Alien abduction claims steadily increased throughout the United States in the 1970s. And while it was still several years away before abductees were regularly appearing on the sofas and comfy chairs of tongue-in-cheek daytime chat shows around America, some remarkable incidents were beginning to surface. One of them occurred in October 1975 with the account of two young men from the upper north-east of the United States, Maine, perhaps more famous as the setting of many a Stephen King novel.

Although there were two witnesses to this bizarre encounter, only one of them, David Stephens, would be willing to talk publicly about the ordeal. And was also the only one who would undergo hypnotic regression in order to reveal the full extent of the apparent other-worldly events. Following extensive sessions, including separate interviews with members of his family by several leading doctors, it was determined repeatedly that Stephens was very much telling the truth.

Before we look at this apparent case of alien abduction in a little more detail, check out the short video below. It features UFO researcher, David Jacobs, speaking about the realities of such events.

An Object “As Big As A Football Field!”

It was coming up on 3 am in the early hours of 27th October 1975 when twenty-two-year-old, David Stevens, and his friend, Glen Gray, were driving along a quiet road in the countryside, just outside Oxford, Maine. Theirs was the only vehicle on the road, their lone headlights cutting through the thick darkness of night in front of them. That was until a brightly lit UFO “as big as a football field” filled their sights.

The strange object would head straight for their car, maintaining a position directly over their moving vehicle for several moments. Then, a beam of light shot from the behemoth-like craft and hit them. The vehicle immediately went into a sideways skid, coming to a stop around fifteen feet further down the road.

Each man must have blacked out as the next thing they knew they awoke in the stationary vehicle and several hours had passed. They returned home, confused, and both aware that something very much out of the ordinary had just happened to them. However, it would be several weeks before Stephens would see a doctor and undergo hypnotic regression to unlock the missing hours following the blinding light incapacitating their car. When he listened to the hypnosis sessions back, his mind was flooded with the disturbing events on the lonely road near Maine.

Incidentally, subsequent investigations would reveal a corroborating witness of sorts. Although they didn’t see the incident involving Stephens, a police officer would report a similar UFO at the same time and in the same area. It is highly likely he witnessed the same object David Stephens claims he saw. And went aboard.

“Taken” To The Back Roads

Although the men had seemingly blocked them out of their minds, the strange events appeared to begin before they spotted the huge, brightly lit object. At around 2:30 am, while heading towards Lake Thompson, their car suddenly came under some “outside control”. The pair would find themselves on the “back road” to Oxford. However, the car appeared to be “elevated off the road”. Stephens would recall the pair “went around a curve and suddenly saw these colored lights” in front of them. They were only visible for a few seconds before “two big bright lights” filled all points of their vision.

The next memory Stephens has is of “looking down on the car” from the window of a strange room. Then, he noticed a strange creature enter the room. He would describe this strange being as around four-and-a-half feet tall with extremely pale skin. Perhaps strangest of all was the mushroom-shape of its head. There were two eyes without eyebrows, and in place of a nose were “two dots”. Around his body was “a sheet or a robe”.

A message sounded inside his head to not be afraid, suggesting to investigators, telepathic communication. The creature then guided Stephens to a different room, in which there were several other figures the same as the first. The room had a distinct medical-type feel to it, including what appeared to be an operating table on which he was told to get on to. Once there, samples of his blood were taken. When he was asked to undress, instead of complying, he took his chance and lashed out, hitting one of the creatures.

Examination!

Although the action on Stephens’ part did cause the creatures to back away from the table slightly, they merely persisted that he would not be harmed, and asked him to undress for examination. Eventually, the surreal nature of the experience already weakening any resolve he might have, Stephens did as they requested.

The next thing he knew, a large device with an arm like an X-ray machine was moving over him. As the device was moved over the entirety of his body, a distinct “clicking” sound rang out. They would retrieve samples of his hair and even of fingernail clippings. These would go into some kind of strange-looking tubes.

He was then asked to redress, which he did, immediately realizing he was suddenly in another room, again looking out of a window. Then his memory appeared to “fast-forward” once more as he was suddenly back in the driver’s seat of his car, with Glen in the passenger seat beside him. Both were just coming to, and the vehicle was still in the middle of the lonely road in its sideways position. Even more unnerving, however – the large craft remained over them.

Stephens quickly started the engine and pulled away from the scene. They would go as far as the town of Poland when the strange object finally disappeared from sight. A short time later, they turned the car around to head back towards Oxford. Not long after doing so, though, the car once again came under the control of an external force. The pair would find themselves on a dark lane, overlooking Tripp Pond. That was when the engine cut out, and a large craft appeared in front of them.

The Second Sighting – The “Mothership”

The craft was no more than 300-feet from the roof of the car. As they looked in awe at the unbelievable display above them, each also noticed two smaller crafts emerge from the water. They would rise high before diving towards the water again. They would repeat this several times before they, along with the main craft hovering over the crippled car shot into the air and disappeared. The encounter had lasted around twenty minutes. By the time they restarted the car and set off to Stephens’ parent’s home, the sky above them was beginning to lighten. A look at the clock revealed it to be after 7 am.

The two young men went straight to bed after arriving home, determined to keep the encounter to themselves lest “everyone’d think we were nuts”. However, shortly after arriving back, both began to feel extremely ill. Stephens would recall how they “felt like we were in a daze”, and of feeling as though he “couldn’t walk, see straight or hardly even talk”.

When Stephens’ mother examined the young men she would find “their hands and feet swollen” with both men sweating yet complaining of feeling intense cold. Despite them doubling their layers, “I couldn’t keep them warm enough” she would recall.

By the end of the day – around twelve hours after the incident – they began to feel somewhat better. However, both wouldn’t feel back to full health for several days.

Investigations And Flashbacks!

Although the pair were intent on keeping their sightings to themselves initially, their sudden mystery illness changed their thinking. At around 5 pm on the day of the incident, Eldon Bartlett, the deputy sheriff of Oxford County would visit the pair who would speak of their encounter to him. He would recall how the two young men’s fear was evident, and how both of them appeared nervous and anxious.

The following evening, on the 28th October, another visitor would arrive at the Stephens’ family home. Brent Raynes, a Maine resident working for the Center of UFO studies in Chicago, wished to speak with the two witnesses after hearing of the sighting through connections in the county sheriff’s office. He would note the same nervousness as the Bartlett, although their actions were far more “normal” in his opinion, given the almost certainty that “something did happen that was unusual”.

Following a brief conversation with both men, Raynes would drive the pair to the scenes of both sightings – the cornfield near the roadside, and the dirt road overlooking Tripp Pond. Although both men went along, both refused to leave the vehicle once there.

The men began seeing “flashbacks” of the incident over the following days. It was becoming more and more obvious that something lurked in their memories. UFO investigator, Shirley Fickett of the International UFO Bureau would soon examine the case. She would ultimately instigate the hypnotic regression sessions. Stephens was the older of the two men, and seemingly more mentally stable. Because of this, only he would undergo hypnosis.

The Hypnotic Regression Sessions

Dr. Herbert Hopkins was an experienced practitioner of hypnotic regression. He would conduct the sessions, which would begin on 2nd December 1975. Stephens’ parents would sit in on all of the sessions, as would investigator, Fickett.

Hopkins would find Stephens to be “frank, straightforward, and I believe, honest”. He would further describe him as “shy but not evasive”. Interestingly, certain questions would fail to bring forth answers from Stephens. Even though Hopkins would ask the questions clearly several times. Hopkins would later state his belief that Stephens “was inhibited by some means by these creatures. So he wouldn’t reveal everything that went on. It took a deep level of hypnosis to get anything out of him”.

This last detail is an interesting point. UFO investigator, Derrel Sims, who also uses hypnotic regression in his work, entertained the notion that such entities were aware of the retrieval of information through such means almost two decades later while investigating an apparent mass abduction in Houston, Texas in December 1992.

What is perhaps most interesting is Hopkins’ changing perspective. He was adept at the use of hypnotic regression. This was his first time, though, working with a person claiming alien abduction. He would state that he believed Stephens’ version of events. Furthermore, that the sessions had completely changed his mind on the issue. After having no interest in the subject originally, he was “now convinced they exist”. He would offer further that “UFOs must be of extraterrestrial origin because of the nature of the creatures he described”.

“It’s A Weird Story! And It Hangs Together!”

Further endorsement of the claims would come from Dr. Bernard Schwarz several months after the incident in January 1976. He would question both Stephens and members of his family intensely and would conclude that “David is telling the truth. It is a weird story, and it hangs together”.

Schwarz would go on to highlight how many similar cases awaited discovery in respected scientific journals across the country. Furthermore, many others in the medical profession should look to take an interest in this and other cases like it. As if to hammer home how little the men had to gain from the encounter, both would lose their jobs. And they were the target of ridicule for many in the local community.

Stephens would cope with the encounter by wanting to get to the bottom of it. His younger friend, Glen Gray, on the other hand, would react in the complete opposite way. He wouldn’t speak to anyone about the incident, certainly not the media. He simply wished to forget about the entire episode. Incidentally, Stephens would suffer from a feeling of “UFOs watching or following him” for a considerable time following the incident. He also found he would tire a lot quicker than before. Furthermore, he would experience rushes of having “a tremendous appetite” for no apparent reason.

While the case of David Stephens is most certainly one of the most intriguing, and widely accepted to be credible, it was while working on this case that the claims of Herbert Hopkins of a mysterious member of the “Men In Black” visiting him surfaced in September of 1976.

The video below features David Jacobs discussing the alien abduction phenomenon at length.