![]() The fact that the Hills were attacked challenged this notion, explaining why their narrative made for such great storytelling. ![]() First, prior to the Hills’ experience, extraterrestrial encounters were painted as friendly, albeit strange. Three key characteristics of this encounter are worth examining. It took weeks of hypnosis for the ulcers to heal and the anxiety to diminish, and as their mental health began to recover, the Hills felt compelled to tell their curious tale. Plagued by their physical and mental ailments, the couple sought out a hypnotherapist to determine if there was a relationship between that fateful encounter and the onset of their suffering. In the years after their alleged encounter, the couple developed severe psychosomatic symptoms: crippling anxiety, disturbing dreams, and even stomach ulcers. However, their story forever changed how alien abduction accounts were both told and understood. When they awoke two hours later, they realized that they had traveled 35 miles down the road.īefore the story’s publication, the Hills lived a quiet suburban life, untouched by extraterrestrials or media frenzy. The extraterrestrial powers of their abductors rendered the couple paralyzed and unconscious. Their story begins with Betty and Barney in the final stretch of their late- night drive home a sleepy Barney was behind the wheel when he first saw the lights of a strange object flying overhead, following the movement of their car and growing brighter with each passing mile. The details of the Puritans' experiences echo elements of another Encounter with the Third kind: Betty and Barney Hill’s 1961 tale of an extraterrestrial encounter deep in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Flashing lights, strange beings, and lost time – sound familiar? Everell even claimed that the light had carried his boat a mile upstream. ![]() As documented by John Winthrop, governor of the mid-1600s Massachusetts Bay Colony, Everell claimed he saw a mysterious light that “ran as swift as an arrow” darting across the marshland of “Muddy River.” Future fishermen described seeing the same unexplained light appearing on the marsh. The true origin of this narrative actually belongs to the Puritan fisherman James Everell. For example, iterations of the alien abduction narrative have invaded popular culture since the early 1960s. Salience is defined as being particularly noticeable or prominent therefore, a salient memory is one that readily comes to mind out of a sea of surrounding memories.Ĭultural relevance plays a key role in the salience of a memory. When reading the story above, could you see the bright saucer lights and hear the crunching car metal as you collided with the highway barrier? What features can render a false memory easy to believe? To begin untangling the neural complexity of false memory formation, we must first understand how memory salience can change how, and what, we remember. Who took you that night, and where did you go? And yet, your body is covered in scratches and you can’t shake the image of the saucer and the tall grey figures. You wake up the next morning in your own bed. You finally see the source of the sound and light: a wide, chrome saucer hovering 50 feet above you, beaming you up! A door begins to open, tall grey figures illuminated within. In a moment of panic, you crash into the highway barrier. You notice a spotlight piercing through the darkness, cutting across the treetops, shining through your windshield. You’re passing a road sign when you first hear it: a high-pitched whine infiltrating the car through the cracked windows. You drive through unfamiliar territory tonight, far from streetlights and neighbors. ![]() ![]() Your car careens around sharp turns as you make your way home on a dark, forested highway. ![]()
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