The alleged alien abduction of Betty and Barney
Hill; occurred in 1961, although, the Hills did not begin giving details of
their captors until they began undergoing hypnosis in 1963.
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
show
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."
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) was 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 originates in human culture."
