The Andreasson Affair (32 page)

Such biases provide both potential strengths and weaknesses to the witnesses' credibility. On the one hand, experience has shown that such people are usually exceptionally honest. Interest in UFOs and paranormal phenomena are usually frowned upon by this wing of the Christian Church. On the other hand, a mystical person who interprets everything in terms of his or her preconceptions may not be an objective witness.

Nonetheless, Betty's powers of visual recall seemed unusually acute. Her husband, trained as a welder and pipe fitter, and able to read blueprints, was employed via Union Local 92 for many companies, such as Borden Chemical and Industrial Pipe of Leominster. On December 9,
1966, Betty was sitting in the family Volkswagen bus, waiting to pick up her husband's paycheck from the Catalytic Construction Company, when she witnessed a robbery of the union payroll.

Before jumping into the getaway car, one of the bandits ripped off his face mask, revealing a distinctive scar on his face. The robbers were shocked to realize that Betty had witnessed everything, but they drove off in a hurry without harming her. When police arrived, Betty was able to recall such details as the robbers' clothing, the interior of their car, and the license number, and her description led to the criminals' arrest in a matter of minutes.

Neither she nor Becky exhibited personality traits that would downgrade their credibility. Both were well dressed, orderly, courteous, and modest. Betty Andreasson voluntarily submitted to a psychiatric interview by a professional doctor, whose examination made no attempt to explore the reported UFO experience. Instead, he concentrated on Betty herself in order to establish an informal psychological profile. The doctor found no symptoms of active thought disorders or obvious psychiatric problems. He concluded that she believed in the reality of her experience. (It was his opinion, however, that her strong involvement in religion may have compromised her objectivity as a witness.)

Another investigative tool employed in establishing the credibility of the principal witnesses was the Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE), an instrument developed by the Dektor Company
¹
to detect, measure, and display certain stress-related components of the human voice.

When a person speaks, the human voice exhibits two types of modulation. The first type is that which we hear, and over which a person has conscious control. The second type, which cannot be heard, results from stress-related micro-muscle tremors that are beyond the control of the person who is speaking. In times of stress—especially when a person is deliberately lying—this second type of modulation disappears from the human voice. The greater the stress, the greater the suppressive effect on the micro-muscle tremors. The PSE graphically displays when this second modulation is missing or is being suppressed.

A PSE test consists of preparing a list of simple, selected questions, keyed to the person being tested. As in other sensor tests, like the polygraph or “lie detector,” questions are selected to differentiate between normal, truthful answers and those that are blatantly false. In doing so, the test subject's voice pattern is firmly established. When compared to the norm, evasive or false answers reveal obvious stress patterns. It is important to note that the PSE has the ability to accept both narrative and yes/no answers from the test subject. The instrument is being used by law-enforcement officials, doctors, and lawyers, as well as by commercial organizations for pre-employment screening. In recent years, UFO investigators have enlisted the services of the professional PSE analyst as part of an overall inquiry into the credibility of certain UFO witnesses.

The PSE analysis was performed by Ernest C. Reid, a certified stress analyst. He has conducted (among others) a major security check of facilities at Atlanta International Airport in 1972, under the auspices of the Boston-based Interstate Detective Bureau.
²
PSE tests were administered to both Betty and Becky, during which many pertinent questions were asked about their alleged UFO experience. The analyst concluded that “they were telling the truth with regards to the 1967 incident.” In his report (which included the results of the PSE test, inserted into the 528-page report sent to MUFON), Mr. Reid stated: “It is extremely unusual…that we would render an opinion as definitive as we would in this particular instance.… The seriousness of the situation…led us to analyze these charts with full respect for the rights of the subjects, the examiners and the validity of the instrumentation being used. In the opinion of this analyst, the results are conclusive.”

Among the investigators, no one doubted that a UFO experience of some kind had occurred. Everyone felt that the witnesses were telling the truth as they knew it to be. Most believed that the witnesses' motives for reporting the event were pure (though a minority believed that the witnesses' motivation was financial gain—but following a real experience). A graphical representation of his PSE tests, with a listing of the questions and answers, is reproduced on the following pages.

The date is July 7, 1977. The time is 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. The recording was made at the home of Jules Vaillancourt, 37 Williams Road, Ashburnham, Massachusetts. The equipment is a “Magnacord” with full-track heads run at 7 1/2 inches per second. The microphone is an “Electret” miniature. The questions are directed to Betty Ann Andreasson by Jules Vaillancourt, MUFON investigator. The recording tape used is virgin tape (600 feet on a five-inch reel) mylar base, Radio Shack part # 44-735.

Selected from 97 questions asked Betty and Becky Andreasson. Certain questions designed to establish a stress pattern are not included in this sample.

The combined results of the character checks and PSE tests had strongly established witness credibility. Our next step concerned extraction of the forgotten experience through hypnosis.

Although no one theory has explained the phenomenon of hypnosis to the satisfaction of all researchers, its existence has been known for thousands of years. In the past, it was largely confined to the occult, parlor games, and the stage. In recent years, however, it has found practical usage among doctors, dentists, and criminologists. One of its applications involves the recall of memories repressed or forgotten by the conscious mind. Thus, it is a logical tool for cases such as the Andreasson Affair.

Psychiatrist Benjamin Simon, MD, used hypnotic regression to help Betty and Barney Hill consciously recall their missing hours. Author John G. Fuller documented the results in
The Interrupted Journey
, and in the introduction to this fascinating book, Dr. Simon made an interesting statement:

Hypnosis is a useful procedure in psychiatry to direct concentrated attention on some particular point in the course of the whole therapeutic procedure. In cases like the Hills', it can be the key to the locked room, the amnesic period. Under hypnosis, experiences buried in amnesia may be recalled in much shorter time than in the normal course of psychotherapeutic process.
¹

Dr. Simon stressed that hypnosis was not necessarily a magical road to truth: “In one sense this is so, but it must be understood that hypnosis is a pathway to truth as it is felt and understood by the…participant. The truth is
what he believes to be the truth
. This may or may not be consonant with the ultimate truth.
Most frequently it is
.”
²

Since the Hills' UFO experience in 1961, hypnosis has been used by a number of UFO researchers, especially when investigating CE-IVs. The most prominent of these researchers is Dr. R.L. Sprinkle of the University of Wyoming and consultant in psychology to the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).
³
Dr. Sprinkle has written:

Further emphasis should be given to the uses of hypnotic time regression procedures for investigation of UFO experiences. An exciting possibility exists that these procedures can provide more information about these
loss of time
experiences, including possible cases of abduction and examination by UFO occupants. Hypnotic procedures can be used to assist UFO witnesses in decreasing anxiety and gaining more confidence in the (personal) reality of their experiences; further, these procedures can be helpful to UFO investigators by providing them with more information about UFO witnesses and their unusual experiences. Further studies may lead to an outline or pattern of UFO abduction cases and the significance of these experiences in understanding the puzzle of UFO phenomena.
⁴

It was with these thoughts in mind that Becky and Betty were brought to the offices of the New England Institute of Hypnosis directed by Harold Edelstein, our local MUFON hypnosis consultant. On May 8, 1978, the Boston
Herald American
newspaper ran a front-page story on Dr. Edelstein's involvement in police investigation. The article, written by staff writer Laura White, is worth quoting from because it aptly illustrates how hypnosis is being used in the investigative process: