Ever since the late 1950s, Americans have been influenced by a strange, dark phenomenon that eludes us to this day. Whether it is an extension of our fears of insecurity and invasion, or some strange state of awareness that bridges the dreamlike realms of space and parallel dimensions, many believe there are personages exerting their influence upon mankind who appear to have arrived here from the skies.

In spite of the associations we make with alien visitors descending upon us from above, the alien abduction phenomenon seems to have remained in the political and social underground of our culture. Even today, it remains a topic that is seldom afforded thoughtful, discerning interest and thorough study. Therefore, things we had begun to understand about alien abduction phenomena as early as the 1960s, looking back at reports like those of Betty and Barney Hill or Betty Andreason, we nonetheless find ourselves questioning more and more as time goes on.

By the same token, looking back over the early reports of alien abduction from time to time also allows us to glimpse elements of the phenomenon with a degree of clarity and un-obfuscated detail. Such is the case with Ann Druffel and D. Scott Rogo’s modern classic, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts, reprinted by Anomalist Books. Following Druffel and Rogo’s investigation into a series of peculiar incidents that occurred in and around the quiet Tujunga Canyon beginning in 1953 (predating Betty and Barney Hill’s famous abduction by nearly a decade), the reader is taken along on a wild, probing encounter with what is arguably one of the earliest reported abduction encounters with the “gray aliens” of popular lore.

Originally published in 1980, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts managed to land in the midst of one of the most pivotal times in modern Ufology. The book details encounters that date back more than a half a century, prior to popular reports of alien abduction and extraterrestrials that didn’t resemble the human-like “Space Brothers” of the silver Sci-Fi era. At the same time, we have the benefit of reading a book co-authored by two individuals already well-acquainted with the most striking abduction scenarios to have occurred in the last forty years. What this gives us is a carefully organized scenario involving the reoccurring abductions of five California women throughout various periods of their lives, by authors capable of reasoning with the given facts and information, and who all the while exhibit discrimination when the various accounts and other information seem to conflict.

One particularly fascinating aspect of the book involves the repeated comparisons that the abductees make to their experiences being nearly indistinguishable from dreams, as well as their similarities to spirit/psychic phenomenon. Common themes discussed throughout the book include sleep paralysis, hypnotism, out of body experiences, spirit manifestations, and remote viewing; during one hypnosis session with abductee Jan Whitley, Druffel even makes references to John Keel’s notions of tulpa phenomena and invisible energy forms capable of taking on shapes and representations best suited for successful “contact” with humans. Probing this notion further, it is interesting to point out that many of the contactees in this book don’t describe their encounters with alien beings as frightening; one individual described the fascination her alien visitor had shown toward her small sleeping son in what she perceived to be an “accidental encounter”. Similarly, the optimistic Sara Shaw expresses early in the book her interest in her captors, as well as her desire to tell her abductors all about a scar on her back which, according to her account, “fascinated them”.

Altogether, the surreal, lucid-dreamlike quality that these encounters bring to the study of alien abduction make for an intense, sometimes frightening read, but not at all in a conventional way. If anything, the precedent set by Druffel and Rogo in this modern classic among abduction reports makes other literature regarding the phenomenon pale in comparison. Even three decades after its publication, The Tujunga Canyon Contacts raises the bar as to where and how proper scientific study of alien abduction can—and no doubt should—continue, and it stands alone as one of the finest texts to ever delve into the subject at length.