Posthuman Blues

There's a stubborn myth that no qualified medical doctors think the "alien autopsy" is "real." This persistent notion is resoundingly false, as the following piece demonstrates.

Part of the reluctance of doctors and pathologists to go on record supporting a progeria/polydactyly origin for the AA stems from the ufological "giggle factor"; when shown the footage and told what they're seeing is an alien from another world, their resistance is understandable. But viewed in a human context, free of the baggage that accompanies tales of crashed flying saucers, the AA makes a great deal of sense.

Similarly, most of the resistance to Redfern's thesis -- that we're probably viewing the dissection of a human being killed by top-secret military experimentation -- appears to stem from the "gag factor"; none of us want to consider the implications that accompany such a morbid scenario.

Nevertheless, I'm convinced we must follow the evidence and ditch the "will to believe" -- or, in the enduring case of the "alien" autopsy -- the will to disbelieve.

Note: I've emphasized key portions of the text in boldface.

GERMAN PROFESSOR CLAIMS TO IDENTIFY SANTILLI ALIEN

"These shocking scenes are in a black and white film that caused a sensation when shown last summer. The fuzzy pictures allegedly show how U.S. military surgeons dissected an unworldly being from a crashed UFO. Circulation of the obscure work was by a British filmmaker. Many TV networks bought the alien autopsy from him; in Germany sequences were run on RTL. The belief in the UFO community was enthusiastic.

"But the U.S. government had recently shown it was no UFO in 1947, but rather a spy balloon that had crashed. Therefore skeptics quickly guessed that the film was a forgery. So their opinion was that the alleged extraterrestrial was a rubber dummy. However, the truth is much more macabre. The person lying on the pathologist's dissection table doctors have now proven to be a genetically deformed girl.

"'About 13 years old, she had unmistakable Progeria -- everything fits together,' said the dermatologist Thomas Jansen from the Ludwig-Maximilians University. People sick with Progeria age with remarkable swiftness. Even as children they look old. They suffer dwarfism, hair and teeth that fall out, and clogged arteries. Most of them die before puberty from heart attacks or strokes.

[. . .]

"In the entire world, there are only a handful of medical people who specialize in this mysterious hereditary disease. Most doctors aren't even familiar with the exact symptoms. Still, when Jansen saw the alien film on television, the diagnosis was clear for him. 'A textbook case,' so the dermatologist pointed out 'all the typical identifying characteristics of the illness progeria' seen in the autopsied corpse.

[. . .]

"With the 'old children,' the subdermal fatty tissue shrinks. Their skin is tight and stretched like plastic wrap. In this way, progeria makes it appear that the navel is missing. 'It's like an umbrella,' declared Jansen, 'when I open it, all the folds disappear.'

"Also, it's not unusual that the dead girl has six toes and fingers. Polydactyly [extra digits], said the dermatologist, is often seen accompanying rare deformities.

"Jansen considers his circumstantial evidence to be 'one hundred percent watertight.' Professors around the Ludwig-Maximilians University agree with this judgment, the findings being published in the Munich Weekly Medical Journal."

I might add to this rather damning account that it conflicts with my original interpretation of the film. Like some others, I thought there was a small but significant chance the being in the footage was a nonhuman entity (although not necessarily an extraterrestrial).

No longer.