WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.839 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.320 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:05.480 They say that memory is a fragile thing, that trauma 14 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:08.200 can fracture it into a thousand pieces that never quite 15 00:01:08.280 --> 00:01:12.120 fit back together the same way. But I remember everything, 16 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:18.359 every second, every sensation, every impossible moment that defied everything 17 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:21.680 I thought I knew about reality. The memories are burned 18 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:25.319 into my consciousness with a clarity that normal experiences never achieve, 19 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:28.280 as if whatever they did to me ensured I could 20 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:33.079 never forget, never dismiss it as nightmare or delusion. My 21 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:35.640 name is Marcus, and I need you to understand something 22 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.719 before I tell you my story. I am not crazy, 23 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:43.040 I am not seeking attention. I am not delusional. I 24 00:01:43.079 --> 00:01:47.159 have been examined by psychiatrists, neurologists, and every type of 25 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:51.159 specialist you can imagine. My brain scans are normal, my 26 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:55.560 psychological profiles are unremarkable. I hold a steady job as 27 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:59.719 an electrical engineer. I have a family, though that relationship 28 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:01.799 has been strained by what I'm about to tell you. 29 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:06.480 I am, by every measurable standard, a rational and functioning 30 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:10.039 member of society. But for thirty years they have been 31 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:13.199 taking me. I was ten years old when it started, 32 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.000 though I now suspect they had been watching me long 33 00:02:16.039 --> 00:02:19.719 before that October night in nineteen ninety four. We lived 34 00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:22.680 in a rural part of northern Minnesota in a house 35 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:26.400 surrounded by dense pine forests that seemed to swallow sound 36 00:02:26.439 --> 00:02:29.759 and light alike. My bedroom was on the second floor, 37 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:32.680 a small space with a single window that looked out 38 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:35.639 over the backyard and into the endless darkness of the 39 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:40.240 woods beyond. That night began like any other. I had 40 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:42.919 gone to bed around nine p thirty, Exhausted from a 41 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:45.840 day of helping my father stack firewood for the coming winter. 42 00:02:46.759 --> 00:02:49.199 The house was quiet, except for the occasional creak of 43 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:52.879 settling wood and the distant sound of my parents television downstairs. 44 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:57.000 I remember lying there watching the shadows of tree branches 45 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:00.719 dance across my ceiling in the moonlight. When every changed, 46 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:04.960 the first thing I noticed was the silence. Not normal 47 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.319 nighttime quiet, but a complete absence of sound that felt 48 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:11.800 like pressure against my ear drums. The crickets that had 49 00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:15.439 been chirping moments before were gone. The hum of the 50 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:19.439 refrigerator downstairs, a constant white noise I had never consciously 51 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:23.840 noticed until it disappeared, was absent. Even my own breathing 52 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:27.000 seemed muffled, as if the air itself had become thick 53 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:31.120 and resistant. Then came the light. It started as a 54 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:34.639 soft blue glow, seeping through the edges of my window blinds, 55 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:39.000 pulsing with a rhythm that seemed almost organic. My first 56 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:42.319 thought was that someone was outside with a flashlight, maybe 57 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:45.199 my father checking on something in the yard. But the 58 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:48.759 light was wrong. It didn't behave like any artificial light 59 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.840 I had ever seen. It seemed to pass through solid 60 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:55.919 objects rather than illuminating them, creating shadows that bent in 61 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:59.560 impossible directions. I wanted to get up to run to 62 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:03.360 my parents room, but my body wouldn't respond. I could 63 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:07.159 move my eyes, but nothing else. The paralysis was complete 64 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:10.639 and instantaneous, as if someone had simply switched off the 65 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:14.840 connection between my brain and my muscles. Panic flooded through me, 66 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.079 but even my attempts to scream produced nothing more than 67 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:22.720 a weak exhalation. The blue light intensified, filling my room 68 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:26.519 with an ethereal glow that made everything look underwater. And 69 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.399 then I saw them. They didn't enter through the door 70 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:33.519 or window. They were simply there, three figures, standing at 71 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:36.399 the foot of my bed, as if they had materialized 72 00:04:36.439 --> 00:04:40.279 from the light itself. Even through my terror, I remember 73 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:43.800 being struck by how wrong they looked, how every aspect 74 00:04:43.800 --> 00:04:46.839 of their appearance seemed designed to trigger some primal fear 75 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:50.920 response in the human brain. They were roughly four feet tall, 76 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:54.040 with oversized heads that seemed too heavy for their thin 77 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:57.920 necks to support. Their skin was a modeled gray color, 78 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:00.680 like old newspaper that had been left in the rain. 79 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:04.199 But it was their eyes that haunted me then and 80 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:08.439 haunt me, still, massive black orbs that reflected no light, 81 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:12.360 that seemed to pull you in like twin voids. When 82 00:05:12.399 --> 00:05:14.920 they looked at you, and I mean really looked at you, 83 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:17.720 it felt like they were reading every thought you had 84 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:21.879 ever had, every memory you had ever formed, cataloging and 85 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:25.199 analyzing you like a specimen. The one in the center 86 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:28.319 raised its hand, and I noticed it had only three fingers, 87 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:31.199 plus what might have been a thumb, each ending in 88 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:34.920 what looked like a small suction pad. It made a gesture, 89 00:05:35.319 --> 00:05:39.199 and suddenly I was floating, not flying, not being lifted, 90 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:42.720 but floating upward, as if gravity had simply stopped applying 91 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.800 to me. My blanket fell away, and I rose toward 92 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:49.480 my ceiling in my pajamas, helpless and terrified, beyond the 93 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:53.600 capacity for rational thought. The ceiling didn't stop me. I 94 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.240 passed through it like it was made of mist, feeling 95 00:05:56.240 --> 00:05:59.600 a brief tingling sensation as the solid matter moved through 96 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:02.560 my body. I could see down into the attic for 97 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:06.959 a split second, illuminated by that strange blue light. Before 98 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:09.240 I was through the roof and into the night air. 99 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:13.639 The cold hit me immediately, the October wind cutting through 100 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:18.279 my thin pajamas, but the paralysis remained complete. I could 101 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:21.120 only watch as the ground fell away below me, my 102 00:06:21.199 --> 00:06:24.399 house becoming smaller, the lights of town visible in the 103 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:28.600 distance like scattered stars that had fallen to earth above me, 104 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:31.759 blotting out the real stars was something that my ten 105 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:35.839 year old mind could not process. The craft, if that's 106 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:39.480 what you want to call it, was massive, easily three 107 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:43.399 hundred feet across, a dark, metallic disc that seemed to 108 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:47.399 absorb light rather than reflect it. The surface wasn't smooth, 109 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:50.240 but covered in what looked like geometric patterns that hurt 110 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:53.240 to look at directly, as if they existed in more 111 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:57.680 dimensions than my eyes could perceive. There were no visible windows, 112 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:02.040 no doors, no engines, nothing that suggested how something so 113 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:05.959 large could hover silently in the air. As I rose 114 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.680 toward it, a section of the underside began to glow 115 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:11.959 with that same blue light. The solid metal seemed to 116 00:07:11.959 --> 00:07:15.319 become liquid, creating an opening that I was drawn into. 117 00:07:16.240 --> 00:07:19.759 The moment I passed through, the cold disappeared, replaced by 118 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:23.040 air that felt thick and humid, with a metallic taste 119 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:26.279 that coated the back of my throat. The interior was 120 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:30.040 nothing like the flying saucers from movies. The walls curved 121 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:33.680 in ways that made no architectural sense, meeting at angles 122 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.519 that seemed to change depending on how you looked at them. 123 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:39.600 The lighting had no visible source but seemed to emanate 124 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:44.879 from the air itself, casting no shadows. And the smell God, 125 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:49.199 the smell like ozone and copper and something organic that 126 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:52.959 I couldn't identify, something that triggered a revulsion so deep 127 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.319 it felt genetic. I was floating down a corridor that 128 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:00.240 seemed to stretch impossibly far, the passing doorways that opened 129 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:04.360 onto rooms filled with things I couldn't understand. In one, 130 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:06.959 I could see what looked like dozens of glass cylinders 131 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:11.120 filled with a thick amber fluid. In another, walls covered 132 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.680 in symbols that seemed to move and shift when I 133 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:17.360 wasn't looking directly at them. And in one terrible moment, 134 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:21.839 I saw other humans. A woman maybe in her thirties, 135 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:26.160 unconscious and suspended in some kind of energy field, a 136 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.439 man elderly with tubes connected to various parts of his body, 137 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:34.080 A child younger than me curled in a fetal position 138 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:38.360 inside what looked like a transparent sphere. The paralysis broke 139 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.679 When I entered what I can only describe as an 140 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:44.440 examination room, I collapsed onto a table that seemed to 141 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:47.639 mold itself to my body, holding me in place without 142 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:51.759 visible restraints. The three beings from my bedroom were there, 143 00:08:52.080 --> 00:08:55.960 along with two others. One was taller, maybe five feet, 144 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.799 with a more elongated head and fingers that seemed to 145 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:02.159 have extra joints. This one appeared to be in charge, 146 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:06.840 moving with a deliberation that suggested authority. They didn't speak, 147 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:11.960 not with voices, but I could feel their communication, not words, exactly, 148 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:15.240 but concepts and images that appeared in my mind with 149 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:18.399 a clarity that made me certain they weren't my own thoughts. 150 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:22.279 They were curious. That was the overwhelming sense I got. 151 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:26.360 Not malicious, not cruel, but curious, in the way a 152 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:30.480 scientist might be curious about a lab rat. The examination 153 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.279 began with the tall one placing its hand on my forehead. 154 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:37.519 The moment it made contact, my vision exploded into fragments 155 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:41.519 of memory. Every moment of my life played out simultaneously, 156 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:45.519 from my earliest memories to that very second. But it 157 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:49.679 wasn't just reviewing them, It was copying them, downloading them 158 00:09:49.679 --> 00:09:52.679 into some vast consciousness that I could feel at the 159 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:57.720 edges of my perception. I saw my memories being sorted, categorized, 160 00:09:58.039 --> 00:10:01.840 cross referenced with data I couldn't come prehend. Then came 161 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:05.879 the physical examination, and this is where my memory becomes fragmented. 162 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:09.440 Whether from trauma or some intentional suppression, I don't know. 163 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:13.399 I remember instruments that seemed to be made of light itself, 164 00:10:13.720 --> 00:10:17.399 passing through my body without cutting, but somehow taking samples. 165 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:21.720 I remember a needle impossibly thin, being inserted into the 166 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:24.799 base of my skull, and a sensation like ice water 167 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:29.559 flowing through my brain. I remember screaming or trying to scream, 168 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:33.600 but no sound coming out. The worst part was the implant. 169 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:36.919 The tall one produced something so small I could barely 170 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:39.759 see it, like a grain of rice, but metallic and 171 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:43.399 covered in tiny filaments that moved on their own. It 172 00:10:43.480 --> 00:10:46.720 showed it to me, letting me see it clearly, wanting 173 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:49.440 me to know what was happening. Then it pressed it 174 00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:51.840 against the side of my nose and I felt it 175 00:10:51.879 --> 00:10:57.919 burrow in. Not painful exactly, but wrong, fundamentally wrong, like 176 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:01.159 something violating the boundary between cell health and not self. 177 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.519 Time became meaningless in that room. It could have been minutes, 178 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.960 or hours or days. At some point I became aware 179 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:12.799 that they were showing me things. Images projected directly into 180 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:17.840 my mind Earth from space, but not current Earth. I 181 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:21.039 somehow knew I was seeing the past and future simultaneously. 182 00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:26.440 Cities I didn't recognize, some appearing ancient beyond measure, others 183 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:29.200 seeming to be built from materials that didn't exist yet 184 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.919 in other worlds, planets with purple skies and crystalline forests, 185 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:39.120 oceans of liquid methane, deserts of diamond dust. They showed 186 00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:43.360 me humans, but changed, some with enlarged heads like theirs, 187 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:48.480 others with modifications I couldn't understand. They showed me disasters, 188 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:56.279 nuclear war, plagues, environmental collapse, and then recovery, evolution, transformation. 189 00:11:57.200 --> 00:11:59.840 They showed me their own world, or what I assumed 190 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:03.559 their world, a place where the distinction between organic and 191 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:08.480 technological had ceased to exist, where consciousness moved freely between 192 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:12.879 biological and artificial substrates. And then they showed me myself, 193 00:12:13.559 --> 00:12:16.679 not as I was, but as I could be, dozens 194 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.759 of potential futures spreading out like branches on a tree. 195 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:22.879 In some I was explaining what happened to me to 196 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:26.799 rooms full of people. In others, I was in institutions 197 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:30.799 labeled insane. In one, I was working with them, though 198 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:35.039 I couldn't understand in what capacity, And in one terrifying vision, 199 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:39.080 I was one of them, transformed so completely that nothing 200 00:12:39.159 --> 00:12:42.960 human remained. The images stopped as suddenly as they had begun, 201 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:46.679 and I found myself being moved again, floating back through 202 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:50.559 those impossible corridors. But this time I was led to 203 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:55.080 a different room, one that contained other humans. They were conscious, 204 00:12:55.080 --> 00:12:59.559 but seemed drugged, their movements slow and dream like. A 205 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:02.320 woman reached out to me, her mouth forming words I 206 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:06.039 couldn't hear. A teenage boy sat in a corner, rocking 207 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:10.080 back and forth, his eyes wide with shock. An older 208 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.240 man was examining his own hands, as if he had 209 00:13:12.279 --> 00:13:15.320 never seen them before. We were left there together for 210 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:18.559 what felt like hours. Sometimes one of the beings would 211 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:21.399 enter and take someone away, and they wouldn't come back. 212 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:25.879 Eventually it was my turn again, but this time, instead 213 00:13:25.879 --> 00:13:29.559 of an examination, I was shown something else. They took 214 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:32.480 me to what I can only describe as an observation deck, 215 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.679 though there were no windows in any traditional sense. Instead, 216 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:41.519 the walls became transparent, revealing the view outside. We were 217 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:45.159 in orbit, Earth spinning slowly below us. But it wasn't 218 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:49.399 just one Earth. I could see multiple versions of it, overlapping, 219 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:54.120 like double exposures, each slightly different. In one, the lights 220 00:13:54.159 --> 00:13:58.120 of cities covered every land mass. In another, the planet 221 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:02.600 was dark, lifeless, and yet another the continents themselves were 222 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:06.679 arranged differently. The tall being stood beside me, and for 223 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:09.639 the first time I felt something like emotion from it, 224 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:14.679 not human emotion, but something analogous. It was showing me 225 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:18.759 this for a reason, trying to communicate something important. The 226 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:22.960 images in my mind came faster now, concepts about probability 227 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:27.080 and observation and the nature of reality itself. They were 228 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:31.440 studying us, yes, but not just us. They were studying 229 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:35.200 every possible version of us, tracking the trajectories of human 230 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:40.039 evolution across infinite parallel timelines. We were not just specimens 231 00:14:40.039 --> 00:14:43.480 to them. We were data points in some vast experiment 232 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:47.679 that spanned dimensions I couldn't comprehend. And the implant they 233 00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:50.679 had put in me it wasn't just a tracking device. 234 00:14:51.320 --> 00:14:54.080 It was a window, a way for them to observe 235 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:57.159 not just where I was, but which version of reality 236 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:01.039 I was experiencing. Stay tuned for more Backwoods Bigfoot stories. 237 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:06.039 We'll be back after these messages. The return to my 238 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.360 bedroom was as sudden as the abduction. One moment I 239 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:12.519 was standing in that impossible room. The next I was 240 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:16.000 in my bed, blanket pulled up to my chin, morning 241 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:19.919 sunlight streaming through my window. I sat up, convinced it 242 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:22.759 had been the most vivid nightmare of my life until 243 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:25.399 I felt the small lump beside my nose where the 244 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.879 implant had been inserted. I ran to the bathroom mirror 245 00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:32.320 and could see it, just barely, a tiny ridge under 246 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:35.240 the skin that hadn't been there before. I tried to 247 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.039 tell my parents, but the words wouldn't come out right. 248 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:41.919 Every time I started to explain, my throat would close up, 249 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:44.600 or I would suddenly forget what I was trying to say. 250 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:48.120 It was as if something was preventing me from communicating 251 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:53.240 what had happened. I drew pictures instead, obsessively filling notebook 252 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:56.799 after notebook with sketches of the beings, the craft, the 253 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:00.639 symbols I had seen. My parents, concerned took me to 254 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.000 a child psychologist, who diagnosed me with night terrors and 255 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:08.120 an over active imagination, but I knew the truth, and 256 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:10.960 I knew with a certainty that chilled me to my core, 257 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:15.200 that they would be back. The second taking came exactly 258 00:16:15.240 --> 00:16:19.159 one year later, October nineteen ninety five, and this time 259 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:22.360 I was ready for it. I had spent the intervening 260 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:26.919 months researching everything I could find about UFOs and alien abductions. 261 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:30.320 This was before the Internet was widely available, so I 262 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:33.200 relied on books from the library, many of which I 263 00:16:33.240 --> 00:16:36.720 had to special order from other branches. I read Whitley 264 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.159 Strieber's Communion and was shocked by how similar his descriptions 265 00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:43.519 were to my experience. I studied the Betty and Barney 266 00:16:43.559 --> 00:16:47.120 Hill case, the Travis Walton incident, and dozens of other 267 00:16:47.159 --> 00:16:51.120 accounts I had also started preparing. I kept a camera 268 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:53.720 by my bed, though I would later discover it wouldn't 269 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:56.600 work when they came. I tried to stay awake every 270 00:16:56.679 --> 00:17:00.960 night in October, dosing myself with caffeine, but exhaustion would 271 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:04.799 always overtake me at the crucial moment. I even convinced 272 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:06.960 my older brother to sleep in my room one night, 273 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:09.559 but he experienced nothing while I was taken from the 274 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:13.680 bed right beside him. When the paralysis hit that second time, 275 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:18.640 I recognized it immediately, the same silence, the same blue light, 276 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:22.200 But this time there was something else. I could feel 277 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:25.319 them in my mind before they appeared, a presence that 278 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:30.440 was both alien and increasingly familiar. The three beings materialized 279 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.519 just as before, but this time I noticed details I 280 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:36.799 had missed in my terror the first time. They moved 281 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:41.359 with perfect synchronization, like they were parts of a single organism. 282 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:44.559 Their skin wasn't actually gray, but seemed to shift between 283 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:48.200 different shades depending on the angle of the light, and 284 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.960 their eyes, those terrible black eyes occasionally showed reflections of 285 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:55.440 things that weren't in the room, as if they were 286 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:58.960 windows to somewhere else. The journey to the craft was 287 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:02.039 the same, but this time I was able to observe more. 288 00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:04.960 I saw that we weren't the only ones being taken. 289 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:08.160 In the distance, I could see other beams of blue light, 290 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:12.559 other figures floating upward. The craft itself was even larger 291 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:16.039 than I had estimated, and there were others. I counted 292 00:18:16.039 --> 00:18:20.000 at least three more, hovering at different altitudes, all engaged 293 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:23.759 in the same harvest of human subjects. This time, they 294 00:18:23.799 --> 00:18:26.799 took me to a different area of the ship. Instead 295 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:29.599 of the examination room, I was brought to what seemed 296 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:32.920 to be a storage facility. The walls were lined with 297 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:36.720 what looked like filing cabinets, but organic pulsing with a 298 00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:41.160 faint bioluminescence. The tall being from before was there and 299 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:45.119 it recognized me. I could feel its acknowledgment, almost like 300 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.559 satisfaction that I had returned. It showed me to one 301 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:51.599 of the cabinet things, and somehow conveyed that this contained 302 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:55.079 information about me, not just from the past year, but 303 00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:58.160 from before I was born. I saw images in my 304 00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:01.839 mind of my parents being watched, my conception being noted, 305 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:05.480 my development in the womb being monitored. They had been 306 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:08.920 preparing for me, for all of us, long before we 307 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:13.880 were taken the examination. This time was different, less invasive physically, 308 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:17.319 but more intensive mentally. They seemed to be testing my 309 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:21.359 responses to various stimuli. They would project images into my 310 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:26.079 mind and monitor my reactions. Some were benign landscapes and 311 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:31.240 geometric patterns. Others were horrifying scenes of violence and destruction 312 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:34.240 that felt so real I could smell the smoke and blood, 313 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:39.079 and some were incomprehensible concepts and dimensions that my brain 314 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:42.519 couldn't process, leaving me with a feeling of vertigo that 315 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:46.559 persisted for weeks. Afterward, they also began what I can 316 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:50.599 only describe as education. The tall one would touch my forehead, 317 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:53.680 and suddenly I would understand things I had never learned, 318 00:19:54.519 --> 00:19:59.200 mathematical concepts beyond anything taught in school, physics that contradicted 319 00:19:59.240 --> 00:20:02.559 everything I thought of. I knew about the universe, biological 320 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:05.880 processes that seemed to suggest life was far more flexible 321 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:09.759 and adaptable than we believed. But with the knowledge came 322 00:20:09.799 --> 00:20:13.279 something else. Each piece of information they gave me was 323 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:16.200 connected to a kind of trigger. If I tried to 324 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:19.440 write it down later, my hand would cramp. If I 325 00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:21.880 tried to speak about it, the words would jumble in 326 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:26.160 my mouth. The knowledge was there, but locked away, accessible 327 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:30.240 only in dreams and moments of extreme stress. During this 328 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:34.680 second taking, I also encountered something new. Among the standard 329 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:38.359 gray beings was something else, something that looked almost human, 330 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:42.240 but wrong in every way that mattered. Its proportions were 331 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:45.839 off limbs, slightly too long, joints that bent in too 332 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:49.519 many places. Its face was a mockery of human features, 333 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:52.720 with eyes that were almost normal, except for the pupils 334 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:56.640 that contracted horizontally like a goat's. It smiled at me, 335 00:20:57.160 --> 00:21:00.400 revealing teeth that were all canines, and I under stood 336 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.240 with horrible clarity that this thing had once been human. 337 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.759 The hybrid, as I came to think of it, seemed 338 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:10.240 to be learning from the grays. It would observe their procedures, 339 00:21:10.519 --> 00:21:14.480 sometimes attempting to replicate them with its disturbingly flexible hands. 340 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:17.480 When it looked at me, I felt a connection that 341 00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:20.799 was different from the alien presence of the grays. It 342 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:24.000 was human enough to feel emotions I recognized, and what 343 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:27.319 I felt from it was a mixture of curiosity, hunger, 344 00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:30.839 and something like homesickness. They showed me others like it, 345 00:21:31.240 --> 00:21:35.000 dozens of them, in various stages of transformation. Some looked 346 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:39.480 mostly human with subtle alterations. Others were so changed they 347 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:43.279 bore only the vaguest resemblance to their original species. And 348 00:21:43.359 --> 00:21:46.759 they showed me the process, though thankfully not in detail, 349 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:52.000 genetic manipulation that went beyond simple DNA editing, changes at 350 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:55.200 a quantum level that affected not just biology but the 351 00:21:55.240 --> 00:22:00.200 fundamental nature of consciousness itself. The message was clear, this 352 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:04.920 was our future, or at least one possible future, Humanity 353 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:08.200 would not remain as it was, Whether through our own 354 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:11.920 actions or theirs, we were going to change, to evolve, 355 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:15.680 to become something else. The only question was whether we 356 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:19.160 would guide that transformation or have it forced upon us. 357 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:22.400 They returned me just before dawn, and this time I 358 00:22:22.440 --> 00:22:26.519 retained more conscious memory of the experience. I also discovered 359 00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:30.319 something else. The implant they had put in me was active. 360 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:34.519 I could feel it, sometimes a warmth beside my nose, 361 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:38.799 usually just before something significant happened. It seemed to be 362 00:22:38.839 --> 00:22:43.279 recording everything I experienced, transmitting it to them wherever they were. 363 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:47.799 The takings became more frequent after that, not yearly anymore, 364 00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:51.880 but every few months, sometimes even more often. By the 365 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:53.920 time I was thirteen, I'd been taken at least a 366 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:57.759 dozen times, each experience built on the last, like I 367 00:22:57.799 --> 00:23:00.640 was enrolled in some bizarre educational pro gram I never 368 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:04.039 signed up for. They started taking me to other places, 369 00:23:04.440 --> 00:23:08.359 not just their craft, underground facilities that seemed to exist 370 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:13.160 partially in our dimension and partially somewhere else, underwater bases 371 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:16.079 where the pressure should have killed me instantly but didn't, 372 00:23:16.880 --> 00:23:19.960 and once memorably to what appeared to be a station 373 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:22.400 on the far side of the moon. Though how we 374 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:25.799 got there in what seemed like seconds I still don't understand. 375 00:23:26.839 --> 00:23:28.640 It was during one of these trips that I met 376 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:32.559 others like me. They called us repeaters, humans who were 377 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:36.920 taken regularly, rather than just once or twice. There was Sarah, 378 00:23:37.160 --> 00:23:39.960 a nurse from Oregon who had been taken since childhood 379 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:43.640 like me. David, a physics professor from Japan who had 380 00:23:43.640 --> 00:23:47.480 started being taken in his twenties. Maria, an artist from 381 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:50.519 Brazil whose paintings of her experiences had gained her a 382 00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:54.759 following among UFO believers. We were allowed to interact sometimes, 383 00:23:54.960 --> 00:24:00.680 though always under observation. We compared experiences, finding patterns and takings. 384 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:04.279 We had all received implants. We had all been shown 385 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:07.720 the same visions of Earth's possible futures, and we had 386 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.440 all been changed in subtle ways. Sarah found she could 387 00:24:11.480 --> 00:24:16.720 sometimes sense illness in people before symptoms appeared. David's understanding 388 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:20.200 of physics had leaped beyond his education, though he couldn't 389 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:25.279 publish his insights without suffering debilitating migraines. Maria's art had 390 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:28.599 taken on an otherworldly quality that seemed to affect viewers 391 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:32.799 on a subconscious level. I discovered my own changes Gradually. 392 00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:36.920 My dreams were no longer entirely my own. Sometimes I 393 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:39.799 would dream of places I had never been, people I 394 00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:42.599 had never met, but with such vivid detail that I 395 00:24:42.599 --> 00:24:46.079 could draw maps of buildings I had never entered. Later, 396 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:48.559 I would sometimes see these places on the news or 397 00:24:48.559 --> 00:24:52.680 in photographs and recognize them instantly. I was seeing through 398 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:57.680 other eyes, other abductees maybe, or perhaps the hybrids themselves. 399 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:00.960 I also developed what I can own describe as a 400 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:04.119 sense for them. I knew when they were near, even 401 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:07.359