Betty and Barney Hill

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The couple Betty (actually Eunice Elizabeth Barrett , born June 29, 1919 in Newton , New Hampshire , † October 17, 2004 in Portsmouth , New Hampshire) and Barney Hill (born July 20, 1922 in Newport News , Virginia , † February 25 1969 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) reported to have been the victim of a close encounter of the fourth kind on the night of September 19-20, 1961 when it encountered a UFO and was briefly abducted by the inmates into the object, where it was had been subjected to several experiments and surgical interventions. The kidnappers are said to have been aliens . The event is considered unproven.

Case history

UFO Event: Betty and Barney Hill
Country: United States
Place: White Mountains
Date: 19. – 20. September 1961
Object: Flying saucer
Hynek classification : CE-4

During a night drive on a lonely stretch of US Highway 3 in the White Mountains, New Hampshire , the Hills spotted a bright, flying object. They later found themselves sitting in their car 60 miles south, unable to remember what had happened. The Hills reported their observation to the local air force base. Five days after the incident, Betty Hill also sent a brief report to the private NICAP (National Investigation Committee of Aerial Phenomena) and was then questioned by a member of the organization. According to her, the Hills experienced psychological consequences such as nightmares, limpness and anxiety a few days later. So a few months later they went to see a therapist. After unsuccessful treatment at the end of 1963, he referred her to the psychiatrist Benjamin Simon, who questioned her under hypnosis .

Only under hypnosis did the Hills describe numerous details of an encounter with strange beings. They were stopped by dwarfish gray creatures, brought on board a UFO, questioned and medically examined several times. Betty Hill had hair, skin and nail samples and ear wax taken. She was also shown a star map. Later they were conditioned by the beings to suppress the experiences. However, the couple contradicted each other in their descriptions on some points, for example in the description of the aliens.

Barney Hill, who was chronically ill before the event, died in 1969 of a cerebral haemorrhage. Betty Hill represented her version of the night until her death at the age of 85.

rating

The "Hill abduction" is one of the most important events in ufology and, as an archetype, marks the beginning of the wave of alien abductions in the 1960s. The details of the case reappear in most other abduction cases over the next few decades: the appearance of the aliens, the phenomenon of lack of time, the medical examinations, the communication via thought transmission, and the involvement of the US military.

Several ufologists claim to be able to prove the alien abduction of Hill. However, none of the arguments presented as evidence was accepted by the general public. Jacques Vallée considers the processes to be an ancient earthly phenomenon and pointed out that many descriptions of the Hills correspond to traditional religious, mythical and fairytale ideas, for example the descriptions of ghosts, fairies and demons . The Hills psychiatrist Simon hypothesized that the multiracial couple (Barney was an African American, Betty a white) might have been dealing with deep unresolved conflicts with the story. However, they do not doubt an actual observation through the hills. Also suggests that "the object observed by the Hills ... was also detected by the military radar".

Outside the group of UFO believers, however, skepticism and criticism of the reality of the experience arose early on. It was criticized that the Hills had only described the "real" background more than two years after the incident. And in 1966, Der Spiegel cited an illustration fee for the Hills of 96,000 DM as an explanation. In the course of the years, various scientific attempts to explain the kidnapping phenomenon were made. Most of the investigations focused on the question of which psychological or physiological processes caused these perceptions or which could have distorted real experiences. Among other things, it was discussed whether the experiences are misinterpreted cognitive processes , i.e. psychological illusions similar to optical illusions , or whether the descriptions obtained under hypnosis are false memories .

literature

  • Betty Hill: A Common Sense Approach to UFOs . Betty Hill, Greenland NH 1995, ISBN 0-9648243-0-2 .
  • Stanton Friedman, Kathleen Marden: Captured! The Betty And Barney Hill UFO Experience . New Page Books, Franklin Lakes, NJ 2007, ISBN 978-1-56414-971-8 .
  • John G. Fuller: The Interrupted Journey . Two lost hours on board a flying saucer. Kopp Verlag, Rottenburg am Neckar 1996, ISBN 3-930219-12-3 (American English: The Interrupted Journey . Translated by Astrid Ogbeiwi ).

Film / television

  • Encounter from Nowhere (1975). Director: Richard Colla (feature film)
  • Flying Saucers Are Real (1979); Director: Ed Hunt (documentary)
  • Dark Skies (1996) (TV series)
  • Kidnapped by UFOs? (1997); PBS Nova (broadcast transcript) (TV documentary)
  • Gallileo big pictures mystery (2016) 2nd place in myths

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ grave site with description ; Entry in the NNDB (Notable Names Database)
  2. ↑ grave site with description ; Entry in the NNDB
  3. ↑ The Air Force Report will u. a. quoted in: Jacques Vallée: Dimensions. Munich 1996, p. 135 f .; there also one of the (numerous) descriptions of the case, pp. 135–140.
  4. ↑ see u. a .: Keith Thompson: Angels and other aliens. UFO phenomena in a new interpretation. Munich 1993; Jacques Vallée: Dimensions. Munich 1996; Chris A. Rutkowski: A World of UFOs. Toronto 2008; Peter Brookesmith: Alien Abductions. New York 1998.
  5. ^ Jacques Vallée: Dimensions. Munich 1996, p. 139f .; see also Keith Thompson: Angels and other extraterrestrials. UFO phenomena in a new interpretation. Munich 1993.
  6. ↑ see Keith Thompson: Angels and Other Aliens. UFO phenomena in a new interpretation. Munich 1993, p. 99.
  7. ^ Jacques Vallée: Dimensions. Munich 1996, p. 135.
  8. ↑ Wandering lights . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1966, pp. 166 ( online ).
  9. ↑ List of theories with evidence in the article Abduction by extraterrestrials