{"it":{"id":"UFO-HILL1961","name":"Betty and Barney Hill","kind":"ufo","sub":"Historical sighting","place":"White Mountains, New Hampshire, USA","lat":44.1,"lon":-71.68,"date":"1961-09-19/20","rep":"Abduction and a 'star map'.","off":"Sceptics: hypnosis-era confabulation; an Outer Limits episode aired on 10 February 1964, about two weeks before Barney's first session.","src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident"},{"t":"Project Blue Book case record, Lincoln NH, 20 Sep 1961 (NICAP copy)","u":"https://nicap.org/reports/0450-74.htm"},{"t":"University of New Hampshire: Betty and Barney Hill Papers (MC 197)","u":"https://archives.unh.edu/repositories/3/resources/107"}],"tags":["Sightings"],"sum":"On 19–20 September 1961, on a 178-mile drive through New Hampshire, Betty and Barney Hill reached home about two hours later than expected and could not account for the gap. Their account became the template for abduction stories.","nsrc":3,"new":1,"qs":["The Hills' abduction details surfaced only under hypnosis, two weeks after a similar TV alien aired. Recovered memory, or recycled television?","New Hampshire put up a state historical marker for the Hills in 2011. Should governments commemorate events they've never confirmed?","If the Hills' seven missing hours were real, the modern abduction era began on a New Hampshire road. What does that change about us?"],"yt":"Watch the Outer Limits episode and compare it with published accounts of Barney's sessions.","rel":["UFO-PAS1973","UFO-WAL1975"],"hook":"The morning after the drive, the toes of Barney Hill's best dress shoes were scraped, and he couldn't say why.","why":"It is the case that set the pattern for every abduction story told since."},"S":{},"rec":{"id":"UFO-HILL1961","sum":"When Barney Hill got home on the morning after the drive, the toes of his best dress shoes were scraped, and he could not say how.\n\nOn 19–20 September 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were driving 178 miles home through New Hampshire when, they said, a lighted craft followed their car near Indian Head. They reached home about two hours later than expected and could not account for the gap. That night each drew a picture of what they had seen.\n\nThe detailed abduction story came later, under hypnosis with the Boston psychiatrist Benjamin Simon. Barney's first session was on 22 February 1964 and Betty's followed the next week. Under hypnosis they described being taken aboard and examined. John Fuller's 1966 book The Interrupted Journey made the case famous, and its pattern of missing time, examination and recovered memory became the template for later abduction accounts.\n\nSimon himself concluded the story was not literal; he saw it as a psychological experience, not a physical event. The writer Martin Kottmeyer later pointed out that an episode of The Outer Limits, The Bellero Shield, featuring a wrap-around-eyed alien, aired on 10 February 1964, 12 days before Barney's first session. Supporters point to radar reports from Pease Air Force Base that night, and to a star map Betty recalled, which Marjorie Fish later matched to Zeta Reticuli. Carl Sagan and Steven Soter called that match a chance alignment.\n\nWhat happened on the road is still unsettled. The case raises a narrower question too: what hypnosis can and cannot recover.","qs":["The Hills' abduction details surfaced only under hypnosis, 12 days after a similar TV alien aired. Recovered memory, or recycled television?","Their own psychiatrist did not take the story literally. How much weight should his judgement carry?","Betty's star map was matched to Zeta Reticuli, and astronomers called the match chance. What would make a pattern like that convincing?"],"gal":[],"ms":[],"aa":[],"ac":[],"src":[{"t":"Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident"},{"id":"VUFO-HILL1961-2","t":"Blue Book, 0450-74","u":"https://nicap.org/reports/0450-74.htm"}],"pts":[{"p":"178-mile drive with roughly 7 hours unaccounted for, in their account.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident"},{"p":"NICAP's Walter Webb interviewed them on 21 Oct 1961.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident"},{"p":"A New Hampshire historical marker was placed in 2011.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident"},{"p":"Betty Hill's notes and tapes are held at the University of New Hampshire.","g":"SINGLE SOURCE","b":"S","t":"Wikipedia: Barney and Betty Hill incident","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill_incident"}]},"img":null,"md":{"h":"img/m/UFO-HILL1961-16x9.webp","w":1600,"hh":900,"alt":"Betty and Barney Hill, White Mountains, New Hampshire, USA — Title: Indian Head Resort, North Woodstock, New Hampshire Physical description: 1 photograph : color transparency…","by":"John Margolies","lic":"Public domain","lu":"","p":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_Head_Resort,_North_Woodstock,_New_Hampshire_LCCN2017710154.tif","g":false,"ct":false,"cap":"","sec":[]},"hh":null,"hs":{}}