An ever-increasing segment of the population is convinced (in part through ubiquitous depiction in the popular media) that we are being visited by extraterrestrials (ETs)—living entities from another place in the cosmos. The aliens may have been at it for eons. Humanoid creatures depicted in ancient paintings and drawings and in accounts passed down as oral history may be evidence of early alien visitation. Biblical references to angels from "on high" may have significance beyond religious doctrine in citing interstellar callers from more than two thousand years ago.

In modern times, people from all walks of life and representing manifold professions have reported sightings of strange lights in the sky, aircraft of unusual shape and extraordinary flight capabilities (called UFOs until recently), and encounters with alien creatures themselves. These revelations have often come with severe repercussions to reputations and careers. Especially vulnerable to ridicule and worse were military and commercial fliers, who, ironically, are uniquely situated for observation of the phenomena. Since the WWII era, and discovery of aircraft having remarkable flight characteristics dubbed "foo fighters" by aircrews, the US government has staunchly denied the possibility of incursions by extraterrestrial airframes. That persists today, even with the release by the US Navy of recordings made from cockpit instrumentation during encounters in 2004 with flying machines whose maneuverability and speed far surpass the performance of present-day aircraft representing human technology. The fliers involved have come forward, thus far without repercussion, offering descriptions of the "Tic Tac Candy"-shaped Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) they observed. In a US Senate-directed report, dated 25 June 2021 and entitled "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena", the Department of Defense Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) acknowledged the existence of UAP, and stated in an unclassified version that the source couldn't be identified other than to rule out any extraterrestrial involvement. No surprise there, to those of us frustrated by the government's pervasive obfuscation.

So, as it has been all along, it remains for John Q. Public to provide the only evidence of our extraterrestrial visitors. Narratives of human contact with ETs abound in modern literature and often conform to patterns highlighted in the discussion that follows. The material is offered as a reminder to the well-informed and as a shortcut in lieu of extensive reading to the uninitiated.

A man leaves home on an errand that usually takes a relatively short period of time. He returns home many hours later to be met with queries from irate family members as to where he'd been and why the task took so long. The guy is shocked and totally baffled by his inability to account for the missing time.

Weeks later, the man awakes one morning distraught by the lack of sleep that he attributes to vaguely recalled nightmares. Adding to his dismay is the fact that the boxer shorts he wears as pajamas are nowhere to be found.

Over time, the man's personality undergoes a change. Formerly easygoing, he develops an edge. He bristles at benign suggestions and is frequently disagreeable with family and coworkers. Finally bowing to demands that he seek help, he agrees to see a psychiatrist.

Over the course of a number of interviews, the doctor determines that the patient is suffering from a deeply repressed memory provoked by a harrowing incident in the past. The doctor recommends hypnosis as a means of rooting out the cause. A referral is made to a practitioner versed in extracting buried memories through hypnosis, with the expectation that exposing the underlying cause will lead to a remedy.

In the first session with the hypnotist, the subject emotionally recounts a terrifying ordeal involving contact with extraterrestrial beings. Realizing that he's out of his league at that point, the hypnotist refers the patient to another professional reputed to have experience in exploring claims of past lives and extraterrestrial contact.

Armed with a video camera and recorder, the doctor begins probing the man's subconscious by way of hypnotic regression. The patient relates an incident that begins one night when the subject awakes to find the bedroom bathed in bright light, with the shocking realization that two diminutive gray alien entities are present. The terrified subject finds himself incapacitated and unable to move or resist while being levitated off the bed by the aliens, who then transport him out of the room through an unopened window. Defying gravity, the aliens then float themselves and their captive to a waiting spaceship parked on the side lawn. Astonishingly, the man's wife, who is in the bed next to him, sleeps blissfully through the episode.

Once aboard the spacecraft, the abductee, still subdued, is escorted to a table where he undergoes a harrowing probing of his genitalia and the harvesting of sperm. In the process, he becomes separated from his underwear. Adding injury to insult, the aliens perform surgery to implant a miniature device that enables them to monitor and even control human mental processes.

After a short recovery period, the abductee is escorted back to his bedroom through the wood frame and glass of the closed window.

Subsequent sessions with the hypnotist reveal numerous other instances of contact with the aliens. On one occasion the experiencer was taken to an area of the spaceship where a number of children were present. They appeared to be human except for inordinately large, slightly slanted eyes reminiscent of those of the aliens. The shocking realization emerges that these kids were human/alien hybrids, and that the abductee might have contributed the human component to an alien hybridization project. Even more disturbing was the inescapable possibility that some of these kids were his progeny.

On yet another "visit," the suggestion was made subliminally (as was all communication with the aliens) that the abductee had been chosen as an ambassador of sorts; a conduit between the extraterrestrials and earthlings. He was being charged with assisting the alien culture in promoting love and brotherhood among humankind—the implied theme apparent that mankind is heading toward societal disaster (nuclear or otherwise) and alien intervention, subtle at this point, is needed to advance humans toward a beneficial "cosmic" existence the aliens espouse. This is perplexing in that the aliens appear to purposely erase conscious recollection of an abduction, which renders the intended message inaccessible except through hypnotic exposure.

Also apparently blocked is any substantive memory of details regarding the aliens and their incredible technology.

Over the course of his relationship with ETs, the abductee might be escorted to their home planet and may be treated to aliens morphed into human form or even into birds or other animals. Contact may continue off and on for years. Fortunately, in time and with psychiatric help, the man comes to grips with the special relationship he has with his cosmic associates.

An admission…an ulterior motive: the previous paragraphs offer a synopsis of themes more or less common to alien abduction narratives in the interest of a decidedly self-serving purpose. Your author wishes to acquaint the reader with a starkly contrasting narrative chronicling his own, at first gratifying and later devastating, life-altering encounter with extraterrestrials. In A Cosmic Encounter, three daytime confrontations with aliens are recounted in detail from the unique perspective of full recollection granted without benefit of hypnotic intervention. Drawing on your author's engineering background and with the remarkable collusion of the ETs, the book documents specifics of the aliens' physiology and myriad technical aspects of their spaceship. Missing from this account is awaking to find aliens in the bedroom, the incidence of levitation and transport through solid walls, the probing of genitalia, hybrid kids, a subliminal message, and morphing extraterrestrials. The otherwise rich narrative is intended to inform and entertain the student of alien lore and the novice as well. And, be assured that throughout the harrowing moments of the experience this author manages to retain his (owing to circumstance, occasionally less than pristine) underwear!