Dr Sagan followed her across the room and took the chair beside the sofa. After switching on the tape-recorder on the cupboard beside the sofa, she leaned over Beth.
‘Do you mind talking to me, Beth?’
‘No.’
‘Would you mind answering my questions?’
‘No.’
‘Waken up, Beth. Open your eyes.’
Beth opened her eyes. She felt unusually tired, but more relaxed and less burdened than before. Glancing across the room, she saw Dwight sitting at Dr Sagan’s desk, looking extremely concerned as Dr Sagan rewound the tape on the tape-recorder and checked her wristwatch. When Beth sat up, yawning, stretching herself, Dr Sagan smiled at her. ‘What’s the time, Beth?’
Beth checked her wristwatch, expecting to find that only a few minutes had passed since she lay down. Instead, she found that two hours had gone by. She’d been asleep all that time. ‘My God!’ she exclaimed in wonder. ‘Thirty after one! Where did the time go? What...?’
She glanced up to see Dr Sagan’s easy smile. ‘Come here, Beth. Sit beside your husband. You’ve been in a trance condition for two hours and talked through it all. Would you like to hear what you said?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Beth replied.
‘I think you’d better come over here and sit beside your husband and listen to the tape. Your husband understands it better than I do. Please, Beth, come on over here.’
Beth swung her feet down to the floor then walked across the room, to take the chair beside Dwight. She stared with widening, fearful eyes at the tape-recorder and found herself mesmerised by the sight of that revolving spool of tape. Her own voice, when it finally came off the tape, practically hypnotised her all over again.
The Beth on the tape, speaking to those in the room, gave flesh, blood and bone to Beth’s nightmares. It was the disembodied voice of a lost soul, speaking from hell.
Chapter Thirty-Five
REPORT OF TAPED HYPNOTHERAPY SESSION
BETWEEN: Dr I. Sagan, B.A., M.A., M.D., of the Sagan Hypnotherapy Clinic, Dayton, Ohio, USA, and:
PATIENT: Beth McGinnis Randall, also of Dayton, Ohio.
PATIENT’S AGE: 40
STATUS: Private Patient (PP)
DATE: November 12, 1963 SUMMARY: Patient presented herself in the company of her husband, Dwight Randall, at the office of Dr Irma Sagan in the Sagan Hypnotherapy Clinic on November 12, 1963, on the recommendation of Dr Phillip Dewhurst, M.A., M.D., for immediate hypnotic regression and, if required, hypnotherapy.
The patient was suffering from repeated migraines, blackouts, and feelings of paranoia based upon the conviction that she was being ‘haunted’ by an unknown person or persons.
The recommendation for hypnotherapy was made by Dr Dewhurst after four consultations with the patient and his subsequent assessment that she was suffering from amnesia relating to a blackout that occurred on October 2, 1963, during a drive from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio.
The purpose of the hypnotic session was to regress the patient to the moment of blackout on October 2, induce a recollection of the event that had traumatised her, and decide a means of curing the trauma based on the nature of the traumatising event.
Penetration of the amnesia was achieved by taking the patient through the three prime stages of hypnotism: light, medium, and heavy, the latter being a state of somnambulism.
The trance session lasted a total of two hours and a complete regression was attained.
At the end of the trance session it was decided by Dr Sagan that the patient, when awakened from her trance, should be made to listen to her own description of the experience and then, in the full awareness of what had transpired during her blackout, undergo a further series of trance sessions for the purposes of hypnotherapy aimed at relieving her stress while also ascertaining the reality or non-reality of the traumainducing event.
At the completion of a total of twelve further hypnotherapy sessions, it was the opinion of Dr Sagan, albeit offered with reluctance, that the patient’s recollections in the trance state were an accurate recall of a real event.
Transcript of interview with patient in hypnotic trance state for inclusion in the confidential archives of the Society of Medical Hypnotists, 4 Victoria Terrace, Kingsway, Hove, Sussex, England.
DOCTOR: You are relaxing, relaxing, very relaxed. You are sleeping, deep sleep, sleeping, deeper, very deep. You are sleeping, very comfortable, relaxed, very relaxed. You are deeper and deeper in sleep, very comfortable, deeper. You are relaxed and comfortable. You are deep, deep in sleep. You are relaxed and you will remember everything and you will answer my questions.
PATIENT: Yes. DOCTOR: All right, Beth, you are very relaxed. You have nothing to fear. You are going back to the evening of October 2, 1963. To the moment when you were driving out of Springfield. You are going back now.
PATIENT: Yes.
DOCTOR: Do you know where you are?
PATIENT: I’m in the car. I’m driving away from Springfield. I’m on the road leading from Springfield to Columbus, about fifteen miles out of Springfield.
DOCTOR: What do you see, Beth? PATIENT: Just the road. The empty fields on either side. Not much traffic on the road. No traffic here. Sun going down. Almost dark. A nice, easy drive. It feels good to be...
DOCTOR: Yes Beth?
PATIENT: I don’t want to.
DOCTOR: All right, Beth, you are very relaxed. You have nothing to fear. What do you see? PATIENT: Feels funny... Someone following... No, there’s no one there. Nothing out front. Nothing behind me. Fields all empty on both sides of the car. Nothing in the sky... Darkening... The sky’s darkening... Strange feeling... Oh, no, not here as well! Something’s following me... Not behind me... Above me... Damn it, where are you? Oh, God, right above me! No! I don’t want to!
DOCTOR: You are safe, Beth. Relaxed. Very relaxed. There is nothing to fear. You are relaxed. You are safe. What’s happening, Beth? PATIENT: Beside me... Beside the car. Two of them... Flying saucers... Oh, God, Dwight, where are you? Come and see them! What you’ve always wanted to see. Oh, God, Dwight, where are you?
DOCTOR: Dwight’s beside you, Beth. He’s right here beside you. He’s fine. He’s okay. He wants you to describe the flying saucers. What are they like, Beth? PATIENT: Not big... Not like the ones I’ve heard about... Small saucers, spinning discs, metallic and silvery-white, glowing oddly in failing light and spinning... Only two or three foot wide. Shaped like two plates placed on top of each other, one upside-down on the other... All metal. Smooth surfaces. Spherical. Seamless. Spinning like spinning-tops as they fly through the air, pacing the car, one on each side, parallel to where I’m sitting, very close to the windows... Now they’re... I don’t want to! Don’t want to! Don’t want to!
DOCTOR: It’s all right, Beth, you’re just remembering. It’s in the past. You’re remembering. It’s all in the past. It can’t hurt you. You’re remembering and it seems to be happening now, but it was all in the past, it just seems like the present. In the present. Right now. It’s right now, but you’re safe. What’s happening, Beth?
PATIENT: Two small flying saucers, one on each side of the car, right by the front windows, pacing the car, keeping up with the car. They seem solid... seamless... I can hear them – no, feel them. They’re spinning like crazy, sort of glowing, and I’m not sure if I’m hearing them or feeling them, but there’s some kind of pressure. Something pressing around me, making the car drag, slowing down... Oh, my God!
DOCTOR: Relax, Beth. Relax. No need to worry. Just tell me, Beth. PATIENT: The flying saucers have stopped spinning. They’re still flying, but they’re not spinning... Oh, God, a slot’s opening up in both of them... a glass eye... staring at me... God! What’s that? Some kind of light – beams of light! Those things are shooting beams of light into the car... strange light... very bright and flickering on and off repeatedly, pulsating, making a noise... No, a kind of vibration... No! Please, no more!
DOCTOR: What is it, Beth? PATIEN
T: My head hurts. I can’t think. One of the beams of light is aimed at the hood of the car; the other’s right in my face... I can’t see properly... The car’s engine is cutting out... Oh, Christ, my head hurts... The light’s blinding me... The car’s still cutting out. God, it’s stopping!
DOCTOR: It’s all right, Beth, there’s nothing to fear. What’s happening now?
PATIENT: The car’s gone dead and stopped and... No! No! No!
DOCTOR: Relax. You are relaxed. You are safe. What’s happening, Beth? PATIENT: Oh, God! Straight ahead! It’s coming down over the road. Another flying saucer, but bigger.. enormous... About the size of an airliner. Lots of lights flashing around it. Descending slowly on the road just ahead. Hovering there – just inches above the road. Now settling down on the road and blocking my way with those flashing lights blinding me.
DOCTOR: Where are the smaller saucers, Beth? Are they still hovering at both sides of your car? Still shining the beams of light in? PATIENT: Yes – no! I mean, yes, they’re still there, one hovering at each side of me, but those slits in their sides have closed up and the lights aren’t shining any more. I’m...
DOCTOR: Yes? PATIENT: I’m trying to start the car. It won’t start. I’m trying to get out and run away, but the doors seem locked, though I didn’t lock them... Oh, God, I’m trapped here and my head is splitting and...
DOCTOR: It’s all right, Beth. You needn’t be agitated. I’m right here. I’m with you. Just tell me what’s happening. PATIENT: I’m trapped in the car. The doors are locked. I can’t get the car to start. That gigantic flying saucer is straddling the road – over a hundred foot wide, as tall as an office building, with lights flashing on and off around its rim... No! The lights are going out. I think part of the body is spinning and slowing down as the lights flicker out... Now the lights are out and the big flying saucer is sitting there in darkness. Nearly dark. And... Now it’s making a noise. A kind of bass humming sound. I can feel it – almost feel the sound, I mean, and... The flying saucer is opening. Opening! A long slit of bright light along the front, along its base... becoming bigger, higher, like a door or panel lifting up. And... it’s a door in the front – a big door, like the door of an aircraft hangar – just like Wright-Patterson, Dwight – and... Oh, God, there are people in there... Just standing there, not moving, in the light of what looks like an aircraft’s holding bay... Staring at me, I think... I can’t be sure... They’re silhouetted. Human figures... some normal... but some... Oh, Christ, some are so small! Small and misshapen about the head and hands... The light... They must be distorted by the light... Oh, my God... No! No! No!
DOCTOR: You are calm, Beth. You are not really there. You are here. You are here with us, with Dwight and me, and absolutely safe. You are here and you are absolutely safe. What’s happening, Beth?
PATIENT: Lights. Other lights. Two brilliant beams of light emanating from that huge saucer. Beaming right at my car, in my face. Flooding the car with light, flickering on and off repeatedly...
DOCTOR: You’re safe, Beth. What’s happening? PATIENT: That noise... I can feel the noise! I can’t think clearly because of the noise and... The light in that big saucer is expanding... No! A ramp is falling down... slowly... falling down to touch the ground, forming a path up into the saucer. Now... Christ! Something is coming out, emerging from each side of that holding bay... Large steel claws... Clamps of some kind... Now stretching out of the holding bay on hinged arms and hanging over the end of the ramp... They’ve stopped moving. They’re just hanging there on the end of the hinged supports, like big steel claws on steel arms.
DOCTOR: What are the figures in the holding bay doing, Beth? PATIENT: Nothing. They haven’t moved at all. I can only make out the shape of them – not their faces – because they’re silhouetted in the brilliant, almost blinding light. Also... My eyes hurt. I’m dazzled by the light filling the car and flickering on and off so fast that it disorientates me... And making that sound... The sound that I can feel...
DOCTOR: Yes, Beth? PATIENT: They’re just standing there – watching me, I think... God, those small ones aren’t natural... the wrong shape. And... No, I don’t believe this! Now the smaller saucers are shooting their beams of light at me again, at the car, front and rear of the car, and... The car’s moving! It’s being pulled forward! Oh, God, I’ve got the handbrake on but it’s not holding the car back, the car is still being drawn forward... By what? The beams of light! They’re drawing the car forward as the smaller saucers advance, taking me – I mean the car – towards the steel ramp of the big saucer and those men in the doorway... I want out! I want out! I can’t move! Oh, please God, let me out!
DOCTOR: Relax, Beth. Relax. I’ll make sure you get out. Just tell me what’s happening. PATIENT: The flickering light is doing something to me... pressure... numbing me... paralysing me... Ah, God, I can’t move and the car has reached the ramp and those claws – the big clamps on hinged arms – are moving down on both sides of the car, two on each side...
DOCTOR: You’re still here, Beth. You’re only remembering. Now tell me what’s happening. PATIENT: The car’s rocking. The clamps are taking hold, one under each door, between the front and rear wheels, and... Ah, Christ, I can’t breathe! I’m panicking... trying to stop it... take control... Yes, better... Can breathe again.
DOCTOR: You can breathe again, Beth. You have no panic. You’re still in control. What’s happening, Beth? PATIENT: The lights of the smaller saucers have blinked out and those saucers have flown into the holding bay and disappeared into the dazzling light. Thank God, they’ve finally gone... But... Oh, no!
DOCTOR: What is it, Beth? PATIENT: The mechanical clamps... They’re lifting the car slightly and drawing it up the ramp and into the holding bay, into the brightening light... And those figures, silhouetted, they’re moving at last, parting, stepping aside to leave room for the car... I’m inside the saucer. Inside! Let me out! Let me out!
DOCTOR: You are relaxed, very relaxed, deeply relaxed. There is nothing to fear. You are deep, deep in sleep, you are relaxed and nothing can harm you. You are okay. You can answer my questions. You are in the holding bay of the flying saucer, but you have nothing to fear. You can answer my questions. What do you see inside? DOCTOR: Can you hear me, Beth?
PATIENT: Yes.
DOCTOR: Your car has just been drawn up into the holding bay of the big flying saucer. What do you see? PATIENT: Light. Dazzling light. The bass humming sound has stopped. The figures are silhouetted by the light but are now on both sides of me, surrounding the car. The clamps on the hinged steel arms have just been released and the arms are now bending, withdrawing the clamps by raising them up above the car. The steel arms are moving back into the holding bay on grooved tracks, like railroad tracks, leaving the car sitting here... Every sound echoes here. The noise of the steel clamps on the hinged arms reverberates as the mechanism moves deeper into the holding bay. Now it’s disappearing from view, swallowed up by the bright light. The bass humming sound has stopped and my headache is gone. I can move, but I feel drained of energy and dazed... Oh, God, now they’re... I don’t want to! I won’t!
DOCTOR: Tell me. It’s all right, Beth, you can tell me. You won’t be harmed if you tell me. What’s happening now?
PATIENT: The silhouetted figures are surrounding the car. Most of them look like normal men, all wearing black coveralls. Though some of them... No!
DOCTOR: Go on, Beth.
(The patient does not respond.)
DOCTOR: Tell me what you see, Beth. PATIENT: Some of them – the ones who looked small and misshapen in silhouette – are alien creatures. They have hands like the metal clamps that pulled the car into this place – metallic claws with hinged joints. There are metal caps on their heads, studded with... I’m a not sure... electric plug. Their eyes appear to be normal – not American – Oriental? But the lower half of the face is made of metal – nose and chin, I think. The metal covering the lower half of the face has no space for the lips – no lips at a
ll. They look just like little men from outer space; they look hideous... frightening.
DOCTOR: Yes, Beth? DOCTOR: You can talk about it, Beth. It’s okay. Dwight and I are beside you, both listening. Please continue describing them.
PATIENT: They’re small – about five foot tall, maybe smaller, not much taller. Like the human beings, they’re wearing coveralls, but silvery-grey instead of black. Now all of them – the human beings and the small aliens – are surrounding the car... I’m frightened. Yes! But it’s all in my head... I’m not doing anything because, though I’m frightened, I also feel physically drained and mentally passive. I’m waiting for them to do something. Or for them to tell me what to do. Now they’re standing around the car and looking in. They’re looking at me.
DOCTOR: Is anyone speaking, Beth? PATIENT: No. One of the men in black coveralls is opening the car door and dragging me out. Not exactly dragging me out, just sort of helping me. I’m frightened, but I don’t try to resist. I don’t have the will. He has to help me because I feel weak and dazed and dizzy. I think he knows how I feel.
DOCTOR: So the man in black has pulled you out of the car. What’s happening now, Beth? PATIENT: I’m looking around me. The sloping ramp is swinging back up to form part of the wall... Now it’s closed. It fits so well, I can’t even see the joins... The walls seem made of white-painted metal. Not walls – one wall – curving around on both sides of me. Part of the circular exterior of the big saucer; the roof of the holding bay... I call it a holding bay because I feel that I’m in an aircraft, or maybe an aircraft hangar, like the ones they had at Wright-Patterson AFB... The roof of the holding bay is dome-shaped. It has that hollow ringing sound, like all aircraft hangars have, but it’s shaped like a dome – or only part of a dome... Shaped like a slice of orange.
DOCTOR: What else do you see? PATIENT: Machinery. The big machine that lifted my car and carried it into this holding bay, but with its hinged arms now folded and the clamps – giant versions of the metallic hands of the small aliens – now folded down and tucked against the wall... More machinery. Lots of it. A bit like a garage. I don’t know what kind of machinery it is, but I feel like I’m in a garage or an aircraft hangar... I’m seeing all of this in the bright light... It’s all bright light and shadow.
PHOENIX: (Projekt Saucer series) Page 42