The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: A Tenuous Diagnosis
Dr. Simon continued by explaining that the writer seemed to have derived “many inferences from scant evidence.” This methodology of dialectic discussions between “believers” and “nonbelievers,” in his opinion, would not answer any of the questions surrounding the UFO mystery or the Hill case in particular. He further expressed his disapproval of the methodology of some skeptics with his comment, “the excavation of little items does no more to solve this complex problem than does Dr. Donald Menzel’s ‘production of phenomena’ that could explain UFOs or Phillip Klass’s electronic plasma hypothesis.” He added that, although they might explain some phenomena, they could not explain the Hills’ experience. Attacks by the process of “minimal extraction” could not answer the many questions that exist. He added, “I have steadfastly held that you probably did have an experience with the sighting. I think the study of this should be in the hands of objective scientists (among whom I include myself), and not the object of dialectic discourse in which invective and pejorative are the means of evaluating data.”
The question of Freudian sexual symbolism is perplexing. NICAP investigator Walter Webb’s “Final Report” contains a reference to it, and it has been a topic of discussion through time. Clearly Dr. Simon has denied making the remarks attributed to him and expressed disapproval concerning either the misinterpretation of his statements or the fabrication of statements later attributed to him. Further, he seems to have little tolerance for those who narrowly interpret the complex subject matter involved in the mystery of the Hills’ abduction memories, and who, based upon scant evidence, debunk it. On the other hand, Walter Webb was a careful scientist who meticulously conducted a long-term investigation of the Hill experience. He met with Dr. Simon and listened to the hypno- sis tapes with Betty and Barney’s approval. There is no reason to believe that his documentation is inaccurate. It seems that this aspect of the case will remain a mystery.
In this time frame, Dr. Simon and skeptical investigators searched for alternative hypotheses to explain away the UFO abduction conjecture. Skeptics reported that Dr. Simon had concluded Barney’s passive, highly suggestible personality gave way to the more dominant Betty’s feeling that her dreams reflected a real event. Others stated that Dr. Simon felt that Barney, being sympathetic toward his wife, over time came to believe that her nightmares were subconscious memories of a real abduction. Dr. Leo Sprinkle, the director of counseling and testing and professor of counseling services at the University of Wyoming, mailed a personality inventory to the Hills, which they completed in 1967. The results, on file in Betty’s records, give us an accurate interpretation of each of the Hills’ personality profiles, and puts to rest the notion that Barney was submissive or highly suggestible. On the “Adjective Check List” (Gough & Heilbrum, © 1962), Barney did not score outside the normal range on measures of suggestibility, self-confidence, self-doubt, excitability, inhibitions, disposition, conformity, and anxiety. His only highly statistically significant score was in the area of “intraception.” On this, he scored in the high range as a capable and conscientious person who derives pleasure from exercising intellectual talents. He was above average in the areas of perseverance, responsibility, achievement, self- control, commitment to truth and justice, sincerity and dependability, self-discipline, and hard work. He also had a better than average interest in the opposite sex in a healthy and outgoing manner.
Dr. Simon’s reported assessment of Betty’s personality was more on the mark. Her scores were highly statistically significant in the areas of perseverance, aggression, and autonomy. She scored a few points higher than Barney on the dominance scale, although he scored above average. This suggests that although she attempted to dominate Barney, his strong- willed personality countered her efforts. He openly disagreed with Betty, often judging her opinions as ridiculous. This led to constant good-natured bantering between them. It is a good indicator that she did not convince him that he was observing a UFO or that her dreams were his reality. She predictably scored high as an individual who acts independently of others’ social values and expectations. This is reflected by her entrance into an interracial marriage in 1960. She also scored within the highly statistically significant range on individualism, optimism, spontaneity, and independence. She, as did Barney, scored above average on measures of achievement, self control, responsibility, and commitment to truth and justice. It seems that the Hills were remarkably normal.
When their therapeutic sessions ended, Dr. Simon gave the Hills a copy of their hypnosis tapes. He suggested that they should listen to them, as repeated exposure might reduce their level of trauma. Betty and Barney did not want to listen to the tapes alone, so they phoned Air Force officer Ben Swett and arranged to join him and his wife at their home. Colonel Swett’s sworn testimony documents the night they listened to Barney’s first hypnosis session together.
He wrote:
I was skeptical at first, but hearing what was on those tapes, plus the fact they didn’t want any publicity, convinced me that they were telling the truth. For example, under hypnosis, Barney described seeing the UFO hovering close to the ground near the road. He got out of the car, walked toward it, and looked at it through binoculars. Something like a man was looking at him out of a window—right into his eyes—and started putting thoughts into his mind: He says, “Come a little closer—Don’t be scared”— uh—I used to talk to rabbits like that—when I was hunting them.
Just before the point on the tape where Barney started screaming, “I’ve gotta get outta here!” and ran back to the car, the physical Barney jumped up and ran out to our kitchen and vomited in the sink. I thought that would be pretty hard to fake.
Betty and Barney asked Captain Swett to listen to their tapes and to determine if he thought that they could somehow reflect a dream or a fantasy created in their minds.
His sworn testimony states:
I listened to all the tapes. That took five nights. I made a lot of notes and went back to several tapes to make sure I had them right. Then I cross-checked comparable elements, distilled the whole thing in my mind, and decided what I believe. What they recalled under hypnosis consistently (and persistently) supported the hypothesis that their experience was real. But Dr. Simon didn’t believe in UFOs and wasn’t about to. He kept leading them toward any other explanation, and thus strongly suggested their experience wasn’t real. That is why they were so ambivalent and why their trauma had not been resolved. On the positive side, the fact he did not believe them (did not suggest it to them and tried to lead them away from it), greatly increased their credibility and thus supported the hypothesis that what they remembered was real.
Swett returned the tapes to the Hills, told them he believed their experience was real, and explained why he thought so. Then he went to their house several more times for what amounted to informal counseling sessions in which he tried to help them look at the entire incident more objectively.
Swett’s support reduced their anxiety about the reality of their ab- duction, but Barney continued to ruminate about the fear of reprisal. Betty wrote, “He wondered if they would come back and punish us. In my attempt to relieve some of his feelings, I would scoff at his suggestions. How would they find us? What would they do? How would they find out about our hypnosis? UFOs were not everyday occurrences, and they were probably on their way back to wherever they were from, and would never return. We had nothing to fear; I was sure we would never see them again.”
The Hills also permitted NICAP investigator Walter Webb to listen to their hypnosis tapes and to discuss them with Dr. Simon under an agreement of confidentiality.
On July 13, 1964, Webb wrote a letter stating:
Last night I listened to the last tape at Dr. Simon’s home. We both agree that the first encounter with the UFO really happened (he and I differ on just what sort of craft was seen). Regarding the second encounter, I believe Dr. Simon does have a highly plausible theory that could account for the alleged abduction.
But, the dream theory has not eliminated all doubt in my mind as I had hoped it would. Unlike most UFO ‘contactee’ claims, this one is particularly hard to explain because the first encounter appears to be true, and if the first encounter actually took place, with all of its extraordinary features and implications, then I feel we cannot positively rule out the possibility, however remote, that the second encounter did, in fact, occur. Dr. Simon admits he cannot prove that his dream theory is correct but, on the other hand, spaceship abduction cannot be proved either.
In the next paragraph he added, “The doctor knows very little about the UFO subject. So far he considers the notion of extraterrestrial visitation a bit fantastic. In refusing to even examine the available evidence supporting the space hypothesis, Dr. Simon has demonstrated a narrow, rigid outlook on the subject. He also has certain preconceptions about the appearance, behavior, and motives of alien visitors.” Senior Atmospheric Physicist James E. MacDonald expressed a similar view in a letter he wrote to the Hills on October 6, 1967. He explained that he would have enjoyed hearing an extensive version of the Hills’ case firsthand, but he was engaged in a meeting with Dr. Simon and two Harvard astronomers.
He continued:
We spent a long evening going over various aspects of the UFO problem, and did get a brief opportunity to hear some selected portions of the tapes Dr. Simon played. I tried to emphasize to Simon that he probably should be paying much more attention to the preamnesiac parts of the total account. After hearing a bit of the tapes where you go back through the initial sighting out in the field, I am most impressed. So is Simon, as far as I can tell. As I stated on the WNEW-TV program, the later portions are entirely too complex for me to have any opinion on them. But the first part, where the hypnoanalysis matches your conscious recall in reasonable fashion, seems to me to be quite significant. I asked Simon if, in his experience with battlefield trauma cases, he had ever encountered a degree of terror comparable to that which seems to come through in your part of the tapes. He indicated that he had not heard anything quite the same in battlefield cases.
When I then asked him if he did not feel this implied that it was a real sighting, he said he felt that it probably was. I then pressed him on this, pointing out that the implications would be profound, and he retreated a bit from that position. I would not presume to be able to state his precise viewpoint on this, but I hope that he and you go over this again sometime.
Although his work with Dr. Simon left many unanswered questions, it seemed to relieve some of Barney’s psychosomatic symptoms. He was able to become much more proactive and he plunged into his civil rights work. He also continued to pursue the question, “Is there evidence to prove that we were really abducted?” When Betty and Barney discussed their belief that a real abduction had occurred with Dr. Simon, he told them that anything was possible. However, if a real abduction had occurred there would be a physical capture spot. They became more determined than ever to find it. Almost immediately Betty and Barney resumed their search of the White Mountains.
They began to take weekend camping excursions with Betty’s parents, who owned a travel trailer. They would spend long afternoons driving and searching, but to no avail. Then, on Labor Day weekend in September of 1965, they crossed the Kancamagus Highway to Lincoln and turned south onto Route 3. Almost instinctively Barney made a left turn onto Route 175, and both Betty and Barney immediately recognized the area. They became very alert, anticipating the approaching turn onto the gravel road. They proceeded slowly until they found the area where the roadblock had occurred. Directly beside them was the path in the woods that Barney had drawn in Dr. Simon’s office. They followed the path through the woods until they came to a clearing covered with soft beach sand. Betty immediately recognized this as being identical to the sand she walked on the night of her capture. They stood in awe as they realized that Barney’s drawing matched this area precisely, with the exception that his car was facing in the opposite direction. They began to examine the ground and the surrounding landscape for evidence. Tire tracks made by a car and several charred and broken limbs lay inside the perimeter. A small, dead, blackened spruce tree stood in the middle of the clearing. Betty wrote, “That night after the second encounter, I was very well aware that the car was pulled off the road—I am positive of that. Now I believe that the car had been turned around and headed back towards Route 175.”
This supporting evidence, albeit circumstantial, that their abduction memories reflected objective reality, was reassuring to the Hills. They were thereafter less troubled and more secure in their belief that the abduction was real.