FORTEAN TIMES UNCONVENTION 1997

Budd Hopkins says that "alien abductions" are outrageous. That they are unpleasant to believe in, even for the "abductees".

He refers to the 1938 WAR OF THE WORLDS hoax and the panic it caused because it was in the form of documentary-style radio. The after-effect of this was, he says, that people thought aliens were hoaxes from then on. It was an uphill struggle for people to accept the "reality" of UFO's [I presume by "UFO's" he means Flying Saucers - BK]. Up until 1964 Hopkins never paid attention to UFO reports and he was a "skeptic". Then he experienced a daytime sighting of a UFO with his wife and an English social worker in 1964. It was a metallic circular object. When he told his friends about it he received similar stories from them. He realized that there was a "subterranean world" of sightings.

The theory that the flying saucer phenomenon comes from science fiction he dismisses. It is true that everyone was aware of "spaceships" but the well-known ships in the popular comic strips in newspapers - BUCK ROGERS and FLASH GORDON - were rocket ships with fins and so on. Not saucers. It is also true that in AMAZING STORIES magazine there were round objects like saucers but this was a 50,000 circulation magazine which featured occasionally round objects - it was unlikely to influence the "whole world."

Hopkins dates saucer sightings back to World War Two when "Foo Fighters" accompanied planes and each side thought it was a secret weapon made by the other side. It was only after the war that they "realized" that this was not the case. So, where did they come from? They were metallic, and apparently "intelligently controlled." Then there were "ghost rockets" seen in Scandinavia after World War Two. The theory was that they were Russian "ships" created by ex-Nazi scientists. In 1947 in America there was the famous Arnold sighting. The "Saucer Wave" started. People eventually began to talk of the possibility that these things were of extra-terrestrial origin. They were not, he says, "wished into existence" by the romantic idea of "outer space" because originally it was usual to think that the objects were test planes. It took twenty years before people thought there was something inside the saucers, until there were "occupant" sightings.

In 1966 there was the first "abduction" case: the Betty and Barney Hill case. This hit the international press. Budd Hopkins thought it was "too crazy" until he read the book about it and then he "realized" that the only reason to not accept it was distaste. So from 1964 to 1975 he read books about the topic.

He addresses the psycho-social theories. Number one: the theory that "abductees" are working class and therefore try to achieve fame or notoriety. However, Hopkins knocks this theory on the head because he has worked with "abductees" who have been in NASA, been psychiatrists, police officers, a farmer and a student. The only people who came forward and went public were the farmer and the student because everyone else had something to lose by going public.

Number two: the theory that all "abductions" are media-driven, that media excitement will bring out reports. Hopkins agrees that there are some media-driven cases but refutes this as any kind of rule by saying that in 1977 after CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND had proven so popular, there was an expected increase in abduction reports but in fact there was no increase.

Number three: the theory that people fantasize UFO's at times of social stress. A study of this showed that the corelation between UFO reports and times of social stress have happened sometimes but not during the Cuban Missile Crisis - there was a dearth of UFO "events" at that time, when the world was at its closest to nuclear war.

Hopkins addresses the "no abduction" theories. Number one: the theory that because abduction stories come from people who have been hypnotized [to "remember" the "abduction" that has been "screened over" by the "aliens" - BK], there must have been leading under hypnosis. Hopkins counters this by pointing out that Dr Edward Bullard, a folklorist, found a "difference in tones" [What does this mean? - BK]. And Leo Sprinkel, someone who is optimistic about what the "aliens" are doing found that he received very grim stories from patients, therefore there could have been no leading from him.

Number two: the theory that there are no abductions because there is no physical evidence that they occur. Hopkins gives details about one of his cases. A baby went missing, then it reappeared. There were broken branches on the trees outside the house, there were marks on the grass, a neighbour had seen a UFO. Then there is the evidence of "implants."

A TV programme called Nova had the job of debunking UFO phenomena. Hopkins sent them slides and photos of surgical cuts etc. None were shown on the programme, in which it was announced that "there is no physical evidence." Suppressing evidence is dishonest, says Hopkins. When someone comes to see Hopkins there are three options. Either the person is number one, lying, number two, psychologically damaged and mistakenly thinks that what they're saying is true or number three, telling the truth. No "abductees" were psychologically tested for the Nova programme, in which they were labelled "delusional."

Hopkins addresses the issue of False Memory Syndrome, as per Dr Elizabeth Loftus. Hopkins says he will not look into cases like that, he won't spend time with people who don't think they were abducted. So, he is not forcing something like that into people's heads.

He shows us some slides. Number one is from the Kathy Davis case. A large zig-zag mark on the ground, 48 by 2 feet, the soil baked hard. Number two showed the mark six months later. The snow melted through it. Number three showed it after a year. The soil was hard. Number four showed it after two years. The grass was growing in around it but it still existed as a bald spot. Number five showed the grass growing in but the grass on it had a different texture. Number six showed a straight line "swath" early on in the case. Bird droppings could not have caused something so long and uniform, no matter what the skeptics say. Slides seven and eight were of physical marks - indents - on a woman's skin in a "missing time" case. The woman had no idea what could have caused these marks. Number nine was of an indent on her daughter's leg. Number ten showed that it had taken a long time to heal. Slides eleven and twelve were of marks on people that had happened to them when they were small children. Number eleven was a straight line cut on the back of a man and number twelve was of a woman, she too having a straight line cut. Number thirteen was of a mark like a grid on a woman's hip. This 57-dot perfect formation went away after some weeks.

Now with the slideshow, Budd Hopkins turns to the Brooklyn Bridge "abduction," the subject of his book WITNESSED. Linda Cortile [aka Linda Napolitano, her "assumed name for reasons of anonymity" - presumably the time for anonymity has passed - BK], is the "abductee" in this case. Our fourteenth slide is of her apartment building. Linda Cortile came to Hopkins in 1989 after reading his book INTRUDERS, in which there was a chapter about a surgical scar. Linda was upset by this because her doctor discovered she had a surgical scar in her nostril yet she had never had a medical operation. She wrote to Hopkins. She had actually saved the receipt from that doctor's appointment. Why? Hopkins wondered. The fifteenth slide was of the view through her window. During their early meetings Linda had been talking to Hopkins about "early memories" but on the 30th of November 1989 she rang Hopkins after an "incident." As she was going to sleep she had felt a "presence" and paralysis creeping over her and she saw a small black-eyed figure. She threw something at him and her arms were paralysed as a result. Her next memory was of being on an "examination table." Question - what had been "blocked" by/from her memory? She had floated through a closed window and was lifted into a "craft." At the end of the "abduction" she was dropped onto her bed. She got up then and found she could not rouse her children. She thought that they weren't breathing. Her husband and children seemed to be "switched off."

Fifteen months later policemen "revealed" that they had seen the "abduction" take place. They had seen a women or small child floating in the foetal position through the window. There were "small figures" there - one above her and two below (Linda had never seen them). The policemen were "Richard" and "Dan" and they exchanged letters with Hopkins and he also received a letter from another witness.

The sixteenth slide is of a drawing. Apparently the lights on the roadway went out and the witness' car stopped on Brooklyn Bridge. The drawing was of a saucer that she saw. Another witness lost one hour on their car clock. Slide number seventeen is an additional drawing of balls coming out the window of the saucer. Number eighteen shows the balls unrolled to reveal three "aliens" and a woman in the same formation as described by Richard and Dan. Number nineteen is a drawing of another police officer. The saucer is similar apart from a dome on the top of it. Number twenty shows the Richard/Dan drawing showing the same position of Linda and the "aliens" as slide eighteen. Number twenty-one shows that the 'other' police officer's drawing matches (the 'other' cop came forward after WITNESSED came out).

Number twenty-two shows an X-Ray. It shows an "implant", an anomalous object in the skull of a little girl. Number twenty-three shows an object in the brain. One should not find a piece of metal in a brain. Being in the brain, of course it cannot be removed for examination. Number twenty-four is Linda's X-Ray, which was done by her niece, who is a surgeon. The object appears to be a shank and two spirals. It is in her right nostril. That night, after the X-Ray had been done, blood came streaming out of Linda's nostril and when she was X-Rayed again the object was no longer there. It had been taken by the "aliens" during the night!

There was a separate incident of Linda's right nostril bleeding. And this time not only did she bleed, but both her sons and their father and her son's friend, all from the right nostril at the same time on the same night.

Back to the view from the Bridge on 30th November '89. There was a procession of cars stopped on the Bridge. Important political figures were there. Pope John Paul II was meeting Mikhail Gorbachev that night and Gorbachev was meeting George Bush the next day. There was a full strike in Czechoslovakia. An important moment in world history. So, on the Bridge were these five cars of political figures. The engines stopped and they all saw Linda's "abduction." Was this staged? Hopkins asks. All previous "abductions" were covert... As for these political figures, Hopkins says that "one of them was abducted that night" [He means Secretary General of the UN, Peres de Cuellar, I don't know why he didn't say his name during the lecture - maybe he wants us to buy his book in order for us to find out - BK]. Could the explanation for this be that it is a hoax? Hopkins asks. Like the Travis Walton case where there were roughly ten people involved, in this case there were a great number of people. There were about twenty in this case so there are only two options. Either it happened or it was a hoax made with collaboration.

There was a loading dock nearby with trucks going in and out - apparently no-one saw anything. But, says, Hopkins, the loading dock faces south, away from the "incident" and also, just because no-one has come forward, that does not mean no-one saw anything. On the issue of witnesses refusing to come forward, Hopkins says that the only way to make them do so is to not ridicule people that do.

There is no time for questions from the audience, Hopkins has gone over time.

Note: Have a look at my review of the UFO Panel discussion, which Hopkins was billed to appear at and took place on the next day of the UnConvention.

UnConvention '97 reviews

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