When I was 13 years old, I remember going to see a movie. I can’t remember which, but I recall getting a trailer for a film called “The Fourth Kind,” starring Mila Jovovich (who was in those really schlocky Resident Evil movies). She played a psychologist named “Abigal Tyler,” whose patients all claim to see an owl—which I used as the header image for a write-up last year. This, of course, turns out to be incorrect; the “owl” is an extraterrestrial that abducts them.
While I can’t remember what movie I saw the trailer in front of, I recall it scaring me. Yet, I don’t know what caused me to be afraid. I think it was the eerie shot of the owl getting closer to the camera and slowly turning into a Grey alien. Either way, it ended up being seared into my mind. Thanks, Universal Pictures!
Anyway, I didn’t watch the film until 2018—nine years after it was released. As it turns out, film critics aren’t always wrong; sometimes, they hit the nail on the head. The movie wasn’t very good. It was boring, uninteresting, and wasn’t scary.
The movie also had a lot of editing choices that actively made watching the thing awkward, such as one instance where there are four separate shots going on at once: two reenactments and two “archived recordings.” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go watch an episode of the show “24” and wait for an interlude where the clock is ticking and four scenes of different characters play out on the screen. The movie does that, and it’s horrifically executed.
Anyway, why did I bring this up today? Well, it’s because I’ve never been a believer in alien abductions—I said as much five days ago, and I’ve stated the same thing prior to that. Despite that belief, I find them to be one of the most interesting bits of UFO lore out there. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to watch The Fourth Kind in the first place. It’s also why I ended up watching “Dark Skies,” which you should watch if you want to watch a movie about alien abduction that doesn’t suck. Seriously, I was surprised since I thought the trailer was terrible.
I digress, though. As I was putting Decemystery 2024 back together, it occurred to me that I hadn’t covered a story about alien abduction since 2019—back when I covered the story of Alan Godfrey, a British police officer who claimed he was abducted by aliens. It’s a pretty baffling case that, to this day, I can’t make heads or tales of, and I need to rewrite it.
With the knowledge that I haven’t covered anything related to an alien abduction in half a decade on my mind, I decided that I’d make amends for that by covering not one but two stories related to it. Today’s the first one, and it’s a story dedicated to a Dutch friend of mine. If she happens to dislike this story, I’ll be almost as disappointed as I was when watching The Fourth Kind.
That said, I think it’s about high time we take a trip back to Europe to explore the realm of UFOs and aliens once more. Come along, dear reader; it’s time to examine the tale of The 2023 Beverwijk Alien Abduction.
They Will Always Find You
I found this story while looking through reports submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). The more I feel the need to specify that, the more I’m tempted to create a Google document for things I frequently say so I can copy and paste it.
This story occurred in Beverwijk, Netherlands, in the municipality of North Holland. Sporting an estimated population of 42,866 (per City Population), Beverwijk is a location with a name that turned my tongue into a pretzel. It’s also where today’s eyewitness lived—a fellow who I’ll refer to as Bram. What can I say? I’ve got Dracula on my mind.
Although Bram’s report was submitted on April 27, 2024, his experience took place five months earlier, on November 12, 2023, at “12:00 local.” This is bizarre because Bram claimed that his experience happened late at night. As most of you know, the Netherlands (like the rest of Europe) uses a 24-hour time system and not a 12-hour one.
And no, I don’t think this was possibly an American living abroad like in the case of The UFOs High Above Artjärvi! because Bram later uses the metric system. His English also leaves a lot to be desired. I’ll get back to both of these aspects in the theories, though, so keep it in mind.
Getting back on track, Bram was inside his apartment late one night when “everything fell silent.” I’m going to say upfront that I have no idea if people in the Netherlands say “apartment” or “flat,” so someone’s going to have to educate me here. Regardless, the sudden silence caused Bram to be filled with a “strange feeling” that I’d say was sensory deprivation. This isn’t me making a joke; I’d genuinely guess that was what he felt. Trust me, it’s not a fun feeling.
Perturbed by the strange sensation, Bram decided to take a look outside. He doesn’t specify why he opted to do this, but it might’ve had to do with the “glowing red orb” that crashed outside of his apartment. While I may have sounded sarcastic there, I genuinely don’t know if this is the reason Bram opted to look outside; he doesn’t specify what drew his attention to the outside world.
Anyway, this orb was described as being around 19.6 inches (or about 50 centimeters), which is about as large as a yoga ball. In Bram’s own words, it was “like a ball.” This contradicts the shape he picked from the report form, where he chose “Cylinder,” which is nothing like a ball. That’s closer to a can of soda. And for anyone wondering, I checked the report form: you can choose “orb” and “sphere” as shape options. I don’t know if something got lost in translation here, but this is a weird discrepancy on Bram’s part.
Aside from the inconsistency with the shape, Bram also noted that there were lights on the orb (I don’t know if this attributed to the glow or not), an “aura or haze” around it, leaving a trail (of what, I don’t know; I’ll address this in the theories later), that there were “electrical or magnetic effects,” and that he found marks on his body afterward. That last thing I’ll get to in a bit. For now, there’s one other thing that I’d like to discuss, which is the speed at which this orb moved.
According to Bram, the orb moved anywhere from 6,213 miles per hour (10,000 kilometers per hour for my metric readers) to the speed of light!
Okay, I have to hit the pause button here because this is impossible. Not improbable, impossible.
First of all, you can’t see the speed of light. It’s way too fast. You can see the light, but that’s because your eyes can perceive light. Why? Because it’s light. Without light, you wouldn’t be able to see. Likewise, you can’t see light travel. It travels at a speed of 671 million miles per hour (that’s a little over 1 billion kilometers per hour).
In simpler terms, it’s fast.
Likewise, I doubt Bram could see this thing travel—assuming he wasn’t haphazardly guessing its speed in a hyperbolic manner. If he was, I understand. Speed can be a pain to measure, especially if you’re like me and can’t do it to save your life.
Even then, though, you can’t see anything traveling at the significantly slower speed of 6,213 miles per hour. That’s also impossible—and it’s also much faster than the necessary speed to break the sound barrier (770 miles per hour—or 1,239 kilometers per hour). If this thing came in for a crash landing, it should’ve created a sonic boom and left a sizable crater in the ground.
Also, to immediately nix a possible theory: there’s no way this was a meteor or asteroid. Those move at least twice as fast as this thing. So, no, this wasn’t a space rock. Even if it was, something that small (which Earth is hit by each and every day) would’ve burnt up in our atmosphere due to friction.
The second thing—and the much bigger of the two issues—is that if this thing was moving at the speed of light, Bram wouldn’t have submitted his report because we would ALL BE DEAD!
If Bram wasn’t being hyperbolic, then, by God, let me explain something. If an object—even a tiny one—hit Earth at the speed of light, it’d leave a crater the size of Eurasia. For those who don’t know, that’s Europe and Asia put together.
To once more put it in simpler terms, it’d be an even worse version of Theia.
So, what was this tangent for? Well, aside from having been an astronomy fanatic as a child, I wanted to emphasize that this detail is absolutely crazy and is in no way, shape, or form feasible. It’s hyperbole in its purest form, and I love and hate it at the same time.
The last thing I’ll make a note of is that Bram claimed the closest he got to the object was about 6.5 feet (200 centimeters), which is surprisingly close, given this thing crashed. One would think the sonic boom would’ve sent Bram flying back—if not severely hurt him.
Anyway, with all of that said, here’s where things get really weird. According to Bram, he knew the UFO was there and that he “was not asleep.” Yet, in the following sentence, he claimed that he looked down and saw nothing. I’m guessing that this might be a result of English not being Bram’s native language, and he meant that the UFO had vanished.
If that’s the case, then this makes enough sense; UFOs are known to appear and disappear like spiders in your bedroom. However, if this isn’t the case, I have no idea how someone loses a cylindrical (or spherical, depending on what shape this thing was) spaceship the size of a yoga ball.
Regardless of what may or may not have happened, Bram knew something was there. What was it? Who the heck knows; maybe it was the Tooth Fairy.
What I can say with the utmost confidence is that after inspecting the supposed crash site, something clearly happened that Bram lacked answers to because he then goes on to tell us what happened the following morning. I have no idea if he blacked out or what, but that’s how his report reads.
Whatever the case may be, Bram said that he found “a scar” on the middle of his chest that was “kinda deep,” but also “small.” It was also bleeding, which is something I’ll get into a lot more about in the theories because this is an interesting detail (despite it seeming innocuous).
Interestingly, Bram noted he had no insects in his house (more on that in the theories). This makes me wonder how large the scar really was because I initially imagined an incision mark, but now I wonder if it looked like a bite mark.
Oh well, I digress; there will be more time to think about that later. For now, that’s where Bram’s story ends. Yes, really; according to him, this all took place over the course of two seconds. To give you an idea as to how fast that is, you can blink five times in a single second. So, evidently, all of this happened in ten blinks of one’s eye. That’s pretty remarkable!
Anyway, with Bram’s story now done, I think it’s about time we head to the theories. There are a handful of them, and there’s even more that I want to talk about. While the story itself may be short, most of what I have to say has yet to be said. I’ll do everything I can to prevent this from becoming an inflated write-up, but I make no promises since I have oh-so-many questions. Now, with that said, let’s begin speculating!
Theories
1. Aliens
Ah, at last, I can finally talk about the numerous things that I wanted to talk about earlier without feeling like I was digressing too much. How joyous!
Alien abductions are one of the most bizarrely diverse mysteries out there. Some remember the incident, while others don’t. Some claim the aliens are kind, while others say they’re colossal jerks. Purportedly, some claim to see religious figures on the spaceship, while others say they see dead relatives or imprisoned humans. The claims about religious figures and dead relatives can be found on the Conspiracy Iceberg and will be discussed down the road—God willing!
In cases where the abductee doesn’t remember anything, there’s a phenomenon known as “missing time,” which involves someone having a gap in their memory—typically a couple of hours. That said, I’ve heard of some people vanishing for days, such as Travis Walton, the man who went on to inspire the 1993 film Fire in the Sky.
I digress, though. For the sake of this theory, let’s assume the average amount of missing time is around two and a half hours. If we’re to do that, we must now ask how much time Bram was missing; that’s a simple enough task since he’d claimed his experience occurred late at night. According to him, it was 12:00 “local time,” which would indicate midnight.
As of writing, it’s November 8, 2024, and just past 7:30 p.m. (19:30 for my 24-hour time readers). That puts Beverwijk on November 9, which means that sunrise for them is at 7:52 a.m., or so claims General Blue. How convenient that I’m writing this mere days before the anniversary of Bram’s supposed abduction!
Anyway, assuming that Bram awoke at—or around—dawn, that means the amount of missing time for him was around eight hours—over three times the average. Of course, it could have been less if Bram were to assume the preceding hour or two before sunrise was morning. I know that plenty of people will say that it’s morning when it’s actually dawn. Semantics is such a wonderful thing to pull on folks. Well, sometimes, but I digress!
Once again, for the sake of the theory, we’ll assume that Bram was abducted for about eight hours. Maybe he led his abductors on a chase throughout the spaceship that would make a Hanna-Barbera blush. Okay, fine, the aliens were incompetent and couldn’t restrain a random guy despite being technologically advanced enough to traverse the cosmos with ease.
Except, wait, the UFO supposedly crashed outside of Bram’s apartment. How was he abducted if it crashed? And if it crashed, why did none of his neighbors investigate? Hold on, if it crashed, why was there no blast wave? And if it was traveling as fast as Bram claimed (which I sincerely doubt), how did it cause no damage?
Above all else, though, where was Bram in his apartment? He claimed he got within 6.5 feet of the orb—the thing that he claimed crashed—and insisted it wasn’t the product of a dream. If this were the case, Bram should be dead because a blast wave can cause death—and something crashing at the speed he described would’ve undoubtedly created one strong enough to rupture internal organs.
That may sound like hyperbole, but being close to an erupting volcano can do this. Hypothetically, if you were to be within the blast wave created by the Yellowstone supervolcano when it erupts, you wouldn’t die from the ash or anything else. The blast wave alone would be enough to cause your organs to explode due to the concussive power of the explosion.
As gross and uncomfortable as that may sound, I believe it warrants being mentioned because there’s no feasible way for Bram to be believed. Not at face value, anyway.
That said, there is the possibility that Bram was exaggerating or that he wasn’t aware his estimates were impossible. If this were the case, another problem arises: how did none of Bram’s neighbors see or hear this happen?
In the interest of fairness, I’ll acknowledge that plenty of people are deep sleepers. So, it’s likely that this thing crashing didn’t produce much noise. There’s also the chance that it didn’t create much light or the glow was a dim one. Bram also said it was “flaming,” a detail I left out during the main story because I believed it was better suited here. If it were a flaming orb, it could be compared to a Will-o’-the-Wisp.
If that were the case, then I must ask why Bram felt the need to check outside of his apartment. However, I’ll refrain from asking too many questions because it’ll lead to me bringing up the same thing over and over, and I don’t want you to read my slow descent into madness.
What I will bring up are some other possibilities as to why nobody went to investigate the supposed crash. Given Bram said it landed “in front” of the apartment, I guess it’s possible it landed right at his doorstep. If this is what he meant, then the orb may have gone there on purpose and not by pure happenstance.
It’s also likely that the one Bram lived in had a lot of openings for one reason or another. This strikes me as more unlikely than the other possibilities, but it’s something I felt needed to be brought up since I suppose it’s not the most implausible thing on Earth. You know, like an orb crashing into Earth at the speed of light and not annihilating all life on it.
I digress, though. Even with my biases toward alien abductions, I’ll concede that there is some stuff that does make this sound like an alien abduction. The missing time is a staple of the phenomenon, and Bram having a mysterious scar is quite disturbing. It’s not unheard of for abductees to have mysterious scars or burns, but I can’t name that many cases off the top of my head where it’s happened.
That said, I do wish Bram had submitted a photo of the scar. NUFORC allows you to submit pictures and videos, and it would’ve been useful if Bram had shown this scar to showcase it. There’s a theory later on that could rationally explain it, and it would’ve been nice to examine it for any abnormalities (even if I’m not a doctor).
The last thing I’ll note is that there is a second story from Beverwijk that was sent to NUFORC the same day as Bram’s. However, the day it occurred was November 10, 2023, whereas Bram’s took place two days later. I skimmed through the report, and while the English isn’t perfect, it’s a little better than Bram’s.
The two reports are, by and large, very different; the person who sent this one in said they saw a light in the sky that flew in from the west. They likened it to a plane or drone, but the lights on it didn’t blink. It moved slowly, stopped, and then rapidly accelerated before vanishing.
For reasons I cannot fathom, the person said they found marks on their body afterward, which is baffling, though this will tie into the next theory a bit. Outside of that, if you want to take this as someone else from Beverwijk who saw a UFO, go ahead. For everyone else, this will be talked about a lot more soon.
Ultimately, I think this theory hinges upon Bram having been extremely hyperbolic with a lot of stuff. I won’t fault him for that; enough time had passed that would’ve allowed for his memory to become fuzzy, and I’m sure he was more than a little traumatized by the whole event. I may not believe in alien abductions, but I can’t deny that what Bram experienced had to have scared him greatly.
Despite that, I do feel like the lack of information given causes Bram’s claims to be flimsy. If he was worried about being identified through the photo (which is perfectly reasonable, especially if he had distinct tattoos or birthmarks), it would’ve been nice if he’d at least drawn a sketch of the orb, scar, or both. Even a poor one is better than nothing—in my opinion, anyway.
As it stands, there are so many questions left unanswered that this feels like a round of Wheel of Fortune where every prize on the wheel results in bankruptcy. I’d like to buy a vowel, Pat. Oh, wait, you retired; I guess I have to move on to the next theory!
2. A hoax
This theory is the epitome of being evenly split down the middle. There’s so much going for it (in my eyes), but just as much going against it.
Let me start off with what it has going for it, that being something I’ve held off on bringing up because it could be a “me” issue. In Bram’s report, he mentioned that the angle of elevation was 45 degrees. Presumably, this means the orb was floating. This is a direct contradiction to his assertion that it crashed outside of his apartment.
Call me crazy, but I would guess that Bram meant the UFO hit the ground and not an invisible wall in the air that forced him to look up at it. Unless Bram was living in a fallout shelter, things that crash into the ground—especially from high in the air—end up leaving an impact crater.
Now, it’s possible Bram thought it crashed when, in reality, it zipped down to the ground and then rose back up. This would be in line with many other UFO sightings that describe them as being able to dart around in the sky at incredible speeds—achieving acrobatic maneuvers that no man-made aircraft can perform.
I’ll concede that that’s perfectly reasonable. I’ve heard of orbs of light entering homes (though some argue this is ball lightning, an unexplained phenomenon in and of itself), but Bram said it was outside of his apartment…
Or so he claimed. Although his location was Beverwijk, he claimed he didn’t know what to put for the “location details” on NUFORC’s report form. In the interest of fairness, Bram’s first language is Dutch. He resides in the Netherlands, after all.
That said, I still find it weird how Bram didn’t know how to describe the location of the sighting. If he was able to discern everything else on NUFORC’s website, I’m sure he would’ve understood the word “details.” If not, he could use Google Translate. The very least he could have done was say, “It was on the front doormat,” or something akin to that.
But I digress; maybe that’s just me nitpicking. So, let’s move on to something that I think is much less nitpicky: the other characteristics that Bram never elaborated on. For those who don’t remember, I’ll copy and paste them directly from the report.
Characteristics: Lights on [the] object, Aura or haze around [the] object, Left a trail, Electrical or magnetic effects, Marks found on body afterwards[.]
The lights on the object and “aura or haze” both refer to the glow of the orb; I could be wrong, but that’s my guess. Meanwhile, the marks found are self-explanatory.
However, the two that I don’t believe were ever talked about were “left a trail” and “electrical or magnetic effects.” I’ll start with the former; Bram never brought up noticing a trail, and I sincerely doubt he would be able to if the sighting lasted all of two seconds. For comparison, seeing a shooting star usually lasts less than a second. That is, quite literally, the blink of an eye.
Additionally, if this occurred over the span of two seconds, Bram must be The Flash because he went from Point A to Point B as quickly as he did, unless he was already near his front door. Mind you, I’m guessing it was the front door because Bram said it landed outside of his apartment, and he saw it from the land, given he mentioned how he’d looked down and noticed nothing.
In the interest of fairness once again, though, you can see the trail left by a shooting star. It’s possible that Bram saw this if he had his front door open (for whatever reason) or if he had a sliding glass door (though I don’t know if many apartments have those).
Alternatively, he could’ve seen the trail from a nearby window and rushed to the front door. Given the gap between the incident and when Bram submitted his report, it’s possible his memory was faulty, and he thought it lasted two seconds, but in reality, it was far more. I think most of us know that a lot of situations can feel like they lasted a lot longer—or a lot shorter—when they actually didn’t.
Setting that aside, let’s move on to the issue of the supposed “electrical or magnetic effects.” This could be referring to the sudden silence that Bram heard. However, I don’t believe electrical or magnetic disruptions result in an absence of noise. Granted, I’m not an electrician or scientist, so I could be completely wrong.
That said, I do know that UFOs have been known to cause electronic malfunctions. Heck, some claim their cars have shut off when one’s flown over them (primarily abductees if I’m not mistaken). So, it’s possible that Bram’s television, phone, or any number of electronics went haywire when the UFO paid his apartment’s front door a visit. Should this have been the case, I wish it was mentioned.
Anyway, I think it’s about time I move on from that. There are four other issues I want to point out, though both can probably be explained in some fashion or form.
The first is the inconsistency with the appearance. I mentioned this earlier, but Bram said it was an orb yet chose to describe it as a cylinder when he filled out the report form. This is an incredibly weird discrepancy, but I’m willing to acknowledge a potential language barrier issue. I don’t know enough about how English translates to Dutch (and vice versa) to say that with any level of confidence.
The second is that Bram said he saw the object from the front. This could make sense if the orb had any distinct features, but Bram never elaborated on any. If the object resembled an orb, I have no idea how he could discern what part of it was the front without windshields or windows being visible. If it were a cylinder, however, this issue would go away.
The third is that Bram’s report said the incident occurred at “12:00” instead of 00:00. As I stated earlier, Europe uses 24-hour time, not 12-hour time.
Normally, I’d assume this was the result of a foreigner living abroad. However, given the consistent use of the metric system over the imperial system, I’m skeptical of that.
Additionally, when you submit a report to NUFORC, you don’t manually enter the time. You select it, you click the bar, scroll down, and enter the time. This may sound like a non-issue; NUFORC is based out of Davenport, Washington, in the United States. However, if you read The UFOs High Above Artjärvi! the other day, you’d remember that the time given there was “00:00.”
As such, Bram either sent this while out of the country (which is possible), had a VPN active (which I have no idea if that’d even work), this was a hoax, or Bram decided not to pick the correct time.
All four seem possible to me, so pick your flavor, dear reader.
The fourth and easily biggest problem is the report that was submitted to NUFORC two days before Bram’s. While it’s vastly different, it is quite strange that both stories were posted on the same day.
The estimation for the speed at which the object flew was also much less hyperbolic; in fact, the person had to have been lowballing it. They estimated it to be moving at 183–372 miles per hour (300–600 kilometers per hour) when it vanished. That’s slower than a Boeing 747, which flies at speeds of around 570 miles per hour (917 kilometers per hour). I didn’t realize UFOs had cruise control.
That said, the other thing I’ll bring up is the grammar. Whereas Bram’s English is iffy, the other report is more polished (aside from spelling “sure” with an H in it) and has more punctuation. You can argue that this is a sign two different people wrote it—or that a friend of Bram’s submitted a story alongside his friend.
Alternatively, you can argue that Bram tried to give the impression that two separate individuals sent in a story from the same city. If that were the case, maybe he should’ve waited a bit longer than twelve minutes to do that.
Now, in the interest of fairness, I have no idea how NUFORC posts submissions. While it’s possible that two people happened to see UFOs around the same time in Beverwijk, the fact they reported it on the same day is very suspicious to me. Could Bram have seen UFOs two separate times and sent in two individual reports? Sure. However, that’d be a rather odd decision when you could say you saw two UFOs over the course of three days.
I should also point out that the grammar is mostly similar, which points to the possibility that the same person sent the report in. Both improperly use an ellipsis multiple times (using two periods)—outside of one instance in Bram’s report, which has one correct use.
Anyway, moving on from that, the other things going for this theory can likely be passed off as Bram’s native language is Dutch and not English. This is apparent when he says he resided in an apartment, only to say he had no insects in his house. Definition-wise, apartments and houses are two different things. However, it’s possible Bram didn’t know (or didn’t care) to use the correct term. Both are acceptable, given a UFO report isn’t a term paper for a semester at Harvard University.
Anyway, that’s what this theory has going for it, and I think it’s rather compelling. While you can argue that most, if not all, of it, is due to the language barrier and the passage of time, I’d argue that there are some legitimately serious flaws on display here. However, what’s going against this theory?
Well, for starters, hyperbole isn’t uncommon when it comes to seeing something scary. I’ve mentioned in the past how my memories of seeing house centipedes make them out to be much larger than they actually were. The same goes for spiders and cockroaches that I’ve seen. I’m deathly afraid of all three and remember them being twice the size they actually were.
As such, it’s probable that Bram’s impossibilities were a result of him remembering things as being more fantastical than they really were. It’s also possible that he’s on the younger side and embellishing his story a bit, but I think he would’ve told his parents before he sent a report to NUFORC. But, hey, maybe he thought his parents would think he was crazy; there’s a reason people who claim they were abducted by aliens prefer to remain anonymous.
Another issue is the lack of reason for submitting this story to NUFORC. While it’s a very well-known website and organization, I must bring up a point that I’ve brought up numerous times in the past—and always bring up when it comes to this site: Why submit a fake report here?
Listen, I get that UFO believers can be much more vocal about more offbeat things. I won’t sugarcoat it; when you compare your cryptozoologists to ufologists, the more extreme claims fall on the latter more so than the former. If you were looking to showcase the gullibility of the two, ufologists are more likely to believe a fantastical, if not outright nonsensical, tale.
Now, before anyone harps on me, I want to say that I’m not pointing fingers at anyone specific, nor am I going to blanket label every ufologist as a fool or gullible. I mean, I freely give my take at the end of each write-up, and I’ve certainly had my fair share of hot ones.
That aside, I will never understand why NUFORC would be your go-to website for this. Reddit would be ripe for a story like this. 4chan would, too. Alternatively, you could submit the story to any number of scary story narrators on YouTube so it could be read. I’ve said this in the past, and I will keep saying it because it’s something that doesn’t sit well with me.
The last thing I’ll mention is the language barrier. I’ve brought this up a lot so far, but I’ll make it the central focus now. According to my friend, a lot of people in the Netherlands have trouble with English, even citing that some of her University professors struggle with it. While she herself has a very strong grasp of the language, it’s worth noting that 7–10% of the country doesn’t speak English.
Because of that, if Bram’s understanding of English was loose, it’s very likely that he misunderstood many of the words and questions on NUFORC’s report form. If this were the case, I think it’d be way too harsh to consider this a hoax. At least, not without talking to Bram myself.
As a brief aside, I know there are some who would ask why Bram didn’t have a friend with a stronger grasp of English to fill out the report form for him. While I’d normally be inclined to agree, I want you to imagine yourself in Bram’s shoes. How many of you would be able to go up to a friend or even a family member and tell them about what you experienced? Personally, I’d be mortified and expect them to ask if I’d stopped taking my bipolar medication.
It’s one thing to ask for help because you saw a weird light in the sky; you may be told you saw the International Space Station passing by, an airplane, a drone, or something else. It’s another when you imply that you were abducted by little green space men who wanted to poke you with their not-so-little space needles.
Ultimately, I think this theory can be taken either way. While my analysis of it may seem skewed toward it being the truth, I think it’s deeply unfair to assume that when there’s enough plausible deniability on Bram’s end. Heck, even the fact there were two reports submitted at the same time doesn’t strike me as odd. It’s possible Bram saw two UFOs and submitted two separate reports; I wouldn’t do that, but I’m not Bram.
I digress, though; there are three theories remaining, and they’re both considerably shorter than this one. So, if you were worried about the theories dragging on, fear not; it’s smooth sailing from here on out.
3. A nightmare
This theory is in direct contradiction to Bram’s assertion that he wasn’t dreaming. Well, I’ve had many dreams, nightmares, and night terrors where I thought I wasn’t dreaming. Then I woke up and found out I was dreaming. Life’s strange like that.
There are no doubt countless mysteries out there that can be explained away as a vivid dream or nightmare. Most of these, I’d say, were relatively innocuous, like someone claiming they saw a ghost or monster late at night when they were younger. It’s easy for the passage of time to do a number on your memory, especially when that memory is from your childhood.
However, it can also make memories from mere months prior fuzzy. I can attest to this as there are plenty of things I don’t remember doing as recently as September (and it’s currently November as of writing)—and I’m confident I saw a cockroach in between those two months and freaked out.
My anecdote aside, the idea that Bram’s experience could be the product of a nightmare he had is, in my opinion, exceedingly plausible. Why? Well, for starters, it’s very common for people to think they’re awake during terrible nightmares.
It’s common for nightmares and night terrors to result in anxiety and panic attacks; how could they not? Nightmares often involve some of your greatest fears seemingly coming to life in a world where logic is thrown out the window, and you’re incapable of ever doing what you’d normally do to avoid the terrible end result. There’s a reason the saying “the stuff of nightmares” exists, after all.
When you couple this with something like sleep paralysis (something I am all too familiar with—which I loathe with the fury of a trillion suns), it’s possible that what Bram experienced was the product of a nightmare. Whether or not he experienced sleep paralysis at any point is up for debate, but sleep paralysis hallucinations (colloquially referred to as “sleep paralysis demons” by many) could explain the strange orb.
Adding on to that is how we don’t know where Bram was in his apartment. I’ve already mentioned this, but there’s something else that I’ve been deliberately avoiding.
We also don’t know where he woke up.
When it comes to alien abductions, it’s common for people to end up in a different place than where they were abducted. You needn’t look further than the infamous case of Betty and Barney Hill, the couple who was abducted in New Hampshire back in September of 1961. They were supposedly abducted from their car, lost time, and found themselves 35 miles (56 kilometers) down US Route 3. That case deserves its own write-up, but I want to look into something before I ever touch it.
Anyway, if Bram were abducted, one would think he’d end up somewhere else in his apartment. While it’s possible that the aliens decided to drop him off back at his front door like your friend would drop you off after you spent the night doing something wholesome (like going bowling), I doubt extraterrestrials are also that considerate. Call me skeptical, but I’m unsure if our interstellar friends would be so thoughtful if they were abducting us to perform experiments.
That said, there’s one other thing that needs to be mentioned: We don’t even know if Bram was abducted.
Yeah, despite this write-up’s title, Bram never implied that he was abducted. In fact, the only reason I gave it that name is due to the similarities the phenomenon shares. That and the scar on his chest are arguably the biggest pieces of evidence pointing toward something suspicious having occurred.
However, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for the scar. It’s possible that Bram scratched himself in his sleep. My proof? Well, I’ve done that multiple times throughout my life. I’m a restless sleeper who’s prone to tossing, turning, and plenty of other things that make my sleep cycle really poor. As such, it’s not uncommon for me to wake up, look in the mirror, and see that I clawed at my face or arms because I was acting out whatever silly dream I was having.
On more than one occasion, I’ve scratched near my nose so badly that I’ve drawn a bit of blood. I’ll never understand how I achieved that, but I guess there is that old saying about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Maybe when I’m asleep, my brain takes that saying a bit too literally.
If Bram’s nightmare was an exceptionally intense one, he might’ve thrashed around and scratched his chest. The only problem is that Time and Date lists the temperature in Beverwijk as being 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) the night this event occurred. So, unless Bram’s hand found its way under his shirt, this would be a bit tricky. It’d be a lot more likely to happen if he wasn’t wearing one.
That said, one has to wonder what spurred such an intense nightmare. Lucky for you and me, I can answer that—to an extent, anyway. You see, nightmares are the result of all sorts of things. Stress, trauma, a lack of sleep, and a plethora of other things can result in you having a bad dream.
In Bram’s case, I think there’s an argument to be made that he submitted both of the reports we’ve discussed in this write-up. If he did, I think there’s a strong argument to be made that he was left shaken by the first one and that this case was the result of a nightmare about him encountering a UFO close-up.
Should this be the case, that would explain why he thought the UFO was moving at such an obscenely high rate of speed. I’ve talked about this this month, but there’s a thing known as “dream logic.” This is used to refer to the surreal and illogical ways our dreams operate. For example, a dream where you’re running to get somewhere, but it never seems like you reach your destination because you’re on a treadmill or are being weighed down by an unseen force. This would be a product of dream logic.
On a personal level, I can see this being the case. I’ve had plenty of outlandish dreams in my life, some of which have been influenced by something that happened that day—or a few days prior. I can imagine that seeing a UFO would leave someone shell-shocked, especially if it was truly unexplainable.
I digress, though. If this was all because of a nightmare, and Bram happened to scratch himself while thrashing around, then I think it’s safe to say that there never was an “alien abduction.” While Bram may be adamant that he was awake at the time, falling asleep isn’t something you voluntarily do. You don’t close your eyes and shout, “I’m going to sleep now!” inside of your head. It’s an involuntary thing.
Because of that, Bram’s claim that he was awake hinges way too much on believing a stranger on the Internet. This is another facet of the kinds of stories I write about that I’ve discussed several times this month; I won’t go over it again because I’m sure most of you don’t want to hear the same thing for the tenth time this month. Well, I think it’d be the tenth time; I’ve lost count at this point.
Moving on from that, the last thing I want to bring up is a small anecdote from my life. When I was younger—I forget how old—I once fell asleep on a chair; it was nighttime, around 9:00 or so (21:00 for my 24-hour time readers). I swear to God, I closed my eyes and opened them immediately after and saw daylight. I remember being flabbergasted and thought that something crazy had happened. But, no, I’d just fallen asleep. It was as simple as that.
Funnily enough, over twenty years later, I heard a similar story while listening to 4chan greentext stories. Someone else had a very similar experience. I can’t recall the video, but the person went on this long tangent about how they thought they’d entered a time slip of some sort and a whole bunch of other wild stuff. Someone responded, saying that they’d just fallen asleep and nothing more.
That said, I could sit here for another five thousand words, rambling about how I’ve had numerous lucid dreams and vivid nightmares that I’ve sworn were real. However, I think you get the idea; Bram could have very likely fallen asleep and had a dream—possibly one brought about by an experience he had a couple of days earlier. Of course, I could be wrong; if you trust me to be infallible, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
4. Bram was on drugs
This theory isn’t one that I thought of. Instead, it’s one that my friend—the one whom I’m dedicating this story to—put forward when I told her about it. So, as a cherry on top for her, I’ll entertain the idea.
Let’s face it: people can see some weird stuff when they take hallucinogens. Take “Machine Elves” for example. These mechanical elf-like beings are reported by those who take Dimethyltryptamine—also known as DMT. They’re featured on the Conspiracy Iceberg and demand their own write-up, but I cannot begin to comprehend it. What I do know is that it’s so prevalent that scientists have actually studied it, and it’s referenced on Wikipedia, which I find truly incredible.
While I may not be willing to take a deep dive into the world of psychedelic substances to expand upon this theory, I will note that it is possible Bram had taken something and hallucinated. Heck, it doesn’t need to be anything illegal. Side effects of certain medications can result in hallucinations.
That said, I think Bram would’ve known if he was tripping. While I know little to nothing about drugs, I have to imagine he’d realize he had a bad acid trip upon waking up. But, hey, what do I know? I’m not the one taking drugs. No, I’m the one sitting on his bed, typing away about a guy who allegedly saw a UFO. I think I have it better, but I’m biased.
That said, this theory falls apart when we realize that we know absolutely nothing about Bram. Yeah, it’s a very obvious flaw, but it’s a glaring one. I do think it’s possible, though; if it was Bram’s first time taking some sort of hallucinogen, he might not have realized what he was seeing was a product of his mind going haywire.
Personally, I question why his brain opted to create a speeding orb of all things, though. But, hey, maybe that’s what LSD does. Again, I don’t know! What I do know is that it’s time for the meme theory, which I put as much thought into as I put into learning complex mathematics.
5. Interdimensional orbs that did all of the stuff Bram described for reasons I can’t fathom (maybe it was the annual interdimensional carnival)
This running gag has been driven into the ground so hard that it’s carved a path for a railway to Asia.
My Take
Yeah, to put it lightly, this story’s questionable. There are a lot of things that don’t add up for me, leading me to suspect that this story is a hoax. However, I’ll be fair and say that I believe there’s a sliver of hope that points to this not being one.
Let me start with what I think might’ve happened if Bram wasn’t making this up, which is that he had a nightmare. Frankly, there isn’t much I can add; odds are, he had a bad dream after seeing a UFO two days prior—and, yes, that is a prerequisite for this theory to work. In my eyes, the probability of two people coincidentally seeing two UFOs in the same area and submitting their reports to the same site within minutes of each other is next to impossible. I believe in coincidences, but that’s a few billion bridges too far.
Anyway, during this nightmare, Bram thrashed around and likely scratched his chest a little too hard. If he had a shirt on, it’s possible it was a very thin one or worn-out one. Alternatively, he could’ve chosen not to wear one that night; even though it was quite chilly that night, some people (like yours truly) are resilient to the cold.
This, to me, is the most plausible path to take if I overlook the previously mentioned report that was sent in shortly before the one we discussed today. That, and if I ignore the inadequate amount of information Bram provided.
On the other hand, Bram’s report has an extremely large number of issues that make it exceedingly difficult to fully buy into. Everything from Bram saying the object resembled an orb, yet picking “cylinder” when filling out the form to Bram picking the incorrect time (12:00 in 24-hour time is high noon, as you likely guessed earlier). There are so many problems that I could do a PowerPoint presentation on them.
Now, of course, there is the argument about English not being Bram’s native tongue. That’s perfectly fine, but it begs the question: Why was his English good enough when it came to writing but not good enough to read such basic things as “what time was it?” And if he was a native of the Netherlands, why didn’t he know that 00:00 was midnight and not 12:00? And better yet, why would he think 12:00 was late at night? That’s the exact opposite of late at night!
Well, unless you live on Venus, where a day on there lasts 243 Earth days. I suppose 12:00 would be the dead of night at some point.
I digress, though. The only other thing that bothers me is why Bram would’ve made this up. As I said, if he wanted a reaction out of people, it seems rather silly to submit a story to NUFORC—let alone two of them, and in rapid succession. If he wanted to prove to someone that they’ll post anything without checking, then he certainly did so.
At the same time, NUFORC’s website has been active since 1995. Because of that, I’m highly skeptical that they published Bram’s story without considering some possible explanations, especially if they received two reports on the same day from Beverwijk that just so happened to have taken place around the same time.
Okay, I’m beginning to repeat myself a lot. That’s not intentional; while I’m prone to talking in circles, this is one of those mysteries that’s left me frustrated. Not because it was hard to write about, absolutely not. In fact, this was a very easy case to cover and a lot of fun.
No, the reason I’m frustrated is because there’s a small part of me that can absolutely see this being the result of a nightmare. Even though my gut tells me it was a hoax, this nagging part of my brain keeps screaming that some guy over in the Netherlands had a scary dream about a UFO slamming into the ground outside of his apartment. Curse my indecisiveness; if only I was better at putting my foot down and telling myself to make up my mind.
Anyway, now that I’ve put my foot down and made up my mind, I’m going to say that I think Bram made all of this up. While it’s possible that I’m wrong, the more I type, the more I become convinced that this was a load of nonsense sent in by a bored Dutch person who wanted to have a laugh. Hey, I never said that I believed everything I heard. If I did, I’d still think Yu-Gi-Oh! made sense.
Conclusion
And with that, today’s write-up has come to an end. This one was really special; not only was it a gift to a friend of mine, but I got to revisit a phenomenon that I clearly hold a lot of bias toward. It was nice challenging myself to see if I’d find anything that I couldn’t explain.
It’s too bad this story was just a few degrees too unbelievable to do that properly.
Nevertheless, I did try everything I could to come across as unbiased as I could, and I hope I achieved that. If you believe that I didn’t, let me know, and I’ll make sure to pick out a very believable case of alien abduction next year. Well, assuming my brain doesn’t screw me over for the first six or seven months of 2025.
That said, I’d love to hear your thoughts about this story. Do you think Bram was abducted by aliens? Or are you more partial to the idea of it being a hoax? Whatever your opinion is, leave a comment and, as always, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading!
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