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From: Greg Sandow <GSANDOW@prodigy.net>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 00:02:27 -0500
Fwd Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 10:42:46 -0500
Subject: Re: 'Fake' and 'Self-Proclaimed'

Jorgen clarifies a point that, as he points out, I didn't quite
understand. (Again, apologies to all, I'm catching up with some old
mail.)

I had wondered what would happen if we showed a group of experiencers
various depictions of the standard gray alien. Would a majority pick one
as closest to what they say they've seen?

So Jorgen wrote:


> > > Alright if it was a single alien-person, but to me it sounds like
> > > showing a picture of a black man to a race of whites and they will go
> > > "Yeah! He's black alright!".
>
> > > I don't mean to offend you, but you're not talking about a person -
> > > you're talking about a whole supposed alien race here, right?
>

And later, to make sure I understood, he restated this way:

> Does all aliens look exactly the same (no individuals)? The descriptions
> vary a lot from what I've read and heard.

Hmmmm. Don't know about aliens as individuals, but I wonder if it
matters. Chimps and gorillas vary as individuals, as do baboons and
orangutangs. But each species has common characteristics.

So if someone who didn't know simian species well said "I saw an ape,"
you could show pictures of chimps, etc., until our observer says "That
one!" Meaning not that exact baboon, but definitely a baboon, as opposed
to a gorilla or rhesus monkey.

Of course, we're not dealing with a known species here! So the
enterprise is obviously more speculative. Still, I'd offer this thought.
The artists' representations of "grays" do vary. Some have rounder
heads, some more elongated heads...I guess I could pull out various
pictures and describe the differences in great detail. The Strieber
alien was, to my eye, more fetus-like than other representations I've
seen, and also struck me as having a narrower chin.

The differences -- assuming now for a moment that these aliens are in
fact real -- strike me as being greater than variations from one
individual to another. It's as if many people had seen a chimp, in a
world where primates other than humans didn't exist. No photos of the
chimp exist, so artists attempt to draw the chimp from the descriptions
given by people who've seen it. Naturally, they don't quite get it
right. Which drawing comes closest? Maybe it's the one picked by various
chimp-spotters, when they're shown a group of possibilities, and asked
to pick one.

As for variations between white and black people...yep, we've got that
on earth, but maybe they don't on Zeta Reticuli. In any case, there are
places on earth where people look far more alike than they do in New
York (to pick the human habitation I know best). I spent two weeks in
Japan once, and was amazed by a fact that's obvious, but not striking
until you actually see it: Virtually all Japanese have the same color
hair. That's quite different from what we see in western countries.

Maybe the grays, if they exist, are like Japanese...their coloring
doesn't vary as much as ours does. Other features might vary less, too.
So your situation of the white people picking a black drawing might not
arise.

Greg Sandow