: The 20th-century accounts of small, thin entities abducting humans.
The central thesis of Passport to Magonia is that modern alien abductions are identical in structure and psychological impact to historical tales of interactions with the supernatural. Vallée brilliantly connects the dots between:
During the mid-20th century, the dominant view among UFO researchers was that flying saucers were highly advanced hardware piloted by biological entities originating from other star systems. Vallée, a trained astrophysicist and computer scientist, grew increasingly skeptical of this nuts-and-bolts materialist approach.
: Medieval European folklore regarding fairies, elves, and gnomes.