The True Story of the Worlds First Documented Alien Abduction: An Unconventional Craft Approaches
Back on Route 3, the Hills described the craft’s unconventional movement. Barney thought of a paddle with a rubber band attached to a ball.
He stated, “You hit the ball and the ball goes straight out and comes straight back without a circle.” Betty added, “And as they got closer, there seemed to be more of this jumping back and forth in the sky.”6 Both Betty and Barney reported that, during this time frame, the craft rapidly changed direction, ascended and descended vertically, and hovered motionless in the sky, spinning and tilting upon its side. As we analyze Betty’s and Barney’s descriptions of the craft’s flight characteristics, we can see that, although each chooses his or her own unique language to describe it, their descriptions are almost identical.
Six miles south of Cannon Mountain, Barney momentarily halted his vehicle at a parking area near the Flume, but left when he discovered that the trees blocked his view of the craft. Finally, only 13 miles south of his first observation site, he saw two wigwams, signaling that he had arrived at Indian Head. Feeling comforted by this location, “less in the barren hostility of the wooded area,” he searched his memory for a familiar open area that would afford him an unobstructed view. Moments earlier, he had been annoyed with Betty because she had become excited by the proximity of the unconventional craft. He knew that she was usually reticent to express strong emotions, so her unremitting interest signaled something significant. She was prodding him to look at the craft, but he couldn’t because he had to watch the road.
When Dr. Simon told Barney to continue on with his account, he became extremely distressed, asking to be permitted to wake up. But when Dr. Simon denied his request, assuring him that it wouldn’t trouble him, Barney’s voice became shaky. He said, “It’s over my right. God, what is it? And I try to maintain control so Betty cannot tell I’m scared. God, I’m scared!” When Dr. Simon attempted to reassure Barney that the memory wouldn’t hurt him, he broke into frantic screaming that rapidly turned into hysterical sobbing. Prior to this outbreak of emotion, the trip had gone rather well. Although Barney expressed concern from time to time about the hostility of white people toward blacks, his interactions with Caucasians had been friendly and pleasant. Although he had grown increasingly concerned about the unconventional nature of the craft, he felt comforted by the presence of motels and tourist attractions. He sim- ply did not want to proceed to the next step in his journey, one of his last conscious memories of eye-to-eye contact with the occupants of a large, hovering UFO.
But he was forced to continue forward to a slight curve in the road just one mile south of Indian Head. He had no choice but to stop his vehicle in the middle of the road because the anomalous craft that his mind had refused to acknowledge was right there, large and hovering slightly to the right of Route 3. Barney said it looked like a “big, big pancake with windows and lights—not lights, just like one big light.” It was obviously not a commercial plane, because the curved sides of this hovering disk were tipped with red lights. Additionally, it was completely silent.
Although Betty was too busy watching the road to observe the craft hovering over the field, she described how the object suddenly shot ahead of them and swung around in front of the car. It was no longer spinning, and she could see a lighted double row of windows and red lights on each side of the disk-shaped craft. Her recall of this conscious memory was nearly identical to Barney’s.
Skeptics have quoted a statement allegedly made by Dr. Simon on the Larry Glick show in the mid-1970s that Barney was “screaming and groveling on the ground” prior to UFO sighting, allegedly due to his growing fears. There is not one iota of evidence on the hypnosis tapes to support this claim. Barney’s first emotional outburst occurred when he was forced to recall his sighting just one mile south of Indian Head.
Barney’s first account of his close-up observation of the craft was punctuated with the highly charged release of repressed emotions. A full account can be found in chapter five of The Interrupted Journey. How- ever, a previously unpublished excerpt reveals Barney’s highly charged emotional state.
On March 21, 1964, he testified under hypnosis to Dr. Simon:
This is ridiculous! Oh, it’s huge! Oh my goodness. Oh, my God. I can see it. It’s there! And there are lights! Oh, jeez, I don’t believe this! I don’t believe this! I don’t believe this! It’s huge and there are people there and they’re looking back at me. Oh my God, help me! If there is a God, help me! Coming closer, I’m coming closer. There’s a man up there and he’s not gonna let me go away!
Oh! Oh! It’s big…80 feet. Look at it! Oh, look at it…two red lights. They’re on the side of it. It’s like a pancake…it looks…I’m not going to say it…I don’t believe flying saucers are…[real]. I’m not gonna say it. I don’t ever want to say that word again.
Barney immediately went on the defensive, screaming, “I’ve gotta get my gun!” (which he had placed in his jacket pocket during his first stop). Barney added more detail in an earlier regression when he informed Dr. Simon that he picked up his gun from the floor and shoved it into his pocket. “And I got out of the car with the binoculars and I stood with my left arm on the door and my right arm partly on the roof of the car.” He looked and before he could get the binoculars up to his eyes, the object shifted in an arc. It continued to have a forward look, facing him as it swung, but did not rotate from its position as it glided to an adjacent field. Barney walked across the highway in disbelief, shaking his head and trying to blink his eyes. He lifted the binoculars to his eyes and looked on unbelieving.
In hypnotic regression, Barney was able to add more details to the description of the craft’s occupants than he described to NICAP’s Walter Webb in 1961, only a month after the sighting. Briefly, he described the round-faced man who reminded him of a redheaded Irishman, and the evil-faced leader. He was a “not too big” man dressed in a military-style cap and black shiny jacket, with a scarf dangling over his left shoulder. His haunting, slanted eyes—a type that Barney had never seen before— were seemingly communicating the telepathic message, “Stay there and keep looking. Just keep looking and stay there. And keep looking. Just keep looking.”9 Filled with terror, Barney pleaded with God to give him the strength to pull the binoculars down so he could flee toward his car.
Individuals who are not familiar with the characteristics of deep trance, mentioned earlier, misinterpret this description as indicating that Barney was actually observing human, perhaps military, personnel. However, we must remember that Dr. Simon had directed Barney to express all of this innermost thoughts and emotions. Exhibiting the characteristics of deep trance, Barney mentioned three events from his past that seemed emotionally comparable to his present situation. He felt threatened by the facial expression of the round-faced crewmember who reminded him of a redheaded Irishman. His past experience with the Irish had been one of racial prejudice, but Barney remarked that this facial expression seemed friendly.
However, the man in the black, shiny jacket reminded him of a Nazi. A veteran of World War II, Barney recalled the threatening stare that reminded him of a Nazi officer and the precision of movement as the crew moved to a panel.
Finally, Barney remembered pouncing upon a tiny bunny when he was a boy on his aunt’s and uncle’s Virginia farm. The bunny felt that it was safely hidden from its captor’s view, but in reality Barney was able to apprehend it. At about midnight on September 19–20, 1961, as he stood alone in the field with a gigantic unconventional craft hovering not more than 300 feet away from him, and approximately 50 feet in the air, Barney felt as exposed as that rabbit. Barney indeed was undergoing a classic abreaction to the horrifying experience that had been haunting him for the past 17 months.
On March 21, 1964, Barney, in a less emotionally charged account, described how, as he rounded a slight curve in the road, he was con- fronted with the sight of a huge, hovering craft above and slightly to the right of the highway.
Forced to stop his vehicle directly in the middle of the road, he recalled:
It was right there, large and hovering and I could not understand this. I knew I had my gun in my pocket and I said, “I will get out and get a better look.” And I opened the car door, and tried to brace my arms on the door and on the roof of the car. And the motor was running and my arms were jiggling, so I stepped away from my car. And when I did, the object, which was to the right of the car on Betty’s side, made an arc-like turn—or not a turn, but a swinging motion over to the left of my side. And I thought, “My God, what is this thing? It’s got to be a helicopter to just stay suspended like that.” And it’s just not making any sound, so I started walking across the highway to look at it. And as I walked further away from the car I noticed with my binoculars that there were 11 men now, I thought, looking down at me, and they suddenly made a turn to what I thought was a panel. I could see their arms going up and there was one that kept looking down, and I kept going closer. I could see two red lights coming out from the tip of this thing that did not look like a plane at all, or a helicopter. I could see a long something coming down from the center and I kept going closer and closer. I thought, “My God, what is this thing?!” I felt myself being told to come closer and I was greatly confused by this and I blinked my eyes and I thought, “This can’t be real.” And I shook my head and turned away, and looked back and said, “Oh, God its there. What is this thing?” I tried to put my hand toward my gun and I could not put my hand there. I cannot understand why my hands keep going up with the binoculars. I was told to keep the binoculars up and keep looking up, and keep coming closer. No harm would come to me. [He then pleads with God in a great emotional outburst.] I opened my hands and the binoculars fell around my neck, and I ran screaming back to the car that they were going to capture us. And yet, I could not understand what they wanted to capture us for. I thought I should report this to the police if ever I could find a call box or anything, or a restaurant open.
While Barney was in the field, Betty waited impatiently, looking out the front and back windows of the car for approaching vehicles. None passed. Four or five minutes later, when Barney hadn’t returned to the car, she stretched across the front seat and called, “Barney, come back here! Barney you damn fool; get back here! Ugh, come back here! [Crying profusely now] Barney, Barney, Barney, get back here you damn fool! What’s wrong with you?”
Concerned for Barney’s safety, Betty had started to slide across the seat to push the door open. Her calls had gone unanswered and she was determined to go after him, but at that moment Barney came running. He threw the binoculars on the seat next to Betty, and in a hysterical laughing or crying state, told her they had to get out of there or they were going to be captured. As he fled from the field, the craft shifted location again, this time directly over the car. Because the motor was running, he shifted into first gear, stepped on the gas, and took off rapidly.
Accounting for driving speed (about 15 mph) and distance (14 miles), and allowing for observational stops, the Hills were now running at least 30 minutes behind schedule. They could expect to arrive home at approximately 2:30–3 a.m.
As Barney drove, Betty rolled down her window and slid her body through the opening. With her head and shoulders extending upward, she attempted to locate the craft, but she saw only blackness. She could no longer see the stars overhead or lights on the craft. In Dr. Simon’s office on March 28, 1964, she realized it was directly overhead.
With the craft in pursuit, the Hills traveled rapidly south on Route 3 past the familiar sight of Clarks Trading Post, with its trained bears and gift shop. Then suddenly the craft emitted a series of code-like, electronic buzzing sounds that seemed to bounce off the trunk of their ’57 Chevy.
Betty continued her late spring dialogue: “So, I closed the car window and then, there’s this bee-bee-bee-beep on top of the car and the whole car vibrates. And I say maybe it’s an electric shock of some kind and I’m touching the metal of the car, but I don’t feel any shock. I just feel vibrations. And Barney says, ‘What’s that? What’s happening?’ And I say, ‘I don’t know…I don’t know what it is.” I wish I knew the Morse code.”
Almost immediately, the Hills entered a period of rapidly fading consciousness, retaining only vague memories of passing through the village of North Woodstock. Barney’s amnesia was nearly complete, though Betty recalled fleeting memories of familiar sites. As they traveled along Route 3 through North Woodstock and beyond, they would have observed a valley that expanded to the east, meeting smaller, tree-covered mountains. Trees lined the steep embankment to the west, and periodically a house perched on the side of the road. Immediately to the east of Route 3, railroad tracks ran parallel to the highway, and a series of three bridges stretched across the Pemigewasset River, allowing access to Route 175. Betty recalled only a vague memory of a railroad-type bridge. The valley was wide and Route 175 ran parallel to Route 3 through the town of Thornton. Betty noticed a familiar pumpkin head (which she later realized was for the Jack-O’-Lantern Golf Resort) as they traveled south with the craft pacing them from above. The craft was no longer within their visual range and they hoped that it had left them. As we examine the next chapter we will see that the Hills’ hopes were quickly dashed.