The Andreasson Affair (6 page)

Figure 12:
The “ripple-like” windows. May 5
.

At times, Dr. Edelstein suggested that he was
with
the witnesses to give them moral support.

Harold:
All right, Betty, just relax. This is me. I want you now to feel myself being with you to back you up. You've got nothing to fear. You can feel the fear leaving you, can't you? I'm by your side constantly. Continue—go ahead. You have nothing to fear.

Now substantially calmed, Betty tried to describe a variety of totally alien objects that she could see from her vantage point. But their utter strangeness prohibited her from describing them except by comparing them with things already familiar to her.

Betty:
Okay, I'm standing there and looking around on the side, there—on the wall, there is a leaf motif, and, ah, there's a thing up top there, like a—it looks like a railing, but it isn't. And the room is sort of dome-shaped…there are leaf motifs to the right there…raised buttons on it, and there are shields…and different symbols—and the desk is to the side and…and—I don't like feeling so held down in my body. I just seem to be able to move my head to look. They seem like they've controlled my body somehow so I'm fixed, like in one place, and, ah…

Harold:
Are you becoming apprehensive?

Betty:
No.

Harold:
Fine, I'm still with you.

Betty:
Can
you
see the things?

Harold:
No, I can see them only through your eyes. Continue.

Betty:
I'm trying to see what else is there. I can't see way in back of me. There are those golden, ah, those golden things—the cord and, um, some type of a scroll.

Betty, in the meantime, had waited impatiently and wondered what fate had in store for her when the alien beings returned.

Betty:
I wish they'd hurry up. I'm tired of waiting here. It's getting brighter. They are getting it brighter now in here.… [
Softly
] What is that? I see something like a—wonder if it's coming from the wall or is—what?… They've opened something, pushed it out, and it's something like a camera works. [See
Figure 13
.] [
Softly
] I don't know what it is, but it's getting brighter in here—uh, much brighter now. What's that? There's somebody coming now for me. They said, “Would you follow me, please?” And they stopped in front of me.

Harold:
Betty, is this Quazgaa who is telling you this?

Betty:
No.

Harold:
All right, I want you now to lock this point in your mind. Lock this point, and when we start next time, you will carry on from this point in time. You will remember where you left off. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

Betty:
Yes.

Harold:
You will store this particular spot in your subconscious mind, and when we start the next time, you will start from here and continue to go further.

Figure 13:
May 5
.

At this point, Betty recovered from hypnotic trance.

The investigators awaited each following session with burning curiosity. What would happen next? But two weeks passed before we met again with the witnesses in the offices of the New England Institute of Hypnosis.

It was a hot, sultry June day. The steady drone of an air conditioner pervaded the otherwise-silent atmosphere that soon enveloped the room as Dr. Edelstein prefaced the session by speaking into an activated tape recorder.

Harold:
Today's date is the fourth of June 1977. The time is 12:21. This is a continuation of the session we made two weeks ago. Betty, I want you now to induce hypnosis into yourself. Very good. Now deepen this hypnosis by relaxing. Let yourself relax. Let yourself relax. When I touch your shoulder, let yourself go into the deepest point of relaxation you have ever been. Deeper and deeper—deep, deep, relaxation. I want you now to take yourself back to the last session that we had. You will go back to that point. Tell me you are there. Are you there now? Fine! I want you to continue.

We were amazed at how, week after week, the witnesses would pick up their accounts at the precise point where Dr. Edelstein had left off on the week before. Deep trance hypnosis, properly administered by a skillful hypnotist, can produce near-total recall of everything a subject has ever experienced. In this trance state, a person must tell the truth, as he or she believes the truth to be. Betty and Becky were turned off and on like biological tape recorders! It was fascinating to see a practical demonstration of the mind's remarkable facilities for storing memory.

Betty:
The lights are getting brighter, and—that door opened again. And there is somebody coming. I'm glad they are coming, ‘cause it seemed like a long time in there.… They're sort of gliding toward me, not moving their legs, but gliding. And it's one of the beings, ah, it's two of the beings. They are waving their hands and telling me to follow them. I'm going over with them.… And, ah, they are taking me over to the center of the room. One is in back of me
and one is in front of me. I asked them, “Where are we going now?”… And they said, “You will come over here.” I went over to the center of the room, and I stood there. And the one in front of me turned and looked at me.

Figure 14:
Lightning and rushing wind from the hatch. June 17
.

Again, Betty was instructed to assume the familiar follow-the-leader stance between the two entities. Abruptly, she found herself sinking through an opening in the floor.

Betty:
I'm standing there, and we are slowly, slowly being lowered through a tube. It looks like a—silvery tube… slowly lowering down. We are going down…we are going down. We are stopping. And one of the beings tells me to get in back of him again. I'm getting in back of him, and the other one's in front of me. And the door is lifting up—couldn't see the door before. The door just looked like a tube—clear, straight-through tube. I'm going out into another room that looks—looks like a hatch or something on top there. Looks like lightning spears coming out of it. [See
Figure 14
.] I don't know what it is, but it is there, and they are bringing me over to the side.

The rectangular construction that Betty referred to as a “hatch” looked similar in appearance (but not in size) to the enclosed walkways employed at airports between terminal gates and parked aircraft. Its surface was marked with both jagged and straight lines, which looked to Betty like graphic representations for wind and lightning. At this time, the hatch extended downward out of the wall and into the floor.

When Betty returned through this room later, the hatch had been telescoped into the wall, revealing an opening in the floor over which it had extended.

Next, Betty was directed to a platform illuminated from above by streaks of dazzling light. (See
Figure 15
.)

Betty:
I'm seeing this brighter light shining down, and it—it's shining down so much, it's leaving like, ah, thin, tiny bars of light, surrounding it—like you do in a cartoon with a light bulb… having streaks of light from it, coming down.

“Would you get under that, please?” the entities asked.

“Well, what is it first?” Betty asked.

“It is just a cleansing thing.”

“Well, will it hurt?”

“No,” the entities replied. “It is just to cleanse you.”

Figure 15:
The cleansing device. June 17
.

Betty:
And so they didn't touch me, but they held out their hands as if to assist me. There seems to be a platform there [
sigh
], and I'm stepping on the platform. The light's above there. And it's bright—bright, and it's got those streaks of light coming out of it. It seems like it's moving me upward!

The platform itself moved upward and immersed Betty in the brilliant light.

Betty:
The light is getting brighter and brighter. It's all engulfed in light—like I'm engulfed in light. I don't know if there is a covering or what, but I can't seem to see them. It's just bright
white light.… I'm just standing there. It doesn't seem to hurt. It is not hot. It's just white light all around me, and on me. And now it is going back down. The platform is going back down…it is stopping.…

Betty stepped off it, and the entities said, “Would you follow us, please? Now!”

“Where are we going now?” she asked. “Just please follow with us.”

Betty:
They motioned again for me to get to the back of them and follow the leader.… And he walked to another place where a door is opening—whooshing open.

Figure 16:
The changing room. June 17
.

Betty faced the opening to a darkened wedge-shaped room. (See
Figure 16
.) The lead entity gestured, holding out his hand for her to enter. “It was a little bit dark in there,” Betty recalled.

“Would you please change?” the entity said.

“I don't want to change!” she protested.

“Please! Would you just please change?”

“But why do I have to change?” Betty persisted.

“There's a white garment there for you,” the entity said. “Would you please get into it?”

Now Betty bridled. “Look, I came here of my free will. Why do I have to change into this now?”

“Please change. Quazgaa is waiting for you.”

“I want to talk to him!”

“Please change,” the entity repeated. His persistent request drummed in Betty's ears until she finally relented. The white garment hung without visible support in the changing room.

Betty:
And he kept on motioning to go into that room. It was kind of dark. I didn't like it. And so I said, “All right.” And I had to step up into that room too. And I'm in that room and it's all—it looks like a pyramid on its side with a bubble where you went into the door.… Just enough standing room.… There—there's that white garment there.