Marden Reflects on Betty Hill

Kathy Marden's picture

To give you a little background information, I am the Trustee of Betty's archival collection and have photocopies of her files that fill two four drawer file cabinets in my home office. The fact that I specialize in the Hill abduction case and have so much material on hand makes it possible for me to fact check quite easily. Whenever I encounter a statement that appears to be inconsistent with Betty's documented information, I attempt to set the record straight.
 
I do this without malice. Certainly memory is malleable, and although we might retain the whole picture of an event that occurred several years ago, specific details might be mis-remembered or altered somewhat. I suspect that this is what happened to Gordon. I am not attempting to criticize him--only to correct a small mistake and to offer what I suspect might be a more accurate account of the memory he retrieved.
 
Anyone who has a copy of Betty's 1995 book, A Common Sense Approach to UFOs, will find documentation that supports my statement that Betty did not believe that she is the only person ever to have been abducted. Refer to Chapter 6 on page 81, "Criteria for Real Abductions" and Chapter 7 "Reality." She states on page 85, "Real abductions do exist but they are extremely rare." Betty discusses the differences between what, in her opinion, are real vs psychological abductions in Chapter 6. She discusses the experiences of a man who she thought had a real abduction. "The day after the abduction, he was too ill to get out of bed. The third day he went to the doctor who did some tests on him." She then discusses the abduction of a couple who lived hundreds of miles apart but were abducted from a vehicle when they were riding together. Chapter 7 gives brief case histories of several additional abductions that met Betty's criteria as being veridical experiences.
 
I suspect that Gordon's "only one"  memory is related to Betty's firmly held belief that abductions occur only one time. Almost no one agrees with Betty's assessment on this topic, but she argued her belief over a number of years that no real abductions occur more than one time. In her opinion, all serial abductions were psychological in nature--a very unpopular belief and one that I reject. We had many heated debates over this issue.
 
Betty got herself into trouble for stating that one needed only to look up into the sky to see UFOs. She wrote in Chapter 18, "UFOs do not fly around alone. They fly in squadrons of 100 or more. Most of them do not use any lights. They do not materialize and dematerialize. They turn their lights off..." She devotes two chapters to multiple UFO sightings allegedly observed by Betty and her silent network. This has always been a troubling aspect of Betty's pronouncements because they were not investigated in an unbiased manner and they quite effectively destroyed Betty's credibility. I addressed this issue in Chapter 25 of my book Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience, with Stanton Friedman. I titled it, "Betty's Fall From Grace." Although she had some credible close encounter observations with witnesses, she was prone in her later years to label clearly conventional aircraft UFOs. I wonder if her brain tumor is to blame for this clearly ridiculous assessment of conventional aircraft as being unconventional.
 
I wish to caution people against the tendency to take statements that Betty made late in her life as an indicator of her credibility at the time of her 1961 UFO encounter. For a better understanding of Betty's personality, biography and UFO experience I urge interested parties to read Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience. 

Kathleen Marden 

 

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About Kathy Marden

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Bio

Scientific Ufologist Kathleen Marden earned her B.A. in Social Work at the University of New Hampshire in 1971. Thereafter, she entered into graduate studies in Education at the University of Cincinnati, and later, at U.N.H.

She began her professional career as a social worker and eventually entered the field of education as a teacher. Later, she was promoted to a supervisory position, coordinating education programs and supervising education staff. 

She left her job in 1990 to pursue a career as a UFO investigator, researcher and writer. She taught adult education classes on UFO and abduction history, and for 10 years volunteered as the Mutual UFO Network's Director of Field Investigator Training.

In 2003, MUFON publicly recognized Kathy for her most outstanding contribution of advancing the scientific study of the UFO phenomenon by dedicating the annual MUFON International UFO Proceedings to her.

She is a currently UFO & abduction writer and lecturer investigating some of the very substantial cases in the annals of UFO and abduction history. 

As the niece of Betty and Barney Hill, Kathy had the opportunity to observe and learn from many of the great late abduction researchers in action. As such, she has been able to present substantial evidence that the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction was a veridical experience. 

She also takes to task the pseudo-skeptics who fail to do their research but disseminate false and misleading information with regard to several of the high profile, substantial evidence abduction cases, and the hoaxers and attention seekers who blur the lines between fantasy and reality and bring impropriety to legitimate UFO research and investigation.

Kathy is currently a full time writer and lecturer. Several of her articles have been published in UFO magazines. 

Additionally, she has written papers on the use and misuse of hypnosis in abduction investigations, the ethical use of hypnosis in abduction investigations, the comparative analysis of Betty and Barney Hills' statements made under hypnotic regression versus Betty's dream account of abduction, a critical analysis of the Harvard false memory study of self reported UFO experiencers, and “The Conundrum of Alien Abduction” (available from MUFON). 

Her 2007 book Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience, with coauthor Stanton T. Friedman is a case study of her aunt and uncle, Betty and Barney Hills' 1961 UFO close encounter and abduction. 

Autographed copies of her new and exciting book Science Was Wrong (with Stan Friedman) are now available at her website. You can also find them in the "Science" section at bookstores.

Kathy has appeared on dozens of television and radio programs in the US, Canada and Europe, including the History and Discovery channels, NH Chronicle, FOX News and Coast to Coast AM. Additionally, she has lectured at major conferences and colleges throughout the United States.

Kathy resides in Groveland, Florida and can be contacted at Kmarden@aol.com Her mailing address is P.O. Box 120172, Clermont, FL 34712. Visit Kathy's website for additional information at www.kathleen-marden.com.   

 

 

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