Agents in Space: Alien Interfacings as Cognitive Companion Constructions

This paper explores the phenomenon of alien abductions and other sustained personal relationships with aliens—what I term “alien interfacings”—through the lens of Cognitive Companion Construction (CCC), an approach which seeks to understand the cognitive underpinnings allowing the human mind to construct and perceive an ostensibly external agent through internal mechanisms. Aliens are one such type of constructed companion. Through combined factors of expectation, cultural priors, and sensory deprivation through hypnosis or meditation, experiencers generate dense narratives of alien interfacings which often bear powerful transformative results in their lives. These narratives, and the alien interlocuters with whom experiencers build relationships, are created by a combination of cultural and cognitive mechanisms. This paper seeks to better understand the internal narration mechanism, the mental vocabulary upon which it draws, and what such a narrative says about the culture in which it is generated.