Jason Colavito
2012/2014
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"You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about the experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to--the Outer Limits!"
opening narration, The Outer Limits
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The infamous case of Betty and Barney Hill set the template for alien abduction stories to follow. The pair claimed that on the night September 19-20, 1961, they were abducted by extraterrestrials on a rural road near Lancaster, New Hampshire. They had witnessed a bright light they took to be an alien spacecraft and were shocked to discover that they had traveled thirty-five miles without realizing that they had done so, a phenomenon dubbed “missing time” in ufological literature. The next day the Hills contacted the U.S. Air Force to report their encounter with a flying saucer. In the Air Force’s report, the Hills provided only a vague and generalized description of the sighting without details of the abduction. Betty Hill later claimed that this was due to her fear of being labeled eccentric.
According to the United States Air Force’s Project Blue Book, the Hills told the Air Force only that they had witnessed an unidentified object, which they described in terms reminiscent of science fiction rocket ships:
According to the United States Air Force’s Project Blue Book, the Hills told the Air Force only that they had witnessed an unidentified object, which they described in terms reminiscent of science fiction rocket ships:
Continuous band of lights. Cigar-shaped at all times despite changes of direction. Wings seemed to appear fm main body. Described as V-shaped with red lights on tips: later wings appeared to extend further.
There was no mention of extraterrestrial beings, their appearance, or abduction. Speaking with a private UFO investigator in October 1961, the occupants gained form, described as being human, wearing shiny black leather-like uniforms with peaked caps, and moving like German soldiers. The Hills did not claim to be abducted at this point, though they now said they had feared they might be.
From January to June 1964, the Hills underwent hypnosis sessions with Dr. Benjamin Simon of Boston. Under hypnosis, Barney Hill described the occupants of the craft. (All quotations are taken from the published transcripts in John G. Fuller’s The Interrupted Journey.)
From January to June 1964, the Hills underwent hypnosis sessions with Dr. Benjamin Simon of Boston. Under hypnosis, Barney Hill described the occupants of the craft. (All quotations are taken from the published transcripts in John G. Fuller’s The Interrupted Journey.)
DOCTOR: What was the face like? What did it make you think of?
BARNEY: It was round […] I think of—I think of—a red-headed Irishman. I don’t know why. [The leader] looks like a German Nazi. He’s a Nazi.
DOCTOR: Did he have on a uniform?
BARNEY: Yes…He had on a black scarf around his neck, dangling over his left shoulder. […] His eyes were slanted. Oh—his eyes were slanted! But not like a Chinese—Oh. Oh.
Hill later describes the alien as wearing a “black, black shiny jacket and scarf,” and also that the other aliens all wore “black jackets.” The aliens, envisioned in 1961 as resembling Nazi soldiers, acquired clothing more like black leather biker gear, widely feared as the uniform of aggressive juvenile delinquents for much of the preceding decade.
In a subsequent session, Hill describes the power of the eyes of the alien:
In a subsequent session, Hill describes the power of the eyes of the alien:
"I was told to close my eyes because I saw two eyes coming close to mine, and I felt like the eyes had pushed into my eyes … All I see are these eyes... I'm not even afraid that they're not connected to a body. They're just there. They're just up close to me, pressing against my eyes."
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Due to a complete lack of physical evidence for any abduction, as well as careful research into the way hypnosis can be used to induce fantasies, skeptics have rightly dismissed such accounts as imaginative creations and have sought an origin for them in science fiction.
Because this type of “slanted” eye was rare in aliens depicted in science fiction films of the era, skeptics seized upon it as evidence that Barney Hill was recalling a particular episode of the classic television series The Outer Limits, called “The Bellero Shield,” that had aired February 10, 1964, twelve days before Barney Hill’s hypnosis session in which he described his alleged abduction. This episode features an extraterrestrial with the same eye configuration. This connection was proposed by Martin Kottmeyer in a 1990 article in which he wrote the following: |
The extraterrestrial creature from "The Bellero Shield"
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Wraparound eyes are an extreme rarity in science fiction films. I know of only one instance. They appeared on the alien of an episode of an old TV series The Outer Limits entitled "The Bellero Shield". A person familiar with Barney's sketch in "The Interrupted Journey" and the sketch done in collaboration with the artist David Baker will find a "frisson" of "déjà vu" creeping up his spine when seeing this episode. The resemblance is much abetted by an absence of ears, hair, and nose on both aliens. Could it be by chance? Consider this: Barney first described and drew the wraparound eyes during the hypnosis session dated 22 February 1964. "The Bellero Shield" was first broadcast on 10 February 1964. Only twelve days separate the two instances. If the identification is admitted, the commonness of wraparound eyes in the abduction literature falls to cultural forces.
However, UFO researchers felt that the connection was not sufficiently clear. Stanton Friedman, for example, wrote in Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience (2007) that the Hills “were far too busy to watch science fiction movies.” (The Outer Limits was a television show.) “An artist we know watched ‘The Bellero Shield’ and indicated that the alien’s features did not match drawings done in response to Barney’s description, and was also much taller. Obviously [skeptics have] not done [their] homework.”
Neither has anybody else. Stanton Friedman didn’t watch The Outer Limits (and, really, shouldn’t he have done so rather than take the word of “an artist we know”?), and so far as I can tell no skeptical writer discussing the case of the Hills has watched The Outer Limits either, merely repeating Kottmeyer’s assertion, which Kottmeyer himself admitted was based entirely on his chance recollection of one episode of the series.
Fortunately, I have watched The Outer Limits and can offer a better discussion of the series and its clear parallels to the Hill abduction.
“The Bellero Shield” is the second of three consecutive episodes airing in the weeks before Barney Hill’s February 22, 1964 hypnosis session that contain key elements of the Hills’ abduction claims. It is, however, the least important of the three. In the February 10, 1964 "Bellero" episode, a scientist (Martin Landau) invents a laser that pulls an extraterrestrial being down from the stars like a tractor beam from later UFO mythology. The scientist’s wife (Sally Kellerman) kills the alien to steal its advanced technology in a bid to seize control of the Bellero Corporation from her father-in-law, played by Neil Hamilton, best known as Commissioner Gordon from the Adam West Batman series. Although the alien’s eye sockets have the slanted shape reported by Hill, the alien is dressed entirely in white, and his eyes are never the focus in his scenes. One important similarity is that the alien communicates by telepathy, which the Hills state is how their aliens communicated with them.
More important are the two episodes that surround this one. In “The Invisibles,” which aired February 3, 1964 (and also featured Neil Hamilton, making it easy to conflate episodes), invisible extraterrestrials perform surgical experiments on (voluntarily) imprisoned humans in order to take over their bodies. In the operating theater, the aliens (already wearing human bodies) order a man to lie face down on a table. One alien wields a scalpel and makes an incision into his back, described as no deeper that one resulting from being stuck by a broach. A crab-like monster is placed on the man’s back, and through this the invisible parasite enters the human, a process repeated on several men. The Control Voice (the show's narrator) states that “the race they are joining today is only half human.”
Neither has anybody else. Stanton Friedman didn’t watch The Outer Limits (and, really, shouldn’t he have done so rather than take the word of “an artist we know”?), and so far as I can tell no skeptical writer discussing the case of the Hills has watched The Outer Limits either, merely repeating Kottmeyer’s assertion, which Kottmeyer himself admitted was based entirely on his chance recollection of one episode of the series.
Fortunately, I have watched The Outer Limits and can offer a better discussion of the series and its clear parallels to the Hill abduction.
“The Bellero Shield” is the second of three consecutive episodes airing in the weeks before Barney Hill’s February 22, 1964 hypnosis session that contain key elements of the Hills’ abduction claims. It is, however, the least important of the three. In the February 10, 1964 "Bellero" episode, a scientist (Martin Landau) invents a laser that pulls an extraterrestrial being down from the stars like a tractor beam from later UFO mythology. The scientist’s wife (Sally Kellerman) kills the alien to steal its advanced technology in a bid to seize control of the Bellero Corporation from her father-in-law, played by Neil Hamilton, best known as Commissioner Gordon from the Adam West Batman series. Although the alien’s eye sockets have the slanted shape reported by Hill, the alien is dressed entirely in white, and his eyes are never the focus in his scenes. One important similarity is that the alien communicates by telepathy, which the Hills state is how their aliens communicated with them.
More important are the two episodes that surround this one. In “The Invisibles,” which aired February 3, 1964 (and also featured Neil Hamilton, making it easy to conflate episodes), invisible extraterrestrials perform surgical experiments on (voluntarily) imprisoned humans in order to take over their bodies. In the operating theater, the aliens (already wearing human bodies) order a man to lie face down on a table. One alien wields a scalpel and makes an incision into his back, described as no deeper that one resulting from being stuck by a broach. A crab-like monster is placed on the man’s back, and through this the invisible parasite enters the human, a process repeated on several men. The Control Voice (the show's narrator) states that “the race they are joining today is only half human.”
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This correlates closely with Barney Hill’s statements that the aliens seemed almost but not quite human, especially the incorrectly hybridized humans who are physically deformed. The surgical scenes, including the partial nudity, recall the alien probing described by Barney Hill. While the Outer Limits had to conform to 1960s-era prudery, Hill’s description of his probing was more graphic, including an alien scraping his skin (just as the creatures in “The Invisibles” do) as well as manipulation of his genitals, manipulation of his spine (again, just like in “The Invisibles”), and the insertion of a tube into his anus (perhaps a more sexualized garbling of the insertion of the crab-creature’s tube-like appendages in “The Invisibles”). With the exception of the genital manipulation, these procedures, logically, had to take place while lying face-down, just like the subject in “The Invisibles.” Later alien abduction probing was usually depicted as face-up.
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Alien implant surgery in "The Invisibles."
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Skeptics frequently relate the Hills' surgical procedures to the 1953 film Invaders from Mars because that film included a very specific image of a needle inserted into the neck of a woman which is similar to the needle in the navel given in Betty Hill’s descriptions. This cannot be discounted, but the appearance of similar surgical procedures in “The Invisibles,” coupled with a little imagination and sexual anxiety, renders an eleven-year-old memory of an old movie the less likely explanation.
It probably goes without saying that Barney Hill’s descriptions are consistent with the types of sexual waking dreams experienced during the transition into or out of sleep.
The third and most important episode of The Outer Limits aired only five days before Barney Hill’s hypnosis section. Called “The Children of Spider County” (February 17, 1964), the episode describes the disappearance (abduction) of four men born in the rural backwoods of Spider County by extraterrestrials from the planet Eros. The leader of the extraterrestrials (Kent Smith) returns to Spider County to retrieve his half-human son (Lee Kinsolving), whom he had begotten on a human mother. The son refuses his father’s offer of transport to another planet out of love for his full-human girlfriend, resulting in a tense confrontation between the son and the aliens of Eros in the woods.
It probably goes without saying that Barney Hill’s descriptions are consistent with the types of sexual waking dreams experienced during the transition into or out of sleep.
The third and most important episode of The Outer Limits aired only five days before Barney Hill’s hypnosis section. Called “The Children of Spider County” (February 17, 1964), the episode describes the disappearance (abduction) of four men born in the rural backwoods of Spider County by extraterrestrials from the planet Eros. The leader of the extraterrestrials (Kent Smith) returns to Spider County to retrieve his half-human son (Lee Kinsolving), whom he had begotten on a human mother. The son refuses his father’s offer of transport to another planet out of love for his full-human girlfriend, resulting in a tense confrontation between the son and the aliens of Eros in the woods.
The episode featured aliens that much more closely resembled Barney’s description. The monsters, from the planet Eros, had even more prominent slanted eyes than the creature from “The Bellero Shield,” and they share the prominent pupils Barney Hill gave his alien in a drawing made under hypnosis. (This proves that Kottmeyer’s offhand comment about their unique nature is false.) They also wear black suits (a “black, black shiny jacket,” Hill said) and black ties (a “black scarf,” Hill stated). One cannot discount that the shiny jackets reflect the black leather jackets worn by the extraterrestrials masquerading as a motorcycle gang in the Twilight Zone episode “Black Leather Jackets,” which had aired on January 31, 1964. The motorcycle aliens also wore scarves, and they used distinctive black sunglasses that somewhat resembled the wraparound eyes of the aliens of the Outer Limits.
Additionally, the creatures shift shape back and forth from human form to alien form, just as Barney Hill described the aliens in his hypnosis sessions. In the episode, the scene focuses on the eyes of the alien as he shifts from human to slanted-eyed alien. Hill stated: “They [the eyes] began to be round—and went back like that [slanted].”
The eyes of the aliens from Eros often glow, and when they do they appear to take over the screen. Today, in high-definition, the details of the aliens are clearly visible, but on the small, blurry sets of the 1960s, when the glow effect was presented, only the eyes would have been visible, especially if there was any static interference or if the brightness on the set was slightly too low. Most importantly, the aliens use their glowing eyes to transfix and “uncreate” uncooperative or threatening humans.
Additionally, the creatures shift shape back and forth from human form to alien form, just as Barney Hill described the aliens in his hypnosis sessions. In the episode, the scene focuses on the eyes of the alien as he shifts from human to slanted-eyed alien. Hill stated: “They [the eyes] began to be round—and went back like that [slanted].”
The eyes of the aliens from Eros often glow, and when they do they appear to take over the screen. Today, in high-definition, the details of the aliens are clearly visible, but on the small, blurry sets of the 1960s, when the glow effect was presented, only the eyes would have been visible, especially if there was any static interference or if the brightness on the set was slightly too low. Most importantly, the aliens use their glowing eyes to transfix and “uncreate” uncooperative or threatening humans.
Suit-wearing aliens from "The Children of Spider County."
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Another view.
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The creature's glowing eyes.
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Remember that Barney Hill was told to keep staring into the aliens’ hypnotic eyes. “All I see are these eyes... I'm not even afraid that they're not connected to a body. They're just there.”
In human form the alien leader, played by Kent Smith, resembles that “German Nazi” of Hill’s description, and the other aliens can answer with reasonable tolerance to Irishmen. They are all white males of roughly middle aged and average appearance. At the conclusion of the episode, the alien leader has brought his (human) son to a path through the woods where other suit-wearing aliens are waiting. This correlates closely to Hill’s claim that he encountered several black-clad aliens standing in the road in a wooded area. As the lead alien passes by, he raises up the crouching other aliens, and they step back in deference, turning to stare at the leader’s son. This parallels the scene when Barney visits the aliens’ control room. DOCTOR: How did you know the other one was the leader? |
Barney Hill's drawing of the alien, made under hypnosis.
Kent Smith in "The Children of Spider County"
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The thematic resemblance between “The Children of Spider County” and the life of Barney Hill cannot go without notice. In the episode, Lee Kinsolving, as the alien leader's son, plays a half-human hybrid who defies the society of his heritage to run away with a white woman who loves him deeply. Barney Hill was an African American married to a white woman in an era that frowned on interracial marriage. I have no desire to armchair psychoanalyze the deceased, but it strikes me as beyond coincidental that an episode featuring aliens that match Barney Hill’s description in a backwoods setting matching the abduction site also featured a love story that closely mirrored Barney Hill’s own personal story of a love that defied social convention and came about through the union of different races. It is also possible that the Twilight Zone's "Black Leather Jackets" influenced Hill as well, since it too featured a romance between an alien and a human thwarted by social forces, making it all the easier for Hill to run the material together in his mind. Actor Lee Kinsolving appeared in both "Children of Spider County" and "Black Leather Jackets" as the extraterrestrial romantic lead, making it still easier to conflate the two episodes.
It is, of course, impossible to say for certain that these episodes of The Outer Limits influenced Barney Hill’s abduction story. When questioned about it years later Betty Hill denied any knowledge of the show, but that was thirty years after it had gone off the air. It may not even have been necessary for the Hills to have watched the actual show—perhaps only seeing the promotional spots for it during other programs would have served the same purpose. The ABC network was heavily invested in creating an appropriately shocking “bear”—their term for a monster—as a hook to draw audiences to each episode, and images of the creatures were heavily promoted in advertisements for the series.
What is certain is that both believers and skeptics are guilty of failing to do the research to truly evaluate the similarities between The Outer Limits and the Hill abduction. Skeptics are too quick to accept the word of a fellow skeptic without independent evaluation, and believers are too quick to dismiss a specific criticism without investigating the broader situation.
The specific descriptions given by Barney Hill in his February 22, 1964 hypnosis session and thereafter all parallel elements found in the three episodes of The Outer Limits airing between February 3 and 17 of that same year. The only key elements missing from these episodes are (a) sexual molestation (something implied in other Outer Limits episodes) and (b) a flying saucer with windows, one of the most frequent tropes of 1950s and 1960s science fiction and readily imagined by anyone who had ever heard of flying saucers and knew anything about airplanes. The evidence shows that the material needed to fashion, unconsciously, a detailed alien abduction scenario was readily available to Barney Hill between February 3 and 17, 1964 and is the most likely source for the specific details of his hypnotic statements. My best guess is that under hypnosis Barney Hill conflated details from these three episodes and largely accepted the plot of "The Children of Spider County," a story thematically so close to his own, as part of his own interior mental life, much the way Ronald Regan would sometimes recount the plots of movies as though they were events that had really happened to him.
It is, of course, impossible to say for certain that these episodes of The Outer Limits influenced Barney Hill’s abduction story. When questioned about it years later Betty Hill denied any knowledge of the show, but that was thirty years after it had gone off the air. It may not even have been necessary for the Hills to have watched the actual show—perhaps only seeing the promotional spots for it during other programs would have served the same purpose. The ABC network was heavily invested in creating an appropriately shocking “bear”—their term for a monster—as a hook to draw audiences to each episode, and images of the creatures were heavily promoted in advertisements for the series.
What is certain is that both believers and skeptics are guilty of failing to do the research to truly evaluate the similarities between The Outer Limits and the Hill abduction. Skeptics are too quick to accept the word of a fellow skeptic without independent evaluation, and believers are too quick to dismiss a specific criticism without investigating the broader situation.
The specific descriptions given by Barney Hill in his February 22, 1964 hypnosis session and thereafter all parallel elements found in the three episodes of The Outer Limits airing between February 3 and 17 of that same year. The only key elements missing from these episodes are (a) sexual molestation (something implied in other Outer Limits episodes) and (b) a flying saucer with windows, one of the most frequent tropes of 1950s and 1960s science fiction and readily imagined by anyone who had ever heard of flying saucers and knew anything about airplanes. The evidence shows that the material needed to fashion, unconsciously, a detailed alien abduction scenario was readily available to Barney Hill between February 3 and 17, 1964 and is the most likely source for the specific details of his hypnotic statements. My best guess is that under hypnosis Barney Hill conflated details from these three episodes and largely accepted the plot of "The Children of Spider County," a story thematically so close to his own, as part of his own interior mental life, much the way Ronald Regan would sometimes recount the plots of movies as though they were events that had really happened to him.
