Betty: He said, “Stand directly in back of me.” And so I stood in back of him, and I swooped in somehow, like suction. And immediately, when I did, he was starting out the door, and I was going through the same thing, the wood, that they were.
Joseph: Nobody opened any door?
Betty: No. I was right in their line. I was following the leader, and I guess they must have—ah, their line must have a passage through.
Betty was no longer walking. She found herself floating several inches above the ground with a swooping motion that matched the movements of her abductors as they moved along together in single file.
Betty: I’m just swooping along, step by step as he moves. I’m moving the exact distance from him. The others evidently are following.
Peculiar foreign sensations pulsed through Betty’s body.
Betty: My legs feel very strange. My whole body does. It feels like it’s weightless…very funny. And we are outside, and he stopped.
Betty stared in disbelief. In her backyard, resting on its own struts, was an oval object with a raised central portion. This concerned the investigators. How could such a remarkable object remain undetected by the neighbors? We interrupted Betty to ask pertinent questions.
Ray: How about the other houses? Could you see the neighborhood?
Betty: No. I saw haze, all haze.
Ray: When you went out, how do you know that you were actually in the neighborhood?
Betty: I didn’t know except for the corner of the house and the ship. The rest of the part seemed very vague and hazy—like a mist was all around.
During the course of our investigation, the present owner of the house confirmed that the low area in the backyard is especially conducive to dense pockets of fog. Weather records for the night of January 25, 1967, indicated heavy mist in the area.
Debbie: (Jules’s wife) How about the garage?
Betty: I couldn’t see that, and I couldn’t see the opposite side of the house on this side.… I could just see on this left-hand side, the house, the corner of the house, the stone wall, and the tree. Even past that, it seemed misty. It seemed as if the ship took up most of the area, too much for me to see past it.
Betty stood awestruck at the silent presence of the strange craft in the yard. Her initial shock quickly gave way to fear and apprehension. Quazgaa seemed to have sensed this and, to reassure Betty, did a remarkable thing.
Betty: He says, “See, you can trust me. Look over at the ship.” And he made the bottom like glass. I could see through it!
When the bottom of the craft suddenly became transparent, Betty recognized some of the things inside, which she had seen illustrated in the blue book.
Betty: I see the—part of those things I saw in the book. There are glass balls on the bottom, cut glass like, and there are arms that come down and grasp on to it, and they go up.… And there’s that thing on the side. And they can rotate on an inner tube—with that gray matter and that water, I guess, or something. [See Figure 8.]
Betty sought in vain to find a comparative reference point to describe what she was observing. “What is it?” she breathed. “What is it, Quazgaa?
Figure 8: Apparatus in the bottom of the craft. May 5.
“I have other things to show you,” he replied. “Come along, come along.”
Betty: And the ship turned back so that it was not glass but like a… silver-gold. And I see the legs, and they are parked, sort of, on the hill.
In other words, the length of the vehicle’s legs on struts were adjusted to the incline of the hill adjoining the backyard. (See Figure 9 on page 46.) Quazgaa faced the alien vehicle and raised his left hand. Instantaneously an opening appeared in the craft.
Betty: And, ah, that door is opening—automatically, I guess, or else he’s making it. He raised his hand. And we are getting all lined up. And he swoops right up! There are three stairs. Soon as he goes up, I’m swooped up, and the others are following.
Figure 9: The craft’s exterior. May 7.
Betty found herself floating into a small room with curved walls. The door closed automatically behind them.
Betty: We’re in like a half-bubble, or quarter of a bubble, room. And he [Quazgaa] has withdrawn himself with the others, and they are standing over there talking.… [See Figure 10.] I’m just looking at this room. Something goes down on the sides of the bubble.… Where the steps come up, it goes down.… I feel very weightless and icky. My hands and my legs feel like they are asleep or something. And they are still talking over there, and they glance over at me once in a while.… Oh, hurry up! And I’m crossing my arms now. I’m tired of just standing there.… I feel weightless. Oh, my feet are pins and needles or something—even my arms and my hands. He’s still talking, and…about two or three of them are leaving. That door whooshed open, and they are going in—and it’s closing.
Figure 10: The entrance hall. May 7.
Then Quazgaa came over to Betty. Two entities still remained in the room and stood watching her.
Betty: …He brought me over to where they were, and…he is saying something to them about going and making himself ready. [Sigh.] Would they please bring me to the upper room?
Betty and the entities left; Quazgaa stayed behind.
Betty: And so, the two—one went in front of me and one in back of me, and we went over to the furthest right-hand end of the quarter bubble. And whoosh! Another door opened. And you can’t even see those doors. They just go up when they open. And there are stairs there—going around, somehow going around. They seem like they are floating up, but…my waist feels so heavy there. And we are going up those stairs. Looks like I can see something down there. We’re all going around the stairs and…we are going up around, and this door goes down. [See Figure 11 on page 48.]
At this point, the hypnotist turned over the recording tape.
Harold: Betty, I now want you—to just remember where you are. You said, “This door leads down.”
When she was asked to continue her account, Betty quickly corrected him:
Betty: The door goes down. It doesn’t lead down. It disappears down somehow. And now they are going into that room.
Figure 11: Interior of the craft. May 25.
Betty, still positioned between the two silent beings, was perplexed at what she saw as she moved into a circular room.
Betty: I see that—ah, box, or that desk and, ah, see something else. It’s, ah, red and black. It’s black, outlined with red. And it’s some kind of mirrors, I think. [Softly] I don’t know. Seems like there are, ah, in that circular room, big ripples like windows. [See Figure 12.] They are leading me still [sigh] and they are bringing me over to that further edge—are bringing me further over there. And now they’re stopping and I’m standing there.… And the two are withdrawing. They are saying that I’ll be all right here for a time.
“How come I have to stay here?” she asked them. An unseen force held Betty firmly in place. Paralyzed except for head movement, she felt deserted and helpless. As she relived the episode, we saw the terror reflected on her face before us. Her pulse quickened, and the hypnotist quickly reacted.
Harold: Betty? This is Dr. Edelstein. Just relax. Are you getting apprehensive right now?
Betty: They are leaving me alone in there!
Figure 12: The “ripple-like” windows. May 5.
At times, Dr. Edelstein suggested that he was with the witnesses to give them moral support.
Harold: All right, Betty, just relax. This is me. I want you now to feel myself being with you to back you up. You’ve got nothing to fear. You can feel the fear leaving you, can’t you? I’m by your side constantly. Continue—go ahead. You have nothing to fear.
Now substantially calmed, Betty tried to describe a variety of totally alien objects that she could see from her vantage point. But their utter strangeness prohibited her from describing them except by comparing them with things already familiar to her.
Betty: Okay, I’m standing there and looking around on the side, there—on the wall, there is a leaf motif, and, ah, there’s a thing up top there, like a—it looks like a railing, but it isn’t. And the room is sort of dome-shaped…there are leaf motifs to the right there…raised buttons on it, and there are shields…and different symbols—and the desk is to the side and…and—I don’t like feeling so held down in my body. I just seem to be able to move my head to look. They seem like they’ve controlled my body somehow so I’m fixed, like in one place, and, ah…
Harold: Are you becoming apprehensive?
Betty: No.
Harold: Fine, I’m still with you.
Betty: Can you see the things?
Harold: No, I can see them only through your eyes. Continue.
Betty: I’m trying to see what else is there. I can’t see way in back of me. There are those golden, ah, those golden things—the cord and, um, some type of a scroll.
Betty, in the meantime, had waited impatiently and wondered what fate had in store for her when the alien beings returned.
Betty: I wish they’d hurry up. I’m tired of waiting here. It’s getting brighter. They are getting it brighter now in here.… [Softly] What is that? I see something like a—wonder if it’s coming from the wall or is—what?… They’ve opened something, pushed it out, and it’s something like a camera works. [See Figure 13.] [Softly] I don’t know what it is, but it’s getting brighter in here—uh, much brighter now. What’s that? There’s somebody coming now for me. They said, “Would you follow me, please?” And they stopped in front of me.
Harold: Betty, is this Quazgaa who is telling you this?
Betty: No.
Harold: All right, I want you now to lock this point in your mind. Lock this point, and when we start next time, you will carry on from this point in time. You will remember where you left off. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?
Betty: Yes.
Harold: You will store this particular spot in your subconscious mind, and when we start the next time, you will start from here and continue to go further.
Figure 13: May 5.
At this point, Betty recovered from hypnotic trance.
The investigators awaited each following session with burning curiosity. What would happen next? But two weeks passed before we met again with the witnesses in the offices of the New England Institute of Hypnosis.
It was a hot, sultry June day. The steady drone of an air conditioner pervaded the otherwise-silent atmosphere that soon enveloped the room as Dr. Edelstein prefaced the session by speaking into an activated tape recorder.
Harold: Today’s date is the fourth of June 1977. The time is 12:21. This is a continuation of the session we made two weeks ago. Betty, I want you now to induce hypnosis into yourself. Very good. Now deepen this hypnosis by relaxing. Let yourself relax. Let yourself relax. When I touch your shoulder, let yourself go into the deepest point of relaxation you have ever been. Deeper and deeper—deep, deep, relaxation. I want you now to take yourself back to the last session that we had. You will go back to that point. Tell me you are there. Are you there now? Fine! I want you to continue.
We were amazed at how, week after week, the witnesses would pick up their accounts at the precise point where Dr. Edelstein had left off on the week before. Deep trance hypnosis, properly administered by a skillful hypnotist, can produce near-total recall of everything a subject has ever experienced. In this trance state, a person must tell the truth, as he or she believes the truth to be. Betty and Becky were turned off and on like biological tape recorders! It was fascinating to see a practical demonstration of the mind’s remarkable facilities for storing memory.
Betty: The lights are getting brighter, and—that door opened again. And there is somebody coming. I’m glad they are coming, ‘cause it seemed like a long time in there.… They’re sort of gliding toward me, not moving their legs, but gliding. And it’s one of the beings, ah, it’s two of the beings. They are waving their hands and telling me to follow them. I’m going over with them.… And, ah, they are taking me over to the center of the room. One is in back of me and one is in front of me. I asked them, “Where are we going now?”… And they said, “You will come over here.” I went over to the center of the room, and I stood there. And the one in front of me turned and looked at me.
Figure 14: Lightning and rushing wind from the hatch. June 17.
Again, Betty was instructed to assume the familiar follow-the-leader stance between the two entities. Abruptly, she found herself sinking through an opening in the floor.
Betty: I’m standing there, and we are slowly, slowly being lowered through a tube. It looks like a—silvery tube… slowly lowering down. We are going down…we are going down. We are stopping. And one of the beings tells me to get in back of him again. I’m getting in back of him, and the other one’s in front of me. And the door is lifting up—couldn’t see the door before. The door just looked like a tube—clear, straight-through tube. I’m going out into another room that looks—looks like a hatch or something on top there. Looks like lightning spears coming out of it. [See Figure 14.] I don’t know what it is, but it is there, and they are bringing me over to the side.
The rectangular construction that Betty referred to as a “hatch” looked similar in appearance (but not in size) to the enclosed walkways employed at airports between terminal gates and parked aircraft. Its surface was marked with both jagged and straight lines, which looked to Betty like graphic representations for wind and lightning. At this time, the hatch extended downward out of the wall and into the floor.
When Betty returned through this room later, the hatch had been telescoped into the wall, revealing an opening in the floor over which it had extended.
Next, Betty was directed to a platform illuminated from above by streaks of dazzling light. (See Figure 15.)
Betty: I’m seeing this brighter light shining down, and it—it’s shining down so much, it’s leaving like, ah, thin, tiny bars of light, surrounding it—like you do in a cartoon with a light bulb… having streaks of light from it, coming down.
“Would you get under that, please?” the entities asked.
“Well, what is it first?” Betty asked.
“It is just a cleansing thing.”
“Well, will it hurt?”
“No,” the entities replied. “It is just to cleanse you.”
Figure 15: The cleansing device. June 17.
Betty: And so they didn’t touch me, but they held out their hands as if to assist me. There seems to be a platform there [sigh], and I’m stepping on the platform. The light’s above there. And it’s bright—bright, and it’s got those streaks of light coming out of it. It seems like it’s moving me upward!
The platform itself moved upward and immersed Betty in the brilliant light.
Betty: The light is getting brighter and brighter. It’s all engulfed in light—like I’m engulfed in light. I don’t know if there is a covering or what, but I can’t seem to see them. It’s just bright white light.… I’m just standing there. It doesn’t seem to hurt. It is not hot. It’s just white light all around me, and on me. And now it is going back down. The platform is going back down…it is stopping.…
Betty stepped off it, and the entities said, “Would you follow us, please? Now!”
“Where are we going now?” she asked. “Just please follow with us.”
Betty: They motioned again for me to get to the back of them and follow the leader.… And he walked to another place where a door is opening—whooshing open.
Figure 16: The changing room. June 17.
Betty faced the opening to a darkened wedge-shaped room. (See Figure 16.) The lead entity gestured, holding out his hand for her to enter. “It was a little bit dark in there,” Betty recalled.
“Would you please change?” the entity said.
“I don’t want to change!” she protested.
“Please! Would you just please change?”
“But why do I have to change?” Betty persisted.
“There’s a white garment there for you,” the entity said. “Would you please get into it?”
Now Betty bridled. “Look, I came here of my free will. Why do I have to change into this now?”
“Please change. Quazgaa is waiting for you.”
“I want to talk to him!”
“Please change,” the entity repeated. His persistent request drummed in Betty’s ears until she finally relented. The white garment hung without visible support in the changing room.
Betty: And he kept on motioning to go into that room. It was kind of dark. I didn’t like it. And so I said, “All right.” And I had to step up into that room too. And I’m in that room and it’s all—it looks like a pyramid on its side with a bubble where you went into the door.… Just enough standing room.… There—there’s that white garment there.
Betty’s modesty clearly manifested itself as she timidly removed her clothes.
Betty: And so I took off the first thing of my clothing, and I wondered if they’ve got something looking in there. And so I took that white garment, and I put it around me while I took off the rest of my underthings. And I slipped into that white garment. [See Figure 17 on page 56.] And that white garment was open in the front…[sigh] and loose around the arms, and it went down to about my knees, and it was sealed around the edges somehow. It had sort of like a scoop neck thing. And it had a—like a silver clasp up at the top. It had slits on both sides and a little slit in the back. But the front was kind of wide open, so I sort of wrapped it around me. And I banged on the side there, and I said, “I’m ready!” And the door whooshed open again—went open somehow.
Outside the changing room, the entities awaited Betty. She became fearful and prayed frantically for help. “Ah,” she thought to herself. “What is all this about? What are they going to do to me?… Oh, Jesus be with me!”
Figure 17: The white examination garment. June 17.
The entity nearest the door seemed to sense Betty’s fear.
Betty: When I said that, that leader glanced at me quickly—sort of surprised or stunned. I guess he was reading what my thoughts were, and he seemed to move a little slower. I guess he saw that I was wondering what this was all about, ‘cause he said, “You’ll be all right. Follow us. Please get in back of me again.” He seemed a little concerned, because he kept looking back checking to see if I was getting in back. And the other one just quickly got in back of me and we started off again. It seemed we were just gliding along on rollers or something or other. He came to the wall and he just stopped, and the door opened.…
