On November 5, Hohman wrote to the Hills, mentioning his and Jackson’s interest in their encounter, and asked to meet them. He and Jackson, wrote Hohman, had a “close familiarity with most of the unclassified (military) literature” on UFOs. The two mystery investigators met with the Hills on November 25, 1961. Also visiting the Hills that day was Maj. James McDonald, a recently retired air force intelligence officer and a close friend who had already discussed the case “many times” with them. The five discussed the encounter for nearly twelve hours, during which Hohman and Jackson asked several obscure and technical questions. One of them asked, “What took you so long to get home?” When Betty and Barney realized that they could not account for over two hours, they were “flabbergasted.” McDonald suggested they undergo hypnosis, but no one could suggest anyone specific.
The holiday season came and went, and in February 1962, the Hills—due to Betty’s initiative and Barney’s acquiescence—began a series of pilgrimages to the scene of their encounter, which continued for several months. By March, she was looking for a psychiatrist who used hypnotism. On March 25, 1962, the two met with a doctor who ruled out simultaneous hallucination. That spring, Barney developed a series of warts in an almost geometrically perfect circular ring in his groin. Feeling exhausted and a general malaise, he began to see a psychiatrist. Throughout his entire period of treatment, more than a year, Barney never associated his problems with the UFO incident. Meanwhile, he and Betty put aside the idea of hypnosis.
In September 1963, the Hills were invited by their church to a discussion about their UFO experience, which was taped by one of the attendees, a journalist. Another of the attendees was Capt. Ben Swett of Pease AFB, known locally for his study of hypnosis. The positive reception their story received encouraged the Hills, and Barney mentioned the subject during his next session. His doctor recommended Dr. Benjamin Simon, a well-known Boston psychiatrist and neurologist with much experience in hypnosis. Simon had also worked on an extensive scale as chief of neuropsychiatry and executive officer at Mason General Hospital, the army’s chief psychiatric center in World War Two.
The Hills’ sessions with Simon lasted from January 4 to June 6, 1964. Throughout, they underwent separate sessions, and for most of the period they did not remember their experiences following the sessions. These sessions were intense, especially for Barney. Under hypnosis, he remembered driving off Route 3, instructed against his will by a “mind voice” to drive deep into the woods. He saw six men standing in the road, wearing dark clothing, with a bright orange glow behind them. Three men approached his car and told him to stay calm and to close his eyes. Barney said, “I felt like [their] eyes had pushed into my eyes.” The men led Barney and Betty out of their car, and Barney felt his shoes dragging on the ground. They went up a ramp and inside a craft. He saw three men in an “operating room,” and he lay down on a table. His shoes were removed and a cup was placed over his groin; he later believed his semen was extracted at this time. Someone scraped his left arm, examined his ears and throat. A cylindrical device was inserted up his rectum, and someone counted his vertebrae.
Betty’s story under hypnosis closely matched her dreams from over two years earlier, except that in her sessions the aliens had no hair and smaller noses. A “doctor” on board took scrapings from her skin, cut off a sample of her hair, studied her mouth, throat, ears, and hands, and took clippings from her fingernails. She was asked to lie down on an examination table, and the doctor pulled a machine over. One of the procedures involved a “pregnancy test” with a needle, four to six inches long, which was inserted into her navel. Later, she had time to speak with the leader, who seemed to communicate in English, but which Betty later believed was through telepathy. She asked if she could bring something back that would prove her experience to others. The leader agreed, and she picked up a large book with strange symbols. She was forced to give it up, however, when the other crew members objected. She also asked the leader where he was from. He went to a wall and pulled down a strange map of space, with stars of various sizes. Many stars were connected by broken or solid lines, all curved. The lines, said the leader, represented expeditions, but he lost interest in explaining once he realized Betty knew little astronomy. He told her she would forget all about this encounter; she was determined to remember.
