Experiencers
- Brigid McCormack
- Nov 26, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Nov 30, 2023
A photo series exploring alien belief and personal narrative in shared space
People who strongly believe in aliens are misunderstood.
Across the globe exist people from varying backgrounds, races, and socio-locations who claim contact or connection with alien life. Too varied to categorically reduce alien believers to one type of person, I refer to them collectively as ‘Experiencers’.
Some claim they’ve been abducted by aliens while others might pen detailed accounts of ancient aliens of Mesopotamia or reveal the secrets hidden in the human pineal gland. Some even build a career in Ufology or alien hypnotherapy based on their extra terrestrial belief. Regardless of their interests, encounters, or careers, all who believe in a narrative of alien life alter their own identity and their interaction with other dominant narratives, changing the way they experience themselves and the world around them.
Belief in aliens exists outside of socially mainstream beliefs, setting the Experiencer apart from the crowd. Despite alien belief not being mainstream, there is an underlying craving for community, identity, and responsibility that exists in each Experiencer.
Encounters
A few years ago, I began conducting research into alien belief. A research assistant at the time, I was tasked to search for colonial undertones in the language used by those who believe in aliens. Coloniality in dialogue about aliens proved to be abundant; a fear and curiosity of extra terrestrial existence permeated many Facebook pages, YouTube videos, blogs, and Reddit threads that accounted for abductions and theories of alien life. “[...] This is free will, we’re on a mission from God”, says one ‘Experiencer’. Yet these stories, while laced with coloniality, are also used by the tellers as cultural tools to craft and preserve their own personal identity.
The more stories I collected, the more it was evident that stories about alien encounters were used to narratively substitute one dominant worldview with an alternative worldview. Some Experiencers exist on the fringe of typical social mores. The status of 'Experiencer' is then useful to access responsibility and belief systems alternative to existing religions, institutions, and behaviours.
“I’m sure I appear rational and lucid to other people, but if I talk about this then ‘wait a minute, he’s gotta be crazy.” says another Experiencer. Many choose to be peripheral, avoiding societal rejection by choosing to set themselves apart. “Sometimes” one interviewee stated, “I wish I would just forget about everything and wake up one day and have a normal life, but then I’m like, this is normal life for me, I don’t know anything else”.
Experiencers, whether aware of it or not, are strategically using stories about aliens to position themselves in a narrative that grants them as holders of truth and power. The more they share and perpetuate their personal encounters with aliens the more they are shaping their own personal myth.
. . .
All Experiencers simultaneously hold both the sacred and profane in their belief. Crying out for identity, community, and authority, they tell their stories.
Some Experiencers wear their alien narrative like a badge of honor, such as jazz musician Sun Ra, who harnessed his alien belief to probe into experiential forms of music. Some Experiencers wept in front of the camera when recalling the horrifying assault they experienced during an abduction. Calvin Parker, a man who claims to have been abducted in the 1970s, continued to tell his story to various news outlets until his recent death. Parker and others made it their mission to be believed and heard. He says in an interview, “I’m just huntin’ answers, for myself. And wherever we’ll ever find them or not, I don't know but I’ll go on my deathbed hunting them.”
Envisioning Belief
Recently returning to this research, I wanted to physically express how beliefs can overtake and alter our everyday surroundings. I found this challenging; how does one express intangible experiences that exist in different temporal, spatial, cultural, and social contexts visually?
With the use of photography and AI-generated art, I attempted to expand my previous research into the realm of art and create a narrative of shared space and experience.
I took strong inspiration from Glaswegian illustrator and social researcher Mitch Miller. In his work, Miller uses cartography, ethnography, cartoons, and architecture to inform his dialectograms as he captures the liminality and vibrations of changing space. With Miller’s work in mind, I moved forward with my search for a visual representation.
The result produced is a series of ten photos that intend to express the dissonance when belief systems are met with our physical and social contexts. Using DALL-E, an AI tool that generated images from text prompts, I input direct quotes from Experiencers that I had collected over the years.
I then overlaid these images with photos of my own surroundings in Edinburgh, Scotland. As a researcher, I cannot deny how this research has impacted my own life. Despite my lack of belief in aliens, my knowledge of Experiencers and their stories about alien encounters has altered the way I view shared space.
While this series of images is directly representative of those who believe in aliens, it connects to the larger idea of identity and community in many different contexts. Existing in a shared space, each person views their surroundings based on their chosen belief systems. Religion, politics, family, and other pillars of human existence alter our perception of spaces.
Shared Space
Throughout my research, I was never concerned with debunking or proving alien stories. In fact, I am not personally interested in whether aliens exist. Instead, I put all my focus into the narratives spun by Experiencers and the worldview, perceptions, ideas, and rituals they adapted to shape their identity.
However, the more I researched, the more I felt the need to defend my work and my own identity. I’d mention my research to others with a disclaimer: “I’m studying this but, don’t worry, I don’t believe in this stuff.” Now, I am beginning to critically reflect on my role as a researcher and participant in alien narratives. By studying narratives, regardless of if I choose to see it as rational or irrational, I am intertwining these narratives into my own identity and worldview. My own personal mythos is altered not only by my own beliefs but also the ones I encounter. Through my research, my own narrative identity and cultural tools, which I use to navigate shared space, are altered by the narratives of Experiencers.
Footnotes
1. “Alien Abductees Find Solace in Support Group: “You’re Not Alone.”” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpZDf78dJZU&list=PLQZRRUPppbmCsXNX-YooRlKPovUmxwG-G&index=14. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023. (00:27-00:28)
2. “Alien Abductees Find Solace in Support Group: “You’re Not Alone.”” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpZDf78dJZU&list=PLQZRRUPppbmCsXNX-YooRlKPovUmxwG-G&index=14. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023. (6:03 - 6:13)
3. “Abducted by Aliens.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPsq1OA6NwM&list=PLQZRRUPppbmCsXNX-YooRlKPovUmxwG-G&index=40. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023. (9:00 9:08)
4. “Abducted by Aliens.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPsq1OA6NwM&list=PLQZRRUPppbmCsXNX-YooRlKPovUmxwG-G&index=40. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023. (6:51)
5. Miller, Mitch. Dialectograms: From the Ground Up, www.dialectograms.com/. Accessed November 12th, 2022.
Sources
“Alien Abductees Find Solace in Support Group: 'You're Not Alone'.” YouTube, uploaded by Inside Edition, 27 October 2018,
“The Alien Abduction: Pascagoula man says he had an encounter with aliens.” YouTube, uploaded by Fox10 News, 15 January, 2018
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zTUspQlS8E&list=PLQZRRUPppbmCsXNX-YooRlKPovUmxwG-G&index=43
“Abduction Therapy.” YouTube, uploaded by Vice, 5 December, 2018
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ed8ALToWeg&list=TLPQMDMwMjIwMjFB7Svu8TMF1A&index=4
Director and producer unknown, “UFO - Alien Obsession” Youtube, uploaded by UfoandAlienChannel, February, 2018
UFO Casebook. “B J’s Interview with Becky Andreasson.” UfoCaseBook, June 24th, 2021.
https://www.ufocasebook.com/interviewbeckyandreasson.html. Accessed
All Photo Credit belongs to Brigid McCormack who took and created these images
Find more of Brigid's work on her website: https://sites.google.com/view/brigidmccormack/home?authuser=0
Comments