The Andreasson Affair

by Raymond E. Fowler

  David: What did she say?

  Betty: She just said, “Look, Momma!” And I said, “I know, I know.” And again, I’m getting goose bumps.

  David: Are you getting cold?

  Betty: A little cold now.

  David: And after you and Becky were finished looking at the blue book, what did you do with it then?

  Betty: My hands and my feet are beginning to feel that feeling!

  David: Are they?

  Betty: That feeling in my hands again. Oh-h-h-h! They’re starting to hold my hands down again!

  Betty realized that the aliens were again taking control of her. Were there some things about the blue book that the aliens did not want us to know? We attempted to find out if this was the case.

  David: Do you feel as if they have a reason for doing this, Betty?

  Betty: I don’t know what it is, but they’re doing something to me again.

  Joseph: Now?

  Betty: Right now!

  Betty suddenly began speaking in an unknown tongue and sighed deeply.

  Fred: Betty, can we contact the beings today?

  Betty: Yes.

  Fred: Will you ask them if they’ll answer some questions for us?

  Betty: They said, “If it is in the scope of realism.”

  Fred: Okay, would you ask the being you’re in communication with what his name is?

  Betty: Andantio.

  Fred: Andantio?

  Betty: That’s what he says, or what the word is.

  Joseph: Where is he from?

  Betty: He is from the same place as those that have been before him.

  Joseph: What is the name of the place?

  Betty: I can’t pronounce it.

  Joseph: Can you write it? Can you spell it?

  Betty: It begins with a Z.… [Pause] It isn’t like ours. There’s too many consonants and very few vowels in it, and I can’t pronounce it.

  Joseph: Can you spell it? Can you see it? Can you see the word?

  Betty: No, he’s saying it.

  David: Is it one word, or two or more, or can’t you tell?

  Betty: It’s one word.

  Again, Betty started speaking in the strange tongue.

  Fred: Andantio, may we speak with you directly?

  Betty: Not at this time, he says.

  David: Does he give you a reason why not at this time?

  Betty: Because you are not ready.

  David: Can he tell you why we’re not ready, or what we need to do to prepare ourselves to be able to communicate with him?

  Betty: He can see that you are serious. Simplicity has got to be there. Minds are open, but there are walls there—walls that have been caused by knowledge. We would not understand what he would tell you, and it would be a waste until you find the simple things.

  Joseph: Can he tell us something that we would understand?

  Betty: Know yourselves. Please, please, please know yourselves.

  Virginia: Betty, could I ask you about the symbols you described last week which you got from this being?

  Betty: Yes. Is it the line down with the lines through and the circles with the anchor to the right?

  Fred: I have a question for Andantio. I want to know if he is familiar with the formulas that were given to you.

  Betty: Those formulas are very simple.… They are the building blocks to a higher way.

  Fred: I’d like to ask some questions regarding the first formula.

  Betty: It has to do with a liquid that life has been removed from. It is stillness. Are you able to understand this? It has stillness within it. It will not wave or move—no vibrations. It’s pure.

  Fred: I would like Andantio to come here so we could talk with him directly. Andantio, will you come here now?

  Betty did not say a word. The room was silent and we glanced about apprehensively, half expecting Andantio to materialize! Finally, Betty broke the eerie silence.

  Betty: I asked him if he would be willing to, and he will not answer.

  Jules: What are the walls and barriers that we have to overcome in order to communicate with him?

  Betty: Again, [Softly] know yourself. You think that you know yourselves, but you do not know yourselves. You do not know what you are made up of. You do not know the powers that you possess. You do not know the extensions of love.

  Fred: I don’t understand what Andantio would have us do in order to better communicate with him. I think he will have to come here if we are going to have better communication. I’d like to understand more about how to bring that about.

  Betty: You would worship him if he was to come here, and that is not his way. You would be in awe of him. It is his way because he is just a servant and a messenger.

  Ray: Can he show us some proof that he is really communicating through you in this room—something that we would accept without hesitation as proof that he actually exists and is talking through you?

  Betty: The world seeks proof. They cannot see with the spiritual eye. Only those that are worthy will see.

  Ray: But man’s mind has been so created that in every other area of life, he has to accept or reject what he feels is reality on the basis of some type of proof. Can he understand the limitations and show us some kind of proof?

  Betty: He understands the limitations. The proof came long ago and still is—he could do all sorts of tricks, but it would not be his way.

  Joseph: We’re not looking for tricks. We don’t want tricks. We’re looking for information.

  Betty: He knows that you are looking for information.

  David: Betty, is Andantio of the same race as Quazgaa?

  Betty: Yes, he is.

  David: Do you feel that they are messengers of the Lord?

  Betty: I believe it now, yes. If I did not believe that they were messengers of the Lord, then I would not give my will over to be used.

  Fred: Andantio, is there a more favorable time or place to communicate with you?

  Betty: I can communicate with you when you are sitting at work, when you are driving in your car.

  Fred: What is the most favorable time and place?

  Betty: Time with us is not your time. The place with you is localized. It is not with us. Cannot you see it?

  Fred: I still would like to have you come directly to communicate with us telepathically now. Won’t you please do that?

  Betty: Would the vessel tell the maker what it prefers to have in it?

  This cat-and-mouse game continued until it was quite apparent that no further information could be obtained from the quizzical Andantio. It was obvious, too, that he was deliberately blocking our efforts to secure further information from Betty pertaining to the blue book.

  The question remained as to whether we had actually communicated with an alien, or with Betty’s subconscious mind. But in any event, Betty and her family were in the process of moving to Florida, and reluctantly we decided to call the sessions to a halt.

  Betty Andreasson was a simple, unsophisticated country girl. Her childhood was happy and carefree, but the years that followed her marriage had been alternately laced with joy and sorrow. A marital problem developed early that Betty patiently bore for years. Shortly after her 1975 letter to Dr. Hynek, the marital problem intensified, and she and her husband agreed to separate. When we first met Betty, she had shouldered the responsibility of raising her remaining family single-handedly for well more than a year.

  She had hoped for the problem’s solution and eventual reconciliation, but it did not work out. Reluctantly, Betty had initiated divorce proceedings. She sought a new life and was preparing to move her family to be near relatives in Florida.

  The round trip to Dr. Edelstein’s office was more than four hours. The long hypnosis and debriefing sessions, coupled with the burden of remembering the unnatural experience, left Betty mentally and physically exhausted. But packing, leasing her house, and managing everyday household affairs had not dissuaded her from cheerfully attending each hypnosis/debriefing
session.

  We marveled at the tenacity of this woman. In spite of the pressures of a busy schedule, it was obvious that she was determined to find out what had happened to her.

  Then, after sessions had been discontinued and just several days before Betty was to depart for Florida, her father was hospitalized with cancer. After going into shock during kidney dialysis, Waino Aho died on August 27. After the funeral, Betty sadly left for Florida to look for a new home for her family. I would not see her again until October.

  It was time, as they say in the intelligence community, to make an estimate of the situation and begin the task of evaluating the immense amount of data collected thus far.

  CHAPTER 11

  Preliminary Correlations

  The reliving of the traumatic experience by hypnosis and the occurrence of several family tragedies, coupled with Betty’s impending divorce, had affected the lifestyle of the principal witness. Nonetheless, this had not negated our overall character check, which provided ample evidence that both she and Becky are honest and emotionally stable persons.

  Harold Edelstein had no previous experience with UFO investigation. As the series of hypnotic/debriefing sessions progressed, he seemed genuinely impressed. But for the most part, he kept himself in the background and became directly involved only when necessary. He was careful not to let his words and thoughts influence Betty in any way.

  It wasn’t until session 12, on July 16, 1977, that Harold made any definitive statement concerning the provocative case. After this session, he took the investigators aside.

  “Okay,” Harold said. “I’m going to tell you what I honestly think. I think there is substance here, but it can’t be pushed because you’ll frighten her.”

  That wasn’t the question on Fred Youngren’s mind: “What do you think we can believe of what we’re hearing here?”

  “I don’t know if you can believe everything, but I believe wholeheartedly that in many instances, she believes what she’s telling you. The facial expressions and breathing can be changed,” Harold explained, “but a person has to really believe in what they are telling you in order for them to change. Play that tape back. Now at certain points, when I said to you, ‘Get a picture,’ her face was twisted up on the side. It didn’t even look like Betty. Am I right?”

  “Yes,” Joseph Santangelo admitted. “She looked like she was in agony.”

  “Now, these things are very important. Another thing that leads me to believe that a good share of this may be true is that she comes up with different things at different times. As she goes over it, it is just as though she were having a recollection of something.”

  In sum, Harold concluded that at times, Betty and Becky appeared to be reliving an experience that was very real to them, and he advised us to make sample videotapes at some of the sessions. He believed that a good portion of the experience reflected actual reality, but he confessed he could not deduce how much was real or imagined. This deduction, he stressed, could only be made by comparing the Andreasson Affair with other reports for similarities. Such a comparison would be an intricate part of the last procedure employed in our investigation: analyzing all collected data pertaining to the case.

  At the beginning of our investigation, all we knew was that Betty’s alleged experience had occurred early some time in 1967—and interestingly enough, 1967 was a vintage year for UFOs!

  The longest sustained UFO sighting wave in recorded history had begun in the spring of 1964. At the time, I was chairman of the Massachusetts Investigating Subcommittee for NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). For the year 1966 alone, our subcommittee had logged a record number of 43 local reports evaluated in the unidentified category. In fact, UFO researchers all over the country shared a common frustration: There were too many high-quality reports and not enough trained investigators to document them. By January 1, 1967, local reports dropped off to a few per month, and it appeared that the long-lived UFO wave was diminishing. Then, without warning, UFO activity again increased dramatically.

  On January 15, 1967, a bright red oval object ringed with a white halo circled a home in Boxford, Massachusetts, at 3:00 a.m.

  Three days later, shortly before midnight, a bright flash lit up the skies over the sleeping village of Williamstown, Massachusetts, just as an electrical power failure crippled the area. Four persons approaching the darkened town sighted a domed glowing object hovering just off the highway. As they passed by, the object rose into the air and buzzed their car.

  Two nights later at Methuen, Massachusetts, three persons—Kim, Janice, and Ellen—were on their way to pick up a friend for a local basketball game. The lonely street was bordered by woods, fields, and very few houses. Reaching the top of a hill, they were shocked to see up ahead a string of about 10 bright glowing red lights that were moving over a field just off the road to their left.

  “What’s that?” Janice asked.

  “It must be a helicopter,” Ellen replied.

  Kim laughed. “It must be a UFO or a flying saucer!”

  During my interview with the witnesses, Ellen remarked to me that at this point, “all of a sudden, it wasn’t funny anymore.” The object stopped moving, and they were closing on it rapidly. Kim slowed the car. Simultaneously, the object seemed to swing around, as if it were “spinning on its axis,” and revealed lights of a different color and configuration.

  At that point Kim pulled the car over. Janice said, “Let’s go look at the helicopter.” She and Kim wanted to get out of the car, but Ellen didn’t. All of a sudden, the car stalled and the lights went off. Then nobody wanted to get out of the car! “Truthfully,” Ellen told me, “I was too scared to carefully observe the object.”

  Kim told me that, during this juncture in the sighting, she had opened her side window in order to get a better look at the object: “The lights and our radio all went off at the same time. After this, I tried to start the car twice while the object remained stationary. Thinking that the lights and radio would be drawing too much power from the battery, I shut the light switch and the radio off. Then I tried to start the car again. It did not start.”

  In the meantime, the house-sized object hovered a mere 300 feet away. Kim told me that “it was like the color and texture of Erector Set material,” and formed an inverted bowl shape around the lights. Ellen cowered in the back seat. (Curiously, the generator panel amp dimly pulsated off and on until the craft began to move away slowly.) Abruptly, it picked up speed and streaked away along its original flight path—where it was seen by another car full of people. The whole incident had lasted only a few minutes.

  The strange sightings continued. On February 16 two policemen in Amherst, Massachusetts, responded to a UFO sighting reported to the station. Dumbfounded, they watched a glowing object like a bright white light bulb hovering in the night sky. A weird swishing sound emanated from it. Amazed, they watched it eject a small red object before accelerating out of sight over the horizon.

  On February 17, at about 7:00 p.m., a salesman for Flying Tiger airlines was driving along Route 93 near the junction of Route 495 in Andover, Massachusetts. Cars slowed down and warily passed under a huge lighted object hovering directly over the road. Frightened, he, too, passed under the silent craft, which was larger than the width of the entire superhighway! In the early morning hours on that same date, shortly after 1:00, several people residing in Dorchester, Massachusetts, were awakened by an extraordinary whirring sound. Glancing out windows, they sighted an object that looked like a cymbal with a dome on top, with purplish lights around its perimeter. It hovered at treetop level over an elderly peoples’ project before moving way and out of sight.

  On February 26, in Marlboro, Massachusetts, a husband and wife were awakened at 2:00 a.m. by a strange sound. When they got out of bed to investigate, they sighted a white glowing egg-shaped object swinging like a pendulum in the sky.

  On March 1, at 7:25 p.m., witnesses in Sharon, Massachusetts, were amazed to
witness a noiseless white glowing oval object that maneuvered near their home. It left a white glowing fuzzy trail in its wake.

  According to the U.S. Weather Service, March 8, 1967, was a clear, cool night. Visibility was 12 miles. In Boston the thermometers read 28 degrees Fahrenheit. A recent snowstorm had left a beautiful blanket of white velvet draped over the fields and trees. A couple I’ll call Mr. and Mrs. William Roberts of Leominster, Massachusetts, got a sudden inspiration to go for a late-night scenic drive through the countryside. After driving for an hour and a half, they started home.

  At about 1:00 a.m., they entered the town of Leominster, where, as Mrs. Roberts later told investigator Frank Pechulis, “We suddenly came across a very thick fog and had to slow our car to a real low speed for safety reasons.”

  “As we passed the cemetery,” Mr. Roberts continued, “I noticed what looked like a large light to my left. I asked my wife if she saw anything, and she said no. I was certain that I had, and decided I would look again.” Mr. Roberts, thinking that the light might be a fire and that the fog was smoke, turned his car around and drove back into the mist. This time, they both saw the light. The bright glow was not from a fire, but from an object glowing in the air directly above the cemetery! At that point, Mr. Roberts lowered his window and excitedly told his wife, “I think we have something here!”

  He parked the car broadside to the hovering object, which hung in the air a bare 200 yards away. Bright as an acetylene torch, it was shaped like a flattened egg and emitted a sound like a dynamo.

  Against his wife’s wishes, William got out of the car. Excitedly, he raised his hand and pointed it at the blazing object. Simultaneously, the automobile lights, radio, and engine ceased functioning. At the same time, Mr. Roberts received an electrical shock. Almost instantaneously, his body became numb and immobilized from head to foot, and his arm was thrust back against the car by some unseen force, hitting the roof so hard that an imprint was made in the ice and snow. “When the car went dead,” Mrs. Roberts interjected, “I was yelling for Bill to get back in the car, but he did not move.”