Fuller, 'The Interrupted Journey'
John G. Fuller's bestselling account of Betty and Barney Hill's reported abduction on a New Hampshire road in September 1961.
1966 CE · 43.91, -71.66 · status: account
The account
Fuller built the book around the transcripts of the Hills' hypnosis sessions with Boston psychiatrist Dr Benjamin Simon, giving the public its first detailed alien abduction narrative: missing time, a medical examination and Betty's 'star map'. Almost every later abduction story echoes its structure, which is why it is treated as the foundational text of the genre. The Hills' 'missing hours' were retold for the newsstand market in Dell's 1967 'Flying Saucers: UFO Reports' No. 1 ('Between Indian Head and Ashland'). The CIA kept a copy of that magazine in its files.
The sceptical view
Simon himself did not believe the abduction happened physically; he thought Barney absorbed Betty's earlier dreams. Critics also note possible cultural sources for the imagery.
Connections in the atlas
- Betty Hill
- The Interrupted Journey
- Betty & Barney Hill