.  So where do you draw the line?

Someone asked me recently, "Do you think you have ever been abducted?"  "Absolutely not!" I almost snorted with contempt.  I have no such memories.  But I have had many other experiences which quality as "contact."  (As I write this, two helicopters have flown by and I don't live in an area where that is common - should I interpret that as a "sign" or mere "coincidence"?)  And so, at what point should one assume that "contact" may have been based on some initial abduction that one does not remember?  Am I even qualified to make that judgment?  Are any of us qualified?

I was reminded just two nights ago that when I was five years ago and living in Cambridge, MA, I found a praying mantis in my backyard and decided to make it my "pet."  My entire family was allergic to animals with fur so we were not allowed to have pets growing up.  She was a beautiful insect - with a highly intelligent face, penetrating eyes that could swivel on her triangular head.  I have since learned that these insects have two enormous compound eyes and three simple eyes and they are the only insect that can move its head 180 degrees for an amazing view.  They are capable of seeing up to 60 feet away!  Their front legs are lifted off the ground and folded together in a "prayer" position.  So they have a weird quasi-spiritual aspect to them.  Despite this gentle demeanor, they are fearsome predators.  The females are famous for eating their sexual partners after having sex.  I put my praying mantis, who sat on a small weed stalk, under a jar.  I fed her crickets from the nearby window well.  However, after a day or two, I realized she was going to die without oxygen under the jar, so I reluctantly removed it.  To my surprise, she stayed there for about a week.  Every day I would find cricket legs in a pile of leftover food debris under her stalk.  To this day, I love praying mantis'.  In retrospect, could she have been a "screen memory" of a praying mantis alien?  That patently ridiculous possibility is as good as anything else.  That's my problem!