Read” Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind” by C.D.B. Bryan. I met the author. He interviewed several contactees and he refuses to discredit them; he sort of lets several of them do that for themselves.
He decides one of three things are going on:
1) Actual abductions by aliens.
2) A widespread, well-organized hoax
3) An as yet not fully described mental illness.
I think Occams Razor works here
That said, if you read the conference account he wrote, you have to admit that the scientists (and others) at the conference make valid points about the abductions. Not saying that the abductions are real, but Mack's (MD, Harvard prof, psychiatrist, head of Cambridge Psych Clinic) conclusion that the abductees are NOT insane carries a bit more weight than that of a journalist.
If I remember the end of Bryan’s account correctly, he said that he wasn’t sure what was going on re: the abductions, but had concluded that there was a very real phenomenon (i.e., whatever it was, it wasn’t a hoax and it wasn’t mental illness).
Did you read the book?
I think all of the “conventional explanations” are wrong for most cases.
Start with a clean white board.