Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

Most Americans believe aliens from another planet regularly visit Earth, according to public polls. In the same polls, a considerable percent of Americans also report episodes of missing time, awakening in a state of paralysis at night and flying through the air unassisted. From this, pollsters have concluded that 2 percent of Americans have been abducted by space aliens, some of them more than once. The only problem with all of this is that pollsters never asked anyone whether they were actually abducted.

Sagan recounts that as a young high school student, he was confronted with the flying saucer mythology, which by then was well developed. Although at first it seemed exciting, the mythology didn't hold up well to scientific investigation. As an example, Sagan says, no one could really explain why a race of such technologically advanced creatures would travel light...