Missing Time [Mass Market Paperback]

Missing Time is arguably the most important book on alien abductions ever written. While other accounts such as The Interrupted Journey (detailing the 1961 abduction of Betty and Barney Hill) and Raymond Fowler's The Andreasson Affair had previously been published, this book, published in 1981, was the first to look for patterns and consistencies across a spectrum of different abductee reports. While Missing Time now seems almost quaint and reserved in its observations and conclusions, it was incredibly bold for its time. Budd Hopkins is truly one of the preeminent men in the field of UFOlogy today, and his earnest attempts at objectivity and scientific problem solving have long provided a blueprint for serious investigators working to discover the truth about the almost unbelievable phenomenon of alien abduction. As one might naturally wonder how a very successful artist came to be an authority on a subject of this sort, Hopkins begins by giving you the background of his life and the sequence of events which led to his becoming a leading researcher in the field of alien abduction. Having established his own credentials of a sort, he then proceeds to describe seven abduction stories that he has investigated, augmenting the narrative with small bits of information from cases still under study at the time of writing. Comparing and contrasting these individual accounts, Hopkins draws several reasonable conclusions and then wraps the book up with his own theories and ideas about the truth of this serious matter.

There are several fascinating accounts presented in these pages, with most of the imparted information originating in hypnotic regression sessions. Hopkins does a commendable job of supporting the legitimate applicability of this tool in breaking the barrier of silence often built around the minds of alien abductees. All the while, he is careful to hold off any speculation of his own until the concluding chapter. The seven accounts detailed in this book are something of an uneven bunch. Several individuals essentially relived their abductions, communicating their complex emotions and observations along each step of the way. One wove in and out between reporting the details of her childhood experiences and analyzing them from her now adult station in life. One in particular was, I believe, a terrible witness who somewhat blunts the force of this book; this individual proved exasperating in what he would and would not describe, paused interminably over and over again during his sessions, and kept reporting the ideas that came to his mind as if they were imaginative guesses as much as actual memories. Hopkins does do a good job of bringing out consistencies among these sometimes disparate accounts, and it is that identified consistency that convinced Hopkins of the reality of a phenomenon many individuals dismiss out of hand.

The reader of today may be struck by the differences between these accounts and more modern abductee revelations. One of Hopkins' earliest theories was that individuals were lured to a certain place or found themselves suddenly pulled to the side of the road while driving at night. None of these accounts begin with the abductee being taken out of his/her bed and floated through physical barriers. Implants are barely mentioned until the very end, yet now the prevalence of possibly physical evidence in the form of tiny implants is a matter of great importance. The possibility of alien-human hybridization projects is mentioned only briefly. One has to remember that the research featured in Missing Time was pioneer work among a rather small sample of abductees; it did more to raise questions and encourage further research into this topic than it did to answer incredibly puzzling questions. There are really two very important ideas to take away from this book: first, a period of unexplained, missing time is a common facet of the abduction experience. Much more importantly, however, is Hopkins' assertion that the scope of this phenomenon may well be larger than previously thought. The daunting implication is that untold thousands of men and women may have been abducted without ever having realized it.

This was one of the earliest works published in modern times investigating the bizarre and outlandish subject of alien abductions. The 1957 Villas Boas case had been publicised, and Fuller's `The Interrupted Journey' on the Hill case published as early as 1966. The MA MUFON team had investigated the 1967 Betty Andreasson case and the 1975 case of the Allagash Four, and these case studies were subsequently written up and published by Raymond Fowler. There were books on the Hickson-Parker abduction in Mississippi (the Pascagoula case) and the abduction work of Leo Sprinkle and Ann Druffel had also been published.

`Missing Time' however, published in 1982, was groundbreaking in that Hopkins revealed the persistent and repeat-nature of this phenomenon (first seen in the Andreasson case, but the significance was missed by Fowler and the other investigators) and its seeming prevalence in certain family lines, the result of rigorous application of scientific methodology to this terrifying and extraordinary phenomenon.

The seven cases investigated in MT seem rather 'tame' when laid alongside later revelations uncovered by other investigators, but the reader needs to constantly remind him/herself how revolutionary this material was in 1982, and how it revealed the scale of a `hidden epidemic.' Hopkins was not the first to grapple with the subject, but was the first to uncover the repeat and intergenerational nature of this phenomenon and to document the persistence of scoop-mark and straight-line scarring on abductees, many photographs of which are printed in the book. The recovery of suppressed memories in all seven cases was undertaken by qualified psychiatrists utilising hypnosis, and not by Hopkins himself, who took no part in the proceedings. These practicing psychiatrists like Dr. Aphrodite Clamar, did not initially believe in the reality of the abduction phenomenon as a physical happening, but the abductees were most insistent of their memories and the sceptical psychiatrists were eventually forced to confront the issue and honest enough to report what they found.

That Hopkins 'hit the nail on the head' with this work is evidenced by the thousands of letters received from other suspected abductees following publication, opening the floodgates and eventually interesting other serious investigators such as Professor David Jacobs of Temple University, PA & Professor John Mack at Harvard University Medical School, MA; Yvonne Smith in CA, John Carpenter in MO and many others also took up the investigative work.

The writing style is literary, good humoured, intelligent and highly readable. You can't fail to be persuaded by the cool, scientific and skeptical attitude, and the investigative rigour - never allowing opinion to cloud the evidence, always following the facts no matter if they lead outside the 'comfort zone' of accepted paradigms. I mean, we know abductions can't be real, right? Just as we 'knew' powered flight was impossible, and we 'knew' the Earth was flat.

Hopkins for the first time placed this important subject on the map, brought it to a large public audience and made its scientific study respectable. The public recognition he received from all this was unlooked-for and not welcomed. He was and has always been a best-selling professional artist, and neither sought nor made money from his abduction research.

If you know something about the abduction issue but have never read this book, you are strongly recommended to do so. It's a classic, highly readable and engrossing, and you'll read it in a day. If you have no acquaintance with the subject, this is where you should start.

Budd Hopkins died on 21st August 2011, aged 80. RIP Budd: your legacy is a great one.

Of then 11 books about UFO's I have read to date this is by far the best. It is convincing, exceptionally well written and exceptional in both subject matter and the way the information is presented. The contents are explosive in their effect, all the more so if the stories are true, as they appear to be. It is a must for anyone vaguely interested in the UFO phenomenon, (and infact anyone that isn't)