Psychosocial Hypothesis (the naturalistic synthesis).
competing-explanationframeworkAbduction Research
The mainstream scientific account of alien abduction: a real sleep-paralysis/hypnopompic episode, interpreted via fantasy-proneness + paranormal belief, elaborated by suggestive hypnosis into a narrative filled from the cultural abduction script.
Explains all the phenomenology (terror, PTSD-grade physiology, rich detail, sincerity, cross-cultural recurrence) WITHOUT literal aliens - and insists experiencers are sincere, normal, not mentally ill, not lying. That non-dismissiveness is what makes it a strong competing-explanation, not a brush-off. Template lineage: Hills -> Hopkins -> Strieber's Communion -> the Grey.