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  If the UFO investigators had suspected that there was more to the case than a simple sighting, they had no idea how to investigate it. Since most investigators lacked expertise in hypnosis, the majority of cases went uninvestigated. Even when competent hypnotists were called in on cases, they were not well versed enough in abduction research to ask the proper questions. They could not tell if the subject was “filling in” with false information, if the witness had slipped into channeling, or if they were hearing dream material or “screen” memories. And because the investigators did not know exactly what happened during an abduction, they could not identify false memories purposely placed in victims’ minds.

  Furthermore, most abductees did not report their experiences because they simply did not remember them. If they did remember something, they often linked the event to a psychic or religious experience and thus had no reason to call a UFO organization.

  Even with the investigating problems, by the mid-1980s there were so many of these reports that researchers could not keep up with them. The amount of data from each abduction experience was so extensive and rich in detail that even the most cursory look indicated that something extraordinary was occurring. In 1987 Dr. Thomas E. Bullard published a massive study of 270 published abduction cases. Although most of the cases were not investigated as carefully as they should have been, and many contained untrustworthy material, Bullard’s careful analysis was still able to show numerous structural similarities.12

  Most researchers still did not understand the implications of the new data. They had been schooled in the older sighting-analysis techniques and were ill-equipped to study abduction cases with new “internal” methodology. Most of the analytic procedures that had been developed for deciphering what a person observed no longer applied as UFO research moved into the delicate area of recovering memories locked away in the mind. But once a few researchers, like Budd Hopkins and Dr. Richard Haines (who developed a more planned method of questioning abductees) slowly began to develop proper techniques of investigating abductions and to unravel the tangled web of data that the abductees related, the victims’ stories began to take on a coherence and a structure, with extraordinary detail that had never before been revealed.

  In 1987 Hopkins published Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods, which for the first time revealed the extent of the UFO phenomenon’s intrusion into peoples’ personal lives. Hopkins found that, in addition to examinations, victims described aliens performing genetic experiments on them that included the taking of ova and sperm. He uncovered the idea that aliens were having abductees physically interact with odd-looking babies presumably grown at least in part from the abductees’ eggs and sperm. He also began to realize the extent of victimization that had occurred among abductees as a result of their experiences. The people he investigated were traumatized individuals whose lives had been profoundly affected by their abductions.13

  By the late 1980s the phenomenon had begun to yield some of its secrets. The abductions, once considered the fringy “stepchild” of the UFO phenomenon, were irrevocably changing UFO studies. Researchers had begun to realize that the abduction phenomenon yielded far more information about UFOs than sightings had revealed. At last we had literally and figuratively entered inside the UFOs.

  PART II

  THE ABDUCTION EXPERIENCE

  Chapter 3

  Getting There

  “THIS IS NOT A DREAM.”

  Going from a normal environment into a UFO can be a shattering experience. People are engaged in normal activities when suddenly they are removed from their surroundings against their will and taken into the fringes of reality. The abductors seem to make a conscious effort to take people when they will not be missed or when their lives will not be overly disrupted. That still allows a wide range of opportunities for an abduction.

  TRANSPORT

  An unsuspecting woman is in her room preparing to go to bed. She gets into bed, reads a while, turns off the light, and drifts off into a peaceful night’s sleep. In the middle of the night she turns over and lies on her back. She is awakened by a light that seems to be glowing in her room. The light moves toward her bed and takes the shape of a small “man” with a bald head and huge black eyes. She is terrified. She wants to run but she cannot move. She wants to scream but she cannot speak. The “man” moves toward her and looks deeply into her eyes. Suddenly she is calmer, and she “knows” that the “man” is not going to hurt her.

  This is a typical beginning of an abduction. Virtually all abductees have experienced this. From the first few seconds of an abduction, nothing is within the realm of normal human experience. It is an instant descent into the fantastic and bizarre. Technology and biotechnology that seem like magic are immediately apparent. Once the event begins, humans are powerless to stop it. When it is over, most victims cannot remember it.

  Often the abductee forms “screen” memories that mask the beginning of an abduction event. For example, one abductee said she saw a wolf in her bedroom one night. The wolf was standing squarely on her bed looking her in the eyes. She clearly remembered its fur, fangs, and eyes. Other abductees have claimed to have seen monkeys, owls, deer, and other animals. Some say that they have seen an “angel” or a “devil.” Through the use of hypnosis to recover the details of these events, each of these cases turned out to be the beginning of an abduction sequence. It is common for abductees to refer to out-of-body experiences that they had or, more commonly, that they succeeded in “preventing” at what was the beginning of an abduction. They sometimes remember that they felt themselves floating out of bed but then “fought it” and were able to lower themselves back onto the bed and abort the experience. When these memories have been examined, they have turned out to be a combination of the first few seconds and the last few seconds of an abduction.

  Secrecy appears to be critically important to the aliens in determining the opportunities for abductions. They commonly take place when the abductee is in an automobile, alone in the daytime, or with a small group of people. Victims have reported aliens doing procedures on them in their homes without being abducted. The majority of abductions, however, begin at night when the victim is alone, either awake or asleep. No abductions have surfaced that took place in the middle of a very large group of people, in full view at a public event.

  The greater the victim’s seclusion and the less others will miss her, the longer the experience tends to last. If a person is alone and is not likely to be missed for hours, she will experience more events during the abduction. Similarly, an abduction of a person walking alone in a secluded place will last longer than an abduction originating in a small group of people. Most abductions last from one to three hours.

  Nighttime and Sleep

  Nighttime presents an ideal time for an abduction. During the night, the abductee’s disappearance has a greater chance of going unnoticed and the aliens can maintain maximum “cover.” Also, if the abductee is asleep, the event can become concealed as part of a dream. Although the “dream” may be much more vivid and have a different quality than usual, it is still within the acceptable cognitive realm.

  At the beginning of the nighttime abduction, the Beings enter into the room through a light source coming from the window. How the use of light can transform and transport matter is unknown. The frightened victim is calmed when the Beings come close to her and stare into her eyes. A Small Being then touches her shoulder or arm. She finds herself floating up and out of bed. She is drawn to the light and enveloped in it. She floats toward the light. Small Beings are with her. Then, without hesitation, she and her escorts go directly through the closed window to the outside. She has no particular physical sensation when passing through the window.

  Although abductees frequently report going directly through walls and ceilings, the Beings appear to seek out a window. Sometimes the aliens will take abductees out of their bedrooms and into another room and then out through a window there. Windows that are blocke
d, for example with boxes after a move, are avoided in favor of unblocked windows. One woman was visiting friends with her son. They slept in two different rooms in the basement. An abduction sequence began, and the aliens took her out of her bed and walked her into her son’s room. Then they took her son and walked both of them into the bathroom. She wondered why they were crowding into the bathroom and then she realized that the bathroom was the only room in the basement with a window. Soon a bright light entered and they flew out the window.

  In spite of hundreds of accounts of people flying through closed windows, it is exceedingly rare to find an outside witness who has observed it. Therefore, although it sounds impossible, the physical mechanism that allows people to pass through solid objects probably renders them invisible, at least for this part of the abduction experience.

  Floating can be extremely unpleasant. Many abductees experience nausea and dizziness, compounded by their fear and confusion. As the abductee travels up, rooftops and treetops recede, and then stars come into view. During the transition upward she is only vaguely aware of her body; she may not even be able to see it. As she continues her journey, she approaches the source of the light and is floated into a UFO.

  When I met Barbara Archer in 1987, she was a petite, twenty-one-year-old university student who was studying to be a journalist. She was overwhelmed with fear and anxiety when she remembered snippets of bizarre events that had dominated her life. During the course of her six hypnosis sessions with me she was able to recall vividly her extraordinary experiences. One night when she was sixteen years old, she was getting ready to go to bed when she noticed a light coming in through the window. When she closed the shade, the light continued to illuminate the entire room. She looked outside but could not see the source of the light. During a hypnosis session, she remembered what had happened in the beginning of the event. I asked her how she felt when she saw the light.

  Well, I think when I first realized that the light was in my room it made me feel scared, but like I couldn’t figure it out.

  So you’re puzzled?

  Yeah. I should look out the other window, because I could see more of the sky. But I just didn’t…. There’s all this light still. I start to feel like, I sit there for a while and I look out the window, and then I turn around because I think that there might be somebody there. I first thought that it might be the dog. After a while I just stop looking out the window because there’s nothing there to see.

  Do you sort of look back in, though, can you get the sense that… ?

  Well, the light seems to be going away. It’s not filling the whole room as much anymore. When I turn around there’s somebody standing over by the closet.

  Is this a big person, or a medium person, little person?

  He’s smaller than me. I’m not all that shocked to see him standing there…. I think he came toward me when I was standing there by the window…. I think he touches my arm. He sort of touches me around my wrist area, between my elbow and my wrist sort of. It feels better then, I mean, I’m not scared or anything now.

  When he touches your wrist, what happens next?

  Well, I turn around toward the window again, the side window that I had been looking out of. I just sort of go up.

  Okay. Is this through the shade?

  Yes. I think I left the shade down. I don’t remember putting it up, anyway. And we just go out. Oh, I feel so dizzy…. It feels terrible.

  Do you get a sense that you’re going horizontally?

  No, up.

  Is it straight up like an elevator, or… ?

  Yes. It’s up straight.

  Can you get a sense of movement, or do you just feel that you’re going up?

  I feel sort of like I’m on an elevator except there’s no walls or anything around it, it’s just up fast….

  Can you see anything outside?

  When we went out the window we went straight in between the two row houses, my house and my next-door neighbor’s. The houses go back a little bit and there’s like a room in there between my bedroom and the bedroom across from me, it sort of goes back, like a little cove sort of thing. And I go straight up from in between there. So I can see everything. I can see all the row houses on my street, in the driveway. I feel really nauseous…. I hope I don’t get sick.

  [I assured Barbara that the feeling would subside and she would not be sick.] Can you get a sense of if you’re headed toward a specific point?

  We’re going straight up. I looked down and I saw the trees and everything on my street, and it makes me feel kind of scared because I don’t really like heights. Not scared, but it just makes this nauseous feeling a little bit worse, I think. But then after that we’re just going straight up. I know that we’re going to some place.

  Do you get a sense of weather? Can you feel breezes? Is it cold? Do you get a sense of being outside?

  It doesn’t feel cold or anything. Just kind of feels like body temperature.

  Do you get a sense that you might be enclosed in something? Is something protecting you from the weather?

  Not that I can tell. I can’t feel anything, or touch anything.

  So you still continue to go up.

  Yes.

  Can you see yourself approaching something?

  Yes. When I look up I can see the bottom of, kind of a big, I think it’s roundish, but longer, though. It’s like an oval maybe. I can see the bottom, sort of gray, dark gray.

  Is it big, or small, or are you a little too far away to get that sense?

  Well, it’s big, but it’s not huge. I can remember from before, and it’s not that big.

  Do you sort of get closer to it then?

  Mm-hmm. It feels like there’s sort of light around me, that we’re following up. And we’re getting closer to the point of where that’s coming from, inside that big thing.

  Are you heading toward the center of it, or off to the side?

  Yes, the center, underneath. We just go right in through the bottom.

  Is this other person still with you?

  Yes. I think he’s still there. When we get there, there’s somebody else waiting for us at the inside.

  (Barbara Archer, 16, 1982)

  Other abductees report floating horizontally across buildings and fields, and then coming down in a field or secluded area. The UFO is in a clearing and the abductee and aliens walk to it, sometimes a considerable distance. Why this happens is not known.

  When the abductee is near other people, they are usually rendered unconscious or immobile while the abduction is going on. Typically they sleep through the abduction; if they are awakened at the beginning of it they are made to go back to sleep immediately. This “switching off” procedure presumably allows for secrecy to be kept and for minimal disruption in the life of the nonabductee. When the abduction is over, the nonabductee will be switched on once again and resume normal activities.

  In spite of the aliens’ ability to control human behavior, from time to time an abductee will see another person being abducted. “Tom,” for example, told me an intriguing story. He was making love to his wife “Nancy” (the couple asked that their names be changed) when she complained that she felt an “electric jolt” go through her hips. He said that he did not feel anything. He looked at the clock and was surprised to find that he had been engaged in lovemaking for about forty-five minutes. This seemed odd because he felt that he had not been doing it for more than a few minutes and there were no “gaps” that he was aware of. When I questioned him during hypnosis, Tom remembered seeing two Small Beings come into the room. He was switched off and the Beings moved him off his wife.

  She turns her head for a moment, and it’s like she drew a quick breath…. But it’s like, there’s something pulling us apart, but it’s like we look like a couple of rag dolls, it’s like we’re completely poleaxed, whatever you call it, shot with a tranquilizer dart, like a couple of grizzlies or something. It’s like we’re just completely limp, but I’m just facedown on the
bed. I don’t know where she is.