The UFO Incident (1975) Movie Script
1
- The following
story is based on the records
of the United States Air Force,
the files of The
Hayden Planetarium,
and the actual
transcripts of the tapes
made by Betty and Barney Hill,
under hypnosis by
Dr. Benjamin Simon.
The purpose,
to penetrate an extraordinary
case of double amnesia,
precipitated by their claimed
sighting of a UFO in 1961.
- We know
it was Route 3.
I mean off Route 3, and
we've been on every single-
- Side road,
dirt road, dead end,
and there's no road, there's
no, no clearing, nothing.
- Of course there is, we
just haven't found it yet.
- Left or right?
- I dunno, let's try right.
- I saw the thing, I
knew I saw the thing,
but if my best friend
told me he'd seen it,
I'd say he was crazy.
- Barney.
There've been UFO sightings
all over New Hampshire.
Are you saying they're all
nuts, all those people?
- Maybe, yeah, maybe.
And it's crazy to
keep coming back here.
It's like a,
like a compulsion,
like some of those people
you deal with at work,
compulsive gamblers,
compulsive wife beaters.
- What does that make
us, compulsive travelers?
What's so bad about that?
- Because we only
traveled to Indian Head,
we only traveled Route 3,
looking for a road
that doesn't exist.
How many times we
been back here, Betty?
Seven, eight times, you know?
Always end up exhausted
and fighting each other.
I don't wanna fight
with you, Betty.
- Let's not come back.
Let's just decide not to
come back again, ever.
- But-
- But we will, you know.
- We will, you know.
- Oh, it's funny how we do that.
Say the same thing
at the same time.
- Just a little tolerance,
that's all I ask.
- Barney, let me out!
Stop, let me out!
No, don't stop!
Keep going, Barney!
No, don't stop. Keep going!
Don't slow down!
- Come on,
let's go get 'em. Come on!
- I saw the moon
sitting on the ground.
- That was a dream, Betty.
- The men in the road,
I saw the men in the road.
And then I saw the moon sitting
on the ground.
- Dreams are dreams,
and reality is reality.
We almost smashed up this
car because you had a dream!
- Don't do that, Barney.
Please.
Don't shut me out.
Talk to me, tell
me what you feel.
- I feel that your
dreams are dreams.
And that reality-
- Is that reality?
That every dumb kid in a leather
jacket is out to harm you?
- What are you talking about?
I wasn't scared, you were.
- Oh, don't do that, Barney.
You were too. I saw
your face before.
And just now.
- I was brought up to
be careful, remember?
It's like an old,
scratched, broken record
playing inside of me.
"Be careful kid, or
they all kill you."
- Marrying me wasn't being
very careful, was it?
- I loved you so much,
I forgot to be careful.
First time in my life,
threw out careful.
- Barney?
What are we gonna do?
- How do I know
this thing happened?
How do I know I wasn't
just seeing things?
I'm in this terrible position
where I know it happened,
but I can't get
myself to believe it.
And it's bugging me so much,
that my ulcers are
kicking up again.
Just when they were
getting better.
It's worse than that, I try to
minimize,
I was outta work for six
months on disability.
The doctor said I was
suffering from the
complete physical exhaustion,
anxiety,
and Betty,
Betty was having
those nightmares,
sudden fears outta nowhere,
things that are
really not like Betty.
She's so calm.
- And it's been almost two
years since the experience?
- Yes.
I keep trying to
remember what happened,
where we were.
There's a whole
area that's lost.
36 miles, ain't they?
Between the time we saw
the UFO or whatever, and,
and when we heard the beeps.
- Now, Concord's about
where you heard the beeps?
- Ah.
It was a beeping sound.
Beep, beep, beep.
Is there something
shifting in the car?
- I don't know.
- Oh, do you think that
thing is back again?
- How strange.
- Wait a minute.
I wonder if I could make
the car do that myself.
- All right, it was at
this moment, the beeping,
when your memory returned,
it's a time previous to this
that you can't remember?
- Yes, Dr.
Simon. That's right.
- I see.
- We go back there.
Weekends, holidays,
whenever we get a chance.
We were just there a
couple of days ago.
- Uh, to
Indian Head you mean?
- Yes, trying to find, uh...
Sort of woke up from a daze,
and saw the sign,
Concord, 17 miles.
- Suddenly, Concord.
It was so strange.
- Barney and Betty
Hill began general history
of their anxiety
problems and amnesia,
highlighted by their
claimed sighting
of a UFO at Indian
Head two years ago.
The Hills' clearest memory
is their return home
from the UFO
sighting experience.
Treatment is to be centered
on their anxiety reaction
with their apparent amnesia.
Unidentified flying
object, secondary matter.
Major job is to determine
treatment of patients,
and overcoming this unique
case of double amnesia.
Most probably by
means of hypnosis.
Barney Hill, 39, works
for the Post Office,
is distinguished
member of NAACP,
and active in community fairs,
Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Well-read,
educated.
IQ of 140.
Previously married,
two children.
Suffers deep guilt about
leaving marriage and children,
but sees them as
often as he can.
Also suffers from
childhood of racial strife.
Betty Hill, 42,
comes from an old New Hampshire
family dating back to 1629.
Previously married 13
years, two adopted children,
now grown.
Returned to university after
divorce, received degree.
Presently works
as welfare worker
for the State of New Hampshire.
Has a background of security,
in both upbringing and heritage.
- Barney?
Barney, did you take the
clothes in the house?
- What?
- The clothes, did
you bring them in?
- No, I was too tired.
I'll bring all that
stuff in tomorrow.
- I didn't want you to bring
the clothes in the house.
- About the clock.
You said you glanced
up at the clock,
'cause you were undressing.
Did you see the time?
- I saw that it was
five after five.
I didn't register, I don't
think Barney realized it either.
Neither one of us
realized till months later
that it was that late.
Wasn't that strange, Barney?
Whatever it was.
- Tops of
my shoes are scuffed.
- What?
- Tops of my shoes are scuffed.
- I don't understand.
How could that be?
- I don't know.
- All right, Mr. Hill, when
you woke up the next morning,
did you experience any
particular discomfort
on your groin?
- No.
It was there, I could, uh...
Just,
just had a feeling,
but there was no
pain or anything.
- Well, how much later was
it that the warts appeared?
- Oh,
two months, I guess, before
they actually appeared,
before I actually saw
them, 'cause that...
I had a feeling before
they actually appeared.
- So you went to the
doctor and he diagnosed it,
and by means of electrolysis,
he was able to get rid of them.
- Yes, sir.
- And you haven't been in
trouble with them since?
- No I haven't.
- I see.
Now, please continue.
- Betty.
I don't wanna talk to anybody
about last night, all right?
- All right.
I guess.
- If you wanna talk about it,
we can just talk
about it to ourselves.
- But we can't just not
talk about it, you know?
- Oh, I know that.
I wanna talk about it to you.
I don't like feeling
alone with this thing.
- You're not alone
with it, love.
How could you be?
You're not alone with it, love.
How could you be?
Well, we wondered about
it, and we talked about it,
and then I asked Barney
if he thought we could
draw what we saw,
and he didn't wanna do that.
- But Betty found a
way to talk me into it.
- Well,
I'm good at that.
And then when the
drawings were identical,
well, Barney thought
they were only similar,
I wanted to call my sister,
and Barney didn't want me
to do that, he got angry.
And then when she wanted
me to check for radiation,
Barney got really upset.
Where's the compass?
Where's the compass?
- I don't know what
you're talkin' about, Betty.
- The compass, the compass,
where's the compass?
- I don't know where it is!
How am I supposed to know
where the compass is?
- Thanks a lot, Barney,
you're a big help.
- It's in the drawer
where it always is!
Why don't you look
before you ask?
It's always there
in the same place!
Betty! Listen.
I think you're getting too
excited about all this,
and I think you'd
better calm down.
I think we just better
forget about all this.
- Barney,
would you please come outside,
and look at the back of the car,
and see what happens
to this compass?
Janet says a compass works
like a Geiger counter,
and if the car
has any radiation-
- Oh, Betty,
it's all so ridiculous.
A car is made outta metal,
and any metal would
attract the compass.
- The compass just went crazy,
near the trunk, the spare tire,
not near the battery, or
where you'd expect it to.
And there were these
strange shiny spots
on the back of the car.
I finally got Barney to
come out and look at them.
- I figured if I humored her
and looked, she'd calm down.
- Well, did the spots
stay on the car?
- No, no, they disappeared.
- They didn't disappear.
At least not right away.
What happened is that
when I had the car washed,
they stayed.
- All right.
Well, let's go on.
- Janet. It went crazy.
Yes, the compass,
and there were strange spots
on the back of the car.
I couldn't call
anybody.
They'd laugh at me.
No, I'd be embarrassed,
and Barney,
Barney and I decided not to
tell anyone, not anyone else.
- Were you
able to deal with that,
to live with that?
- Yes.
Well,
yes and no, you see so much
of our life was so happy.
We'd only been
married about a year,
and so many things were new,
especially for Barney.
- Why
especially for Barney?
- Well, the only change in my
life was that I was married.
To Barney, I lived in the house
where I'd lived for years.
I had the same job
and the same friends,
but for Barney, for Barney,
everything was different,
he lived in Philadelphia,
in what was really an
all black society, and,
and here in Portsmouth,
it's pretty much an
all white society.
It wasn't just a new
marriage for Barney,
it was a whole new
life and new friends.
Barney makes friends so easily.
Our best friends then were
Jack and Lisa MacRainey.
Jack's a Lieutenant Colonel
at the Pease Air Force Base,
and he and Barney
just hit it off.
I knew Barney
wanted to tell Jack
about what we saw.
Hmm, he kept putting it off.
- But I finally
came out with it.
The sighting, if
it was a sighting.
It was still gnawing away at me.
- The sighting itself?
- No.
Whether or not there
was a sighting,
and whether or not I was...
We were seeing things.
And Jack just
confirmed my suspicion.
He said in so many words that
anyone that said they saw UFO,
was nuts.
- And that only made
things worse, you know,
they were our best friends.
They were around all the time.
We could talk to them about
anything, anything at all,
except UFOs, that subject
was just plain taboo.
And those terrible
dreams were starting.
- Had you told Barney
about your dreams yet?
- I'd mentioned them.
He had so little time,
Barney was working
nights in Boston,
60 mile drive back and forth.
We were, except for weekends,
we were sort of
passing in the hallway.
It's the moon, you idiot.
What are you barking
at the moon for?
- Well, I imagine
they were long nights for you.
Hard on you.
- Very long.
I keep saying this
though, you know,
that we were having so much fun.
Barney had joined
the Toastmasters,
'cause he thought he
couldn't speak in public.
And he
found out he could.
Then he found out he
could make people laugh.
The house was filling
up with old jokes books,
and old routines on records.
- Come on in, attention!
All those of you whose
mothers are still alive!
- He'd spring them at
the worst possible moments!
- Front center!
Not so fast, Rodriguez.
- Barney, just
sit down, you'll be late.
- Bossy little thing, isn't she?
You never knew she was the
oldest of five children?
Just grew up bossing everybody.
- Do me a favor, Barney, love.
Wouldn't you really
like to sit down?
- Call off
your dog, buddy!
- And just like
that, it would change,
and everything
would get terrible.
Like that night,
Jack and Lisa were
having their problems.
Lisa knew we thought
we had seen something.
- Somehow we got
onto Barry Goldwater.
Goodness only knows how we
got onto Barry Goldwater.
I heard myself saying...
You know, you know the
trouble with you white people?
The trouble with
you white people-
- Don't call me
"you white people",
don't ever call me
"you white people!"
You can say "those
white people",
but don't include
me, Barney Hill.
I'm not white, I'm human.
- Well, I didn't
ever say that again.
- No, you didn't.
And then they were
getting ready to leave,
Barney too, because he had to
be at the Post Office by nine.
And when they all
were saying goodnight,
you could have cut the
tension with a hatchet.
My fellow citizens,
let no one doubt that
this is a difficult
and dangerous effort on
which we have set out.
The path we have chosen for
the present is full of hazards,
but it is the one
most consistent
with our character and
courage as a nation,
and our commitments
around the world.
- And then Barney came back,
he said he was
gonna call in sick.
He was so worried,
and he was just lying
there with this white cloth
over his face to
help his headache.
Better?
- Not much.
- Barney, I wanna
ask you something.
- Uh-huh.
- I can't, not with that
thing over your eyes.
- It was your idea.
- This probably isn't
the time anyway.
But I really wanted to ask you-
- Listen, Betty.
I was just listening
to the news.
- Barney, I said I wanted
to ask you something.
- This is important,
Betty, really important.
If they actually do
start shooting missiles-
- Who?
Nobody's gonna start
shooting missiles, Barney.
- If they do,
and we're not together,
if I'm at work and
can't get here,
now listen to me,
what I want you to do,
is make your way to
your mother's house,
and I'll manage to get there.
Is that clear?
- Yes.
Yes. Sure.
- Good.
- Barney, what I wanted
to ask you before,
was how come we can talk about
this UFO business together,
and wonder what it was together,
but with Janet, with Jack,
it was a plane, period.
- With you, I can
look like a fool,
but with my friends, I can't
afford to look like a fool.
- I got to hate that wash cloth
more and more,
he'd just lie there
with it over his face.
- And I just kept
calling in sick.
Well, I was sick,
the ulcers and the headaches,
and I was worrying.
I mean, I've always
been a worrier,
but this is really
getting outta proportion.
Worrying about things that I
didn't have any control over.
I really thought we
were gonna be attacked.
- By whom?
- I don't know.
Well, I thought Russia, but,
I don't know.
- And were the nightmares
continuing, Betty?
- Yes. On and on.
I started writing them down,
I'd get up in the
middle of the night,
and write till I was exhausted.
I had done that before when,
when things upset me, I
would write them down,
it would help.
- You, er, still have
a copy of those dreams?
- Yes, I stuck 'em
away somewhere.
You know, that's funny.
I,
I've forgotten I
wrote them down.
- 'Cause
I'd like a copy of them,
if you don't mind.
- Oh, sure. I'll look for them.
- And it was about
this time, Barney,
that you went to see the doctor,
and he suggested
that you take a rest,
take a sick leave.
- Yes, it was about this time.
So ,
I just started staying home,
trying to relax,
work in the garden,
read, stuff like that.
The kids came more
often, you know?
I could see them more often.
They really liked
Betty, I mean, you know?
They got along well with
her, they really loved her.
'Cause I used to
tease her, right?
I told her that it was
her cooking they loved.
Mainly I was just lying
around and reading,
reading UFO books.
- Hi.
- Hi.
What's the matter, you upset?
- No, I'm not upset. Why?
- You weren't smiling.
When you came in,
you weren't smiling.
- I didn't notice.
- I did.
- Well, obviously you did,
or you wouldn't be
uptight about it.
- No, I'm not uptight.
Sorry about that.
I'm uptight.
- What about?
- Well,
if I knew,
I wouldn't be lying around
this house all day, would I?
Wouldn't be reading
these stupid books.
My eyes are falling out, until-
- What?
- Till I think I'm
nuts as they are.
When I asked you to marry me,
you said you wanted a
psychiatric evaluation.
Don't laugh. You
may have been right.
- Oh, what do you mean?
- I mean that you,
your instincts may
have been right.
You may have sensed something.
- Oh no, my love, oh!
No, you didn't understand.
It wasn't you I
questioned, it was me!
And I couldn't tell you.
- Tell me what?
- I still can't.
- Listen.
Don't you know by now
you can tell me anything?
- I'm not pretty.
- Who says?
- Nobody, it's something I know,
something I've always known,
I'm not pretty.
- And that's nonsense.
And what's it got to do with a
psychiatric evaluation of me?
- Oh,
you don't understand.
I was afraid,
I was afraid you thought,
you thought you loved me,
you thought I was
pretty because,
because I was white.
- Hey.
That's like,
that's like me being
afraid you didn't love me,
you only love my
beautiful black body.
- Well, I do.
- Oh, well.
There's that too.
You're right.
You're not pretty.
You're beautiful.
And I see the
whole world, Betty.
I see every bit of beauty in
the whole world in your face.
- No.
- I see you, Betty.
- My love, I see you.
Oh, Barney.
This is the way it should be.
This is the way it was.
This is the way it should be.
This is the way it was.
Well, finally I convinced
him that we had to report it.
- She cried, that's
really what did it.
- Well, we never did it.
We did call.
- Yeah, I mean,
I wasn't too impressed with
how the Air Force handled it.
But when Wayne Webb
from The Hayden
Planetarium contacted us,
then I knew that
Betty was right, and we had
to tell everything we saw.
- No need for you
to be concerned.
No need for you to be worried.
You are deeper
and deeper asleep.
You are deep asleep.
You will remember everything,
and you will tell me everything.
It is now September 19th, 1961.
You will remember everything,
and it won't trouble you.
Your memory is sharp now.
I want you to go
back to the time
of your vacation in Montreal,
beginning with the time you
left your hotel in Montreal.
- Yes.
- I want you to tell
me in full detail,
all your experiences,
all your thoughts,
all your feelings,
beginning from the time
you left your hotel.
- Okay.
- Now, were you in Montreal?
- It was approximately
112 miles from Montreal.
We were driving from Niagara
Falls through Canada.
- Well, just go on.
Tell me about your
arrival there.
- The thoughts that were
going through my mind was that
would they accept me at
the motel, because...
Would they say they
were filled up?
And I was wondering if
they were doing this
because I was prejudiced.
- Because you're prejudiced?
- Because they were prejudiced.
- You run into this
a lot I take it?
- I have not actually
run into being denied
accommodation yet.
- You mean you worry about it?
- But I know that
this does happen,
and I am concerned.
- Did you tell your
wife about your concern?
Does she share it?
- I express it, but,
she does not share my
concern in this matter.
- Very well.
Go on.
- We are riding around,
and I'm lost.
And I'm concerned
about the tollgate.
Customs.
- Why?
- I have a gun in
the trunk of the car,
a .32
pistol.
And it is hidden in the well
of the trunk of the car,
with the trunk mat over it.
And I'm thinking,
"Why did I do this?
Why did I bring this gun along?"
And I know it is all my fears,
that I believe the
hostility of white people,
particularly when there
is an interracial couple.
- Yes. Well, go on.
Your memory is sharp.
Where are you now?
- Now,
we're in the country part of
New Hampshire, on Route 3,
and I'm thinking, "I've got
to get a hold of myself,"
and not expect
hostility when there...
It was no hostility there.
And I look up through
the windshield,
I
look up
through the windshield of the
car where Betty saw a star.
Oh.
That's funny.
But I said,
Betty, that is not a
star, it's a satellite.
Come on, Delsey. Let's get out.
Hurry up, Betty, so I can see.
It's not a satellite,
it's a plane.
- Barney, what kind
of a plane is that?
- What
kind of plane was it?
- It is right over my right.
And it does not go where
I thought it would go.
- Barney, I'm asking
you a question.
What kind of a plane is that?
- Oh.
That's funny.
It was,
it was funny.
They're coming around toward us.
They're changing course.
It's just a Piper Cub.
- Barney,
it's not a Piper Cub.
- You saw, uh,
a small plane?
- Barney.
That's not a plane,
it's still following us.
Barney! Where are you going?
- I just wanna see it.
- Still there.
It's coming closer.
- It is not, it is
not coming closer.
It's just way up there.
Betty, what are you
trying to make me believe?
- All right.
We'll stop here for now.
Just relax.
Be comfortable.
Until you hear me speak again,
you won't hear any sound here.
Just rest and be comfortable.
All right. You may proceed now.
- And,
I am wondering,
why doesn't it go away?
- Do you still think
it was a small plane?
- And I'm wondering why
these pilots...
Why, they shouldn't do that.
They shouldn't do that.
And,
I can't hear any noise.
And I think this is ridiculous.
I can't hear any sound,
and I want to get back in
the car and get out of there.
I gotta get out of there.
And it is still coming
around towards us.
And I look up and down the road,
and I think how dark it is.
And I think,
"What if a bear
were to come out?"
And Betty is looking,
I think she said...
And I'm mad with her.
I think Betty is trying
to make me believe
this is a flying saucer,
and I am wondering,
"Why doesn't it go away?"
I wanna wake up.
- You won't wake up.
You're in a deep sleep.
You can go on.
- It's right over my right.
What is it?
I gotta get outta here.
- This won't
trouble you, go on.
You're remembering
everything now.
- And I try
to maintain control,
so Betty cannot tell
that I am scared.
Oh, I'm so scared.
- Go on.
This won't hurt
you, experience it.
It won't harm you now.
- I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get outta here!
I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get my gun!
- Stay here!
Nothing can harm you here.
- I gotta get my gun!
- Stay here!
Nothing can harm you here.
- I gotta get my gun!
- Here!
You're in a deep sleep.
You can remember nothing.
Now.
Now calm yourself.
Calm yourself.
Here, come on.
Now come on back,
and sit down.
All right.
You can wake up now.
All right.
You can wake up now.
You can remember everything.
Just go on remembering.
There's no need for
you to cry out, you're,
you're calm now.
You still feel you
have to get your gun?
- Yes.
- It meant
to harm you, you felt?
- Yes.
And I open the trunk
and I take it out,
and I put it in my coat,
and I look, and I look and
I say, "I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid.
I'll shoot it down."
And, and I run out
across the road, and...
There, there, there!
There it is, up there!
Then,
a man?
A man?
Is he a captain?
What is he?
And,
he's looking at me,
and I say, "No," I
have to shake my head.
This isn't true.
This can't be true.
And,
still there,
and I look up and down
the road, and I think,
"Can't somebody come along,
and tell me that
this isn't there?"
It's there.
- Are
you sure it's there?
- Yeah.
- You're
not having a dream?
- And I touch my right arm.
It's not my right.
It's my left arm.
And it's there.
If I let my binoculars
fall and dangle,
maybe it won't be there.
But it's there.
Why?
What do they want?
What do they want?
And this one person,
looks friendly to me.
He's friendly-looking,
and he's looking over
his right shoulder at me,
and he's smilin',
and he's friendly.
But the other one
with the evil face,
he looks like a Nazi.
He's a Nazi.
- Did he
have on a uniform?
- Yeah. Yes.
- Did they have
faces like, like other people?
- His eyes are slanted.
Oh!
His eyes are slanted.
Oh,
I feel like a rabbit.
- What do you mean by that?
- When I was hunting
for rabbits in Virginia,
this cute little bunny
went into a bush that
wasn't very thick.
And my cousin Marge was on
one side of the bush and
I was on the other with a hat.
And this poor little
bunny thought he was safe,
and it tickled me,
because he was just hiding
behind this little stalk
that meant security for him.
And I pounced on him,
and threw my hat on him,
and captured the poor little
bunny that thought he was safe.
Isn't that funny?
I thought of that, standing
out there in the field.
I'm that bunny.
I'm gonna be pounced on.
I'm that bunny.
This creature is trying
to tell me something,
I can see it in his face.
- Are its lips moving?
- No,
his lips aren't moving,
but he's, he's looking at
me, and he's saying to me,
"Don't be afraid."
- Did you hear
him tell you this?
- No.
- You felt he said it?
- Uh,
I know.
And he said,
"Just stay there," he said,
and he's telling me not
to pull the binoculars
away from my eyes,
and,
and,
I,
I , I!
Oh!
God,
give me strength,
I'll fight it off.
I'm not afraid.
And I run out across the road
and there it is up there.
Oh!
Those eyes.
Oh.
Can I please wake up?
- Just a little longer.
You'll get through
this all right.
- I don't understand.
Their eyes don't have no body.
They're just eyes.
Oh.
Oh, that's what it's got to be.
It's a,
a wild cat up a tree.
Oh, that's what it's
got to be.
Oh,
I know.
It's the Cheshire Cat in
"Alice In Wonderland".
It disappeared too, and
only the eyes remain.
Oh.
- You don't seem to
be frightened anymore.
- No,
they're not gonna
do anything bad.
Just floating about,
I'm that bunny,
I've been captured,
but just floating
about.
It's so ridiculous, isn't it?
Oh.
Really funny.
Who are they and where
do they come from?
They're not gonna
do me any harm.
I wish I could go with them.
Oh,
what an experience,
to go to some distant planet.
Maybe this will prove
the existence of God.
Isn't that funny?
To look for the existence of God
on some other planet.
- He, he, I,
I don't know if he was
laughing or crying,
but he said to me,
"They were gonna capture us."
- They're gonna capture us!
Gotta get outta here.
Look out, look out,
you can see them!
They're right overhead.
They're right
directly over our car.
- If they're out there,
I don't see anything.
It's all black.
I don't see them.
- What's that?
What's that noise?
- I don't know.
- Now, just a moment.
This was the first
series of beeps,
when your amnesia begins?
- I don't want to.
- There is the
second series of beeps,
when your memory returned.
- I don't know.
- Well, you will
remember clearly.
- Uh,
it was, I,
that my mind's, uh,
blank, I,
but,
oh, I,
I could not,
I...
Almost remember.
- You can.
Remember.
- Oh, I get this point.
I can't get beyond
all this beeping!
- You can, you
can get beyond it.
It's all right, you've
never remembered it before.
This is the two hours you
could never remember until now,
because you're there now.
It's all right.
Go on.
Remember.
No need to be upset.
- I'm not supposed to.
- Not supposed to?
Who told you you're
not supposed to?
- They did.
- It's all right.
You're calm,
calm.
- We're driving along.
I don't know where we are, I...
I don't even know
how we got here.
Barney and I we're,
we were driving.
I don't know how long,
I, I don't know how long.
We haven't even been talking,
I'm just sitting there,
feeling that
something's going to happen.
No, I'm not really
too afraid, but,
but then, now I am.
That time I didn't feel afraid.
- Why are you crying
if you're not afraid?
- I'm afraid now, but
then I wasn't, I don't...
I wasn't, I wasn't afraid.
I was afraid.
I was afraid when I saw
the men in the road!
- The men in the road?
- I've never been so afraid,
in my life before!
- Tell me
about the men in the road.
It's all right.
You're safe here.
Tell me about the
men in the road.
Betty. Betty.
Don't fall asleep.
I want you to stay awake,
so you can remember.
Tell me about the
men in the road.
- But...
I wasn't too afraid of them,
and then when I saw them,
they were standing there,
and I thought, "Oh, well, you
know, they're not so awful."
I,
there was a,
I, I don't know there was,
I wasn't too afraid when
I saw them, they were...
And they were just...
No, I, I couldn't get
a good look at them.
Maybe their car's broken down.
What are they doing here?
And then they started
coming towards us.
And then I,
when they did that,
I got really scared,
and Barney tried to
stop the car.
And then,
where this, uh-
- What was that? I,
I, I didn't hear that.
- I thought,
if I could just get my
hand on the door of the car
and open it,
I can run into the
woods and hide.
And Barney is yelling.
"They're gonna capture us,
they're gonna capture us."
Then,
they're coming
closer, oh my, oh, oh.
They're coming closer.
I,
I just put my, my hand out,
I put my, my hand on
the door in the car,
and I'm gonna open it and,
they open it for me.
They open it, the
car door, this man,
this man, this man,
there are these...
there's two men behind the door,
there's one,
two!
Three!
Three men!
And there's one, two,
more men,
my eyes are...
- All right. All right.
All right.
We'll stop there for now.
You'll be relieved and relaxed.
When you wake up,
you won't remember anything
that's transpired here.
You won't remember anything,
until I ask you to recall it.
It's all right.
You'll be comfortable,
and relaxed,
and at ease.
- Oh, the beautiful people.
Don't do that.
The Kennedys don't giggle.
- What of that?
- You got no class, girl.
Don't gimme that talk about
your Mayflower ancestors.
Mm, mm, mm!
Now, how could I go and
marry a girl with no class?
No, Betty. Betty, no, not that.
No, Betty. Not, not, not that.
No. Anything but that, no!
- Serves you right.
"No class."
You're really feeling
good, aren't you?
- Yes, I am.
Hm.
Just minutes.
I really feel good.
I come out of those sessions,
it's like a weight's lifted,
and I don't know
what the weight is,
but something's working,
because there are these minutes,
before it all comes
creeping back again.
- Hmm. With me it's a day or so.
And then I can't wait
for the end of the week
to get back in there.
- Like today,
at lunch,
I felt so cool I had an
onion with my hamburger.
- Barney, you know we said
we wouldn't eat onions
unless we both had them.
- Oh, I'm sorry, I
forgot, I'll get you one.
- What?
- I'm gonna get you an onion.
- I don't want an
onion, you lunatic!
- It's really strange, isn't it?
- It really is.
- So amazed.
So curious.
Just dying to find out
what's going on in there.
- So am I.
- It's amazing.
I didn't think I
could be hypnotized,
he's so unlike me.
Just have to be in
control all the time.
But hey,
I walk in there and bang,
I guess I trust him.
Hmm, me, Barney Hill
trusting somebody.
- Except me.
- And him.
Yeah, it's funny, I
trusted him right away.
- So did I.
- Oh yeah, but you're
used to trusting people.
You know me,
I'm not paranoid,
it's just that the whole
world is out to get me.
Especially boys with ducktail
haircuts, and old ladies.
- Old ladies?
What are you kidding?
- Yeah, sort of.
No,
not really.
My earliest memory,
except that I don't think
it was really a memory,
just that my mother told
the story so much that
I feel I remembered it.
I was just a baby, six
months, nine months,
and we moved into an all white
neighborhood in Philadelphia.
And my mother put me out
on the porch in a carriage.
She came out just in
time to see an old lady
sneaking across the porch
with a pot of boiling water,
and she was gonna dump it on me.
- Ugh!
Hmm!
- You're not crazy.
Well, I don't know.
Maybe it didn't
really happen, but-
- Oh!
- I grew up on stuff like that.
All those summers in Virginia.
I remember my uncle,
all the men on the farm,
sitting up on the porch all
night with their loaded guns,
all night,
because they were coming.
They said they were comin,
but they didn't come.
- I know.
No,
I don't know, ah!
There's no way I could
ever know, is there?
- No, thank God.
- My fears,
you know, it's odd.
My fears aren't
ever of the real.
No it's, it's what I don't know.
The unknown.
Death,
and lost time and,
really, the unknown.
- Hmm.
It's not that that frightens me.
It's not being in control.
The idea of not
being in control.
Will you promise me something?
- Hmm.
- If I get a stroke,
something like that, that
paralyzes me, so I can't...
Would you put a
pillow over my face?
- That's not fair, Barney.
Barney, that's not fair to
ask me a thing like that now,
to ask me to promise.
- All right, don't
promise now, but if,
just decide then, knowing, hmm?
- Okay, I'll decide
then. When you're 102.
- It runs in the
family, you know?
Strokes.
And I truly am scared.
I would've told you
about that and asked
you about that before,
but I didn't wanna fight you.
Would you be all right?
- No.
No, I wouldn't be all right.
- Oh, baby. Don't cry.
Didn't mean to make you cry.
- Yes, you did.
You did.
Everything was just fine!
We were laughing. We were fine.
You had to spoil it. You had to.
- I'm sorry.
- I know.
I know, so am I.
Oh, we're always sorry.
We keep right on doing it,
and we're sorry.
Why?
Ah, will we ever know why?
- Go on, Betty.
- Why?
Ah, will we ever know why?
- Go on, Betty.
It's all right.
You can go on now.
- I, I don't know what happened.
- You can remember
everything now.
What did these men look like?
Did you see their faces?
- No.
- How were they dressed?
Did they have on a uniform
or ordinary clothes?
- I couldn't say, I don't
know, I can't remember.
I'm not supposed to remember.
- All right.
Your memory is sharp now.
You needn't worry.
You can remember everything.
Now tell me what happened.
What are you thinking now?
- I'm thinking I'm asleep.
- Asleep in the car?
- I'm asleep and
I've got to wake up.
I, I don't want to be asleep.
I keep,
keep trying to wake up.
And then I do.
I open my eyes.
I'm walking through the
woods, I open my eyes quick,
and I shut them again.
- And
Barney is behind you?
- There's a couple
of men behind me,
and then there's Barney.
There's a, there's a
man on each side of him.
And my eyes are open, but
Barney's still asleep.
He's walking and he's asleep.
And then I begin to get mad.
And I said to myself,
"Who the heck are
these characters,
and what do they
think they're doing?"
And I turn around and I said,
"Barney, wake up, Barney,
why don't you wake up?"
And I'm getting really
annoyed at Barney.
And I say,
"Barney, wake up!"
"Is Barney his name?"
And I wouldn't answer.
And then the leader,
"There's no reason to be afraid.
We just want to do some tests.
And then when the
tests are over,
we'll take you and
Barney back to your car,
you'll be on your way
back home in no time."
And then come to a clearing.
And there was,
oh, I wish it were light,
so I could get a
better picture of it.
There's a ramp to the door.
The object was on the ground.
The moon sitting on the ground.
- The object was on the ground?
- I think that's the same
one I saw in the sky.
And I thought it was the moon.
We go inside,
and there's a, there's
a corridor to the left.
In the corridor, there's a room.
The man who spoke
English is in the room.
And then another man comes
in, I haven't seen him before.
I think he's the doctor.
And they both look through
this machine here, and here.
- What do you
think they were doing?
- I, I have an idea, they're,
that they're taking
a picture of my skin.
They're doing all
kinds of things.
And then they,
they took something like a
letter opener, only it wasn't,
and they scraped my arm here.
And then they put the little
skin scraping in a
piece of cellophane,
plastic, something like that.
And oh, then they feel my
hair on the back of my neck,
and take a couple of
strands and pull it out,
and the examiner tells
me to take my dress off,
before I even have a chance
to stand up to do it.
- Your dress
has a zipper down the back?
- Yes, it zips down the back.
The examiner unzips it,
and slips my dress off.
And they're talking.
I, I, I, I don't know
what they're saying.
I couldn't understand that part.
"I want to do some tests.
I want to test your
nervous system."
I don't know how our
nervous systems are,
but I hope we never
have nerve enough to,
to go kidnapping people off
the highways as you've done!
I'm laying on the table.
I don't know what they're doing,
but they seem so happy with
whatever it is they're doing.
And they touch me with a needle.
Doesn't hurt.
It's something like a TV screen.
And then they turn
me on my stomach,
and then back over on my back,
I see the doctor has
long needle in his hand.
- Go on.
Go on, it's all right.
- What are you going
to do with that?
And he tells me that
it won't hurt, he,
just wants to put
it in my navel,
it's just a simple test.
Stop, it's hurting, it's
hurting! Take it out!
And it's hurting inside me.
He puts...
He, he, he rubs his
hands over my eyes,
and says it would be all right.
I won't feel anything.
The, the pain's gone away,
but I'm still sore when
they put that needle in,
I don't know why they did that,
because I told them
they shouldn't do it.
- Did they make
any sexual advances to you?
- No.
I asked the leader, I said,
"Why did you put that
needle in my navel?"
And he said,
"It was a pregnancy test."
And I said,
"I don't know what
you expected, but,
there was no
pregnancy test here."
- When you had
all of these experiences
with your dreams,
why would you have
dreamed all these things?
The dreams were the
same as the experiences
that you felt you had?
- I figured
that in my dreams,
I remembered what
actually happened.
- Did
these men speak to you?
- Only the one
I thought was the leader.
- What kind
of language did he use?
- He did
not speak a word.
I was told what to
do by his thought,
his thoughts.
And I was always aware,
that somehow there was
something peculiar,
which is the absence of a mouth.
- There
seemed 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,
the implications
are self evident.
Go on. It's all right.
- And so then I said...
I asked him where he was from.
And he asked me if I knew
anything about the universe.
And I told him, no,
I knew almost nothing.
But don't judge
this country by me.
There are people who do
know all about the stars.
And there was this
one big circle,
and it had a lot of
lines coming out from it.
And then to another
circle, quite close,
but not as big.
- Do you think
you could draw the map?
- Yes, I think so.
He said these were places
they went to occasionally,
and the broken lines
were expeditions.
And I asked him again
where his home port was,
and he said,
"Where are you on the map?"
And I looked,
I laughed and I said,
"I don't know."
And he said,
"If you don't know
where you are,
there isn't any point of
my telling where I'm from."
- Well, did
they actually speak English?
- I've been telling myself
I heard them in English,
with an accent, but,
I don't know.
- Could it have
been thought transference?
- No.
I knew what they were saying,
and they knew what I
was saying, but if it...
I knew what they were thinking.
I knew what they were thinking.
And I said,
"You promised I
could have the book!"
And he said,
"I know it, but
the others object."
And I said, "But,
but this is my proof!"
And he said,
"That's the whole point.
They don't want you
to know what happened.
They want you to
forget all about it."
I won't forget about it.
You can take the book,
but you can never, never,
never make me forget.
I'll remember, if it's
the last thing I do.
- Why do you think they
were examining your skin?
You suppose it was because
your skin and Barney's skin
were of a different color?
- I don't know.
I think it's because their
skin and mine were different.
- And I started
to get out of my car,
and I felt myself
supported by two men,
and my eyes were closed.
- Now,
just a minute.
Didn't Betty tell you this?
- No, Betty
never told me this.
- But didn't
she have dreams of this,
and talk to you about them?
- Betty said
that we were inside a UFO
in her dreams.
Not how we got there.
- Yes but
didn't she tell you
that you were taken inside?
- Yes, she did.
- Well, then
she told you everything
that was seen inside,
and about being
stopped by these men.
- No.
She did not tell me about
being stopped by the men.
She did not have this in
her dreams, I saw this.
- General Davison, please.
Hi, Jim.
Ben.
Look I've, uh,
I've got a problem.
As I see it, there are
four possibilities,
one, they're lying.
I mean, I can discount that,
because they're honest people,
high integrity.
Two, it was a case of
dual hallucination.
It's improbable for
reasons I won't go into.
And three, the incident
was a dream or an illusion.
Now this, I intend
to explore further.
- What makes you
think it was a dream?
- Well, I didn't say I
thought it was a dream.
I said I'd explore it further.
- You know, I remember you
saying exactly the same thing
about a young lady
in freshman biology
that you thought you
were in love with,
that you wanted to explore that.
- All right. All right, no.
The reason I'm going
to explore it further
is because a background existed,
a sensitized background existed
on which a fantasy
could be imprinted,
to be experienced
later as a dream.
- Now, hold it,
Ben. You lost me.
- Yeah, well, forget about that.
I can't discuss the
personal aspects of this,
but what I really
want to know is,
is the sighting
of a UFO probable?
More important than that,
has there ever been an
actual case of an abduction
aboard a UFO, is that possible?
- Do you want the official
Air Force position, or, uh-
- Well, I want whatever
you can tell me.
- All right.
The official position
is we don't know.
- Well, you think you could
take that a step further?
- Yeah, but not too much.
Because each year,
after investigating about
1500 reports of UFO sightings,
we've come up with a 95%
explained natural phenomenon.
- You mean balloons and things?
- Balloons, weather inversions,
kooks, and 5% unexplained.
Now that unexplained
is never denied.
We just file it under the
heading of insufficient data.
But Ben, as a friend, I'll tell
you, I wonder about that 5%.
There are just too many reports,
good people, sound people.
And we can't,
we can't seem to find any
answers that make any sense.
So as for the sightings, yeah,
I really wonder about them.
But for an actual abduction,
now that I never heard of,
and offhand I'd say that it's-
Extremely unlikely.
- No, no. I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is I think
a sighting is possible,
but an abduction,
Ben, I'd have to have
an awful lot of proof,
an awful lot of facts.
- So you're saying
that without the facts,
you would consider
it highly improbable,
even impossible?
- Er, yeah Ben, that's
what I'm saying.
- Barney and Betty Hill.
I've hypnotized each
of them separately.
And each of them separately
remembers in general
the same experience.
I suspect that in
this stage of therapy,
the sighting of an object,
which could possibly be a UFO,
triggered an
externalized fantasy,
a fantasized trauma,
which the Hills have
projected their inner turmoil.
- I just had a
hysterical thought.
What if Dr. Simon
were a spaceman?
- Oh, Betty, don't
be ridiculous.
- Neither Barney
Hill, nor Betty Hill,
realize that their
experience as described
is almost identical
to the long report
that she wrote about her dreams.
- If he changes his
mind and decides
not to let us start
listening today-
- Course he's gonna let
us listen. He said so.
Oh, Barney, don't be ridiculous.
- If he changes his
mind and decides
not to let us start
listening today-
- Course he's gonna let
us listen. He said so.
- So he asked me,
"What are vegetables?"
I just couldn't explain
what vegetables are.
And he said was there one
kind I liked, and I said,
my favorite was squash.
And he said, "Tell
me about squash."
So I said, it was, it
was yellow usually.
And he said,
"What's yellow?"
And I started looking
around the room,
and I couldn't find
anything yellow at all.
- Now I, I want to
read something to you.
"He asked questions.
What did vegetables look like?
My favorite one, squash.
What did it look like?
I tried to explain
the color of it,
and looked for some yellow
coloring in the room,
but could not find any."
- It's from my dream,
what I wrote down.
- Yes, well now,
I want to explain
something to you
that you probably know already.
The rules that operate
for the conscious mind,
don't operate for
the unconscious mind.
Things are and are not,
all at the same time.
Now, under hypnosis,
what a subject believes,
determines what is truth to him.
- Wait a minute, would
you say that again?
- Well, in other words,
what comes out under hypnosis,
you believe to be true.
It is true for you,
but a fantasy or a dream
can be as true for
you as reality.
- I said I hoped that
somehow we would meet again.
Maybe he would come back, and
he said, well, he would try.
And then they all turned
and started to go back,
and I get up to the car
and Barney's inside.
And I say, "Come on out
and watch 'em leave.
Don't be afraid, Delsey, there's
nothing to be afraid of."
And so we're watching them
leave, and it starts glowing,
getting brighter and brighter.
It's a large ball,
a big orange ball,
and it's glowing and
rolling just like a ball.
And I'm so happy.
- "Suddenly the ship became
a bright, glowing object,
and it appeared to
roll over like a ball,
turning over about
three or four times,
and then sailing into the sky."
- There's one thing
I don't understand.
Suppose it was a dream,
could we have both
had the same dream?
- Well, that's an aspect
that's been puzzling me,
and uh, no, I don't
think you could.
At first I thought,
because Barney was more
ready for a trauma,
that he had transferred
a fantasy to you.
Then I thought,
because it seemed more likely
that you had transferred
your dreams to Barney,
as Barney is more susceptible.
- Well, I'm not quite
sure how to take that,
but
I'll tell you something.
I don't really care if
it's a dream or real,
because the longer
these tapes play,
and the more we listen to them,
the deeper and deeper
we get into it,
I feel as though something is
being lifted off my shoulders,
and it's better than
suffering with it, you know?
And all those anxieties
and wondering.
- That's the whole point,
the point is to
relieve the anxieties.
How do you feel now, Betty?
- I feel fine, I,
I guess it was just
the fear of the unknown
had me so scared.
- And I don't
want to be operated on.
- You don't
want to be operated on.
What makes you think
of an operation?
- Oh, I just
remembered something.
I don't know if I went
into this detail or not
when I was hypnotized.
- What detail?
- Well, as I was
listening to myself...
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe it's just psychological.
I didn't wanna hear any
more of that for a while.
- What detail?
- As I was listening to myself,
I remembered what they
examined my groin with.
It was a circular instrument
and they pressed down with it.
You know that small ring
of warts that developed
in an almost geometrically
perfect circle around my groin?
Since the therapy began,
it's become a little painful,
inflamed around the whole area.
And I was wondering.
Those warts originally
appeared way back in 1962,
when I had no conscious memory
of the events aboard
the craft, right?
Now, here it is 1964,
and they get inflamed.
How's that possible?
- I don't know.
It may still be part
of a shared fantasy.
But I,
I just don't know.
- I wanna wake up.
- You won't wake up.
You're in a deep sleep.
You can go on.
- And I look,
and I look and I say,
"I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid.
I'll shoot it down."
And, and I run out
across the road,
and,
there, there, there,
there it is!
Up there!
Then,
a man,
and,
and,
I,
I, I,
oh!
God,
give me strength.
I'll fight it off.
I'm not afraid.
And I run out across the road
and there it is, up there.
Oh, those eyes.
Oh,
can I please wake up?
- Go on.
This won't hurt
you, experience it.
It won't harm you now.
- I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get my gun!
- Shall I turn it off?
- No.
- I gotta get outta here!
I gotta get my gun.
- Here!
- I gotta get my gun!
- Stay here.
- I don't like them
putting their hands on me.
I don't like them touching me!
- It's
all right, Barney.
Now just be calm,
it's all right.
- Dr. Simon,
I don't want to offend you
in any way, you understand?
I have a great respect
and admiration for you,
and I can only thank God that
we came to you with all this.
But,
your theory about a dream
or fantasy,
it's real.
It did happen.
I know that now.
I know it.
- Dr. Simon?
I haven't said before
either how grateful I am.
I just wanna say too,
thank God we came to
you with all this.
- Well,
thank you, Betty,
and Barney.
Thank you both.
- I had the feeling listening,
that I gave you a few
bad moments there.
- Oh, I'll tell you,
this little old heart went
pitter-patter a couple of times.
You're a big man, Barney,
and going for your weapon.
- I had that gun in my
coat the whole time,
can you believe that?
Walking along,
with my eyes shut,
a scared little bunny rabbit,
with a gun in my coat, and you,
you didn't have a gun
and you're half my size,
and you're telling
those creatures off.
Mighty Mouse.
What in the world
was I so afraid of?
Betty ,
you even had a good time.
- Well, what do you think?
You must have given
it some thought.
- The bunny.
Capture.
Bondage.
- Of any kind?
- Yeah.
Of any kind.
The dark.
- The dark.
- Well, that's all
I did, you know?
The child is frightened
of his dark bedroom,
you lead him slowly, gently,
into that dark,
frightening room.
Let him touch all the corners,
all the objects that
seem like monsters,
until he knows that those
corners are just corners.
The monsters are just
chairs and lamps.
Dark bedroom,
a spaceship,
or the mind?
- Hey, listen.
The next time we go
in the dark together,
would you please
for Pete's sake,
tell me to keep my eyes open?
- I did.
You didn't listen.
- I will.
Next time I will.
- With active
treatment discontinued,
Barney and Betty Hill settled
down to their routine life.
Betty Hill's schedule
as a social worker
for the State of New Hampshire
was both demanding
and rewarding.
Barney Hill continued
in normal fashion
at the Post Office department,
and increased his community
and political activities.
He served on the
board of directors
at the United States
Civil Rights Commission,
the NAACP, and the
anti poverty program.
As their doctor,
I felt that their treatment
had been successful.
The primary purpose,
to penetrate the amnesia in
order to relieve their anxieties
had been accomplished.
The question concerning the real
or fantasized aspects
of the trauma,
remains a question.
- Barney, you are so silly.
I'm so proud of you.
So proud.
You remember when we were in
the middle of all that mess?
We were fighting all the
time about just everything.
Well, I told you...
No, well, first,
you said that...
Well, you know, you were talking
about if you had a stroke,
and you asked me if
I would be all right.
- I remember.
- And I told you I wouldn't be.
Well, Barney,
it's not true what I said.
I would be all right.
You know why?
'Cause you've given
me so much love,
so much laughter,
snatches of song,
last the rest of my life.
So I could be alone,
if I had to.
And I would be all right.
- And you.
You made up for every
bit of unhappiness
that I've experienced
in my whole life.
- In 1963,
under hypnotic suggestion,
Betty Hill drew from memory
the map shown to her
aboard the spacecraft.
Astronomers became fascinated,
for what if the map corresponded
to a pattern of real stars
from an alien viewpoint?
Astronomers reasoned that
the majority of star systems
likely to have
life-supporting planets,
were located in the obscure
southern constellation
of Reticulum.
Yet three stars in the cluster
were unknown until 1969.
No astronomer on Earth knew
their position in 1963.
But that same year,
Betty Hill drew a map
which contained these
undiscovered stars.
Astronomers at Ohio State
University requested a computer
to put them in their
correct position,
out beyond the incredible
double star system
of Zeta Reticuli I
and Zeta Reticuli II.
220 trillion miles, 37
light years away from Earth,
looking toward our sun,
and the computer duplicated
with virtually no variation,
the now famous
map of Betty Hill.
- The following
story is based on the records
of the United States Air Force,
the files of The
Hayden Planetarium,
and the actual
transcripts of the tapes
made by Betty and Barney Hill,
under hypnosis by
Dr. Benjamin Simon.
The purpose,
to penetrate an extraordinary
case of double amnesia,
precipitated by their claimed
sighting of a UFO in 1961.
- We know
it was Route 3.
I mean off Route 3, and
we've been on every single-
- Side road,
dirt road, dead end,
and there's no road, there's
no, no clearing, nothing.
- Of course there is, we
just haven't found it yet.
- Left or right?
- I dunno, let's try right.
- I saw the thing, I
knew I saw the thing,
but if my best friend
told me he'd seen it,
I'd say he was crazy.
- Barney.
There've been UFO sightings
all over New Hampshire.
Are you saying they're all
nuts, all those people?
- Maybe, yeah, maybe.
And it's crazy to
keep coming back here.
It's like a,
like a compulsion,
like some of those people
you deal with at work,
compulsive gamblers,
compulsive wife beaters.
- What does that make
us, compulsive travelers?
What's so bad about that?
- Because we only
traveled to Indian Head,
we only traveled Route 3,
looking for a road
that doesn't exist.
How many times we
been back here, Betty?
Seven, eight times, you know?
Always end up exhausted
and fighting each other.
I don't wanna fight
with you, Betty.
- Let's not come back.
Let's just decide not to
come back again, ever.
- But-
- But we will, you know.
- We will, you know.
- Oh, it's funny how we do that.
Say the same thing
at the same time.
- Just a little tolerance,
that's all I ask.
- Barney, let me out!
Stop, let me out!
No, don't stop!
Keep going, Barney!
No, don't stop. Keep going!
Don't slow down!
- Come on,
let's go get 'em. Come on!
- I saw the moon
sitting on the ground.
- That was a dream, Betty.
- The men in the road,
I saw the men in the road.
And then I saw the moon sitting
on the ground.
- Dreams are dreams,
and reality is reality.
We almost smashed up this
car because you had a dream!
- Don't do that, Barney.
Please.
Don't shut me out.
Talk to me, tell
me what you feel.
- I feel that your
dreams are dreams.
And that reality-
- Is that reality?
That every dumb kid in a leather
jacket is out to harm you?
- What are you talking about?
I wasn't scared, you were.
- Oh, don't do that, Barney.
You were too. I saw
your face before.
And just now.
- I was brought up to
be careful, remember?
It's like an old,
scratched, broken record
playing inside of me.
"Be careful kid, or
they all kill you."
- Marrying me wasn't being
very careful, was it?
- I loved you so much,
I forgot to be careful.
First time in my life,
threw out careful.
- Barney?
What are we gonna do?
- How do I know
this thing happened?
How do I know I wasn't
just seeing things?
I'm in this terrible position
where I know it happened,
but I can't get
myself to believe it.
And it's bugging me so much,
that my ulcers are
kicking up again.
Just when they were
getting better.
It's worse than that, I try to
minimize,
I was outta work for six
months on disability.
The doctor said I was
suffering from the
complete physical exhaustion,
anxiety,
and Betty,
Betty was having
those nightmares,
sudden fears outta nowhere,
things that are
really not like Betty.
She's so calm.
- And it's been almost two
years since the experience?
- Yes.
I keep trying to
remember what happened,
where we were.
There's a whole
area that's lost.
36 miles, ain't they?
Between the time we saw
the UFO or whatever, and,
and when we heard the beeps.
- Now, Concord's about
where you heard the beeps?
- Ah.
It was a beeping sound.
Beep, beep, beep.
Is there something
shifting in the car?
- I don't know.
- Oh, do you think that
thing is back again?
- How strange.
- Wait a minute.
I wonder if I could make
the car do that myself.
- All right, it was at
this moment, the beeping,
when your memory returned,
it's a time previous to this
that you can't remember?
- Yes, Dr.
Simon. That's right.
- I see.
- We go back there.
Weekends, holidays,
whenever we get a chance.
We were just there a
couple of days ago.
- Uh, to
Indian Head you mean?
- Yes, trying to find, uh...
Sort of woke up from a daze,
and saw the sign,
Concord, 17 miles.
- Suddenly, Concord.
It was so strange.
- Barney and Betty
Hill began general history
of their anxiety
problems and amnesia,
highlighted by their
claimed sighting
of a UFO at Indian
Head two years ago.
The Hills' clearest memory
is their return home
from the UFO
sighting experience.
Treatment is to be centered
on their anxiety reaction
with their apparent amnesia.
Unidentified flying
object, secondary matter.
Major job is to determine
treatment of patients,
and overcoming this unique
case of double amnesia.
Most probably by
means of hypnosis.
Barney Hill, 39, works
for the Post Office,
is distinguished
member of NAACP,
and active in community fairs,
Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Well-read,
educated.
IQ of 140.
Previously married,
two children.
Suffers deep guilt about
leaving marriage and children,
but sees them as
often as he can.
Also suffers from
childhood of racial strife.
Betty Hill, 42,
comes from an old New Hampshire
family dating back to 1629.
Previously married 13
years, two adopted children,
now grown.
Returned to university after
divorce, received degree.
Presently works
as welfare worker
for the State of New Hampshire.
Has a background of security,
in both upbringing and heritage.
- Barney?
Barney, did you take the
clothes in the house?
- What?
- The clothes, did
you bring them in?
- No, I was too tired.
I'll bring all that
stuff in tomorrow.
- I didn't want you to bring
the clothes in the house.
- About the clock.
You said you glanced
up at the clock,
'cause you were undressing.
Did you see the time?
- I saw that it was
five after five.
I didn't register, I don't
think Barney realized it either.
Neither one of us
realized till months later
that it was that late.
Wasn't that strange, Barney?
Whatever it was.
- Tops of
my shoes are scuffed.
- What?
- Tops of my shoes are scuffed.
- I don't understand.
How could that be?
- I don't know.
- All right, Mr. Hill, when
you woke up the next morning,
did you experience any
particular discomfort
on your groin?
- No.
It was there, I could, uh...
Just,
just had a feeling,
but there was no
pain or anything.
- Well, how much later was
it that the warts appeared?
- Oh,
two months, I guess, before
they actually appeared,
before I actually saw
them, 'cause that...
I had a feeling before
they actually appeared.
- So you went to the
doctor and he diagnosed it,
and by means of electrolysis,
he was able to get rid of them.
- Yes, sir.
- And you haven't been in
trouble with them since?
- No I haven't.
- I see.
Now, please continue.
- Betty.
I don't wanna talk to anybody
about last night, all right?
- All right.
I guess.
- If you wanna talk about it,
we can just talk
about it to ourselves.
- But we can't just not
talk about it, you know?
- Oh, I know that.
I wanna talk about it to you.
I don't like feeling
alone with this thing.
- You're not alone
with it, love.
How could you be?
You're not alone with it, love.
How could you be?
Well, we wondered about
it, and we talked about it,
and then I asked Barney
if he thought we could
draw what we saw,
and he didn't wanna do that.
- But Betty found a
way to talk me into it.
- Well,
I'm good at that.
And then when the
drawings were identical,
well, Barney thought
they were only similar,
I wanted to call my sister,
and Barney didn't want me
to do that, he got angry.
And then when she wanted
me to check for radiation,
Barney got really upset.
Where's the compass?
Where's the compass?
- I don't know what
you're talkin' about, Betty.
- The compass, the compass,
where's the compass?
- I don't know where it is!
How am I supposed to know
where the compass is?
- Thanks a lot, Barney,
you're a big help.
- It's in the drawer
where it always is!
Why don't you look
before you ask?
It's always there
in the same place!
Betty! Listen.
I think you're getting too
excited about all this,
and I think you'd
better calm down.
I think we just better
forget about all this.
- Barney,
would you please come outside,
and look at the back of the car,
and see what happens
to this compass?
Janet says a compass works
like a Geiger counter,
and if the car
has any radiation-
- Oh, Betty,
it's all so ridiculous.
A car is made outta metal,
and any metal would
attract the compass.
- The compass just went crazy,
near the trunk, the spare tire,
not near the battery, or
where you'd expect it to.
And there were these
strange shiny spots
on the back of the car.
I finally got Barney to
come out and look at them.
- I figured if I humored her
and looked, she'd calm down.
- Well, did the spots
stay on the car?
- No, no, they disappeared.
- They didn't disappear.
At least not right away.
What happened is that
when I had the car washed,
they stayed.
- All right.
Well, let's go on.
- Janet. It went crazy.
Yes, the compass,
and there were strange spots
on the back of the car.
I couldn't call
anybody.
They'd laugh at me.
No, I'd be embarrassed,
and Barney,
Barney and I decided not to
tell anyone, not anyone else.
- Were you
able to deal with that,
to live with that?
- Yes.
Well,
yes and no, you see so much
of our life was so happy.
We'd only been
married about a year,
and so many things were new,
especially for Barney.
- Why
especially for Barney?
- Well, the only change in my
life was that I was married.
To Barney, I lived in the house
where I'd lived for years.
I had the same job
and the same friends,
but for Barney, for Barney,
everything was different,
he lived in Philadelphia,
in what was really an
all black society, and,
and here in Portsmouth,
it's pretty much an
all white society.
It wasn't just a new
marriage for Barney,
it was a whole new
life and new friends.
Barney makes friends so easily.
Our best friends then were
Jack and Lisa MacRainey.
Jack's a Lieutenant Colonel
at the Pease Air Force Base,
and he and Barney
just hit it off.
I knew Barney
wanted to tell Jack
about what we saw.
Hmm, he kept putting it off.
- But I finally
came out with it.
The sighting, if
it was a sighting.
It was still gnawing away at me.
- The sighting itself?
- No.
Whether or not there
was a sighting,
and whether or not I was...
We were seeing things.
And Jack just
confirmed my suspicion.
He said in so many words that
anyone that said they saw UFO,
was nuts.
- And that only made
things worse, you know,
they were our best friends.
They were around all the time.
We could talk to them about
anything, anything at all,
except UFOs, that subject
was just plain taboo.
And those terrible
dreams were starting.
- Had you told Barney
about your dreams yet?
- I'd mentioned them.
He had so little time,
Barney was working
nights in Boston,
60 mile drive back and forth.
We were, except for weekends,
we were sort of
passing in the hallway.
It's the moon, you idiot.
What are you barking
at the moon for?
- Well, I imagine
they were long nights for you.
Hard on you.
- Very long.
I keep saying this
though, you know,
that we were having so much fun.
Barney had joined
the Toastmasters,
'cause he thought he
couldn't speak in public.
And he
found out he could.
Then he found out he
could make people laugh.
The house was filling
up with old jokes books,
and old routines on records.
- Come on in, attention!
All those of you whose
mothers are still alive!
- He'd spring them at
the worst possible moments!
- Front center!
Not so fast, Rodriguez.
- Barney, just
sit down, you'll be late.
- Bossy little thing, isn't she?
You never knew she was the
oldest of five children?
Just grew up bossing everybody.
- Do me a favor, Barney, love.
Wouldn't you really
like to sit down?
- Call off
your dog, buddy!
- And just like
that, it would change,
and everything
would get terrible.
Like that night,
Jack and Lisa were
having their problems.
Lisa knew we thought
we had seen something.
- Somehow we got
onto Barry Goldwater.
Goodness only knows how we
got onto Barry Goldwater.
I heard myself saying...
You know, you know the
trouble with you white people?
The trouble with
you white people-
- Don't call me
"you white people",
don't ever call me
"you white people!"
You can say "those
white people",
but don't include
me, Barney Hill.
I'm not white, I'm human.
- Well, I didn't
ever say that again.
- No, you didn't.
And then they were
getting ready to leave,
Barney too, because he had to
be at the Post Office by nine.
And when they all
were saying goodnight,
you could have cut the
tension with a hatchet.
My fellow citizens,
let no one doubt that
this is a difficult
and dangerous effort on
which we have set out.
The path we have chosen for
the present is full of hazards,
but it is the one
most consistent
with our character and
courage as a nation,
and our commitments
around the world.
- And then Barney came back,
he said he was
gonna call in sick.
He was so worried,
and he was just lying
there with this white cloth
over his face to
help his headache.
Better?
- Not much.
- Barney, I wanna
ask you something.
- Uh-huh.
- I can't, not with that
thing over your eyes.
- It was your idea.
- This probably isn't
the time anyway.
But I really wanted to ask you-
- Listen, Betty.
I was just listening
to the news.
- Barney, I said I wanted
to ask you something.
- This is important,
Betty, really important.
If they actually do
start shooting missiles-
- Who?
Nobody's gonna start
shooting missiles, Barney.
- If they do,
and we're not together,
if I'm at work and
can't get here,
now listen to me,
what I want you to do,
is make your way to
your mother's house,
and I'll manage to get there.
Is that clear?
- Yes.
Yes. Sure.
- Good.
- Barney, what I wanted
to ask you before,
was how come we can talk about
this UFO business together,
and wonder what it was together,
but with Janet, with Jack,
it was a plane, period.
- With you, I can
look like a fool,
but with my friends, I can't
afford to look like a fool.
- I got to hate that wash cloth
more and more,
he'd just lie there
with it over his face.
- And I just kept
calling in sick.
Well, I was sick,
the ulcers and the headaches,
and I was worrying.
I mean, I've always
been a worrier,
but this is really
getting outta proportion.
Worrying about things that I
didn't have any control over.
I really thought we
were gonna be attacked.
- By whom?
- I don't know.
Well, I thought Russia, but,
I don't know.
- And were the nightmares
continuing, Betty?
- Yes. On and on.
I started writing them down,
I'd get up in the
middle of the night,
and write till I was exhausted.
I had done that before when,
when things upset me, I
would write them down,
it would help.
- You, er, still have
a copy of those dreams?
- Yes, I stuck 'em
away somewhere.
You know, that's funny.
I,
I've forgotten I
wrote them down.
- 'Cause
I'd like a copy of them,
if you don't mind.
- Oh, sure. I'll look for them.
- And it was about
this time, Barney,
that you went to see the doctor,
and he suggested
that you take a rest,
take a sick leave.
- Yes, it was about this time.
So ,
I just started staying home,
trying to relax,
work in the garden,
read, stuff like that.
The kids came more
often, you know?
I could see them more often.
They really liked
Betty, I mean, you know?
They got along well with
her, they really loved her.
'Cause I used to
tease her, right?
I told her that it was
her cooking they loved.
Mainly I was just lying
around and reading,
reading UFO books.
- Hi.
- Hi.
What's the matter, you upset?
- No, I'm not upset. Why?
- You weren't smiling.
When you came in,
you weren't smiling.
- I didn't notice.
- I did.
- Well, obviously you did,
or you wouldn't be
uptight about it.
- No, I'm not uptight.
Sorry about that.
I'm uptight.
- What about?
- Well,
if I knew,
I wouldn't be lying around
this house all day, would I?
Wouldn't be reading
these stupid books.
My eyes are falling out, until-
- What?
- Till I think I'm
nuts as they are.
When I asked you to marry me,
you said you wanted a
psychiatric evaluation.
Don't laugh. You
may have been right.
- Oh, what do you mean?
- I mean that you,
your instincts may
have been right.
You may have sensed something.
- Oh no, my love, oh!
No, you didn't understand.
It wasn't you I
questioned, it was me!
And I couldn't tell you.
- Tell me what?
- I still can't.
- Listen.
Don't you know by now
you can tell me anything?
- I'm not pretty.
- Who says?
- Nobody, it's something I know,
something I've always known,
I'm not pretty.
- And that's nonsense.
And what's it got to do with a
psychiatric evaluation of me?
- Oh,
you don't understand.
I was afraid,
I was afraid you thought,
you thought you loved me,
you thought I was
pretty because,
because I was white.
- Hey.
That's like,
that's like me being
afraid you didn't love me,
you only love my
beautiful black body.
- Well, I do.
- Oh, well.
There's that too.
You're right.
You're not pretty.
You're beautiful.
And I see the
whole world, Betty.
I see every bit of beauty in
the whole world in your face.
- No.
- I see you, Betty.
- My love, I see you.
Oh, Barney.
This is the way it should be.
This is the way it was.
This is the way it should be.
This is the way it was.
Well, finally I convinced
him that we had to report it.
- She cried, that's
really what did it.
- Well, we never did it.
We did call.
- Yeah, I mean,
I wasn't too impressed with
how the Air Force handled it.
But when Wayne Webb
from The Hayden
Planetarium contacted us,
then I knew that
Betty was right, and we had
to tell everything we saw.
- No need for you
to be concerned.
No need for you to be worried.
You are deeper
and deeper asleep.
You are deep asleep.
You will remember everything,
and you will tell me everything.
It is now September 19th, 1961.
You will remember everything,
and it won't trouble you.
Your memory is sharp now.
I want you to go
back to the time
of your vacation in Montreal,
beginning with the time you
left your hotel in Montreal.
- Yes.
- I want you to tell
me in full detail,
all your experiences,
all your thoughts,
all your feelings,
beginning from the time
you left your hotel.
- Okay.
- Now, were you in Montreal?
- It was approximately
112 miles from Montreal.
We were driving from Niagara
Falls through Canada.
- Well, just go on.
Tell me about your
arrival there.
- The thoughts that were
going through my mind was that
would they accept me at
the motel, because...
Would they say they
were filled up?
And I was wondering if
they were doing this
because I was prejudiced.
- Because you're prejudiced?
- Because they were prejudiced.
- You run into this
a lot I take it?
- I have not actually
run into being denied
accommodation yet.
- You mean you worry about it?
- But I know that
this does happen,
and I am concerned.
- Did you tell your
wife about your concern?
Does she share it?
- I express it, but,
she does not share my
concern in this matter.
- Very well.
Go on.
- We are riding around,
and I'm lost.
And I'm concerned
about the tollgate.
Customs.
- Why?
- I have a gun in
the trunk of the car,
a .32
pistol.
And it is hidden in the well
of the trunk of the car,
with the trunk mat over it.
And I'm thinking,
"Why did I do this?
Why did I bring this gun along?"
And I know it is all my fears,
that I believe the
hostility of white people,
particularly when there
is an interracial couple.
- Yes. Well, go on.
Your memory is sharp.
Where are you now?
- Now,
we're in the country part of
New Hampshire, on Route 3,
and I'm thinking, "I've got
to get a hold of myself,"
and not expect
hostility when there...
It was no hostility there.
And I look up through
the windshield,
I
look up
through the windshield of the
car where Betty saw a star.
Oh.
That's funny.
But I said,
Betty, that is not a
star, it's a satellite.
Come on, Delsey. Let's get out.
Hurry up, Betty, so I can see.
It's not a satellite,
it's a plane.
- Barney, what kind
of a plane is that?
- What
kind of plane was it?
- It is right over my right.
And it does not go where
I thought it would go.
- Barney, I'm asking
you a question.
What kind of a plane is that?
- Oh.
That's funny.
It was,
it was funny.
They're coming around toward us.
They're changing course.
It's just a Piper Cub.
- Barney,
it's not a Piper Cub.
- You saw, uh,
a small plane?
- Barney.
That's not a plane,
it's still following us.
Barney! Where are you going?
- I just wanna see it.
- Still there.
It's coming closer.
- It is not, it is
not coming closer.
It's just way up there.
Betty, what are you
trying to make me believe?
- All right.
We'll stop here for now.
Just relax.
Be comfortable.
Until you hear me speak again,
you won't hear any sound here.
Just rest and be comfortable.
All right. You may proceed now.
- And,
I am wondering,
why doesn't it go away?
- Do you still think
it was a small plane?
- And I'm wondering why
these pilots...
Why, they shouldn't do that.
They shouldn't do that.
And,
I can't hear any noise.
And I think this is ridiculous.
I can't hear any sound,
and I want to get back in
the car and get out of there.
I gotta get out of there.
And it is still coming
around towards us.
And I look up and down the road,
and I think how dark it is.
And I think,
"What if a bear
were to come out?"
And Betty is looking,
I think she said...
And I'm mad with her.
I think Betty is trying
to make me believe
this is a flying saucer,
and I am wondering,
"Why doesn't it go away?"
I wanna wake up.
- You won't wake up.
You're in a deep sleep.
You can go on.
- It's right over my right.
What is it?
I gotta get outta here.
- This won't
trouble you, go on.
You're remembering
everything now.
- And I try
to maintain control,
so Betty cannot tell
that I am scared.
Oh, I'm so scared.
- Go on.
This won't hurt
you, experience it.
It won't harm you now.
- I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get outta here!
I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get my gun!
- Stay here!
Nothing can harm you here.
- I gotta get my gun!
- Stay here!
Nothing can harm you here.
- I gotta get my gun!
- Here!
You're in a deep sleep.
You can remember nothing.
Now.
Now calm yourself.
Calm yourself.
Here, come on.
Now come on back,
and sit down.
All right.
You can wake up now.
All right.
You can wake up now.
You can remember everything.
Just go on remembering.
There's no need for
you to cry out, you're,
you're calm now.
You still feel you
have to get your gun?
- Yes.
- It meant
to harm you, you felt?
- Yes.
And I open the trunk
and I take it out,
and I put it in my coat,
and I look, and I look and
I say, "I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid.
I'll shoot it down."
And, and I run out
across the road, and...
There, there, there!
There it is, up there!
Then,
a man?
A man?
Is he a captain?
What is he?
And,
he's looking at me,
and I say, "No," I
have to shake my head.
This isn't true.
This can't be true.
And,
still there,
and I look up and down
the road, and I think,
"Can't somebody come along,
and tell me that
this isn't there?"
It's there.
- Are
you sure it's there?
- Yeah.
- You're
not having a dream?
- And I touch my right arm.
It's not my right.
It's my left arm.
And it's there.
If I let my binoculars
fall and dangle,
maybe it won't be there.
But it's there.
Why?
What do they want?
What do they want?
And this one person,
looks friendly to me.
He's friendly-looking,
and he's looking over
his right shoulder at me,
and he's smilin',
and he's friendly.
But the other one
with the evil face,
he looks like a Nazi.
He's a Nazi.
- Did he
have on a uniform?
- Yeah. Yes.
- Did they have
faces like, like other people?
- His eyes are slanted.
Oh!
His eyes are slanted.
Oh,
I feel like a rabbit.
- What do you mean by that?
- When I was hunting
for rabbits in Virginia,
this cute little bunny
went into a bush that
wasn't very thick.
And my cousin Marge was on
one side of the bush and
I was on the other with a hat.
And this poor little
bunny thought he was safe,
and it tickled me,
because he was just hiding
behind this little stalk
that meant security for him.
And I pounced on him,
and threw my hat on him,
and captured the poor little
bunny that thought he was safe.
Isn't that funny?
I thought of that, standing
out there in the field.
I'm that bunny.
I'm gonna be pounced on.
I'm that bunny.
This creature is trying
to tell me something,
I can see it in his face.
- Are its lips moving?
- No,
his lips aren't moving,
but he's, he's looking at
me, and he's saying to me,
"Don't be afraid."
- Did you hear
him tell you this?
- No.
- You felt he said it?
- Uh,
I know.
And he said,
"Just stay there," he said,
and he's telling me not
to pull the binoculars
away from my eyes,
and,
and,
I,
I , I!
Oh!
God,
give me strength,
I'll fight it off.
I'm not afraid.
And I run out across the road
and there it is up there.
Oh!
Those eyes.
Oh.
Can I please wake up?
- Just a little longer.
You'll get through
this all right.
- I don't understand.
Their eyes don't have no body.
They're just eyes.
Oh.
Oh, that's what it's got to be.
It's a,
a wild cat up a tree.
Oh, that's what it's
got to be.
Oh,
I know.
It's the Cheshire Cat in
"Alice In Wonderland".
It disappeared too, and
only the eyes remain.
Oh.
- You don't seem to
be frightened anymore.
- No,
they're not gonna
do anything bad.
Just floating about,
I'm that bunny,
I've been captured,
but just floating
about.
It's so ridiculous, isn't it?
Oh.
Really funny.
Who are they and where
do they come from?
They're not gonna
do me any harm.
I wish I could go with them.
Oh,
what an experience,
to go to some distant planet.
Maybe this will prove
the existence of God.
Isn't that funny?
To look for the existence of God
on some other planet.
- He, he, I,
I don't know if he was
laughing or crying,
but he said to me,
"They were gonna capture us."
- They're gonna capture us!
Gotta get outta here.
Look out, look out,
you can see them!
They're right overhead.
They're right
directly over our car.
- If they're out there,
I don't see anything.
It's all black.
I don't see them.
- What's that?
What's that noise?
- I don't know.
- Now, just a moment.
This was the first
series of beeps,
when your amnesia begins?
- I don't want to.
- There is the
second series of beeps,
when your memory returned.
- I don't know.
- Well, you will
remember clearly.
- Uh,
it was, I,
that my mind's, uh,
blank, I,
but,
oh, I,
I could not,
I...
Almost remember.
- You can.
Remember.
- Oh, I get this point.
I can't get beyond
all this beeping!
- You can, you
can get beyond it.
It's all right, you've
never remembered it before.
This is the two hours you
could never remember until now,
because you're there now.
It's all right.
Go on.
Remember.
No need to be upset.
- I'm not supposed to.
- Not supposed to?
Who told you you're
not supposed to?
- They did.
- It's all right.
You're calm,
calm.
- We're driving along.
I don't know where we are, I...
I don't even know
how we got here.
Barney and I we're,
we were driving.
I don't know how long,
I, I don't know how long.
We haven't even been talking,
I'm just sitting there,
feeling that
something's going to happen.
No, I'm not really
too afraid, but,
but then, now I am.
That time I didn't feel afraid.
- Why are you crying
if you're not afraid?
- I'm afraid now, but
then I wasn't, I don't...
I wasn't, I wasn't afraid.
I was afraid.
I was afraid when I saw
the men in the road!
- The men in the road?
- I've never been so afraid,
in my life before!
- Tell me
about the men in the road.
It's all right.
You're safe here.
Tell me about the
men in the road.
Betty. Betty.
Don't fall asleep.
I want you to stay awake,
so you can remember.
Tell me about the
men in the road.
- But...
I wasn't too afraid of them,
and then when I saw them,
they were standing there,
and I thought, "Oh, well, you
know, they're not so awful."
I,
there was a,
I, I don't know there was,
I wasn't too afraid when
I saw them, they were...
And they were just...
No, I, I couldn't get
a good look at them.
Maybe their car's broken down.
What are they doing here?
And then they started
coming towards us.
And then I,
when they did that,
I got really scared,
and Barney tried to
stop the car.
And then,
where this, uh-
- What was that? I,
I, I didn't hear that.
- I thought,
if I could just get my
hand on the door of the car
and open it,
I can run into the
woods and hide.
And Barney is yelling.
"They're gonna capture us,
they're gonna capture us."
Then,
they're coming
closer, oh my, oh, oh.
They're coming closer.
I,
I just put my, my hand out,
I put my, my hand on
the door in the car,
and I'm gonna open it and,
they open it for me.
They open it, the
car door, this man,
this man, this man,
there are these...
there's two men behind the door,
there's one,
two!
Three!
Three men!
And there's one, two,
more men,
my eyes are...
- All right. All right.
All right.
We'll stop there for now.
You'll be relieved and relaxed.
When you wake up,
you won't remember anything
that's transpired here.
You won't remember anything,
until I ask you to recall it.
It's all right.
You'll be comfortable,
and relaxed,
and at ease.
- Oh, the beautiful people.
Don't do that.
The Kennedys don't giggle.
- What of that?
- You got no class, girl.
Don't gimme that talk about
your Mayflower ancestors.
Mm, mm, mm!
Now, how could I go and
marry a girl with no class?
No, Betty. Betty, no, not that.
No, Betty. Not, not, not that.
No. Anything but that, no!
- Serves you right.
"No class."
You're really feeling
good, aren't you?
- Yes, I am.
Hm.
Just minutes.
I really feel good.
I come out of those sessions,
it's like a weight's lifted,
and I don't know
what the weight is,
but something's working,
because there are these minutes,
before it all comes
creeping back again.
- Hmm. With me it's a day or so.
And then I can't wait
for the end of the week
to get back in there.
- Like today,
at lunch,
I felt so cool I had an
onion with my hamburger.
- Barney, you know we said
we wouldn't eat onions
unless we both had them.
- Oh, I'm sorry, I
forgot, I'll get you one.
- What?
- I'm gonna get you an onion.
- I don't want an
onion, you lunatic!
- It's really strange, isn't it?
- It really is.
- So amazed.
So curious.
Just dying to find out
what's going on in there.
- So am I.
- It's amazing.
I didn't think I
could be hypnotized,
he's so unlike me.
Just have to be in
control all the time.
But hey,
I walk in there and bang,
I guess I trust him.
Hmm, me, Barney Hill
trusting somebody.
- Except me.
- And him.
Yeah, it's funny, I
trusted him right away.
- So did I.
- Oh yeah, but you're
used to trusting people.
You know me,
I'm not paranoid,
it's just that the whole
world is out to get me.
Especially boys with ducktail
haircuts, and old ladies.
- Old ladies?
What are you kidding?
- Yeah, sort of.
No,
not really.
My earliest memory,
except that I don't think
it was really a memory,
just that my mother told
the story so much that
I feel I remembered it.
I was just a baby, six
months, nine months,
and we moved into an all white
neighborhood in Philadelphia.
And my mother put me out
on the porch in a carriage.
She came out just in
time to see an old lady
sneaking across the porch
with a pot of boiling water,
and she was gonna dump it on me.
- Ugh!
Hmm!
- You're not crazy.
Well, I don't know.
Maybe it didn't
really happen, but-
- Oh!
- I grew up on stuff like that.
All those summers in Virginia.
I remember my uncle,
all the men on the farm,
sitting up on the porch all
night with their loaded guns,
all night,
because they were coming.
They said they were comin,
but they didn't come.
- I know.
No,
I don't know, ah!
There's no way I could
ever know, is there?
- No, thank God.
- My fears,
you know, it's odd.
My fears aren't
ever of the real.
No it's, it's what I don't know.
The unknown.
Death,
and lost time and,
really, the unknown.
- Hmm.
It's not that that frightens me.
It's not being in control.
The idea of not
being in control.
Will you promise me something?
- Hmm.
- If I get a stroke,
something like that, that
paralyzes me, so I can't...
Would you put a
pillow over my face?
- That's not fair, Barney.
Barney, that's not fair to
ask me a thing like that now,
to ask me to promise.
- All right, don't
promise now, but if,
just decide then, knowing, hmm?
- Okay, I'll decide
then. When you're 102.
- It runs in the
family, you know?
Strokes.
And I truly am scared.
I would've told you
about that and asked
you about that before,
but I didn't wanna fight you.
Would you be all right?
- No.
No, I wouldn't be all right.
- Oh, baby. Don't cry.
Didn't mean to make you cry.
- Yes, you did.
You did.
Everything was just fine!
We were laughing. We were fine.
You had to spoil it. You had to.
- I'm sorry.
- I know.
I know, so am I.
Oh, we're always sorry.
We keep right on doing it,
and we're sorry.
Why?
Ah, will we ever know why?
- Go on, Betty.
- Why?
Ah, will we ever know why?
- Go on, Betty.
It's all right.
You can go on now.
- I, I don't know what happened.
- You can remember
everything now.
What did these men look like?
Did you see their faces?
- No.
- How were they dressed?
Did they have on a uniform
or ordinary clothes?
- I couldn't say, I don't
know, I can't remember.
I'm not supposed to remember.
- All right.
Your memory is sharp now.
You needn't worry.
You can remember everything.
Now tell me what happened.
What are you thinking now?
- I'm thinking I'm asleep.
- Asleep in the car?
- I'm asleep and
I've got to wake up.
I, I don't want to be asleep.
I keep,
keep trying to wake up.
And then I do.
I open my eyes.
I'm walking through the
woods, I open my eyes quick,
and I shut them again.
- And
Barney is behind you?
- There's a couple
of men behind me,
and then there's Barney.
There's a, there's a
man on each side of him.
And my eyes are open, but
Barney's still asleep.
He's walking and he's asleep.
And then I begin to get mad.
And I said to myself,
"Who the heck are
these characters,
and what do they
think they're doing?"
And I turn around and I said,
"Barney, wake up, Barney,
why don't you wake up?"
And I'm getting really
annoyed at Barney.
And I say,
"Barney, wake up!"
"Is Barney his name?"
And I wouldn't answer.
And then the leader,
"There's no reason to be afraid.
We just want to do some tests.
And then when the
tests are over,
we'll take you and
Barney back to your car,
you'll be on your way
back home in no time."
And then come to a clearing.
And there was,
oh, I wish it were light,
so I could get a
better picture of it.
There's a ramp to the door.
The object was on the ground.
The moon sitting on the ground.
- The object was on the ground?
- I think that's the same
one I saw in the sky.
And I thought it was the moon.
We go inside,
and there's a, there's
a corridor to the left.
In the corridor, there's a room.
The man who spoke
English is in the room.
And then another man comes
in, I haven't seen him before.
I think he's the doctor.
And they both look through
this machine here, and here.
- What do you
think they were doing?
- I, I have an idea, they're,
that they're taking
a picture of my skin.
They're doing all
kinds of things.
And then they,
they took something like a
letter opener, only it wasn't,
and they scraped my arm here.
And then they put the little
skin scraping in a
piece of cellophane,
plastic, something like that.
And oh, then they feel my
hair on the back of my neck,
and take a couple of
strands and pull it out,
and the examiner tells
me to take my dress off,
before I even have a chance
to stand up to do it.
- Your dress
has a zipper down the back?
- Yes, it zips down the back.
The examiner unzips it,
and slips my dress off.
And they're talking.
I, I, I, I don't know
what they're saying.
I couldn't understand that part.
"I want to do some tests.
I want to test your
nervous system."
I don't know how our
nervous systems are,
but I hope we never
have nerve enough to,
to go kidnapping people off
the highways as you've done!
I'm laying on the table.
I don't know what they're doing,
but they seem so happy with
whatever it is they're doing.
And they touch me with a needle.
Doesn't hurt.
It's something like a TV screen.
And then they turn
me on my stomach,
and then back over on my back,
I see the doctor has
long needle in his hand.
- Go on.
Go on, it's all right.
- What are you going
to do with that?
And he tells me that
it won't hurt, he,
just wants to put
it in my navel,
it's just a simple test.
Stop, it's hurting, it's
hurting! Take it out!
And it's hurting inside me.
He puts...
He, he, he rubs his
hands over my eyes,
and says it would be all right.
I won't feel anything.
The, the pain's gone away,
but I'm still sore when
they put that needle in,
I don't know why they did that,
because I told them
they shouldn't do it.
- Did they make
any sexual advances to you?
- No.
I asked the leader, I said,
"Why did you put that
needle in my navel?"
And he said,
"It was a pregnancy test."
And I said,
"I don't know what
you expected, but,
there was no
pregnancy test here."
- When you had
all of these experiences
with your dreams,
why would you have
dreamed all these things?
The dreams were the
same as the experiences
that you felt you had?
- I figured
that in my dreams,
I remembered what
actually happened.
- Did
these men speak to you?
- Only the one
I thought was the leader.
- What kind
of language did he use?
- He did
not speak a word.
I was told what to
do by his thought,
his thoughts.
And I was always aware,
that somehow there was
something peculiar,
which is the absence of a mouth.
- There
seemed 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,
the implications
are self evident.
Go on. It's all right.
- And so then I said...
I asked him where he was from.
And he asked me if I knew
anything about the universe.
And I told him, no,
I knew almost nothing.
But don't judge
this country by me.
There are people who do
know all about the stars.
And there was this
one big circle,
and it had a lot of
lines coming out from it.
And then to another
circle, quite close,
but not as big.
- Do you think
you could draw the map?
- Yes, I think so.
He said these were places
they went to occasionally,
and the broken lines
were expeditions.
And I asked him again
where his home port was,
and he said,
"Where are you on the map?"
And I looked,
I laughed and I said,
"I don't know."
And he said,
"If you don't know
where you are,
there isn't any point of
my telling where I'm from."
- Well, did
they actually speak English?
- I've been telling myself
I heard them in English,
with an accent, but,
I don't know.
- Could it have
been thought transference?
- No.
I knew what they were saying,
and they knew what I
was saying, but if it...
I knew what they were thinking.
I knew what they were thinking.
And I said,
"You promised I
could have the book!"
And he said,
"I know it, but
the others object."
And I said, "But,
but this is my proof!"
And he said,
"That's the whole point.
They don't want you
to know what happened.
They want you to
forget all about it."
I won't forget about it.
You can take the book,
but you can never, never,
never make me forget.
I'll remember, if it's
the last thing I do.
- Why do you think they
were examining your skin?
You suppose it was because
your skin and Barney's skin
were of a different color?
- I don't know.
I think it's because their
skin and mine were different.
- And I started
to get out of my car,
and I felt myself
supported by two men,
and my eyes were closed.
- Now,
just a minute.
Didn't Betty tell you this?
- No, Betty
never told me this.
- But didn't
she have dreams of this,
and talk to you about them?
- Betty said
that we were inside a UFO
in her dreams.
Not how we got there.
- Yes but
didn't she tell you
that you were taken inside?
- Yes, she did.
- Well, then
she told you everything
that was seen inside,
and about being
stopped by these men.
- No.
She did not tell me about
being stopped by the men.
She did not have this in
her dreams, I saw this.
- General Davison, please.
Hi, Jim.
Ben.
Look I've, uh,
I've got a problem.
As I see it, there are
four possibilities,
one, they're lying.
I mean, I can discount that,
because they're honest people,
high integrity.
Two, it was a case of
dual hallucination.
It's improbable for
reasons I won't go into.
And three, the incident
was a dream or an illusion.
Now this, I intend
to explore further.
- What makes you
think it was a dream?
- Well, I didn't say I
thought it was a dream.
I said I'd explore it further.
- You know, I remember you
saying exactly the same thing
about a young lady
in freshman biology
that you thought you
were in love with,
that you wanted to explore that.
- All right. All right, no.
The reason I'm going
to explore it further
is because a background existed,
a sensitized background existed
on which a fantasy
could be imprinted,
to be experienced
later as a dream.
- Now, hold it,
Ben. You lost me.
- Yeah, well, forget about that.
I can't discuss the
personal aspects of this,
but what I really
want to know is,
is the sighting
of a UFO probable?
More important than that,
has there ever been an
actual case of an abduction
aboard a UFO, is that possible?
- Do you want the official
Air Force position, or, uh-
- Well, I want whatever
you can tell me.
- All right.
The official position
is we don't know.
- Well, you think you could
take that a step further?
- Yeah, but not too much.
Because each year,
after investigating about
1500 reports of UFO sightings,
we've come up with a 95%
explained natural phenomenon.
- You mean balloons and things?
- Balloons, weather inversions,
kooks, and 5% unexplained.
Now that unexplained
is never denied.
We just file it under the
heading of insufficient data.
But Ben, as a friend, I'll tell
you, I wonder about that 5%.
There are just too many reports,
good people, sound people.
And we can't,
we can't seem to find any
answers that make any sense.
So as for the sightings, yeah,
I really wonder about them.
But for an actual abduction,
now that I never heard of,
and offhand I'd say that it's-
Extremely unlikely.
- No, no. I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is I think
a sighting is possible,
but an abduction,
Ben, I'd have to have
an awful lot of proof,
an awful lot of facts.
- So you're saying
that without the facts,
you would consider
it highly improbable,
even impossible?
- Er, yeah Ben, that's
what I'm saying.
- Barney and Betty Hill.
I've hypnotized each
of them separately.
And each of them separately
remembers in general
the same experience.
I suspect that in
this stage of therapy,
the sighting of an object,
which could possibly be a UFO,
triggered an
externalized fantasy,
a fantasized trauma,
which the Hills have
projected their inner turmoil.
- I just had a
hysterical thought.
What if Dr. Simon
were a spaceman?
- Oh, Betty, don't
be ridiculous.
- Neither Barney
Hill, nor Betty Hill,
realize that their
experience as described
is almost identical
to the long report
that she wrote about her dreams.
- If he changes his
mind and decides
not to let us start
listening today-
- Course he's gonna let
us listen. He said so.
Oh, Barney, don't be ridiculous.
- If he changes his
mind and decides
not to let us start
listening today-
- Course he's gonna let
us listen. He said so.
- So he asked me,
"What are vegetables?"
I just couldn't explain
what vegetables are.
And he said was there one
kind I liked, and I said,
my favorite was squash.
And he said, "Tell
me about squash."
So I said, it was, it
was yellow usually.
And he said,
"What's yellow?"
And I started looking
around the room,
and I couldn't find
anything yellow at all.
- Now I, I want to
read something to you.
"He asked questions.
What did vegetables look like?
My favorite one, squash.
What did it look like?
I tried to explain
the color of it,
and looked for some yellow
coloring in the room,
but could not find any."
- It's from my dream,
what I wrote down.
- Yes, well now,
I want to explain
something to you
that you probably know already.
The rules that operate
for the conscious mind,
don't operate for
the unconscious mind.
Things are and are not,
all at the same time.
Now, under hypnosis,
what a subject believes,
determines what is truth to him.
- Wait a minute, would
you say that again?
- Well, in other words,
what comes out under hypnosis,
you believe to be true.
It is true for you,
but a fantasy or a dream
can be as true for
you as reality.
- I said I hoped that
somehow we would meet again.
Maybe he would come back, and
he said, well, he would try.
And then they all turned
and started to go back,
and I get up to the car
and Barney's inside.
And I say, "Come on out
and watch 'em leave.
Don't be afraid, Delsey, there's
nothing to be afraid of."
And so we're watching them
leave, and it starts glowing,
getting brighter and brighter.
It's a large ball,
a big orange ball,
and it's glowing and
rolling just like a ball.
And I'm so happy.
- "Suddenly the ship became
a bright, glowing object,
and it appeared to
roll over like a ball,
turning over about
three or four times,
and then sailing into the sky."
- There's one thing
I don't understand.
Suppose it was a dream,
could we have both
had the same dream?
- Well, that's an aspect
that's been puzzling me,
and uh, no, I don't
think you could.
At first I thought,
because Barney was more
ready for a trauma,
that he had transferred
a fantasy to you.
Then I thought,
because it seemed more likely
that you had transferred
your dreams to Barney,
as Barney is more susceptible.
- Well, I'm not quite
sure how to take that,
but
I'll tell you something.
I don't really care if
it's a dream or real,
because the longer
these tapes play,
and the more we listen to them,
the deeper and deeper
we get into it,
I feel as though something is
being lifted off my shoulders,
and it's better than
suffering with it, you know?
And all those anxieties
and wondering.
- That's the whole point,
the point is to
relieve the anxieties.
How do you feel now, Betty?
- I feel fine, I,
I guess it was just
the fear of the unknown
had me so scared.
- And I don't
want to be operated on.
- You don't
want to be operated on.
What makes you think
of an operation?
- Oh, I just
remembered something.
I don't know if I went
into this detail or not
when I was hypnotized.
- What detail?
- Well, as I was
listening to myself...
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe it's just psychological.
I didn't wanna hear any
more of that for a while.
- What detail?
- As I was listening to myself,
I remembered what they
examined my groin with.
It was a circular instrument
and they pressed down with it.
You know that small ring
of warts that developed
in an almost geometrically
perfect circle around my groin?
Since the therapy began,
it's become a little painful,
inflamed around the whole area.
And I was wondering.
Those warts originally
appeared way back in 1962,
when I had no conscious memory
of the events aboard
the craft, right?
Now, here it is 1964,
and they get inflamed.
How's that possible?
- I don't know.
It may still be part
of a shared fantasy.
But I,
I just don't know.
- I wanna wake up.
- You won't wake up.
You're in a deep sleep.
You can go on.
- And I look,
and I look and I say,
"I'm not afraid.
I'm not afraid.
I'll shoot it down."
And, and I run out
across the road,
and,
there, there, there,
there it is!
Up there!
Then,
a man,
and,
and,
I,
I, I,
oh!
God,
give me strength.
I'll fight it off.
I'm not afraid.
And I run out across the road
and there it is, up there.
Oh, those eyes.
Oh,
can I please wake up?
- Go on.
This won't hurt
you, experience it.
It won't harm you now.
- I gotta get my gun!
I gotta get my gun!
- Shall I turn it off?
- No.
- I gotta get outta here!
I gotta get my gun.
- Here!
- I gotta get my gun!
- Stay here.
- I don't like them
putting their hands on me.
I don't like them touching me!
- It's
all right, Barney.
Now just be calm,
it's all right.
- Dr. Simon,
I don't want to offend you
in any way, you understand?
I have a great respect
and admiration for you,
and I can only thank God that
we came to you with all this.
But,
your theory about a dream
or fantasy,
it's real.
It did happen.
I know that now.
I know it.
- Dr. Simon?
I haven't said before
either how grateful I am.
I just wanna say too,
thank God we came to
you with all this.
- Well,
thank you, Betty,
and Barney.
Thank you both.
- I had the feeling listening,
that I gave you a few
bad moments there.
- Oh, I'll tell you,
this little old heart went
pitter-patter a couple of times.
You're a big man, Barney,
and going for your weapon.
- I had that gun in my
coat the whole time,
can you believe that?
Walking along,
with my eyes shut,
a scared little bunny rabbit,
with a gun in my coat, and you,
you didn't have a gun
and you're half my size,
and you're telling
those creatures off.
Mighty Mouse.
What in the world
was I so afraid of?
Betty ,
you even had a good time.
- Well, what do you think?
You must have given
it some thought.
- The bunny.
Capture.
Bondage.
- Of any kind?
- Yeah.
Of any kind.
The dark.
- The dark.
- Well, that's all
I did, you know?
The child is frightened
of his dark bedroom,
you lead him slowly, gently,
into that dark,
frightening room.
Let him touch all the corners,
all the objects that
seem like monsters,
until he knows that those
corners are just corners.
The monsters are just
chairs and lamps.
Dark bedroom,
a spaceship,
or the mind?
- Hey, listen.
The next time we go
in the dark together,
would you please
for Pete's sake,
tell me to keep my eyes open?
- I did.
You didn't listen.
- I will.
Next time I will.
- With active
treatment discontinued,
Barney and Betty Hill settled
down to their routine life.
Betty Hill's schedule
as a social worker
for the State of New Hampshire
was both demanding
and rewarding.
Barney Hill continued
in normal fashion
at the Post Office department,
and increased his community
and political activities.
He served on the
board of directors
at the United States
Civil Rights Commission,
the NAACP, and the
anti poverty program.
As their doctor,
I felt that their treatment
had been successful.
The primary purpose,
to penetrate the amnesia in
order to relieve their anxieties
had been accomplished.
The question concerning the real
or fantasized aspects
of the trauma,
remains a question.
- Barney, you are so silly.
I'm so proud of you.
So proud.
You remember when we were in
the middle of all that mess?
We were fighting all the
time about just everything.
Well, I told you...
No, well, first,
you said that...
Well, you know, you were talking
about if you had a stroke,
and you asked me if
I would be all right.
- I remember.
- And I told you I wouldn't be.
Well, Barney,
it's not true what I said.
I would be all right.
You know why?
'Cause you've given
me so much love,
so much laughter,
snatches of song,
last the rest of my life.
So I could be alone,
if I had to.
And I would be all right.
- And you.
You made up for every
bit of unhappiness
that I've experienced
in my whole life.
- In 1963,
under hypnotic suggestion,
Betty Hill drew from memory
the map shown to her
aboard the spacecraft.
Astronomers became fascinated,
for what if the map corresponded
to a pattern of real stars
from an alien viewpoint?
Astronomers reasoned that
the majority of star systems
likely to have
life-supporting planets,
were located in the obscure
southern constellation
of Reticulum.
Yet three stars in the cluster
were unknown until 1969.
No astronomer on Earth knew
their position in 1963.
But that same year,
Betty Hill drew a map
which contained these
undiscovered stars.
Astronomers at Ohio State
University requested a computer
to put them in their
correct position,
out beyond the incredible
double star system
of Zeta Reticuli I
and Zeta Reticuli II.
220 trillion miles, 37
light years away from Earth,
looking toward our sun,
and the computer duplicated
with virtually no variation,
the now famous
map of Betty Hill.