Beyond the Beyond: UFO Secrets and Close Encounters – Part 1

Beyond the Beyond: UFO Secrets and Alien Abductions – Part 1

There must be hundreds of videos online of purported UFOs or UAPS, flying saucers and strange lights in the sky performing maneuvers that are quite literally out of this world.  And there are even more photographs. Ones of metallic ships, half-tilted and glinting in the desert sun, of odd drone-like craft hovering over power poles, and captured, lifeless large headed aliens posed perfectly forever in black and white. There is quite literally a mountain of images to be found online, but what do they really amount to? There is no smoking gun that proves the existence of the extraterrestrial.  No one photo that’s ever been held up above the rest to be the definitive piece of evidence that finally shows we are indeed not alone.  

There are good ones, mind you, like the The McMinnville UFO photographs, also known as the Trent UFO photos, taken by a farming couple in Oregon in 1951.

And others like this September 1957 photo that was shot by a test pilot near Edwards Air Force Base in California. 

And still more, like the one that was taken during an aerial survey of Costa Rica in 1971 by the country’s National Geographic Institute.

And as far as video goes, I always liked the Mexico City footage from 1997. Needless to say, there were several witnesses to this sighting.

Rod Dickerson’s video from 1998 always struck me as real, whatever real means with regard to the phenomenon. A real experimental craft? A real extraterrestrial vehicle?

There are others, but for every good picture or video, there are a hundred CGI and photoshopped duds. There’s a new one every day. My Instagram feed (find me @beyondthebeyond1) is full of them. The danger of course is that today the technology is so good, that even if the “perfect” UFO video came out, its authenticity would immediately be questioned.  

So what do we do now? For me, I’ve always found eyewitness accounts to be a much more fruitful approach when it comes to examining the evidence of UFOs. There are several reasons for this, including anomalies and patterns, witness credibility, context and detail like sounds and sensations, verification corroborated by multiples witnesses, and more.  

Take the case of Betty and Barney Hill. On the night of September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney were driving home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from a vacation in Canada when they encountered a bright light in the sky that seemed to be following their car. As it moved closer, they could see if resembled a large, metallic disc that was covered in hundreds of multi-colored lights. As it moved even closer, the couple claimed that their memories of what happened after this point were completely missing.

Through hypnosis that was undergone separately, both Betty and Barney recalled being taken aboard a spacecraft by non-human entities who conducted numerous experiments on the husband and wife. These included the collection of hair and skin samples, physical examinations, and what is believed by many to be reproductive examinations.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the case is the star map that one of the beings supposedly showed Betty. She claimed that she was shown a three dimensional map that showed a portion of space with interconnecting stars and the pathways between them. She was told, telepathically, that this was the star system from which the beings had originated.

Interestingly, when amateur astronomer Marjorie Fish compared Betty’s sketches of known star systems, she found it to be an almost identical match to Zeta Reticuli.

There are some problems with the Hill case. I’m only including them here because this case is so widely accepted by many to be the first documented UFO abduction (it isn’t), and if I were to leave it out I most assuredly would have heads scratching.

Firstly, the hypnosis sessions where the Hills first talked about their seemingly erased memories were conducted two years after the supposed abduction. This would give Betty and Barney ample time to construct a fantastic story of being taken aboard a craft.  

Secondly, over the years many researchers have noticed an inconsistency in testimony when it comes to the details of that night. While both described the beings as having large, wraparound eyes, other details like  height, facial features and clothing differed significantly. The difference in the description of the craft, sequence of events and geographical details also varied slightly. 

Lastly, in later years Betty Hill was said to have trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy. She would take investigators out to look for UFOs (which she claimed she encountered quite often) and would sometimes mistake planes and even streetlights for alien craft.  

So why does this story endure, and why have hundreds of shows about the phenomenon featured it? The answer lies in poor journalism, and the fact that if you tell a story over and over and over again, it can sometimes be regarded as fact. Politicians pull this little trick all the time. There’s also the idea that if you are skeptical about one of the sacred cows of UFOlogy, that you’re not a believer.

Let’s move on to another case which seems to have more validity. The Pascagoula Abduction is an event in 1973 where two men, Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker had an alleged encounter while fishing on a river near Pascagoula, Mississippi.  

On an October evening, both men were fishing off of a pier when they suddenly began to hear a whirring sound. This was followed by a large, metal craft that seemed to paralyze the two men instantly, and they were soon approached by robotic looking beings with strange, pincer like hands.

Both described being levitated into the craft by some sort of arm or beings. Once there, they were examined by these same creatures with what they described as wrinkled, grey skin. The creatures, oddly enough, telephonically seemed to suggest a sense of curiosity rather than hostility. During the examinations, both men were completely paralyzed and unable to talk. After it was over, they were returned to the exact spot near the riverbank that they were abducted from.

After the incident, both Charles and Calvin passed polygraph tests. When the sheriff interrogated them, he left a small recording device in his desk drawer before claiming he needed to talk to his colleagues. Upon playing it later, he expected to hear the men talking and laughing about performing the hoax, but instead he heard them speaking very seriously about the incident. One of them even spoke about seeing a doctor for what appeared to be extreme anxiety.

There is also fact that neither men have ever sought any kind of notoriety, their details of their stories have never wavered, and both men seemed to have very deep, emotional trauma from the incident.  

On November 5, 1975 near Snowflake, Arizona, a group of men working in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest encountered a bright light in the distance which they at first thought was a forest fire. Upon investigating it, they found an illuminated craft floating above the tree line. One of the men, Travis Walton, was intrigued and exited the truck. As he approached the craft, a beam of light shot to the ground and knocked him down. Fearful, his co-workers drove their truck away, though later came back to retrieve Walton, who had mysteriously vanished.

Walton claims that he woke up on a table inside of a bright, sterile environment and was surrounded by several strange beings with large, oval heads and big black eyes. He found himself extremely disoriented, and tried to communicate with the beings to no avail. Instead, they seemed to communicate with him telepathically. He was then subjected to a variety of medical examinations, including needles being inserted into different parts of his body and scanning devices that emitted beams of light.  

Walton claims to have seen human beings aboard the ship, as well. Dressed in brown and orange clothing, these beings said nothing to him. However, while he was in a state of complete shock and disorientation, he briefly locked eyes with one of these “humans,” and the man gave him a reassuring smile. Later, Walton would say that he regarded this as a gesture of kindness. 

Walton woke up alone near the town of Heber, Arizona, around twelve miles from the spot where the supposed abduction occurred. He woke up feeling weak and confused, and unable to recount with clarity just where he had been. These events would slowly come back to him as time passed and with therapy. He looked up and recalls seeing a door close, or a light go off, and then a craft shooting into the sky with incredible speed. He began walking, not knowing where he was, and eventually found his way to a phone booth and called his family. In the car, he asked how many hours he’d been gone, and was told he was missing for a total of five days.

Following his return and the investigation by law enforcement, police conducted lie detector tests on all six men involved. Five of the six passed, with the member who initially failed later taking the test and passing.

Interestingly enough, Travis now thinks that these beings were not trying to harm him with the beam of light that shot from the ship, or pull him up into it either. They were not trying to abduct him. However, he believes that the beam (turned on when the ship was leaving) may have damaged him somehow, it may have stopped his heart, and that the creatures were trying to help him in some way. To heal him.

We may never know what happened in these cases, exactly, but we can continue to dig deeper to try and find the truth. I advise anyone who is interested in this subject to do just that. Learning about close encounters and alien abductions can be a better way to understand the cultural, sociological, and psychological aspects surrounding the phenomenon. And make no mistake, these things cannot be separated from the UFO enigma.

More to come in part two…

Have you been abducted?  Message me @beyondthebeyond1 on Instagram.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Eastern Sierra Now. Readers are encouraged to conduct further research and consult with relevant experts or professionals before making any decisions or taking any actions based on the information provided in this article.

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TM Rush