I have been privileged to have the help of many accomplished members of the scientific community. I wish to thank Donald F. Klein, MD, director of research at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and professor of psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, for his expert hypnosis. Dr. Robert Naiman was kind enough to provide similar support for my wife. Dr. John Gliedman offered skilful scientific evaluation of my ideas, and his own essential contributions. Dr. David Webb, recently a member of the National Commission on Space and presently professor and chairman of space studies at the Center for Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota, and Dr. Brian O'Leary, astronaut and planetologist, provided insights that combined expert knowledge, healthy skepticism, and a firm adherence to the known, without which I could never have completed my task. Dr. Bruce Maccabee, research physicist with the United States Navy, read my manuscript for its physics content, but any errors in this area remain my own. David M.

Jacobs, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Temple University, was kind enough to offer his comments as well, with special reference to historical background.

I would especially like to thank Budd Hopkins, who has sacrificed an enormous amount of time and effort — often approaching the heroic — for myself and those like me who have been dragged to the edge of reality.

The assistance of the physicians and scientists who have advised me does not imply that they support my conclusions, such as they are, about what happened to me. Their interest arises from a desire to study what appears to be an unknown or misunderstood phenomenon.

To the scientific community, the nature of this phenomenon remains an unresolved question.

The concrete world has slipped

through the meshes of the scientific net.

—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD,
Modes of Thought

PRELUDE

The Truth Behind the Curtain

This is the story of one man's attempt to deal with a shattering assault from the unknown.

It is a true story, as true as I know how to describe it.

To all appearances I have had an elaborate personal encounter with intelligent nonhuman beings. But who could they be, and where have they come from? Are unidentified flying objects real? Are there goblins or demons... or visitors?

At first, I thought I was losing my mind. But I was interviewed by three psychologists and three psychiatrists, given a battery of psychological tests and- a neurological examination, and found to fall within the normal range in all respects. I was also given a polygraph by an operator with thirty years' experience and I passed without qualification. I had been indifferent to the whole issue of unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrials; I had viewed them as a false unknown, easily explainable as misperceptions or hallucinations. Now what was I to think?

The visitors marched right into the middle of the . life of an indifferent skeptic without a moment's hesitation.