The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: Hypnosis
The complex events that precipitated Barney’s psychiatric symptoms commanded expert intervention. With this in mind, Dr. Stevens sought out the best hypnotherapist he could find within commuting distance of the Hills’ Portsmouth, New Hampshire, home. He made a referral to Dr. Benjamin Simon.
Benjamin Simon was a Russian immigrant who came to the United States with his parents when he was a boy. He completed his baccalaureate degree at Stanford in 1925, and received a master of science degree in chemistry from the same institution in 1927. Four years later, he was awarded a doctor of medicine degree from the Washington University School of Medicine. He had developed an interest in hypnosis when, in 1922 as an undergraduate, he served as a hypnotic subject for an experiment in the psychology department at Johns Hopkins University. In 1934, during his psychiatric residency, he used hypnosis as a therapeutic procedure for the first time.
Then, in 1942, he found a more extensive use for hypnosis while he was a consultant in neuropsychiatry at the General Dispensary in New York. It is there that he received training in the medical use of hypnosis.
During World War II, he served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the Victory Medal.1 Dr. Simon set up the Psychiatric Center at the Mason General Hospital in Long Island, New York, the Army’s chief psychiatric center in WWII. At its peak, the hospital was a 3,000-bed psychiatric facility with an average one- month turnover. However, once acute symptoms ameliorated, psychotherapy would continue in a clinical setting, ensuring that symptoms did not recur. It is during this time frame that hypnosis came to the forefront in the treatment of amnesia and conversion hysteria. There, through the use of hypnosis, Dr. Simon treated soldiers returning from combat who exhibited symptoms of combat neurosis or what we now refer to as post- traumatic stress disorder. He was skilled in the use of deep trance hypnotherapy, sometimes as an adjunct to narcosynthesis (analysis that is conducted while the patient is in a drug-induced—typically by “truth serums” such as sodium pentothal or other barbituates—drowsy state, which makes the patient recall re- pressed memories), to resolve psycho- somatic issues related to traumatic amnesia.
His success rate was so high that his work was celebrated in the documentary movie Let There be Light by John Huston. Dr. Simon, who served as the movie’s technical advisor, demonstrated the effective use of hypnosis in the treatment of hysterical neurosis, including paralysis, stuttering, blindness, and amnesia.
Hospital personnel assisted a steady stream of patients who were unable to enter the examining room under their own volition, into Dr. Simon’s office. Next, he hypnotically induced each patient to the deepest trance level that he could individually attain, sometimes with the aid of narcosynthesis. Then, Dr. Simon skillfully facilitated the recall of the specific traumatic events that precipitated their psychiatric symptoms. When he was satisfied that he had uncovered the source of each soldier’s trauma, Simon commanded the removal of the hysterical symptom. A soldier blinded by his best friend’s gruesome combat-related death suddenly regained his vision. Another, who was psychogenically crippled on the battlefield, obeyed Dr. Simon’s command to arise and walk. The audience, again and again, witnessed the patient’s powerful abreaction followed by the purging, cathartic effect of the release of repressed emotions. Over the next several weeks, patients participated in group psycho- therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, educational therapy, and recreational therapy. As the documentary closed, the camera panned to a cheerful game of base- ball. The viewer quickly recognized the formerly debilitated soldiers, who were now engaged in running bases, pitching, and catching— activities they were too handicapped to perform prior to their hypno- therapy.
After he left the military, Dr. Simon entered private practice in neuropsychiatry and also taught at Harvard and Yale. At one time he owned the Ring Sanitarium in Arlington, Massachusetts, and worked at the Westborough State Hospital and the Worcester State Hospital. When the Hills were referred to him, he maintained an office in the Back Bay district of Boston
On Saturday morning, December 14, 1963, the Hills had an initial consultation with Dr. Simon. He was skeptical about the existence of UFOs as extraterrestrial craft, but agreed to work with the Hills to re- solve Barney’s health issues. He was also aware of the fact that Betty was seeking answers to the question of the underlying source of her bizarre nightmares, so he quickly became aware that both required his professional help. He made it clear to them that hypnosis is not a magic bullet or necessarily a pathway to the objective truth. Rather, it is the truth as the subject perceives it, and may or may not be consistent with objective reality.
Betty recalled in a diary account:
When Barney and I presented ourselves to Dr. Simon in December 1963, we had many questions about hypnosis. What was hypnosis? Dr. Simon told us that no one really knew what it was. However, the kind he used was not the same as “stage hypnosis,” which we had seen in public demonstrations, but a special technique he had used as the chief of neuropsychiatry for men returning from the war front in the 1940s. Later, Barney asked Dr. Simon what a hallucination was, so Dr. Simon gave him a demonstration. Barney “saw” the office door open; “saw” a little white dog come into the room; “felt” him jump up on his lap and begin licking his face; and finally, “saw” him go back out into the hall. Barney saw and felt the dog, but all the while he knew it was not real; it was imaginary.
More accurately, Dr. Simon had learned this technique as a consult- ant in neuropsychiatry to the General Dispensary in New York, in order to assist the dispensary dentist with the reduction of pain and anxiety in his patients. Dr. Simon explained his special technique, which he found particularly helpful in the treatment of amnesia and conversion hysteria (when a psychological trauma converts to a physical disability), in the October 1967 issue of Psychiatric Opinion. He had attained a high rate of success in treating patients when former therapists had failed to bring about an amelioration of psychiatric symptoms. It was through the use of his authoritative personality (some would say authoritarian) that he was able to penetrate traumatic pseudo-memories and less critical memories that precipitated amnesia or psychically generated physical symptoms.
By arriving at the crux of the matter, Simon was able to relieve his patients’ symptoms.
Dr. Simon began a three-week period of conditioning the Hills to enter a deep hypnotic trance—the stage of somnambulism. Had they not been good hypnotic subjects, Dr. Simon would have employed narco- synthesis to open up the area of conflict. Sodium amytal or sodium pentothal, commonly referred to as truth serum, would have been administered to open up the area of conflict, often in conjunction with hypnosis. How- ever, this would have been less desirable because the area of conflict would have been opened up under less controlled conditions than is possible with hypnosis. Therefore, hypnosis was the preferred method of treatment. He established cues that would eliminate the time-consuming induction sequence and accelerate somnambulism, the level required to effectively impose posthypnotic amnesia. This tool would have to be employed to ensure that Betty and Barney could not share hypnotic re- call until after all hypnosis sessions had been completed. It would also serve as an emotional shield to protect the Hills from their traumatic memories until they were ready to integrate them into full consciousness. This process would take several months.
Hypnotic suggestibility scales had been devised as a means of determining the extent to which a subject responds to hypnosis. Although they consist of various measures for each stage of induction, the first stage is usually determined by the subject’s compliance with a simple task, such as imagining the force of a heavy weight held in one’s hand. If the subject’s arm lowers, he or she has reached level one. The suggestion that a subject will not experience pain when a needle is inserted into his or her arm signifies the attainment of a deep trance level.
In earlier times, hypnotic suggestibility was thought to be an indication of a subject’s willingness to comply with a hypnotist’s directives. More recently, new studies have refuted these earlier beliefs. A 2005 article by Michael R. Nash and Grant Benham in Scientific American Mind discussed “The Truth and Hype of Hypnosis.” New hypnosis studies have shown that not everyone is susceptible to hypnotic suggestion, and motivation does not necessarily play a role in the success of induction. It seems to relate more to an individual’s ability to concentrate and to be- come absorbed in activities such as reading or listening to music. It is unrelated to gullibility, hysteria, psychopathology, submissiveness, or imagination. Skeptics have charged that it is simply a matter of having an especially vivid imagination. However, empirical studies have shown that many “imaginative” subjects are poor candidates for hypnosis. There- fore, when we learn that a hypnotic subject is highly suggestible, it does not indicate that he is malleable or compliant. It means only that he is more hypnotizable
It is interesting to note that several research studies indicate that those who suffer from traumatic stress are more highly suggestible to somnambulism (the deepest level of trance) than the general public. Betty and Barney were both able to reach the level of somnambulism, although Barney’s trance was slightly deeper than Betty’s. Only 20 percent of the population can reach this deepest level of hypnosis at which the subject can effectively assimilate the traumatic experience and reintegrate it into conscious memory. The Hills were excellent subjects.
Nash and Benham discussed a 2004 study by James E. Horton of the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, and Helen J. Crawford of Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University. Using magnetic resonance imaging they attempted to determine whether or not brain structures play a part in an individual’s responsiveness to hypnosis. They observed that the anterior part of the corpus callosum, the large, white-matter structure that connects the left and right brain, was 32 percent larger in highly hypnotizable subjects. This part of the brain inhibits unwanted stimuli and plays an important role in focusing attention. It would be interesting to image the corpus callosum of patients who have a post- traumatic stress disorder psychiatric diagnosis to test this finding. If this group is more suggestible, it would seem to follow that this area of their brain is more highly developed.
Traumatic amnesia, also called dissociative amnesia, is the total or partial inability to recall an event associated with trauma or extreme stress. These memory gaps, spanning from a few minutes to a few days, usually occur during the horrors of war, natural disasters, or accidents. This amnesia for the event is usually psychologically induced to protect the victim from memories that cannot be safely integrated. Most people who experience traumatic amnesia, such as the Hills, are aware that they have a period of missing time. The amnesia acts as a circuit breaker to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed. The resulting memory loss may be confusing and distressing for the individual who experiences it, just as it was for the Hills. Hypnosis and drug-facilitated interviews are employed by a psychiatrist to reduce the anxiety associated with the period of amnesia, and to guide the patient through the painful experience or conflict. The doctor must use extreme caution to prevent the creation of false memories through suggestion or to stimulate extreme anxiety that could lead to an increased level of trauma. This was of utmost importance to Dr. Simon in his treatment of patients with traumatic amnesia. Recent research has suggested that although the content of the recovered memories may or may not be accurate, it most frequently is. However, we can- not assume that it reflects real events unless another person independently confirms it.