Betty and Barney Hill abduction
- Date
- 19 Sep 1961
- Place
- U.S. Route 3 near Indian Head, White Mountains, New Hampshire, United States
- Record
- Curated case
- Assessment
- Contested
- Evidence strength
What was reported
Driving home at night, Betty and Barney Hill watched a light that seemed to follow their car; Barney said he saw figures through binoculars, and they arrived home about two hours later than expected. Betty then had vivid dreams, and in 1964 psychiatrist Benjamin Simon's hypnosis sessions produced a detailed account of being examined aboard a craft and shown a 'star map', later read as pointing to Zeta Reticuli. There is no instrument record; a radar report from Pease AFB that night has not been correlated. Simon himself read the abduction as a fantasy, analysts attribute the first light to Jupiter or a beacon, and the 'star map' match depends on selective analysis.
What officials concluded
No conclusion stated
No official explanation has been given.
Strongest ordinary reading
A misidentified light (Jupiter proposed) followed by stress, dreams and hypnosis-shaped confabulation
Evidence profile
- Yes: Visual
- No: Infrared
- No: Radar
- No: Video
- No: Photo
- No: Film
- No: Audio
- No: Night vision
- No: Other sensor
- Yes: Civilian
- No: Military aircrew
- No: Military ground
- No: Airline crew
- No: Sensor operator
- No: Law enforcement
- No: Scientist
- No: Astronaut
- No: Intelligence official
- No: Other
- No: Light only
- No: Orb or sphere
- Yes: Disc
- No: Triangle
- No: Cylinder
- No: Cube
- No: Other shape
- Yes: Physiological
- No: Physical trace
- No: Electromagnetic
- No: Sound
- No: Silent
Videos that discuss it
Claims and verdicts
- Unverified
Transcripts of hypnosis sessions with alleged abductees, including in John Mack's book and in Raymond Fowler's book about Betty and Barney Hill, show leading questioning by the hypnotist (e.g. suggesting a shadow, its color, a needle) that shapes the emerging 'memory.'
there are millions of transcripts of these hypnosis sessions all over including in John Mack's book and in Raymond Fowler's book about Betty and [Barney] Hill
Said in Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens
Outside sources
- Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incidenten.wikipedia.org
On the map
44.09° N, 71.68° W, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record
Show on the map