Disclosed

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
467 case pages by decade; this one falls in 1960s with 49 othersAll cases

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

Sensors1 of 9
  • Yes: Visual
  • No: Infrared
  • No: Radar
  • No: Video
  • No: Photo
  • No: Film
  • No: Audio
  • No: Night vision
  • No: Other sensor
Witnesses2 counted
  • 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
ShapeDisc
  • No: Light only
  • No: Orb or sphere
  • Yes: Disc
  • No: Triangle
  • No: Cylinder
  • No: Cube
  • No: Other shape
Effects1 reported
  • Yes: Physiological
  • No: Physical trace
  • No: Electromagnetic
  • No: Sound
  • No: Silent

Videos that discuss it

1

Claims and verdicts

1
  • Unverified20:50Susan ClancyOfficial document

    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

On the map

44.09° N, 71.68° W, plotted at the centre of the region named in the record

Show on the map