And their faces?
RICHARD
White. Very wrinkled. Sort of gray.
DOCTOR
White or gray? Be specific.
RICHARD
Sort of gray. Very wrinkled. It looks like dead skin. It doesn’t look like human skin at all. I have the feeling it’s dead skin.
DOCTOR
Dead skin?
RICHARD
I don’t know… It made me think of a corpse.
DOCTOR
Think very hard. Is there anything else you can tell me about the crew members, the pilots?
RICHARD
Oh, Jesus, he’s just lifted up his hand! He’s lifting I up right now! Oh, Jesus Christ, the hand is a metal claw!
Easy, relax, deep deep sleep, very deep sleep, very deep, you are very relaxed, you have nothing to fear… Now can you tell me anything else about the pilot?
(The patient reverts to the past tense.)
RICHARD
He raised his hand. No hand. A metal claw. A sort of metal replacement.
DOCTOR
A prosthetic hand?
RICHARD
I don’t know what that is.
DOCTOR
Never mind. He raised his hand as you were looking at him. Then what?
RICHARD
I woke up.
DOCTOR
What do you mean, you woke up?
RICHARD
I woke up.
DOCTOR
You weren’t asleep, Richard.
RICHARD
I must have fallen asleep. He raised his hand and then a beam of light hit me and then I blanked out.
DOCTOR
All right, Richard, let’s assume you blanked out. How long do you think you were unconscious?
RICHARD
Not long. Just a few seconds.
DOCTOR
How did you know that?
RICHARD
The saucers were still outside the car. They were still in the same position. The woman was still in the same position. She seemed to be in a trance.
Fine. What happened next?
(The patient reverts to the present tense.)
RICHARD
Oh, God, it’s coming down! The big mother ship’s coming down! Its lights are all flashing and it doesn’t make a sound and it’s dropping down slowly, too slowly, not making a sound. Oh, God, there it is! DOCTOR
Where is it?
RICHARD
Oh, God! Oh, my God!
DOCTOR
Relax, relaxed, you are relaxed, you are comfortable, you have nothing to fear, you are relaxed, you can tell me.
RICHARD
Yes,
DOCTOR
Where is the mother ship, Richard?
RICHARD
It’s settled just above the ground. It’s hovering just above the road. It’s close to the road, but no on it – it’s sitting just above it. DOCTOR
It’s now in front of the car?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
It’s straddling the road?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
How far away is it?
RICHARD
It stretches right across the road. It’s resting just above the road. It’s about fifty yards from the car and it’s really enormous… Oh, God, the car’s shaking again!
DOCTOR
It’s all right, it’s all right, the car’s shaking. Why is it shaking? RICHARD
Everything’s shaking. The whole car’s going wild. Everything’s flying about inside the car and sticking to the windscreen… I can’t breathe, I’m choking, all this stuff’s flying around me, the car’s shaking and moving forward, no sound, just moving forward, being pulled by the saucers at both sides, being drawn toward the mother ship. DOCTOR
What’s pulling the car forward, Richard?
RICHARD
The saucers. The saucers on both sides. They’re pulling us forward?
DOCTOR
How are they pulling you forward?
RICHARD
I don’t know. I think it’s the beams of light. The beams of light come from the saucers, they’re shining on both sides of the car, and the saucers are moving toward the mother ship and pulling us with them. DOCTOR
Beams of light or cables?
RICHARD
Not cables. Not rope. Nothing! Just beams of light.
DOCTOR
Do you really believe that, Richard?
Yes, I believe it. The beams of light are drawing us forward and… Oh, Jesus, it’s opening up!
DOCTOR
The mother ship is opening up?
RICHARD
Yes, the mother ship is opening up. It’s splitting along the bottom, just above the flashing lights… It’s not splitting open: it’s forming a ramp. The bottom part’s dropping down to become a ramp leading up into the mother ship and the car is being drawn up and inside… Oh, my God, it’s all white in there! All those people… Oh, Jesus!
DOCTOR
All right, Richard, you are relaxed, very comfortable and safe, deep deep in sleep, very relaxed, very comfortable, peaceful, you have nothing to fear. You are being drawn up into the mother ship, but you have nothing to fear. You are relaxed and can remember everything. You are being drawn up into the mother ship. What happened next? (The patient does not immediately respond.)
DOCTOR
What happened next, Richard?
RICHARD
I’m on the hill. I’m cold. I don’t know where I am. I… DOCTOR
You are not on the hill, Richard. You are jumping ahead. You are in the car with the woman and you are being drawn into the mother ship. Now what happened next?
(The patient does not immediately respond.)
DOCTOR
Can you hear me, Richard?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
What happened next, Richard?
RICHARD
I’m on the hill. I’m cold. I don’t know where I am. I… DOCTOR
You’re skipping ahead, Richard. You are three days ahead. Go back to when you were drawn into the mother ship. What happened then?
RICHARD
Oh, God, it’s all white! It’s all white! It’s so bright! All the people! Silhouettes! This is crazy! Oh, Jesus, oh God, I don’t want to! I don’t want to! I don’t want to!
DOCTOR
Relax, you will relax, you are relaxed, you have nothing to fear. You are sleeping, deep sleep, sleeping deeper, very deep. You are deep, deep in sleep. You are relaxed and comfortable. You are relaxed and you will remember everything and you will answer my questions. RICHARD
Yes.
I want you to tell me what you believe happened during the missing three days.
RICHARD
I don’t know.
DOCTOR
But you think about it a lot?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
Would you like to know what happened?
RICHARD
Yes. No! I don’t want to know.
DOCTOR
You just said you would like to know.
RICHARD
I want to know. I don’t want to know. The thought of it frightens me.
DOCTOR
It won’t frighten you if you discuss it. It won’t frighten you anymore. You can remember without feeling any fear. You will remember. You are remembering.
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
You are in the car. You are in the car with the woman. The car is being drawn into the mother ship and you see the white light. Do you see the white light?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
The car is being drawn into the mother ship and you see the white light and silhouettes. Do you see the white light and silhouettes? RICHARD
Oh, Jesus!
DOCTOR
Do you see
the white light and silhouettes?
Oh, Jesus ! Oh, no!
DOCTOR
You are relaxed, very relaxed, deeply relaxed, there is nothing to fear. You are deep, deep in sleep, you are relaxed, and nothing can harm you. You are all right. You can answer my questions. Do you see the white light and silhouettes?
(The patient does not immediately respond.)
DOCTOR
Can you hear me, Richard?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
The car is being drawn into the mother ship. You can see the white light and silhouettes. Now I want you to recall everything that happened. Tell me what happened.
RICHARD
All white.
DOCTOR
White?
RICHARD
Everything.
DOCTOR
Please explain that, Richard.
RICHARD
The walls are all white and the place is filled with light and the light is so bright it temporarily blinds me. That’s all I can see. The white walls, the bright haze. The silhouettes are moving all around me, moving in on the car.
DOCTOR
Go on.
RICHARD
I’m starting to see better. The place is really very bright. The silhouettes are men in coveralls, moving in on the car. Most of the men seem very small. They all seem about five feet tall. They’re wearing one-piece coveralls, some black, others a silvery-gray, and they have this sort of gray, wrinkled skin, metal noses, no lips.
All right. You are comfortable. You have nothing to fear. You say they have metal noses, no lips. Just what do you mean by that? RICHARD
Metal noses. No lips.
DOCTOR
They’re wearing masks like the other crew members?
RICHARD I don’t know. I’m not sure. ( The patient reverts to the past tense.) They looked like masks, but they seemed permanent. The masks covered their nose and the lower half of the chin and seemed to be molded out of a single piece of very thin metal. That’s why there were no lips. The metal covered their lips. I could see the wrinkled skin on their foreheads and around their strange eyes.
DOCTOR
Strange eyes?
RICHARD
Oriental.
DOCTOR
You mentioned that before. Anything else?
RICHARD
The eyes were like the skin – they seemed dead.
DOCTOR
They were blind?
RICHARD
No. They eyes were looking at me, but they seemed dead. DOCTOR
All right. So these creatures surrounded the car.
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
What happened then?
RICHARD
They opened the doors of the car and pulled us out.
DOCTOR
They had to pull you out?
I don’t understand.
DOCTOR
Did they have to pull you out because you were frightened? RICHARD
They didn’t actually pull us out. This creature opened the door and took me by the arm and just sort of assisted me.
DOCTOR
You didn’t resist?
RICHARD
No.
DOCTOR
I thought you were frightened.
RICHARD
I was numb. I think I was numb with fear. I was dazed and felt weak. I got out automatically.
DOCTOR
And the woman did the same?
RICHARD
I don’t know. I wasn’t looking. I assume she did the same. I saw her standing beside me, fascinated, looking around her, smiling with that strange gleam in her eyes.
DOCTOR
Could she have been in a trance?
RICHARD
She could have been. Not quite. She was wide awake. DOCTOR
Posthypnotic suggestion?
RICHARD
I don’t know what that means.
DOCTOR
It doesn’t matter. The creatures pulled you out of the car. Where was the car?
RICHARD
The car was inside the mother ship.
DOCTOR
You’re sure of that?
Yes. I looked around me and saw the ramp swinging up to form part of a wall. The ramp swung up from the floor. It closed and formed part of the wall. It didn’t make a sound when it closed, and then I saw the wall properly. The wall was white. It was very slightly curved. It curved horizontally and vertically to form part of a dome. It was only part of the dome. It was shaped like a slice of orange. It was very large, very white, very bright, like part of a painted aircraft hangar. DOCTOR
What made you think of an aircraft hangar?
RICHARD
I was in an aircraft hangar once. I remember that hollow ringing sound. The car was parked on the kind of ramp that you see in a garage, and the whole place looked like an aircraft hangar, a sort of very large workshop.
DOCTOR
You saw machinery?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
What sort of machinery?
RICHARD
I don’t know. I don’t know much about machinery. It just seemed like an aircraft hangar because it had all this machinery and because it was big and sort of echoing. Also, all the men, the creatures, were wearing the coveralls.
DOCTOR
And the curved wall? What did you think it was?
RICHARD
It was just a curved wall. It was the inside of the outer wall of the mother ship, where the ramp had come down.
DOCTOR
Okay. So the car was drawn up the ramp into the mother ship, the ramp was then drawn up to form part of the wall, and the car came to rest on a sort of platform close to the inner wall.
RICHARD
Yes.
Fine. Now you and the woman are standing beside the car, surrounded by the men, the creatures, in coveralls.
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
What happened next?
RICHARD
I look at the creatures around me, wondering if they were wearing masks, metal masks, and my fear deepened and I started to shake. The one of the creatures approached me. Oh, Jesus, those dead eyes! He stared at me and passed his hand across my face and then I felt a lot better.
DOCTOR
You weren’t frightened anymore?
RICHARD
I went sort of limp. I mean, I went limp inside. I just emptied out, feeling drained and light-headed, a bit removed from it all. It became like a dream.
DOCTOR
Yet you still felt awake?
RICHARD
I was aware of where I was. It just seemed more distant and unreal, as if I was dreaming.
DOCTOR
Were there any distinct sounds in the hangar?
RICHARD
A humming. A sort of humming vibration. All the time. It was constant.
DOCTOR
Was this similar to what you’d experienced in the car? RICHARD
Similar, but almost imperceptible. I hardly heard it at all. DOCTOR
Heard it or felt it?
RICHARD
Both.
Did the creatures talk to you?
RICHARD
No. No lips.
DOCTOR
They made no sound?
RICHARD
No.
DOCTOR
Go on.
RICHARD
There was an escalator near the car. They made us go up the escalator. One creature walked ahead of us, another stayed behind us, and a third took my elbow and guided me to the escalator.
DOCTOR
What did the others do?
RICHARD
They surrounded the car.
DOCTOR
Why did they surround the car?
RICHARD
I don’t know. I didn’t look back.
DOCTOR
All right. The cr
eature guided you and the woman to the escalator. What then?
RICHARD
The escalator door opened and the creature pushed us inside and followed us in. The other two then followed him in. The escalator took us up past plain white walls to a corridor that curved out of sight. DOCTOR
The corridor ran parallel to the curved wall of the mother ship? RICHARD
Yes, I think so. It think it ran around the rim of the whole ship. DOCTOR
Any windows?
RICHARD
No windows on the right-hand wall, the outer wall, of the corridor. There were doors on the left. These doors were the kind that slide in and out of hollow spaces in the wall – they didn’t swing back on hinges. DOCTOR
Go on.
RICHARD
Surrounding us, the three creatures walked us along the curving corridor, past a lot of closed doors, and then, when we reached a particular door, the leading creature ordered us to stop.
DOCTOR
Just a moment, Richard. You say the leading creature ordered you to stop?
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
But you said previously that these men never spoke.
RICHARD
They never spoke. They had no lips. The metal covered their lips. DOCTOR
Yet you say one of them ordered you to stop.
RICHARD
Yes.
DOCTOR
How did he do that? Did he speak to you?
RICHARD
He didn’t talk. He just told us. I just knew.
DOCTOR
Did you actually hear him?
RICHARD
He told us to stop. I must have heard him.
DOCTOR
You think you heard him? You heard a voice in your head? RICHARD
I don’t know. I just heard him.
DOCTOR
But you’re convinced that this man, this creature, didn’t actually speak?
RICHARD
He didn’t talk. I just heard him.
DOCTOR
Okay. You are standing at one of the closed doors.
(The patient reverts to the present tense.)
RICHARD
The door opens. It seems to open automatically. It slides open, disappearing into a hollow in the wall, and we step through the doorway. The door makes me think of ships. It’s like the hatchway of a ship. We step in and the door closes behind us and we’re in a dimly lit room, a circular room, the walls white… Oh, my God… I don’t want to! DOCTOR
It’s all right, you are relaxed, very relaxed, deep, deep in sleep and relaxed. You can see and tell me.
RICHARD
It’s eerie.
DOCTOR
Yes. The room is circular and dimly lit.
RICHARD
The wall is white and completely circular. There are beds forming a circle around us. There are people on the beds, ordinary people, men, women and children, and they’re all wrapped in surgical gowns and have wires running out of them.