Posthuman Blues

Real events, as opposed to confabulated or hynotically synthesized events, leave an unmistakable sensory signature in the brain that can be detected using PET scan technology. When events are "relived" verbally, brain centers responsible for processing input at the time of the event become active. This can't be faked as far as neuroscientists can tell. Whitley Strieber and others have suggested using this technique to see if alleged alien abductees are telling objective truth and not merely recounting fantasies.

Potentially, a single abductee with appropriate neural feedback could prove that close encounters are real. But would aliens intent on spreading confusion have an answer to PET scan reality-testing and operate on a mental or dream level, bypassing the brain's sensory input indicators?

We know little about consciousness and telepathy, let alone technologies that might exploit latent psi ability. Maybe visiting aliens have anticipated our high-tech efforts to separate truth from fiction. Maybe when they reportedly stick clinical-looking objects up people's sinuses and eye cavities they're shunting evidence of their intervention into the regions of the brain that govern imagination, like fastidious burglars making sure there's no evidence that could lead to their apprehension.

Your mind is a battleground. And I'm not talking about aliens.