A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

constitutes an extended exposure to the Real. The words of the abductee under hypnosis, the
very act of description, comprise the stuff of the suture. The goal, in short, is to normalize an
experience, the thrust of which is to shatter any commonplace sense of normality. The goal is to
reconstruct the experience in such a way that “the je reemerges from its encounter with nihility,
reinforced in its position as the center of its experience... [so that] the subjects sense of being a
subject is heightened, not undone.” Through the process of hypnotic regression, the therapist
attempts to reconvene the abductee’s sense of self as integrated subject. The reason this suturing
cannot be entirely effective is that in accepting abduction as actual experience—a necessary step
in integration—the world as it is understood by consensus reality is rendered fundamentally
askew. As one abduction researcher has noted, “I…find that abductees usually want to believe
anything else. The genuine abductee is constantly looking for other reasons, until they reach a
point of acceptance.” 316
There can be no normalization of the abduction experience short of
accepting a world where aliens exist, physical laws are subject to suspension, and time is so
malleable as to be rendered merely conceptual.
The experiential components of the abduction scenario tear at the screen, exposing the
abductee to the naked Gaze. The broader discourse of alien presence and contact, upon close
examination, shows a proliferation of the thematic of the Gaze. The version of the tale that
places the origin of the human species in the hands of extraterrestrials imagines that human
beings have been subject to the surveillance of alien intelligence for as long as humans have
existed. In this scenario, the progress, or lack thereof, of humanity is of central importance to the
“space brothers.” The grays enact the theme of the Gaze. In the context of abduction, humans,
subject to intense scrutiny and examination, are reduced to the level of object. They are so
316 Patricia Shaw, “People with Unsubstantiated Claims of ET Contact” in Alien Discussions: Proceedings of the
Abduction Study Conference, ed. Pritchard et al. (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Press, 1994) 25.
217