- PORTSMOUTH, N.H --
Betty Hill sits in her living room, an inquisitive, highly engaging woman
of 84. Surrounded by the mementos and clutter of a lifetime that is waning
as the cancer afflicting her progresses, she is serene, even as she reflects
on her role in one of the strangest events of the 1960s, one that helped
spawn a mass cult phenomenon.
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- Her petite frame initially takes one by surprise. By
reputation alone, you would think that she would be more physically imposing.
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- You could say Betty and Barney Hill's last meal -- at
least, the last while they still led normal lives -- was eaten in Montreal,
one of their favourite cities. The Portsmouth, N.H., couple were already
fairly unusual: He was black and she was white, at the dawn of the racially
explosive decade, when they were on their way back from a short vacation
in Niagara Falls.
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- But at 11 p.m. on Sept. 19, 1961, the Hills were on Route
3, south of Lancaster, N.H., when the best-documented case in UFO history
began: There was a puzzling object in the sky. Mr. Hill thought that it
was a satellite or star initially, but its erratic movement brought a plane
to mind. They were alone on a deserted road, approaching the enormous silhouetted
shape of Cannon Mountain, when the object seemed to be heading straight
for them.
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- After that night, anxiety plagued the Hills. Both experienced
nightmares. Mr. Hill developed chronic ulcers. And neither could account
for a disturbing sense that something otherworldly had happened, and why
two full hours of their journey were unaccounted for. It was only two years
later that the story emerged, under hypnosis monitored by respected Boston
psychiatrist Benjamin Simon: The Hills had been stopped by a group of aliens
on a side road, taken aboard their craft, experimented upon and released
unharmed.
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- Though Mr. Hill died in 1969, Betty Hill has actively
discussed the incident in the media and at conventions across North America
ever since. "They were under five feet tall," Mrs. Hill says
of the aliens. "They look more like us, like actual people, than weirdoes.
The main difference is that their eyes are huge, and they have thin noses
and thin lips. The leader spoke English, rather than using telepathy, as
they are often portrayed."
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- Why, then, were the couple abducted? "They grabbed
us to see if we were similar to them," Mrs. Hill says. "I can
understand why they were interested in us physically. I don't hold that
against them, to this day."
-
- She adds that the aliens were particularly interested
in the lanky Mr. Hill's bone structure, while they performed a painful
procedure on her, similar to one that would not be done on Earth for another
eight years -- an amniocentesis. They were also, she reported during the
psychological sessions, interested in the structure and colour of her skin.
-
- Mrs. Hill is certain that something extraordinary happened
to her and her husband 42 years ago, a view Dr. Simon came to share after
their sessions. His findings appeared in John G. Fuller's 1966 book The
Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours Aboard A Flying Saucer.
-
- Their experience was also the subject of a 1975 movie
of the week, The UFO Incident, starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons.
"The movie was quite accurate and I thought the actors did a good
job portraying us," Mrs. Hill says. "The producers had a big
problem with their portrayals of the aliens, though. They really do look
more like us."
-
- Though it's easy to dismiss Betty and Barney Hill as
crackpots or publicity hounds, sitting with the humble, keen-minded Mrs.
Hill might persuade you otherwise.
-
- Stanton Friedman, the New Jersey-born nuclear physicist
and UFO lecturer who has been dubbed the Father of Roswell, knows Mrs.
Hill well. "First, the outstanding professional background of Dr.
Simon, who kept a very tight rein on John Fuller, certainly lent legitimacy.
He was a world-class expert on the use of medical regressive hypnosis to
help World War II veterans make their way through traumatic experiences.
No one would call him a nut," says Dr. Friedman, who now calls Fredericton
his home base.
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- Mrs. Hill came from an old New England family (the Dows,
as in Dow Jones, dating back to the 17th century), was a college-educated
supervisor in the New Hampshire Welfare Department, and was "respected
and active in her community." Mr. Hill sat on the state governor's
Civil Rights Commission.
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- "Dr. Simon's work unlocking the memory took care
of Barney's ulcer problem when medication could not," Dr. Friedman
says. "They did not seek publicity, but were forced into the public
arena when a Boston Herald article came out, without their knowledge. Add
to that the fact there were physical marks on Betty's dress, warts on Barney's
groin, and the extraordinary emotionalism of their sessions with Dr. Simon.
. . .
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- "This was definitely a pioneering case," he
adds. "The publicity . . . helped other abductees to have the courage
to seek help in understanding their own missing-time experiences."
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- The Hills were also administered lie-detector tests by
lawyer F. Lee Bailey, which they passed with flying colours. Mrs. Hill
points out that the object that confronted them that evening was also tracked
by nearby Pease Airforce Base. And then, says Dr. Friedman, there was the
alien leader's star map that Mrs. Hill reproduced under posthypnotic suggestion,
which portrayed Zeta Reticuli 1 and 2, years before they were charted by
amateur astronomers and confirmed by the Hipparchos satellite.
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- Were Betty and Barney Hill the victims of some sort of
hysteria, or were they indeed abducted for two hours by alien visitors
from another solar system? Whatever the truth is, Mrs. Hill remains convinced
that we are not alone and, what's more, "that our government leaders
have known about these UFO contacts for decades."
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- Mrs. Hill's cancer was originally confined to her stomach
about 15 years ago, and she has done well battling the affliction. By last
month, however, it had spread to her lung. Still, she says, "I'm feeling
pretty good."
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- Asked what her alien encounter taught her, Mrs. Hill's
response is striking: "They've proven to me that God is universal."
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- No matter what you believe, that's a giant leap of faith
for mankind.
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- Bram Eisenthal is a Montreal freelance writer and an
aficionado of science fiction and fact.
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