The combined results of the character checks and PSE tests had strongly established witness credibility. Our next step concerned extraction of the forgotten experience through hypnosis.
Although no one theory has explained the phenomenon of hypnosis to the satisfaction of all researchers, its existence has been known for thousands of years. In the past, it was largely confined to the occult, parlor games, and the stage. In recent years, however, it has found practical usage among doctors, dentists, and criminologists. One of its applications involves the recall of memories repressed or forgotten by the conscious mind. Thus, it is a logical tool for cases such as the Andreasson Affair.
Psychiatrist Benjamin Simon, MD, used hypnotic regression to help Betty and Barney Hill consciously recall their missing hours. Author John G. Fuller documented the results in The Interrupted Journey, and in the introduction to this fascinating book, Dr. Simon made an interesting statement:
Hypnosis is a useful procedure in psychiatry to direct concentrated attention on some particular point in the course of the whole therapeutic procedure. In cases like the Hills’, it can be the key to the locked room, the amnesic period. Under hypnosis, experiences buried in amnesia may be recalled in much shorter time than in the normal course of psychotherapeutic process.1
Dr. Simon stressed that hypnosis was not necessarily a magical road to truth: “In one sense this is so, but it must be understood that hypnosis is a pathway to truth as it is felt and understood by the…participant. The truth is what he believes to be the truth. This may or may not be consonant with the ultimate truth. Most frequently it is.”2
Since the Hills’ UFO experience in 1961, hypnosis has been used by a number of UFO researchers, especially when investigating CE-IVs. The most prominent of these researchers is Dr. R.L. Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming and consultant in psychology to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).3 Dr. Sprinkle has written:
Further emphasis should be given to the uses of hypnotic time regression procedures for investigation of UFO experiences. An exciting possibility exists that these procedures can provide more information about these loss of time experiences, including possible cases of abduction and examination by UFO occupants. Hypnotic procedures can be used to assist UFO witnesses in decreasing anxiety and gaining more confidence in the (personal) reality of their experiences; further, these procedures can be helpful to UFO investigators by providing them with more information about UFO witnesses and their unusual experiences. Further studies may lead to an outline or pattern of UFO abduction cases and the significance of these experiences in understanding the puzzle of UFO phenomena.4
It was with these thoughts in mind that Becky and Betty were brought to the offices of the New England Institute of Hypnosis directed by Harold Edelstein, our local MUFON hypnosis consultant. On May 8, 1978, the Boston Herald American newspaper ran a front-page story on Dr. Edelstein’s involvement in police investigation. The article, written by staff writer Laura White, is worth quoting from because it aptly illustrates how hypnosis is being used in the investigative process:
Twenty police officers, some with service revolvers and handcuffs dangling from their belts, sat in the classroom at Pine Manor Junior College eyeballing the goateed man standing before them.
Dr. Harold Edelstein was going to introduce the seasoned officers to a new investigative technique: Hypnosis…is a relatively new tool for local police. Methuen police detective Bill Rayno was introduced to hypnosis last May and used it on a case that was at a standstill after two years investigation. Three Combat Zone prostitutes had been found murdered north of Boston, one in Rayno’s jurisdiction.
“We’d exhausted all leads,” admits Rayno. “Then a witness agreed to hypnosis and was able to recall time and details of a vehicle seen in the area where one of the victims had disappeared.” Today, Rayno is working on new leads.… During the Chowchilla kidnapping investigation in 1976, the driver of the school bus underwent hypnosis and recalled the descriptions of the three abductors, their van and five of the six numbers on the van’s license plate. California, Oregon, and Alaska courts have ruled information obtained under hypnosis as admissible.
…The key to hypnosis is developing a bond of confidence between the subject and hypnotist. Edelstein doesn’t use the stereotypical swinging pendulum to put a subject in a “trance.” Instead, he prefers to have a subject concentrate on a focal point about eyelevel as he counts backwards from five. At the numeral one, the subject’s eyes are closed. Then Edelstein begins a monotone series of suggestions to relax the muscles in the body starting with the head. “By the time the whole body is relaxed, the subject should be ready to respond to commands,” said Edelstein.
…For witnesses or victims who might be traumatized by recalling an event blotted out of their consciousness, Edelstein advises police to use the hypnotic suggestion of viewing events through a TV screen. “He feels like a spectator of what occurred instead of having been ‘personally involved,’” says detective Rayno.… “Hypnosis doesn’t put you in a trance,” said Sgt. Sid Goodman, of the Boston Police Academy, an early student of Edelstein’s.… John Peters, staff executive to the Braintree Police Chief…says hypnosis aids officers to relax, build confidence, heighten sensitivities, and lower anxieties.… Apparently, police departments around the state agree with Peters. Wednesday, 23 detectives will begin Massachusetts Training Council classes in hypnosis conducted by Dr. Edelstein at the Braintree Police Academy.
Extracted from Volume I, Section V, pp. 1, 2 of UFO Report CE-III/MA-77 (67-41A)
Session |
Date |
1 |
April 3, 1977 |
2 |
April 9,1977 |
3 |
April 23, 1977 |
4 |
April 30, 1977 |
5 |
May 7,1977 |
6 |
May 14,1977 |
7 |
May 21,1977 |
8 |
June 4,1977 (Ray Fowler begins attending.) |
9 |
June 18, 1977 |
10 |
June 23,1977 |
11 |
June 26,1977 |
12 |
July 16,1977 (Dave Webb begins attending.) |
13 |
July 23, 1977 |
14 |
July 28, 1977 |