The Andreasson Affair by Raymond E. Fowler, J. Allen Hynek

it?
    Betty: It is more real.
    Ray: It wasn’t like going into a dream state and having a dream of symbols, and so forth?
    Betty: No, I could believe that the red atmosphere and the green atmosphere could be a dream state, but never the bird and the light and what I experienced. That part! I never want to have to go back to that part!
    J. Allen Hynek has said that reports of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (now named Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind) are characterized by a high degree of
strangeness
. Indeed, this bizarre segment is essential to the unity of the overall narrative. We dare not dismiss it, because it may provide the focal point, the very reason, for the abduction of Betty Andreasson.
    Fred: You told us about hearing a loud voice that talked with you.
    Joseph: Could you see where the voice came from?
    Betty: No, it came from the side.
    Fred: Can you describe that location?
    Betty: That was off to the right. It seemed off to the right. I couldn’t see anything.
    Fred: Were you on this elevated pathway?
    Betty: No, I was standing right in front of where that burning fire had taken place.
    Fred: You had come down to the ground?
    Betty: There was a—uh, like a foundation. Just enough foundation for that path. That’s when it went onto the ground. Yes, the sea was off to the side, and there was mist, and then it had that narrow land and it did finally go onto some kind of surface and was going up.
    Jules: What color was the sea?
    Betty: It seemed very dark, but it was green—very, very dark. It was choppy. After it had cleared, it looked smooth, sort of smooth glass.
    Ray: You could see the shoreline?
    Betty: No, it went off into mist.
    Joseph: But it was clear? A loud, clear voice to you?
    Betty: Yes, it was a loud, clear voice.
    Ray: It told you, “You’ve seen this. Do you understand?” You said, “No.” Do you understand what this was all about?
    Betty: I understand now that I went through an initiation of some kind.
    Joseph: Do you know why you were crying?
    Betty: It was from love.
    Jules: The tears. They seemed like elation—happy tears.
    Betty: It was that. I really believe it was God that spoke to me. I feel funny about saying it because—I mean, God has made all things, and is even present in everything. And yet, here I was standing and He spoke to me. And I know it was through His Son, you know, that, uh—and I just felt the love of Jesus.
    Virginia: (sitting in on the session) Do you identify the radiation, the voice, with God?
    Betty: I don’t feel as if that bird was God. I feel as if the light in back of the bird was the radiation of God. I could not see God. All I didwas hear the voice, and that was it. I could not see any form, and I don’t think I even wanted to look upon the form, if there was such a form.
    Ray: The impression I got is that right up until that time, you still had doubts regarding that this was really God. Right up to that time, you still had doubts why this was happening to you, and you wanted an answer. When he referred to his Son, it seemed that all of a sudden you realized what this was all about, and that’s when you started to have this experience. It was almost like a dam burst, you know. You had been holding all this back, and all of a sudden you realized somehow or other that this was of God, and that is when you started to have this ecstatic experience.
    Betty: I believe it
is
of God. But I still feel, who’s going to believe me? I mean, I trust all of you and everything, but there is doubt in my mind that even you really believe me about an experience such as that, because it is unbelievable.
    Could Betty’s encounter with the huge bird best be described as an intense
religious
experience? One is tempted to propose that the stimulus for the event was Betty’s strong religious background. This is quite possible, of course, and already we have some basis for such a suggestion.
    Earlier we saw