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40 own terms and phrases. The nickname above is one such example, as is the name “Tan” which she uses for a particular group of entities. Describing these same entities, other abductees have used any number of different names because no one name has yet been established as the proper one. Anita has recalled several encounters with the Tan group in the past few years. She said that they are very similar in appearance to the creature in the drawing on Whitley Strieber’s COMMUNION, which, according to other abductees, is more like what they would call a Gray. But Anita clearly distinguishes between the gray creature that was leading her down the corridor in one encounter, and the Tans, with whom she is more familiar. “When | first saw their picture on the book cover/’ she said, “I immediately thought, Hello, little friend. | know that for some reason | feel protective of them.” Her relationship with the Tans, unlike her one impersonal encounter with the Gray, involves a different degree of intimacy, apparently as part of their deliberate programming of the abductee. “| have never sensed the dislike that | did with the Gray,” Anita reported. “[The Tans] seem to be very concerned with making us feel love for them.” But Anita has proven to be quite aware of this psychological manipulation on the aliens’ part and has thus been able to see through some of their intentions or motivations. “| recall one [Tan] looking into my eyes,” she described from an encounter, “and making me feel extreme love from him. | put my hands on his face and said, Too bad it isn’t real, meaning the feeling of love that he was projecting into my soul.” Indeed, in spite of the aliens’ intentions to convey such a caring relationship, Anita has continued to suffer much of the same anxiety that other abductees report. “When | said | felt protective towards the little critters,” she cautioned, “please believe that it is [a feeling] induced by them. The rest of the time, all | feel is apprehension during the day and dread of going to bed at night.” This anxiety very often causes disruptions of the abductee’s sleep patterns, usually occurring nightly at approximately the same time, as happens with Anita. “| do still get scared sometimes,” she confessed, “and | still wake up at 3:00 to 3:34 a.m. and huddle under the covers frightened and lie there with my eyes glued to the bedroom door.” This stress response, according to mental health professionals who have studies such situations, shows up in cases where an actual traumatic event has occurred. It may be that abductees continue to wake up at a certain time each night because a traumatic event had occurred previously at that time, as if a preventative warning, a wake-up-and- protect-yourself alarm, is sounding subconsciously. The ongoing feelings of fear and intrusion are fostered not only by the consciously recalled encounters but also by situations in which external evidence points to unremembered events. For instance, without any conscious memories of a disturbance or problem associated with the area, Anita has a phobia about driving alone along a certain stretch of US Highway 287. There is, however, a possible connection with her alien involvement. “This [stretch of highway] is where my older brother called us to look out the window one night,” she said, “to see a UFO going over at treetop level.” And although she remembered nothing further about that night, her phobia about the area is suspicious. So are the various marks and injuries she has discovered on her body. “Lots of mornings,” Anita said, “I have gotten up feeling like someone beat me up in my sleep.” This is another common abductee report, waking up with sore, damaged-feeling muscles and joints. “| have waked up with bruises on my arms, shoulders, and legs,” she continued, “with no idea where they came from. | have found scratches that | could not