The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: Canada to Colebrook
An analysis of the Hills’ separate recall regarding their abduction would be lacking without a detailed inspection of their individual claims under hypnosis. To facilitate this dissection of material, Kathy transcribed the 10 surviving hypnosis tapes recorded by Dr. Simon and given to her by Betty for this project. Through careful scrutiny of their individual recall, we can ascertain whether or not the Hills’ memories of specific places and times meshed, as one would expect them to, had the event actually occurred. It is also important to draw comparisons between Betty’s and Barney’s compliance with Dr. Simon’s directives and their individual descriptions of events, particularly those that were not part of their conscious, continuous memories. As a result of Dr. Simon’s command that the Hills should recall all of their experiences, emotions, and thoughts, the transcripts contain an abundance of emotionally charged material during the abduction scenario. For the purpose of this analysis, much of the emotional content will be removed and our primary focus will be upon descriptive content and accuracy of recall.
It is our contention that a clear and precise analysis can only be per- formed when all of the details surrounding the event are examined. There- fore, for the first time, tapes of all 10 hypnoanalysis sessions will be exposed to scrutiny. For the reader’s convenience, when applicable, we have referenced similar text in John Fuller’s The Interrupted Journey. However, the hypnosis tapes were owned by the Hills and Dr. Simon, and temporarily loaned to Fuller for his book. None of his transcripts of the hypno- sis sessions, or his comments, were used in this book. This work is entirely original and derived from Betty’s copy of the audio tapes.
The primary focus of this investigation will be to compare Betty’s hypnotically retrieved recall to that of Barney’s. Then, the hypnosis transcripts will be scrutinized against Betty’s written account of the nightmares that she experienced shortly after their consciously recalled UFO encounter in 1961. Due to the problematic nature of hypnotically retrieved material regarding verification of its authenticity, we will examine it for correlating data that the Hills could not have discussed prior to the hypnosis.
Our investigation will begin with the Hills’ hypnotic recall of the events of September 18, 1961, one day prior to the UFO encounter. We will have the opportunity to inspect the Hills’ individual recall of their jour- ney through Canada and to compare it for correlating accuracy. Betty’s and Barney’s unique personality characteristics, language patterns, and organizational abilities will emerge to give the reader insight into the Hills’ private lives. In the end, it will result in a comprehensive overview of the much misunderstood UFO encounter in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and the events leading up to a purported alien abduction. Let us begin with Barney’s first hypnosis session.
On February 22, 1964, Dr. Benjamin Simon began his study of Barney’s experiences by inducing a deep hypnotic trance. Over the previous few Saturdays, he had conditioned Barney to enter a deep trance and had established cues to facilitate a quick path to the deepest level attainable.
Simon’s commanding voice ordered:
All right then, trance Barney. Go deeper and deeper asleep…far asleep…deeper and deeper, fully relaxed. All muscles are relaxed. Deeper and deeper asleep…deeper asleep, deep asleep. When I touch your hand your arm will become rigid like a bar of steel…rigid. It cannot bend or relax; very rigid. Now, when I touch the top of your hand you will lose all sensation. You will not feel this pin…no pain whatsoever. Now as I stroke your hand, the sensation becomes normal. The arm relaxes. You go deeper and deeper. Now you are in a very deep sleep. Your memory is now sharp, very sharp. You will remember everything…everything that has occurred; all of your experiences. You will not be anxious or distressed but you will remember everything and you will tell me everything. I want you to go back now to your vacation in 1961 when you were in Montreal.
When Dr. Simon asked him to describe the motel in Montreal where he and Betty stayed on the night of September 18, Barney responded that they did not stay in Montreal, adding, “It was approximately 112 miles from Montreal.” When queried about his failure to remember the town or the name of the hotel, Barney explained that they arrived at night, and due to the darkness, he did not notice the motel’s name.
In an attempt to elucidate, Barney added, “It was out in the country. In this small area we did not see any town marks and the car was making a lot of noise. It was Betty’s car that we were driving. We stopped at a service station and they told me the car had not been properly greased. So they greased the car and this eliminated the noise. Then we decided that we could not continue to Montreal and that we should look for a place to spend the night. And, that’s when I saw this motel and did not pay any attention to the name.”
The car repair had interrupted their trip and thrown them off their schedule. As darkness fell, Barney (the driver) became tired, so he decided to spend the night at a motel and continue on to Montreal the next morning. Although he had never been denied access to lodging, he knew that racial prejudice was prevalent in the early 1960s, and he was uncertain about Canada’s policy on civil rights. He was all too aware of the hostility of white people toward blacks, particularly when there was an interracial couple, so he was concerned about whether or not the motel would accept them. In 1961, it would not have been unusual for a racially prejudiced motel owner to deny lodging simply by stating, “sorry, no vacancy.” The fact that they and their dachshund, Delsey, were immediately accepted came as a welcome relief, and they settled in for a much- needed rest.
On March 7, 1964, Dr. Simon placed Betty in a deep trance using precisely the same technique he had used on Barney. But unlike Barney, who gave a precise response, Betty failed to follow Dr. Simon’s exact instructions to give details of her trip from Niagara Falls to Montreal. Instead, she jumped ahead in time to the afternoon of their arrival in Montreal. When Dr. Simon directly asked Betty if they had spent the previous night anywhere, she responded as if her train of thought had suddenly been interrupted. In a hurried manner, she stated only that they had stayed “at this motel down by the Thousand Islands and left there in the morning and went to Montreal” (approximately a two-hour drive). She didn’t mention the car repair or any of the information that Barney so carefully and precisely offered, nor did she express her thoughts or feelings. Instead, she placed her emphasis on Montreal.
Under individual questioning by Dr. Simon, Betty and Barney both agreed that they lost their route to St. Catherine’s Street in downtown Montreal. However, their individual recall of the event is inconsistent and out of sequence. Betty gives the impression that they stopped at two garages to ask for directions, whereas Barney mentions pulling to the side of the road to check his map before proceeding to St. Catherine’s Street.
Barney testified, “I approach the city from a different direction than I thought I should on the map. I pull over to the side and I ask Betty, ‘Where are we? Can we see ourselves positioned on the map?’ And, I see my mistake by this fork and I had continued to the right when I should have made a very sharp left turn, which would have brought me into the city in a different way.”
Both Betty and Barney told Dr. Simon about a gas station attendant who did not understand English and assumed they wanted to use the toilet facilities. However, Betty placed this stop early in the afternoon, prior to their drive along St. Catherine’s Street, whereas Barney says it occurred in the confusion of the afternoon traffic. This is an excellent example of the fallibility of memory. Although there is no doubt that the Hills became lost as they attempted to maneuver through downtown Montreal, their recall of the sequence of events is not identical.
These apparent discrepancies occurred numerous times during the Hills’ testimony, but questioning by Dr. Simon in subsequent sessions eventually led to an accurate account. However, these inconsistencies have never come to light, and this has led to distortion and misunderstanding of the Hill abduction story.
On first account, the Hills’ descriptive recall of the sights on St. Catherine’s Street meshes almost perfectly. Betty and Barney observed the stylish fashions in storefront windows, and Betty, who had a keen memory for facts and figures, recalled the price of a mink coat that she admired: $1,895. Barney added, “I am parked by the side and we are admiring the buildings and we both are talking about the way the women are dressed and how stylish Montreal is.” Barney noticed representatives of his own race on the streets of Montreal and was pleased by this. The Hills exchanged thoughts about finding a hotel near St. Catherine’s Street where they could take in the nightlife. But, on second thought, they reasoned that Delsey would more likely be accepted in a motel on the out- skirts of the city. So they attempted to locate a route that would take them out of Montreal.
Betty and Barney both described the difficulty they experienced while attempting to maneuver through Montreal’s heavy traffic and confusion. Barney spoke of being quite a distance from the downtown section when he lost his route and stopped for directions at a French-speaking garage. When this attempt failed, he located a police officer directing traffic, who spoke English very haltingly, with a strong accent. But he gave Barney the directions, and Barney was able to locate his desired route to the outskirts of Montreal.
Betty, in contrast to Barney, did not identify the police officer, but seemed to be referring to him when she stated, “And then we got lost again and Barney got lost again and a man told him how to go. But, I guess we took the wrong turn because we went over a bridge and found ourselves outside of Montreal. And we kept going. We talked about turning around and going back because we hadn’t done any sightseeing in Montreal, but we kept driving, thinking we would get a motel first.”
She still anticipated that they would find a motel for the night, oblivious to the fact that Barney was thinking, “The cars are driving all over and I think we want to get out of the city as quickly as possible. I decide the traffic is still too congested and it’s about the hour that most people are getting off from work. I want to avoid this as much as possible and put distance between me and the city of Montreal.” Barney has made the decision to leave Montreal, but Betty is unaware of his agenda. He does not have a detailed city map, and without one, Montreal can be a very confusing place…especially because all of the signs are in French. He has already become lost twice and does not want to venture back into the congested city traffic.