Betty and Barney Hill claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials on September 16, 1961. Their story, commonly called the Hill Abduction and occasionally the Zeta Reticuli Incident, was the first widely publicized UFO abduction report.

The incident

That evening while driving back to their Portsmouth, New Hampshire area home from a vacation in Canada, the Hills spotted a light in the sky that seemed to be following them. They reported that the object came closer, and was clearly a craft. Barney was concerned that the occupants intended to kill or capture them, so he stopped to retrieve a revolver from the car's trunk. He then claimed to have seen human-like creatures peering at him through windows on the craft. He drove away quickly, but the Hills later reported so-called "lost time": several hours seemed to have passed without their recollection, and they were at a location different from where they had stopped the car.

Betty was especially troubled by the incident and, in the weeks and months afterward, read a number of UFO-related books. In late 1963, the couple sought hypnosis, hoping it might help them recover their memories of the missing time.

Hypnosis and star map

Under hypnosis sessions in 1963, the Hills recounted what later became the standard UFO abduction template: They seemed hypnotized or paralyzed, and were unable to resist the apparent medical examinations they were forced to undergo. Their adbuctors were described as more or less human, though with very large eyes and large noses. Barney described their clothing as resembling military uniforms.

While on the craft, Betty reported seeing a hologram-like star map, which she assumed depicted the craft's home planet. She later sketched this map from memory. Marjorie Fish, an astronomy enthusiast — unconnected to the Hills — analysed Betty's sketch and concluded it could have depicted Zeta Reticuli. Carl Sagan noted the map was so vague and ambiguous that any star system or constellation could be matched to it with little difficulty. Some have dubbed the Hills' account The Zeta Reticuli Incident because of this, but most Ufologists prefer the Hill Abduction or some similar term.

Interrupted Journey

The 1966 publication of Interrupted Journey, by John G. Fuller, details much of the Hills' claims. Excerpts of the book were published in Look Magazine, and Interrupted Journey went on to sell many copies and greatly publicize the Hills' account.

Barney Hill died of a cerebral hemorrhage, in 1969.

Later, Betty claimed to have seen UFOs a number of times after the initial abduction, and she "became a celebrity in the UFO community." [1]

Betty Hill died October 17, 2004. [2]

Analyses

• Psychiatrists later suggested that the supposed abduction was a hallucination brought on by the stress of being an interracial couple in early 'sixties America. (Betty was white, Barney was African American.) Betty discounted this suggestion, noting her relationship with Barney was happy, and their interracial marriage caused no notable problems with their friends or family.

• Critics have suggested the Hills' hypnosis brought on confabulation--the blending fantasy with memory--arguing the recovered memories are unreliable.

• Some have speculated that the abduction account was influenced by an episode of The Outer Limits broadcast after the incident but twelve days before a hypnotic regression performed on the couple to get more detail on the incident. The report from the regression featured a scenario similar to the television show. Barney discounted this suggestion, noting that he he usually worked in the evenings, and rarely watched television; furthermore, before the abduction he says, he had no special interest in UFOs or science fiction.

• A new site has proposed a solution to the Hill's abduction story, arguing that a common but little known feature of human physiology related to the human vision "startle reflex"--in conjunction with confabulation may explains the Hills' episode. [3]

Fictional portrayal

The couple were portrayed by James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons in the 1975 television movie The UFO Incident.

Star systems possibly depicted on the Hill map

• Sun
• Zeta Reticuli
• Alpha Mensae
• 82 Eridani
• Tau Ceti
• 137 Piscium
• 54 Piscium
• HD 10307
• HD 13445
• Tau Eridani
• Kappa Fornacis
• HD 14412
• HD 13435
• HD 9540

External links

• The Eyes That Spoke (CSICOP)
• Detailed discussions on the incident and the star map

Books

• Fuller, John G. (1975). Interrupted Journey (Mass Market Paperback edition); Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN 0-425030024.