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Grey alien

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Grey alien
GroupingExtraterrestrial
Other name(s)Roswell Aliens,
Zeta,
Reticulian,
Asgard,
Skrit Na,
Sectoid

In Ufology, Greys, also known as Roswell aliens, Zetas, and Reticulians, are alleged extraterrestrial life forms that appear in modern UFO conspiracy theories and other UFO-related paranormal phenomena. They make up approximately 75 percent of all aliens reported in the United States, 20 percent of all aliens reported in Continental Europe, and 12 percent of all aliens reported in Great Britain.[1] In American popular culture they have replaced little green men as the most typical extraterrestrial life form.

Appearance

Typically, Greys are described as being approximately 120 cm (four feet) tall, with grey (sometimes blue-grey/green-grey) skin. Their body is typically described as being elongated, and lacking in muscular definition. Their legs are shorter and jointed differently than one would expect in a human, giving them an apparently awkward gait. Their arms often reach down to their knees, and some accounts give them three digits, or three digits and a thumb on each hand. They have a bulbous, hairless head supported by a thin neck, which is dominated by large, (usually black) lidless eyes. They typically have small flat noses, small mouths and small ears lacking a pinna. In some cases, Greys are said to have slit-like nostrils on a flat face.[2][3][4][5]

Some accounts have Greys wearing tight neutral colored uniform-like jumpsuits. Other reports have them appearing to be naked. In most cases, clothed Greys have no determinable gender and naked Greys have no visible external genitals.[3]

The Grey in society and culture

1890-1950

Although the exact appearance of the Grey has varied with time and media, the overall concept of "a thin diminutive grey figure with a bulbous bald head, large almond shape eyes, and minimal facial features", has existed in popular culture for over 100 years. Grey-like beings have appeared in numerous science fiction stories from the late 19th century onwards; including H.G. Wells' Of a Book Unwritten, The Man of the Year Million; in which Wells writes about the hypothesis that the increasing industrialization of society would lead to humans developing into Grey-like beings with shrunken bodies and enlarged brains, and his 1901 book The First Men in the Moon in which he describes the moon dwelling Selenites as being short, grey skinned creatures, with high foreheads, no nose, and bulging eyes who walked with a strange gait due to their oddly articulated legs.[6]

File:The conquers.png
The Conquerors

The concept was continued in comics and science fiction magazines into the early 20th century, including such works as David H. Keller's The Conquerors, which was serialized in the Wonder stories, starting in 1929 December.

1950-1960

In the wake of the Kenneth Arnold sightings, the 1950s saw an increased public awareness of ETH and Flying saucer in America; leading to a corresponding increase in the appearance of Grey-like creatures in cinema and television.

1960-1970

Until the 1960s, the image of the Grey primarily existed in popular fiction, but this began to change in 1965 when the Boston Traveler published the purportedly true story of abductees Betty and Barney Hill. The story included details from a hypnosis session, conducted a year earlier by Dr. Benjamin Simon, in which the Hills described being taken aboard a pancake-like craft by small hairless men with no noses and slanted eyes that wrapped around to the sides of their heads.[7]

An alien seen on TV 12 days prior to the making of Hill's 'Grey' hypnosis tape

Coincidentally on the 10th of February 1964; 12 days prior to the Hills undergoing hypnosis, the science fiction series The Outer Limits ran an episode entitled "The Bellero Shield", which featured a hairless, noseless alien with a bulbous head and 'wrap-around eyes'.[8]

However, these similarities of greys to the TV episode being are disputed, mainly because the TV being is as tall as a human, does not have a very big head, his eyes are not that big, has no black eyes, and has a glowing body.

Furthermore, Betty Hill maintained that she had not seen The Outer Limits, and said that it was unlikely that her husband had seen the episode, because he would either have been working, or performing community activities, during the series' time slot.[8]

The 'Star Map' to Zeta Reticuli, as extrapolated by Betty Hill and Marjorie Fish

In 1968, Greys became associated with the Zeta Reticuli system, after amateur astronomer Marjorie Fish compared a Star Map drawn by Betty Hill to astronomical charts, and determined that the twelve stars depicted on the map showed the aliens home to be a planet in the Zeta Reticuli system, situated approximately 39 light years from Earth. This led to Greys sometimes being referred to as 'Zetas' or 'Reticulians' in popular culture.

1970-1980

In 1977, Director Steven Spielberg chose Greys as the alien protagonist for his film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The Greys have since become the archetypal image of an alien for many UFO believers and science fiction fans.

1980-1990

During the early 1980s Greys were linked to the alleged crash landing of a flying saucer in Roswell New Mexico, in 1947, by a number of publications which contained statements from witnesses who claimed to have seen the US military handling a number of unusually proportioned, bald, child-sized corpses. The witnesses claimed that the corpses had over-sized heads and slanted eyes - but scant other facial features - during and after the incident.[9]

In 1987 popular novelist Whitley Strieber published the book Communion, in which he describes a number of close encounters he purports to have experienced with Greys and other extraterrestrial beings. The book became a New York Times bestseller.

1990-Present day

During the 1990s, popular culture began to increasingly link Greys to a number of Military-industrial complex/New World Order conspiracy theories.

Arguably, the most well known of these was The X-Files, which first screened in 1993. It combined the quest to find proof of the existence of Grey-like extraterrestrials with a number of UFO conspiracy theory subplots, in order to form its primary story arc. Other notable examples include Dark Skies; first broadcast in 1996, which expanded upon the MJ-12 conspiracy, and Stargate SG-1 which in the 1998 episode "Thor's Chariot" introduced the Asgard, a race of beneficent Greys who visited ancient Earth masquerading as characters from Norse Mythology.

In 1995 film maker Ray Santilli claimed to have obtained 22 reels of 16mm film that depicted the autopsy of a real life Grey that was said to have been recovered from the site of the 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico.[10][11] However, in 2006 Santilli announced that the film was not original, but was instead a reconstruction created after the original film was found to have degraded. He maintained that a real Grey had been found and autopsied on camera in 1947, and that the footage released to the public contained a percentage of that original footage, but he was not able to say what that percentage was. This film became the subject of the British comedy movie Alien Autopsy staring popular television presenters Ant & Dec.[12][13]

In recent years, public opinion polls have indicated wide public belief that aliens have visited Earth. Grey aliens are the most commonly cited. Dr. Steven Greer, head of CSETI, accumulated testimony by 470 current and former government officials, including astronauts, officials with the Pentagon, and one former National Security Council member, all of whom testify to having seen aliens and UFOs. [citation needed]

Perspectives

While Greys are commonly portrayed as being factual/fictional extraterrestrials, many related and alternative hypotheses exist in both science and popular culture.

Neurologist Dr. Steven Novella believes that the physical appearance of a Grey does not represent a real flesh and blood creature, but that it is instead a byproduct of the human imagination, with the Greys' most distinctive features representing everything that modern humans traditionally link with intelligence. “The aliens, however, do not just appear as humans, they appear like humans with those traits we psychologically associate with intelligence.” Novella holds that if you were to plot the physical differences between an ape and a human, and then were then to apply these differences directly to a human model, the resulting human would strongly resemble a Grey. [14]

Philosopher Michael Grosso believes that Greys, along with many paranormal myths and legends throughout history, are the telepathic manifestation of the collective consciousness of a community or culture. [15] He proposes that the physical form of the Grey is that of a malnourished human being, not an alien, and that Greys may be a manifestation of guilt felt by the developed world over the plight of the developing world.

Some science fiction tales claim that the Greys may actually be highly evolved humans who have traveled back in time to examine their ancient ancestors, choosing to examine live specimens instead of fossils. The appearance of the Greys is consistent with the theory of predictive evolution; analyzing the past to predict the most likely outcome of the future. Using this theory it can be predicted that humans, as they have in the past, will grow taller, possibly up to seven feet, and the brains will continue to grow in size. Despite appearing thin and weak this tall form could conceivably have a greater strength than modern humans because of tensile pressure on the muscles. The larger brain would also distort the head, making everything on the face appear out of proportion. These changes would, overall, give humans a strong resemblance to the Greys. This theory is considered science fiction, but has gained a small amount of credit through the work of Dr Oliver Curry, of the Darwin LSE Centre at the London School of Economics[1]

American researcher and self-termed alternative knowledge author Lloyd Pye advocates the hypothesis that modern Humans are the result of genetic intervention by Greys from another star system, and believes that there has been a sustained program to crossbreed Greys and Humans over the centuries. He holds that the Mexico Starchild skull constitutes empirical evidence in support of his standpoint.[16] According to English reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, the typical image of a Grey; given that it would have evolved on a world with different environmental and ecological conditions from Earth, is too physiologically similar to a human to be credible as a representation of an alien. [17]

It has also been suggested that Greys represent"

  • A modern iteration of ancient folklore and myth
  • Part of a government-led disinformation/plausible deniability campaign[4]
  • Extradimensional life forms[18]
  • A product of Government mind control experiments. [19][20]
File:Thor asgard.jpg
Thor, a member of the Asgard race in Stargate SG-1
  • In the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, the alien race known as the Asgard are based on a stereotypical image of the Grey.
  • In the video game, Area 51, the game's antagonists are Greys as well as major conspiracy theories based on ones reported in the real world.
  • In the science fiction television series Babylon 5, The Vree' s appearance and shaped ships lead descendants of human abduction victims to take legal action against them.
  • A race of Greys named "Sectoids" are at war with the human race within the X-Com computer game series.
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! Power of the Duelist expansion set contains a monster card called 'Alien Grey'.
  • In Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, the aliens are known as Grays.
  • Greys are featured prominently in the South Park episode Cartman Gets An Anal Probe, where they are called "Visitors." They also appear in the episode Cancelled, and can frequently be seen in the backgrounds of many other episodes, especially in the earlier seasons.
  • The awards for the Spacey Awards are silver busts of Greys' heads.
  • The TV-series Star Trek featured an episode that dealt with the crew being abducted by aliens and being experimented on. The episode deals with alien abduction, alien experimentation and missing time.
  • Tom DeLonge has a German Shepherd named "Grey" after the beings.
  • Muse's album Black Holes and Revelations mentions Zetas in the song Exo-Politics: "When the Zetas fill the skies, will our leaders tell us why"; "When the Zetas fill the skies, it's just our leaders in disguise".
  • The main character (and his entire species, the Furons) of the video game Destroy All Humans! strongly resembles greys.
  • In the Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark, the player is assisted by Gray's (Called Maians), even playing as one at one point. The Maians are in Conflict with a reptilian-like species called the Skedar.
  • In the Nintendo 64 and Playstation game Vigilante 8 (and it's sequel, Vigilante 8: Second Offense), Y the Alien fits the grey archetype (including his means of transportation), although is yellow in color.
  • The Animorph series of books features the Greys as a species called the Skrit Na, who are apparently supposed to be the famous "Grey" aliens. Other alien species find their habits of abducting and robbing different planets inexplicably weird.
  • In the videogame Deus Ex the Majestic 12 agency bred a species that resembled Greys and are described as hairless monkeys.
  • in the independant film Sockbaby, the primary antagonists are a mysterious race of black suited humanoids with grey skin and black eyes/lips known as the Greys.
  • Rock band Clutch has a song on their self-titled album entitled "Tim Sult vs. the Greys."

See also

References

  1. ^ Bryan, C.D.B (1995). Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN B000I1AFBA.
  2. ^ Blackmore, Susan (May 1998). "Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis?". Skeptical Inquirer. 22 (3). Retrieved 2006-10-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ a b Smith, Jonathan Z (2001). "Close encounters of the diverse kind" (PDF). Princeton University Press. Retrieved 2006-10-01. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ a b Clary, David A (2000). Before and After Roswell. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 0-7388-4106-4.
  5. ^ D'arc, Joan (2000). Space Travelers and the Genesis of the Human Form. Book Tree. ISBN 1-58509-127-8.
  6. ^ Wells, H G (2004). "XI". The First Men in the Moon. Wildside Press. ISBN 0-8095-9653-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Lutrell, John H (1965-10-25). "Did THEY Seize Couple". Boston Traveler.
  8. ^ a b Clark, Jerome. The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial (1st ed.). Visible Ink. p. 705. ISBN 1-57859-029-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Berlitz, Charles (1980). The Roswell Incident (1st ed.). Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-448-21199-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ Wingfield, George (1995). "The "Roswell" Film Footage". Flying Saucer Review. 20 (2). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) at IMDb
  12. ^ "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy". British Sky Broadcasting. 2006-04-04. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Clarke, David (2006-06-01). "Alien Autopsy". Fortean Times (210). Dennis Publishing Ltd. ISSN 0308-5899. {{cite journal}}: Text "coauthors Roberts, Andy" ignored (help)
  14. ^ Novella, Steven (2001-12-01). "The Psychocultural Hypothesis". The New England Skeptical Society. Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  15. ^ Grosso, Michael (1992). Frontiers of the Soul: Exploring Psychic Evolution. Quest Books. ISBN 0-8356-0676-7.
  16. ^ Pye, Lloyd (1997). Everything You Know Is Wrong (Book One: Human Origins). Adamu Press. ISBN B000IZZLXS.
  17. ^ Cohen, Jack (2002-02-07). Evolving the Alien (1st ed.). Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-187927-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Thomas, Kenn (1999). Cyberculture Counter conspiracy. Book Tree. ISBN 1-58509-125-1.
  19. ^ Cannon, Martin. The Controllers.
  20. ^ Constantine, Alex (1995). Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-28-8.
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