One of the rarest types of UFO encounter is an onboard experience or a face-to-face encounter with an actual extraterrestrial. In my twenty years of UFO investigations, I have uncovered only a handful of these types of very close encounters. Surprisingly, in the vast majority of these encounters, there is little or no conversation between the humans and the aliens.

In the cases where there is conversation, it is often one-sided and limited to the extraterrestrials giving platitudes to the frightened witnesses. It's the same phrase over and over again. I've heard it a thousand times. It's almost like a broken record. The first word out of the aliens' mouths (or minds) is invariably, "DO NOT BE AFRAID. WE WON'T HURT YOU."

While the aliens are usually very tight-lipped, occasionally they will engage people in brief conversations or relay brief messages.

CASE ONE: "You Won't Remember This."
My first case involving conversations between humans and ETs occurred to the Robinson family of Reseda, California. In 1989, the family experienced a series of sightings and abductions by gray-type aliens, culminating in what UFO investigators call "a baby presentation."

The main witness, Kelly Robinson, experienced four consecutive visitations over a period of a few months. During each encounter, she was able to converse with the aliens.

On the first encounter, Kelly awoke to find four gray-type ETs standing around her bed. One spoke telepathically, telling her."Do not be afraid. Come with us. You won't remember this."

Kelly, however, was a very feisty, independent twenty-year-old, and like twenty percent of abductees, she did remember. She recalled being taken into a small round room and placed on a table. They told her, "We're going to take your memory away. You'll not remember this...Don't be afraid. We're not going to hurt you. You can't remember this."

Kelly screamed at them, "Yes, I will!"

This argument went back and forth, with the aliens telling her she couldn't and wouldn't remember, and Kelly screaming back that she would.

They then cut her arm. She woke up the next morning and immediately looked at her arm. A neat two-inch scar was exactly where she remembered the aliens cutting her.

Two weeks later, the aliens returned, telling her, "We're going to take your memory."

Kelly screamed at them, "No, you're not. I'm going to tell."

They told her, "No, you're not....Your parents wouldn't understand. You better not tell them, you know."

Kelly screamed out that she would tell her father.

They said, "No, no, no! You can't."

A few weeks later, they came again. As usual, they attempted to erase her memory of the incident. They told her, "You're going to forget everything."

However, as usual, Kelly had some recall of the events. Says Kelly, "I don't know specifically what they asked me. They were asking me things about what we do, but you know, I can't specifically say. They [said,] 'this will happen and that will happen.' I think it's about my job or something."

Says Kelly, "It's hard for me to remember. They say, 'You're going to forget everything.'...It's totally stressed on, 'We're not going to let you remember this. We're going to take your memory of this away."

On her final encounter, the aliens appeared and said, "We need to talk to you. Come with us."

Kelly resisted and threatened to tell her father. They said, "No, you can't tell your dad."

Says Kelly, "I think they're religious. They're not really out to hurt us. They're out to learn. But they're afraid for us to remember because they're afraid we would tell people about them."

CASE TWO: "They Have Everything But Love."
Kelly Robinson's mother, Diane, had an experience that she calls a "dream," but is clearly connected to the UFO encounters of her family. Diane recalls being taken into a room where she was shown babies who were genetically altered. First revealed by researcher Budd Hopkins, these rare cases involve abductees who are told to hold and nurture babies that appear to be half-alien and half-human. In most cases, there is little information exchanged. Diane, however, was given a brief explanation.

She recalled being taken to a room where she saw a large contraption shaped like a Christmas tree, but instead of branches there were incubators filled with babies.

Diane was told to pick a baby and hold it. She refused because the babies appeared to be deformed. Says Diane, "Every one of them had something wrong with them. And she said it was sad, because it wasn't planned that way, that they had all these things wrong with them....She said they had everything but love. She said, "That's why I'd like you to take one and love it....They have problems. They are different. But they still need love."

Diane was unable to overcome her revulsion and refused to hold the babies. Following this experience, all the UFO encounters of the Robinson family ended.

CASE THREE: "There's Going to be a Rebellion."
During my research into the UFO wave over Topanga Canyon, California (see UFOs Over Topanga Canyon, Llewellyn, 1999), I uncovered several cases involving face-to-face extraterrestrial encounters. Again, in most cases, the aliens either didn't speak or said only, "Do not be afraid, we won't hurt you." However, in a few cases, messages were given. One case is that of the Martin family. It was Sarah Martin, the mother, who actually spoke with the extraterrestrials.

Sarah Martin's encounters occurred during the peak of the UFO wave and involved several close-up sightings and at least one onboard encounter. Sarah recalls being inside a small, circular room surrounded by small robed figures. Says Sarah, "To be honest with you, I can't remember their faces. I just remember talking to them...and they were talking to me. And this is what they said: 'Why are you so involved in this [Ross Perot] campaign? Why are you wasting your time? It's going to fall apart, one by one, and whoever wins, it doesn't matter because the whole system is going to come down around everybody. There's going to be a rebellion. And you're not a part of this, so don't get involved.'"

At the time, Sarah was heavily involved in the Ross Perot presidential campaign. After the experience, she dropped all her political activities. Says Sarah, "This was so incredible. In my mind, I keep going over again what they said: "You're not a part of this, so don't be a part of it. Get away from all of it.'...The other thing too is something about an earthquake, a big earthquake. Something like that...but the thing that stuck out the most was, 'Why are you so involved? Why are you letting this consume your time? It's not worth it, and it's all going to fall apart.'"

A few years later, the devastating Northridge earthquake struck, destroying several homes in Topanga Canyon.

CASE FOUR: "We Need Babies."
Interestingly, another Topanga witness received prophetic warnings of the Northridge earthquake the night before it occurred, thereby saving her from serious injury or even death. Marcellina X had had encounters all her life, but it wasn't until she moved into Topanga Canyon that she began to experience face-to-face visitations. Following the earthquake, she had an encounter with a gray-type extraterrestrial in her home.

During the encounter, the ET spoke to her telepathically. Says Marcellina, "It was telling me they were trying to invent ways of intercourse. They needed babies. It was just telling me a bunch of things telepathically. There would be more earthquakes. And then you know, we had all those earthquakes all over the world....I had changed my living room after the earthquake with a whole bunch of pictures I had painted of planets. And they told me that's not exactly the way it looked there...[they said] I would be able to heal myself and I would be able to heal them. If they wanted me to heal them, I would be able to heal them."

Following this experience, Marcellina experienced the missing-fetus syndrome. Well known among UFO investigators, this syndrome involves women who become pregnant following a UFO encounter and then mysteriously lose the fetus. Marcellina also experienced subsequent paranormal healing events.

CASE FIVE: "Our Emotions Are Different Than Yours."
Pat Brown is a physical therapist from Panorama City, California. She had never thought of UFOs until 1992, when a vacation to Arizona triggered a series of encounters with gray-type extraterrestrials. For a period of several months, Pat reported terrifying nightly visits by ETs in her condo. Then, one evening, she was taken on board.

To her surprise, she found the experience enjoyable. She was given a tour of the craft and taken to meet "the master." It was then that she was given several messages of a spiritual nature. Says Pat, "I don't know all that they said to me, but I remember them telling me there was something I had to do with my aura."

She was surprised to find that the appearance of the alien had changed to a human male with blond hair. She asked, "Why do you look like that?"

The ET replied, "Because this is the way you want me to look."

Pat was taken out of her body and was shown what her astral body looked like. The ET told her, "That is your soul. That is the part of you that goes through all the lifetimes."

Pat was given further spiritual lessons on vibrations and healing and was then returned to her bedroom.

She soon had further experiences, and suffered several medical effects as a result of her encounters. Her case is also supported by additional witnesses. Her obsession with the subject grew and Pat began a search for information and was led to a channeler, someone claiming to speak for the ETs.

Pat asked the channeler if people who are abducted make an agreement on some level. The channeler, speaking for the ETs, said that yes, abductees do, in fact, agree to be abducted.

Pat said, "Can you make them stop?"

The ETs replied, "No, you cannot make them stop, but if you become consciously aware, you will be handled in a different way...You need to understand why you have created this. We perceive we are supporting you in your drama. Why did you create this?"

Another audience member asked, "You come here and you get specimens. What do we get from you?"

"You get a jump start in your growth. That's what we give you."

Another member asked about emotions and the ETs replied, "Our emotions are different than yours, but we do have emotions because we accept it as important to us."

The conversation continued until Pat became angry and shouted at them that they shouldn't take her against her will.

The ETs replied, "The experiences you are receiving from this far outweigh the other things you are experiencing, and there's not one person in this room that would not trade places with you."

Pat continues to have experiences, both positive and negative. She is also continuing her quest to understand the reasons for her encounters.

CASE SIX: "We Are From a Place You Don't Know About Yet."
In 1995, a middle-age couple, William and Rose Shelhart, were driving outside Sedona, Arizona, late at night when they spotted a bright light in the sky following them. It soon became apparent that the light was playing a game of cat and mouse with them as it chased them down the road and eventually landed in a field next to them. That was the last thing they consciously remembered.

Their next memory was arriving at a hotel in Sedona, several hours too late. Realizing they had missing time, they later sought out a hypnotist and recalled an incredible onboard UFO experience. They recalled being taken on board the craft and examined by nearly human-looking, uniformed extraterrestrials. While William's recall was negligible, Rose was able to recall most of what happened, including an actual conversation that she had with the ETs.

According to Rose, they were "invited" onboard and treated with kindness and respect. Says Rose, "They [the extraterrestrials] were just saying that we are helping you. They told me [William] was in another room getting different messages."

Rose asked where they come from. The aliens gave a typically enigmatic and evasive answer, replying, "We are from a place you don't know about yet."

When asked about their purpose for coming here, their response was decidedly positive. Says Rose, "They said they are helping certain people here because they will help humanity. And something about like, the more we help, the more they help us. But they can't interfere and just take over and fix everything."

Rose was unable to obtain any further useful information. She and her husband continue to have sightings and encounters, and William reports that he was healed of carpel-tunnel syndrome as a result of his interaction with the Ets.

CASE SEVEN: "Don't Worry, We Won't Hurt You."
Jack Stevens (pseudonym), of Everett, Washington, was only twelve years old when he was abducted out of a car and into a large craft. Most of the event was shrouded in amnesia until 1997, when he spontaneously recalled what happened twenty-five years earlier. His memory revealed a harrowing six-hour-long abduction event.

Jack recalled being levitated inside a beam of light and laid out on a table surrounded by short figures. As he was being taken on board, the ETs told him, "Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you."

As they examined him, Jack reports that the aliens conversed among themselves. "I remember two of them going back and forth, and it was like a "good cop, bad cop" thing. One of them, for all he cared, just throw me off. That's what the impression was, just, "get him off here." And the other one was saying, "No, we are not going to do that."

"I remember them telling me to open my mouth."

Jack became nervous about his mother and brother, who were still back in the car. The beings responded, "Don't worry about it, we don't want them...Don't want them, don't need them....We don't care about them."

At one point, one of the beings attempted to relate a complex message. Says Jack, "He was telling me all kinds of stuff, but it wasn't sinking in. I didn't understand what he was telling me. There were math formula things and something about a lot of triangles and circles. There was a lot of geometry thrown at me. And I'm just sitting there thinking, this is pretty cool, but I kind of want to go home."

After several more procedures, the ordeal finally ended. As Jack was being placed back into his car, a final exchange ensued. Jack said, "You didn't do anything to my mom and brother, right?"

The beings responded, "Right, don't worry."

Jack's case involves considerable physical evidence and numerous other witnesses. The case is still ongoing.

CASE EIGHT: "We've been Here a Long, Long, Time."
A very unusual case of extraterrestrial contact occurred to a waitress named Maryann X, of Carpinteria, California. One evening in 1992, following a series of UFO sightings, Maryann was in her home watching TV when she became aware of a presence. Although she couldn't see anything, in her mind's eye she sensed a strange being. The figure was thin, bald, with a large head, gray skin and dark almond-shaped eyes. In other words, the typical gray-type alien.

At that point, Maryann began to experience the phenomenon of automatic writing. Messages that she believed were from the alien began to be transmitted through her.

Says Maryann, "He's very interested in our interest in him and his race. [He says] that they've been here for a long, long time, longer than we have from what I understand....They're vastly interested in us. They're almost more fascinated in us than we are in them. We don't think the same way they do. He said, 'We live in oceans.' They live in the ocean, underwater. Their ships are underwater. They're very benign. They have no nuclear warheads [or] this kind of stuff."

Like many contactees, Maryann was given information about upcoming natural disasters. "He was telling me something about earthquakes. He didn't predict anything else. He just said we're in for some big type of natural disaster. I get the impression, thinking back to what he talks to me about, is that they're almost here to warn us. Not of an impending doom type of thing, like the world's going to blow up, but they're not here to hurt. They're here to observe."

The alien told Maryann that their race is much more numerous than all of humanity. "Lot and lots and lots. This is not just five or ten or twenty ships roaming around. We're talking—from what I get from him—millions and millions of these people. And they've existed before we recorded time and history."

The alien told her that they were conducting a program to contact small groups of people across the planet. "That's the understanding I have. They have jobs like everybody has jobs down here. His job is to find people who are receptive enough that he can talk to. And he was really worried about whether or not I was really scared....I get the impression that I am not the only one he talks to. In fact, I think that it's like a job for them. That's kind of the impression I got, is they kind of probe different people. It's like his job is to find people who are receptive."

Marianne has made contact with the alien on several occasions, and has been given much more information.

CASE NINE: "It Is Very Important We Do This."
Melinda Leslie of Los Angeles, California, is an office manager and secretary who has been having ET contact her entire life. Even more amazing is that Melinda has been able to recall many of her experiences consciously, without the aid of hypnosis. She is what UFO researchers call a conscious abductee.

While she has had virtually the entire range of UFO experiences, one of her most dramatic occurred in July 1991 while driving with two friends through the Los Angeles forest. All three experienced a two-hour-long abduction into a metallic craft piloted by grey-type ETs.

Once on board, they were undressed, examined, separated, and given separate messages. Melinda Leslie was able to recall the entire event consciously. As she was laid out and examined, she hammered the aliens with questions, none of which they answered.

She saw her friend sitting in a chair with a bizarre-looking headset on him and she screamed out, "What are you doing to him?"

One of the aliens replied, "It's all right, we're giving him information. It's all right. We're educating him."

"Don't hurt him," Melinda said.

"We're not hurting him. He's all right. It's all right."

Melinda continued to let out a stream of questions, however, she was rarely answered, and then, only in an evasive manner. Says Melinda, "They don't give you straight answers. They say, 'It's okay. We need to do this. You understand.'"

At one point, the three friends were separated and placed into different rooms. Melinda found herself in a room with a dozen greys. One stepped up to her and said, "Now, we're going to do something. Don't be afraid, but this is very important that we do this. We're going to put this over your head."

What followed was a bizarre procedure. Melinda was immobilized by a device placed over her head. The aliens stood in a circle around Melinda and pushed her back and forth like a punching clown. Melinda felt she was going to fall, but each time she was caught and pushed again. Finally, she relaxed. At that point, they stopped and removed the device. One of the aliens said, "You needed to learn that....You needed to learn to trust us."

Meanwhile, Melinda's friend, James, was receiving a different message. Says Melinda, "James said when I was out of the room, they came over to him, and they showed him a device, a bunch of stuff. They told him how to make a UFO detector, and they gave him the information. He said, they said because they wanted him to document and videotape them. When sightings happen, they told him he has a mission to document this stuff."

According to James, "They showed me how to do this. And they explained the whole thing technically to me, and I was given the information how to build those. They were done and they made sure I understood. And I said, 'Yes, I understand.'"

Melinda's other friend was unable to recall much detail other than being taken onboard and examined. Melinda continues to have experiences and has lectured extensively about her encounters.

CONCLUSIONS
There are many other cases where aliens have conversed with human beings. However, the patterns are usually the same. For the most part, aliens are not only extremely taciturn; when they do speak they are often evasive. When abductee Travis Walton was taken onboard a UFO, he asked numerous questions of the aliens, none of which were answered. When abductee Betty Hill asked her abductors where they came from, they told her, "You wouldn't understand."

But as the above cases show, the aliens do sometimes reveal information about themselves, their feelings, their intentions, their desires, fears and beliefs. By piecing together these accounts, we are beginning to get a clearer picture of who the aliens are and what they are doing on this planet. The main message revealed by the aliens' conversations is that they have a strong interest in humanity. Whether they are removing genetic material, imparting spiritual knowledge, predicting natural disaster or studying our emotions, the aliens are obviously fascinated by humanity. The conclusion is clear. For whatever reason, they are deeply interested in us. And if the patterns reveal anything, the aliens will remain here for a long, long time.