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Betty Hill

American civil rights activist who, with her husband Barney Hill, reported a 1961 UFO sighting in New Hampshire; hypnotherapy sessions that followed produced one of the earliest and most widely discussed alleged abduction accounts, including a hand-drawn star map later associated by some researchers with the Zeta Reticuli star system.

By December 2004 · Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA · Reported UFO abductee; civil rights activist · Barney Hill

Betty Hill and her husband Barney Hill were an interracial couple, both active in the civil rights movement,1 who lived in New Hampshire USA.2 On the night of 1961-09-19, driving home along a rural road in what became known as the 1961 Betty and Barney Hill interrupted journey and UFO abduction September 19, part of the wider 1961 Betty and Barney Hill Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) abduction case, the couple reported an unidentified UFO sighting. According to American Cosmic, they saw a light that at first resembled a falling star but seemed to move differently;3 they stopped the car and used binoculars to try to identify it,4 and when the light came toward them, almost filling the windscreen, a frightened Barney Hill got out of the car with a pistol he was carrying.5,6 Messengers of Deception recounts that the object appeared to change from looking like a star to looking like a disk as it neared them,7 and that further along the road the couple lost awareness of their actions, next remembering themselves driving past a point roughly 100 kilometres to the south.8 Betty Hill’s account describes figures visible at the windows of the object during the sighting.9 Their dog, Delphi, was frightened during the encounter,10 and Betty stayed in the car for most of the sighting while Barney was outside.11 Two days later, according to American Cosmic, Betty Hill telephoned nearby Pease Air Force Base;12 Major Paul W. Henderson returned her call the following day,13 and she described what they had seen without mentioning any beings.14 Barney Hill later said that what they had reported to the United States Air Force (USAF) was a disk with windows.15

The case first reached investigators through a six-page report from the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) describing the sighting,16 and when NICAP interviewed the couple it accepted their story completely.17 Benjamin Simon, who later treated the Hills, considered it one of NICAP’s greatest mistakes that its interviewer never examined silver-dollar-sized spots the couple said were still visible on the back of their car;18 those spots eventually washed away.19

Betty and Barney Hill began experiencing anxiety dreams and stress-related problems severe enough that they sought the help of Boston psychiatrist Benjamin Simon in January 1964.20 Betty Hill said she had written down her nightmares in November 1961.21 Simon’s hypnotherapy sessions began from the point in Canada, Quebec, Montreal where the couple had been at the top of their journey home,22 and he hypnotised them one at a time, starting with Barney.23 In what became known as Betty and Barney Hill’s 1964 hypnosis sessions with Benjamin Simon, their accounts matched each other up to the point of the sighting, but from there Betty’s account of an abduction grew far more vivid and detailed while Barney’s remained minimal.24

During the account, the leader aboard the object told Betty Hill he would say where they came from if she said where she came from, then showed her a mask containing a map of stars.25 In Betty Hill’s hypnotic account she and Barney were taken aboard the object, with Barney, his eyes closed, half-dragged by two figures while Betty walked with her eyes open, led by the apparent leader of the group;26 she described a needle being inserted into her navel during an examination.27 She later drew a version of the star map for Simon, showing a number of stars connected by lines, one set representing trade routes and another representing expeditions - what became known as Betty Hill’s star map.28 Benjamin Simon concluded that Betty Hill’s abduction story derived from her nightmares, and said he was satisfied he did not need to accept a genuine visitation from outer space as an explanation.29 The therapist who treated the Hills did not believe in UFOs.30

Jacques Vallée, who spent hours with the couple and discussed the case with Simon,31 wrote that Betty and Barney disagreed on several details of the appearance of the occupants they described.32 Vallée said he believed the Hills really saw a UFO and that something unknown stopped their car and took control of their minds, and that they were not lying or “nuts."33 He did not, however, believe any contactee had been physically aboard a saucer, proposing instead a nonphysical experience controlled by a system acting on human consciousness, which he said the Soviets term “psychotronic."34 Betty Hill later told Marjorie Fish that she had drawn the star map under post-hypnotic suggestion in 1964.35 According to Messengers of Deception, Fish, an Ohio schoolteacher, built a model of nearby sunlike stars and matched it to the map Betty Hill had described,36 and researchers including Stanton Friedman and David Saunders considered Fish’s model to indicate that the object came from Zeta Reticuli.37 Saunders, a psychologist formerly with the Condon Committee, said he could find no major point to quibble with in Fish’s interpretation.38 Vallée disagreed, calling the star map “a map to nowhere” that proved nothing about an extraterrestrial origin.39

Betty Hill became a UFO celebrity and a rallying point for believers in extraterrestrial visitation, appearing frequently on talk shows and television.40 The Betty and Barney Hill abduction case and the 1957 case of Antonio Villas-Boas are widely recognised among researchers in the field as the two watershed first abduction reports.41 On 1967-12-03, the 1967 Herb Schirmer Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) abduction, Ashland Nebraska was later regarded as comparable to the abduction accounts of Betty Hill, Barney Hill, and the fishermen involved in the 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) abduction.42 Betty Hill, in Portsmouth, and Charlie Hickson, in Pascagoula, each took a lie detector test related to their accounts and passed.43 In late 2003, chemist Phyllis Budinger circulated an analysis of a large pink stain found on the dress Betty Hill had worn during the 1961 encounter, part of what became Betty Hill’s 1961 dress Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) analysis.44 The Anomaly Physical Evidence Group (APEG), led by Bill Chalker, received dress samples along with control biological samples,45 and undertook specialised ribosomal polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA profiling to seek non-human DNA alongside standard assessments;46 the DNA found was connected to Betty and Barney Hill, with some of the stained areas found to be due to spider’s blood.47 Betty Hill had died by December 2004, before that analysis was completed.48 Decades later, author Whitley Strieber said he had no conscious memory of reading about the Hill case in Look Magazine before undergoing his own hypnosis.49

References (49)
  1. Betty and Barney Hill were an interracial couple active in the civil rights movement
    “Betty Hill and Barney Hill, an interracial couple, were both active in the civil rights movement.”
    American Cosmic ch4:41972-42060
  2. The couple lived in New Hampshire
    “They lived in New Hampshire.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42070-42088
  3. They saw a light resembling a falling star that moved differently
    “On September 19, 1961, they were driving on a rural road in that state, when they spotted a light that resembled a falling star but moved differently.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42099-42237
  4. They stopped and used binoculars to try to identify the light
    “They stopped and used binoculars to try to identify it, but then got back into their car and continued their journey.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42250-42359
  5. The light came toward the car, almost filling the windscreen
    “At one point, it came toward their vehicle, almost filling the windshield with its light.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42462-42545
  6. Frightened, Barney Hill got out of the car with a pistol
    “Frightened, they stopped the car, and Barney got out with a pistol he was carrying.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42552-42626
  7. The object appeared to change from looking like a star to looking like a disk
    “At first it looks like a star. They keep driving on the lonely road, observing the object. It comes closer and looks like a disk.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:21716-21840
  8. They lost awareness and next remembered driving past a point roughly 100 km south
    “A few miles down the road the middle-aged couple loses all awareness of their actions. They next remember driving past Ashland… sixty miles to the south!”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:22246-22393
  9. Betty Hill's account describes a prolonged sighting with figures visible at the windows
    “During the night of September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill, a respected Portsmouth, New Hampshire, interracial couple, experienced a strange "interrupted journey" on the way home from a holiday. They claimed to have had a prolonged UFO sighting, during which they saw figures at the windows around the UFO.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch15:11519-11824
  10. The Hills' dog, Delphi, was frightened during the sighting
    “Thier little dog, Delphi, was frightened.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:09:13.3-00:09:15.5
  11. Betty Hill stayed in the car for most of the sighting while Barney was outside
    “Betty stayed in the car for the most part.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:09:10.1-00:09:12.4
  12. Two days after the sighting, Betty Hill called Pease Air Force Base
    “Two days later, Betty called the nearby Pease Air Force Base.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42681-42737
  13. Major Paul W. Henderson returned her call the following day
    “It was another day before Major Paul W. Henderson returned the call.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42743-42806
  14. Betty Hill described the sighting to Henderson without mentioning any beings
    “Betty described the details of what they had seen, but she did not mention the presence of beings or extraterrestrials.”
    American Cosmic ch4:42812-42913
  15. Barney Hill reported to the USAF that they had seen a disk with windows
    “The Betty and Barney Hill "abduction" case of 1961 is a fascinating one in light of this classification because one part of the incident (the observation of a disk with windows) is clearly of category 3 and this is indeed what they reported to the Air Force.”
    THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE ch13:10053-10305
  16. The case began with a six-page NICAP report on the sighting
    “they began almost at the beginning with a six-page report from NICAP...this was the story of their seeing an unidentified flying object, which was investigated by a NICAP investigator who made this report”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:02:15.3-00:02:36.0
  17. NICAP's investigator accepted the Hills' story completely
    “When Betty and Barney Hill were interviewed by NICAP, do you know, did the people in NICAP buy their story, Hook, Line, and Sinker? ... Yes.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:31:01.0-00:31:12.5
  18. Simon considered NICAP's failure to examine the silver spots one of its greatest mistakes
    “And NICAP made one of the greatest mistakes I have ever seen. And that is that the interviewer was a scientist. And there was a story of these silver spots about the size of a silver dollar on the back of their car. ... And for God knows what reason, he never went out to look at them.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:31:14.0-00:31:39.4
  19. The silver spots on the car eventually washed away
    “They were washed away eventually.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:32:06.4-00:32:07.9
  20. The Hills sought Benjamin Simon's help in January 1964 due to anxiety and stress
    “The couple began experiencing problems—anxiety dreams for Betty and stress-related problems for Barney—that became so severe that they sought the help of a Boston psychiatrist, Dr. Benjamin Simon, in January 1964.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch15:12020-12228
  21. Betty Hill said she wrote down her nightmares in November 1961
    “Betty Hill's "anxiety dreams" were the first documented accounts of the possible abduction dimensions of the Hills' "interrupted journey." She wrote down the details of her nightmares during November 1961.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch15:13753-13953
  22. Hypnosis sessions began from the couple's stop in Montreal, Quebec
    “I took them back to a starting point of Montreal. They had been to Niagara Falls and were coming home. And Montreal, you might say, was at the top of the journey...coming down to New Hampshire.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:05:09.2-00:05:25.5
  23. Simon hypnotised the couple separately, starting with Barney
    “under hypnosis, which was quite deep, told him, well, I took him one at a time before, so we begin with Barney, and directed him to tell me everything that happened on that trip...Here they were to really act out or relive that trip.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:05:34.2-00:05:52.7
  24. Their accounts matched to the point of the sighting, then diverged sharply
    “up to the point of the sighting and those experiences, the two stories were exactly alike...Betty's experiences were far more vivid, fog there, and much more material there than Barney, who simply felt himself as being supportive with his eyes closed...Nothing of Betty's story, but nothing was in Barney's story.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:15:02.7-00:15:24.5
  25. The leader offered to say where they came from if Betty said where she came from, then showed her a star map
    “the leader, she got quite friendly, and he told her to answer her questioning about where they were and where they came from. And he said, well, he would tell her where they came from if she would tell him where she came from. And so he pulled down a mask, which had a bunch of stars in it, and showed it to her”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:22:43.2-00:23:08.1
  26. Betty's account: taken aboard, Barney half-dragged eyes closed, Betty walked eyes open
    “She went on with a fantastic story of having been taken aboard. She described Barney as, with his eyes closed, as sort of suspended between two men who were half dragging him along to the same vehicle, and she had her eyes open and did not have to be dragged, and she was taken along by what appeared to be the leader of the group”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:11:49.0-00:12:12.6
  27. Her account included a needle inserted into her navel during the examination
    “Betty gave by far the most elaborate story, the needle in the navel and all the things which I can't stop to describe.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:16:51.6-00:16:57.4
  28. She later drew the star map for Simon, showing stars, trade routes and expeditions
    “I asked her later to draw me that map. And what she drew was a map with a number of stars in it and a lot of lines, dotted lines and hard lines, one of which she said represented trade routes between the stars in the universe, and the other one represented trade routes...or expeditions.”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:23:11.3-00:23:34.6
  29. Simon concluded the abduction story derived from her nightmares, not a genuine visitation
    “that gave me an answer at that point, that this fantastic story was her dreams, and therefore we could fit that very well with reality...I was satisfied. I didn't have to look any further for an explanation. I wouldn't have to accept under our present conditions the existence of this just amount of space”
    The Hypnotist Who Unlocked Betty & Barney Hill's Alien Memories | Dr. Benjamin Simon Speaks 00:20:56.8-00:21:25.3
  30. The therapist who treated the Hills did not believe in UFOs
    “their therapist (who, ironically, did not believe in UFOs)”
    American Cosmic ch5:7274-7327
  31. Vallée spent hours with the couple and discussed the case with Simon
    “I have spent hours with Betty and Barney Hill and have had a chance to discuss the case of their abduction with Dr. Simon.”
    THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE ch17:17101-17217
  32. Vallée notes the couple disagreed on details of the occupants' appearance
    “this would explain why contactees Betty and Barney Hill disagreed on several details of the occupants’ appearance”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:14291-14394
  33. Vallée said he believed something unknown stopped the car and took control of their minds
    “Before I present my side of the story, I want to state that I think Betty and Barney Hill really saw a UFO and that something unknown stopped their car and took control of their minds. They were not lying, and they were not “nuts.””
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:29064-29289
  34. Vallée proposed a nonphysical, 'psychotronic' experience rather than a physical boarding
    “I do not believe that any of the contactees – not even Betty and Barney Hill – have been physically on board an actual “saucer.” It is more likely that they have taken a nonphysical “trip,” controlled and guided by a system of which we have no clear idea as yet, a system that acts on human consciousness (the Soviets use the term “psychotronic” to designate such devices)”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:35281-35645
  35. Betty Hill told Fish she drew the map under post-hypnotic suggestion in 1964
    “Betty told her that she drew the map under post-hypnotic suggestion in 1964.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:27100-27171
  36. Fish, an Ohio schoolteacher, built a star model matched to the map
    “An Ohio schoolteacher named Marjorie Fish has now added another chapter to this great quest by constructing a model of known sunlike stars and matching it to a map that Betty Hill saw inside the flying saucer.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:26622-26824
  37. Friedman and Saunders took Fish's model to indicate Zeta Reticuli as origin
    “It is this model that indicates to many authorities among the UFO believers – men like Stanton Friedman and Dave Saunders – that the saucer which abducted the Hills hailed from Zeta Reticuli.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:26832-27014
  38. Saunders, a Condon Committee psychologist, found no major point to quibble with
    “David Saunders, a psychologist formerly on the staff of the Condon Committee, now working for Mathematica, Inc., in New Jersey, added: “I can find no major point to quibble with in Marjorie Fish’s interpretation of the Betty Hill map.””
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:28425-28655
  39. Vallée called the star map 'a map to nowhere' proving nothing about extraterrestrial origin
    “I claim that it proves nothing of the kind. Betty’s drawing is a map to nowhere.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:21405-21477
  40. Betty Hill became a UFO celebrity, appearing on talk shows and television
    “Betty has become a UFO celebrity and a rallying point for the believers in extraterrestrial visitation. She is often heard on talk shows and seen on television.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:22882-23031
  41. Researchers regard the Hill and Villas-Boas cases as the two watershed first abduction reports
    “Most researchers in this field recognize that there are actually two "first" abduction reports that have had a strong impact on our perceptions of the phenomenon...These are the watershed case of Betty and Barney Hill from 1961 and the controversial sexual "seduction" encounter of Antonio Villas-Boas from 1957.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch15:11203-11512
  42. Herb Schirmer's 1967 experience was later regarded as comparable to the Hill and Pascagoula cases
    “On December 3, 1967, a patrolman named Herb Schirmer, of Ashland, Nebraska, had an experience that deserves to be placed in the context of the stories of the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill and of the Pascagoula fishermen.”
    THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE ch10:33308-33523
  43. Betty Hill and Charlie Hickson each passed a lie detector test related to their accounts
    “They take lie detector tests and pass them: Betty Hill in Portsmouth, Charlie Hickson in Pascagoula, Travis Walton in Arizona.”
    Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch5:36692-36810
  44. Chemist Phyllis Budinger circulated an analysis of a stain on Betty Hill's dress in late 2003
    “Late in 2003 chemist Phyllis Budinger circulated her analysis of the large pink stain found on the dress Betty Hill wore during her famous abduction of 1961.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch18:4457-4609
  45. APEG, led by Bill Chalker, received dress and control biological samples
    “My APEG team received some dress samples and control biological samples pertinent to Betty and Barney Hill.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch18:5014-5116
  46. A specialised PCR DNA profiling was undertaken to seek non-human DNA
    “A specialized (ribosomal) PCR DNA profiling was undertaken to extract non-human DNA along with standard assessments.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch18:5123-5227
  47. DNA found was connected to the Hills, with some staining due to spider's blood
    “Despite the passage of decades, DNA found on the dress was connected to Betty and Barney Hill, and rather surprisingly, at least some of the stained areas were found to be due to spider’s blood.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch18:5354-5542
  48. Betty Hill had died by December 2004, before the analysis was completed
    “Sadly, Betty passed away before this work was completed in December of 2004.”
    Hair of the Alien: DNA and Other Forensic Evidence for Alien Abductions ch18:5666-5737
  49. Whitley Strieber said he had no conscious memory of reading about the Hill case before his own hypnosis
    “I had, as I have said, no conscious memory of reading about the Betty and Barney Hill case in Look”
    The Fourth Mind ch20:22297-22391

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