The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters

by Story, Ronald

  My investigation of the Sara Shaw case led me to totally reject the idea that UFO abductions are orchestrated by beings from another world. Instead I began to toy with the notion that we ourselves have somehow created the UFO mystery and are unleashing it onto the world in vivid reality. My other idea was that perhaps some “X” intelligence exists in the universe which is symbiotically linked to life on this planet and to our minds, and which is sending the UFO phenomenon to us. I went on to theorize that UFO abductions are not random events but occur to very special people at very special moments in their lives.

  I speculated that a person who is harboring a strong unconscious conflict, which cannot be internally resolved actually invites a UFO abduction experience. Somehow his or her concerns and mental anguish might act as a beacon that attracts the UFO experience. The intelligence behind the UFO mystery (whatever it might be) may then create a UFO encounter for the witness by modeling it upon those very conflicts. A UFO abduction might therefore be a dramatized encapsulation of the witness’s own mental concerns. The goal of the “abduction” would be to bring the conflict to conscious attention.

  You might say that according to this theory a UFO abduction is a sort of symbolic dream that has been extracted from the witness’s mind and made real by the UFO intelligence.

  Now having developed this theory, I began looking for ways to document it. One way would be to study the experience of other UFO abductees and delve into their private lives in order to see what sort of connection might exist between the abduction and the victim’s state of mind at the time. This was my next project, and it wasn’t hard to find evidence that supported my views. I soon found that many UFO abductees undergo their experiences at times of emotional crisis

  Take the much-publicized case of Betty Andreasson, for example. This abduction took place on the night of January 25, 1967. The scene was a rural home in Massachusettes where Mrs. Betty Andreasson lived with her seven children. Mrs. Andreasson’s husband had been recently injured in an automobile accident and was still recuperating in the hospital. Her chief support during these trying times was her oldest daughter Becky, who was helping take care of the other children. Mrs. Andreasson’s father, Waino Aho, was present in the house that night as well.

  Most of the Andreassons were watching television as the abduction gradually unfolded The first intimation that something unusual was about to take place came when the lights in the house began to flicker and everything became weirdly silent outside. The electricity finally went out completely and an eerie pink light began shining through a kitchen window. Mr. Aho was the first to look outside. What he saw shocked him.

  He later told investigators that he had seen small alien creatures “wearing headdresses” hopping across the backyard. He described them as looking like “Halloween freaks.” Before Mr. Aho could see more, though, he—along with the rest of the family—entered into a state of suspended animation. They awoke, later, only to discover that a considerable time had elapsed.

  During the next several months both Becky and Betty Andreasson slowly began to recall more details about their experience and came to the conclusion that there was more to their encounter than met the eye. Becky dimly recalled that she had slipped out of a trance at one moment during her time-lapse and had seen the aliens in the house with her family. What she had seen matched the description her grandfather had given of the aliens

  Betty Andreasson finally started contacting UFOlogists throughout the country and eventually Raymond Fowler, a seasoned and careful investigator from Massachusettes, had her hypnotically regressed. This was in 1977. It was only at that time that the two witnesses fully remembered what had happened during their time lapse.

  Betty recalled how the aliens entered her house by materializing through a closed door. She described them as short, hairless, and gray. They had large heads, slanted huge eyes, and slitlike mouths. Her first response to their presence was to ask them if they wanted some food. The aliens took their victim outside and floated her to their UFO, where she underwent a series of physical and spiritual adventures.

  She was first taken to a bubble-shaped room, but was then escorted to another chamber and placed on a platform where she was bathed in a white “cleansing” light. After undergoing a medical examination, which included having a needle thrust into her abdomen (just like Betty Hill reported in 1961), she was taken to an alien realm where she was subjected to more unusual experiences.

  First she was placed in a tube which was filled with liquid, after which she was guided down a dark tunnel to another location where she was confronted by a dazzling light so intense that she thought she was going to be incinerated. The light transformed into a vision of a Phoenix being consumed and reborn as a worm. The aliens told her that she would forget what she had seen, and she was then returned to her home.

  The case of Betty Andreasson is extremely evidential, since unlike so many other abductions, there was more than one witness to the incident. Before his death, Mr. Aho often talked about seeing the aliens; Becky, too, was able to recall the moment when she slipped out of her suspended animation.

  My main interest in this case concerns the nature of the odd visionary experiences to which Mrs. Andreasson was subjected during her kidnapping , which seem to relate to her intense religious beliefs. She is a deeply religious Christian who originally believed that her abduction had nothing to do with beings from outer space, but was actually some form of angelic visitation. I can sympathize with this viewpoint, since her experience aboard the UFO was filled with overt religious symbolism. In fact, Andreasson has become even more religious as a result of her experience.

  All this leads me to suspect that her abduction was somehow prompted by a spiritual crisis she was probably undergoing at the time. Her husband was in a “touch and go” situation at the hospital, which had saddled her with enormous household was well as emotional responsibilities. Both her financial and emotional future were totally up in the air. Many people, especially those who harbor deep religious convictions, are prone to question their beliefs and world views in the face of such psychologically mortifying experiences. (The unexpected death of a close relative can even turn one against religion if the death seems meaningless.)

  And what of the abduction itself? Just look at all the symbolism it contains. One of the central themes of Christianity is the concept of spiritual death and rebirth, which is epitomized in the ritual of baptism. This same basic concept is also part of ancient alchemical and masonic traditions as exemplified in the “initiation by fire and water,” through which one must triumph in order to earn spiritual perfection. Note that these are the same themes that crop up in Mrs. Andreasson’s story.

  She is placed in a tube which is filled with water, is-then “reborn” as she is guided down a dark tunnel, and is next purified by a glowing light which consumes her. She then witnesses the similar immolation and rebirth of the legendary Phoenix, which is also an ancient symbol of spiritual transformation and rebirth. The whole abduction strikes me as an allegorical journey whose purpose was to help Mrs. Andreasson reconfirm her own Christian faith.

  It also seems to me that the aliens even told Mrs. Andreasson that they had come to offer her spiritual enlightenment. This message is contained in an interchange which Mrs. Andreasson recalled at the beginning of her experience, which few of her investigators have ever been able to explain.

  When the aliens first appeared in her home, Mrs. Andreasson’s initial reaction was to offer to cook them some food. The aliens replied that they could only eat burnt food, and thus made a cryptic allusion to the “burnt offerings” mentioned in the Bible. Mrs. Andreasson began to prepare some meat for her visitors, but the aliens told her that they didn’t eat that kind of food…that their food was “knowledge tried by fire” and asked if she had any such nourishment available. Mrs. Andreasson caught the drift of what she was being told and fetched a Bible for her visitors. The aliens, in turn, gave her a small book in exchange for the
Bible.

  Now for what purpose would aliens from another solar system engage in such a meaningless, if not ridiculous, conversation? This episode can only be explained on the theory that the UFOnauts had come specifically to offer Mrs. Andreasson a spiritual revelation and were trying to make this known to her in the best way they could. It therefore seems obvious, at least to me, that the whole abduction experience was triggered by Mrs. Andreasson’s own religious conflicts which were somehow transformed and dramatized into a very real (or surreal) UFO encounter.

  The Andreasson affair indicates that a UFO abduction can be triggered by a specific event in the victim’s life. In this case it was the trauma the witness was suffering due to the crisis engendered by her husband’s accident. Yet these trigger events do not have to be that overt. Sometimes they can be subtle events that ignite only unconscious conflicts in the witness’s mind. This may seem odd, but anyone who has studied psychiatry will be well aware that at times even seemingly inconsequential events in someone’s life can have long lasting and far reaching effects. It is just such a subtle conflict which I believe resulted in Carl Higdon’s 1974 Wyoming abduction

  The Higdon case first hit the presses on October 29, 1974, when the Rawlings (Wyoming) Daily Times published an account of his ordeal. Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, a psychologist and UFOlogist then at the University of Wyoming, traveled to Rawlings a few days later to look into the matter. Dr. Sprinkle subsequently wrote a lengthy report on his findings, which he passed on to APRO (the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization) in Tucson, Arizona.

  Although Higdon consciously remembered much of his experience, Sprinkle conducted two hypnotic sessions with him in order to help fill out the details of the abduction. Here’s the story as it was finally pieced together:

  Higdon went hunting in the Medicine Bow National Forest on October 25th. This preserve is some 49 miles south of Rawlings. At about 4:00 P.M., Higdon spotted a small herd of elk and fired at it. However, the rifle bullet traveled only about fifty feet and then fell to the ground. An eerie silence fell over the forest at about this time. Higdon retrieved the bullet and was about to go on his way when he was disturbed by the sound of a twig breaking behind him.

  He turned around to see a rather strange looking man wearing a black outfit. The man was rather tall and his hair stood on end. The “man” gave Higdon some pills to take (which he did without question) and asked him to follow along. Then the alien pointed some sort of implement at Higdon, who next found himself inside a cubicle. He was sitting in a chair with a helmet on his head, and the alien was there with him. Levers on the cubicle’s console began to move upon command, and the craft took off and shot away to some distant location where it landed.

  Now the next phase of the abduction began. Higdon left the cubicle and found himself next to a high tower. A group of people, consisting of a middle-aged man and four children about the ages of 11-17, were talking nearby but paid no attention to their visitor. The alien took Higdon up the tower, where he was briefly examined, and then told that he “wasn’t what they needed.” He was then taken back to the cubicle and returned to Earth.

  Higdon’s next recollections were confused. He found himself back in the forest, but he was completely disoriented. He was eventually discovered wandering around aimlessly by a passing motorist and ended up that night in a local hospital. He was in such a confused state that he didn’t even recognize his wife when rescuers found him. His truck was discovered later that day, but it had mysteriously found its way into an area of the forest inaccessible by road. Higdon also still had the flattened bullet he had retrieved before his abduction.

  The Higdon case was published by Coral and Jim Lorenzen of APRO in 1977 as part of their book Abducted! Confrontations with Beings from Outer Space. However, it wasn’t until 1979 that Dr. Sprinkle, (who is a supporter of the extraterrestrial hypothesis) was able to issue his full 133-page report as part of the anthology, UFO Phenomena and the Behavioral Scientist (compiled and edited by Richard Haines).

  What trauma could have produced this bizarre abduction? This was the question I asked myself as I read over Sprinkle’s account in hopes of finding added support for my theory. The clue finally came halfway through the report. It was a clue that even Higdon seemed to appreciate.

  During the course of their conversations together, Higdon himself brought up the fact that some years prior to his abduction he had undergone a vasectomy. He openly questioned whether this operation had something to do with his experience and the ultimate rejection by the aliens. “I had a vasectomy,” he told Sprinkle, “and I was wondering if that was the reason that I wasn’t any good.” This remark not only indicates that Higdon somehow related his vasectomy to the abduction, but was harboring half-conscious conflicts about the operation. Notice that he degrades himself with the remark that he “wasn’t any good”—which is a far cry from what the aliens reportedly said when they explained he “wasn’t what they needed.” This odd, self-demeaning reference is very significant. Had it been made during a therapeutic session with a psychiatrist, for instance, instead of during a UFO investigation, I am sure any competent clinician would have eagerly explored the significance of the remark. For some reason Higdon considered himself “no good” because of his vasectomy, and was projecting his feelings onto the aliens. Now you may think I’m reaching with this one, but I’m really not.

  Few people realize just how unconsciously traumatic vasectomies can be to men in this culture. Although a routine operation, many men, although undergoing the procedure willingly, are often emotionally scarred by this self-perceived assault on their sexuality. Such men can suffer the same type of psychological reaction that some women undergo after having a hyster ectomy. Some men even perceive a vasectomy as a form of castration—an act which robs them of their sexuality. This is why many men irrationally resist the operation, even though it in no way impairs sexual functioning. Other men sometimes experience depression or anxiety when they realize that they can no longer engender children.

  It is perfectly logical to assume that Carl Higdon may have been harboring fears and concerns of this very nature. They even seem to be dramatized in his abduction story. The experience began when Higdon shot a bullet at an elk, but found that it had lost its potency, when it traveled a mere 50 feet and fell to the ground. The overt sexual symbolism of the ineffective bullet needn’t be belabored. Then he was abducted to a tower where he was shown a family composed of middle-aged man, such as himself, and four children. This is quite interesting, since Higdon himself had four children aged 11-15 at the time. He was then examined and told that he wasn’t what the aliens needed. The symbolism here strikes me as rather obvious. Higdon is shown a symbolic representation of his own family and is then rather forcefully though cryptically reminded that he is not needed. The aliens then returned Higdon where they found him.

  The whole abduction seems to be a dramatization of Higdon’s own fears that he had become worthless because of his vasectomy, which had robbed him of his masculinity as symbolized in his inability to further expand his family. Note too that, just as in the Hill, Shaw, and Andreasson cases, the whole surrealistic scenario very much resembles a dream Higdon might have had as a result of his conflict—complete with symbols, sexual references, and spacetime discontinuities.

  It is my own belief that probably all UFO abductions contain hidden meanings and symbols which directly relate to conflicts buried in the minds of the victims. Unfortunately, trying to understand the secret language of UFO abduction reports is no easy matter. Very few published reports provide the type of personal information that the psychologically-oriented investigator would need to know in order to uncover the cause of the event. The witness’s credibility is ascertained and maybe a psychiatrist will have been brought in to make sure he or she isn’t crazy, but we learn very little about the inner lives of these very special people. In some cases it might take a detailed and lengthy psychoanalytical exploration of the witness before we could get a
t the heart of an abduction experience.

  I don’t think, however, that it takes a trained psychiatrist to see how the experiences of such people as Betty Hill, Sara Shaw, Betty Andreasson, and Carl Higdon are directly related to conflicts that had disrupted their lives at the time of their abductions. The relationship between their inner conflicts and the nature of their UFO abductions are rather blatant. The fact that sexual and spiritual conflicts often seem to be the overriding theme of UFO abductions—just as they are in normal dreams—is also extremely noteworthy, as well as predictable.

  I don’t mean to imply, however, that people who experience UFO abductions have merely experienced imaginary encounters. I don’t think that UFO abductions can be explained away as vivid dreams, visions or hallucinations. There can be no doubt, in my view, that the UFO phenomenon is as much a technological mystery as it is a paraphysical one. Sara Shaw, Betty and Barney Hill, Betty Andreasson, and Carl Higdon probably were abducted by humanoid aliens. What I don’t believe, however, is that these beings were from outer space. Somehow they are created out of our imaginations, or are somehow linked to life on this planet. They come forth and interact with us when we unconsciously need them and beckon them.

  —D. SCOTT ROGO

  References

  Barry, Bill. Ultimate Encounter (Pocket Books, 1978).

  Blum, Ralph and Judy. Beyond Earth: Man’s Contact with UFOs (Bantam Books, 1974).

  Clark, Jerome, and Coleman, Loren. The Unidentified: Notes Toward Solving the UFO Mystery (Warner, 1975).