The Great Escape!
Bangor’s classic origins read like those of many other Maine towns described in this book. There’s a river running through the city, Native American tribes were already in Penobscot county and settled before Europeans arrived, and there are countless stories involving all aspects of the paranormal. Bangor is also home to probably the most famous of modern writers: me! Just kidding (although I do live in Bangor)—I’m talking about Stephen King! His home, on West Broadway Street, was built in 1858 along with numerous other mansions; the city enjoyed exceptional wealth during this time due to the bustling lumber industry. While some homes have been maintained, others burned during the great Bangor fire of 1911. (The fire started small but quickly spread due to unusually high winds at the end of April that year.) Many of the remaining mansions were converted into apartment houses.
One of these old buildings is where our next encounter begins. According to a report sent to World UFO Photo and News, Kyle (pseudonym) was visiting with his brother one evening in October of 2010. After dinner, drinks, and brotherly conversation, Kyle left the apartment at around two o’clock in the morning. As he walked to his vehicle, he heard a female voice call his name. He described it as rhythmic and all-encompassing. He looked around and thought he would find his brother’s girlfriend playing a trick on him, but no one appeared to be on the street. The voice continued, and was perceived by Kyle as a “soothing, almost hypnotizing” female voice. His eyes gradually became heavy and his walk slowed to a standstill. Eventually, his eyes closed completely and the voice continued in its tranquil manner: “We’re here to help, it’s okay, we’re not going to harm you, we’re going to make you feel better.” After a moment, Kyle fainted.
The young man started to wake, his eyes stirring under their lids as he lay motionless. They popped open and instantly ached as a bright light from above blinded him. Kyle’s hands reflexively shielded his eyes as he lifted his head to discern his whereabouts. He could see that he was in room that smelled of cleaning solutions and noted that it felt sterile. As he looked around the room he saw two tall, shadowy figures opposite him. The beings frightened him and he looked on in disbelief as they turned to face him. He described what he saw: “Two grey aliens … they had long fingers, very tall, had a little mouth that moved [in an] up and down motion like a fish but nothing was coming out.” He clenched his eyes shut, his thoughts manic; he was losing control. He lay there terrified, but had an urge to understand the situation that he was in. He started to control his breathing to calm himself. He wanted to know what was happening to him and tried to speak.
No sound was heard as he mouthed the words he was trying to say. He then realized that his words were interpreted through thought; communications had turned telepathic. They said they did not intend on hurting him. Kyle elaborated: “I asked the aliens if they aren’t going to harm me then what are they going to do to me. They replied back, ‘we are going to help you and fix you.’” In an instant, the two aliens were on either side of him. They stood him up, and he felt like an escorted prisoner as they walked him to another room. They walked through a corridor, and he could see inside another room to the left and observed more beings: “a huddled circle formation of at least seven to eight greys … ”
When they arrived in the second room, he was placed against a board while still in an upright position in the center of the room. He said that this area also smelled of chemicals and that the aliens walked around him, skulking as they looked him over. One of his captors stepped close to him, eye to eye. They stared at each other for a moment, then the entity carefully placed one of its hands over Kyle’s nose. He froze with fear as it inserted a black tube into his nostrils. His breathing stopped for a moment, and he gasped and screamed in reaction. He then heard, “It’s going to be okay, we are here to help.” The voice he had heard previously suddenly came back. It reminded him of an airport’s intercom announcement and he could tell it was artificial and trying to calm him. It didn’t. They laid him down on the board, and it seemed to hover above the floor. Despite the hypnotic voice continuing, Kyle thrashed about on the table. The aliens struggled to hold him in place, but a leg broke free and he kicked one of his captors! It was with such force that the entity stumbled back, hit the wall, and slid down. The other alien appeared frightened of Kyle and backed away. More entities rushed into the room. The young man looked around and felt overwhelmed and outnumbered. He tried to fight them off as they grabbed him, but he felt weak and dizzy. He fainted once more.
As he came to, he smelt asphalt. He woke up on the side of an unfamiliar road and clumsily stood. He looked around, confused by his surroundings. It was daylight, but he felt that only an hour had passed. He checked his watch and found that it was nearly six o’clock in the morning. He wasn’t sure which town he was in and looked for a familiar landmark. Just then, a police officer approached him. He seemed to come out of thin air. Kyle asked him what town he was in and what street he was on. The officer gave him a nasty look and pointed him toward a street sign. From Kyle’s perspective, the officer was gone in an instant. He was confused by the officer’s hostile demeanor, though he couldn’t be sure due to the confused state that he was in.
He was far from his brother’s apartment, but he had a friend who lived nearby. When he arrived, he explained the previous night’s events. He felt that he was believed, although he knew his friend could see the state that he was in and was trying to be comforting more than anything.
For weeks after his encounter, Kyle was cautious about whom he would share his experience with. His brother and friends did provide him with a support system, but he needed to speak to someone with otherworldly experience. After conducting research on the alien abduction phenomenon, Kyle finally reached out to other Mainers about his experience and spent time at the “Experiencers Speak” conference. These meetings are held annually in southern Maine and are organized by Audrey and Debbie Hewins, founders of Starborn Support, a nonprofit organization that helps alien abduction victims cope with their encounters.
Kyle is still on his journey, and his hope is to find out what truly happened to him and others like him. Despite his first horrid encounter, he has had other experiences that were more pleasant in nature and has found a bit of peace with the aliens. He now feels that they are giving him a message of compassion and love: “Be happy and as loving as possible. This is the message I am getting,” he explained.
It is interesting to note that Kyle’s perspective is similar to Ed’s experience in the story “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” earlier in this book, and to the Travis Walton case from Arizona. Walton has stated in the last few years that he now believes his experience, while traumatic, was to save his life. A theme such as this opens a new paradigm for the abduction experience in popular culture. Films such as The Fourth Kind have shown the malevolent nature of alien abductions. We are living in tumultuous times, so perhaps the possibility of compassion, as was perceived by Kyle, Ed, and Travis, is exactly what we need to believe right now.