Editing Grey alien (section)

==History==

===Origins===
In 1893, [[H. G. Wells]] presented a description of humanity's future appearance in the article ''The Man of the Year Million'', describing humans as having no mouths, noses, or hair, and with large heads. In 1895, Wells also depicted the [[Eloi]], a successor species to humanity, in similar terms in the novel ''[[The Time Machine]]''.<ref name="LevyMendlesohn2019" />

[[File:Supposed channeled entity by occultist crowley.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Crowley's drawing of "Lam", the entity that he believed he was in contact with]]

As early as 1917, the occultist [[Aleister Crowley]] described a meeting with a "preternatural entity" named Lam that was similar in appearance to a modern Grey. Crowley believed he had contacted the entity through a process that he called the "Amalantrah Workings," which he thought allowed humans to contact beings from outer space and across dimensions. Other occultists and ufologists, many of whom have retroactively linked Lam to later Grey encounters, have since described their own visitations from him, with one describing the being as a "cold, computer-like intelligence," and utterly beyond human comprehension.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/mvpvyn/magickal-stories-lam|title=Magickal Stories - Lam|author=Liz Armstrong|website=Vice|date=19 January 2012|accessdate=20 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220200811/https://www.vice.com/en/article/mvpvyn/magickal-stories-lam|archive-date=20 December 2021}}</ref>

{{quote box|text="...the creatures did not resemble any race of humans. They were short, shorter than the average Japanese, and their heads were big and bald, with strong, square foreheads, and very small noses and mouths, and weak chins. What was most extraordinary about them were the eyes — large, dark, gleaming, with a sharp gaze. They wore clothes made of soft grey fabric, and their limbs seemed to be similar to those of humans."|author=Gustav Sandgren|source=''The Unknown Danger'' (1933)|width=25%|align=right}}
In 1933, the [[Sweden|Swedish]] novelist [[Gustav Sandgren]], using the pen name Gabriel Linde, published a science fiction novel called ''Den okända faran'' (''The Unknown Danger''), in which he describes a race of extraterrestrials who wore clothes made of soft grey fabric and were short, with big bald heads, and large, dark, gleaming eyes. The novel, aimed at young readers, included illustrations of the imagined aliens. This description would become the template upon which the popular image of grey aliens is based.<ref name="LevyMendlesohn2019">{{cite book|first1=Michael M.|last1=Levy|first2=Farah|last2=Mendlesohn|title=Aliens in Popular Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lvaKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA135|date=22 March 2019|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-4408-3833-0|pages=135–137}}</ref>

===Barney and Betty Hill abduction===
The conception remained a niche one until 1965, when newspaper reports of the [[Betty and Barney Hill abduction]] made the archetype famous.<ref name="SaganDemon">{{cite book|first=Carl |last=Sagan |author-link=Carl Sagan |title=The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark |page=102 |publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1997 |isbn=0-345-40946-9 |quote=The Hill case was widely discussed. It was made into a 1975 TV movie that introduced the idea that short, gray, alien abductors are among us into the psyches of millions of people.}}</ref> The alleged abductees, Betty and Barney Hill, claimed that in 1961, humanoid alien beings with grayish skin had abducted them and taken them to a [[flying saucer]].<ref name="SaganDemon"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/81331739/ |title=The Unexplained (column) |last=Spraggett |first=Allen |date=January 10, 1972 |website=newspapers.com |publisher=York Daily Record |location=York, Pennsylvania |page=22 |access-date=April 24, 2021 |quote=Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have been taken aboard a flying saucer for two hours by 'humanoids' with grayish skin and wrap-around eyes, subjected to physical examinations, and then released unharmed with the suggestion that they would remember nothing of what had transpired. ... 'The humanoids were about five feet tall,' Betty Hill told me when I asked what they looked like. 'They had gray, metallic-looking skin. No noses, just nostrils. And their mouths were only slits. The eyes extended right around to the sides of their heads.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19025149/hill/ |title=Betty Hill Recounts 'The UFO Incident' |last=Chatenever |first=Rick |date=January 19, 1978 |website=newspapers.com |publisher=Santa Cruz Sentinel |location=Santa Cruz, California |page=14 |access-date=April 24, 2021 |quote=She describes the beings as 'about four and a half feet tall, humanlike in body appearance, with large eyes, small noses and no lips, ears or facial hair.' They had thin slits for mouths, she goes on, and their skin had a gray tone to it.}}</ref>

In his 1990 article "Entirely Unpredisposed", Martin Kottmeyer suggested that Barney's memories revealed under hypnosis might have been influenced by an episode of the science-fiction television show ''[[The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)|The Outer Limits]]'' titled "[[The Bellero Shield]]", which was broadcast 12 days before Barney's first hypnotic session. The episode featured an extraterrestrial with large eyes, who says, "In all the universes, in all the unities beyond the universes, all who have eyes have eyes that speak." The report from the regression featured a scenario that was in some respects similar to the television show. In part, Kottmeyer wrote:

{{blockquote|text=Wraparound eyes are an extreme rarity in science fiction films. I know of only one instance. They appeared on the alien of an episode of an old TV series ''The Outer Limits'' entitled "The Bellero Shield." A person familiar with Barney's sketch in "The Interrupted Journey" and the sketch done in collaboration with the artist David Baker will find a "frisson" of "[[déjà vu]]" creeping up his spine when seeing this episode. The resemblance is much abetted by an absence of ears, hair, and nose on both aliens. Could it be by chance? Consider this: Barney first described and drew the wraparound eyes during the hypnosis session dated 22 February 1964. "The Bellero Shield" was first broadcast on 10 February 1964. Only twelve days separate the two instances. If the identification is admitted, the commonness of wraparound eyes in the abduction literature falls to cultural forces.|author=Martin Kottmeyer|source=''Entirely Unpredisposed: The Cultural Background of UFO Reports''<ref name="Magonia">{{cite web |last1=Kottmeyer |first1=Martin |title=Entirely Unpredisposed: The Cultural Background of UFO Reports |url=http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.com/2013/11/entirely-unpredisposed-cultural.html |website=Magonia Magazine |date=January 1990 |access-date=5 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624135546/http://magoniamagazine.blogspot.com/2013/11/entirely-unpredisposed-cultural.html |archive-date=24 June 2021 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>}}

Carl Sagan  echoed Kottmeyer's suspicions in his 1997 book, ''The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'', where ''[[Invaders from Mars (1953 film)|Invaders from Mars]]'' was cited as another potential inspiration.<ref name="SaganDemon" />

===Diffusion into folklore===
After the Hills' encounter, Greys would go on to become an integral part of [[ufology]] and other extraterrestrial-related folklore. This is particularly true in the case of the United States: according to journalist [[C. D. B. Bryan]], 73% of all reported [[close encounter|alien encounters]] in the United States describe Grey aliens, a significantly higher proportion than other countries.<ref name = cdbb-ce4k-1995 />{{Rp|68}}

[[File:Communion book cover.jpg|upright|thumb|left|A Grey as popularized from the cover of [[Communion (book)|''Communion'']], by [[Whitley Strieber]]: The portrait was painted by Ted Seth Jacobs to Strieber's description and approval.]]
During the early 1980s, Greys were linked to the [[Roswell UFO incident|alleged crash-landing of a flying saucer]] in [[Roswell, New Mexico]], in 1947. A number of publications contained statements from individuals who claimed to have seen the U.S. military handling a number of unusually proportioned, bald, child-sized beings. These individuals claimed, during and after the incident, that the beings had oversized heads and slanted eyes, but scant other distinguishable facial features.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Berlitz| first = Charles| author2 = Moore, William| title = The Roswell Incident| date = 1980| edition = 1st| publisher = Grosset & Dunlap| isbn = 0-448-21199-8| url = https://archive.org/details/roswellincident00berl}}</ref>

In 1987, novelist [[Whitley Strieber]] published the book ''[[Communion (book)|Communion]]'', which, unlike his previous works, was categorized as non-fiction, and in which he describes a number of close encounters he alleges to have experienced with Greys and other extraterrestrial beings. The book became a ''[[New York Times]]'' bestseller,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/d/disch-dreams.html|title=The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World|author=Disch, Thomas M.|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=1998|access-date=July 27, 2022|archivedate=July 14, 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714231334/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/d/disch-dreams.html}}</ref> and [[New Line Cinema]] released a 1989 film adaption that starred [[Christopher Walken]] as Strieber.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-10-ca-984-story.html|title=MOVIE REVIEW : Walken Has Purported Close Encounter in 'Communion'|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Thomas, Kevin|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=November 10, 1989|access-date=July 27, 2022|archivedate=February 8, 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208072545/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-11-10-ca-984-story.html}}</ref>

In 1988, [[Christophe Dechavanne]] interviewed the [[French science fiction|French science-fiction]] writer and [[ufology|ufologist]] [[Henri René Guieu|Jimmy Guieu]] on [[TF1]]'s ''[[Ciel mon mardi|Ciel, mon mardi !]]''. Besides mentioning [[Majestic 12]], Guieu described the existence of what he called "the little greys", which later on became better known in French under the name: ''les Petits-Gris''.<ref name="Guieu">{{audio}} {{cite news |title= Les E.T. et les contactés |first= Jimmy |last=Guieu|author2=Dechavanne, Christophe |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI1ZcOvtJo0 |newspaper= Ciel mon mardi ! |publisher=[[TF1]] |location=Paris, France|date=1988|access-date=15 January 2013 |language=fr}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}} L'émission se déroule dans le contexte de l'époque, en 1998. Si, aujourd'hui, parler de conspirations et d'OVNI, du MJ-12, des "Petits-Gris" et de bases souterraines ou même d'incriminer la famille Bush semble (relativement) familier, l'enregistrement de cette séquence se déroule en 1988, soit bien avant Internet et même bien avant " X-Files ", l'affaire de la créature de Roswell, etc. Avec ces déclarations de Jimmy Guieu lors de la diffusion en direct de cette émission "Ciel, mon mardi!" par la chaîne de télévision TF1 avec Christophe Dechavanne comme animateur, c'était la toute première fois que le grand public français – voire européen – entendait parler de ce dossier. Jimmy Guieu emploie d'ailleurs le terme "Little Greys" pour désigner les "Petits-Gris" qui, par la suite, deviendront rapidement plus connus sous l'appellation de " Short Greys ".</ref> Guieu later wrote two [[docudrama]]s, using as a plot the Grey aliens / Majestic-12 conspiracy theory as described by [[John Lear]] and [[Milton William Cooper]]: the series "E.B.E." (for "Extraterrestrial Biological Entity"):  ''E.B.E.: Alerte rouge'' (first part) (1990) and ''E.B.E.: L'entité noire d'Andamooka'' (second part) (1991).{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Greys have since become the subject of many [[conspiracy theories]]. Many conspiracy theorists believe that Greys represent part of a government-led [[disinformation]] or [[plausible deniability]] campaign, or that they are a product of government [[Brainwashing|mind-control]] experiments.<ref name="Knight2003">{{cite book|author=Peter Knight|title=Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMIDrggs8TsC&pg=PA880|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-812-9|pages=880–}}</ref> During the 1990s, popular culture also began to increasingly link Greys to a number of [[military-industrial complex]] and [[New World Order (conspiracy theory)|New World Order]] conspiracy theories.<ref name=BiteTheDust>{{cite web|url=http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/vida_alien/esp_vida_alien_33.htm|title=Grey Aliens Bite The Dust|access-date=30 December 2016}}</ref>

In 1995, filmmaker [[Ray Santilli]] claimed to have obtained 22 reels of 16&nbsp;mm film that depicted the [[Alien Autopsy (1995 film)|autopsy of a "real" Grey]] supposedly recovered from the site of the 1947 incident in Roswell.<ref>{{cite journal| last = Wingfield| first = George| title = The 'Roswell' Film Footage | journal = Flying Saucer Review| volume = 20| issue = 2 |date=1995}}</ref><ref name=santilli1>{{IMDb title|qid=Q1934156|title=Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) }}</ref> In 2006, though, Santilli announced that the film was not original, but was instead a "reconstruction" created after the original film was found to have degraded. He maintained that a real Grey had been found and autopsied on camera in 1947, and that the footage released to the public contained a percentage of that original footage.<ref name ="Eamonn1">''Eamonn Investigates: Alien Autopsy'', [[British Sky Broadcasting]]. First shown on [[Sky One]], April 4, 2006.</ref>