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THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY: Two Lost Hours "Aboard a Flying Saucer"
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THE
INTERRUPTED
jOURNEY:
Two Lost Hours "Aboard a Flying Saucer
by John G. Fuller
Introduction
by Benjamin Simon, M.D.
THE DIAL PRESS
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NEW YORK
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Map of the constellation Pegasus © 1 9 65 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.
Copyright © 1966 by John G. Fuller All rights reserved Printed in the United States o£ America
INTRODUCTION On December 14, 1 9 6 3 , Mr. Barney Hill presented himself at my office to keep his appointment for a consultation. It was like any other day. The appointment had been made in advance, and Mr. Hill had been referred for the consultation by another psychiatrist. At the time I knew nothing of Mr. Hill's problems, but when he introduced his wife, who is white, I wondered, fleetingly, if their interracial marriage might be involved in Mr. Hill's disturbance. At his request I saw the couple together and soon realized that both needed help. A month after the "sighting" the Hills had been interviewed by Walter Webb, a lecturer at Boston's Hayden Planetarium and a scientific advisor to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. With a copy of Mr. Webb's report to NICAP as a basis, Mr. and Mrs. Hill un folded the story which follows in Mr. Fuller's book. At the time there was no indication that either the interracial mar riage or the UFO experience bore more than a tangential relationship to the central problems which Mr. and Mrs. Hill presented-crippling anxiety, manifested by him in fairly open fashion and by Mrs. Hill more in the form of repetitive nightmarish dreams. Aside from its topical inter est, the UFO experience was important because it presented for both Mr. and Mrs. Hill the focal point of the anxiety which had apparently im peded the psychiatric treatment Mr. Hill had been undergoing for some time. This point appeared to be a period of time in the course of their trip home from Canada in September, 1 9 6 1 . They were constantly haunted by a nagging anxiety centering around this period of several hours-a feeling that something had occurred, but what? f)
A treatment program was outlined for the Hills, and it was decided first to try to unlock the door to the hidden room (the amnesia), and that for this aspect of therapy, hypnosis would be used. Plans were made to begin treatment after the coming Christmas holidays, the first treatment session being set for January 4 , 1 9 64. Apart from the unique quality engendered by the UFO story, treat ment proceeded apace as might be expected with two very anxious and co operative patients, and continued regularly until terminated at the end of June, 1 9 64. During this time there was no portent of the unfolding drama which began on December 1 4 , 1963, which was to extend back in time for two years and to extend forward to this moment exactly two and a half years later when I would be writing an introduction to the book which was to revive the whole drama-the unfolding of events of which I had had no hint during the whole period of treatment. It was a drama which culminated in Mr. Fuller's book and my introduction, which is rather unique in being an apologia for my presence on stage as a reluctant member of the dramatis personae. The formal treatment program was terminated on June 27, 1964 , and from then until late summer of 1965 the Hills and I maintained contact through reports of their progress by visits and telephone calls. I had no indication of the developing storm until the late summer of 1 9 65 when I received a telephone call from a newspaper reporter who appeared to be aware of the Hill story, their treatment, and my part in it-including the usc of hypnosis; he requested an interview with me-which