Monday, July 1, 2013

Aliens and Race Relations

Today I thought I'd share something fun about a famous interracial couple from history.  I'd never heard of Betty and Barney Hill, but if you're familiar with UFO trivia, you might know of them.  This article is from ListVerse.


Betty and Barney Hill were from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Barney worked for the post office and Betty was a social worker. The Hills were also members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and community leaders. On the night of September19th, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were heading back from a vacation in Southern Canada to their home in New England. They claimed to have observed a bright light in the sky that appeared to be following them. They arrived home at about 3 am and realized (later, when it was pointed out to them) that they had lost about 2 hours of time. Two weeks later Betty began having nightmares. In her nightmares, she described being taken aboard an alien spacecraft and then having medical experiments performed on her. Betty and Barney then decided to undergo hypnosis.  
In separate sessions, they described some similar experiences of being taken on board an alien spacecraft. Betty said she was shown a star map which she was able to memorize and reproduce later, which some believe is showing Zeta Reticuli as the aliens’ home. Under Barneys hypnotic session he said a cup-like device was placed over his genitals and thought that a sperm sample was taken. He also said he heard them speaking in a mumbling language that he did not understand. The UFO incident was distracting and embarrassing for Barney Hill. He feared that the tabloid publicity would tarnish his battle for equality and dignity. The Hills eventually went back to their regular lives but were always willing to discuss the UFO encounter with friends and UFO researchers. The release of the book “Interrupted Journey” in the mid-1960s, and a movie called The UFO Incident, starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons turned Betty and Barney Hill into the world’s most famous UFO “abductees.”

Interesting Fact: Some psychiatrists suggested later that the supposed abduction was a hallucination brought on by the stress of being an interracial couple in early 60s. Betty discounted this suggestion, saying that her relationship with Barney was happy, and their interracial marriage caused no notable problems with their friends or family. Barney died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1969, and Betty died of cancer in 2004. Many of Betty Hill’s notes, tapes and other items have been placed in a permanent collection at the library of the University of New Hampshire, her alma mater.

Had you ever heard of Betty and Barney Hill, or have you ever known anyone who claims to have been abducted by aliens?  Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

10 comments:

Old Kitty said...

What a great story! And what a fab couple! Whatever happened I love that it was a shared experience - it's obvious their feelings ran deep with each other! It's very sad that shortly after Barney died though. Take care
x

shelly said...

Yup. I've heard of them. And I believe what they experienced to be a truth.

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

Shelly said...

Wow- no, I hadn't heard of them, but this was fascinating. I don't know of anyone who claims to have been abducted, but I did have a relative who very firmly said over and over he'd been followed by a strange light one night.

Norma said...

No, I hadn't heard of them...but I'm pretty sure this may be the only incident of alien abduction of two intelligent people. Usually, it's a couple of rednecks out fishing with a case of beer in their boat.

It was easy to laugh it off in those instances. The Hills' story make me believe it's possible--and I'm a little unnerved by that.

Jennette Marie Powell said...

My sister-in-law says she was once abducted by aliens! Interestingly, her dad worked at Wright-Patterson AFB - in Building 18 (as opposed to Hangar 18, which doesn't exist :) ).

Romance Book Haven said...

Interesting story. It's always fascinating to read about real life stories.

Nas

Maria McKenzie said...

@Kitty: They are a fab couple!

@Shelly: I believe it too!

@Shelly: I remember hearing a lot about those strange lights back in the '70s.

@Norma: You are so right! What they said rings true, and it is unnerving.

@Jennette: That's amazing! She'd make a great sci-fi resource!

@Nas: And sometimes life is stranger than fiction!

William Kendall said...

No, I hadn't heard of them... nor do I know of anyone who's experienced that.

Though I kind of wish the little grey men would try that with my idiot ex-brother-in-law, and leave him floating in the dead of space. Just saying.

Maria said...

This was fascinating. I don't live anywhere near the USA, maybe that's why I've never heard of this pair.

I've heard a lot of theories about aliens though. The most interesting one I heard recently is based on Biblical lore that angels are all male and God the Father first made Adam androgynous and later separated the male and female. Apparently, after the Heavenly wars, many heavenly angels defected to the enemy side and some of the angels apparently made love with human women and gave birth to demonic beings. The great flood in the Bible in which Noah was rescued by the Ark was supposedly to rid the world of these beings. Well acording to some theories I've half heard, some of these beings have survived and are now aliens surrounding the earth, looking for their chance to get back in again. I'm not sure I believe this theory, but it's certainly interesting.

Maria McKenzie said...

@William: Tee-hee!

@Maria: That is absolutely fascinating! I've never heard that, but it sounds like a great premise for a paranormal sci-fi story;).