Aliens have a thick, reflective membrane behind their retinas, known as the tapetum lucidum, which makes their eyes “glow” in the dark in much the same way a dog's or cat's eyes do when you shine a light into them. This special night vision adaptation collects light that has passed through the retina and then reflects it back into the retina, giving the eye a second chance to catch all the available light from dimly lit environments.
All these features make alien eyes specifically adapted to low-light environments, suggesting that they may have evolved on a planet with minimal ambient light. As their eyes are highly sensitive to sunlight, aliens try to restrict their daytime activities as much as possible. It is no coincidence that most alien abductions take place at night.
Studies have shown that aliens have virtually no color vision, they see only in shades of gray. There is also some evidence to suggest that aliens — along with creatures such as certain species of marine life, bats, and birds — perceive ultraviolet (UV) light, which is outside the range of human visibility. As yet, the extent and purpose of this ability remains unknown.
Ears and hearing
It did not take the military scientists of the 1940s long to realize that aliens have only a rudimentary sense of hearing. Early experimentation on captive subjects prior to the Roswell incident (see page 16) revealed little or no response to ambient noises in their surrounding environment. Although, at first, it was thought that they possessed a Zen-like capacity to disassociate from what was happening around them, it was soon discovered that their hearing was impaired to the point of being practically useless.
Aliens also have no external ear structure or pinna. A thin membrane covers the auditory canals, which are situated in slight depressions on either side of the head.
Although they have internal ear structures similar to our own, it is wholly unsuited for our atmospheric air pressure, and, as a result, they are unable to hear many subtle sounds that we take for granted. This is similar, in many ways, to our own partial loss of hearing if we quickly ascend or descend a mountain. What hearing aliens do have tends to be at the high end of the scale, which would make normal human speech almost inaudible to them. There has been no evidence to suggest that they can read lips, but it is best to not take any chances.
THE ALIEN INVASION SURVIVAL HANDBOOK
Some scientists have suggested that, even under the right atmospheric conditions, their auditory system is nothing more than an evolutionary relic. Having developed a range of other “super senses,” such as electrogenesis and electroreception (see pages 19–23), that allow them to efficiently communicate, any air-based auditory system has been rendered obsolete.
Unauthorized research carried out on a U.S. military base in Guam in 1982 revealed that aliens do recoil from very loud sounds, and they display some degree of agitation when subjected to prolonged human screaming. It was unclear from the available document abstract whether these reactions in any way related to their hearing ability.
Evidence from documents smuggled out of the former Soviet Union during the 1970s indicated that some captured alien specimens have been found fitted with electronic devices that may compensate for their hearing deficiency. Attempts were made to locate scientists associated with these findings after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, but both they and their families had disappeared.
The integumentary and nervous systems and touch
With an ambient body temperature lower than humans, alien skin is cool to the touch, more like a reptile than a mammal. It is hairless, smooth, and elastic — similar to dolphin flesh in texture. While humans shed their skin continually in a relatively unobtrusive process — with more than one million skin cells shed every hour — aliens shed their entire skin as a single piece, once every four to six weeks. This lizard-like process takes less than an hour and leaves behind a hollow, transparent sheath that some researchers have dubbed “alien suits.” Their new skin has a higher luster and is more sensitive to stimuli for a week or so after molting.
Experiments have shown that aliens respond to external stimuli in much the same way humans do. The same basic array of sensory receptors throughout their bodies allows them to feel sensations like pain, heat, cold, and pressure. Although the degree to which they experience each of these sensations is difficult to determine, it has been demonstrated in clinical situations that their tolerance levels are significantly different from our own. Aliens are also, as previously mentioned, hypersensitive to light.
Olfactory organs, smell, and taste
Aliens have two narrow nostril slits in roughly the same position as our noses. They are valve-like in structure, controlled by a muscular flap. The natural resting position of the nostril is open, but they can be closed to form a watertight seal. While humans can distinguish between at least ten thousand different smells, laboratory tests have revealed that aliens experience some difficulty telling the difference between even distinctive aromas, such as garlic and citrus. They show no discomfort when exposed to an offensive mixture of biological odors, including vomit, rotting vegetables, body odor, human feces, and burnt hair. Even some of the most pungent smells known to mankind — such as the liquid propane warning agent ethyl mercaptan — evoke limited responses in aliens.
With such an underdeveloped olfactory system, we may also assume that alien taste sensors are equally handicapped, but little scientific evidence currently exists to support this idea.
Super Senses
Aliens possess a number of super senses that humans do not have. These senses are linked to their nonverbal form of communication and represent one of the greatest hurdles in opening an effective dialogue with aliens.
Electrosensory perception
When humans talk, sound waves are collected by the outer ear and channeled along the ear canal to the eardrum, where they are converted to minute vibrations within the inner ear. These vibrations, in turn, create a set of electrical nerve impulses that pass through to the hearing center of the brain, where they are translated into sounds the brain can recognize.
Aliens, however, communicate by a process known as electrosensory perception. They basically bypass the central stages of the human speech process and communicate directly via electrical signals. In a process called electrogenesis, these electrical impulses are generated by a series of flat, disc-like electroplate cells stacked like batteries in the large frontal lobes of their craniums. Once generated, these electrical impulses travel silently between aliens and are received by specialized electric receptors also buried within the frontal lobe (electroreception). The process is completely inaudible to humans. Note that aliens are not able to “read” each other's minds. Electrogenic communication is a conscious action similar to talking. Each alien's thoughts are its own until it wishes to communicate them.
These processes of electrogenesis and electroreception are not unknown in the animal kingdom, with many creatures such as electric eels, electric rays, sharks, and platypuses using this biological ability to both produce and receive electrical signals. Laboratory experiments have shown that alien electrical-impulse signals have a relatively short range. As air is a weak medium for conducting electrical signals, aliens must remain within close proximity to effectively communicate with each other without the aid of instruments.
There are numerous accounts of aliens staring into the eyes of their paralyzed victims, often from a distance of only inches. Although this is an extremely disconcerting experience, some have suggested that this is their misguided way of trying to communicate with us. As humans do not have electroreception organs, we are quite incapable of receiving any form of electrical-impulse communication from aliens. Similarly, aliens cannot read our minds by telepathy. (Electrogenic communication could be thought as similar to radio broadcasting; you must have both a transmitter and a receiver to communicate. If either one is missing, there can be no communication.) Even if they could “hear” our thoughts, as alien forms of communication are so foreign and indecipherable to us, it
may also be possible that they would experience difficulties interpreting our audio-based language.
Electrical discharges from short distances do, however, often trigger the spontaneous firing of synapses (nerve endings) in the human brain. This can result in random and often confusing images and emotional responses, which many have misinterpreted as direct alien communication.
Electroparalysis
Aliens also have the ability to concentrate the focus of their electrogenic impulses to create a sustained discharge capable of temporarily paralyzing humans. This ability has long been known to science and has been fully documented in innumerable abduction reports over the last half-century. The actual process was not understood, however, until research carried out during the early 1990s illuminated the underlying science.
Although the exact mechanism responsible for this process still remains largely unknown, laboratory tests have shown that certain externally produced electrical pulses are capable of disrupting the electrical signals carried by the body's nerve cells, thereby preventing messages produced in the brain from getting to the rest of the body.
This process of electroparalysis results in a total loss of voluntary muscle control, leaving the victim defenseless and unable to move. Electroparalysis has no effect on involuntary muscular activity, such as respiration or muscular action.
Paralysis is a temporary phenomenon from which the victim soon recovers after the electrical discharge is discontinued. During the recovery stage, which may last anywhere from one to ten minutes, victims may experience disorientation, nausea, disruption of balance, and a lack of strength and coordination.
ELECTROPARALYSIS RESEARCH: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
All aliens are capable of emitting electrical impulses that can paralyze humans, yet, in abduction situations, we find that only one or two aliens are usually directly involved in paralyzing their human captives. Dr. Ernest Cunningham, a former research scientist at the Dalgety Institute for Applied Psychology, was the first person to note this phenomenon after recording the experiences of more than 1,500 abductees across three continents in the early 1980s. Cunningham called these aliens “glarers,” after a phrase used by one interviewed abductee to describe the aliens that stood silently watching in the background during his medical examinations. It is believed that these onlookers have a special ability and training in electro-paralysis and are almost exclusively involved in subduing captive humans. In many ways, this ability could be likened to the innate ability that some people have to play a musical instrument or excel at particular sports. Although born with a genetic gift, aliens can develop their skills to perfection through practice.
Wilson and Curruthers (1989) worked with Cunningham's findings and noted a number of incidents where potential abductees were able either to avoid capture or to escape not long after being abducted. All these incidents involved successfully thwarting alien attempts at electroparalysis.
When these individuals were subsequently located and re-interviewed, it was found that each incident had one factor in common: music, either being played during the abduction attempt or being recalled from memory. This revelation led Wilson and Curruthers's team to launch a study known today as Project Bluebird.
When three live alien specimens were captured in North Africa in early 1992, the Project Bluebird team was granted unprecedented access by government agencies to conduct their studies. Government bodies were exceedingly keen to collaborate with Wilson and Curruthers at the outset of their investigations because of the profound military and law enforcement applications of this technology if fully understood and developed. They believed that it may be possible to create machines capable of reproducing the aliens' electrical discharge, which could be used to render individual or group targets paralyzed in both military combat zones and civil disturbance situations.
The laboratory testing of the incarcerated aliens was carried out in secure locations around Europe and lasted until the death of the final subject in late 1994. Not long after, the team was able to replicate the electrogenic pulse in the lab, thereby eliminating the need for trials on rare live alien subjects.
The results of their investigations were published as the top-secret Bluebird Report. In it, they concluded that the electroparalysis techniques used by aliens to immobilize their captives were not foolproof. Two loopholes were discovered and subsequently named Audio Phonic Resonance and Audio-Morphic Recall, which will be covered in detail in chapter 2.
STRENGTH, SPEED, AND AGILITY
Aliens' gracile body type and apparent lack of a highly developed muscular system would tend to indicate a sedentary lifestyle. This would be consistent with a technologically advanced society where millennia of minimal physical activity have evolved puny physiques. Yet, despite their somewhat spindly form, they are surprisingly agile.
Many case studies exist of aliens who “ran like a greyhound” or were “too quick to catch.” In laboratory tests, aliens have been clocked at speeds of more than 33 miles per hour — that's 6 miles per hour quicker than the fastest human speed ever recorded (Donovan Bailey, 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 27.1 miles per hour). The challenge in hand-to-hand combat comes not from the aliens' fighting prowess, but from their nimble footwork and evasive maneuvers, making it almost impossible for you to get your hands on them. When you do, their lithe bodies can slip through your fingers like a cake of soap in a tropical downpour.
FIGURE 1.1: Aliens can achieve speeds of up to 33 mph.
It would, however, be a grave mistake to underestimate their strength. Although diminutive in size, they are surprisingly strong and have been known to throw a 180-pound man halfway across a room. Aliens are very confident climbers and are able to scale challenging cliffs with ease. Elevated fortifications should not be considered a deterrent to aliens. Laboratory tests have also revealed that aliens are able to hold their breath under water for upward of twenty minutes by slowing their metabolism down to next to nothing.
DIET
Little is known of the alien natural diet. What facts we do know have been gleaned from the personal anecdotes and observations of abductees. Several accounts indicate that they take sustenance orally. Three abductees of the more than three hundred interviewed for this handbook recounted observing aliens imbibing fluids through short tubes connected to the interior walls of their spacecraft. Whether these fluids were nutritional or recreational in nature, we do not know. A diet consisting predominantly of fluids would be consistent with the alien's weak jaw structure and poorly developed teeth.
Dietary information first came to light from government documents leaked in the late 1950s that recorded military attempts to feed captive aliens. They could not be encouraged to eat any of the foods provided by military scientists and were eventually force-fed via feeding tubes inserted into their esophagi. Subsequent tests on their preferred food types have proven inconclusive, although some have displayed a disquieting preference for warm, vitamized meat. Aliens do not absorb nutrients via osmosis through their skin, as some have suggested. Aliens have one opening, a cloaca, through which the digestive, urinary, and reproductive systems empty.
REPRODUCTION AND SEXUAL HABITS
Little will be written here of the reproductive habits of aliens. Suffice is to say that this has been a topic of immense interest to researchers who have labored tirelessly over many years to document the often bizarre sexual habits of captive breeding pairs.
Anyone wishing to further pursue the topic should refer to the definitive works of Dr. Joel Mitsky, Head of Reproductive Biology at the former Soviet School of Applied Biology in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
LIFE SPAN
It is impossible to estimate how long aliens live in a natural state. The longest period of time any single alien has been kept alive in captivity is seven and a half years. Although some aliens adapt well to captive conditions, most show a general decline in health from the moment of their incarceration. Despite the very best efforts of research scientists and physicians, most alie
ns eventually succumb to a mysterious degenerative condition that attacks their vital organs.
All aliens captured to date have been in the adult phase of their development. Captive breeding pairs, despite being very sexually active, have not, as yet, produced any live offspring.
THERMOREGULATION
Alien body temperatures (59°F [15°C]) are unusually low by mammalian standards, and they show a distinct preference for cooler environments. Many abductees have commented on the distinctly frigid temperatures onboard alien spacecraft. Aliens possess an unorthodox thermoregulatory system that does not involve evaporative heat loss.
Aliens are capable of entering a self-induced state of inactivity by lowering their core body temperature, slowing their heart and breathing, and lowering their metabolic rate. This form of hibernation is an energy-conservation mechanism that can last anywhere from minutes to months. Many aliens have feigned death only to emerge from their torpid state to pounce on their victims during an unguarded moment. They can also consciously lower their skin temperature to match ambient air temperature, making them nigh impossible to detect with thermal imaging equipment.
THE ALIEN INVASION SURVIVAL HANDBOOK
The Alien Invasion Survival Handbook: A Defense Manual for the Coming Extraterrestrial Apocalypse Page 2
