Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind
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Acclaim for CloseEncounters of the Fourth Kind "This is solid investigative journalism at its best brought to bear on a con troversial subject. Whether you have read many books on the subject or none, this serious and thought-provoking study will keep you enthralled. A must read for anyone who is interested in what is really happening to these people." -Anne Rice "May be the clearest and most comprehensive assessment of the phe nomenon to date." -TheDallas Morning Neu•s "Brings a rare combination of skepticism and open-mindedness to the tortured debate about the flying saucer phenomenon .... The book chronicles the way an astonishing body of data pushed Bryan to ques tion his most deeply rooted beliefs about reality." -San Francisco Examiner "As in his brilliant Friendly Fire, C.D.B. Bryan has dared to give uncon ventional wisdom its due and has come upon a tantalizing puzzle." -Tom Wolfe "Eye-opening ... A solid, witty, one-of-a-kind work." -Boston Sunday Herald "An engrossing work on unearthly visitors, wrinen for a nonbeliever." -Kirkus Reviews a classic pio�eer, th� "Mr. Bryan brought to the task the courage of a journalist, and the mtelle�tu�l ngor of skepticism of an indomitable . lore and remotely interested in ahen v �:ttatlon scientist. If you are even . would be a good thmg . speculation ' reading this book -The Baltimore Sun ARKANA CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FOURTH KIND Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan graduated from Yale Uni versity in 1958. He sold his first short story to The New Yorker in 1961. His articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Esquire, and Rolling Stone. Bryan has been a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is the author of The National Air & Space Museum, The National Geographic Society, Friendly Fire, and three works of fiction, P.S. Wilkinson, TheGreat Dethriffe, and Beautiful Women; Ugly Scenes. He lives in Guilford, Connecticut. .. '•. · CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FOURTH KIND A Reporter's Notebook on Alien Abduction, UFOs, and the Conference at M. I. T. C. D. B. Bryan PENGUIN ARKAN� ARKANA Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England First published in the United States of America by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1995 Reprinted by arrangement with Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Published in Arkana 1996 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Copyright © Courtlandt Dixon Barnes Bryan, 1995 All rights reserved Frontispiece: Louise Bourgeois, Ibe Puritan, plate I, variant. 1990. Engraving with chine colle, with pencil and ink additions; plate: 16 3/4 x 10 11/16". The Museum of Modem Art, New York. Gift of the artist. Photograph © 1995 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Owing to limitations of space, all permissions to reprint from previously published material can be found immediately following the index. ISBN 0-679-42975-1 (he.) ISBN 0 14 01.9527 0 (pbk.) LC 95-76563 Printed in the United States of America Set in Garamond Old Style Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that 'in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. For Brandon and Mary Anne When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -SHERLOCK HoLMES, in Arthur Conan Doyle's Th e Sign ofFo ur Contents Acknowledgments xi Background 3 II At the Conference: Day One II Ill At the Conference: Day Two 33 IV At the Conference: Day Three 65 v At the Conference: Day Four 141 VI At the Conference: Day Five 198 VI I Postconference Interview: Carol and Alice in Boston 201 VI II Postconference Interview: David E. Pritchard, Ph.D. 231 IX Postconference Interview: Richard J Boylan, Ph.D. 237 X Postconference Interview: Pa t 250 XI Postconference Interview: John E. Mack, M.D. 254 XI I Postconference Interview: John G. Miller, M.D. 279 X Ill Postconference Interview: Carol and Alice at Their Horse Farm 282 XIV Postconference Interview: Carol and Alice- First HypnosisSession at BuddHop kins's Studio 315 X Contents XV Postconference Interview: Brenda,Erica, Te rry, and Linda Cortile-Abductee SupportGrou p Meeting at Budd Hopkins'sStudio 334 XV I Postconference Interview: Carol and Alice- Second Hypnosis Session at Budd Hopkins'sStudio 339 XV I I Postconference Interview: Carol and Alice- Third HypnosisSession at Budd Hopkins'sStudio 358 XV I II Postconference Interview: Caroland Alice- Fourth HypnosisSession at Budd Hopkins'sStudio 383 XIX Postconference Interview: Caroland A lice- Fifth Hypnosis Session at Budd Hopkins'sStudio 402 XX Various Theories 416 Notes 45I Bibliography 459 Index 467 Acknowledgments I i h to ac�owledge the kindness shown me by various people during the � � . wnung of thts book, begmnmg wtth Brenda Hden Cummings, R.D.T., who first alerted me to the 1992 Abduction Study Conference at M.I.T. and then introduced me to some of the key written sources. Next would come those I met and interviewed in Cambridge and af terwards: the conference's co-chairmen, Harvard psychiatrist John E. Mack, M.D., and M.I.T. physicist David E. Pritchard, Ph.D., who graciously per mitted me to attend and, subsequently, openly shared their thoughts about the abduction experience with me. I am grateful, also, to Budd Hopkins, the phenomenon's pioneering chronicler, who was extraordinarily generous in sharing his data, tech niques, and information; Temple University historian David M. Jacobs, Ph.D., who provided both a historical context for, and an often amusing sense of perspective about, the UFO movement in addition to the structure of abductions; and folklorist Thomas E. Bullard, Ph.D., whose erudite scholarship made my task so much the easier. I wish to thank, as well, John G. Miller, M. D., and Richard J. Boylan, Ph.D., both of whom contributed more of their time and thoughts than I had any right to expect; journalist Linda Moulton Howe, whose sense of wonder was infectious; Keith Basterfield and Jenny Randles for their dili gent "foreign correspondings"; and John S. Carpenter, M.S.W, whose ex ample inspired me to strive for a similar blend of professionalism and caring in this work. I am grateful also to the abductees who permitted me to interview them-especially "Carol" and ''Alice"-whose confidences and trust I have tried to deserve. gives In addition, I would like to thank my editor, Vicky Wilson, who a writer the lie to John Cheever's observation that "the rdationship between surgery was and his editor is that of a knife-to-the-throat." Vicky's degant a pleasure to limited to the page and her encouragements made this book write. XII Acknowledgments I would be remiss, too, ifl did not here express my appreciation to my agent,Lynn Nesbit, for her continuing effons on my behal£ And this is as good a place as any to acknowledge those writers I have not already mentioned who have gone before me-Keith Thompson, Fred Alan Wolf, Ttmothy Good, Howard Blum, and]. Allen Hynek, in particu lar-whose works and ideas I looted like an Attila the Hun. Finally, there are reoccurring phrases authors use to express their grati tude to their spouses and children for putting up with them through the writing of a book. No words adequately convey, however, how gratified I am by my wife and family's continued enthusiastic support and willingness to stick around. Close Encounters ofthe Fourth Kind CHAPTER I Background "? ar Col � �e�e," the letter dated February 28, 1992, began. "We are mzmg a scientific orga conference to assess the similarities and differences in findin s of the � vario s investigators studying people � who report experiences of abductions by ahens, and the related issues of this phenomenon. "One of the features of this conference," the letter continued, "will be an abductee panel with abductees drawn widely from the community. If you have investigated an abductee who is articulate and thoughtfuland has had particularly interesting and/or manifold experiences, please send us his/her name and address and a brief paragraph about why this person would be a desirable participant." The five-day conference, the letter explained, was to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from June 13 through June 17; its co chairmen were M.I.T. physicist David E. Pritchard and Harvard psychia trist John E. Mack. The letter's return address was Pritchard's office in the physics department at M.I.T., the university at which the fifty-one-year-old Harvard Ph.D . professor has taught and pursued research in atomic and molecular physics since 1968.' In 1991 Pritchard was presented the presti gious Broida Prize, awarded biannually for outstanding experimental ad vances in the fields of atomic, molecular, and optical physics. John E. Mack, M.D., Pritchard's co-chairman, is a sixty-three-year-old cum laudegraduate of the Harvard Medical School and former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he has been a professor of psychiatry for the past twenty years.