Buff Ledge 1/2

[Jan-H. Raabe]

Taken from
MUFON Symposium Proceedings (1995 ?)
==============================================================

Walter N. Webb has been associated with UFO research for more
than 40 years following his own sighting in 1951. During this
time he has served four national UFO organizations, three of
them as an astronomy consultant.

Professionally, he served under the late J. Allen Hynek
(founder of the Center for UFO Studies) at the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory's Optical Satellite Tracking Program
in 1957-58. After his duties there, he spent 32 years at
Boston's Charles Hayden Planetarium as senior lecturer,
assistant director, and operations manager.

Walt has been a consultant in astronomy to MUFON for 15 years
and a columnist of "The Night Sky" for the 'MUFON UFO Journal'.
He was a member of the program committee for the 1981 MUFON UFO
Symposium at M.l.T., Cambridge, Mass., a speaker at the 1988
symposium in Lincoln, Nebr.; and a member of the former MUFON
Public Information and Public Education Committee.

In 1992, he was a member of the Conference Committee for the
Abduction Study Conference held at M.I.T., a landmark scientific
assembly on UFO abductions (684-page volume of proceedings).
Last year, the Center for UFO Studies appointed him as its first
Senior Research Associate based upon his many years of
investigative work and service to ufology. And as of this year,
a coalition of the three major UFO groups in the U.S hired Walt
as its chief consultant. He is on call to lead 'quick-strike'
case investigations, as well as to investigate other
coalition-designated cases and activities.

Although it is well known that Walt was the initial
investigator of the Barney and Betty Hill incident in 1961, he
has researched what he believes is a much better example of a
dual-witness UFO abduction experience and has documented this
case in his book 'Encounter at Buff Ledge: A UFO Case History'
(J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies, 1994).

His mailing address is 5 Willow Street, Westwood, MA 02090.

================================================================

ENCOUNTER AT BUFF LEDGE

Walter N. Webb

@ 1994 by Walter N. Webb and the
J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies

ABSTRACT

The author has conducted an in-depth investigation into a
dual-witness UFO abduction experience. This 1968 episode differs
from most other multiple-witness cases in that (1) neither
individual communicated with the other between the conclusion of
the experience and the initiation of the investigation ten years
later, and (2) the five-year probe into this incident makes it
the most thoroughly investigated and documented of any single
UFO abduction episode to date. Additionally, several potential
secondary witnesses to the UFO's departure were located.

Introduction

The key to the UFO mystery may very well lie in the stories of
abduction. But these accounts face some serious drawbacks. First
of all, most of these cases represent only one person's
anecdotical story without substantiation by another witness.
Secondly, in nearly all multiple-witness UFO abduction
experiences reported to date, family members or friends were
involved with subsequent communication between the parties,
thereby rendering suspect the hypnotic recovery of shared
abduction details. Consciously or unconsciously borrowed
details, altered memories, and embellishment of the accounts are
examples of possible contamination in these cases.

Other problems may arise in multiple-witness episodes.
Sometimes only one of the alleged abductees has been
hypnotically regressed so that there is no confirmation of the
experience. Or perhaps one of the hypnotized members of the
group failed to support an abduction.

In 1961, I was the initial investigator of the first
publiciced missing-time UFO case, Barney and Betty Hill's
''interrupted journey'' (1). Even this celebrated dual UFO
abduction involved potential contamination of the testimony
between husband and wife.

In the years since my involvement with the Hill case, I have
probed 14 other CE-III experiences. One of them has resulted in
a very detailed and lengthy investigation into a dual-witness
abduction experience which, I believe, is unprecedented in at
least two important respects:

1. I was able to determine that neither individual saw, spoke
with, or corresponded with the other over the ten-year span
between the conclusion of their experience and the
initiation of my investigation. Despite their separation
accompanied by periods of missing time, both observers
independently filled in their time lapses with a shared
abduction scenario during regressive hypnosis, with
astonishing agreement in many major and minor details.

2. My five-year probe into this incident makes it the most
thoroughly investigated and documented of any single UFO
abduction episode to date. The investigation included the
following:

a. Separate interviews with both primary witnesses in which
all conscious memories of the UFO experience were
transcribed prior to hypnosis.

b. Three trips to the site in Vermont where measurements,
photographs, photographs, maps, drawings, and
re-enactment of the sighting were made with one of the
primary witnesses.

c. A determination of the meteorological conditions and the
positions of bright celestial objects for the date,
time, and place.

d. Twelve hours and more than 80,000 words of taped
hypnotic interviews with the two primary witnesses and
with a possible secondary witness.

e. A quest for additional witnesses and independent
sightings in the general area. This involved numerous
letters of inquiry, telephone calls, interviews, and
searches of 22 private and organizational UFO files
around the country (including files and logs in
newspaper offices, libraries, the National Archives, and
law enforcement agencies).

f. Witness evaluation education, family, and job histories,
character references; MMPI prifiles; PSE examinations,
and a determination of prior UFO knowledge.

g. Associated special studies: 18 other abduction cases for
comparison; global UFO wave of 1968, other cases bearing
characteristics similar to those of the Vermont UFO,
research into human perception, memory, hypnosis, near-
death experiences, and out-of-body experiences.

When it was all over, five years later, my search for
supporting data had reached into 23 states and the District of
Columbia. I had crisscrossed 3,200 miles of New England roads -
distance equivalent to driving from Boston to San Francisco!

THE ENCOUNTER; MICHAELS STORY

The experience took place on August 7, 1968, at a private
summer girl's camp on Lake Champlain north of Burlington,
Vermont. Buff Ledge Camp, now closed and abandoned, was located
in a grassy clearing surrounded by woodland. A 15-foot-high
bluff (the ''Buff Ledge'') fringed with trees overlooked a
half-mile-long stretch of isolated beach. From the beach an
L-shaped dock jutted out more than 100 feet into the lake.

One of the principals in this drama was 'Michael', a
16-year-old from the Burlington area. His duties consisted of
ferrying water-skiers between the dock and raft and maintaining
the waterfront equipment. The other participant was the
water-skiing instructor, 'Janet', a 19-year-old Smith student
from southern New Hampshire. (The primary and secondary
witnesses in this paper been assigned fictitious names.) Both
remembered this day because it happened to be their first
opportunity all summer to get together and talk at length. The
swim team had gone to Burlington for the end-of-the-season two-
day state invitational meet, and the rest of the camp took
advantage of the break by conducting overnight trips away from
Buff Ledge. Some counselors and campers had remained behind.

Michael and Janet spent most of that sunny afternoon relaxing
in their swim suits on the end of the dock. Michael's story of
what happened next is summarized first since he had more
conscious recall of the UFO experience.

Just after sunset he said he noticed a bright starlike object
in the southwest sky which suddenly swooped down in a long arc,
blossoming into a glowing white cigar shape. After coming to a
stop, the horizontal object emitted three tiny white ''lights''
from near the right end and below, one at a time. The large UFO
then retraced its original path, grew smaller, and vanished in
seconds.

According to Michael, the trio of satellite objects proceeded
to put on an incredible aerial display, executing most of thc
maneuvers typical of UFOs - zigzags, spirals, fluttering,
falling-leaf descents, and stop-and-go activity. As the
formation came closer, the observer said he could see that the
objects were domed discs.

After perhaps about five minutes, the three objects formed a
horizontal triangle and two of them quickly departed in opposite
directions, north and south. The remaining object began to
advance across the lake toward the observers. Michael's
curiosity and awe turned to foreboding. Both witnesses touched
each other to be sure that the experience wasn't a dream.

The UFO halted for about a minute. Michael said he noted that
a band of colored light rotated around the disc's edge,
pulsating in synchronization with a complex sound emission of
varied tones and pitches. The band changed color across the
spectrum, only one hue visible at a time.

All at once, according to the witness, the object shot
straight up out of sight then reappeared, dropping vertically
into the lake ! Instantly, several things allegedly happened.
Michael reported that a steady wind buffeted the dock and waves
sprang up all over the calm lake surface.

After a few minutes, the UFO emerged and the disturbances
ceased. The disc-shaped object glided rapidly toward the dock,
stopping about 60 feet away and hovering about 15 to 20 feet up.
Michael said the device appeared clear, distinct, and solid
against the twilight sky. He described it as possibly 40 to 50
feet across - ''as big as a small house'' - and its shape like
two curved saucers placed face-to-faCe. The rotating spectral
color band resembled a glowing plasma enclosed within a
transparent furrowed tube encircling the middle of the object.
A bright white glow surrounding the entire UFO had weakened,
exposing a transparent dome and two entities behind it.

According to Michael, the figures were visible down to their
waists and possessed large heads with big oval eyes, two nasal
openings, and a small mouth. Their short bodies seemed to be
garbed in a skintight grayish or silverish uniform.

By now, the frightened youth's companion appeared to be frozen
in a trance-like state. He asserted that while one of the
entities communicated with him telepathically, the other seemed
to be either controlling Janet or mimicking her frozen
expression. The being assured Michael that he would not be
harmed, that they had come from a distant planet, that their
race had made earlier visits to Earth and had returned after the
first nuclear explosions (a recurring theme in abduction
reports).

After several minutes, the UFO suddenly approached to within
about ten feet of the dock. And then, after Michael wondered to
himself what it would be like to get a closer look at the
entities and the interior of the craft, the object moved
directly overhead. At this point, in a final effort to confirm
that the UFO was a constructed device, the witness said he
jumped up to touch the bottom surface. At the top of his jump
(no contact made), a brilliant beam of white light came on.
Michael grabbed Janet on his way down and fell with her on the
dock, covering her protectively with his arm. While under the
beam, he said he felt himself losing consciousness. He also
recalled impressions of floating up, ''soft lights in a dark
place'', and hearing machinelike noises and alien voices.

When Michael became fully aware again, the UFO was still
hovering overhead. But now it was totally dark out. Michael said
he heard car doors slamming and the voices of campers returning
from the swim meet. (From the parking lot, the UFO would have
been at least partially concealed by the bluff, trees, and a
pavilion.) According to Michael, while most of the swimmers
moved obliviously toward their cabins, two of the girls,
15-year-old 'Susan' and 'Barbara', ran down to the bluff,
apparently attracted by the UFO's glow. He asserted that the two
campers cried out. At that moment the UFO turned its beam off,
rose slightly, directed the beam across the camp in a rapid-fire
sequence of flashes, and then angled upward over the lake,
disappearing from sight in a matter of seconds.

Michael helped his dazed companion off the dock and up the
steps on the bluff. Susan and Barbara assisted Janet to her
cabin. (In addition to a memory/time lapse, Michael and and
Janet suffered from abnormal fatigue and, in fact, fell asleep
in their separate quarters after the encounter.)

Others now gathered at the bluff, including the camp's
assistant director 'Richard', who had retourned with the swim
team. He asked Michael who had been at the waterfront. The
witness assumed that Richard must have noted a glow or the
flashes emitted by the UFO and was concerned about vandals on
the beach. Michael said he assured the assistant director that
there were no vandals but refused to tell him what actually had
happened.

The tired and confused witness then walked to the male staff
quarters located on the second floor of the dining hall. He
claimed that 20-year-old 'Patrick' greeted him excitedly,
implying that he had observed at least part of the close
encounter from the window. (Trees would have obscured some of
the view.) Patrick suggested calling Plattsburgh Air Force Base
on the New York side of Lake Champlain. Michael seemed to recall
that when they telephoned, an Air Force spokesman told them that
the base had received a number of UFO reports that evening and
that military aircraft were not responsible for the sightings.
After hanging up, Michael promptly fell asleep.

When he awoke about an hour later, the male witness made his
only attempt to contact his female counterpart about their
bizarre UFO experience. He tried to visit her that same night,
but she was still asleep and was reminded that her cabin was off
limits to males.

The next evening he said he was rebuffed by his own family and
his girlfriend when he attempted to tell them what had happened.
While Michael had a clear awareness of the close encounter phase
interrupted by a time lapse, he recognized in the days following
that Janet must have recalled little, and he said he was afraid
he might traumatize her further if he tried to talk with her
about the experience. In addition, he was alrcady disillusioned
by the reaction of disbelief that his story had created among
even those close to him.

A few weeks later Buff Ledge Camp closed for the season, and
the two witnesses went their separate ways.

In the years following the sighting, Michael coped with the
knowledge of his UFO experience the best he could. He tried to
repress it, although he had occasional mental flashbacks of the
UFO and its alien occupants. He also had several vivid dreams of
being on board the UFO and communicating with the humanoid
entities while seated in front of them. Michael's curiosity
about the experience led him to read a small number of UFO books
(Lorenzen, Jung, Klass).

Ten years after those strange events on an August night at
buff Ledge Camp, four incidents occurring over the span of one
year finally prompted Michael to report his sighting to the
Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS):

First, the publicity about the movie 'Close Encounters of the
Third Kind' attracted his attention. But, he said, he couldn't
bring himself to view the film

Second, he had another of his UFO contact dreams.

Third, he wrote a paper for his university religion class
using his own UFO observation as an example of reactions to
experiences involving the miraculous and the supernatural. He
purposely ommitted many details of the encounter.

Finally, in early October 1978, Michael happened to read his
brother's copy of the January 1978 'Playboy' article consisting
of a discussion and debate among seven personalities in the UFO
field [2]. Dr. Hynek's name and his CUFOS address were given in
the article. The witness called the Center the next day and
spoke with Mrs. Hynek. She recommended me as a New England
investigator who had dealt with similar cases before. Thus,
Michael telephoned me on Halloween 1978, and the long
investigation began.

THE INVESTIGATION

That same weekend the Vermont witness hitchhiked more than 200
miles to my home in the Boston area, and I grilled him for seven
hours. But before I would be willing to commit my time to a
full-blown investigation, I needed Janet's confirmation.

Michael knew that Janet had been employed for a time at an Ivy
League college. Within six months he was able to obtain her
current address from the school. She had married and still was
working for the college on a regional level in a city in the
Southeast. I wrote her at once. A few days later Janet
telephoned me.

She told me she remembered standing on the camp dock with
Michael and seeing a display of eratically moving lights in the
sky followed by the close approach of a ''big light.'' Thinking
the object was going to hit them, Janet said she and her
companion either ''sat down, lay down, or hit the dock.'' After
that, her mind drew a complete blank. (Later, I would learn that
the day after the UFO episode Janet desperately wanted to talk
with Michael but was at a total loss to know what she wanted to
talk with him about.)

The female participant had at least partially substantiated
Michael's story in vague terms. Most importantly, her complete
loss of memory had begun when the UFO passed overhead,
coinciding with Michael's own loss of awareness. It looked as if
I had two good candidates for regressive hypnosis.

But first in June of 1979, I traveled to Buff Ledge in order
to examine the site of the 1968 encounter, to make the necessary
angular measurements, to take photographs, and to have Michael
retrace his sighting at the scene. On the first of three trips
to the site, I also interviewed four members of the witness'
family.

Four months later, Janet stopped briefly at Boston's Logan
Airport, and I arranged for the two witnesses to meet there in
my presence - their first contact in 11 years (and, as it turned
out, their only meeting). Ground rules were established for
Michael. In order to reduce the chances of contaminating Janet's
own memory of the encounter, the male witness was instructed to
say very little about his version of the affair and to limit the
discussion to questioning Janet about her recollections.
Although nothing really new emerged, Janet did agree to undergo
hypnosis during her next trip north. Michael's initial hypnosis
session already had taken place the previous month.

I was fortunate in obtaining the free services of two
excellent professional clinical hypnosis, Harold Edelstein and
Claire Hayward, both of whom had gained some experience
regressing UFO witnesses. (Dr. Edelstein assisted in the
Andreasson case.) The male subject underwent five hypnotic
interviews totaling five hours between September 1979 and April
1980; the female subject, three sessions totalling six hours
between February and December 1980. During these interviews
Michael filled in his memory gap with an extraordinary abduction
scenario, while Janet separately related a similar capture
account which appeared to support much of her partner's story.