People have been seeing weird things in the skies since we first started looking up.
We identified a lot of them, naming planets, stars, asteroids, and all sorts of other things which, if we were closer would kill us before we would even realize we were in danger.
The unknown continues to shrink and disappear in the light of science.
But in those dark corners, who knows what we might find. UFO enthusiasts and many a filmmaker who has talked with them have, over the last 30 years, solidified on an image for the extra-terrestrial being we now put in movies both horrific and uplifting: The Grey.
People report encounters with them and the movies go on to reinforce our image of them. These beings have their own agenda and their own ends, and rarely care for what humans consider.
It’s a complicated modern mythology.
Symbolism
With their erratic, inexplicable actions (seriously, just how much research can be gained from anal probes anyway?), bizarre behavior (travel millions of light years just to make doodles on old man McGrubber’s crops?) and a physical cast system of sorts (short ones subservient to taller ones), the symbolism of the Greys is hard to pin down. That is, until an older analogue is unearthed.
They are modern fairies.
This rarely heard connection has been made by occultists and a self-proclaimed sorcerer for a few years now, but it hasn’t really gotten the pop culture exposure of the others.
Still, the parallels are there: the short ones being akin to lesser, servitor fairy races, and the large ones being akin to larger, ‘trooping’ fairies. Their bizarre actions fit in perfectly with fairy beings—who never act logically, operating on an entirely dreamlike level. Their more malicious actions can be compared to that of the Wild Hunt, faerie beasts and horrors who would hunt down unwary humans: cursing, blessing, offering the peace of dreams or nightmares.
And the come from a place far away from the everyday: the fairies of old come from magical lands, while the Greys of today come from the depths of space (or the center of the earth, or other dimensions—but you rarely hear about those in pop culture).
The Greys are simply a modern iteration of these creatures of legend.
They also share an affinity with H. G. Wells Martians.
Universally, these creatures are described as having large heads and frail, waif-like bodies. At this moment, you’re probably thinking “Hold on! Well’s Martians were big octopus-like things.” Exactly, they were almost all head and very little body.
The Greys are in a similar section. Their bodies have atrophied from lack of use, while their brain (where the majority of energy/use is occurring) has grown far larger.
Makes sense, but it presents a problem for their biology. A problem also found in humans.
Biology
Here’s where things get weird, because all sorts of theories regarding these creatures have been put forward. That they evolved from cetacean-like ancestors and have ultrasonic communicative ‘telepathy’, etc.
Really, biologically, there’s only two major points I’d like to make before going someplace else with this segment.
One point is birth.
Humans have a tough time with birth.
Our heads are so big that it makes birthing extremely difficult for our species. And the young are born with soft heads and un-fused skull bones partly to let them be born at all. In any Grey as described, their biology would exacerbate these problems to the point where live birth might very well be impossible outside cesarean births.
Though, with the level of technology needed to pass interstellar distances (or dimensions, depends on the UFO enthusiast you talk to), being able to genetically engineer offspring would be a simple matter.
The other point is eyes.
Most early Grey images gave these aliens absolutely huge eyes.
Eyes so huge that any propose skull would be unable to support much else.
Later depictions, and those of Hollywood, gave them smaller eyes, but there could be away around this. It requires not taking a witness at face value (a faux pas among believers).
These “Eyes” may be like the killer whale’s post eye spots—the large white patches behind their true eyes.
Kids and cartoons see them as the eyes, but in truth, a killer whale’s eye is in the black area of their body and is a lot smaller (and also black—making it easy to miss). These large black eyes the witnesses report may indeed just be color spots.
For what purpose? I couldn’t say.
With tech that advanced, it might be their version of a barcode or brand for servants or even a fashion statement.
But the real biology of the Greys is found inside the human mind in a condition known as Sleep Paralysis.
I mentioned this previously when discussing Nosferatu, but we’ll go into a little more detail here. The short of this phenomenon is a partially awakened, but still sleeping state.
The mind is partially aware of its surroundings, but the body cannot move as the chemical inhibitors that prevent the body from reacting to dreams are still in full effect.
The opposite off this condition is; of course, sleep walking—where those inhibitors are not working. In this state, the mind tends to go wild.
Often leading to exceedingly vivid nightmares.
In older cultures, these were seen as attacks done by supernatural creatures—vampires, hags, and, of course, fairies. Even the word “Nightmare” can trace its roots to this phenomenon, “Mare” being the name off an old English demonic creature, making a “Nightmare” a Mare attacking at Night. One of the common elements of these attacks, and of many abduction reports of the Greys, has the creature sitting on the victim’s chest and getting uncomfortably close.
Being held still for long periods of time is a form of torture in and of itself, but the victim’s mind goes even further and pictures the assailant doing worse to them as well: hypnotizing them for violation, draining them of life or breath, etc.
In short, a perfect nightmare.
