The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: Psychophysics Experiments
It seems more than a coincidence that, according to Betty, her Portsmouth home was entered and uncanny events transpired almost immediately after her contact attempts were initiated. Given the multiple-witness component to some of the paranormal events, one must place these reported phenomena in one’s gray basket—that which can- not be proved or disproved. The possibility exists that some of the re- ports could be attributed to group hysteria or hyper imagination. However, where no logical explanation can be found, one must suspect psi activity or human intervention. We do not think that all of the events were purely psychological in nature. But we have not been able to identify a friend, relative, or tenant who had the means or motive to perpetrate a hoax against the Hills and their family in these particular events.
Later references to phone monitoring, overheard by objective witnesses, leads us to speculate about the source of these early “paranormal” events. But speculation leads nowhere, without evidence, and a formal investigation of this alleged psi phenomena was never carried out. One must, however, consider this alleged pattern of unusual events and intrusive acts in the context of the publicity surrounding the Hills’ UFO encounter. In 1961, when Betty’s leaf-encased earrings mysteriously appeared in the kitchen of her home, the U.S. Air force and NICAP were investigating the Hills’ close encounter with an anomalous craft. In late November 1965, John Luttrell’s series of articles about the Hills’ UFO encounter, hypnosis, and alleged abduction had received widespread publicity. If an intelligence agency were perpetrating psychological warfare upon the Hills in an attempt to discredit them by portraying them as crackpots, it would have the motive to hoax these alleged paranormal events. The Hills were not crackpots. On the contrary, they were a levelheaded couple who were persistent in their attempts to understand an extremely bizarre experience.
On April 4, 1966, Betty replied to a letter from Robert Hohmann as follows:
Dear Mr. Hohmann,
We have delayed answering your letter because we have been giving it a lot of thought as to the prerequisites for contact. It is just impossible to know these. We have thought and thought, but cannot come up with an answer. We do not know.
We do know this. Barney and I go out frequently at night for one reason or another. Since last October, we have seen our “friends” on the average of eight or nine times out of every 10 trips, outside of Portsmouth. Last Tuesday night we spoke in Dover, N.H., and on Monday night two policemen witnessed one, and several people saw one on Tuesday night, including me.
One night six witnesses and I watched for 45 minutes while one came out over a lake and performed for us, by maneuvering at different heights, different flight patterns, different lighting effects, and then it met with a second one for a few minutes be- fore they took off in different directions. Last Saturday Barney and I decided to retrace our trip in the White Mountains, as of September 1961, but this time my parents were with us.
As we were returning through the Franconia Notch in the general area of the tramway and Cannon Mountain, one moved around the mountain about 50 feet from the ground, in front of us. Its lights dimmed out and we could see the row of windows before it be- came invisible. It just faded out of sight and then reappeared with different lighting behind us. It started to move closer to us when some cars came along and it again disappeared. On the opposite side of the highway was a second one, which also faded out.
At first we thought that all these were a coincidence, but I’m changing my mind, since many people still have not seen them; not even one. I have the feeling that they might be acquainting us with some of their techniques. Also, they seem to find me sometimes when I am alone at night, but not Barney. I go around asking myself, “What is it they want?” I wonder if they are trying to overcome any and all fears of them we might have, in preparation for another direct contact. If so, we will request some hardware and contact you. I am hoping that this is their purpose rather than our going on an unexpected trip with them.
We have not told anyone but my family about all of these contacts, with the exception of you: I wonder if anyone else has had experiences like these?
Sincerely,
The multiple-witness lake sighting that Betty mentioned occurred on February 22, 1966. A young woman who lived a short distance from the Barrett family farm reported that she had been approached by a UFO at close range as she walked home at 9:10 p.m. the previous Tuesday. She testified that she had felt a “strong force” as the craft passed overhead that seemed to catch her, and she had to exert considerable strength to hold onto her purse. When it let go, she was unsteady on her feet, nearly losing her balance. She contacted Betty because she was beginning to become fearful of walking home alone, although she had routinely done this without concern for years.
Betty drove to her parents’ farm a week later for the purpose of at- tempting a UFO observation. She, joined by her mother, sister, niece, nephew, and the young woman, departed in Betty’s car at 9 p.m. for the location where the UFO had appeared the previous week.
Betty documented the following details in two sighting reports, which we have merged together:
We stopped in the spot where Rosemary reported her sighting the previous week. We decided it was not a safe place to stop at night because of traffic, so we drove ahead about 100 yards.
As soon as we stopped, we all saw the UFO flying between the trees. It was a large, bright red flashing light. I flashed the car headlights and the interior light, and the UFO wobbled and went down. We wanted to go up to the UFO, but we knew we could not walk through the yard of that owner. (He raises mink, fox, etc. for their pelts, and might shoot at a prowler.) We were parked in front of the home and someone turned on the side light, lighting up the yard, so we decided to leave. We did wait about five minutes without seeing the UFO again. Since we were acquainted with the terrain, we decided that the UFO had landed on the knoll down by the lake. We knew that if we went down Country Pond Road to Country Pond, we could park the car, and cross the lake on the ice, to the spot where it had settled. We decided to do this.
As we arrived, the UFO was going up, as though from the knoll. We did not see it on the ground, but assume it was very close from our observation. This time I did not flash the car lights or use the interior lights, but as we were running down to the lake itself, Janet lit a cigarette. At this, the UFO seemed to hesitate and then started to swing around in our direction. It swayed back and forth in a pendulum motion and rose to the tops of the trees.
It traveled slowly around us, following the shoreline and flying just above the treetops. We all observed its disk shape through the binoculars. Janet, Kathy, and Glenn saw windows when the UFO turned on its interior lights. When we flashed the flashlight in its direction, it put off its light, so we decided to point it only at the ground. It continued to travel around a projection of land where it was impossible to see it.
We returned to the car and drove out onto the projection, which leads to a bridge, which connects to an island. During the drive I was flashing the headlights, trying to imitate the sound (pattern) they had made on the trunk of the car in the White Mountains. We drove out to the end of the island. The craft stopped ahead of us and then went around the island in the direction of the bridge. We turned the car around and headed back.
Suddenly we saw the UFO, and a second one was with it—the second one was very close to the ground while ours remained at treetop level. The UFO returned to this point and was headed for the knoll again. Again it reversed direction and gave us a demonstration of its abilities. It flew above the treetops with the red light flashing. Then, it climbed to airplane level and skipped along with red and green lights flashing. Then, it turned off all of its lights with the exception of a large yellow light, and moved across the sky at an angle where it looked just like a moving star. It reversed direction again and headed for the knoll, flying as though it was a plane.
Then it flew in a step-by-step downward pattern, followed by a falling leaf motion. It wobbled and came close to the ground again. Suddenly we saw that a second one was with it, very close to the ground. The two of them stayed side by side just above the ice, about 25 feet apart. We were astonished at seeing this second one and somewhat unnerved. We watched for a moment debating what to do. One of these UFOs projected a tele- scoping funnel-like spotlight onto Janet. Our impulse was to get out of there as quickly as possible. We decided to go back and park the car at our first location.
We did this, wondering what to do next. At this point, a train came through the junction, about a quarter of a mile away. We saw the second UFO rise up and go over the treetops, and the last time we saw it, it was traveling along the top of a boxcar on the train, heading south towards Haverhill, Massachusetts.
The first UFO came up and stopped behind the car, just above the treetops. I started the car and headed back to the highway. It swung over on the right-hand side of the car; about 10 feet back from the road above the trees and traveled along beside us. It paced me at my speed. When I slowed down, it slowed down. When I increased my speed, it increased its speed. When we came to the highway, I stopped for the stop sign but it continued on. I made a left turn and went about a quarter of a mile, and turned right onto a side road to follow it. We followed it for about a mile but it was getting ahead of us, so we went home to my mother’s. When we arrived, Barney complained that he should have gone with us, for the TV had so much interference that he and my father could not enjoy the program.
Betty suspected that her attempts to establish contact with her captors were slowly moving toward fruition. However, she felt somewhat ill- equipped to develop a methodology that would lead to direct contact. For this she required scientific input to steer her in the right direction.
In a letter dated April 27, 1966, Hohmann wrote that through the past several weeks he (representing the team) had been contemplating what details would be acceptable to all parties concerned if the Hills succeeded in their attempt to arrange direct contact with their abductors. Its top priority was to reassure the UFO occupants that every effort would be made to guarantee their personal safety and that of their vehicle. For that reason, the Hills or the occupants were to determine the time and location of the anticipated contact. Additionally, he added that the team comprised three individuals engaged in science and engineering activities, and a fourth person, an industrial electrician, who would serve as an unbiased spectator to the event. Hohmann stated that all three engineers considered UFOs to be a scientific possibility, and would participate in the contact experiment “without malice or intent to deceive or betray the purpose of the meeting,” adding that they would not carry concealed weapons of any kind. Further, he informed the Hills that all three had access to the highest level of their company’s organization. If the contact experiment yielded desirable results, Hohmann told the Hills that they would be able to personally deliver the physical evidence to its final destination, facilitated by the experimental team in the most “direct and expeditious manner.” Apparently, the team of independent researchers planned to deliver the hardware to its employer if the Hills succeeded in their attempt to obtain a workable piece of hardware. Citing the team’s desire to gain a better understanding and worldwide acceptance of the UFO phenomena, Hohmann offered to contribute its assistance to that objective. He cautioned, however, that for scientific acceptance, physical evidence was a prerequisite.
Encouraged that she was slowly and methodically heading in the right direction, Betty attempted another contact experiment. She elaborated on this experiment in a report in her memoirs. She stated, “It was suggested to me to try to contact a UFO by sending my thoughts to them, to set up a meeting. I did not think it was possible, but agreed that I would try it. Every night at 9 p.m., I would stand on by back porch and think: ‘UFOs, where are you? Can you hear me? If so, go to Kingston; go to the Barrett’s home; land in the field. Go to the house and knock on the door; you will be admitted and we can meet.’ Every night I did this faithfully. I repeated, ‘No harm will come to you,’ three times.”
Betty continued:
After several weeks my father called me and asked me to come home for he wanted to talk to me. He said that he had received a telephone call from his cousin’s widow, also named Barrett [who lived a few hundred feet away from Betty’s parents’ farm], asking him to visit her, for she was extremely upset. She is 73, lives alone, and is strong and healthy and not senile in any way. She had sold her home to the Episcopal Church, and in turn they had built her a small home behind the parsonage and back from the street. She was awakened during the night by a knocking on her door. This was very unusual for anyone to pass through the minister’s yard and go to her house. Besides, he had a light on and she did not. The knocking was very strange: knock…[delay] knock, knock, knock…knock. She became fearful and did not go to the door.
Then she spotted a red flash of light and thought that a thunder shower was approaching and maybe the wind had been blowing something that made a knocking sound. Then, the flashing changed color and seemed to be on the opposite side of the house. So, she went over and looked out the window. There was a craft, with windows lighted, flashing all kinds of multicolored lights. At this point, she decided that she was losing her mind. She pulled down the window shades, jumped into bed and covered her head.” [Mrs. Barrett had not been apprised of Betty’s experiments.]