The alleged UFO encounter by Betty and Barney Hill happened on September 19, 1961, at a time when Sci-Fi films were becoming popular with movie audiences. However, despite some reports, Betty Hill was not a lifelong "UFO fanatic" (as stated by Paranormal investigator Brian Dunning), although her interest in UFOs certainly increased after this alleged incident.

Whilst Betty`s knowledge of UFOs may have been limited, she was not completely unaware of their possible existence and mentioned that her sister had seen a UFO several years earlier. Could this and the public interest in flying saucers have had some influence on her experience?

Although some of the details reported by Betty and Barney and their alleged abduction could easily be created by their own imaginations, there are some points that tend to give credibility to the story.

It is perhaps unfortunate that this particular UFO incident gave rise to the most popular joke used by UFO sceptics of all time, namely the use of "anal probes", which is closely followed by "tin foil hats". I`m never sure which is funnier, the fact that people still find this joke amusing, or the disbelief by sceptics that an alien would not want to probe the human body to discover how we function.

That been said, I did find it strange that Barney appeared to receive "probes" to certain areas of his body, but Betty did not, although some of their details seemed to match, like skin being scraped. Surely, aliens would examine humans in exactly the same way, wouldn`t they?

Like many other UFO enthusiasts, I would love to believe Betty and Barney`s story, but something in the back of my mind stops me from doing so. We could ask why this couple would want to make up such an elaborate story, but we could also question why aliens would want to take them into space to carry out these examinations, couldn`t they have done this more quickly at the spot of the alleged abduction (which was quite remote)?

Much is made of the Star Map that Betty was instructed to produce in a post hypnotic suggestion and an amateur astronomer, Marjorie Fish, believed (after several years of studying the map) that the "UFO" originated from one of the planets orbiting the double star system of Zeta Reticuli. This of course is possible, but Betty only produced a map containing a total of 15 stars and considering the number of stars in our galaxy alone, the chances of this matching other star systems could easily be a coincidence.

I realise that many may be upset with my article and perhaps consider me a sceptic, but this is not my intention. Although I have never seen a UFO (or alien), I strongly believe that they exist. However, I am keen for others to share my belief and that is why I present information in a way that looks at both sides of the argument. If we are seriously interested in convincing sceptics that aliens do exist, we must provide information that is not open to dispute.

We can certainly not rule out the possibility that Betty and Barney were abducted by aliens, but there is very little (if any) evidence to prove it. This situation is a constant problem with people who claim to have seen UFOs or have been the victims of an abduction, the photos are often fuzzy and the evidence debatable. But UFO sceptics are extremely hard to convince and would probably deny the presence of aliens even if one knocked on their door! Sadly, it would take quite a spectacular "alien" event to prove to others what we already know, but such is life. In the meantime, we must try and resist claiming that every light in the sky is a UFO and concentrate on presenting information that is more difficult to question. Like in most things, quality is often better than quantity.

Source: http://thesop.org/story/20120225/zeta-reticuli-and-the-betty-and-barney-hill-ufo-encounter.html