Barney Hill

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Good answer. But I think kittynh was the one being asked the question. I'd certainly like to hear her answer.

I don't mind if kittynh answers.

 

[Stellafane]

Do tell...

For example:

Betty Hill...lived to a ripe old age and became one of the best-known figures in the UFO community, a constant fixture on TV shows, at UFO conferences, etc. Whatever credibility she may have once had soon perished by her own hand. I was present at the National UFO Conference in New York City in 1980, at which Betty presented some of the UFO photos she had taken. She showed what must have been well over two hundred slides, mostly of blips, blurs, and blobs against a dark background. These were supposed to be UFOs coming in close, chasing her car, landing, etc. Marden includes several of these photos in the book. After her talk had exceeded about twice its allotted time, Betty was literally jeered off the stage by what had been at first a very sympathetic audience. This incident, witnessed by many of UFOlogy’s leaders and top activists, removed any lingering doubts about Betty’s credibility—she had none. In the oft-repeated words of one UFOlogist who accompanied Betty on a UFO vigil in 1977, she was “unable to distinguish between a landed UFO and a streetlight.” In 1995, Betty Hill wrote a self-published book, A Common Sense Approach to UFOs. It is filled with obviously delusional stories, such as seeing entire squadrons of UFOs in flight and a truck levitating above the freeway.

Some in the UFO community excuse Mrs. Hill's behavior as gradual age-induced disconnection with reality which began after the death of her stabilizing husband. However, her bizzare stories apparently started well before Barney died. For example, the following is from a letter she wrote April 1964:

Barney and I go out frequently at night for one reason or another. Since last October, we have seen our ‘friends’ on the average of eight or nine times out of every ten trips, outside of Portsmouth...Last Saturday Barney and I decided to retrace our trip in the White Mountains, as of September 1961, but this time my parents were with us. As we were returning through the Franconia Notch in the general area of the tramway and Cannon Mountain, one [UFO] moved around the mountain about fifty feet from the ground, in front of us. Its lights dimmed out and we could see the row of windows before it became invisible.

"Eight or nine times out of ten trips" would appear to indicate that for the Hills, UFO sightings were about as common as Dunkin Donuts.

Source.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Kitty, you write, "Certainly there are charlatans, hoaxers, delusional people, mentally ill people, etc. that think they’ve been abducted by aliens. I’ve met them. But the Hill case is convincing. Something occurred and it appears not to have been perpetrated by humans. My comparative analysis of the hypnosis tapes has convinced me of that."



Could you expand on that?

To give Kitty a hook on which to sling her reply, I'll comment on that, and in particular, this part:

"My comparative analysis of the hypnosis tapes has convinced me of that".

Hypnosis yields questionable, subjective, fabricated stories. Comparative analysis of fabrications should yield only fabrications.

I hope kitty has not fallen for the Appeal to Large Numbers Fallacy of believing in garbage just because there is lots of it.

 

[bobwtfomg]

Orphia reread kitty's link, I think you'll find that s/he is quoting Betty Hill's niece

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Orphia reread kitty's link, I think you'll find that s/he is quoting Betty Hill's niece

Well that makes sense, because Kitty says right there in the OP that the niece is a believer while she (Kitty) is not.

ETA: But it's an understandable mistake. The typography for the block quote doesn't make it tremendously clear that that paragraph is a quoted from an e-mail.

 

[Orphia Nay]

Thanks, Bob and Joe. Yes, it does appear to be a quote from Hill's niece now that I view it on my computer.

My apologies, Kitty.

 

[SezMe]

From Stellafane's first quote:

Betty presented some of the UFO photos she had taken. She showed what must have been well over two hundred slides, mostly of blips, blurs, and blobs against a dark background. These were supposed to be UFOs coming in close, chasing her car, landing, etc.

I have a similar anecdote. I snuck into a UFO presentation a couple of months ago given by a guy who had written a (self-published) book about UFOs in California, New Mexico and New York (I think.) He too went way over his time and showed slide after slide after slide .... Most of them were vague lights in the sky. Maybe UFOers think quantity trumps quality.

BTW, he showed a couple of pictures that had been discussed and demolished here. It was fun to see them presented as "clear cases for UFOs">