If you look into the UFO abduction literature, the main language used is surrounded by a tone that is almost always “medical.” You find words like “procedure,” “tests,” “instruments,” “reproduction,” and all these readings are haunted by a leaning towards the notion of a theoretical “human-alien hybrid program” being afoot—one perhaps millennia old. This is utterly commonplace language among those who claim to have been abducted, as well as with those who research the confounding topic.

It might be a correct reading at that.

However, one thread of thinking that is a little rarer to find is literature focused on the parallels between the UFO abduction scenario and common human BDSM practice.

Before moving on, it is important to note that the BDSM world—though maybe an unusual world to some—is a highly consent-based and thoughtful community. This piece is not to conflate BDSM with something as frequently terrifying and often as non-consensual as alien abduction. For one of the major differences between abduction and BDSM is that alien abduction is only sometimes consensual, making it arguably nefarious to say the least and a kind of rape to say the worst. Common BDSM practice is almost never like this.

The Abductors, the Abductees, and the Abduction

What happens to abductees? The standard alien abduction scenario goes something like this:

A human individual is paralyzed by some unknown method. This can occur apparently almost anywhere at almost anytime. Around the same time, an alien or aliens present themselves to that individual. Unnaturally bright light is often involved. The abductee is then transported, while in a kind of trance state, into an environment that seems something like an operating room. Frequently, the individual finds themselves naked on a table. Rarely does an abductee remember their clothes being removed, nor do they fully recall entering the alien operating room — nevertheless, they indeed find themselves in that condition.

Interestingly, the tables abductees report are sized to fit the average physical dimensions of a human body; they are not sized to fit the often (though not exclusively) diminutive aliens themselves.

The abductee finds themselves surrounded by one or more aliens, sometimes of varying type. Still paralyzed, the abductee then has several seemingly “medical”-like procedures performed on them by the aliens, which frequently include particular attention to their genitals and sometimes anus.

The sexual climax occurs. This is described as alternatively painful, strange, overwhelming, and sometimes uniquely pleasurable. Ovum and sperm are harvested. Occasionally, the abductee is supposedly introduced to some kind of baby — sometimes human, sometimes a seeming “hybrid” baby.

Often, an alien places its own face just a few inches away from the abductee’s face. In the literature, this event is called a “mind scan” or a “neurological engagement;” a kind of awe-inspiring psychic probing. Indeed, the entire encounter frequently includes incessant telepathic probing, instruction, reassurance, guidance, sexual seduction, and so on-all done nonverbally.

When it all seems over, the abductee is sometimes telepathically informed that they are “special” or “important” in some kind of way. The abductee blacks out again, and wakes up usually in the same location they were originally kidnapped. This happens often with little or no memory of the encounter outside of a strange feeling of unease, as well as physical remnants of varying kind on different places on their body. (both externally and internally) The blackouts that abductees experience sometimes last for hours. In the abduction literature, this is called “missing time.” In the extremely credible abduction case of Travis Walton, it lasted for five days.

Given this general outline, a great number of alleged alien abduction cases can informally be read “a weird sex thing” or have elements thereof.

(Though, far too large a topic than the scope of this article, it interesting to note that many religious and spiritual practices the world over— from Tantra to Thelema—also include elements of what could be called “weird sex things,” and also promote direct experiential contact with otherworldly beings and spirits.)

Connections Between Abduction & BDSM

How does all this connect to human BDSM practices? Let’s break it all down.

The letters BDSM stand for: Bondage/Discipline, Dominance/Submission, Sadism/Masochism — the alien abduction scenario contains all these features.

The main type of exchange in BDSM is between a person or persons playing a Dominant role, and a person or persons playing a Submissive role. In 100% of all abduction scenarios, the aliens play a dominant role and exude totally controlling forces and practices upon the submissive human abductees.

Once the aliens arrive, the entire encounter is frequently from thence onward reported to be an utterly horrifying, awesome, and life-changing affair. It is also inarguably an exchange between dominates and submissives.

From the onset of the abduction scenario begins a complete and utter domination of the human subject. This happens almost immediately or precipitates the unfolding of the abduction event with the sense of an overwhelmed uneasiness surrounding the soon-to-be abductee.

When the aliens physically appear, they are often characterized by a presence of total dominance. The abductee is frequently paralyzed. Primal fear or a kind of complete disassociation, or a complete hypnotic trance is not uncommon.

The abductee is moved by some means into the main theater of the abduction scenario—the medical-like operating room in an alien environment, presumably aboard their craft. In the BDSM world, this would be known as a “scene.” Scenes are the environments, situations, rules, practices, rituals, and themes that the dom sets up for the sub.

Paralyzing bondage is a key feature in almost all alien abduction scenarios, which is accomplished by a kind of powerful hypnosis, or via some yet-discovered technological means. Occasionally, but rarely, abductees are physically restrained. This reinforces the dominant-submissive exchange that is being argued. In human BDSM practices, it is common for a dominant to bind a submissive with rope, handcuffs, stockades, harnesses, slings, benches, horses, Saint Andrew’s crosses, tables, and other restraints. In the abduction literature, abductees almost always find themselves trapped on a horizontal table, unable to move, and conscious, unconscious or semiconscious—frequently (but not always) without the use of physical restraints. Again, both aliens and doms are psychologically and physically in charge.

In BDSM the sub is pegged, that is: anally penetrated with a foreign object. In alien abduction, there is the infamous phenomenon of the anal probe.

In BDSM, needle play is not an uncommon occurrence, wherein the sub is pierced, stabbed, and poked by with a sharp object or objects by the dom. Think of it as a form of sexualized acupuncture here. In alien abduction, the abductee is frequently pieced, stabbed, and poked with sharp, penetrating instruments by their alien captors. The abductee Betty Hill famously reported a long needle being inserted into her navel.

With male abductees, the sexual climax occurs commonly through the use of a technological instrument — in BDSM, we would likely call this a sex toy. Occasionally, aliens supposedly offer their bodies to intercourse. Foreign objects are often employed. Semen and ovum are almost always taken.

In terms of male abductees, the most commonly reported semen extraction device is something like a tube with an opening at the end made specifically for the human penis, that creates a kind of electrification upon the genitals, which causes forced ejaculation.

Abductees frequently awaken to unusual “scoop marks” as if tiny skin samples have been taken. In BDSM world this is something like the more particularly extreme practice of “branding.” Branding is accomplished via the use of—as one would imagine—a hot branding iron on the sub by the dom.

At the end of the physical aspects of the “medical” abduction encounter, the abductee is debriefed by the dominant aliens either telepathically, or through the use of a media cinematic, a tour of the supposed ship, or through a vision, or via the appearance of a famous, family, or religious figure, or all of the above. As mentioned, abductees are frequently told they are special in some way and that they have some sort of important role to play. In the BDSM community, this is similar to the practice of “aftercare.” After a scene is finished, attention is once again returned to the submissive by the dom to make sure that they are in a positive and safe-feeling state of mind. It is also a kind of debriefing. This aftercare is done to avoid an occurrence called “subdrop” wherein, after the flood of endorphins and the intensity of the now finished scene are addressed to keep the submissive in a happy and healthy state of being. To kick a sub out the moment their scene with the dom is finished can have distressing psychological and emotional consequences for the sub.

However, the abductee debriefing is often bizarre and sometimes filled with deceptive, confusing, apocalyptic, or aggrandizing information. It is only rarely like the human-to-human aftercare with all its nuance, compassion, groundedness, and consideration. However, sometimes the aliens are described as extremely compassionate after the major invasive practices are over.

The levels of domination expressed by the aliens is extreme. In BDSM jargon, the huge level of power, influence, and control projected by the dominant aliens could be read as an example of “TPE” — “Total Power Exchange.” What makes TPE different from other dominance-heavy BDSM scenarios is that TPE by definition extends well beyond the time and place confines of a given scene, and goes deep into normal life. The dom doms the sub over the phone or through email— anywhere, anytime. A TPE’d sub is a kind of 24/7 sub for their particular dom or doms. Some abductees claim exactly this kind of physical psychic invasion of normal life by the alien abductors well after their encounter experience.

Abductees are sometimes implanted with a foreign object in hard to reach places such as deep in the nostril, the ear, under the skin, or in other locations. In the BDSM world, this implant aspect is psychologically and sometimes physically similar to the idea and practice of “collaring,” wherein a person playing out a submissive role is “collared”, and in a way “owned” and thereby remotely influenced and controlled by their respective dom.

The blackout and “missing time” elements of the abduction do not correlate with BDSM and instead stay into something more in line with the immoral and criminal practice date rape and “roofying.” Also, both BDSM and alien abduction result in their own forms of altered states of consciousness. Both the BDSM Scene and the UFO are where the mind expands beyond its normal parameters.

Without question, the alien abduction phenomenon and all its elements is one of the strangest circumstances human beings seem to experience. But it must be noted that it is a human experience as much as it is an apparently alien one.

If we place aside the “medical,” “reproductive,” and “hybridization” elements of the alien abduction scenario, we are left with something like a BDSM encounter. Perhaps one of the reasons why the aliens do not outwardly show themselves is that such a revelation would in itself be antithetical the aliens’ overall agenda and air of total sexual dominance. What if the aliens do not show themselves because it would reveal their own seeming fetish for human beings and human sexuality?

Considering all of the above, in a way, there is no comparison between consensual human BDSM and alien abduction. BDSM at its most thoughtful, conscious, and consensual is actually an entirely healthy human activity according to plenty of psychologists, sexologists, and practitioners. Alien abduction, however, is frequently (but not always) non-consensual, physically and psychologically invasive to the extreme, and sometimes leaves an aftermath of deep disturbance rather than a sense of relief or well-being that the kink community tends to enjoy. In these regards, they are fundamentally different.

Doms are always responsible for the well-being of their sub — that’s a given in the kink community. Alien abductees are only sometimes lucky enough to enjoy such compassion.

Eliott Edge is an author, artist, and international speaker. You can find him via OddEdges on Medium and YouTube.