What If You Have A Close Encounter Of The Third Kind? | Unveiled

What if You Have a Close Encounter of the Third Kind?

The renowned UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek was a major force in ufology circles… and also a key influence in the notorious Project Blue Book investigation. But perhaps the thing he is most remembered for is his world-famous method for measuring alien experiences.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if you have a close encounter of the third kind?

The original Hynek Scale - first proposed by Hynek in 1972, in his book “The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry” - included three distinct types of alien encounter: close encounters of the First Kind, the Second Kind, and the Third Kind. For Hynek, who also recognised that there were some encounters that couldn’t be classed as “close” at all (like the seeing of lights far-off in the distance), the First Kind entailed seeing a UFO less than 500 feet away. The Second Kind was when a UFO had a physical effect on the world around it, including scorch marks and crop circles. And the Third Kind was an encounter in which an animate entity was witnessed. From the beginning, this entity didn’t have to be a little green man, despite what traditional sci-fi movies often show. It could also be a robot or even appear to be a human being – perhaps a time traveler, or some kind of shapeshifting creature assuming a familiar, humanoid form.

Hynek’s scale has since been extended on various occasions, and it now stretches up to close encounters of the Seventh Kind in the minds of many. But the Third Kind has always proven the most popular level, even itself getting subdivided into six different categories - ranked A to F - by another ufologist, Ted Bloecher. All of which reflects how UFO reports have historically had a lot of variety and diversity to them… but perhaps that’s none too surprising when you consider that, according to a 2019 survey by the polling company Gallup, sixteen percent of Americans have reportedly seen a UFO.

If you were to experience a Third Kind encounter in the most general definition - meaning you’d run into a living creature that’s most probably the occupant of a spacecraft - exactly what would happen to you depends on what kind of entity you’re dealing with. Meeting a human time traveler in a time machine, for example, could still count as a “close encounter of the third kind”… but it probably wouldn’t feel quite so strange as meeting a full-blown extraterrestrial. Yes, the whole time travel thing would feel pretty… weird… but you’d be able to recognize them as another human, at least. And you would have a much easier time communicating with them, because even if they spoke a different language, they would at least be speaking in a physical way you could comprehend. Assuming, as well, that a human time traveler from the future will’ve specifically picked your particular time and place to travel back to, it’s a reasonable bet that they, themselves, will be prepared and capable enough to alert and convince you as to what was happening… revealing to you precisely what they wanted, and exactly why they were here. There’s also some argument that it’s much more likely that a time traveler really would come in peace since they wouldn’t want to mess around with past events which could risk their own existence. So, perhaps, in this scenario, there’d be nothing by way of strange experiments on innocent, unsuspecting people. Which is reassuring.

But, let’s be real. When most people think of close encounters and UFOs, they’re not usually thinking of future versions of earthly human beings… they’re thinking of aliens. Never-before-seen, not of this world extra-terrestrial creatures. So, what might you be in for were you to stumble across a flying saucer and a genuine, bona fide Martian, Venusian, or anything else from any other planet jumps out of it?

Right away, there could be an impassable communication barrier. We’re now imagining creatures which might speak a language that’s never been uttered on Earth before. And they might not even speak in any way we might expect them to - via mouths or vocalisations or body language. This new level of confusion (on our part) isn’t guaranteed, though… not according to past cases, at least. In arguably the most famous alien abduction case of all time, the abduction of Americans Barney and Betty Hill in 1961, Betty reported that one of the aliens, the one who showed them around and explained what was going on, spoke broken English. On the one hand, this feels pretty convenient. On the other, it makes a lot of practical sense. Since any visiting aliens will’ve likely been studying Earth for a long time beforehand, they could have easily learned Earth’s languages, and taught themselves when to use each and every one of them.

Then again, what would it even matter? Close encounter stories don’t tend to focus on the general conversation between alien and abductee. Instead, there’s often an emphasis on the extraterrestrial visitors conducting strange and sometimes unpleasant experiments. This also happened to the Hills - with Betty remembering samples being taken and having a long needle inserted into her stomach - while many more alleged abductees have also claimed they’ve been probed and subjected to invasive examinations. If you had a Third Kind encounter of this type, then it would be at best uncomfortable… at worst totally traumatizing.

That said, it’s also been claimed that arriving aliens have offered to help people in the past, too, or to take them on extraordinary journeys across the universe, or even to their home planet. In the case of the Hill Abduction, these friendlier terms were never reached… but, according to Betty, the aliens did reveal where their home was, in the Zeta Reticuli star system. In general, though, it’s possible (even probable) that you wouldn’t be able to understand many of the things you were being shown or told about during a close encounter of the third kind. As the iconic writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said; “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. And therein lies one of the biggest issues when it comes to close encounter stories; because, if you can’t truly understand what it is that you’re experiencing, then you may never be able to convincingly recount your story to anyone else.

In fact, this is one of the only things we know would almost certainly happen if you had a close encounter of the third kind: the vast majority of people wouldn’t believe you. The problem is that despite the many thousands of reported alien sightings from all over the world, we still don’t have conclusive proof that aliens really do exist. Most scientists suspect and reason that they do, but not one of our established space agencies or organisations or governments has officially confirmed it. That “aliens exist” isn’t yet a fact, and your testimony post-encounter probably wouldn’t ever be enough to convince anybody who didn’t already believe. Not only could this be frustrating, but it could be upsetting since people would poke holes in your story and probably make fun of you. What’s more, even if it wasn’t just you, even if the entire world had a close encounter, witnessing some kind of extraterrestrial event that couldn’t reasonably be denied, there would still be plenty of skeptics… and millions of people claiming that it was a hoax.

But, still, you wouldn’t be completely alone. Today, there are dedicated support groups for alien abductees, often formed by alien abductees, where people can share their experiences and be listened to without judgment. These groups are important not least because those who allege a close encounter also often report genuine psychological effects, with it being suggested that the phenomenon should be called “post-abduction syndrome” - although PAS doesn’t yet have a great deal of backing from medical professionals.

Nevertheless, it has previously been noted that some who claim alien abduction have also exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder… so the psychological effects of a close encounter could be long-lasting, and only worsened by how many people don’t take you seriously. Eventually, you could even begin doubting your own experience, wondering if those aliens ever actually existed… But then, there’s some argument that this kind of mind-scrambling is exactly what a nefarious alien would want to happen to their victims. So, there’s that to consider, too.

There have been reports of physical symptoms from an encounter, as well, however, with many alleged abductees saying they felt physically ill afterwards. In 1952, for example, the mysterious Flatwoods Monster was reportedly sighted in rural West Virginia… and those who witnessed it recalled that there was a foul smell that made them nauseous, and left them feeling ill for days after the sighting. And, it’s not as though an adverse reaction like this would really be that unexpected if life from Earth ever were to mix with life not from Earth. Because, who knows what kinds of germs, pathogens or physical unknowns an alien could bring with them?

Ultimately, the Hynek Scale serves to give us some insight into the types of alien experience any one person might have. But, if you were to have one tomorrow, if you were to genuinely cross paths with an extraterrestrial, the unfortunate truth is that the majority of people right now wouldn’t believe what had happened. You could be living with the repercussions for the rest of your life, but the rest of the world would carry on as normal. And that’s what would happen if you had a close encounter of the third kind.