1961 Betty and Barney Hill Abduction
Many early researchers into the mystery of UFOs had distinctive lines of belief. It is in the realm of possibility that someone could see and report a UFO, but it is impossible that the alien beings flying the UFO would interact with humans, and certainly not take them against their will. This line of distinction would forever disappear because of one flagship case of alien abduction, the Betty and Barney Hill encounter.
Their journey into the unknown began in New Hampshire in September, 1961, and would forever change the course of Ufology.
The Hills were an interracial couple. Barney, a 39 year-old black man, worked for the postal service, and Betty, a 41 year-old white woman, was a supervisor for the child welfare department. Because of Barney’s ulcer problems, the two had embarked on a vacation into Canada. On September 19, they began their journey back home. At about 10:00 PM, Barney, who was driving, saw a star which seemed to move erratically. He told Betty about it, and they both kept tabs on it as they drove along.
They were just north of North Woodstock, when Barney noticed that the star was moving in a very unusual manner. When they arrived at Indian Head, they stopped their car, and got out to have a better look. Using binoculars, Barney zoomed in what he thought was a star. This was no star! He could make out different colors of lights and see several rows of windows around a flying craft.
The object moved closer, and now Barney could actually see people inside the ship. Was this strange flying object being piloted by humans?
The next thing the Hills recalled was being frightened by the unusual flying object, and the occupants inside of it. Barney scurried back to the car where Betty was waiting. They jumped into the car, and raced down the highway. Looking for the object, they found that it was now gone. As they drove on, they began to hear a beeping sound… once, then again. Although they had been driving only a couple of minutes, they were 35 miles down the road!
Betty and Barney finally arrived home safely. After seeing the UFO, the rest of their trip home had been uneventful. They were tired from their journey, and immediately went to bed. When Betty awoke the next day, she telephoned Janet, her sister, and told her about the strange object they had seen. Janet urged her to call Pease Air Force Base, and tell them what her and Barney had seen. After hearing Betty’s report, Major Paul W. Henderson, told her:
“The UFO was also confirmed by our radar.”
At least the Hills were not seeing things, and they were trying to put the incident behind them. But soon Betty began to have nightmares. In her dreams she would see her and her husband being physically forced into some type of craft. Before long, two writers heard about the Hill’s story, and contacted them. The Hills, with the aid of the writers, compiled a time chart of the events of September 19. There could be no doubt that the couple had lost about two hours of time somewhere along the way.
As news of the UFO sighting became more common place, the Hills were forced to hide from reporters as much as possible. Because of the missing time element, and the desire to know what, if anything, had happened during that time, they decided to contact a psychiatrist. They decided on Boston psychiatrist and neurologist, Dr. Benjamin Simon, well-known in his field. He would come to play an important role in the Hill abduction story.
His suggestion for treatment was regressive hypnosis, which would hopefully unlock the memories of the two missing hours of time. His sessions began with Betty, and soon Barney followed. After six months of treatment, it was Simon’s opinion that the Hills had been abducted and taken aboard an unknown craft. Regressive hypnosis, a controversial treatment, is often used to unlock lost memories. It has been used in a number of other alien abduction cases, including The Buff Ledge Abduction and The Allagash Abductions.
Some of the memories that were uncovered from the Hills included that their automobile had stalled on the road. The UFO had landed in the middle of the road, and alien beings came to their car, carrying both Betty and Barney to the UFO. They were subjected to various medical and scientific tests. Before the aliens released them, they were hypnotized and ordered to keep their capture a secret.
During the intensive regression sessions, the Hills would describe their captors as “… bald-headed alien beings, about five foot tall, with greyish skin, pear shaped heads and slanting cat-like eyes.” This description very much described what would become known as the “greys,” now a standard description for the small beings with large heads, small mouths, and little or no ears, and hairless.
Also details were released about the actual procedures performed on the Hills. Both physical and mental experiments were conducted. Samples were taken of their skin, hair, and nails. Betty had gynecological testing, and Barney reluctantly revealed that sperm samples were taken from him.
The Betty and Barney Hill case is still studied and discussed today. It is the alien abduction case to which all others are compared and judged.
1967 The Betty Andreasson Abduction
Just the thought of alien abduction makes most of us turn away in confusion and disbelief. However, we must confront this issue, as it is an integral part of the UFO mystery. Though abduction itself may seem unlikely, some abductions fall into the truly bizarre category. One of these cases is the abduction of Betty Andreasson that occurred on the night of January 25, 1967, in the town of South Ashburnham, Massachusetts.
This riveting case has become a mainstay of UFO literature.
Betty was in her kitchen around 6:30 PM on the night of her abduction. The rest of her family-seven children, her mother and father were in the living room. The lights in the house began to blink, and a red light beamed into the house through the kitchen window. Betty’s kids were on edge after the lights blinked, and she ran to quiet them.
Startled by the red beam, Betty’s father ran to look out of the kitchen window to see where the light was coming from. He was amazed to see five strange creatures heading toward their house in a hopping motion.
He was startled to see the creatures simply walk through the wooden door of the kitchen right into the house. In a moment, the entire family was put into a type of trance.
Betty’s father would be attended by one of the creatures, while another began to have telepathic conversations with Betty. She and her father both thought that one of the creatures was the leader. He was about five-feet tall.
The other four were approximately a foot shorter. They had very wide eyes, small ears and noses, set in a pear-shaped head. There were only slits where their mouth should have been. They only communicated with their minds.
The five creatures wore a blue coverall with a wide belt. On their sleeves could be seen a logo of a bird. Three fingers were on their hands, and their feet were shod with boots. They did not actually walk, but floated as they moved along. Betty later would recall that she was not frightened by their presence, but instead, felt calm. I had an opportunity to interview Betty and ask her some questions about her bizarre experience.
Meanwhile, Betty’s mother and children were still in a state of suspended animation. When Betty seemed worried about them, the aliens released her 11-year-old daughter from the trance to assure her that no harm was being done to her family. Soon, Betty was taken by the aliens to a waiting craft, which rested on a hill outside of her home. Betty estimated the craft to be about 20 feet in diameter, and saucer-shaped.
Betty recalls that after she was aboard the UFO outside of her house, the craft took off and joined a mother-ship. There she was subjected to a physical examination, and the victim of tests by strange equipment. She was given one test which caused her pain, but resulted in being a religious awakening. She estimates that she was gone for four hours before being brought home by two of the aliens.
Returning home, she ran to see the rest of her family. They were yet in some kind of suspended state. All along, one of the aliens had waited behind with her family. Finally, they were released from the bonds of the trance, and the aliens left. Betty had been hypnotized and told not to reveal any details of her experience. Though some of the details of her abduction were temporarily lost to her, some things she was able to recall. She remembered the power outage, the red beam of light coming into the house, and the aliens coming in.
Some eight years after her experience, she answered an ad from researcher Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He was soliciting for anyone who may have had an alien experience. The letter she sent to Hynek was rejected, however, being too bizarre to be believed. Two more years would transpire before her story would be investigated. The group of investigators included an electronics engineer, an aerospace engineer, and telecommunications specialist, a solar physicist, and a UFO investigator.
Betty’s case of alien abduction was very strange, yet a very good case for investigation, containing much more information than the average case. Twelve months of in-depth study went into the case. Betty was involved in character analysis, polygraph examinations, psychiatric review, and fourteen sessions of regressive hypnosis. The results? Betty, along with her daughter, agreed in all basic details of the case.
The results of this analysis were presented in a 528 page review. The review basically stated that Betty and daughter were sane individuals, believing in their experience as presented. The Betty Andreasson Luca abduction is a case which still is discussed today by UFO investigators.
1967 Abduction of Herbert Schirmer
Twenty-two-year-old policeman Herbert Schirmer would have a bizarre experience on December 3, 1976. While making his normal patrol rounds in Ashland, Nebraska, he saw what appeared to be red lights atop a large truck. He had checked locations along Highway 6, and just hit the intersection of two highways, 6 and 63, when he saw the red lights. He would get a closer look.
As he moved on down Highway 63, he came to a stop, and shined his headlights on the red-lighted object. He immediately knew the object was no truck. The red beaming lights were coming through what Schirmer described as “portholes.” He could clearly see a disc-shaped, metallic UFO that was hovering about eight feet off the ground. The polished, aluminum object had a type of walkway around its circumference. He could also see what he thought were legs below the object.
The UFO began to send flames below it, as it rose into the air. Schirmer could hear a siren sound coming from the object as it rose higher and higher.
The UFO then passed directly over his police car, then flew out of sight. Schirmer sped back to the police station, making a note of the time as 3:00 AM. This shocked him, because he knew he had been on patrol much longer than the 10 minutes the present time indicated. Schirmer made the following entry into his log book:
“Saw a flying saucer at the junction of highways 6 and 63. Believe it or not!”
Schirmer began to experience some physical problems right after his sighting. He suffered from headaches, felt ill, and had a red welt on his neck. The Condon Commission, located at the University of Colorado, and at the time, investigating UFO sightings, heard of Schirmer’s sighting, and requested that he come to Boulder, Colorado. On February 13, 1968, Schirmer would undergo regressive hypnosis, administered by psychologist Dr. Leo Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming.
The regression sessions would bring out many new details that Schirmer had suppressed.
As he neared the UFO, the engine in his police patroller failed, and his radio went dead. Some type of white object emerged from the UFO, and communicated with him telepathically. This object kept Schirmer from drawing his firearm. Other facts recalled by the patrolman were that the beings from the ship were friendly, they powered their UFO through the electric lines, and had a base of operation on the planet Venus.
The Condon Committee concluded that: “Evaluation of psychological assessment tests, the lack of any evidence, and interviews with the patrolman, left project staff with no confidence that the trooper’s reported UFO experience was physically real.” Psychologist Dr. Sprinkle, however, felt that Schirmer “believed in the reality of the events he described.”
When Schirmer returned to his duties in Ashland, Police Chief Wlaskin resigned, and Shirmer was appointed as new chief. But because of ridicule from the citizens, and the UFO experience, he was not able to rightfully perform his duties, and resigned two months later. Someone had thrown dynamite into his patrol car, and his wife left him during this time.
Looking for relief from his psychological problems, he would undergo more regressive hypnosis in June, 1968. Hypnotist Loring G. Williams conducted the sessions, which would reveal many more details of his encounter with the UFO. There would be two books written about his experiences, “Gods, Demons, and Space Chariots” and “Gods and Devils from Outer Space” by Eric Norman. It is very difficult to ascertain whether or not Schirmer’s experience was real or imaginary.
1969 The Buff Ledge Camp Abduction
A valid account of the alien abduction of two teenage counselors comes to us from the state of Vermont. Four UFOs would appear in daylight over the lake of Buff Ledge Camp, making baffling maneuvers with the lightness of a falling leaf. On August 7, 1968, the strange encounter began for sixteen-year-old Michael Lapp, maintenance man for the camp, and nineteen-year-old Janet Cornell, water ski instructor.
The camp was located north of Burlington on Lake Champlain. The two were taking a break on a boat dock.
On a warm afternoon, the camp was sparsely inhabited because the swimming team had gone to Burlington for a meet. In the later part of the afternoon, Michael and Janet were simply enjoying the view of the setting sun, when suddenly a bright light appeared. Was this light an extraordinary view of Venus? Or something else? Their question would soon be answered as the source of the light began to drop down toward the two friends.
As the object drew closer, the shape became more clear-it was a saucer shape.
Suddenly, Michael remarked, “Wow! Venus is falling.” But he knew better. The lone light now dropped three smaller lights from it and they immediately soared over the lake. The larger object soon disappeared from sight. It was obvious the objects were being intelligently controlled. The UFOs seemed to perform for the two mesmerized teenagers, doing zigzags, loops, and then would suddenly drop like a falling leaf.
Now, the three UFOs moved ever closer to the two friends. The UFOs formed a triangle formation, and then two of them pulled away, leaving just one out front. Later, Michael would recall hearing something that sounded like “a thousand tuning forks” as the two objects pulled back. The last UFO then passed right over them, shot upward and briefly disappeared. Soon, it would reappear, tilted to one side, then drop straight into the lake.
After a time, it would emerge from the lake, and then begin moving directly toward Michael and Janet. The UFO was so close now that two beings could be seen through the transparent cupola of the object.
The beings appeared child-like. According to Michael, their necks were elongated, they had big heads for their body size. They had no hair, but large eyes which wrapped around the side of their heads. He thought that he was in mental contact with the beings.
For some odd reason, as Michael watched the aliens, he slapped his knee. One alien did likewise. The UFO was now directly over their heads, as it shot a beam at the two. Michael grabbed Janet’s shoulder and pulled back, landing both of them on the deck on their backs. He then was terrified of being taken, and screamed, “We don’t want to go!” The next thing Michael recalled was sitting on the dock and gazing at the object, which was now farther away from them. Janet seemed to just sit in a trance. It was now totally dark.
Soon, they heard members of the swim team talking as they made their way back into the camp. The UFO moved higher up into the sky. It flashed its lights a number of times, and then disappeared. Michael wondered, “How long have we been here?” Nothing would be said about what happened that late afternoon. When summer camp ended, the two went their separate ways. Michael rarely thought about his experience for the next five years, but as time went by, he began to have disturbing dreams.
Ten years after Michael’s experience, he decided to contact the Center for UFO Studies. He was referred to investigator Walter Webb. After becoming familiar with the details of the case, Webb suggested regressive hypnosis to relieve Michael’s nightmares, and hopefully regain his lost memories. The sessions brought back the events of the late afternoon experience at Buff Ledge. But now, he recalled being lifted by a beam into the waiting UFO, and going into a larger UFO. He also remembered Janet lying on an examination table.
The beings shone a light into her eyes, took skin samples, and fluids from her body. “The aliens all looked alike, Michael recalled, and had those large eyes, a mouth without lips, no ears, and two small openings for a nose.” Michael also described the beings as having three pointed, web-like digits for fingers, and their bodies felt “damp and clammy.” Michael recalls the aliens wanted life on our planet to be like theirs, without violence.
Janet, now 29, would also be regressed. Her recalled memories would only strengthen the case of alien abduction. She recalled the “coldness” of the table. Something had pulled her hair, and pinched her neck. There was no disharmony in Michael and Janet’s statements.
Webb also conducted an investigation outside the boundaries of regressive hypnosis. He was able to find other members of Buff Ledge that had witnessed strange lights over Lake Champlain on the same night as Michael and Janet’s abduction. Two other members of the camp also claimed to have been abducted after seeing strange lights, but earlier in the summer. Their names were not released. The events at Buff Ledge camp are certainly proof of an alien abduction.
1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi Abduction (Parker, Hickson)
On the night of October 10, 1973, there was a UFO sighting by fifteen different witnesses who saw a strange, unknown object fly over a housing project in St. Tammany Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana. Two of the witnesses were policeman. This sighting would only be the beginning of what was to occur the next night on the nearby Pascagoula River. Two fishermen, nineteen-year-old Calvin Parker, and forty-two-year-old Charles Hickson were about to have an experience that would forever change their lives.
Parker and Hickson were good friends, and often fished together. They were both living in the town of Gautier, Mississippi. On one particular night, they were fishing the waters of the Pascagoula River, when they heard a strange sound… a type of buzzing. The two men immediately turned to see what the source of the strange noise was. They were shocked to see an egg-shaped object with bluish front lighting. The object was only a few feet above the water, and about ten yards from the two frightened fishermen.
While they sat stunned, looking at the weird flying machine, a door opened in the UFO, and to their utter amazement, three beings of unknown origin began to float toward the two.
The beings did have legs, but did not use them-they literally floated across the water toward Hickson and Parker. The two fishermen would later attempt to describe what the beings looked like “… about five feet tall, had bullet-shaped heads without necks, slits for mouths, and where their noses or ears would be, they had thin, conical objects sticking out, like carrots from a snowman’s head.”
Hickson sat frozen on the river bank. Suddenly, two of the odd-looking beings grabbed him, while the third being snatched Parker, who immediately fainted from fear. The beings supported Hickson by literally holding up his body. As they did, he felt numbness over his entire body. By some power he could not see, he was floated into the bowels of the waiting object to a brightly-lit room. The room had no gravity. He floated with a strange eye-like device. This device would go over his entire body as if it was scanning him.
After the eye-like device was finished with Hickson, he was left floating in the room alone.
The beings had probably left to examine Parker. Approximately 20 minutes after the ordeal had begun, it was over. Hickson was now floated back out of the craft. Back on the river bank, he could see Parker, who was crying and praying on the ground. Shortly, the strange flying object rose straight into the night sky, and flew away.
After some time to regain their senses and strength, they began to talk about what action they should take. At first they were afraid to report their experience, but they felt obligated to tell someone. What if these beings were taking other people in the area? Fighting fears of public ridicule, they called Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi. They were instructed to report their incident to the local sheriff’s department.
Not wanting to deal with local law enforcement, they decided instead to go to their local newspaper office. The office was closed, which left the men only one recourse-the sheriff office. As would be expected, the local sheriff thought their story was a hoax or trick. Trying to get to the bottom of their story, the two fishermen were placed in a room wired for sound. It was thought that they would discuss the joke between themselves, and their story would be found out. This was not to be. Soon law enforcement personnel knew that something had certainly frightened Hickson and Parker, and that this was no joke.
It would be no time until details of the alleged abduction began to leak out to the public. First, the account of the incident was published in local newspapers, soon followed by the wire services. In a matter of a couple of days, the Pascagoula, Mississippi, abduction was a big news item over the entire United States. Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) sent University of California professor James Harder to investigate the story. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who represented the U.S. Air Force also would research the case.
Harder and Hynek did a lot of the investigative work together. The two well-known researchers first interviewed the two fishermen together. Harder tried to do regressive hypnosis on Hickson, but the abductee was so frightened, that the hypnosis was stopped. To get things off on solid ground, both of the witnesses took polygraph tests, and both passed without a problem. Harder and Hynek both believed that the two tormented men were telling the truth.
Esteemed UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek would proclaim that “… there was definitely something here that was not terrestrial.”
Even after thirty-plus years, both Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson still testify to the same story, and have never wavered in their account of what happened that October night on the Pascagoula River.
There have been many articles, magazine reports, and television documentaries done on the case, and the two men have given numerous interviews about their experience. Their account, although bizarre, is one of the best researched and documented alien abduction cases in UFO history.
1975 The Abduction of Sergeant Charles L. Moody
On August 13, 1975, Air Force Sergeant Charles L. Moody was in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico, observing a meteor shower. It was 1:15 AM when he saw a glowing, metallic, saucer-shaped object lowering to the ground approximately 300 feet away. Moody estimated the object’s length at about 50 feet, and its diameter at eighteen to twenty feet. The UFO began to wobble as it descended. Moody was extremely frightened as the object began to move towards him.
Moody tried to run from the object, but when he tried to start this car, the engine would not respond. He could now hear a high-pitched sound as the object came to a stop in mid-air about 70 feet away from him. He could make out a window in the UFO, and see shadows of a human-like form. The high-pitched sound came to a stop, and as it did, he could feel his body going numb. His last conscious memory would be of the UFO rising back up into the sky, and finally flying away. Moody’s description of the windows and humanoid forms are very similar to Barney’s description in the classic Betty and Barney Hill abduction.
As the UFO left, Moody was now able to start his car. Still trembling with fear, he sped away from the desert, finally arriving home. As he entered his house, he was shocked to see that it was now 3:00 AM. Somehow, he was missing about one and one-half hours. The next day, he began to have physical problems, starting with severe pain in his lower back. A rash would break out all over his body in the next few days.
Taking his problems to a physician, he was told to try a type of self-hypnosis to recover the lost one and one-half hours.
It seems that the self-hypnosis was working. Within a couple of weeks, Moody began to recall bits and pieces of his desert encounter, and felt that he had a fairly good account of what had happened to him. He now believed that after his body became numb, he had seen two beings coming towards him. The creatures were about six feet tall, and wearing skin-tight black clothing. He had tried to fight them off, but was overcome with the numbness and went unconscious.
He remembered waking inside of a craft on a table. He could not move his arms or legs. An alien creature stood by him.
This alien was much shorter than his two abductors. He also wore a silvery suit, instead of black. He had no hair on his head, like the other two creatures. His brow protruded outward, and he had round eyes, small ears and nose, and his lips were extremely thin. This “leader” as Moody saw him, began to communicate telepathically. Moody was asked if he would stop fighting his abduction, and cooperate. With Moody’s compliance, the alien used a rod-like device on his back which stopped the paralysis.
Soon, Moody was transported to a different part of the UFO, where he was shown the alien drive unit. This drive had a long rod, and three holes in it which were covered by glass. There was a crystal-like object with a rod on both ends. During his short tour of the alien ship, Moody was told that there was a larger mother-ship which was waiting above the Earth. The alien leader also told him that no future contact with earthlings would be made for twenty years. Also, Moody’s memory would be lost to him for several weeks after he was released. The alien then rendered him unconscious once again.
It is very difficult to make an assessment of the validity of Moody’s claims. Investigator Jim Lorenzen took exception to some of his claims. In two separate accounts, Moody gave the distance of the mother-ship from Earth as two different amounts, and he also claimed that the aliens were robust six-foot-tall creatures, but also called them “frail.”
On the other hand, Moody was examined by Charles McQuiston, inventor of the Psychological Stress Evaluator, which allegedly proves if a person is telling the truth. McQuiston determined that Moody was indeed being truthful about his encounter.
1975 The Travis Walton Abduction
The Travis Walton abduction is one of the most controversial cases in Ufology, yet one of the most compelling. The events of Walton’s abduction began on November 5, 1975, in the Arizona, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. Walton was one of a seven man crew that was clearing trees on a government contract. After the end of the work day, all of the crew jumped into foreman Mike Roger’s pick-up truck and began their trip home.
As they drove, they were shocked to see by the side of the road, a “luminous object, shaped like a flattened disc.”
Travis, still young and fearless, was enthralled by the object’s presence, and left the truck to get a better look, against the better wishes of his crew mates. As he gazed up at the wonder of the object, a blue beam hit him, throwing him to the earth. Creating fear in the six other men, they roared away in the truck for a distance, but then, realizing they had left Travis behind and he might need help, they turned the truck around and headed back to find him.
Walton was gone.
The men left the scene and returned to the small town of Snowflake, where they made a report to the police. They first talked to Deputy Ellison and then Sheriff Marlin Gillespie, who stated that the men were sincerely distressed. The policemen and the crew members went back to the scene with flashlights, and searched for Travis again, but again without results. They decided to come back the next morning and search again with the aid of daylight.
Little did any of the members of the search know they were to be players in one of the largest manhunts in Arizona history.
Very soon, the case would break into the national media. The small town in Arizona would be literally overrun by researchers, newspaper writers, UFO buffs, and other interested individuals. After several days of using men on foot, men in four-wheel drive vehicles, scent dogs, and even helicopters, no sign of Walton was found. Temperatures dropped rapidly at night, and there was fear that Walton, injured by the beam and lying somewhere disoriented, would not survive.
Finally, law enforcement began to follow another line of investigation, and a possible motive for murder.
Thinking that there might be bad blood between Travis and another crew member, law enforcement began to evaluate the credibility of the men involved in the clearing contract. Finally yielging to demands to take polygraph examinations, all of the men passed the test, except for one inconclusive, that being Allen Dalis. Police personnel, after background checks, and interviews with the men, decided that there was no cause to believe that the men were covering up a fight or even murder. Ruling out foul play, that only left one possibility. Was it possible that the crazy story the men were telling was true?
As rumors ran rampant, and theories were discussed back and forth, five days after his disappearance, Travis Walton returned. Travis stated: “Consciousness returned to me on the night I awoke to find myself on the cold pavement west of Heber, Arizona. I was lying on my stomach, my head on my right forearm. Cold air brought me instantly awake.” He was rescued from a small filling station, hungry, thirsty, dirty, weak, and feeble. He was taken for a medical examination. Now that some questions had been answered, another one was created, “Where had Walton been for the last 5 days?”
Travis would later tell investigators that the very last thing he could recall was the feeling of being thrown backward in the forest. After that, nothing… nothing that is until he awoke frozen in pain, and thirsty. Finally, he could make out an image of some kind of light, and then realizes that he is on a table like an examining table in a hospital. Walton thought at first he had been found by the crew and taken to the hospital.
This assumption was far from the truth. He is lying on a table, but it is a table in a strange room. Finally able to clear his vision, he would be utterly shocked to see a horrible creature! Three horrible beings were in the room with him, looking at him. He tried to lunge at one and push it away. When he did, the creature went flying across the room. He would see several different types of aliens during his time aboard what must have been the flying object that had thrown the blue beam at him in the forest. Travis would be subjected to numerous medical procedures during his stay on the UFO.
Although the Betty and Barney Hill abduction had occurred in 1961, and the Pascagoula, Mississippi abduction in 1973, the Travis Walton case was the first to be given serious interest by main stream science, and caused many non-believers to rethink their position on alien abduction. Although many theories have been put forth to explain the Walton abduction as something other than what it is, none of the alleged scenarios are consistent with the facts of the case.
Walton’s Statement:
“It was many years ago that I got out of a crew truck in the national forest and ran toward a large glowing UFO hovering in the darkening Arizona sky. But when I made that fateful choice to leave the truck, I was leaving behind more than just my six fellow workmen. I was leaving behind forever all semblance of a normal life, running headlong toward an experience so overwhelmingly mind-rending in it’s effects, so devastating in its aftermath, that my life would never-could never-be the same again.” (Travis Walton)
1976 The Stanford, Kentucky Abductions
Those who wish to study the phenomena of alien abduction, need to look no further than a three year period in the 1970’s. No fewer than four cases occurred. 1973-the Pascagoula, Mississippi abduction, 1975-the Travis Walton abduction, 1976-the Allagash Waterway abduction, and the abduction of three women from Kentucky in 1976. On January 6, three old friends-Mona Stafford, Louise Smith, and Elaine Thomas celebrated Mona’s birthday at a restaurant in Lancaster.
Driving home in Louise’s Chevrolet on Highway 78, the three women see a bright, red object in the night sky.
As the women watched the object, it began to move closer to their Chevy. Smith had lost control of her car. The little Chevy was going 85 mph, much faster than she had ever driven before. Frightened, she cries out, “I can’t hold the car on the road.” Stafford, sitting in the front passenger seat, grabs the wheel to help, thinking that something is wrong with the steering wheel. She has no luck. The car continued to speed down the highway at 85 mph. The object, now more clearly seen, was a large, metallic, disc-shaped UFO with a dome atop.
A ring of red lights surrounded its midsection. All three women would later describe a yellow, blinking light on the object’s underside. The UFO paced the car, positioned over the driver’s side for a time, and then moved down the highway. As it left, a beam of blue-white light immersed the car’s interior. Suddenly, the little Chevy was being backed up into a pasture just off the highway, through an entry way with two stone walls on either side.
They then were back on the road, and everything was as it was before. An hour and twenty minutes had elapsed, unbeknownst to the women at the time.
Needless to say, the three women were frightened to death. They also were suffering from burns on areas of exposed skin. As they finally arrived home, they could not decide what to do next. They called the police station, and retired for the evening. The next day, they called the Navy recruiting office. The Navy released some details of the case to the Lexington television station. After the station broadcast a synopsis of the encounter on the air, the story broke to the major new media.
When word of what had occurred to the three women reached MUFON, investigator Jerry Black requested an interview with them.
The three women at first were against the interview. Gun shy because of the press releases, and television news of the event, they wanted it to just go away, not perpetuate it. But Black finally convinced them of his compassion for their recent encounter, and his experience in dealing with similar cases. He also offered the presence of a woman, Peggy Schnell to be present at the interview. Finally, the three agreed to the interview. They began with some details of the sighting of the UFO, and its appearance.
It was obvious to Black that the three women were suffering ill effects from their encounter. It was very painful for them to relive the events of that frightful night on the road. Though suffering, the women hoped that revealing their details might elevate some of their anxieties. Mrs. Thomas said, “We live in fear of what we don’t know. I’m worried about Lou and Mona. I think they’re ready for a breakdown.” Eventually, several other investigators and researchers would join the search for what really happened to the three women. Regressive hypnosis was a viable option.
The regressive hypnosis sessions revealed what the investigators feared-the three women had been abducted! They were taken aboard the unknown craft, and subjected to medical experimentation. These procedures included very personal, sometimes crude tests. The women thought they were tortuous. Though the women were not sexually violated, they were placed in embarrassing, humiliating positions.
There would also be corroborating evidence of the encounter. There were UFO sightings in Casey and Lincoln counties, and also an amazing report from a farmer who owned the property where the car was backed into. This report is a rare verified sighting of an actual abduction as it occurred. He stated that not far from his home, he saw a low-flying object shoot down a beam to the ground near an automobile. There can be no doubt that Mona Stafford, Louise Smith, and Elaine Thomas saw a UFO, and were taken aboard this craft for medical procedures against their will.
1976 The Allagash Abductions
This abduction case, though many years ago, is still considered one of the best documented in the history of UFOs
One of the most researched and best documented cases of multiple alien abduction occurred in August, 1976, in the state of Maine. The Allagash Waterway Abduction is a integral piece of the alien abduction puzzle. This case gained world-wide attention when it was dramatized in an episode of television’s “Unsolved Mysteries.” Twin brothers Jack and Jim Weiner, along with their friends Chuck Rak and Charlie Foltz, would be participants in an event involving a UFO sighting, missing time, and medical procedures performed by beings unknown.
Not only were the four men fishing buddies, but they were all art students, having met at the Massachusetts College of Art. They set out for what should have been an uneventful, relaxing fishing trip. It was not to be. After being on the waterway for a time, the four fishermen had canoed to Eagle Lake. They had no luck there, and returned to the bank. As they were beginning to get low on provisions, they decided to do a little fishing at night. To be on the safe side, they built a roaring fire on the bank to use as a landmark in case they became turned around on the lake.
After a short period of time, all four of the men’s attention was drawn to a large, bright light in the sky over the lake. It was much more brilliant than a star. Only a couple of hundred yards away, the UFO was hovering over a group of trees. The object began to move, and change colors, from red to green, then to a whitish yellow. The men were watching the object in awe, wondering what it might be.
At this time, they estimated it to be about 80 feet in diameter. Charlie Foltz decided to signal to it with his flashlight. At once, the UFO began to move toward them. They were being watched.
The object silently made its way toward the men. They began a dash to the shore, paddling as fast as they could. A light from the object beamed down and engulfed the men and their canoe. The next thing they knew, they were back on the bank. Foltz again signaled the UFO with his flashlight-but this time it rose upward, and departed from their view. Then they noticed that the large fire they had started only a short time ago, was already burned to ashes, which should have taken several hours.
What had happened to them?
It was obvious to the four buddies that they were missing several hours of time. Little was said between them at this time. They packed up their belongs, and headed back home. As time went by, the events of that terrible night on Allagash would begin to have an effect on their lives. The first man to suffer was Jack Weiner. He began to have awful nightmares of strange beings with long necks, and large heads. He could see himself being examined, while the other three men sat idly by.
The strange humanoid beings in Jack’s nightmares were described as having metallic-like, glowing eyes with no lids. Their hands were like an insect’s with only four fingers. See more on strange alien beings described in the Pascagoula abductions, and also the Betty Andreasson abduction. The other three men also were having dreams of a similar nature. Finally, in 1988, Jim Weiner decided to visit a UFO conference, which was hosted by author Raymond Fowler. When the conference ended, he talked to Fowler, and related his remarkable encounter on the Allagash Waterway.
Fowler was very experienced in dealing with the exact problem that Jim, his brother and the two other fishermen were facing. He suggested to Jim that all four of the men undergo regressive hypnosis, a type of hypnosis that recovers lost memories. After the four men completed their sessions, it was determined that all of them had been abducted by strange beings from the UFO that engulfed them and their canoe on the Allagash Waterway. Part of the abduction involved very sensitive personal issues of the taking of fluid (semen) samples, and other humiliating medical tests.
The men all recalled the abduction procedure-some would recall one part of it, and some another part, but when combined, they showed a complete picture of a typical alien abduction. Since the men were all artists, they were able to draw striking depictions of the examination room, the instruments used, and the aliens. This information would be invaluable to those who study the phenomena of alien abduction. The four friends would also take lie-detector tests, which they all passed, further verifying their encounter.
1976 The Dechmont Forest Abduction
Robert Taylor was sixty-one-years-old at the time that he had the most unusual encounter of his life. He had worked as a forester all of his adult life in the Dechmont woods located in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. On the morning of Friday, November 9, 1979, he and his red setter rounded a corner on a forest trail and saw an unbelievable sight, a UFO! The object appeared to be hovering just above the forest floor.
It made no sound, and seemed to be motionless.
The object was a dark gray color, and its texture was like an emery board: small brighter highlighted areas against a darker background. The appearance of the exterior seemed to change from time to time. Taylor thought that the UFO was attempting to camouflage itself.
He estimated the size of the object as 18-20 feet around, and about 12 feet high. It looked to be mounted on a ring, making the object look like a hat with a brim. There were also protruding from the outside of the craft stems topped by propellers. Nothing at the time moved on the object.
Suddenly, two small spheres rushed at him. They were like the large craft, only a much smaller version. They made a sound as they moved toward him, as spikes on the outside made ground contact. They stopped by his side, and attached themselves to his trousers. They began to drag him back to the UFO. He also was sickened by an extremely strong smell which caused him to pant for air. He soon lost consciousness.
When Taylor came to, the UFO and the smaller spheres were gone. His red setter was still with him. The dog was unsettled, running around the area, and barking madly. Trying to holler at the setter, he had no voice. He could not stand either. Eventually, he crawled back the way he had come for about 300 feet.
In time, he was able to stand up and walk back to his pick-up. He attempted to contact the forestry headquarters with his two-way radio, but found his voice was still not back.
Taylor tried to go back home in his pick-up truck, but only got stuck in the mud. He then began the long walk back to his house, approximately a mile distance, and finally arrived at 11:15 AM. His entire experience had lasted just over an hour. His voice had now returned. He had developed a headache, and a great thirst by the time he came to his home. It took some two days for his thirst to abate, though he could still smell remnants of the awful odor from the small spheres. He generally felt ill.
Arriving at this house, his wife was stunned to see his condition. He was covered with mud, and his pants were torn. He began to tell her the story of his experience. His wife wanted to call the police, but Taylor was against it, considering the subject of the matter. He did allow her to call his job supervisor, and the head of the forestry department, Malcom Drummond. He took a bath while she made the calls.
Drummond called a physician, and drove straight to Taylor’s house. He was so anxious to find out what happened that he questioned him while he was still in the bathtub. Taylor and Drummond agreed that there must be some kind of physical evidence left on the ground by either the craft or the small spheres, and Drummond headed to the area to check it out, but he was unable to find the exact location.
Dr. Gordon Adams arrived and began to check out Taylor’s condition. He found a grazed area on Taylor’s left leg, and another graze under his chin. There were no apparent head injuries. At this time, anyway, Taylor’s body temperature, blood pressure, and other body functions seemed normal. Adams called in for an ambulance to transport Taylor to the hospital for a head X-ray and an interview with a counselor. Taylor refused to make the hospital visit until later.
After Drummond came back to Taylor’s house, the two men set out to return to the scene of the UFO, and attack of the small spheres. They found the ground markings, and called the police. Shortly thereafter, Taylor, accompanied by his wife, went to the hospital for the X-ray, but he was kept waiting so long, he decided to leave unattended. He was anxious to make a planned trip to see relatives on the weekend.
Soon, the press heard about the encounter in the woods, and by Sunday, it was known about all over the United Kingdom. News of the event was known all over the world within a week. The story would be the subject of television documentaries, magazines, and books. The company that Taylor worked for even erected a plaque at the site, commemorating the event.
It was later stolen.
The local police department had no experience in dealing with UFO cases. Because of this, at least they never discounted Taylor’s description of the incident. They did take testimony from Taylor, his wife, and Dr. Adams. Because an assault was involved, the police were required to send his clothing of that day for forensic examination. A cursory overview showed that both of his pant legs were torn at the hip area. Also found by the exam were traces of a powder.
This powder turned out to be nothing more than a maize starch which was transferred to the trousers by the bag they were sent in. The police also checked for any flights that might have occurred that day of planes, helicopters, or any other equipment that might have been in the area.
Nothing was found, and none of the forestry equipment matched the marks found at the scene.
There were two types of ground markings found at the scene. The first marks were two parallel ladder-like tracks, each about 2.5 meters long, and the same distance apart. There were also 40 holes around the tracks.
They were 10 centimeters across. To cut to the chase, there was ample physical evidence to prove that “something” had been on the spot that Taylor indicated. Taylor was known by many people in the area, and they all viewed him as honest and responsible. There is nothing to indicate that he would hoax an incident of this nature. He did have a history of several illnesses, and surgeries, but there was nothing in his medical history that would indicate he had any type of head injury or psychosis.
There would also be a timeline done by an investigator to determine the length of time that Taylor was unconscious. This accounting indicated that he was probably out of it for about twenty minutes, give or take. If we take Taylor’s account as is, he was abducted by something “other-worldly” on November 9, 1979 for about twenty minutes. There has been no evidence presented to discount his story.
1985 The Whitley Strieber Abduction
It is an accepted fact in the UFO community that very few scientists will entertain the idea that UFOs are real. To take this one step further, it is even rarer that an educated, professional person would delve into the dark, puzzling world of alien abductions. Author Whitley Strieber is one of those rare individuals. His book, “Communion,” is a must read for anyone interested in the subject.
Strieber is an abductee himself, and his abduction is one of the most bizarre on record.
Strieber was already a well-known author when he was vacationing with his wife and son over the Christmas holidays in 1985. His strange abduction would take place in an isolated cabin in the northern part of New York state. The lonely setting of the cabin caused him to have concerns for this family’s safety, and he had only recently had a cutting edge security system installed.
Strieber had activated his system at about 11:00 PM on December 26, and his family began to retire for the evening.
A few hours later, he heard a strange sound, which woke him from sleep. Thinking that he might have a burglar who had set off the alarm system, he went to check it out. As he did, he was shocked to see a creature standing in his bedroom.
The next thing that Strieber knew, he was sitting in the woods that encircled his cabin. He was at a loss to explain what had happened, and how he had gotten from the bedroom to the woods.
His memories were lost, and he eventually sought the help of Dr. Donald F. Klein. Klein would perform regressive hypnosis on Strieber in an attempt to recover the lost time. The sessions would be helpful, and enable him to recover many of the details of what had really happened on the night of December, 26, 1985.
Strieber recalled being floated from his bedroom to a UFO, which was waiting somewhere above the thick woods. He would see several different types of alien beings on the ship: one a little robot type, another was a short, stocky humanoid, the third type was very thin and frail with haunting black, slanted eyes, and the last had smaller, button-type eyes.
He would undergo a number of medical procedures on the UFO.
One of the harrowing procedures was the insertion of a long needle directly into his brain. The aliens also inserted a tool into his rectum, and took a blood sample from his finger. Because many of the details of his alleged abduction were so bizarre, Dr. Klein diagnosed Strieber as having “temporal lobe epilepsy.” One of the most common effects of the condition is the onset of hallucinations.
According to Epilepsy.com, temporal lobe epilepsy can be explained this way:
The features of seizures beginning in the temporal lobe can be extremely varied, but certain patterns are common. There may be a mixture of different feelings, emotions, thoughts, and experiences, which may be familiar or completely foreign. In some cases, a series of old memories resurfaces.
In others, the person may feel as if everything including home and family appears strange. Hallucinations of voices, music, people, smells, or tastes may occur. These features are called auras or warnings. They may last for just a few seconds, or may continue as long as a minute or two.
It is interesting to note that Strieber would not accept Dr. Klein’s diagnosis, and believed that all of the events he recalled in regressive hypnosis really happened. He would form a support group for abductees, and writes extensively on the subject. He maintains the Unknown Country web site.
1987 The Ilkley Moor Alien
An extremely compelling account of alien abduction that took place in 1987 in the Ilkey Moor, Yorkshire, U.K. is a unique case which may include one of the very few photographs taken of a live alien being. The main character and only witness of a UFO and alien being is one Philip Spencer, a retired policeman. He claims to have been taken aboard an unidentifed flying object, and snap one photograph of an unknown being.
Ilkley Moor is very much like you would expect: a place of mystery and intrigue, and full of legends. There have been a number of reports of UFOs over the area, along with odd lights that seem to come and go. The lights, shining through the dense fog, can play tricks on the mind. There are two places where planes come and go-Menwith Hill Military Base, and Leeds Bradford Airport. Some of the strange sightings in the moor may be attributed to plane lights, but they will not explain what happened to Philip Spencer.
Spencer had worked as a policemen for four years in another location, but to fulfill his wife’s wishes to be closer to her family, he had moved the family to Yorkshire.
Spencer was taking a walk across the moor one December morning to his father-in-law’s house, and was hoping to take some photographs of the strange lights on the moor. He had loaded his camera with ASA rated film to get the best quality pictures he could in the less than perfect lighting conditions. He could not imagine what was to soon befall him.
Spencer also brought along a compass to help find his way in the early morning hours before sun up.
He was attempting to get some good angles for his photographs, when he saw a strange-looking being through the fog. The small being was on the slopes of the moor. Spencer took aim and photographed the small creature. He felt that the being was attempting to wave him away from the area. Whatever the being was, it ran away.
Spencer wanted to know more about what this strange being was, and what it wanted. He took off trying to catch up to it. Later, he would state that he must have just acted on impulse, as he had no fear of the unknown entity at the time. As he ran toward the being, he was stunned to see an unknown flying craft with a dome on top rising up from the moor grounds.
It soon disappeared into the sky. He was not quick enough to photograph the UFO
The photograph that Spencer took of the creature on the moor was very blurry, but it is still quite evident that there is some type of being present. The being very much resembles the so-called “grays” of UFO legend. Spencer waited for a time to see if the UFO or the alien creature might return, but all was quiet across the moor. He began to make his way to the nearest village, to get his photograph developed, and as he did, he noticed that his compass was pointing south instead of north. Arriving at the village, he noticed that his watch was an hour behind.
The photograph that Spencer took was first analyzed by a wildlife expert. He concluded that whatever was in the photograph was not any known animal. There was no way to ascertain if the subject of the photograph was a living creature or not just by looking at the picture. A recreation of the setting of the photograph was undertaken, and it was estimated that the creature was about four feet tall. An analysis of the photograph was done by Kodak laboratories in Hemel, Hempstead. They concluded that the object was indeed part of the original shot, and not added later.
The photograph was then shipped to America to be enhanced by computer, and analyzed. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, optical physicist with the United States Navy gave his expert conclusion:
“I had great hopes that this case would prove definitive. Sadly circumstances prevent it from being so.”
Spencer made no money from his photograph, and relinquished all rights to the photograph to UFO investigators.
There have been numerous theories and much speculation about the Ilkley Moor photograph. Because of the poor lighting conditions present on the moor at the time the picture was taken, it was not possible to get a complete and definite conclusion. But with Spencer being a well respected man, and not given to making up stories, it can be said with certainty that Spencer lost about an hour in the moor, saw an unknown flying object of some type, and took a photograph of some unknown creature on December 1, 1987.
1988 Father & Son Abducted
In most cases, a UFO abduction is a harrowing, humiliating experience… one that the participant would love to forget. In some cases, however, the abduction process becomes a rewarding one. Such was the case of John Salter Jr. and his son John III. John Jr. a faculty member of the University of North Dakota, was scheduled for a speaking tour of the southern states.
It was in March 1988 when he, accompanied by his son, drove his pickup truck down Route 61 heading for his first engagement.
For some unknown reason, John drove his truck off of his scheduled route, and one hour later, the two found themselves traveling in the opposite direction. They decided to take a rest for the night, and continue their trip the next morning.
The two men were at a loss to understand what had happened the evening before, though they discussed it at length as they continued down their original mapped-out drive. Suddenly the two were shocked to see a shining UFO with a silvery “energy field.” The object had just “appeared” over the road they were on. John Jr. and his son both had a “familiar” feeling about what they were seeing, and they began to have flashbacks, refreshing their minds of the events of the previous day.
They looked at each other, both now aware that the day before they had been stopped dead in their tracks by the object they were now enthralled with. Both men had stepped out of the vehicle as a group of aliens came toward their pickup truck. At first John Jr. thought he was seeing a group of children, until he saw a taller being, which seemed half-human, half-alien.
The group of strange beings led the two men away in the direction of the object. The two men, though frightened in one way, felt that the alien beings would not hurt them. John Jr. would later relate that he felt a sense of being protected by the strange entities. He had taken a stumble while they were making their way to the ship, but a type of “energy” kept him from falling and being hurt.
John Jr. and his son were both led into a room with curved walls, where they were placed in chairs which resembled the fold-back type used by dentists. Both men would later recall a feeling of being “immobilized” while they laid back in the chairs, and were examined.
John Jr.’s examination began with an implant being inserted into his nostril, remarkably though, without pain.
Next an instrument of some kind was injected into the side of his neck, and another one at the top of his chest. He felt the three areas chosen by the beings had a medical significance: the placement related to three glands; the pituitary, the thyroid, and the thymus. John had enough medical knowledge to know the three glands regulated human growth, metabolism, and immunity.
After the completion of the tests, John Jr. felt a sense of “bonding” with the strange, alien beings. He also sensed a message which stated they would meet again. These strange circumstances would take even a more bizarre turn after John and his son had returned home. John Jr. noticed a gradual improvement in his overall health. His fingernails and hair grew faster and thicker, and a scar on his forehead began to fade, and eventually almost disappeared.
1989 Linda Cortile-Napolitano Abduction
One of the landmark cases of UFO abduction occurred on November 30, 1989, in Manhattan, N.Y. The case centers around one Linda Napolitano, who claims to have been abducted from her closed apartment window into a waiting UFO by the “grays,” and subjected to medical procedures. The case became well-known through the efforts of researcher Budd Hopkins. The events began at 3:00 AM.
After the experience, Linda had almost no memory of what had occurred. She would occasionally recall a brief moment of what had happened, but she could recall actually being taken, and even the room she was examined in, but nothing more. The case was pieced together by the means of regressive hypnosis, witness statements, and the actual passing of time, as her mind began to heal itself.
It would be a year after the actual abduction before Hopkins began receiving mail from two men, who claimed to have seen the abduction. At first, Hopkins was suspect of their testimony, but in time their reports would help build the case into one of the most well-documented alien abductions in Ufology.
Without any contact with Napolitano, their report agreed in all aspects with Linda’s memories.
Eventually, the two men would be identified as bodyguards of senior United Nations statesman, Javier Perez de Cuellar, who was visiting Manhattan at the time of the abduction. The bodyguards claimed that Cuellar was “visibly shaken” as he watched the abduction. The three men claimed that they saw a woman being floated through the air, along with three small beings, into a large flying craft.
Linda, who was forty-one years old at the time, described part of her ordeal:
“I’m standing up on nothing. And they take me out all the way up, way above the building. Ooh, I hope I don’t fall. The UFO opens up almost like a clam and then I’m inside. I see benches similar to regular benches. And they’re bringing me down a hallway. Doors open like sliding doors. Inside are all these lights and buttons and a big long table.”
There would eventually be more witnesses come forward with their accounts of what they had seen. Hopkins kept the details of the eyewitness testimony private until he felt the case was complete enough to release publicly.
One of the most striking accounts came from Janet Kimball, who was a retired telephone operator. She had seen the abduction also, but thought she was watching a movie scene being filmed.
It would be some time before Hopkins discovered the name of the United Nations statesman. When he did, he knew that if he could get a man of such distinction to come forward with his testimony, it would be the smoking gun of alien abduction, and put Ufology into the hands of the scientific community at last. Hopkins’ wish would not come true. Although it has been said that Cuellar met privately with Hopkins, he would not go public.
Cuellar did aid Hopkins in verifying details of the case through correspondence, but explained to Hopkins why he could not go public with his testimony. This would always leave a gap in the investigation, although there were other witnesses, and Linda’s own account of her terrible ordeal. Despite some ups and downs, Hopkins probably did his finest work in bringing together the story of the abduction of Linda Napolitano.
1993 The Kelly Cahill Abduction
In August 1993, 27-year-old Kelly Cahill, her husband and three children were driving home after a visit to a friend’s house. Their routine journey would soon become a harrowing trip into an unknown world of strange beings that occupied space but were void of color as we know it. The Dandenong foothills, near Belgrave, Victoria, Australia would have its location forever linked to one of the most unusual sightings of a strange creature in Ufology archives.
After midnight, the Cahills were on their journey home when they first noticed the lights