Take the Pill! No! Don't Take the Pill!

Humanoid encounters.

Odd encounters? Never-really-happened encounters? Or are they just we-can’t-really-understand encounters? Whatever they represent to me, you or anyone else…they are usually a lot to think about. In this case, we have a bit more adventure and description than usual. We also have errors in investigation that could have made one explanation much stronger than another. One little throw-away comment by the man who claimed this experience caught my attention and adds to the typical crazy-ass weirdness that makes these encounters so damned ambiguous...

"I was looking straight into their faces, never got a side view. If you wanted to communicate with them, you were looking right at them. You never looked at the side or the back; there was just a direct front view -- that's all I ever got."

In a way the story follows the classic plot-line of ‘boy meets girl – boy loses girl.’ This time it’s more like man meets man-thing, travels to man-thing’s planet and is then dumped in a ditch back home without even a thank you. Terrible manners. Here’s the man himself, Carl Higdon:

The Encounter

Higdon worked for a drilling company out of Rawlins, Wyoming. On Friday the 25th of October 1974, he was forced to take the day off when one of his workers was ill. He decided to take the company pick-up and travel some 40 miles away to the Medicine Bow National Forest to hunt elk.

He must have set off late because he arrived on the outskirts of the forest around 4pm…leaving just over two hours of fading autumn daylight. He bumped into a friend who told him of elk nearby and so he got his Magnum rifle and headed off down a hill towards the forest. Little did he know his first step plunged him away from our reality and spinning away into Alice’s rabbit-hole where big became small…



Higdon saw a group of five elk and paused to fire a shot at a strong male. He took aim and fired. His 7mm round burst from the barrel and travelled slowly enough for him to watch in disbelief as it collapsed against some invisible surface and fell to the snow just 50 feet away. He later described the moment in such a way as to evoke images of the Matrix movie:

It floated like a butterfly, finally falling to the ground about 50 feet from where I stood. I was awe-struck -- I froze. All around me there was a painful silence. Not a chirping bird or the rustling of leaves on nearby trees could be heard. The only sensation I could detect was a tingling feeling which crawled up my spine. This was similar to the feeling you often get before a fierce thunderstorm, when the air is full of static electricity."

This is the bullet


Back in the 80s a UFO researcher, Jenny Randles, called this the Oz Factor; it’s when witnesses describe the sensation of silence and otherworldliness. Such feelings have been recalled during *some* UFO sightings, but also extend into other mystery areas too. For example, sightings of bigfoot and even sea-monsters have found alleged witnesses remarking on how silent the world became. Intriguingly, this isn’t limited to single-witness incidents.

Floating bullets were just the beginning for our friend Carl as he turned around to find a strange-looking man just feet away. He was tall and wearing black with belts crossing over his shoulders and something like a dial above his waist-belt. "Personally, it took getting used to, in order for me to look at him without getting a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach." Sure, it was human enough in the broad scheme of things but the details made him uneasy.



He had a forehead that sloped back from small eyes and no clear lower jaw. His face seemed to blend into his neck and his wide mouth had large, wide teeth with three on the top and two below. It sounds a little like a face in a spoon. On top of its head were coarse hairs that were more like the golden bristles on a stiff brush. The being had no visible hands; the right arm ended in a cone-like instrument and the sleeve of the left arm was long. Here’s an illustration:



So far, so good! Floating bullets and misplaced people or misplaced beings? One could argue the toss over which of these individuals is in the wrong place. In a further Alice meets the Matrix-moment, the being gives him a packet of four pills and his adventures really get under way.

"Without any prior communication this creature said 'How you doin'? I was trying to stay calm, so I responded with a weak, 'Pretty good!’

"I opened the packet and found four pills inside. He told me, In English, to take one of them. That it would last four days. Now normally I don't like taking pills, not even an aspirin, but something happened. It's as if I had no control over my actions. So I just swallowed one of 'em, and put the other three into my jacket pocket."

Remember that Carl had been shooting elk and the being was behind him because he had to turn around to see him? Now, following the pill, Carl found that a small rectangular craft had appeared behind him. In fact, in a scene straight out of Wonderland, he explained, how it ‘…couldn't have been more than five feet high, seven feet long, and four and a half feet wide. Tiny is the only word I can think of to accurately describe its size!’

Like a magician, the being waved his arm and Carl found himself inside the object with the 5 elk (caged and motionless) from earlier, the being from outside and another one. He found himself restrained in a chair as they approached him with a helmet full of wires and placed it on his head. "I felt like the monster in an old Frankenstein movie," he recalled. Looking out from his helmet, he looked through the windscreen (or viewing screen) to see a fast approaching planet; it was the being’s world.

For those who enjoy reading about encounters like these, there are always statements by the folk from Elsewhere that make no sense, mislead or are plain wrong. Mischief, deception and wilful absurdity are always in the thick of it; they can say a lot and yet actually say nothing meaningful. Certainly nothing of any use in identifying the cause or origins of these experiences is recalled by percipients. In this case, the beings told Carl how far away from Earth their world was…"They told me it was 163,000 'light miles' from earth." ‘Light miles’ huh?!

As he looked out, he was able to see an enormous, towering platform that was circled by bright lights. The lights were so blinding that he covered his eyes and complained that he felt they were burning his face; the being replied that ‘Your sun burns us too.’

He was abruptly told that he wasn’t of use to them and the experience came to a crashing halt. Without ceremony or signposts, he was ejected from the rabbit-hole and found himself out on a dirt track, rifle in hand and almost blind…



>>>> one more post to follow

The Aftermath

He staggered along the track and saw a vehicle abandoned nearby. Cold and shivering in the snow-covered landscape, he climbed into the truck and lost his senses. Reaching for the CB radio, he put out an SOS and struggled to lead a rescue party to his location. When they arrived, in the early hours, they found Carl in his own truck and the truck was in the middle of a large mud-pit with no apparent signs of how it got there. Various sources claim the front-wheeled drive truck could not have got there by itself and it’s anyone’s guess how true that is. In terms of follow-ups, researchers should have gone out there and checked for tire-tracks. Anyway, it had to be towed out and he was taken to hospital in poor shape…

Flying Saucer Review V25 N3: Sprinkle article


Healed lungs? Remember the healed finger from the Damon, Texas encounter?

So far, all of these claims by Higdon came from his conscious memory in the hours spent in the hospital and those following. Typically, he couldn’t prove that what he said happened and neither can we prove it didn’t; it remains an intriguing encounter case with all the features we’d expect. In the week after the early-hours rescue, MUFON researcher and hypnotist Leo Sprinkle investigated the case. He used hypnotic regression to explore if Higdon could recall more details of his experience. Under hypnosis, he described being on the strange world and seeing other humans there. He explained how the leader had told him that they were hunter/explorers who went to other worlds to supplement resources on their own world. This would involve taking people, animals and vegetation.

Like many, I think hypnosis is a dodgy area to rely upon and this is why I’ve focused only on Higdon’s conscious (pre-hypnosis) memories. If you want to read more about his hypnotic recollections, a detailed article by Tim Beckley is available HERE (good blog).. They are certainly interesting!

Some final thoughts

That *something* happened is hard to dispute. A truck is found in a place a truck shouldn’t be able to get to and a missing man is found with damaged eyes in hysterics. I haven’t found evidence that the claimed healing of scar tissue in his lungs was proven; it would have been a nice touch. Another intriguing detail is how two of the rescuers claimed to have seen a strange light in the area. It was described as being ‘white, green and red.’



What makes this minor detail glow slightly is thanks to a relatively, recent sighting report. This report could be a hoax (they usually are), but - if it wasn’t – well, you just have to smile…elk captured by UFO...

It’s quite a case. Robert Taylor’s (Dechmont Woods) encounter also left him with watering eyes, semi-hysterical and unable to drive. Other cases involve the beings giving the percipients evidence that they take back. Where Higdon had the pills, Betty Hill had the book.

Physical injuries like skin-burns, retinal damage and mystery bruises thread through these bizarre incidents and yet are only evidence of injury…not the cause.

Where Carl recalled the beings only being seen from the front, it’s hard not to imagine a dream or even projections. The case reminds me of scenes in movies that question reality or suggest that other realities are side-by-side and sometime converge. In Dark City and Ink, characters have 2-dimensional faces covering their ‘real’ identity; in Matrix, characters wear tight black clothing and ‘the pill’ is a gateway to the other reality. I can’t remember if it was ‘Time Out of Joint’ or ‘Through a Scanner Darkly’ by Philip K Dick that also played with notions of reality, identity and consciousness.

In these cases, the folk from Elsewhere are quick to muddy the waters with claims and counter-claims. At any one time, they come from Venus, Mars, counter-Earth, Zeta Reticuli, Clarion, ‘up there’ and anywhere else conceivable. It’s in the word ‘conceivable’ where the truth may lie. Some would argue that these cases are wholly created by the witness’ own imagination. Personally, I think it’s more complicated than that. The experiences are apparently connected (rooted?) to human consciousness, but is something potentially technological making the connection?

It’s like a person is minding their own business when ‘something’ comes along and encloses them in a 'jar.' The Oz-Factor begins and the victim/subject is encouraged to temporarily experience events within the interior ‘reality’ of the upturned ‘jar.’

Very interesting, I've never heard of this encounter before. It's rare to find so much detail in the story. However it's always a shame that it's so damn hard to prove these stories because of a lack of hard evidence, eventhough there seem to be a few eyewitnesses that have seen lights.

Fascinating story, Op!

I'll have to go back and read it again because there are a few things that I'm wondering about that I may have missed the first time around.

Such as:
-- Was he gone for four days as the being indicated the pills would last?
-- It said at the end that Higdon was in his own truck. At the beginning of the story, he was in the company truck. Did it really happen like this, is this a reporting error, or am I confused/read things wrong?
-- I'm also interested in why he didn't comment on the elk running away after he fired his rifle. Although he was concentrating on the bullet's slow speed, then the strange silence following, most hunters would've mentioned whether or not their prey ran or remained. Maybe I missed this part.

Well, still a wonderful account and you did a great job of retelling it and weaving in the articles and pictures.
I'll come back later to comment on anything I notice after I read it again.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Good thread Kandinsky , interesting case indeed
I think the more ridicules an encounter like this sounds to us the greater the chance of it being based in reality .
If you wanted to make up an abduction story and have it be believed surely it would make sense to follow the set abduction formula .

One question , what happened to the three remaining pills ? , he says he put them in his jacket pocket , did he still have them on return and if he did were they ever tested ?

reply to post by Afterthought
He arrived at the outskirts of the forest after 4pm and was rescued some 5 hours later. The truck he went in was the company truck and he'd told the boss that he'd have it back that day. This became part of the reason why people were looking for him.

It's also an area of the account that could have used more investigation at the time. Instead of securing the area, taking photos and checking if the truck's tires went in to the mud hole, efforts were focused on his account. There were opportunities to look for physical evidence and they missed them. There are also a number of questions that weren't asked.

When he fired at the elk, there was no retort, no sound and the elk didn't move. This is where the Oz Effect kicked in and why I was trying to describe a scenario where someone is enclosed in a jar. If true, from the moment he pulled the trigger, reality changed to a place where bullets travel slowly, sound is absent and the outside world carries on.

There's a 'time-slip' account that has nothing at all to do with UFOs and features something like the Oz Factor happening to three teenagers - Time Slips and Olde England...maybe...

Thanks for the reply

reply to post by gortex

One question , what happened to the three remaining pills ? , he says he put them in his jacket pocket , did he still have them on return and if he did were they ever tested ?

Nope! Same as usual - they weren't in his pockets when he checked. Joe Simonton got to keep his pancakes but Betty Hill and Carl Hidson couldn't keep their souvenirs.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Good post. I had not heard of this encounter before. Definitely high strangeness. Weird things can happen to hunters; when I'm in the field I don't worry about rattlesnakes, mountain lions or wild boars. I worry about lights floating through the pasture!

Brings to mind the Donald Schrum case of 1964. He recounted his story in 2005 at a MUFON conference, after 41 years he still maintains the story is true. He says he never hunted again after the incident, can't blame him.
Link to PDF , see page 4.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Thanks for answering my questions and clarifying the details, Kandinsky.
Keep up the great work and adding some of the best threads to ATS!

reply to post by 1SawSomeThings
Thanks for the link; it's one of the good cases and shares the feature of the person involved going on to live a quiet life. In most of these encounters, these incidents are once in a lifetime stunners and the people have no history (before or since) of making up BS.

If there isn't a thread on this case, maybe you could write one?

TextTextreply to post by Kandinsky


Thanks, Kandinsky. Also a new one to me. Enjoyed the way you present the case -

I agree with you about hypnosis. Seems like a slippery slope. I've considered it in regard to an encounter I had, but not sure I would trust the results -

Nexo

That was quite the doozy of a story! I like that you mention it may have got something to do with human consciousness. It certainly seems like there's a connection between weird and otherwordly beings and the mind.

I find it interesting that he was given four pills, in spite of the being having no hands presenting them to him. Definitely seems like a leap one would take when dreaming.

Thanks for sharing! This was quite refreshing and interesting to read on a dull saturday afternoon.

reply to post by Kandinsky


There is a thread on the story:
ATS thread
I didn't know the guy's name until now, I read a book years ago that described the incident. Google turned up the PDF.

On topic:
I have a couple of theories about these weird encounters, having been intrigued by them for quite a while. Like the incident where the occupants of a saucer made a guy some pancakes.

The mundane theory is that the original story gets tiwsted around and ridiculous features thrown in by the press. Possibly to discredit or cast doubt on the individual making the report. Or re-tellers of the tale add their own details until the original report is barely recognizable.

The other theory is that the mechanism the aliens (or whatever they are) use to cause missing time sometimes doesn't work well on certain people. So they retain memory of something, but it may be altered in it's content.
Some people see an owl, or a deer in the window. Some hear words but they make no sense, or details don't add up. Maybe if the brain was exposed to the full reality, it might go into overload, so a self protective element may kick in to alter the details to at least be somewhat bearable.

reply to post by Droogie

I find it interesting that he was given four pills, in spite of the being having no hands presenting them to him. Definitely seems like a leap one would take when dreaming.

I should have been clearer and provided better links but had to edit the hell out of the draft to get it in two posts. These new limits for posting are tough!

"Without any prior communication this creature said 'How you doin'? I was trying to stay calm, so I responded with a weak, 'Pretty good!'" At this point the alien then asked Higdon if he was hungry. Not waiting for a reply, the creature floated a small packet at him. "He waved a pointed object where his right hand should have been, and it levitated over to me.

Here are links that I used - Carl Higdon - UFO Experience blog (Beckley article) pt 1

Carl Higdon - Hypnosis transcripts by Leo Sprinkle

Phantoms and Monsters - Carl Higson Abduction

Flying Saucer Review - 1974 (Sprinkle, Poher, Vallee, Clark)

MUFON Journal December 1974 page 9

The weirder it gets the more intriguing it becomes. They sure don't seem to make abductions like they used to!

Then again, high-strangeness has been the bugaboo of ufology from pretty much day one in our modern ufo era. (For more on that see: Curiouser and Curiouser: ‘High Strangeness’ UFO Encounters by Gareth J. Medway)

Great cases and a highly entertaining OP. The abducted elk report....??? Too bad that one didn't see more investigatory work.

It was the 70s maybe the pills he took were X or a form of '___'. I've seen some wild # on those that I can't explain that seem very real. And I've had friends who have taken it and never seem to fully come back down to earth.

Interesting read either way. Its too bad the lack of evidence other then the "he said, she said."

Just what we need alien drugs, Some of our earthly ones are more than crazy enough for me, but then again momma allways said it's good to try something new...

reply to post by Kandinsky


No worries. I realize now that it was included in the link you provided in your OP, I didn't bother reading through it all, because your posts seemed to be pretty thorough in the first place.

Wow, it really is a strange story. When trying to make an effort explaining it, It makes me think of this quote by Gustav Naan..

Common sense is the quintessence of the experiences and prejudices of its time. It is a most unreliable advisor when one is confronted with a perfectly new situation.

reply to post by Kandinsky


And again, thank you very much for the time and effort you obviously invest into your threads.
The quality you put up here is very hard to meet.
You have the awesome talent to keep the reader interested over the complete length, I'm never tempted to skip.
Outstanding

don't take candy from strangers that was a crazy story.poor guy had this weird encounter and nobody believes him

reminds me of a song i heard

reply to post by MrsBlonde
The intro should be the soundtrack to the thread