The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: Conscious Memory Fades
With the UFO overhead, emitting electronic buzzing sounds on the trunk of their car, Betty’s and Barney’s conscious memories began to fade—Barney’s more rapidly than Betty’s. They were left only with the hazy memories of a sudden, unplanned left-hand turn off Route 3 and over a railroad type of bridge, an inexplicable roadblock where they were signaled to stop, and a huge, red-orange, flaming moon sitting on the ground. Their next fully conscious memory occurred in Ashland, New Hampshire, when a second series of electronic buzzing sounds, the same as the first, apparently brought them to full mental acuity. Throughout the ensuing months, as they began to remember more and more, these memories would come to haunt them. Repeated attempts to find a rational explanation for them resulted in more questions than answers.
Our examination of the Hills’ hypnotic recall of this period will begin with Betty, who did not have visual contact with the occupants of the craft, as Barney had in the field. It is believed that her conscious memory of the events following the stop at the field persisted until sometime after the craft emitted buzzing sounds upon the car. She recalled vague memories of a pumpkin head at the Jack-O’-Lantern Resort, 8 miles south of the field in Lincoln. The brakes squealed as Barney came to a near stop on the highway and maneuvered a sharp left-hand turn over a steel bridge. There was also a roadblock, but this memory was faint and distant from her. It seems that these buzzing sounds were a significant factor in the process of partially eradicating the couple’s memory—full memory re- turned only after they heard a second series of electronic buzzing sounds some 17 miles south of the their turn onto Route 175 in Ashland.
Betty’s hypnotic recall began just north of the bridge. On March 7, 1964, she remembered riding along in an unfamiliar area with no recollection of how she arrived there. She sensed that something was going to happen, but she wasn’t frightened. Suddenly, without warning, the car slowed and made a sharp left-hand turn off the highway onto a narrow road. All conversation had stopped, but Betty assumed that if they be- came lost, they’d come out somewhere.
Barney’s account of this time frame is consistent with Betty’s. He stated that, as he was hurrying to get away, he drove perhaps a few miles before he noticed he was not on Route 3. In a March 21, 1964 hypnosis session he stated, “I made a turn and I never knew this. I don’t know why I had to make that turn, and I was lost. I saw I was on a strange area of highway and I had never been there before. And I was being stopped. I was very uncomfortable, but somehow the eyes [that seemed to have penetrated his consciousness and prevented him from taking self-initiated action] were telling me that I should be calm and that I would not be harmed. And to relax…and I saw these men coming down towards me….”
Dr. Simon, with incredulity in his voice, asked Barney if he hadn’t just felt or dreamed that he encountered men in the road. Barney responded with an emphatic, “No, I did not dream this!” Dr. Simon, in amazement, asked, “There were men down the road that actually stopped you?” Barney forcefully replied, “Yes!” Then, Dr. Simon pursued his line of reasoning by asking Barney if this hadn’t been just an impression or a dream. But Barney remained steadfast in his insistence that the event had actually occurred. It was not a dream or a fantasy. To support his contention, Barney added, “They were there and I did not know this. I never knew this because I was hypnotized by Dr. Simon and he told me that I would remember, and I remembered.”
Skeptics contend that when Betty and Barney saw a star-like light in the sky that seemed to be following them, they became frightened and turned off the main highway onto narrow mountain roads, attempting to evade the imagined UFO. But we have just presented documented evidence that Barney did not make a conscious decision to leave Route 3. The vehicle seemed to turn through the influence of an external force. Barney, who knew he was in a dangerous situation, had been actively seeking the assistance of a highway patrolman. He did not intentionally leave a straight section of the main highway to follow a less populated, more desolate route.
Betty then reported to Dr. Simon that they were traveling along when they came to a sharp curve in the road, and as they went around the curve, there were many tall trees on her side. Suddenly, she noticed men standing in the highway and thought that perhaps their car had broken down. Barney had to stop, and the men separated into two groups and started to approach the Hills’ car. The motor died, the car stalled, and Barney tried unsuccessfully to start it. He said he thought it was the men in the craft again and Betty became terrified, weeping profusely. As the men approached the passenger door, Betty attempted to escape and run into the woods to hide. However, the moment she grasped the handle to open it, the men came up and they opened the car door. There were three small men—two in front and one behind them, with another standing behind the cluster of three.
Allowing for observational stops, momentary halts, and periods of driving at less than 30 miles per hour, the roadblock occurred approximately one hour and 30 minutes after the Hills left the roadside rest stop at Mt. Cleveland. It was about 12 miles southeast of the field near Indian Head where Barney observed the craft’s occupants through binoculars.
Barney’s description, though told from his own perspective, was nearly identical to Betty’s. He described a group of men standing in the brightly illuminated highway. Without warning, a cluster of six men divided into two groups and approached each side of the car. He became frightened, but this time he didn’t reach for his gun. He had the impression, he said, “If I did think of my gun I would be harmed.” As three men assisted him out of the car, he felt two eyes coming close to his, seemingly pushing into his eyes, and he was helpless to resist. Then his mind went blank, he closed his eyes, and he thought of nothing more. One of his feet touched the ground and two men grasped him, supporting his weight as his feet dragged along the ground.
We can draw certain conclusions from these statements: Barney claims that what he “thought” was a cluster of six men in the highway split into two groups of three. Three went to him and three did not. Betty’s testimony agrees with Barney’s when she states that the men in the highway came in two groups. Each counts three men at their car door—two in front and one behind them.
In her dream account, Betty states only that eight to 11 men sur- rounded the car. However, each independently told Dr. Simon that the men split into two groups of three and approached each side of the vehicle. Betty counted a fourth behind the group on her side, but Barney closed his eyes rapidly and saw only three. In her dream, Betty sat motionless as the strange men opened the car door. However, her hypnotic recall reveals that she attempted to open the car door and flee into the woods. We can see that her dream, at this point in the sequence, lacks the detailed information that both she and Barney produced under hypnotic regression. Further, Barney offered details that could not have been absorbed by overhearing Betty tell investigators about her dreams. The dream hypothesis is failing to hold up.
It becomes apparent as we analyze the complete investigation of Betty’s and Barney’s encounter that much of the evidence in support of an abduction hypothesis has never been compiled—prior to this, we have had an incomplete picture of the entire sequence of events, and it is reasonable to assume that skepticism would prevail when all of the facts are not present.
Now let us proceed to Betty’s hypnotic recall of her trip from the vehicle to the landed craft. Betty begins, “I’m thinking I’m asleep and I’ve got to wake up. I’ve got to wake up. I don’t want to sleep. I keep trying. I’ve got to wake myself up. I don’t want to sleep. And I try and I go back again. I keep trying. I keep trying to wake up. [Sudden increase in verbalization rate] Then I do! I open my eyes and I’m walking through the woods! I just open them quick and then I shut them again. Even though I’m asleep, we were walking [Sobs].”
This portion of Betty’s recall is nearly identical to her dream description: “I am struggling to wake up; I am at the bottom of a deep well and I must get out. Everything is black. I am fighting to become conscious. Slowly and gradually I start to become conscious. I struggle to open my eyes for a moment and then they close again. I keep fighting. I am dazed and I have a faraway feeling. Then, I win the battle and my eyes are open. I am amazed!”