The truth is out there?

The other day, I was sitting with Jennifer as she watched the movie Men in Black for, oh, say, the hundredth time. (She's really got an alien thing going. She's also watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) As I watched this movie, I recalled reading in a book a theory that the Men in Black are really aliens. At one point, Jennifer turned to me and asked, "Mommy, how do aliens die?"

While mentally wondering how in the world she could ask that after watching Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones shoot up a bunch of alien baddies, I shrugged and answered, "I don't know. Jennifer, I don't even believe in aliens."

She glared at me, all angry and defensive. "They are real," she argued, then went back to watching the movie.

I could only smile, debating whether I should ask, "Oh, yeah, how do you know? Have you seen them?" But then I stopped myself. How could I ask her that when I was sending her to church to learn about God, who she has never seen yet prays to every night? It might confuse her. (The closest I have ever come to "seeing" God was when His face appeared to me outlined in the stars in a dream I had.)

Well, I did used to believe in aliens, many years ago. I have since matured. LOL As embarrassed as I am to admit it, I was once terrified of being abducted by aliens. (I guess the whole "alien abduction craze" really got to me. That movie, Fire in the Sky, gave me nightmares!) But I just don't believe in them anymore. Not in the real world, anyway. That's not to say that I won't include an alien in any of my stories. (Heck, I've got a story going with a vampire, and I don't believe in those, either!) Maybe it would take something like a visitation or something like that to convince me that aliens exist. In the past, I've read stories of alien abductions and believed them. Now I only thing they're hooey.

It's really interesting, though, that a 6-year-old would be sooo convinced of the existence of extraterrestrials. Maybe it's my fault I ever introduced her to alien movies in the first place (starting with her favorite, E.T.) or maybe I should have known better than to buy her books with aliens in them. I have told her numerous times that movies are only stories, they're usually not real and no one has ever really seen an alien. Yet somehow she has it in her head that aliens exist. (My daughter, the future Fox Mulder. Or should I say....the next Agent J! LOL)

I guess in some way, this can be seen as what we believe in even though we can't see what we believe in. I believe in God because God has touched my life in His own way. He touched my soul and performed miracles for me. Yet I also believe in ghosts...because I have seen ghosts. But I don't believe in aliens. Maybe if I saw them, or something, then I would believe. I don't know. (Oddly enough, I've seen pictures of ghosts people have posted on the Internet and tried to think of how they were faked. Haha.)

Nevertheless, no matter what it is that has her constantly fascinated with aliens, I have to be careful that she doesn't get too obsessed with them. I have to monitor just how often she'll watch those movies (well, we already have a TV-time-limit rule, anyway), just how many pictures she draws of aliens and just how often she brings them up for discussion. She can wonder about them, she can use her imagination with them and even try to learn about them. But I just need to make sure that fascination she has with aliens just doesn't go overboard.

The ailwiens are coming!

Do you believe in aliens?

I used to. I even once had a terrible fear of being abducted by aliens. (No, really!) I guess I was too caught up with all the frenzy over The X-Files, a show which I was a huge fan of. Or maybe I was having too many dreams of alien abductions.

Yup. You read THAT right. I used to have nightmares of being abducted by aliens. (I guess this makes me a candidate for being an abductee; that seems to be one of the symptoms experienced by people claiming they were abducted.) I even shared these fears with one of my sisters and she had a good laugh over it, assuring me I had NOTHING to worry about. Still, other goings-on in my life had me worried. They even had me thinking what if I have ALREADY been abducted? (Please try to bear with me. I came to my senses much later in life.)

One thing that happened a lot is that I’d see flashes of bright light whenever I closed my eyes to go to sleep. These flashes were so bright, I could see them right through my closed eyelids! I was terrified to go to sleep each time it happened (and it happened MANY times). These episodes had me thinking there was an alien intruder in my room! Eek! (Good thing I didn’t sleep in the nude!)

I also had many blackouts. They just happened unexpectedly, and for no apparent reason at all. There was usually someone around when they happened, and they often brought me right out of it. Sometimes, before the blackouts happened, I’d hear voices (even though I was deaf!).

Still another thing that happened was my one and only experience of “lost time.” I have no explanation for this event and still thinking about it sends a shiver down my spine.

This happened in Palm Springs, when I was staying the night at my sister’s house. I awoke early in the morning and, around 9:30ish, decided to watch Little House on the Prairie. At some point as I watched the show, there was a knock at my sister’s door. It was the UPS guy delivering a package. When he saw me standing there in my jammies, he pointed at me and laughed. I was confused over this reaction. I mean, it was still MORNING, for crying out loud! People were still in their jimmies at this hour!

Or so I thought. As I went into the kitchen still carrying the package, dubious over the whole thing, I looked up at the clock and gasped. It was almost 1:30!! Good grief!! (Good thing I put the package on the table first.) I couldn’t believe it. Where HAD the time gone?? I mean, the WHOLE TIME I had been sitting on the fold-out bed I’d slept on and watched TV. Just ONE show, Little House on the Prairie. And it was NOT that long! Almost 4 hours had transpired. And I hadn't been watching a Little House on the Prairie marathon, either.

Talk about bizarre.

One other final alien-related experience I had was a dream. In this dream, I went inside of this empty warehouse and, almost immediately, I was abducted by an overhead UFO. While aboard the ship, and strapped to a metal table, I saw the aliens using high tech equipment to examine my teeth. I even saw the screen, where they focused on 4 of my back teeth, using something to implant something in them with. Afterwards, I was back in the warehouse and saw myself walking out, completely oblivious to recent events. Oddly enough, two of those four teeth have since fallen out. (So I guess I can send them my dental bill!)

Still, despite all of this, I don’t believe there are aliens. And, if there are, I don’t think they’d be conducting experiments on humans. Or even implanting them with offspring.

When my daughter first saw the movie Signs, she became HOOKED. She LOVES that movie! She watched it so many times and even imitated Joaquin Phoenix swinging a bat and saying, “Swing away!” I thought it was cute, especially how she called the visitors from outer space “ailwiens.” She soon became fixated on aliens in general and, although she’s never seen an episode of The X-Files, she still has an interest in them. (My daughter, the future female counterpart of Fox Mulder.) I try to handle it delicately, leaving the possibility of alien existence open. When she asked me if aliens are real, I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them.”

And that is, I think, the best way of handling it. Just saying, “I don’t know.” There really isn’t scientific evidence that people are being abducted. There’s no evidence on the existence of an alien-human hybrid. We just don’t have the facts. All we have are the possibilities, the stories and the ideas. All we can do is just look to the stars and say...”Maybe.”