Is the truth in there?
In 1993, the
X-Files TV show premiered on the Fox channel in the US. Contributing to its immediate and rather large popularity was its deliriously entertaining mix of mystery, sci-fi, paranormal, horror, conspiracy and humor. A huge fan base grew that responded to many of the strange stories, giving serious credence to the show's motto that "the truth is out there''; that things were going on which the general population was not being informed about. The
X-Files beckoned its audience to learn the truth along with its attractive and complex protagonists, FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. But of all the themes the show concentrated on, and was best known for, it was its serious dramatic exploration of the phenomenon known as
alien abduction that was its strongest and perhaps most important.
Let's consider the time: the early-to-mid 1990s. In the US at least, the ubiquitous large-eyed alien that first appeared to a wide audience in 1987 with Whitley Strieber's
Communion was everywhere, in public spaces and presented in media of all kinds. The image was simply unavoidable. It was there when you went to the supermarket; when you opened a magazine; when you watched something on TV; and it was there on a billboard sign on the highway. It was easy to dismiss this barrage of alien imagery as just another marketing fad. But I think there's a more plausible reason: mainstream society was beginning to acknowledge something quite big and hitherto hidden from conscious awareness.
The phenomenon didn't come out of nowhere. By that time, in addition to Strieber's iconic book cover, we had films like
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the television series
V, and many other films and shows like the well known
Twilight Zone episode "
To Serve Man" - which suggested that aliens may not be all that warm and fuzzy. More significantly however, in the years leading up to when
X-Files premiered, and thereafter, we began to see more books like Strieber's by authors like Ray Fowler, Budd Hopkins, Karla Turner, David Jacobs and John Mack. Many others also attempted, in some cases quite successfully, to make sense of all sorts of bizarre and terrifying interactions individuals were having, seemingly with beings not of this world. The experiences described and recalled were with creatures whose appearances, technology and abilities were utterly strange by human standards and could only be properly understood as 'alien'. Well, not all of them. But we'll get to that.
Enter the X-Files.
Comment: See also: Worldwide uptick in demonic possession? Psychopaths in power and the gates of hell
22 Colombian schoolgirls, foaming at the mouth and hallucinating, suffer 'mass demonic possession'