As far as I can tell, modern abductions began on 19 September, 1961 with the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill in New Hampshire. Perhaps the escapade of Antonio Villas-Boas in Brazil was a transition between "contactees" and "abductees". He was abducted, more or less, but it was certainly not a classical abduction scenario. (It's a notable fact that this Brazilian farmer went on to attend college and law school, became a lawyer, and that he affirms the validity of his experience to this day.) Before that there were only sightings and "contactees". But "contactees" were not the same as "abductees". "Contactees", such as George Adamski, were taken on sight-seeing tours around the solar system by friendly, attractive blond Venusians, not abducted against their will. The Hills' story was quite different. They were abducted from their car and taken on board some sort of craft for a medical examination, setting a pattern for future abductions. The Hills' story was the first of its kind. In spite of what many skeptics say, the pattern of abductions begun by the Hills' experiences did not exist prior to 1961. Skeptics argue that the basic scenario for the Hills' abduction was portrayed in the 1953 movie Invaders from Mars. Well, there were scenes in that movie in which people were abducted by the Martians and placed in a restraining chair while a device like a long needle implanted a mind-control device in the back of their heads. But the Hills' aliens were basically friendly (although intrusive), not invaders out to create zombies. And the real question must be: Did the Hills ever see that movie? The critics also love to point out that, in 1963, just a twelve days before Barney Hill, under hypnosis, described the aliens as having "wrap-around eyes", an episode of The Outer Limits was broadcast that showed aliens with similar eyes. Once again, to demonstrate cause and effect, it must be proved that Barney had seen that episode of The Outer Limits, or at least a promo for the show with the aliens depicted. In Watch the Skies, Curtis Peebles quotes from an article by Robert Sheaffer in the August, 1976 issue of Official UFO in which Sheaffer says that he examined the positions of the planets for that night (9/19/61) and found that the planet Jupiter would have been in the exact position in which the Hills said they first saw the UFO. Sheaffer said: If an unknown craft had actually been present, the Hills would have seen three objects near the Moon - Jupiter, Saturn, and the UFO. Since they saw only two, this proves that no unusual objects were present at the time. Sheaffer then went on to conclude that the entire experience was caused by the Hills' mis-identification of Jupiter as a UFO. From their story as told in The Interrupted Journey by John G. Fuller, we see that Sheaffer is simply ignoring the rest of the story: Barney...pulled the car over to the side of the road where there was reasonably unobstructed visibility. Betty took Delsey, their dog, for a walk on her leash and noted: ...that the star, or the light, or whatever it was in the September sky, was definitely moving. Barney, noting that the light in the sky WAS moving, was now fully convinced that it was a straying satellite. A few miles farther on, Barney stopped again, and Betty had this comment: "Barney, if you think that's a satellite, or a star, you're being absolutely ridiculous." With his naked eye, Barney could tell that she was right. It was obviously not a celestial object now, he was sure. "We've made a mistake, Betty," he said. "It's a commercial plane. Probably on it's way to Canada." a few miles on: "Barney slowed the car down...and looked again at the strange moving light. In amazement, he noted that it swung suddenly from its northern flight pattern, turning to the west, then completing its turn and heading back directly toward them. Barney stopped the car and: Through the binoculars, Barney now made out a shape, like the fuselage of a plane, although he could see no wings. There also seemed to be a blinking series of lights along the fuselage, or whatever it was, in an alternating pattern. When Betty took the glasses, the object passed in front of the moon, in silhouette. Barney, the skeptic, insisted it must be an airliner that was off course. A few miles further: It was now apparently only a few hundred feet high, and it was huge. Further off, it had seemed to Betty that it was spinning; now it had stopped and the light pattern had changed from blinking, multicolored lights to a steady, white glow. A little later Barney stopped the car to look again: As he did so, the huge object - as wide in diameter as the distance between three telephone poles along the road, Barney later described it - swung in a silent arc directly across the road, not more than a hundred feet from him. The double row of windows was now clear and obvious. Keep in mind that all of this happened BEFORE the "lost time" period suffered by the Hills. These incidents were remembered by the Hills consciously, they were NOT part of the material that later came out under hypnosis. There is much more detail in the book, but this should be enough to show that the debunker was more interested in debunking than in thinking critically about the incident. To think critically, one must consider ALL of the testimony, not just the first few words. It would have been much easier for the Hills to MISS seeing Jupiter than for them to mistake a tiny planet for an object that followed their car and grew in size until it was as big as the distance between three telephone poles. There is evidence that the sighting was corroborated by radar at Pease AFB, New Hampshire, as well. A version of the Hills' story was published in two parts in Look magazine in the fall of 1966, but it wasn't immediately followed by a wave of abduction stories. However, the abduction reasearcher Dr. Leo Sprinkle, a psychologist at the University of Wyoming, is said to have investigated three such cases in 1967 - 1968. One such case in which Dr. Sprinkle was involved was that of Sgt. Herbert Schirmer of Ashland, Nebraska. Sgt. Schirmer was on patrol at 2:30 a.m. on 3 December, 1967 when he saw an object on the road ahead with a row of flickering lights. Believing the object to be a truck, he flashed his high beams at it. When he did so, the object took off skyward at a high rate of speed. Schirmer returned to his station with a severe headache and an inexplicable red welt behind his ear. He drank two steaming hot cups of coffee and logged the event: Saw a flying saucer at the junction of highways 6 and 63. Believe it or not. Schirmer was hypnotized by Sprinkle, and more details came out. Hypnotic sessions revealed that he had followed the craft down a dirt road, where it had landed. He had tried to call for help, but his radio would not work. He found himself unable to draw his revolver or to drive away. The occupants of the craft came and took him aboard, and communicated with him through some form of mental telepathy. They told him that they would visit him twice more and that some day he would "see the universe". They then gave him something similar to a post-hypnotic suggestion that he would forget the things he had seen, and returned him to his car. Schirmer was interviewed by the Condon Committee, but not much publicity was given to his experience. The turbulent end of the sixties saw few abduction reports. In fact, the next abduction story of note was the 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi Incident. These early abductees were not as consistent in their descriptions of the aliens' appearance as later ones would be. The Pascagoula aliens had pincers like a crab instead of hands. Then, in October, 1975, The UFO Incident, a TV movie about the Hills' abduction starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons, was broadcast on NBC. The abduction stories began to increase dramatically, as we shall see. (Part one of three)