BETTY & BARNEY HILL MAIN |
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2: MEDDLE |
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The case
Driving through the White Mountains late at night, a couple sees a flying saucer. They arrive home with two hours of missing time. Under hypnosis it's revealed that during the missing time, they were taken aboard the craft by short grey aliens and experimented upon.
If you know anything about alien abductions, you know the Hills' story.
Or do you?
The Betty & Barney Hill pages on Three-Dollar Kit are divided into these sections:
I have written several Twitter threads on this case if you'd rather read in summary form:
NOTE: Listening to Pink Floyd while reading this Betty & Barney Hill story is the only way to make sense of it.
If you know anything about alien abductions, you know the Hills' story.
Or do you?
The Betty & Barney Hill pages on Three-Dollar Kit are divided into these sections:
- Main page / Intro (you are here)
- The Hills' drive: Sleep-deprived adventures in New Hampshire (in 6 parts)
- Physical evidence (the dress analysis, radar, star map)
I have written several Twitter threads on this case if you'd rather read in summary form:
- There was no missing time (and therefore no alien abduction)
- Response to Kathleen Marden's 7/26/21 attempt to debunk the Cannon Mountain beacon theory
- Analysis of Betty's dress
- Analysis of Betty's star map
NOTE: Listening to Pink Floyd while reading this Betty & Barney Hill story is the only way to make sense of it.
Lost for words
Stories that have been retold a thousand times can lose a vital feature: how the story unfolded at the time. Details that were added later become incorporated into the retelling as if they were known at the time. And that's a problem.
The Hills' problem is compounded by their hypnotherapy sessions, more than two years after the incident. When someone can show me that hypnotherapy produces (1) true recounts that are (2) demonstrably different from imagination, I will take Betty and Barney's "recovered memories" seriously.
Actually, I won't, because their recovered memories are basically Betty's dreams, which she had shared with Barney.
Anyway, let's look at how this story unfolded at the time.
The Hills' problem is compounded by their hypnotherapy sessions, more than two years after the incident. When someone can show me that hypnotherapy produces (1) true recounts that are (2) demonstrably different from imagination, I will take Betty and Barney's "recovered memories" seriously.
Actually, I won't, because their recovered memories are basically Betty's dreams, which she had shared with Barney.
Anyway, let's look at how this story unfolded at the time.
Yet another movie

Yes, of course there was a movie. Here's the plot:
(Note: Full references are listed on the next page.)
1961
Sep 19-20, 1961: New Hampshire couple Betty and Barney Hill arrive home just after 5 AM on 20th, later than expected, after driving home from a vacation in Canada. Along the way, they witnessed a strange light in the sky that seemed to follow them. Betty, who likes to retell the story of her sister seeing a UFO a few years prior, thinks it's a flying saucer. Barney, a WWII veteran, thinks it's an airplane or helicopter. Betty puts away the dress she was wearing without washing it.
Sep 20: Betty reports the strange light to the nearby Airforce Base. She says nothing about aliens.
Sep 21: Major Henderson calls her back (on two occasions) and takes Betty and Barney's report. They again say nothing about aliens. However, the call prompts Barney to suggest they go into different rooms and draw their recollections of what they saw. Note the following:
The earliest reports (Betty's letter to Keyhoe, and Webb, 1961) mention windows but not in a double row.
Fuller (1965, which is post-hypnotherapy) has Betty and later Barney "clearly" seeing "a double row of windows". Yet she drew no windows, and Barney drew a single row (with figures) the day after the encounter.
(Note: Full references are listed on the next page.)
1961
Sep 19-20, 1961: New Hampshire couple Betty and Barney Hill arrive home just after 5 AM on 20th, later than expected, after driving home from a vacation in Canada. Along the way, they witnessed a strange light in the sky that seemed to follow them. Betty, who likes to retell the story of her sister seeing a UFO a few years prior, thinks it's a flying saucer. Barney, a WWII veteran, thinks it's an airplane or helicopter. Betty puts away the dress she was wearing without washing it.
Sep 20: Betty reports the strange light to the nearby Airforce Base. She says nothing about aliens.
Sep 21: Major Henderson calls her back (on two occasions) and takes Betty and Barney's report. They again say nothing about aliens. However, the call prompts Barney to suggest they go into different rooms and draw their recollections of what they saw. Note the following:
The earliest reports (Betty's letter to Keyhoe, and Webb, 1961) mention windows but not in a double row.
Fuller (1965, which is post-hypnotherapy) has Betty and later Barney "clearly" seeing "a double row of windows". Yet she drew no windows, and Barney drew a single row (with figures) the day after the encounter.
During the week, Betty picks up several books on UFOs, including The Flying Saucer Conspiracy (1955) from the library by ret. Major Donald E. Keyhoe, co-founder and head of NICAP.
Sep 26: Henderson's report deduces that the couple misindentifed Jupiter.
Betty writes to Keyhoe and now mentions Barney seeing aliens in the windows of the craft.
Sep 29 (approx): Betty has vivid dreams for about 5 nights: she sees men in the road, a bright orange object nearby, and with Barney is taken aboard to be examined in separate rooms.
She tells Barney about the dreams, but he's not too interested. However, the couple becomes more anxious about what happened to them as the months and years pass. At some point Betty tells her sister and also her work supervisor, who suggests the dreams might be memories of a real event. "She said this must have happened to you, because if it had not happened, then you wouldn’t be acting this way. That I wouldn’t have this concern about it." Betty later tells Dr Simon that Barney "must have heard me talk about them." [Fuller, p. 217]
Oct 21: Walter Webb (astronomer) from NICAP interviews the Hills for six hours. Barney says he has a mental block preventing him recalling the full incident.
Sep 26: Henderson's report deduces that the couple misindentifed Jupiter.
Betty writes to Keyhoe and now mentions Barney seeing aliens in the windows of the craft.
Sep 29 (approx): Betty has vivid dreams for about 5 nights: she sees men in the road, a bright orange object nearby, and with Barney is taken aboard to be examined in separate rooms.
She tells Barney about the dreams, but he's not too interested. However, the couple becomes more anxious about what happened to them as the months and years pass. At some point Betty tells her sister and also her work supervisor, who suggests the dreams might be memories of a real event. "She said this must have happened to you, because if it had not happened, then you wouldn’t be acting this way. That I wouldn’t have this concern about it." Betty later tells Dr Simon that Barney "must have heard me talk about them." [Fuller, p. 217]
Oct 21: Walter Webb (astronomer) from NICAP interviews the Hills for six hours. Barney says he has a mental block preventing him recalling the full incident.
Nov 25: The couple is interviewed by two more NICAP members (IBM senior engineer C.D. Jackson and staff writer Robert Hohman) with ret. Major James MacDonald present - an old friend of the Hills and a UFO enthusiast. Hohman decides they have 2 hours of missing time during the interval between the two times they heard "beeps", because they can't remember part of the drive. The Hills remember seeing a fiery orb on the ground and believe it was the moon setting, but the NICAP guys disagree. Barney calls Betty's dreams "nonsense". Hypnosis is suggested, but not performed.
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Nov: Betty writes down her dreams from September, in which she and Barney are taken into the craft by short men with black hair and "Jimmy Durante" noses, and where they undergo separate medical examinations.
The aliens Betty encounters are kind and considerate. One of them speaks "in a human voice, like somebody speaking English with difficulty" [Playboy, Jan 1978]. She talks to the examiner (who also speaks English, and doesn't know what years or vegetables are) and to the "leader", who gives her a souvenir book (yes, a book with a cover and pages inside) full of symbols. He pulls a roll-away star map down from the wall (later changed to a 3D map) but she doesn't understand it.
The aliens Betty encounters are kind and considerate. One of them speaks "in a human voice, like somebody speaking English with difficulty" [Playboy, Jan 1978]. She talks to the examiner (who also speaks English, and doesn't know what years or vegetables are) and to the "leader", who gives her a souvenir book (yes, a book with a cover and pages inside) full of symbols. He pulls a roll-away star map down from the wall (later changed to a 3D map) but she doesn't understand it.
She isn't allowed to keep the book because the "leader" has no authority apparently. The couple is escorted back to their car and watches the craft (an orb sitting on the ground) depart.
1962
~Jan: Barney develops a ring of warts around his genitals. Note: this is before he "recalls" a cup was placed there during the abduction.
Apr 13: The Twilight Zone broadcasts an episode, "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby", in which a man is abducted by aliens.
The Hills speak about their experience several times in public at their church and home study groups during 1962-63. During this time, Barney returns to drinking, his ulcer worsens, and he develops high blood pressure.
Barney will later tell Dr Simon that in 1962, and occasionally in 1963, he and Betty would drive the backroads trying to find the location off Route 3 where they'd ended up that night.
Sep: The Hills speak at a UFO study group in Quincy, MA, which is taperecorded (leading to the eventual story in the press). During this talk, Betty describes in detail her dreams. This puts to rest the idea that Barney wasn't aware of her dreams - he will later tell Dr Simon he only heard about them indirectly, when she told others, but in fact he was present when she talked about them publicly. [Fuller, p. 287]
Nov 23, 1962: The Hills attend a poetry reading at their church by Captain Ben Swett (Air Force), who also talks about hypnosis being used to recover lost memories. They tell him their story and discuss having hypnosis therapy but Swett doesn't feel qualified to perform it himself. According to Swett's report, they told him they had three hours of missing time. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated but written after 2004 as it mentions Betty's death.]
1963
Sep 7, 1963: Swett again talks to an adult study group at the same church about hypnosis. The Hills are present, and years later he learns they had told their story to the group before he arrived. The Hills tell him afterwards they haven't yet tried hypnosis and still have the gap in their memories. "Betty was still having dreams about the incident, but she wasn't as upset about them. Barney was going to a psychiatrist he liked and trusted." He recommends they seek a hypnotherapist. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, post-2004]
Dec 14, 1963: The Hills meet with Dr Benjamin Simon in Boston for the first time, after Barney is referred by his psychiatrist.
1964
Jan 4 to Jun 6, 1964: Dr Simon begins treating the Hills, with three preliminary sessions getting them used to the process, and then three successive weeks of therapeutic hypnosis when they are asked to recall their experience. Then, from April, the therapy sessions mostly involve listening back to the hypnosis tapes. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, post-2004]
Feb 10, 1964: The Outer Limits broadcasts an episode, "The Bellero Shield", in which an alien with wraparound eyes similar to the ones Barney will draw two weeks later says:
"I cannot read your mind. I cannot even understand your language. I analyze your eyes. In all the universes, in all the unities beyond all the universes, all who have eyes have eyes that speak."
1962
~Jan: Barney develops a ring of warts around his genitals. Note: this is before he "recalls" a cup was placed there during the abduction.
Apr 13: The Twilight Zone broadcasts an episode, "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby", in which a man is abducted by aliens.
The Hills speak about their experience several times in public at their church and home study groups during 1962-63. During this time, Barney returns to drinking, his ulcer worsens, and he develops high blood pressure.
Barney will later tell Dr Simon that in 1962, and occasionally in 1963, he and Betty would drive the backroads trying to find the location off Route 3 where they'd ended up that night.
Sep: The Hills speak at a UFO study group in Quincy, MA, which is taperecorded (leading to the eventual story in the press). During this talk, Betty describes in detail her dreams. This puts to rest the idea that Barney wasn't aware of her dreams - he will later tell Dr Simon he only heard about them indirectly, when she told others, but in fact he was present when she talked about them publicly. [Fuller, p. 287]
Nov 23, 1962: The Hills attend a poetry reading at their church by Captain Ben Swett (Air Force), who also talks about hypnosis being used to recover lost memories. They tell him their story and discuss having hypnosis therapy but Swett doesn't feel qualified to perform it himself. According to Swett's report, they told him they had three hours of missing time. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated but written after 2004 as it mentions Betty's death.]
1963
Sep 7, 1963: Swett again talks to an adult study group at the same church about hypnosis. The Hills are present, and years later he learns they had told their story to the group before he arrived. The Hills tell him afterwards they haven't yet tried hypnosis and still have the gap in their memories. "Betty was still having dreams about the incident, but she wasn't as upset about them. Barney was going to a psychiatrist he liked and trusted." He recommends they seek a hypnotherapist. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, post-2004]
Dec 14, 1963: The Hills meet with Dr Benjamin Simon in Boston for the first time, after Barney is referred by his psychiatrist.
1964
Jan 4 to Jun 6, 1964: Dr Simon begins treating the Hills, with three preliminary sessions getting them used to the process, and then three successive weeks of therapeutic hypnosis when they are asked to recall their experience. Then, from April, the therapy sessions mostly involve listening back to the hypnosis tapes. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, post-2004]
Feb 10, 1964: The Outer Limits broadcasts an episode, "The Bellero Shield", in which an alien with wraparound eyes similar to the ones Barney will draw two weeks later says:
"I cannot read your mind. I cannot even understand your language. I analyze your eyes. In all the universes, in all the unities beyond all the universes, all who have eyes have eyes that speak."
Feb 22, 1964: Barney's first hypnosis session.
After observing the "star" 1000ft away and stopping a few times to observe it, Barney recalls: "Betty is trying to make me think this is a flying saucer." He confirms that he and Betty have talked about flying saucers before, and that she already believed in them following her sister's sighting a few years earlier.
Barney recalls stopping at Indian Head, the UFO on his right looking "very big" now through binoculars. It's tilted toward him, a pancake with rows of windows, and people inside including the "leader" with an evil face "like a German Nazi", and slanted eyes "but not like a Chinese." The leader conveys with his eyes: "Stay there and keep looking."
He becomes agitated under hypnosis, crying: "His eyes, his eyes, I've never seen those eyes before... Those eyes, they're in my brain." Barney draws the face and eyes while still hypnotized (see above).
After returning to the car he recalls leaving Route 3, getting lost in the woods, and getting flagged down by six men in dark jackets. He sees eyes without a body - "Only the eyes are talking to me. The eyes don’t have a body. They’re just eyes." He thinks it's a wildcat up a tree. "It’s the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland."
He describes a floating feeling (in a later session this becomes linked to the men escorting or dragging him away from the car). "All I see are these eyes... I’m not even afraid that they’re not connected to a body. They’re just there. They’re just up close to me, pressing against my eyes." He address Betty (under hypnosis): "That’s the funniest thing, Betty... I never believed in flying saucers but—I don’t know. Mighty mysterious. I guess I won’t say anything to anybody about this. It’s too ridiculous, isn’t it... Wonder where they came from? Oh, gee, I wish I had gone with them... Oh, what an experience to go to some distant planet."
Barney's sketch of the man has a notably tiny nose. Betty never mentions Jimmy Durante again, and her hypnosis sessions beginning two weeks later describe the same aliens as Barney. (At the time, no link was made between Barney's sketch and any TV aliens.)
Feb 26: Second hypnosis session. Barney recounts the "abduction" during which his eyes were closed much of the time. He describes a perfunctory medical examination including a cup being placed on his groin. He returns to the car grinning, glad it's over, and Betty returns in a similarly elated mood. They see a "bright moon" or huge bright orange ball, which moves or leaves in a manner they never fully describe.
They drive back to Route 3 and Betty asks: “Do you believe in flying saucers now?” He replies: “Oh, Betty, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I don’t.” This is a direct quote from Betty's 1961 written account of her dreams.
Mar 7: Betty's first hypnosis session. Her recollections match Barney's and are similar to her dreams, which she won't show Simon until much later. She recalls details of the flying object not mentioned before - it was cigar-shaped with flashing and rotating "searchlights", and passed in front of the moon.
Betty recalls that when Barney said the object had seen them and was coming their way, she thought his imagination was overactive and asked if he'd watched Twilight Zone recently because she'd heard people talk about such fantastic things from that show, "and he didn't say anything." Note that a similar show, Outer Limits, with its alien with wraparound eyes, had aired two weeks before Barney drew a similar alien under hypnosis.
Betty recalls the close encounter at Indian Head (described later on this site) and the abduction along with her alarmingly mid-century medical examination, and her request for a souvenir. She will later claim this recollection is not simply a retelling of her dreams, because of the discrepancies. However, the differences are trivial.
Mar 14: More hypnosis sessions. Betty's finishes her story. Dr Simon confirms with Barney that the couple didn't discuss the abduction with each other because they apparently immediately forgot about it after they were back on the road.
Mar 21: Dr Simon asks Barney (before hypnosis) about Betty's dreams, which he believes had become consolidated in her mind as reality. He first answers yes when asked if Betty told him about her dreams. "She told me a great many of the details of the dreams. She would tell me that she had gone into the UFO and talked to the people there on board." He then contradicts himself: "never did she tell me directly about her dreams" - but that he only overheard her telling visitors and Walter Webb about the dreams. He fails to mention that Betty recounted her dreams years earlier at a UFO study group.
Betty disagrees her recall is simply her dreams: "Because of the discrepancies" (such as walking up steps in her dream, but a ramp in her later recollection) and because she remembered more under hypnosis than in the dreams. (It should not be possible for her to know this, since Simon has been giving her amnesia after each session. Was his amnesia instruction not working?)
After this session, Simon concludes: "There seem to be indications that a great deal of the experience was absorbed by Barney Hill from Betty, in spite of his insistence that this was his own. And there are definite indications that her dreams had been suggested as a reality by her supervisor."
At Simon's suggestion, Betty sketches the star map she was shown: a few dots connected by lines, along with unconnected dots. (Amateur astronomer Majorie Fish in 1969 began work on the star map and identified the stars. After more data came out about distances between stars, she repudiated her conclusions.)
Mar 28: They are remembering more of the experience consciously and Simon is more focused on relieving their anxiety, as both are having nightmares. Barney is accepting with difficulty that the events were real, and is "flabbergasted" by it. After this session, Betty finally gives Simon her dream notes.
Apr 5: During therapy with Dr Simon, Betty and Barney agree to listen to the tapes of their hypnosis sessions. Barney will later tell Fuller: "as the tapes went deeper and deeper into the part I had never remembered, there was the feeling as if heavy chains were lifted off my shoulders. I felt that I need no longer suffer the anxieties of wondering what happened." [Fuller, p. 258] Barney spontaneously recalls more details about the men: they had a large cranium, small chin, wraparound eyes, metallic greyish skin, two slits for nostrils, and a slit-like mouth.
In the subsequent weeks, the Hills listen to the remaining playbacks, which stimulates further recall. The Hills retrace their route with Walter Webb, and find what they believe is the location of the roadblock off Route 3.
Jun 6: Betty undergoes hypnosis for the final time.
Jun 13, 20, 27: Final 3 sessions with Dr Simon. They finish going through the hypnosis playbacks, leaving Barney with "an overwhelming sense of relief, a feeling of unburdening." His blood pressure and ulcers have eased. Betty also feels her anxiety lessening and her dreams grow less disturbed. [Fuller, p. 275] Dr Simon concludes the Hills saw something unusual, that the abduction was unlikely, and that Betty's dreams transferred to Barney so that they both believe the experience was real. Barney concludes there must be a reason for his amnesia while driving from Indian Head to Ashland. (Perhaps white line fever was not understood back then, but in any case, as we'll see, the Hills actually did remember this part of the journey quite well.)
- Barney's sessions Feb 22 and 29, 1964 (incomplete when compared to the transcripts in Fuller)
- Betty's sessions starting Mar 7
After observing the "star" 1000ft away and stopping a few times to observe it, Barney recalls: "Betty is trying to make me think this is a flying saucer." He confirms that he and Betty have talked about flying saucers before, and that she already believed in them following her sister's sighting a few years earlier.
Barney recalls stopping at Indian Head, the UFO on his right looking "very big" now through binoculars. It's tilted toward him, a pancake with rows of windows, and people inside including the "leader" with an evil face "like a German Nazi", and slanted eyes "but not like a Chinese." The leader conveys with his eyes: "Stay there and keep looking."
He becomes agitated under hypnosis, crying: "His eyes, his eyes, I've never seen those eyes before... Those eyes, they're in my brain." Barney draws the face and eyes while still hypnotized (see above).
After returning to the car he recalls leaving Route 3, getting lost in the woods, and getting flagged down by six men in dark jackets. He sees eyes without a body - "Only the eyes are talking to me. The eyes don’t have a body. They’re just eyes." He thinks it's a wildcat up a tree. "It’s the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland."
He describes a floating feeling (in a later session this becomes linked to the men escorting or dragging him away from the car). "All I see are these eyes... I’m not even afraid that they’re not connected to a body. They’re just there. They’re just up close to me, pressing against my eyes." He address Betty (under hypnosis): "That’s the funniest thing, Betty... I never believed in flying saucers but—I don’t know. Mighty mysterious. I guess I won’t say anything to anybody about this. It’s too ridiculous, isn’t it... Wonder where they came from? Oh, gee, I wish I had gone with them... Oh, what an experience to go to some distant planet."
Barney's sketch of the man has a notably tiny nose. Betty never mentions Jimmy Durante again, and her hypnosis sessions beginning two weeks later describe the same aliens as Barney. (At the time, no link was made between Barney's sketch and any TV aliens.)
Feb 26: Second hypnosis session. Barney recounts the "abduction" during which his eyes were closed much of the time. He describes a perfunctory medical examination including a cup being placed on his groin. He returns to the car grinning, glad it's over, and Betty returns in a similarly elated mood. They see a "bright moon" or huge bright orange ball, which moves or leaves in a manner they never fully describe.
They drive back to Route 3 and Betty asks: “Do you believe in flying saucers now?” He replies: “Oh, Betty, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I don’t.” This is a direct quote from Betty's 1961 written account of her dreams.
Mar 7: Betty's first hypnosis session. Her recollections match Barney's and are similar to her dreams, which she won't show Simon until much later. She recalls details of the flying object not mentioned before - it was cigar-shaped with flashing and rotating "searchlights", and passed in front of the moon.
Betty recalls that when Barney said the object had seen them and was coming their way, she thought his imagination was overactive and asked if he'd watched Twilight Zone recently because she'd heard people talk about such fantastic things from that show, "and he didn't say anything." Note that a similar show, Outer Limits, with its alien with wraparound eyes, had aired two weeks before Barney drew a similar alien under hypnosis.
Betty recalls the close encounter at Indian Head (described later on this site) and the abduction along with her alarmingly mid-century medical examination, and her request for a souvenir. She will later claim this recollection is not simply a retelling of her dreams, because of the discrepancies. However, the differences are trivial.
Mar 14: More hypnosis sessions. Betty's finishes her story. Dr Simon confirms with Barney that the couple didn't discuss the abduction with each other because they apparently immediately forgot about it after they were back on the road.
Mar 21: Dr Simon asks Barney (before hypnosis) about Betty's dreams, which he believes had become consolidated in her mind as reality. He first answers yes when asked if Betty told him about her dreams. "She told me a great many of the details of the dreams. She would tell me that she had gone into the UFO and talked to the people there on board." He then contradicts himself: "never did she tell me directly about her dreams" - but that he only overheard her telling visitors and Walter Webb about the dreams. He fails to mention that Betty recounted her dreams years earlier at a UFO study group.
Betty disagrees her recall is simply her dreams: "Because of the discrepancies" (such as walking up steps in her dream, but a ramp in her later recollection) and because she remembered more under hypnosis than in the dreams. (It should not be possible for her to know this, since Simon has been giving her amnesia after each session. Was his amnesia instruction not working?)
After this session, Simon concludes: "There seem to be indications that a great deal of the experience was absorbed by Barney Hill from Betty, in spite of his insistence that this was his own. And there are definite indications that her dreams had been suggested as a reality by her supervisor."
At Simon's suggestion, Betty sketches the star map she was shown: a few dots connected by lines, along with unconnected dots. (Amateur astronomer Majorie Fish in 1969 began work on the star map and identified the stars. After more data came out about distances between stars, she repudiated her conclusions.)
Mar 28: They are remembering more of the experience consciously and Simon is more focused on relieving their anxiety, as both are having nightmares. Barney is accepting with difficulty that the events were real, and is "flabbergasted" by it. After this session, Betty finally gives Simon her dream notes.
Apr 5: During therapy with Dr Simon, Betty and Barney agree to listen to the tapes of their hypnosis sessions. Barney will later tell Fuller: "as the tapes went deeper and deeper into the part I had never remembered, there was the feeling as if heavy chains were lifted off my shoulders. I felt that I need no longer suffer the anxieties of wondering what happened." [Fuller, p. 258] Barney spontaneously recalls more details about the men: they had a large cranium, small chin, wraparound eyes, metallic greyish skin, two slits for nostrils, and a slit-like mouth.
In the subsequent weeks, the Hills listen to the remaining playbacks, which stimulates further recall. The Hills retrace their route with Walter Webb, and find what they believe is the location of the roadblock off Route 3.
Jun 6: Betty undergoes hypnosis for the final time.
Jun 13, 20, 27: Final 3 sessions with Dr Simon. They finish going through the hypnosis playbacks, leaving Barney with "an overwhelming sense of relief, a feeling of unburdening." His blood pressure and ulcers have eased. Betty also feels her anxiety lessening and her dreams grow less disturbed. [Fuller, p. 275] Dr Simon concludes the Hills saw something unusual, that the abduction was unlikely, and that Betty's dreams transferred to Barney so that they both believe the experience was real. Barney concludes there must be a reason for his amnesia while driving from Indian Head to Ashland. (Perhaps white line fever was not understood back then, but in any case, as we'll see, the Hills actually did remember this part of the journey quite well.)

Dr Simon relates that the couple have contrasting personalities: Betty is dominating and possessive, while Barney is passive, highly suggestible, and full of repressed anxieties and fears. He believes that as Betty related her dreams to Barney, his suggestible nature incorporated them as reality. Barney disagrees and now believes he was abducted.
Simon tells Fuller in 1966: "I was ultimately left with the conclusion that the... dreams experienced by Mrs. Hill, as the aftermath of some type of experience with an Unidentified Flying Object or some similar phenomenon, assumed the quality of a fantasied experience. But the whole thing could not be settled in an absolute sense."
Personally, and just roll with me here for a minute, I think Barney's fear of the "leader" stems from some traumatic wartime (or childhood) incident, perhaps relating to issues he had with a superior, which fed into the UFO encounter. Being Black in the 1920s to 1950s wasn't exactly a cakewalk when it came to the authorities. Barney himself links the feeling of being dragged from the car to seeing a picture of a man being dragged to the electric chair, and the operating room to surgery he had as a child.
Betty now takes out of the closet the dress she wore that night and finds it covered in pink powder. She returns it to the closet for 40 years, taking it out on occasion to show visitors.
Jun 27, 1964: After the final therapy session with Dr Simon, he gives them the tapes. Barney calls Swett (for the first time in 9 months) and with their wives they listen to Barney's first hypnosis session. The Hills ask Swett if this was true or simply what they believe to be true, as Dr Simon concluded. They leave the tapes with Swett. A few days later he returns the tapes and tells them he thinks the experience was real based on the consistencies between what they recalled under hypnosis and what they'd told Swett 18 months earlier. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004] Swett appears to be unaware that Betty had alien abduction dreams after the incident in 1961, wrote them down, told a colleague, and told Barney at the time. They had also discussed the incident publicly and it's impossible they did not also discuss it privately. The fact that Simon separated them for hypnosis and initiated "amnesia" afterwards is therefore irrelevant to the fact their stories matched up.
Swett visits the Hills several more times in the next few weeks or months for "what amounted to informal counseling sessions in which I tried to help them look at the entire incident more objectively." He believes a passing spaceship stopped at Earth to examine two human "samples", then went on its way. This seems to offer them comfort. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004]
Oct 1964: Barney Hill gives a radio interview relaying the same details the couple gave Walter Webb in 1961. (Gray & Gray, 2009) Read the transcript here (from YouTube upload - appears to be incomplete).
1965
Oct 25, 1965: A front-page story in the Boston Traveler, based on the recording of the Sep 1962 UFO study group, pushes the Hills into the spotlight. Barney tells Swett he told his story to NICAP, supposedly in confidence, and he is now panicked about it being in the paper. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004]
Nov 8, 1965: Barney gives a TV interview filmed in a church in Dover, NH, to "correct the sensationalism" of the newspaper article. [Fuller, p. 287] Swett attends and meets John Fuller, who asks for an introduction to Barney. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004]
Late 1960s
Spring 1966: Dr Simon follows up with the Hills. Under hypnosis Barney says he was abducted but doesn't want to believe it. When asked to suppose he'd just absorbed Betty's dreams, he says: "I would like that" but denies it could be true.
Late 1966: The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller is published about the incident, including details of the hypnoregression therapy sessions. The Hills "achieved quite a degree of fame, fame that they never sought." [Kathleen Marden, Gray & Gray 2009] In the book, Betty tells Fuller that for two weeks after therapy with Dr Simon ended, she was willing to go along with the idea that the abduction experience was simply a false reality generated by her dreams. "Then all of a sudden one morning, I woke up with the thought, ‘Whom do I think I’m trying to kid?’ Zoom—it was back again. And I haven’t been successful in telling myself it was a dream ever since." [Fuller, p. 290] Thus she reverted to the idea it was real, without any rational reason for doing so. Contrary to what she told Simon, she tells Fuller: "What interests me is that the incidents in my dreams and the incidents of the story that came out under hypnosis were almost identical." This contradicts her assertion to Simon that the accounts were different enough to prove her recall was not simply a retelling of her dreams.
When you combine this with the fact that Barney offered no new information to the dreams beyond his basic medical exam, we're left with no evidence at all for the abduction part of the story, hidden by "amnesia", being anything more than a product of Betty's imagination.
Betty, who saw Jupiter and later saw another light appear above it (the flying saucer) is asked to sketch the relative positions. She describes the appearance of the second light at exactly the location where the light from the observation tower on Cannon Mountain comes into view over a crest (the tower itself is invisible at night).
Simon tells Fuller in 1966: "I was ultimately left with the conclusion that the... dreams experienced by Mrs. Hill, as the aftermath of some type of experience with an Unidentified Flying Object or some similar phenomenon, assumed the quality of a fantasied experience. But the whole thing could not be settled in an absolute sense."
Personally, and just roll with me here for a minute, I think Barney's fear of the "leader" stems from some traumatic wartime (or childhood) incident, perhaps relating to issues he had with a superior, which fed into the UFO encounter. Being Black in the 1920s to 1950s wasn't exactly a cakewalk when it came to the authorities. Barney himself links the feeling of being dragged from the car to seeing a picture of a man being dragged to the electric chair, and the operating room to surgery he had as a child.
Betty now takes out of the closet the dress she wore that night and finds it covered in pink powder. She returns it to the closet for 40 years, taking it out on occasion to show visitors.
Jun 27, 1964: After the final therapy session with Dr Simon, he gives them the tapes. Barney calls Swett (for the first time in 9 months) and with their wives they listen to Barney's first hypnosis session. The Hills ask Swett if this was true or simply what they believe to be true, as Dr Simon concluded. They leave the tapes with Swett. A few days later he returns the tapes and tells them he thinks the experience was real based on the consistencies between what they recalled under hypnosis and what they'd told Swett 18 months earlier. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004] Swett appears to be unaware that Betty had alien abduction dreams after the incident in 1961, wrote them down, told a colleague, and told Barney at the time. They had also discussed the incident publicly and it's impossible they did not also discuss it privately. The fact that Simon separated them for hypnosis and initiated "amnesia" afterwards is therefore irrelevant to the fact their stories matched up.
Swett visits the Hills several more times in the next few weeks or months for "what amounted to informal counseling sessions in which I tried to help them look at the entire incident more objectively." He believes a passing spaceship stopped at Earth to examine two human "samples", then went on its way. This seems to offer them comfort. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004]
Oct 1964: Barney Hill gives a radio interview relaying the same details the couple gave Walter Webb in 1961. (Gray & Gray, 2009) Read the transcript here (from YouTube upload - appears to be incomplete).
1965
Oct 25, 1965: A front-page story in the Boston Traveler, based on the recording of the Sep 1962 UFO study group, pushes the Hills into the spotlight. Barney tells Swett he told his story to NICAP, supposedly in confidence, and he is now panicked about it being in the paper. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004]
Nov 8, 1965: Barney gives a TV interview filmed in a church in Dover, NH, to "correct the sensationalism" of the newspaper article. [Fuller, p. 287] Swett attends and meets John Fuller, who asks for an introduction to Barney. [Testimony by Ben H. Swett, undated, post-2004]
Late 1960s
Spring 1966: Dr Simon follows up with the Hills. Under hypnosis Barney says he was abducted but doesn't want to believe it. When asked to suppose he'd just absorbed Betty's dreams, he says: "I would like that" but denies it could be true.
Late 1966: The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller is published about the incident, including details of the hypnoregression therapy sessions. The Hills "achieved quite a degree of fame, fame that they never sought." [Kathleen Marden, Gray & Gray 2009] In the book, Betty tells Fuller that for two weeks after therapy with Dr Simon ended, she was willing to go along with the idea that the abduction experience was simply a false reality generated by her dreams. "Then all of a sudden one morning, I woke up with the thought, ‘Whom do I think I’m trying to kid?’ Zoom—it was back again. And I haven’t been successful in telling myself it was a dream ever since." [Fuller, p. 290] Thus she reverted to the idea it was real, without any rational reason for doing so. Contrary to what she told Simon, she tells Fuller: "What interests me is that the incidents in my dreams and the incidents of the story that came out under hypnosis were almost identical." This contradicts her assertion to Simon that the accounts were different enough to prove her recall was not simply a retelling of her dreams.
When you combine this with the fact that Barney offered no new information to the dreams beyond his basic medical exam, we're left with no evidence at all for the abduction part of the story, hidden by "amnesia", being anything more than a product of Betty's imagination.
Betty, who saw Jupiter and later saw another light appear above it (the flying saucer) is asked to sketch the relative positions. She describes the appearance of the second light at exactly the location where the light from the observation tower on Cannon Mountain comes into view over a crest (the tower itself is invisible at night).
1968: Betty and Barney meet Stanton Friedman in Pittsburg. [Gray & Gray, 2009]
Feb 25, 1969: Barney dies. His nephew Tom Miller says: "I saw how much it affected Barney. He became an alcoholic over it... Barney turned into a very scared individual." [Gray & Gray 2009]
Feb 25, 1969: Barney dies. His nephew Tom Miller says: "I saw how much it affected Barney. He became an alcoholic over it... Barney turned into a very scared individual." [Gray & Gray 2009]
One slip
The Hills had a pretty nice vacation by all accounts, but they made one mistake on the way home: they misidentified an aircraft warning light atop the observation tower on Cannon Mountain and thought it was a flying saucer zipping around. In the following pages I'll give a detailed account that shows how this unfortunate slip-up happened, based on the work of Jim Macdonald, a local who actually drove the route at night to observe the light.
I also revved up my Google car and drove the route to observe the beacon, confirming Jim's account. I've included many screenshots and maps in my multi-part series, comparing the drive to Fuller's book and to even earlier reports from the Hills.
At the close encounter south of Indian Head, the Hills are sleep-deprived, irritated, and frightened. Barney (but not Betty) sees an unidentified object - probably more than one - as in his stressed state he attempts to focus the binoculars on any light in the vicinity.
Later, the Hills will recall seeing a pancake-shaped craft with a double row of windows. It's possible the windows were already implanted in their memory from having earlier viewed the beacon from the base of the mountain (the closest they got to it), with its windows in the observation deck. The pylons reflecting the beacon's light may have seemed like "fins", and the aliens in the windows may have been the silhouettes of trees.
It's also possible that at some stage they saw the final tramway car leaving the mountain top as the restaurant closed in the late evening. It's certainly a curious coincidence that Barney's drawings of his flying saucer are so similar to manmade objects located in exactly the same area.
I also revved up my Google car and drove the route to observe the beacon, confirming Jim's account. I've included many screenshots and maps in my multi-part series, comparing the drive to Fuller's book and to even earlier reports from the Hills.
At the close encounter south of Indian Head, the Hills are sleep-deprived, irritated, and frightened. Barney (but not Betty) sees an unidentified object - probably more than one - as in his stressed state he attempts to focus the binoculars on any light in the vicinity.
Later, the Hills will recall seeing a pancake-shaped craft with a double row of windows. It's possible the windows were already implanted in their memory from having earlier viewed the beacon from the base of the mountain (the closest they got to it), with its windows in the observation deck. The pylons reflecting the beacon's light may have seemed like "fins", and the aliens in the windows may have been the silhouettes of trees.
It's also possible that at some stage they saw the final tramway car leaving the mountain top as the restaurant closed in the late evening. It's certainly a curious coincidence that Barney's drawings of his flying saucer are so similar to manmade objects located in exactly the same area.
High hopes
My analysis provides evidence for the following theory:
The Physical evidence page looks at the analysis of Betty's dress and star map, and radar reports.
Before we set out in our Google car to accompany the Hills on their mid-September journey, there's one more thing to keep in mind:
- The light observed by the Hills on their drive south through Franconia Notch was the Cannon Mountain Observation Tower beacon.
- It appeared to follow them and swing around in the sky because they were driving along twisty, unlit roads.
- The "close encounter" south of Indian Head may have been a couple of different lights, perhaps viewed through unfocused binoculars by the frightened and weary couple - Jupiter is one possibility.
- There was no missing time: the two hours can be accounted for by their multiple stops, driving very slowly at one point, detouring into the woods for 20 miles, and driving around looking for coffee.
- Hypnotic regression filled in the details of an alien abduction episode, largely based on dreams Betty experienced in the days following the journey.
The Physical evidence page looks at the analysis of Betty's dress and star map, and radar reports.
Before we set out in our Google car to accompany the Hills on their mid-September journey, there's one more thing to keep in mind:
Aside from any conclusions we might draw from this revelation, what makes it more interesting is that this paragraph vanished as thoroughly as Travis Walton's failed polygraph results when Webb submitted his revised Hills case report in 1965.
> Go to PART 1: Wish you were here, in which the Hills go on vacation.
SUPPLEMENTAL
Webb's Hills case reports from 1961, and from 1965 when he revised it to include the revelations from regressive hypnotherapy, but removed the paragraph about Betty hearing a radio show caller's UFO story (Betty and Barney: The Abduction Edition). Click to enlarge.
(c) Charlie Wiser 2021