Alien Abductions
Certain alien races have no moral qualms about abducting other beings to study them. The U.S.S. Voyager and her crew were kidnapped by the Caretaker and stranded in the Delta Quadrant. On stardate 46154.2, aliens from the subspace continuum took personnel from the Enterprise-D in order to perform medical examinations.

Alien Parturition
Parenting practices vary considerably throughout the galaxy. On Janus 3, every 50,000 years, the entire Horta civilisation, bar one, dies off completely after laying thousands of eggs. The surviving creature then acts as mother to the whole new race. The Talaxians follow a strict patriarchal code, resulting in violent injuries to some of their young boys. Many of the cultures encountered by Starfleet, require their children to undergo some rite of passage to mark the ascent to adulthood.

Alien Reproduction
Vulcans enter a mating frenzy, the Pon Farr, every seventh year of their adult lives. An Ocampa female has only one chance to reproduce in her lifetime, during the Elogium. Although she only has 50 hours in which it is possible for her to conceive, once started, she must stay joined to her mate for six days.

Heterogamics
These are children produced by parents of different races. For instance, Ambassador Spock's mother was a Human and his father was a Vulcan. B'Elanna Torres has on Human parent and one Klingon, as did K'Ehleyr, Starfleet Commander Worf's mate. These racial mixtures can produce surprising personalities.

Kobali Procreation
The Kobali procreate by salvaging the dead of other races. The process is both physical and mental, beginning with the reanimation of the corpse within a stasis chamber, and continuing with the mental induction of the individual into the Kobali race. This includes showing the subject footage of herself as a corpse, and pointing out that her former race have abandoned her. The mental process is accompanied by a physical transformation into Kobali appearance, achieved via extensive DNA alteration. Finally, the inductee is given a Kobali name and placed with a Kobali family to acclimate to their life.

Nechani Shrine, The
The shrine visited by Kes is one of the planet's most holy places. The government and ordinary people know that its protective force field is a naturally occurring phenomenon and pay it the utmost respect. Nechisti monks visit the shrine to cleanse their souls and receive the gift of purification. Prepared by a sacred ritual, during which they speak directly to their ancestral spirits, the monks are themselves able to enter the shrine without coming to any harm. Because the ways of the spirits are secret, the initiated will not reveal any details of the ritual.

Pon Farr
Pon Farr occurs in every seven years of a Vulcan's adult life. Its first signs are subtle, emotions begin to waver between extremes and, although the Vulcan will be able to suppress this to start with, sooner or later the individual will experience an outburst of feeling - often anger as a release to the frustration they have been suffering. Once acknowledged as the beginning of the Pon Farr, the Vulcan must return to the home world and partake in an ancient ritual to purge the emotions. In a conventional Pon Farr, the Vulcan takes a mate - usually one which has been arranged by the parents - and the act of procreation restores the Vulcan's equanimity. Alternatively, ritual combat can solve the blood fever as occurred when Captain Kirk's first officer, Spock, underwent Pon Farr on stardate 3372.7. Kirk was the unwitting opponent and it was only chief medical officer Doctor McCoy's quick thinking which saved his captain's life from the irrational Vulcan. Pon Farr is the most private of Vulcan ceremonies and they are extremely reluctant to talk about it with other races.

Vulcan Mind Melds
The Vulcan people are mildly telepathic. When they purposefully touch people, however, they can merge their minds. This is done by the Vulcan placing his/her fingers at strategic pressure points on another individual's head. It can be such a complete sharing of personalities that sometimes the participants can pick up each other's character traits. As an ancient Vulcan ritual, it is not entered into lightly nor often because, if it goes wrong, terrible consequences can ensue.

Vulcan Thought Control
A telepathic race similar to the Mari, the Vulcan civilisation also experienced the problems of the uncontrolled spread of violent thoughts in the early stages of development of society. Rather than seek a medical solution tot he problem, Vulcans developed a series of thought control techniques which allow individuals to suppress their violent tendencies, and indeed all emotions, in favour of a more detached approach founded on pure logic. While this method effectively suppresses emotional responses, it has the advantage of allowing Vulcans to employ occasional controlled violence to achieve a goal which has been deemed logically desirable. Unlike the Mari method which medically removes all violent thoughts form the mind, the Vulcan method of control is prone to lapses in later life, as mental strength is eroded by physical aging.