I've had too many odd experiences to not believe in ghosts or spirits, although they are not necessarily the remnants of the human soul. Having lived and worked in a couple of places with severe poltergeist activity, sometimes violent, sometimes bizarre, occasionally hilarious!
I have also experienced many spirit like ghosts, of people known and unknown, most experiences very pleasant and sometimes moving, a small but significant number, extremely malevolent and disturbing....
Aliens - I believe that life will be found in relative abundance throughout the universe, however, intelligence, as we class it it, may be much much rarer. Finding life, even just a microbe on Mars, or Europa, Titan or Encladeus, would make the probability so much higher of course, although 'we' as a race would do well to remember our planet's uniqueness.
As to alien abductions and visitations, I doubt that's what they are...I am interested in the psycho-social parallels between the modern alien abduction experience and experiences of faerie abduction, daemonic possession and folk tales of elves, sprites leprechauns etc. Not that I necessarily believe in the physical reality of all these things, but the experiences have a lot of similarities.
I have a very scientific brain but experience tells me that there are some things we just don't have the answers for yet!!
