Human Initiated Contact Experiences (HICE) or Just Theater of the Mind?

I'm reading a book at the moment called 'Cosentino' about an Australian stage illusionist and magician, and I just listened to the latest 'New Thinking Allowed' episode where Jeff Mishlove interviews Joseph Burkes -

Human Initiated Contact Experiences (HICE) with Joseph Burkes

"Joseph Burkes, MD, is a board certified specialist in internal medicine.

He is coauthor of the chapter titled "Medical Healings Reported by UAP Contact Experiencers: An Analysis of the FREE Date" in the anthology Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness and Contact with Non Human Intelligence "Volume 1".

Here he describes the details of his work with several organizations of using mental techniques including visualization and meditation to initiate visual contact with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs).

These contacts included ostensible two-way communication with glowing orbs and lights in the sky and instances of missing time.

Eventually, he concluded that the intelligences behind the phenomena were capable of manipulating human consciousness and human belief systems."

In Cosentino's early efforts of being a stage magician he writes in his book that he had the idea of dressing up as an alien and doing his show like an alien abduction where he does experiments like sawing people in half, making them disappear and reappear (teleport) and all those old lame acts that stage magicians have done for years, although modified to give a space age makeover.

But dressing up in an alien suit was difficult to maintain for a full act according to Cosentino.

Cosentino also writes in his book about learning hypnotism to use in his stage show and I couldn't help thinking when listening to Joseph Burkes speak to Jeff Mishlove that it wouldn't be too great a leap for someone to believe they were actually in an abduction scenario in their real life when in fact it was an illusion or trick played on them.
Not to say that all "contactees" are being sucked in by an illusion, but I would imagine many are.

Maybe not all owls have a real message for us, or are as magic as they seem?-)

David Noonan

David Noonan: The Owls Aren't What They Seem?

UPDATE: 2019

The Buzz Around Magic, Mentalisim, Illusion and Planning Your Ultimate Escape?