The Betty and Barney Hill Experiencexml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
by Kathleen Marden
On September
19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were relaxed and enjoying their bright starlit
drive along US Route 3, Northern New Hampshires major north-south route. From
the top of Mount Washington, visibility was 130 miles and the waxing gibbous
moon was about two thirds full. It was the last leg of their journey home to
New Hampshires seacoast after a brief vacation in Niagara Falls, NY, and
Montreal, Canada.
South of Lancaster, Bettys interest was aroused by what she at first
thought was a falling star, until it suddenly paused in the southwest sky and
inched its way upward, stopping next to the moon. As Betty watched the
star-like object, it grew larger. South of Twin Mountain, she and Barney
stopped at a roadside picnic area in order to walk their dog. This gave her the
opportunity to view the object through binoculars. Betty watched as it traveled
across the face of the moon flashing multi-colored lights. By the time she
handed the binoculars to Barney, the object had changed course, and shortly thereafter,
rapidly descended in their direction.
Franconia Notch
Back in the car, Betty was awestruck by the perplexing object that
seemed to be pacing them. Barney made a second stop near the Old Man of the
Mountain, in Franconia Notch, to observe the ever descending silent craft. It
rapidly changed direction, ascended and descended vertically and hovered
motionless in the sky. This enigmatic phenomenon piqued Barney's interest and
confounded his sensibility. His skepticism left no room for the nonsensical belief
in flying saucers. However, although he remained cool for Betty's sake, he was
quietly ruminating about the remarkable sight. He knew that it was different
than anything he had ever seen before.
The Close Encounter
As they motored south of the Indian Head area of North Lincoln, almost
directly in their path, the couple encountered a huge flattened circular disc
with a row of intense blue-white lighted windows along its forward edge. Barney
rapidly brought the car to a halt in the middle of the road and grabbed his
binoculars for a closer look, opening the car door for a less encumbered view.
The silent hovering object descended to an estimated eighty to a hundred feet
above their vehicle. Rapidly, in an arc like movement, it shifted from its
location directly ahead, and rested above the tree tops in an adjacent field.
Barney pocketed his handgun and walked toward it. The silent enigmatic craft
was huge; maybe sixty to eighty feet in diameter. As he approached it, two red
lights at the end of fin-like structures parted from the sides of the craft,
and it tilted toward Barney.
Lifting his binoculars to his eyes, he spied a group of figures that
were "somehow not human" moving about with the precision of German
officers. As the craft tilted downward and began to descend toward him, one of
these strange creatures, who remained at the window, communicated a frightening
message. Barney had the immediate impression that he was in danger of being
plucked from the field. Overcome with fear and with all of the courage that he
could muster, he tore the binoculars from his eyes and raced back to the car.
Breathless, trembling, and in near hysterics, he told Betty that they needed to
get out of there or they were going to be captured.
Rhythmic Buzzing Sounds
As Barney rapidly accelerated down the highway in an attempt to escape
from the craft, it shifted directly overhead. Suddenly, rhythmic
"buzzing" tones seemed to bounce off the trunk of their vehicle and
they sensed a penetrating vibration. They drove on without speaking until 35
miles down the road, once again they heard a second series of buzzing sounds.
Vague memories of encountering a roadblock, of seeing a huge fiery red-orange
orb resting upon the ground, and feeling a desire for human contact preoccupied
their thoughts. They looked for an open restaurant to no avail, so they drove
on through Concord, picked up Route 4 and made a beeline to Portsmouth,
expecting to arrive at approximately 3:00 A.M. The Hills were surprised to
notice that, as they crossed into Portsmouth, dawn was already streaking the
sky.
Physical Evidence
The Hills were startled to find shiny concentric circles on their car's
trunk. When a compass was placed over the spots, the needle would whirl. But
when it was moved to another area on the vehicle, the needle dropped down.
Their watches had stopped and never ran again. The leather binocular strap had
been severed.
Betty's favorite dress had been in fine shape when she dressed on the
morning of September 19. But when she returned home, there was a 2' tear at the
top of her zipper. The lining was torn from waist to hemline. And the hem was
torn down on one side. Later, she discovered that it was coated with a strange
pink powder that had degraded the fabric and reduced it to a rag. It has been
analyzed by five laboratories. No one can explain the mystery.
The tops of Barney's best dress shoes were scraped. He had to purchase
new shoes. His pant legs were covered with vegetative matter. Later, a
concentric circle of wart-like growths appeared on his groin. They were removed
when they became inflamed during his hypnosis sessions with Dr. Benjamin SImon.
They were not venereal warts.
Project Bluebook Report
The day after the sighting, Betty phoned the 100th Bomb Wing
SAC at Pease Air Force Base in neighboring Newington, New Hampshire to report
an unidentified flying object. She and Barney gave the interviewing officer a
general description of the craft they observed. Barney omitted his observation
of the humanoid figures fearing that he might be thought a crackpot. Later
that day, Major Paul W. Henderson phoned the Hills and questioned both of them
extensively. According to Betty, he seemed very interested in the wing-like
structures that telescoped out from each side of the pancake shaped craft and
the red lights on their tips.
As an ADDITIONAL ITEM, Major Henderson included information about a
radar observation at 2:14 AM. Although it was not possible to determine any
relationship between the two observations, as the radar observation provided no
description, time and distance between the events, he stated, could hint of a
possible relationship.
Letter to NICAP
On September 26, after reading a book she found at the public library,
Betty typed a letter to Major Donald Keyhoe, director of the civilian UFO
group, NICAP, in which she described the encounter. She stated that Barney had
observed figures dressed in black, shiny uniforms looking down at him as he
stood in a field. They were scurrying about as though they were making some hurried
type of preparation. Barney had returned to the car in a hysterical condition,
laughing and repeating that they were going to capture the Hills. She mentioned
that they were considering the possibility of contacting a competent
psychiatrist who uses hypnotism to assist Barney in removing the mental block
that prevented him from recalling whatever he saw in the field that caused him
to panic and develop a mental block.
Betty's Dreams
A few days later, Betty had the first of a series of five frightening
dreams/nightmares, which she jotted down on note paper and, two months later,
typed into a detailed account. Although the nightmares failed to follow a
sequential story line, Betty rearranged them in logical order. Thus, she
developed a frightening dreamlike account of abduction by aliens from another
solar system. Barney was working nights and was not at home. When she mentioned
her dreams to him, he stated tht they were only dreams and she should not be
concerned by them. He refused to read her dream account but did overhear Betty
explaining part of a dream to Walter Webb. Later, skeptics would argue that the
abduction has no foundation in realitythat Bettys nightmares are nearly
identical to her and Barneys hypnotic recall of abduction. This contention has
been refuted through Kathleen Mardens comparative analysis of the hypnosis
transcripts. Although much of Betty's recall of the capture and physical
examination aboard a flying saucer are similar to her dream account, there are
significant differences. Betty and Barney recalled identical detailed
information that wasn't in Betty's dreams and even contradicted the information
in Betty's dreams. (See Hill Hypnosis Tapes VS Betty's Dreams.)
The Investigation
On October 21, 1961, NICAP investigator, Walter Webb, initiated his
confidential preliminary investigation at the Hills home, interviewing them
together and separately for a six-hour period. They had conscious recall for
the close encounter with a large, silent hovering disk and the two sets of code-like
buzzing sounds that seemed to strike the trunk of their vehicle. Barney
described the figures he observed in detail remarking that they were
"somehow not human."
NICAP members Robert Hohmann and CD Jackson, along with Major James
MacDonald (retired A.F. Intelligence officer), interviewed the Hills on
November 25, 1961. On this day, the Hills realized that their drive that should
have taken approximately four hours to complete had taken seven. They were
previously aware that they arrived home later than they had anticipated. But
they had no mundane explanation for the 2-3 hour time discrepancy. Their only
"lost time" memories were of a fiery orb in the road silhouetted
against a stand of trees, a sharp unplanned turn off the main highway, and a
roadblock, without knowing where or when it occurred.
On March 12, 1962, Betty contacted Dr. Patrick Quirk, a psychiatrist
from Georgetown, MA, to request an appointment. Dr. Quirk did not attempt
hypnosis. He recommended that the Hills should wait to see if more conscious
memories of the experience would emerge. Betty and Barney were beginning to
remember information that they had previously forgotten and Dr. Quirk explained
that, in time, they would remember more without the use of hypnosis.
PTSD
In 1963, Barney developed a physically debilitating condition, which
forced him take a three month leave of absence from his job at the U.S. Post
Office. His traditional medical treatment was augmented by psychotherapy, but
his health did not improve. At one appointment, Barney mentioned his continuing
anxiety over his apparent amnesia and requested a referral to a competent
psychiatrist who used hypnosis. His psychotherapist, Dr. Stevens agreed to set
up an appointment with neuro-psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Simon whose outstanding
career included expertise in the use of deep trance hypnosis.
Hypnosis Sessions
Early in 1964, the Hills began what would amount to six months of
separate hypnotic regression and therapy sessions (hypno-analysis), with Dr.
Simon, who knew almost nothing about UFOs, and according to the NICAP
investigator's report, refused to read any of the UFO sighting reports he gave
to him. He induced amnesia at the end of each session for two reasons: 1. to
protect the Hills from remembering their traumatic memories 2. to prevent the
Hills from discussing their memories until he had completed his hypnosis
sessions. An uncannily consistent dual recall of alien abduction emerged that
was somewhat inconsistent with the details of Bettys dream account.
The Publicity
Were it not for a violation of confidentiality, all of this would have
remained undisclosed. However, on October 25, 1965, the Hills greatest fear
was realized when a Boston newspaper published, for five days, a detailed
account of the Hills UFO encounter and abduction experience.
For a complete account of the Hills UFO encounter and its aftermath,
read Captured! The Betty and Barney
Hill UFO Experience by Stanton T. Friedman and Kathleen Marden
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On Route 3 in North Lincoln, NH. Look for the
Indian Head Resort
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