A Bright Light In The Sky
In the latter half of the 20th century, reports of extraterrestrial abductions and close encounters with UFOs were common, but none of these abduction stories is as intriguing as that of Barney and Betty Hill. Due to the fact that they were a mixed-race couple in rural New Hampshire in 1961, their allegation that they were taken hostage by “humanoids” was controversial.
The events that became known as the “Hill Abduction” and the “Zeta Reticuli Incident” include hypnosis, aliens, spacecraft, and lost time. So what actually transpired in 1961 when the Hills encountered extraterrestrials?
On September 19, 1961, just before 10:30 p.m., Barney and Betty Hills were traveling from a vacation in Niagara Falls to Portsmouth when Betty spotted something in the sky south of Lancaster, New Hampshire. According to Betty, she witnessed the bright light move quickly from beneath the moon to a region of the sky near Jupiter. The Hills thought the light was a falling star at first, but when it started to rise, Betty requested Barney to stop their car so they could get a better look.
Through a pair of binoculars, Barney observed an “odd-shaped” object with flashing multicolored lights moving over the face of the moon. Betty soon realized she was seeing a UFO.
The Hills discovered that the UFO was traveling in a similar direction as they continued down the winding, lonely road. Betty adds that the UFO was around 1.5 times the length of Cannon Mountain’s granite cliff face and that it was silently rotating as it traveled across the sky.
They Tried To Escape
About a mile south of Indian Head, an object suddenly dropped toward their car, forcing them to stop their 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air in the middle of the roadway.
According to the couple, the enormous spaceship hovered about 100 feet over their car. Barney exited the vehicle armed with a pistol to get a better look. He asserted that from his vantage point on the road, he could see eight to eleven humanoids gazing at him out of the craft’s windows. Barney claims that one of the humanoids told him to “remain where you are and keep looking” through psychic communication. Following that, the “bat-wing fins” on the craft started to blink red lights, and a telescope and a structure appeared on the side of the vessel.
The humanoids instructed Barney to stay still, but he hurried back to the car and yelled, “They’re going to capture us!” He ran back to the automobile and made an effort to get away before the ship caught up to their vehicle. The Hills claim that at this point, a tingling feeling spread over their bodies, and their minds were caught in a mental fog. The Hills realized they had driven nearly 35 miles south after hearing several beeping noises. After clearing their heads, they recalled that they had taken a sudden curve, encountered a barrier, and then noticed an orb burning in the road.
Strange Dreams And Nightmares
Betty had a string of dreams that lasted for five nights in a row, starting a little over a week after their reported UFO encounter. She told Barney about the nightmares, but she abandoned the subject when he appeared disinterested, but she was nonetheless privately frightened.
Betty recorded the specifics of her dreams in a journal in November, mentioning that in one of them, their automobile was encircled by men, and she passed out as Barney struggled to regain control of it.
The Couple Goes Public
The Hills didn’t talk about their kidnapping until the spring of 1963 when they did so in front of churchgoers. As a guest lecturer for their congregation in September of that same year, Captain Ben H. Swett of the US Air Force discussed the potential benefits of formal hypnosis with the Hills. A Boston-based hypnotist named Benjamin Simon was recommended to the couple.
Simon initially met the Hills on December 14, 1963, and during that encounter, he learned that Barney was far more nervous about the situation than he was letting on. Simon didn’t buy the UFO narrative, but he did think the Hills were sincere in their account of their encounter. After finishing their job with Simon, the Hills resumed their regular lives. They were honest about their UFO encounter, but they didn’t go looking for attention for their alleged kidnapping.