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MARCH 12, 1977, GISBORNE, GISBORNE DISTRICT COUNCIL, NEW ZEALAND, THREE WOMEN:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

Various summarized ufological sources indicate that on March 12, 1977, or March 1977, in Gisborne, New Zealand, at 01:00 a.m., three unnamed women camped on a stiff hill to try to see UFOs, in the midst of a flap of UFO sightings. They chattered from time to time, and they drowsed.

They remembered to have awaked in a state of panic and to have fled to their car. Unable to tell what happened during a period of two hours - which is normal if there were sleeping - one of them told during sessions of hypnosis intended to revealed if they had been abducted by aliens, that she suddenly awoke at 01:00 a.m. in the morning and touched a metal boot. She turned over not to see the being, looked at her sleeping friends, remained calm, and fell asleep again.

In the account under hypnosis, she is brought into a small multicolored room and communicated by telepathy with male beings described as normal human beings in white suits and boots. She said to have seen another of the women in the UFO, then a beam brought back to the hill. She started to kick, still in her sleep, awoke the other women, and at this point in time they all panicked and fled.

It does not seem that there was any conscious memory of a UFO or occupant sighting or UFO abduction, the information which the women were drowsy or sleeping being generally called a "missing time" in the ufological summaries.

Only brief summaries seem available on the case, and one issue is that the sighting date varies from March 1977, March 11, 1977, March 12, 1977, March 1978, March 11, 1978.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. kb2:] KEITH BASTERFIELD:

Keith Basterfield indicates that case UFORA89017 is that in March 1977 in Gisborne, New Zealand, there was a complex account at the time of the Gisborne "flap" involving skywatches, multiple UFO observations, unusual events and a possible abduction.

He indicates that the source is himself and UFORA-NSW.

[Ref. kb3:] KEITH BASTERFIELD:

The ufologist indicates that March 1978 in Gisborne New Zealand, three women were involved in an apparent abduction case in the midst of a large UFO flap near that city which began in 1977. One night, the women were lying on a hillside, watching the skies, and felt that a period of "missing time" occurred. Shortly after the event, a regression hypnosis session was arranged and an abduction scenario revealed. In 1989 during a retrospective investigation by Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker, a regression session was conducted with one woman; which revealed an account of being drawn up a beam of light; of seeing one of the other women inside the UFO, of talking to a male entity, and all three women were then back on the hillside.

Keith Basterfield indicates that the sources are UFORA89017; Original investigation by Bryan Dickeson; Retrospective investigation by Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker; and Dykes, M. (1981), "Strangers In Our Skies" INL Lower Hutt. pp46-49.

[Ref. kb4:] KEITH BASTERFIELD:

Keith Basterfield indicates that in March 1978, in Gisborne, New Zealand, three women were involved in an apparent abduction event in the midst of a large UFO flap near Gisborne which began in 1977. One night they were lying on a hillside watching the skies, and felt that a period of missing time occurred. Shortly after the event a regression hypnosis sesssion was arranged and an abduction scenario revealed. In 1989 during a retrospective investigation by Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker, a regression session was conducted with "P". This revealed an account of being drawn up a beam of light, and of talking to a male entity. All 3 women then found themselves back on the hillside.

The sources are indicated as "UFORA89017 Original investigation by Bryan Dickeson. 1989 by Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker."

[Ref. kb1:] KEITH BASKERFIELD:

The Australian ufologist indicates in a catalogue that on March 1978, in Gisborne, New Zealand, three women were involved in an abduction case in the midst of a large UFO flap near this city; which began in 1977.

The woman were lying on a hillside watching the skies one night and felt that a period of "missing time" occurred.

Shortly after this event, a regression hypnosis session was arranged and an abduction scenario was revealed.

In 1989, a retrospective investigation by Keith Baskerfield and Bill Chalker included a regression session with one of the woman, revealing an experience account of having being drawn up a beam of light, seeing one of the other women inside the UFO, and talking to a male entity. All three women were then back on the hillside.

Keith Baskerfield specifies that the original investigation was by Bryan Dickeson and that the case is told in "Strangers In Our Skies" by M. Dykes, 1981, INL. Lower Hutt. pp 46-49.

[Ref. bh1:] ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW AND GEORGE S. HOWARD:

The authors indicate that on March 12, 1977, in Gisborne, New Zealand, at 01:00 a.m., three women, "B," "S," and "1" were camping on a steep hill to watch for UFOs during a wave of sightings, talking intermittently. They dozed.

They recalled simultaneously waking in panic and fleeing to their car. Unable to account for two hours, "B" said under hypnosis that she suddenly awoke at 01:00 a.m. and touched a metallic boot. She turned away so as not to see the figure, looked at her sleeping friends, remained calm, and fell back asleep.

"B" was taken to a small multicolored room and telepathically communicated with normal human-looking male beings wearing white coveralls and boots. She also saw "S" in the craft, then was beamed back to the hill and began kicking in her sleep, waking her companions. They all panicked and fled.

The authors indicate that the source is M. Dykes, in Strangers in Our Skies: UFOs Over New Zealand, Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand, INL Publications, 1981.

[Ref. go1:] GODELIEVE VAN OVERMEIRE:

The ufologist indicates that in "March 1978", in New Zealand in "Gisbome", three women, lying on side of a hill to observe the sky in the evening, felt that a "missing time" had occurred. Little time after this episode, a hypnotic regression was decided and a scenario of abduction was then revealed. In 1989, a new regression took place at the instigation of the investigators Keith Basterfield and Bill Chalker, about whom Godelieve van Overmeire comments on that "investigators like that, you should to make them regress into being unborn in my opinion!"; and there was then additional information, like that of a beam of light, or that to see one of the women speaking with a male entity.

The ufologist comments on: "all this is bloody interesting... was it really necessary to hypnotize this woman twice to obtain so little results?"

The sources are indicated as: "UFORA89017. Original investigation by Bryan Dickeson. Rétrospective investigation by Keith Baskerfield & Bill Chalker. See also Dykes, M. (1981). "Strangers In Our Skies." INL Lower Hutt.pp46-49.)"

[Ref. js1:] JOHN SCHUESSLER:

The U.S. ufologist summarized that in March 1978, in Gisborne, New Zealand, three women were abducted from a hillside, drawn up in a beam of light, and they talked to a male being while inside the craft.

John Schuessler indicates that the source is UFO Research Australia, April 1991.

[Ref. aa1:] UFO ON-LINE:

A summary on this website indicates that in March 1977, in Gisborne, New Zealand, three women were involved in an apparent abduction case in the midst of a large UFO flap. Regression hypnosis on one women revealed a story of entering an object and talking to an entity.

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Waimata Valley, New Zealand, on March 11, 1978, at 2300, the three witnesses were camping on the site of a Maori burial mound when one of them awoke suddenly and saw a being looking at them. Her memory then went blank; at 0400A all three woke up and left the area. Under hypnosis one of the witnesses recalled that she and one of her companions were drawn onboard a luminous domed disc shaped craft by a beam of light. A humanoid being of medium built and wearing silvery calf length boots met them inside. He communicated by telepathy and warned them to keep silent about the experience.

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Thomas E Bullard, UFO Abductions The Measure of A Mystery."

Points to consider:

The "Gisborne flap" of the late 70's and early 80's was an intense period of UFO activity centered around the area of Gisborne and the East Coast region north of it. Local ufologists say there were so many reports that investigation groups sprang up locally to directly examining the reports. On this occasion, New Zealand ufology first reported UFO abduction experiences.

However, in this case, the events can be interpreted very differently than an actual abduction of the women by aliens.

First element, which appears in this file only in the single "skeptic" source I found, whereas it is an element of importance, is that the three women had gone to the hills that night precisely with the goal of skywatching for UFOs; which sets the very context of having the aliens as the important matter of the evening in their minds.

Second element, once again mentioned only by the same "skeptic" source, is that it seems that the women drowsed, or fell asleep. This is nothing surprising. What does the motion of "missing time" put forth by other ufology sources amount to, then? When asleep, one does actually experience a "missing time" indeed, that the women describes as a time period during which she could not say what occurred. How is that abnormal or surprising, if indeed the women had fallen asleep?

It continues with some agitation in her sleep, with an extraterrestrial being that the woman does not want to see, she turns her back at him, looks at her partners, who are indeed there, not in a UFO, and asleep. This all has a strong appearance of bad sleep, or nightmare, or even an hypnagogic hallucination episode. If this woman slept, had made a nightmare, with extraterrestrials abducting her, not very astonishing dream theme since the women awaited UFOs, it is nothing surprising that she could awake, in panic, awake the other women, and that all the group fled.

What clearly matters is that they saw no UFO at all, not even an extraterrestrial entity - at this stage.

There is still nothing amazing when thereafter, investigators using hypnosis "reveal" an abduction scenario: this scenario, if the woman made a nightmare in which she is abducted by alien, does actually exist in her memory, but forgotten from the conscious memory, just like most dreams or nightmares. The hypnotist thus does not need to force out a story invented by pure confabulation - which cannot be excluded anyway - since the scenario is really "there" in her mind, although not like actual events are consciously remembered.

Thus there is in this case an almost ideal context for an non-real abduction scenario: the dream or the nightmare, are "revealed" out of the unconscious memory by the technique of hypnosis, very highly regarded by ufologist at that time. Serious ufologists are now less convinced that this technique reveals real events since, with good reasons.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Probable nightmare surfacing due to use of hypnosis.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] ? "Strangers In Our Skies - UFO's Over New Zealand", book by Mervyn Dykes, INL Print publisher, New Zealand, pp 46-49, 1981.
• [---] ? "UFO Abductions: The Measure of A Mystery - Volume 1: Comparative Study of Abduction Reports", livre par Thomas E. Bullard, Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) éditeur, USA, 1987.
• [---] ? UFO Research Australia (UFORA) New South Wales, case UFORA89017, Australia, April 1991.
• [kb2] ? "Cases Under Investigation", text by Keith Basterfield through the ParaNet BBS, UFO Research Australia, July 16, 1989.
• [kb3] ? "A Preliminary Catalogue of Australian and New Zealand Abduction and Potential Abduction Cases", compiled by Keith Basterfield, in Research Digest #21, UFO Research Australia, PO Box 229, Prospect, SA 5082, Australia, April 1991.
• [kb4] ? "Australian Abduction 2", text by Keith Basterfield through the FidoNet BBS, January 8, 1992.
• [kb1] * "A Catalogue Of Australian And New Zealand Abduction and Potential Abduction Cases", compiled by Keith Basterfield, GPO Box 1894, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia, October 1997, at www.project1947.com/kbabduct.htm
• [bh1] * "UFOs and Alien Contacts - Two Centuries of Mystery", book by Robert E. Bartholomew and George S. Howard, Prometheus Books publisher, New York, USA, page 370, 1998.
• [go1] * "Chronologie OVNI", web page by Godelieve Van Overmeire, Belgium, circa 1999, at users.skynet.be/sky84985/chron22.html
• [js1] * "A Catalog Of UFO-Related Human Physiological Effects", circa 2000, compiled by John F. Schuessler, at www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/ufo_reports/schuessler/15.html
• [aa1] * "Australian Alien Abduction Cases", compiled by the BUFOD website, originally on the UFO's Online website, circa 2005, at www.abcfield.force9.co.uk/ausabduct.htm
• [ar1] * "1978 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2007, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1978.shtml

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