The tale of the alien abduction of Betty and Barney Hill

The story of the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill by a group of aliens, presumably in 1961, is an iconic story in ufology circles.

Perhaps this story might be unfamiliar to most people, but it has raised great interest among UFO sighting experts and onlookers over the decades.

The spouses claim that on the night of September 19, 1961, they saw a dazzling light while driving home along Route 3. They initially thought it was a shooting star.

The couple was driving through Lincoln, New Hampshire. After pulling up the car and a pair of binoculars to examine the strange object (which wasn't a shooting star), Betty and Barney Hill decided to return to the road. The spaceship started rushing behind them, getting closer.

According to the married couple's recollection, they saw about ten human-like figures through the windows. Barney Hill claim these creatures communicated with them through telepathy.

The incident happened when the alleged spaceship came down near the car. At the sight of the creatures, Barney Hill recollects running back to the vehicle in fear, screaming that they wanted to catch them.

Back in the car, Barney started the engine back  and tried to drive away. The couple recalls hearing a strange series of rhythmic beeping sounds at this point.

Once home, however, they had a strange feeling and noticed unusual things: small rips in Betty's dress, a tear in Barney's binocular straps, and holes in his shoe.

The strangest thing they noticed was that they had some time missing from the ride home. They didn't remember a fragment of about 35 miles of the trip right after the strange encounter. The memory of what they had seen was so fragmented that they couldn't put together what had happened.

Two years after this event, the couple saw a psychiatrist who performed regressive hypnosis therapy to help them remember the events that night. By then, they had realized that they had lost about two hours from their memory.

After numerous regressive hypnosis sessions, Betty and Barney Hill were able to reconstruct what happened. Despite being separated during the sessions, their versions of events were quite similar.

A 1975 TV film called 'The UFO Incident' collected the audio tapes of those sessions. Richard A. Colla directed it.

In the films opening credits, the director claims that the story was based on a series of documents from the United States Air Force archives. The Hills had turned to the authorities immediately after the incident.

Under hypnosis, Betty and Barney Hill told their psychiatrist that the extraterrestrials had kidnapped them. Taking them to their spaceship and subjecting them to tests and experiments.

Photo: Wikipedia

According to the Hills, the bipedal aliens with gray skin and bulging eyes had taken hair and tissue samples from different body parts using tools similar to syringes.

Betty and Barney Hill recalled that after collecting several samples, the aliens released them, erasing their conscious memory.

Betty Hill also managed to reconstruct a star map indicating the extraterrestrials' origin. From this reconstruction, experts concluded that it was Zeta Reticuli, a star system located in the southern constellation of the Lattice, 39.2 light years from Earth.

The Hill case was one of the first cases of documented UFO sightings. The New Hampshire University archives still preserve all the documents and audio recordings made during the hypnosis sessions and interviews.

In the final episode of a docuseries about the events, the psychiatrist that treated the couple revealed his perception. The doctor concluded that their alleged encounter with aliens stemmed from the social pressures of being an interracial couple when such a union was ill-supported. The show, called 'UFO,' was broadcast in 2021 by streaming service 'Showtime,' as reported by sify.com.

The same psychiatrist claims he changed his mind six months later and concluded that the couple was telling the truth, according to a fragment of the docuseries.

Barney Hill passed away in 1969, only eight years after the incident, but his wife Betty died in 2004. Throughout her life, she fought extensively to prove their story and the existence of aliens. Her niece, Kathleen Marden, wrote a book about her aunt in 2007: 'Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience.'

Whether it's true or not, one thing is sure: The Barnie and Betty Hill story remains a milestone for the ufology community and one of the most fascinating tales about alien sightings.