The critical point is that the abductee’s activity can be altered somewhat to conform to the dictates of the intelligence that is directing the behavior. Barney and Betty Hill raced down the highway trying to get away from a UFO when suddenly and for no particular reason Barney made a left turn onto a little-used dirt road leading nowhere. He made it with such confidence that Betty thought he knew exactly what he was doing and did not question it.
Patti Layne, a high school teacher with an ivory complexion and dark hair, indicated to me that she had a few memories that had upset her, but she did not know what had prompted them. Subsequent hypnotic regressions with me uncovered a series of abductions throughout her lifetime. In one that took place on her twentieth birthday, Patti decided to get into the car and go for a drive in the mountains. At the time she was attending college in a small town in Pennsylvania.
I was living in the apartment complex on campus, right in front of the health center, and I had my own car, and I just wanted to get out. I had to get out.
Why?
I don’t know, I wanted to get out, and I knew I had to go by myself.
Do you think it’s because you were excited about your birthday, or… ?
No, depressed, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I just had to… find this place in the mountains and I would feel better. I wouldn’t feel depressed.
So you got into the car and drove off toward the mountains?
Mm-hmm.
I want you to sort of see yourself driving there. Do you kind of know where you’re going?
Kind of. I went out the campus, to the left, down English Street, make a left on Queen Road, go out to Mountain Street…. I stayed on Queen Road until I got to Pine Road, and went right, and I just stayed on that for a long time. I made a right on Bluff Road… I got up to the mountains, to the foot of the mountains, and there were some dirt roads, and I don’t know where those dirt roads were. I don’t know what direction off of Bluff Road they were.
Did you turn off Bluff Road onto one of the dirt roads, though?
Hmm, I think I made a left on Aviation Road after Bluff Road, and I think I went out that, and there were some dirt roads up near there off of Aviation Road, and I could see the roads better. I didn’t know where, I forgot where Bluff Road went until just now, and it goes to Aviation, and I made a left on Aviation and then I kind of draw my blank, but I know there were dirt roads, and I followed one up to the mountains. There are some real ramshackle houses.
What are you thinking while you’re doing this?
Why am I doing this? I have a night class tonight, I should be studying for it. Why am I out here by myself?
You drive out past these ramshackle houses. Do you remember stopping the car, or the car stopping?
The car stopped. It just stopped on this road, and there weren’t any houses nearby. And I started to try to start it up, and I wanted it in reverse to get out of there, and I rode backward. I think it started again, I went backward.
Now before it started again, when the car stopped, did the car just die?
Maybe I stopped it. I think I put it in park and sat there and waited for something.
And as you’re sitting there for a while, can you tell me what’s happening as you’re sitting there waiting?
I wanted to get out of there. I put the car in reverse, and I turned around, and I found another dirt road and it went to a dead end.
(Patti Layne, 20, 1982)
This time Patti waited for a while and then the car door opened. She was taken out and the abduction began.
In spite of the aliens’ ability to make nontargeted people unconscious during an abduction, entire cars—abductees and other passengers as well—have been lifted up off the road and taken on board a UFO. In 1979, Tracy Knapp was driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas with two girlfriends when they spotted a strange light swooping down toward them.
So you see it approaching the car a little bit closer, then?
Mm-hmm, but fast, not slow…. It seemed like it dropped down by the window too, like whizzed by.
So it whizzes by, what happens next, then? [Tracy suddenly became upset.] Are you okay? How are you doing, Tracy? What are you thinking?
That the car’s spinning around.
Do you get a sense of movement?
Like I’m in a teacup, like I’m spinning, like the car’s turning, and I’m grabbing onto the seat and we’re screaming.
The three of you?
Mm-hmm.
[Tracy was crying now and I calmed and reassured her. After a short time she was able to continue.] So you get the feeling that you’re spinning around; therefore I would assume that you’re not on the ground, or you are on the ground.
That we’re not on the ground.
Do you get the sense of motion up, or sideways, or diagonal, or can you tell that?
Like we’re being spun up, like we’re moving forward and getting spun, and I’m holding on to the car.
How do you feel physically? Do you feel dizzy, or anything like that?
A force, a pressure. Heavy. Like I’m weak, weighted.
Do you say anything to your friends, or is everybody too alarmed, or… ?
I can’t talk. Nothing’s being said at that point.
What are your friends doing in the front seat? Are they looking at each other? Are they animated or not, or can you tell?
They were not. They’re going limp.
Are you going limp also, or just sort of observing them going limp?
I’m not going limp. I don’t feel like I’m going limp. I see or feel myself have one hand on the door and one hand on the car seat, and I’m looking out the window watching this whole thing and wondering what’s going on….
What happens next, then? [Again Tracy became too upset to continue and I calmed her.]
They just leave them alone. It’s me, and they’re just taking me out of the car…. It seems like the window’s open, and they put their hand through the window and they touched me, and then at that point I’m back now.
You’re back against the seat?
Yeah. I’m laid back now. And I’m getting limp then. And then I see a hand coming through the window, and they were touching me and I’m feeling limp now, and they open the door and I feel like I’m being picked up out of there.
(Tracy Knapp, 21, 1978)
The Beings took Tracy out of the car; she lost sight of her girlfriends until the three of them were back on the ground in the car.
Small Groups
Sometimes the abduction will begin in the midst of a group of people who are engaged in some outdoor activity. Generally they are in small groups of not more than ten. The abductors control the environment by switching off the nontargeted people or causing them to develop an all-encompassing fascination with some object on the ground or in front of them. The object may be a worm, a leaf, something imaginary, etc. They are compelled to look at it and not at what is happening around them. The abductee is, in effect, separated from the herd.
The abductee may then feel an urge to walk toward a secluded area, which may be on the other side of a hill or a stand of trees. The walk may be a long one, going over one hill after another through underbrush, between trees, and so forth until she approaches a clearing where a UFO has landed. On these journeys, either an alien appears near the small group of people and accompanies the abductee all the way to the UFO or an alien waits for the abductee about halfway to the UFO and goes with her from there. When the abductee returns, her friends have been switched on again, but they do not notice that she was missing. Sometimes one youngster in a group of children feels compelled to wander away; the other children are not switched off and continue their play as before without noticing that the abductee is gone.
Janet Demerest is an attractive woman with strawberry blond hair. She and her sister Karen were subjected to a prolonged series of abduction experiences. When Janet was nine years old she was playing with some of her friends a short distance from her house. (
She thinks her friends were part of her Brownie troop.) Suddenly they all gathered around something on the ground and stared at it.
I just want you to remember the one part about the little girls playing there. Can you tell me how they’re playing, and what they’re doing?
They’re kneeling and sitting on the ground.
Is this a wooded area, or in a playground, or is this somebody’s backyard, or can you tell at all?
I can’t tell. I can see the grass, it’s green.
What kind of game are they playing, or are they playing a game?
I think they’re looking at something….
And where are you observing this from: Are you standing up there, or sitting down also, or a member of this group?
I was sitting down and I got up….
Now you sort of get up and what do you do now?
I’m watching them.
You’re standing now?
Mm-hmm.
And do they just continue to do whatever they’re doing there?
Yeah, they’re all looking at something. I think it’s a bug or something.
Now when you stand up are you still in that little group of kids, or do you stand away from them a little?
I’m a little bit away, a couple of steps.
Now can you tell me what happens next?
There’s a man there.
Is this a man you recognize?
No, I… he doesn’t look like a person.
Is he tall, or is he medium, or is he short? In other words when you look at him, do you look straight at him, or do you look up at him, or do you look down at him? Just about straight at him.
How did you first notice him?
He was standing outside the circle.
Does anyone else notice him?
No, they’re all looking in the circle.
But you notice that he’s there?
Yes, and I got up and went over to where he was.
And why do you do that?
Because I was supposed to.
Okay, and what happens next?
We walk away.
Now when you walk away is he sort of next to you, or is he in front of you, or behind you, or is he leading you, or are you leading him, or does that apply?
He knows where we’re going but I think we’re walking next to each other.
Is he the only one there, or is there someone else also?
He’s the only one.
Can you sort of see where you’re walking?
Into the trees, into the woods.
And what happens next then?
I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense, why would I just go?
Well, that’s okay, just sort of go with the flow. You’re walking along, and he’s on the side of you. You walk into the woods, you keep walking, I assume.
I think he’s holding my hand.
When he holds your hand, how does that make you feel? Do you have feelings about that, when he touches you?
I’m happy to be going with him. I want to….
What do his hands feel like?
It’s not bigger than mine. I feel safe.
Does he communicate with you?
No. I don’t think so.
Now you continue to walk, do you walk a long distance or not?
Not very far. We walk down a path, to a place where there aren’t any trees, to a clearing. And I see something, but I don’t have any idea of what it is….
(Janet Demerest, 9, 1964)
Janet could see a landed UFO in the clearing. The Small Being who was with her led her up a ramp and into it.
When Patti Layne was in college she and some of her friends went to a secluded mountainside picnic area to drink some wine and to have fun. She had to relieve herself; so she walked into the woods and the abduction event began.
So, do you set the blankets out?
Mm-hmm, right at the car. And we pass around a bottle of wine, and we tell stories, silly stories. Talking about how we teased Margie earlier this year at lunch. We told stories about her, and we finished about half of the bottle of wine, just passed it around. I had to go to the bathroom, so I took a little walk down. It wasn’t really a trail, I just kind of blazed my own back into the woods. I walked down to the left; actually, we were to the left of the car, I was wrong. I walked kind of left into the woods, further away from the road, but also up to the left. And I’m kneeling down, and a light shines on me.
Where is the light coming from? Can you get a sense of that?
It’s kind of coming from the right, deeper in the woods, from the right. And I thought that darned Freddy is bugging me again. If he’s not kicking the bathroom doors in at the apartments, he has to shine a light. I think he’s obsessed with this, disturbed. I get kind of mad and I laugh, and I yell “Cut it out,” but I don’t hear anything.
You don’t hear yourself yelling?
No, I don’t hear them talking. They were laughing a while ago. so I got scared, and I started to walk back. There was a whole lot of them [aliens] standing there with my friends.
How do you mean?
There’s just about six of them standing there with them. They got James by the arm, and he’s standing there, leaned over.
He’s standing, leaning over?
Like he’s going to throw up. The rest of them are sitting there, real still, but they got James.
What are the Beings doing with the other ones?
Looking at them, touching them with something, real fast.
You mean, with an instrument of some sort?
Yeah, with a stick. And they’re all quiet.
What are you doing? Are you continuing to walk toward them?
I’m frozen in my path.
About how far away are you from them?
About five feet now.
Oh, so you walked all the way back, essentially?
Mm-hmm.
You’re five feet back, away from James and June?
James is closest to the road, and they’ve got him by the arms. And he looks sick, he looks really sick.
Does he see you?
No, he doesn’t know what’s going on.
Are they walking with him, or… ?
… it’s not moving, I don’t know what they’re doing, it’s just everything’s standing still, including me. And he just looks like he’s going to vomit….
Is he sort of doubled over?
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