Betty and Barney Hills: Dr. Simon's conclusions
After extensive hypnosis sessions, Dr. Simon concluded that
Barney's recall of the UFO encounter was a fantasy inspired by Betty's dreams.
Though Simon admitted this hypothesis did not explain every aspect of the
experience, he thought it was the most plausible and consistent explanation.
Barney rejected this idea, noting that while their memories were in some
regards interlocking, there were also portions of both their narratives that
were unique to each. Barney was now ready to accept that they had been abducted
by the occupants of a UFO, though he never embraced it as fully as Betty did.
Though the Hills and Simon disagreed about the nature of the case,
they all concurred that the hypnosis sessions were effective: the Hills were no
longer tormented by anxiety about the UFO encounter.
Afterwards, Simon wrote an article about the Hills for the journal Psychiatric Opinion, explaining his conclusions that the case was a
singular psychological aberration.
Influential TV
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Paranormal investigator Brian Dunning reports that the
hypnosis sessions occurred over two years after the reported abductions, plenty
of time for the couple to discuss their encounter. In a 2008 article, Dunning
calls their story "merely an inventive tale from the mind of a lifelong
UFO fanatic... [and] is unsupported by any useful evidence, and is perfectly
consistent with the purely natural explanation."[35] Dunning's statements,
however, are not supported by factual information. Betty was not a lifelong UFO
enthusiast. According to Barney's 1961 letter to Major Donald Keyhoe and early
investigative reports, she had not read even one book about UFOs prior to her
close encounter on September 19, 1961; nor had he.
An alien (played by actor John Hoyt) depicted on TV twelve
days prior to the making of Hill's 'Grey' hypnosis tape
In his 1990 article Entirely Unpredisposed, Martin Kottmeyer
suggested that Barney's memories revealed under hypnosis might have been
influenced by an episode of the science fiction television show
The Outer Limits titled "The Bellero Shield",
which was broadcast about two weeks before Barney's first hypnotic session. The
episode featured an extraterrestrial with large eyes who says, "In all the
universes, in all the unities beyond the universes, all who have eyes have eyes
that speak." The report from the regression featured a scenario that was
in some respects similar to the television show. In part, Kottmeyer wrote:[36]
"Wraparound eyes are an extreme rarity in science
fiction films. I know of only one instance. They appeared on the alien of an
episode of an old TV series The Outer Limits entitled "The Bellero
Shield". A person familiar with Barney's sketch in "The Interrupted
Journey" and the sketch done in collaboration with the artist David Baker
will find a "frisson" of "déjà vu" creeping up his spine
when seeing this episode. The resemblance is much abetted by an absence of
ears, hair, and nose on both aliens. Could it be by chance? Consider this:
Barney first described and drew the wraparound eyes during the hypnosis session
dated 22 February 1964. "The Bellero Shield" was first broadcast on
"10 February 1964. Only twelve days separate the two instances. If the
identification is admitted, the commonness of wraparound eyes in the abduction
literature falls to cultural forces."
