Outside 5 - Stephen Mason

The Fourth Kind

       The Fourth Kind is a movie about disappearances that occurred in Noam, Alaska in October of 2000. In the movie, a psychologist named Abigail Adams recalls the story in an interview and talks about her patients, who believed that they had been abducted by aliens. Using real footage of the hypnotherapy sessions that were recorded of those that believed they were abducted, the movie presents the events that happened in Noam as greatly affecting those that lived in the town. Because of their inability to cope with the things that they had seen when they were supposedly abducted, one man ended up taking his life and that of his family. Adams daughter ends up disappearing at the end of the movie, which Adams believes is because she was abducted by the aliens that were terrorizing the town. However, because of her past delusions including the events of her husband’s death, she is questioned and not many people believe her stories or the footage that they have recorded.

        Although the movie was completely panned by critics, I thought that this movie was actually really good and pretty damn scary. The supposed footage that they had of people recalling their experiences and the audio clips that they recorded of the aliens speaking in ancient Sumerian was really crazy. One of the audio clips that was in the movie that stood out was when one of the victims asked who the aliens were and they replied “I..am…God”. Not to mention really creepy, but it also brings up the fact that many alien abduction stories have religious dimensions to them. In an article that I had to read for my fear and magic class titled “Religious Dimensions of the UFO Abductee Experience”, alien encounters often reflect apocalyptic messages, identify chosen people, and revealing the identity of the aliens, which parallels many religious aspects. Could alien encounters be another interpretation of the divine and represent an alternative perspective on reality that many religions seek to claim? I don’t think it is really that difficult of an idea to embrace.