The Andreasson Affair

by Raymond E. Fowler

  The results of this investigation filled three volumes of a 528-page confidential report. But even after our disbelief had given way under the sheer weight of the supporting evidence, there remained (and remains) some baffling problems of interpretation. At certain points, Betty’s narrative seems to deal with a reality so alien that it can be described only in metaphors, and perhaps only understood in terms of an altered state of consciousness.

  Because this book is also the story of how the Andreasson family’s account was investigated and substantiated, perhaps I should begin by explaining how I, though skeptical at first, came to be involved.

  My own interest in the whole phenomenon of UFOs dates back to the late 1940s, when I began collecting and studying everything I could about the subject before joining the Air Force in January 1952. Since I had an amateur radio license and obtained high scores in radio/electronics, the Air Force chose to send me to a special school involving electronic espionage, after which I was assigned to the United States Air Force Security Service under the auspices of the National Security Agency. My involvement brought me in contact with information that indicated that the military took UFOs very seriously indeed.

  I was honorably discharged as an Airman First Class in December of 1955. In 1960 my continuing interest in UFOs prompted me to become an associate member of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP).2 In 1963 I began conducting personal on-site inquiries into local UFO sightings, submitting written reports of my investigations to NICAP and to the U.S. Air Force on an unsolicited basis. Later, I became an official NICAP investigator and in November of 1964, became chairman of this group.

  My report on a classical UFO sighting that took place at Exeter, New Hampshire, instigated John G. Fuller’s well-known book Incident at Exeter3 and became a major topic of discussion during the first open congressional hearings on UFOs in April 1966. In 1971 I became Massachusetts state director for an international group called the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).4 While remaining with NICAP as a consultant, I also became a scientific associate/investigator for the Center for UFO Studies, directed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who formerly had served the U.S. Air Force Projects Sign, Grudge, and Blue Book as chief astronomical consultant for about 20 years.

  In 1975 MUFON appointed me as national director of investigations. One of my first tasks concerning this new assignment was to write and edit a detailed UFO investigators’ field manual, which was published in 1975 and has since been adopted for use by the Center for UFO Studies and other groups abroad. The manual closely followed many of the investigative procedures recommended by Dr. Hynek.

  Unfortunately, many sightings in all categories go unreported to official agencies. It is estimated that only 10 percent of all witnesses to UFO sightings ever file a report. And the stranger the experience, the less likely it will be reported. CE-IVs may be the key to the entire UFO mystery, but of all categories of reports, they are the most inherently unbelievable and the most difficult to verify. And to complicate the problem, the memories of witnesses to a CE-IV often seem to have suffered a strangely selective amnesia. In abduction cases particularly, most witnesses recollect only a close-up UFO sighting. A few may remember seeing alien creatures, but rarely do they recall many details. The actual contact or abduction experience has somehow been erased—perhaps mercifully so—from their conscious minds. Later, vague flashbacks, dreams, and intuitive feelings cause witnesses to suspect that something unusual has happened to them. And nonetheless, details of the abduction experience remain locked in the deepest recesses of their minds.

  Where does someone go to report a UFO experience so bizarre that one hesitates to discuss it with either family or friends? Where does one turn when government officials have publicly decreed that UFOs do not exist? Such was the plight of the Andreasson family. During the following years, the hazy yet vivid experience had weighed heavily on the thoughts of Betty. Her daughter Becky thought it had been a bad dream, and yet it seemed so real. At times, Betty would receive mental flashbacks concerning the weird episode. Provocative insights and alien scenes surfaced momentarily from her subconscious, only to slip away as her conscious mind sought to retain them.

  Thus in 1974, when the National Enquirer solicited firsthand UFO accounts for consideration by a panel of scientists, Betty was one of those who responded, hesitantly reporting the vague details that she remembered. Her reply was a form letter from the Enquirer expressing no interest in the incident, frustrating Betty’s hopes of casting light on what had happened to her family.

  Then in August 1975, she read an article about the Center for UFO Studies in a local newspaper. The news story reported that Center Director Dr. J. Allen Hynek was requesting UFO reports for scientific study. Betty sat down and penned a fateful letter, describing the sketchy details of what seemed to have been a CE-IV:

  To Dr. Hynek: August 20, 1975

  I am so happy to read someone is finally studying about UFOs. Now I can tell someone of…my experience…an encounter in 1967 with UFO occupants.…

  Dr. Hynek received Betty’s letter and filed it for some months before resurrecting it and sending it to MUFON’s Humanoid Study Group,5 which had requested copies of all such CE-IV cases from the files of the Center for UFO Studies in order to prepare a computer-generated listing.

  After some discussion, the study group decided that Mrs. Andreasson’s account might be worth looking into. Because Betty’s UFO experience had occurred in Massachusetts, the study group had asked MUFON investigators in that state to enquire into the case for them. In January 1977 Field Investigator Jules Vaillancourt initiated an investigation.

  It soon became evident that to produce any meaningful results, we would have to be able to unlock whatever memories were still buried in Betty’s and Becky’s unconscious minds. We recalled that a similar problem had come up with the classic UFO abduction case involving Betty and Barney Hill that was described in John Fuller’s The Interrupted Journey.6 Although remembering an initial CE-IV, the Hills nevertheless could not account for a portion of time immediately afterward. It was recommended that they secure the services of a psychiatrist, Benjamin Simon, MD, and during the course of his treatment, Dr. Simon used hypnotic regression to help the Hills consciously recall the missing hours. A similar procedure seemed indicated for the Andreasson Affair.

  Harold J. Edelstein, who directs the New England Institute of Hypnosis7, is one of few persons who have pursued the art of hypnosis as a full-time career. Patients are referred to him from a number of local hospitals, including the Sydney Farber Cancer Center and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Psychiatric Department. In addition to his work within the institute, he serves as staff member to Comprehensive Psychological Services (Burlington, Massachusetts) and as faculty instructor at three colleges, and also serves a number of law-enforcement agencies. Harold is, in short, a well-recognized expert in the practical use of hypnosis.

  He became involved as a consultant in UFO research through the influence of one of our MUFON investigators, Merlyn Sheehan. (While being treated for cancer at the New England Baptist Hospital, Merlyn’s doctor referred her to Dr. Edelstein to relieve the nauseating side effects of chemotherapy treatments.) Though this was Harold’s first experience with a UFO investigation, his warm personality and keen insight into human behavior soon enabled him to establish complete trust on the part of Becky and Betty—no simple task, as both women initially had severe misgivings about hypnosis.

  Both Betty and Becky were good subjects, and after a few sessions, it would only take a few minutes to put either of them in a deep trance. Dr. Edelstein feels it would be unethical to describe in a book for general readers the exact methodology that he used to induce hypnosis. I can report, however, that he employed such devices as key words and slight pressure with his hands. (I remember that he once pointed his finger at Betty to show us her reaction: She went out like a light, and her body went limp like a rag doll.) During deep trance hypnotic regression sessions
, Betty and Becky relived their traumatic experience in great detail. They each expressed natural apprehension, fear, wonder, concern, pain, and joy. Their facial expressions, voice tones, and tears were obviously genuine.

  The MUFON state director, Joseph Santangelo, kept me abreast of developments. Initially skeptical, I nonetheless was curious and listened carefully to tapes made of the hypnosis/debriefing session. It soon became apparent to me that both witnesses were wholly sincere. When preliminary lie detector tests indicated that the witnesses were indeed telling the truth, I joined the team as a principal investigator and began attending sessions on June 4, 1977.

  If you belong to the majority of adult Americans that believes UFOs exist (nearly 57 percent according to a 1978 Gallup poll), you may find it easier to believe that Betty’s story, though certainly fantastic, is not fanciful. But even if you belong to the still-skeptical minority, even though you may not share all of the conclusions we eventually drew from this investigation, I think you will find the evidence too substantial and compelling to be easily dismissed. Intricate elements of their story remained consistent over 12 months of cross-examinations. Subtle similarities with other reported CE-IVs added further corroboration. A rather unusual feature in this case is the abductee’s artistic ability. When Betty attended Westminster Elementary School, art was her favorite subject after math and spelling, and she won first prize in many art contests. During our later investigation, she was able to provide detailed sketches relating to her experience, some depicting the interior of the UFO. In combination, these sketches produced powerful corroboration of her account of her experience.

  Much of this book consists of actual transcribed words of the hypnotized witnesses as they related and relived their CE-IV to my colleagues and me. Other than editorial comments provided for clarity and organization, most of the account is taken directly from the transcribed hypnotic regression sessions—which have been rearranged so as to provide a strictly chronological sequence of the original experience.

  Is the story of the Andreasson Affair true? For now, at least, each reader must draw his own conclusions—until the time when an even more substantial CE-IV casts a more definitive light on Betty’s experience. You may find the account incredible and even incomprehensible in parts. But one thing has been established beyond the shadow of a doubt: The witnesses believed it happened.

  And so, for that matter, do I.

  CHAPTER 2

  Uninvited Visitors

  When the bright light first flashed through the kitchen window, Becky had returned into the living room in response to her mother’s commands. (See Figure 2 shown on page 32.) Looking down the hallway into the kitchen, she noticed a dark silhouetted shape bobbing in front of the light source shining through the kitchen window. Then, everything went black. At that same moment, Becky, her grandfather, and all family members except Betty found themselves unable to move, unaware of anything else.

  In the pages that follow, I will let the witnesses tell their story themselves.

  Jules: (investigator) What’s happening, Betty?

  Betty: There’s some…the lights are back on now and, ah, there are beings standing there and they’re talking with me, but not with their mouths. They’ve got big heads!

  Joseph: (investigator) How did they get there, Betty?

  Betty: They came through the door.

  Joseph: Did you open the door for them?

  Betty: No.

  Joseph: Did they open the door?

  Betty: No.

  Figure 2: The ground floor of the Andreasson house at the time of the encounter

  The four entities that had passed by the window entered the house by going through the kitchen door—not through the frame, but through the kitchen door itself. They passed through its solid wood as if it were nonexistent.

  Betty: They came in like follow-the-leader.… They are starting to come through the door now…right through the wood, one right after the other. It’s amazing! Coming through! And I stood back a little. Was it real? And they are coming, one after another.… Now they are all inside.

  It was difficult for us to visualize what Betty was describing. Thus, after each session, Dr. Edelstein induced a posthypnotic suggestion within her that she would remember the details of what she described while under hypnosis. Her ability to draw was fully utilized, and she supplied us with detailed pencil sketches, many of which are reproduced in this book. (See Figure 3.)

  Betty: I was wondering. How did they ever do that? How did they get in here like that?

  Betty balked, as her mind frantically tried to grasp some logical explanation for what was happening. Then her strong Christian beliefs abruptly surfaced to provide a desperately sought rationale.

  Figure 3: Betty’s rendition of how the entities appeared through the closed kitchen door. They “moved in a jerky motion, leaving a vapory image behind.” Drawn April 10, 1977.

  Betty: I’m thinking they must be angels, because Jesus was able to walk through doors and walls and walk on water. Must be angels.… And Scriptures keep coming into my mind where it says, “Entertain the stranger, for it may be angels unaware.”

  Although Betty is far from being fanatic in her beliefs, her pronounced fundamentalist Christian orientation undoubtedly colored her perception and interpretation of some of the events that befell her.

  The four entities hardly resembled conventional depictions of angels. They were identical, except for the leader, who appeared taller. The creatures had gray skins, and large, outsized pear-shaped heads. Their faces were mongoloid in appearance.

  Betty: And the taller one…his eye seems to…his left eye seems to quickly go up into a slit. [See Figure 4 shown on page 34.]

  Large, wraparound catlike eyes stood in stark contrast to less prominent facial features: holes for noses and ears, and fixed, scarlike mouths. They wore shiny dark blue, form-fitting uniforms. Each left sleeve was adorned with an emblem that resembled a bird with outstretched wings. (See Figure 5.) Their three-digited hands were gloved (See Figure 6), and they wore high shoes or boots.

  Figure 4: The leader, as he appeared in the kitchen (May 18).

  Figure 5: An Entity in profile.

  Figure 6: April 9.

  Betty stood transfixed. But an extraordinary calm settled over her. An aura of friendliness emanated from the alien intruders, and she was no longer frightened. The leader, who stood about four feet tall, identified himself as “Quazgaa.”1

  Harold: (hypnotist) Did they know your name?

  Betty: Yes, he called me Betty. It seemed like an oral sound but it…it—ah, I think it was a transformation of thought but it seemed like an oral sound.

  During the initial establishment of what seems to have been mental telepathy, Betty misconceived a mental impression generated by Quazgaa. The leader stretched out his hand, and she asked, “Do you want something to eat?” They merely nodded.

  Betty: And so I went and got some food from the refrigerator and a pan from the stove, and I started to cook some meat.

  The entities stared impassively at Betty momentarily, and then she received another mental impression.

  Betty: And I turned, because they said something to me. And they said, “We cannot eat food unless it is burned.” And so I started to burn the meat—and they stepped back, astonished over the smoke that was coming up!

  The beings corrected Betty as clearer images formed in her mind:

  Betty: And they said, “But that’s not our kind of food. Our food is tried by fire, knowledge tried by fire. Do you have any food like that?”

  Betty’s religious beliefs influenced her reply: “Yes, I think I have some like that…it’s in there.”

  The events that followed in rapid succession are utterly alien to the logical model of reality that we have been taught since early childhood. Like a computer that is automatically programmed to reject extraneous data, the human mind rejects such claims with the comfortable labels of hoax, dream, or hallucination.

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sp; Betty: They followed me into the living room, and I looked and I saw all my family as if time had stopped for them. And I wondered what happened. But I glanced down and picked up the Bible that was on the end table. I turned and I passed it to the leader. The leader passed me a little thin blue book in exchange. [See Figure 7 on page 36.]

  The entity who called himself Quazgaa took the Bible from her and held it in his hand. Betty’s mind rebelled at what occurred next, because what she saw happen seemed impossible.

  Figure 7: April 9.

  Betty: The leader put the book [the Bible] in his hand…[sigh] And he waved his hand over it, and other Bibles appeared, thicker than the original. Then he passed it to those beside him and they took the books and each one was spontaneous. They somehow flipped it, page by page, and looked down. Each page was pure white, luminous white. And then they stopped—and I started to look in the little blue book.

  When Betty’s oldest daughter, Becky, relived the episode under hypnosis, she recalled regaining consciousness at this very point. After blacking out, the next thing she remembered was seeing her mother conversing with the entities in the corner of the living room.

  Jules: Where are you? In the hallway?

  Betty: I’m in the living room still…I’m over near the TV, and I’m just looking over to the left.

  Jules: What do you see?

  Becky: Some…I don’t even know what it is! There’s something there, and it looks so scary. But Mom’s okay.