Dr.R.Leo Sprinkle became interested in the many alien abduction reports in the 1960s. For many years, he was probably the only academic figure devoting any time to studying or researching alien abduction reports and alien abduction stories. Sprinkle became convinced of the phenomenon's actuality, and was perhaps the first to suggest a link between alien abduction reports and cattle mutilation reports. Eventually Dr. Sprinkle came to believe he had been abducted by aliens in his youth. This on one freaky dude baby!

Budd Hopkins, a painter and sculptor by profession, had been interested in UFOs for years. In the 1970s he became interested in the alien abduction reports, and began using hypnosis in order to extract more details of dimly remembered details by people filing alien abduction reports. Hopkins soon became a figurehead of the growing abductee subculture.

The 1980s brought a major degree of mainstream attention to the alien abduction reports phenomenon. Works by Bud Hopkins, Whitley Strieber, David M. Jacobs and John Mack presented alien abduction reports as a genuine phenomenon. Also of note in the 1980s was the publication of folklorist Dr. Thomas E. Bullard's comparative analysis of nearly 300 alleged abductees.