UFO fans recognize abduction claims on Extraterrestrial Abduction Day: Winnipeg UFOlogist
Sam Thompson, Global News | March 20, 2020 4:11 pm


- Chris Rutkowski, Canada's foremost UFO expert. John Woods / The Canadian Press / File
Although the world is in a serious health crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic, March 20, for some people, commemorates another type of crisis entirely — although it’s one more frequently seen in science fiction.

Extraterrestrial Abduction Day is an annual focus on those who claim to have had personal encounters with visitors from outer space. And while it’s easy to pass it off as comic book fantasy, a local UFO expert says these incidents have profound impacts on the claimants — whether they’re true or not.
“We do get those reports from time to time that people have said they’ve been contacted directly by aliens,” science writer and ‘weirdologist’ Chris Rutkowski told 680 CJOB.

“Some feel that they have been selected by creatures beyond this Earth to give us a message, or the aliens want to help humankind… and I have to say, if they really want to do that, this would be a time to give us a hand.”

Rutkowski, who has written a number of books on the topic, said many of the people who claim to have been abducted are so adamant that it happened that it’s something that warrants research.

“It’s an interesting phenomenon. Maybe it’s something as simple as misidentification of something else in their lives, but it’s a very profound experience, and the numbers of people having such experiences are very significant,” he said.

“It’s the type of thing where it’s good to have fun with it, but remember at the back of it, there’s some seriousness in the sense that people really do experience these things and it’s rife for being studied by science.”