In the case of psychiatrist John Mack's work with abductees, owls were screen memories for gray aliens.
I pinged Jocko because she is also familiar with this issue.
BTW, when Dr Mack first encountered the owl screen memories, he suspected that they might be hiding sexually traumatizing experiences of the patients.
He soon learned that was not the case when patient after patient revealed what was being screened.
Alarmingly common. Evidently 3 million+ abducted in the USA alone.