Some say alien abductions are nothing more than fevered, unexplained night visions that make their victims believe they were the guinea pig of an interstellar joyride.

Others believe the stories as cold hard fact, that aliens are using humans to unlock all of the mysteries of the universe, which may or may not have something to do with an ultrasound probe in an uncomfortable place.

Either way, it seems that this strange phenomenon is forever ingrained in our culture. Some of the most infamous cases of UFO abductions have spawned books, films and even serious historical recognition. So since today is “Alien Abduction Day,” we look back at some of those cases that made us scratch our heads as we looked up at the stars.

1. The Antonio Villas Boas Abduction

One of the earliest studied cases happened in Brazil when a farmer in the 1950s claimed a spacecraft emitting a very bright light landed on his family’s farm. He continued to see the strange object until one night, when it took him and left some disturbing evidence of alien experimentation. The farmer claimed the alien beings brought him on their ship to impregnate a rather fetching-looking female and described everything from the ship to his “suitor” in great detail.

When he returned, he claimed the incident produced symptoms such as nausea, loss of appetite, headaches and even bruising. Investigators have differed on their conclusions, but the differing outcomes only gave it more credibility and notoriety among believers and skeptics alike, especially the believers who are praying for an interstellar hook-up of their own.

2. The Barney and Betty Hill Abduction

There may have been cases of alien abductions since the dawn of time (or at least since psychiatric medications became more readily available and potent), but the most famous and first well-documented case goes to this couple of Portsmouth, NH. They claimed in September of 1961 that as they were driving home from Montreal, Canada, a bright light jutted out of the nighttime sky on a dark road. As the light approached them, they could see “bipedal humanoid creatures” looking out of the window of the spacecraft. The couple had no memory of the next two hours, but claim they were returned to their car where damages to their clothes and shoes left “evidence” of their spacey encounter.

The incident made the two famous overnight and turned Betty into the nation’s first “UFO Hunter.” The state of New Hampshire also recognized the legend with an official historical marker on the 50th anniversary of the “abduction.”

3. The Betty Andreasson Luca Abduction

Alien abduction claims exploded after the Hills’ experience, but the vast majority were easily explained away. However, just a few years later, a woman in Ashburnham, MA, stepped forward to claim she had been taken up by interstellar beings as well. Her case was closely examined by Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) founder and investigator Ray Fowler who had Andreasson undergo hypnosis to verify her claims. She gave chilling details about how the beings were able to immobilize her entire family in order to take her and implant a foreign object in her skull. She said they could talk to her “but not with their mouths.”

The woman even described moments of serene peacefulness, and said the aliens told her the experiments they were conducting were to “prepare for some kind of planetary revelation.” Fowler spent almost a decade examining the case and concluded she was “either the most accomplished liar and actress the world had ever seen, or else she had really gone through this ordeal.”

4. The Allagash Waterway Abduction

http://youtu.be/oVrrzKccYFM

Most alien abductions stories, whether they remain credible or not, usually are missing an important element to tie it all together: witnesses. This famous case from 1976 involved four men who claimed to experience the same abduction, a secret they almost took to their graves.

The men were fishing in a canoe in northern Maine when they saw a gleaming UFO with an 80-foot diameter and changing red, yellow and green colors. According to the men, the UFO swooped down and beamed them up with their canoe in a blinding light. They came to several hours later not remembering anything after their abduction, but began to have frightening nightmares. They all underwent hypnosis and revealed their kidnappers were not from Earth. All of the men also took lie detector tests about their claims and passed.

5. The Travis Walton Abduction

The curious case of this northern Arizona logger isn’t just one of the most notorious alien abduction tales, it also became one of the most lucrative. Walton and his fellow loggers were driving home late from work one night down a dirt road when they noticed a strange glow just over the horizon of the trees. They approached the source of the light and discovered a large fluorescent object in the shape of a diamond beaming down a column of light.

Walton wanted to get a good look at it for himself and stepped into the light, thinking whatever was making it would just fly away. Instead, the light grew stronger, picked up Walton about three feet off the ground and threw him down knocking him unconscious. His friends sped away in fear for their lives but decided to go back and get him, only to find an empty clearing with no sign of their friend.

Police suspected foul play at first, but five days later, Walton turned up at a gas station in another town more than 30 miles away. He remembered the abduction and the interior of the craft before he blacked out and woke up in the gas station. Some claim the story was a fake, even suggesting Walton was intentionally given a hallucinogen but the story sparked a wildfire in the media, leading to a best selling book and movie, ‘Fire in the Sky.’

6. The Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Abduction

One of the stranger alien abduction cases came to light fairly recent and became famous because the person making the claim was a very high ranking official. This former longtime head of the Region of Kalmykia in Russia, noted for his love of chess and efforts to make his region a prime locale for championship tournaments, claimed on a talk show in 2010 that 13 years earlier, he had been abducted by space beings. He described the craft as a “semi-transparent half tube” occupied by “human-like creatures in yellow spacesuits.” Even stranger, he claims his meetings with the beings weren’t for scientific experiments, but more for a meeting of interstellar minds. To boot, he revealed that aliens are responsible for bring chess to Earth.

The official’s words and claims prompted an investigation into his time as the region’s president to make sure his decisions as a leader weren’t affected by his “interactions” with the aliens. Good luck calling them to testify as character witnesses. Still, we’ve always thought serious chess players seemed a bit off.