A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

In September of 1963, some two years after the initial encounter, the Hills were invited to
relate their story to a discussion group at their church. This was to be the first time they had
spoken of their traumatic experience in public. Also speaking at this meeting was Air Force
Captain Ben Swett. Swett, who was invited to speak that evening in part because of his study of
hypnosis, was struck by how abruptly the Hills’ story ended after the moment they heard a series
of tones emanating from the trunk of their car. Barney later recalled the events leading up to that
moment as follows. On the night of September 19-20, 1961, after sighting the craft at close
range and actually seeing the occupants of said craft, Barney ran back to the car, nearing
hysteria. As he and Betty drove away, Betty found that she could no longer see the vessel.
Barney yelled repeatedly that he was sure it had swung above them. An irregularly rhythmic
beeping sound began to fill the air, “the car seemed to vibrate with it.” It sounded like, as the
Hills later described in their interview with Air Force Major Paul W. Henderson, “someone had
dropped a tuning fork.” 258 The sound seemed to originate from the trunk of the car. Neither
Betty nor Barney could identify it. As the beeping proceeded, they both fell into a sort of daze.
Some time later the beeping repeated and the Hills found themselves still in their car, traveling
down the road. As Barney later put it, Swett “was interested that the account was cut off as if
by a cleaver at that point.” 259
A discussion of hypnotism as a potential tool for unlocking the
mystery of what occurred after the series of tones ensued.
After the meeting with the church discussion group, Barney broached the subject of
hypnosis with his therapist. Barney, after becoming increasingly exhausted and enervated, had
sought psychiatric assistance in the summer of 1962. So it came to pass that after a year and a
half of conventional therapy, his therapist, Dr. Duncan Stephens, referred Barney to Dr.
258 Fuller, 27.
259 Fuller, 58.
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