“Pascagoula - The Closest Encounter” by Calvin Parker

One half of the 1973 Pascagoula abduction case, Calvin Parker, has recently published a book about his experience: “Pascagoula - The Closest Encounter.” The book is worth the read, despite haphazard editing. The Pascagoula abduction story is distinguished by several features that make it unique within the genre. Primarily, it occurred years before the Budd Hopkins book “Missing Time” popularized the experience, so there’s no contamination from popular culture. Secondarily, it was reported and investigated immediately by local law enforcement. Parker presents evidence that his abduction report was taken very seriously by the military. And, extensive parts of the abduction are recalled consciously by both witnesses. Arguably, the widespread publicity of the case inspired a significant UFO “flap,” which probably inspired a number of copycat reports, but there’s no indication that the two experiencers, Calvin Parker and Charles Hickson, were lying or confabulating. The case certainly made a big impression on me; was it the trigger for my own UFO “dreams” during this time? Possibly.

Unbeknownst to me and possibly everyone else until now, Parker subsequently met Budd Hopkins and underwent at least two regression hypnosis sessions. It is these that I find most interesting about the account, mostly because I am fairly sure that Parker (in contrast to many subsequent experiencers) is giving a faithful account of an experience that actually happened. There is no “I saw a light and then I blacked out” scenario that is then back-filled with “memories” retrieved by hypnosis. So, what happens when a “real” abductee is put under hypnosis, albeit by someone who is arguably not qualified to perform hypnosis and who might have an agenda?

The two regression sessions that Parker underwent explore the 1973 abduction, but another (apparently separate) session explored an experience of “missing time” that Parker remembers from 1993. It is this later experience that I find more interesting, because it suggests that Parker was not physically abducted. Rather, he was apparently pulled from his body and taken into a craft or vessel of some sort. The latter apparent abduction describes a “missing time” experience of at least twelve hour during a fishing trip in 1993. Parker reports going fishing just off-shore in Mississippi in the early morning. After being on the water thirty minutes, his next memory is looking up and noticing that it was nighttime. At least twelve hours had gone “missing” that he cannot remember or account for. He notices that the water and food he had brought for the trip had disappeared. The next day, his discovers that his ice bucket is full of fish that he doesn’t remember catching. Somehow, fish were caught, the food was eaten, but he remembers none of it.

A series of events and encounters leads him to a UFO conference, where he meets Budd Hopkins, who hypnotically regresses him to that day of missing time. Parker recounts:

and I remembered seeing a haze in the sky, like a cloud, it looked just like a cloud then it was directly over me about 500 feet high. It looks grey in color and I couldn’t tell how long it was. All at one time the bottom of this ‘cloud’ opened up. I started floating up with my back toward the craft and my face looking down at the boat. I noticed that I was still in the boat and I looked like I was asleep.  As I went into the bottom of the craft the door closed but I couldn’t feel the craft moving. I then saw what looked like a female approaching me. She was gray in color, with brown eyes that were really almost black. I wasn’t afraid at all because I knew for some reason that it was going to be alright and I would be safe. That’s when I finally came to terms with what had happen in October of 1973 (with me and Charlie) and it was now 1993. I don’t know what else may have happened as I must have come out of the hypnosis. I really don’t remember nothing more.

Parker doesn’t elaborate on this experience, unfortunately, nor does he seem to note the OOBE aspect—probably because, to many students of the phenomenon, a forced OOBE is harder to fathom than a literal physical abduction. While many of us will theoretically accept the possibility of a flying saucer snatching us from buildings, pulling our bodies through walls, paralyzing us and other witnesses, an OOBE is a bridge too far. But if, in fact, memories of abductions are actually forced OOBEs, the whole nature of the abduction experience changes.

I can personally fathom a scenario where consciousness is split, with the dominant personality being whisked into an apparent UFO, while the physical consciousness carries on as normal. It’s my hunch that the bulk of “abductions” are actually forced OOBEs. I’ve experienced this myself multiple times, and I recognize the stages of an out-of-body experience in the language used by abductees (paralysis, telepathic communication, floating through walls, flying through the air). The majority of my readers have likely experienced this also; it’s a universal experience, but rarely discussed or documented. The whys and wherefores of it are unknown, but this common experience might be one reason that UFO abduction reports are both widespread yet hard to prove; no physical trace of it is left, except a confused experiencer.

Of course, we are left with the question of who, or what, has the apparent power to suck consciousness from our bodies against our will. And what benefit would this serve to anyone?

Parker includes a full transcript of his regression session exploring his 1973 abduction. This is also interesting, but for a different reason. Students of Budd Hopkins’ regression sessions will recognize common themes in the Parker transcript, including an “evil” female alien that Parker seems to know from a lifetime of abductions. Did Hopkins “lead” Parker, either during the hypnosis, or prior to it, resulting in a “memory” of a stereotypical abduction with abusive, aliens? Unfortunately, we will never know.