Greys

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For other uses, see grays (disambiguation).
Greys
Creature
Name: Greys
AKA: Roswell Aliens,
Zeta,
Reticulian,
Skrit Na,
Sectoid
Classification
Grouping: Extraterrestrial
Data
First reported: September 19, 1961
Last sighted: Present Day
Status: Mythological

In ufology, Greys, also known as Roswell aliens, Zetas, and Reticulians, are aliens or extraterrestrial life forms that appear in purported modern-day encounters and other UFO-related paranormal phenomena. Said to be one of several species of aliens, greys 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]

Contents

[edit] Appearance

Greys are typically described as being either significantly below average human height -- approximately 120 cm (four feet) tall -- or significantly above -- over 1.5 metres (five feet) tall. They are regularly said to have grey (sometimes blue-grey/green-grey/purple-grey) skin. Their bodies are usually described as 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, reminiscent of a human fetus, supported by a thin neck. Their eyes are most often said to be lidless, though they have been reported to blink. They typically have small slits for mouths and no external ears (that is, they lack the 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. In other reports they appear to be naked. In most cases, clothed Greys have no determinable gender and naked Greys have no visible external genitals. Greys reportedly absorb food as well as excrete waste through the skin, which makes them emit a foul odor.[citation needed]

[edit] The Grey in society and culture

[edit] 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]

The Conquerors
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.

[edit] 1950-1960

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

[edit] 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" depicted on the Sci-Fi Outer Limits TV show, 12 days prior to the making of Hill's 'Grey' hypnosis tape
An "alien" depicted on the Sci-Fi Outer Limits TV show, 12 days prior to the making of Hill's 'Grey' hypnosis tape

On 10 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]

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]

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.

[edit] 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 investigators and the general public.

UFO researcher Leonard H. Stringfield began to take the stories of crashed flying saucers, retrieved alien bodies, and autopsies on the bodies seriously. From a variety of sources, he built up a composite of the retrieved bodies, which seem to be that of the classic Greys. Stringfield presented his preliminary results at a MUFON symposium in 1978.

In 1980, Stringfield presented a second document to MUFON in which he presented a series of anatomical diagrams which he stated that he obtained from medical personnel who claim to have performed autopsies on alien corpses during the 1950s. [9] His report included a number of characteristics that can be found in many contemporary Grey reports and in theatrical reproductions.

  • Overall humanoid appearance. Bodies usually described as "formed out of a mold" with identical facial characteristics.
  • Height of 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 feet with a weight of approximately 40 pounds.
  • Two round eyes without pupils with heavy brow ridge. Eyes described variously as large, almond-shaped, elongated, sunken/deep set, far apart, slightly slanted, appearing "Oriental" or "Mongoloid."
  • The head was large by human standards for the size of the body. It is often described as "pear-shaped." X-ray revealed a human-like mandible, maxilla, and other cranial bone structure.
  • No ear lobes or protruding flesh beyond holes on each side of head.
  • Vague nose, two holes with only a slight protuberance.
  • Mouth a small "slit" without lips, opening into a small cavity. Mouth appears not to function for communication or food ingestion. There is only a hint of a tongue. There are no teeth. There is a membrane at the back of the mouth separating it from what would be the digestive tract. However, there is no digestive system or GI tract.
  • Neck is thin, sometimes not visible because of garments.
  • Head generally described as hairless, sometimes a slight fuzz. Bodies are hairless
  • Torso is small and thin. In most instances, the body was observed wearing a metallic but flexible garment.
  • Arms are described as long, thin, and reaching down to the knee section. The legs are short and thin.
  • Hand is generally described with four fingers and no thumb with slight webbing between fingers. Two fingers appear longer than the others. Sometimes fingernails are reported.
  • Skin variously reported as beige, tan, brown, tannish, pinkish, or bluish gray. Texture is scaly or reptilian, elastic and mobile over smooth muscle or skeletal tissue. No striated muscle.
  • There are either no reproductive organs or atrophied reproductive organs.

[edit] 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 U.S. 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. [10]

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, and a film adaption starring Christopher Walken was released in 1989.

[edit] 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.[11]

Arguably, the most well known of example of this was the FOX television series The X-Files, which first aired 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" Grey that was said to have been recovered from the site of the 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico.[12][13] 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 incident became the subject of the British comedy film Alien Autopsy, starring popular television presenters Ant & Dec.[14][15]

In recent years, public opinion polls have indicated wide public belief that aliens have visited Earth. Grey aliens are the most commonly cited. According to Dr. Steven Greer, head of CSETI, over 400 "government, military, and intelligence community witnesses" have offered testimony to the existence of aliens and UFO and/or efforts to cover up their existence.[16]

[edit] 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 apply these differences directly to a human model, the resulting human would strongly resemble a Grey. [17]

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. [18] 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.

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.[19] 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. [20]

It has also been suggested that Greys represent"

  • Future descendants of Humans as time travelers
  • A lifeform that may have evolved from past life on earth, such as humanoid descendants of dinosaurs returned to Earth after exploring space
  • A modern iteration of ancient folklore and myth
  • Part of a government-led disinformation/plausible deniability campaign[4]
  • Extradimensional life forms[21]
  • A product of Government mind control experiments. [22][23]
  • Nowaday's Angels, described in religions around the globe, as those who work for god/gods in heavens. Emotionless, sexless, non-human.

[edit] Influence in popular culture

Thor, a member of the Asgard race in Stargate SG-1
Thor, a member of the Asgard race in Stargate SG-1

Greys are a popular theme in science fiction and have either appeared directly, or acted as a source of inspiration, in a number of different franchises. Examples within television series include, a race known as the Asgard who are a recurring race in the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1,[24] and also a race known as the Vree on the science fiction television series Babylon 5; they are also featured prominently in the comedy series South Park, first appearing in the episode Cartman Gets An Anal Probe, where they are called "Visitors" and returning in Canceled; and can also frequently be seen in the backgrounds of many other episodes, especially during the earlier seasons. Other series such as Roswell use the Greys as the centerpoint of the plot; in this particular series the aliens that crash-landed in the famous town are from the planet Antar. Seven Days is another example of this, where the Roswell aliens were explicitly referred to as "greys" and depicted as such. The time travel technology present in the show was a result of reverse-engineering the alien technology, said to originate from the Zeta Reticuli star system. In this series there are references to events related to the Greys as well, including the fact that the time machine made use of Ununpentium, a substance that was alleged by Bob Lazar to be the source of energy and antigravity in the extraterrestrial spacecrafts that he was tasked with reverse-engineering at the S4 base.

A Maian alien from Perfect Dark.
A Maian alien from Perfect Dark.

Stereotypical designs of the Grey race have been featured in video game media as well, examples of this include an extraterrestrial race known as the Sectoids which make their appearance in X-COM: UFO Defense, other examples have them performing the role of primary antagonists in the game Area 51, where they are depicted practicing several behaviors related to popular belief such as forming crop circles and mutilating cattle. In Nintendo 64 game Perfect Dark, the Grey race of aliens is also featured, called Maian in this game. Of the two alien races present in the game, the Maians are good-natured towards humankind and one of them, who calls himself Elvis, helps out the protagonist, Joanna Dark, in some missions (the other race, the belligerent, reptile-like Skedar, are the main antagonists of the game).

The influence of the Greys as the most common form of extraterrestrial life depicted in popular culture has led to some indirect references, including the trophies given in the Spacey Awards which are silver busts in the form of a Grey's head. Greys also appear in the cyberpunk shooter Deus Ex, although it is later revealed that they are simply clones created from genetically altered chimpanzee DNA. The crystal skull in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is revealed to belong to Greys.

[edit] See also

[edit] 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). 
  3. ^ Smith, Jonathan Z (2001). "Close encounters of the diverse kind". Princeton University Press. 
  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 [1901] (2004). "XI", The First Men in the Moon. Wildside Press. ISBN 0-8095-9653-9. 
  7. ^ Lutrell, John H. "Did THEY Seize Couple", Boston Traveler, 1965-10-25. 
  8. ^ a b Clark, Jerome [1998]. The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial, 1st, Visible Ink, 705. ISBN 1-57859-029-9. 
  9. ^ Stringfield, Leonard H (1980) "Status Report II, The UFO Crash/Retrieval Syndrome: New Sources, New Data; Jan. 1980, MUFON, pp. 10-12, 30-33 (drawings)
  10. ^ Berlitz, Charles; Moore William (1980). The Roswell Incident, 1st, Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-448-21199-8. 
  11. ^ Grey Aliens Bite The Dust
  12. ^ Wingfield, George (1995). "The "Roswell" Film Footage". Flying Saucer Review 20 (2). 
  13. ^ Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) at the Internet Movie Database
  14. ^ "Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy", British Sky Broadcasting, 2006-04-04. 
  15. ^ Clarke, David (2006-06-01). "Alien Autopsy". Fortean Times (210). Dennis Publishing Ltd. ISSN 0308-5899. 
  16. ^ The Disclosure Project
  17. ^ Novella, Steven (2001-12-01). The Psychocultural Hypothesis. The New England Skeptical Society. Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
  18. ^ Grosso, Michael (1992). Frontiers of the Soul: Exploring Psychic Evolution. Quest Books. ISBN 0-8356-0676-7. 
  19. ^ Pye, Lloyd (1997). Everything You Know Is Wrong (Book One: Human Origins). Adamu Press. ISBN B000IZZLXS. 
  20. ^ Cohen, Jack; Stewart, Ian (2002-02-07). Evolving the Alien, 1st, Ebury Press. ISBN 0-09-187927-2. 
  21. ^ Thomas, Kenn (1999). Cyberculture Counter conspiracy. Book Tree. ISBN 1-58509-125-1. 
  22. ^ Cannon, Martin. The Controllers. 
  23. ^ Constantine, Alex (1995). Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A.. Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-28-8. 
  24. ^ Stargate SG-1: Aliens. Sci Fi. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.

[edit] External links

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