Secret life: firsthand accounts of UFO abductions (7 page)

In spite of hundreds of accounts of people flying through closed windows, it is exceedingly rare to find an outside witness who has observed it. Therefore, although it sounds impossible, the physical mechanism that allows people to pass through solid objects probably renders them invisible, at least for this part of the abduction experience.

Floating can be extremely unpleasant. Many abductees experience
nausea and dizziness, compounded by their fear and confusion. As the abductee travels up, rooftops and treetops recede, and then stars come into view. During the transition upward she is only vaguely aware of her body; she may not even be able to see it. As she continues her journey, she approaches the source of the light and is floated into a UFO.

When I met Barbara Archer in 1987, she was a petite, twenty-one-year-old university student who was studying to be a journalist. She was overwhelmed with fear and anxiety when she remembered snippets of bizarre events that had dominated her life. During the course of her six hypnosis sessions with me she was able to recall vividly her extraordinary experiences. One night when she was sixteen years old, she was getting ready to go to bed when she noticed a light coming in through the window. When she closed the shade, the light continued to illuminate the entire room. She looked outside but could not see the source of the light. During a hypnosis session, she remembered what had happened in the beginning of the event. I asked her how she felt when she saw the light.

Well, I think when I first realized that the light was in my room it made me feel scared, but like I couldn’t figure it out.

So you’re puzzled?

Yeah. I should look out the other window, because I could see more of the sky. But I just didn’t…. There’s all this light still. I start to feel like, I sit there for a while and I look out the window, and then I turn around because I think that there might be somebody there. I first thought that it might be the dog. After a while I just stop looking out the window because there’s nothing there to see.

Do you sort of look back in, though, can you get the sense that… ?

Well, the light seems to be going away. It’s not filling the whole room as much anymore. When I turn around there’s somebody standing over by the closet.

Is this a big person, or a medium person, little person?

He’s smaller than me. I’m not all that shocked to see him standing there…. I think he came toward me when I was standing there by the window…. I think he touches my arm. He sort of touches me around my wrist area, between my elbow and my wrist sort of. It feels better then, I mean, I’m not scared or anything now.

When he touches your wrist, what happens next?

Well, I turn around toward the window again, the side window that I had been looking out of. I just sort of go up.

Okay. Is this through the shade?

Yes. I think I left the shade down. I don’t remember putting it up, anyway. And we just go out. Oh, I feel so dizzy…. It feels terrible.

Do you get a sense that you’re going horizontally?

No, up.

Is it straight up like an elevator, or… ?

Yes. It’s up straight.

Can you get a sense of movement, or do you just feel that you’re going up?

I feel sort of like I’m on an elevator except there’s no walls or anything around it, it’s just up fast….

Can you see anything outside?

When we went out the window we went straight in between the two row houses, my house and my next-door neighbor’s. The houses go back a little bit and there’s like a room in there
between my bedroom and the bedroom across from me, it sort of goes back, like a little cove sort of thing. And I go straight up from in between there. So I can see everything. I can see all the row houses on my street, in the driveway. I feel really nauseous…. I hope I don’t get sick.

[I assured Barbara that the feeling would subside and she would not be sick.] Can you get a sense of if you’re headed toward a specific point?

We’re going straight up. I looked down and I saw the trees and everything on my street, and it makes me feel kind of scared because I don’t really like heights. Not scared, but it just makes this nauseous feeling a little bit worse, I think. But then after that we’re just going straight up. I know that we’re going to some place.

Do you get a sense of weather? Can you feel breezes? Is it cold? Do you get a sense of being outside?

It doesn’t feel cold or anything. Just kind of feels like body temperature.

Do you get a sense that you might be enclosed in something? Is something protecting you from the weather?

Not that I can tell. I can’t feel anything, or touch anything.

So you still continue to go up.

Yes.

Can you see yourself approaching something?

Yes. When I look up I can see the bottom of, kind of a big, I think it’s roundish, but longer, though. It’s like an oval maybe. I can see the bottom, sort of gray, dark gray.

Is it big, or small, or are you a little too far away to get that sense?

Well, it’s big, but it’s not huge. I can remember from before, and it’s not that big.

Do you sort of get closer to it then?

Mm-hmm. It feels like there’s sort of light around me, that we’re following up. And we’re getting closer to the point of where that’s coming from, inside that big thing.

Are you heading toward the center of it, or off to the side?

Yes, the center, underneath. We just go right in through the bottom.

Is this other person still with you?

Yes. I think he’s still there. When we get there, there’s somebody else waiting for us at the inside.

(Barbara Archer, 16, 1982)

Other abductees report floating horizontally across buildings and fields, and then coming down in a field or secluded area. The UFO is in a clearing and the abductee and aliens walk to it, sometimes a considerable distance. Why this happens is not known.

When the abductee is near other people, they are usually rendered unconscious or immobile while the abduction is going on. Typically they sleep through the abduction; if they are awakened at the beginning of it they are made to go back to sleep immediately. This “switching off” procedure presumably allows for secrecy to be kept and for minimal disruption in the life of the nonabductee. When the abduction is over, the nonabductee will be switched on once again and resume normal activities.

In spite of the aliens’ ability to control human behavior, from time to time an abductee will see another person being abducted. “Tom,” for example, told me an intriguing story. He was making love to his
wife “Nancy” (the couple asked that their names be changed) when she complained that she felt an “electric jolt” go through her hips. He said that he did not feel anything. He looked at the clock and was surprised to find that he had been engaged in lovemaking for about forty-five minutes. This seemed odd because he felt that he had not been doing it for more than a few minutes and there were no “gaps” that he was aware of. When I questioned him during hypnosis, Tom remembered seeing two Small Beings come into the room. He was switched off and the Beings moved him off his wife.

She turns her head for a moment, and it’s like she drew a quick breath…. But it’s like, there’s something pulling us apart, but it’s like we look like a couple of rag dolls, it’s like we’re completely poleaxed, whatever you call it, shot with a tranquilizer dart, like a couple of grizzlies or something. It’s like we’re just completely limp, but I’m just facedown on the bed. I don’t know where she is.

Do you sort of feel yourself going limp just before you realize you are like a couple of rag dolls?

Yeah, I just felt clammy, like I was losing energy. It was like I felt like I had been at it for a couple of hours or so, which isn’t usual….

Now, you say that you sort of go limp like rag dolls, so that means that you must be lying on her.

Yes, I’m lying on her. They pull me off, and I’m on my side, but my eyes aren’t moving. I can only see what’s in the field of vision, and I’m on my side. I can see, it’s like everything’s sideways because I can’t turn my head up, and they’re there, and they’ve got her, and there’s a flash, it’s dark.

Is she standing?

No, she’s gone!

Oh, you say they’ve got her. Do they stand her up? Do they get her out of bed that way? Does she walk?

It was like they rolled her off. As they were rolling her off the edge of the bed, she just faded out with them, just like a flash. And yet I’m thinking she’ll be back…. It’s like I’m shutting down. I’m just there, that’s all. It’s like my eyes, I’m trying, I can’t move my eyes.

Are you still on your side?

No. Well, my head’s turned to the left enough so my left eye still has slight field of vision to the edge of the bed, but there’s nothing there to see, and the other eye is just staring into the blanket. I can’t move my eye. I can’t move from left to right.

But your eyes are open?

Yeah, they’re open, but it’s like nothing’s happening.

While you’re lying there, and she’s gone, do you get a sense that anybody touches you?

I don’t think so. I’m just lying there, I might as well be asleep, except I don’t know why I’m not. I’d like to move, but I can’t move, so I just don’t…. I’ve got a headache, I know that, and my left arm’s cramping.

Can you move your left arm?

No, I can’t move it, but it’s cramping. And the right, my right leg, the tendons from the knee down to the ankle, they’re trying to cramp up, but I can’t do anything about it.

You can’t flex your foot or anything?

No, all I can feel is a tingle, like the muscles are trying to pull but they won’t pull. I can’t do anything about it, but I have a hell of a headache.

Now, you’re looking over somewhere?

Yeah.

When you look there before, Nancy was in your field of vision as they rolled her off the bed.

Yeah.

Can you see her coming back now, or at least coming into view?

It’s like, I can’t see them, but I can see her. It’s like she’s—it’s eerie—it’s like she was down on the side of the bed the whole time, and it’s like if you could imagine the bed like a conveyor belt, if I’m not moving, and it is, it’s almost as if she was down on the side of the bed and she just nonchalantly rolled back up onto the bed, not under her power, but just under a conveyance. She was suddenly there, but I didn’t see anyone around her…. She comes into view.

From your… ?

From below my field of vision, below the bed, up onto the bed. Then I can sense myself, I’m getting poked and pushed around, I’m being pulled back and we’re being moved, manipulated around. And yet I can move again, and it’s just like we never missed a beat….

So suddenly your wife is back in bed.

Yes.

Is she alert, or is she out of it?

No, she’s awake.

This is before you get back on top.

No, oh, before that, she’s limp, completely, totally limp.

Are her eyes open or closed?

Closed.

Do you see yourself getting back into the position that you were in before?

I’m being
put
into position. That’s odd. That’s real odd.

I’m going to ask you another horribly embarrassing question.

That’s all right.

How did you get an erection? Is it just there?

I still had one.

You mean the whole time that you were…

Yeah, that I know.

So that…

It’s got to be a record.

So the blood never essentially drained…

No, everything is as it was…

So then you finish?

Yeah. She says, “Ouch!” She said she felt an electric shock. I said, “Where?” She said, “Right there,” and pointed to her hip. And I remember looking at the clock and I’m thinking it’s around, I know it’s midnight, I’m thinking 12:05.

(“Tom,” 1988)

I asked Tom not to discuss the incident with his wife, who had been thinking of coming to see me to investigate some unusual
events that had happened to her. When she came I asked if we could hypnotically investigate the incident of her feeling an electric shock going through her hips. She was surprised when I mentioned it because she had not thought about it since it happened, and it did not seem to be related to abductions. After the hypnosis session began, she started to describe the lovemaking episode and then she saw a blue light in her room pointed at her.

It’s aiming right at me.

From in front of you, or on top of you, or… ?

I think it’s behind me.

What is behind your bed, there?

At the time, a window and the heater.