The Bones Beneath My Skin

The narrative of The Bones Beneath My Skin engages with stories of alien and UFO encounters, exploring the implications of what might happen if those stories were true. Although reports of UFOs and aliens often are seen as a modern phenomenon, people have written of encounters with mysterious flying crafts for hundreds of years. In the ancient world, mysterious lights in the sky were interpreted as evidence for the existence of the gods, though modern historians often interpret these phenomena as shooting stars or comets. In the 1800s, newspapers frequently reported sightings of massive airships, including lights and engines—often seen as precursors for contemporary UFO sightings.

The contemporary era of alien encounters began in 1947 with pilot Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of “flying saucers” near Mount Rainier, followed shortly by the infamous Roswell incident, in which the U.S. military initially reported recovering a “flying disc” before claiming that it was merely a weather balloon. These events occurred during the early Cold War period, when technological advancement and geopolitical tensions created fertile ground for both genuine mysteries and government secrecy. The 1950s and 1960s saw the emergence of “contactees” like George Adamski, who claimed to have had peaceful interactions with humanoid extraterrestrials bringing messages of cosmic harmony. Accounts like his contrasted with the more ominous abduction narrative pioneered by Betty and Barney Hill in 1961, whose claimed experience involved medical examination and missing time, establishing patterns that were later repeated in subsequent reports. Government involvement has remained contentious, with declassified programs like the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (2007–2012) suggesting that official interest in unexplained aerial phenomena continues despite the dismissal of the possibility by public officials.