A Visit to the Doctor

Dr Herbert Hopkins (58) was a Maine general practitioner who hypnotically regressed UFO witnesses on behalf of a local UFO group. It was while investigating the abduction of a witness named David Stephens that the doctor was visited by a sinister Man in Black. Dr Hopkins's first-person account of events is reproduced in full below:

Dr Hopkins's Account

September 11, 1976. Time: 8:00 p.m. Saturday. This was the first time I had been alone in the house for an extended period of time. My wife and children had gone to an outdoor movie, which I dislike.

The telephone rang and I answered it. A man's voice identified himself as the vice president of the New Jersey UFO Research Organization, and he told me he would like to talk to me about the David Stephens case.

He asked if I was entirely alone and if it would be convenient for me to see him. I told him to come right up and I would talk to him. I did not even ask his name, which is very uncharacteristic of me, and also I never see anyone alone since my home and office have been broken into twice and since there is a great deal of illicit drug activity in this town at the present time--even the murder of a pharmacist.

Immediately I went to the back door to turn on the light so that he could see his way in from my parking lot. Just as I turned on the light, I saw this man dressed in black coming up the porch stairs. I saw no car, and even if he did have a car, he could not have possibly gotten to my house that quickly from any phone. Strangely, at the time I did not think of this but opened the door for him without even asking who he was. (I do not do things this way ordinarily).

He did not introduce himself, but simply came in. He was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed perhaps about 140 pounds. He wore a black derby, a black jacket, black tie, white shirt, black trousers and shoes. I thought, "He looks like an undertaker."

I was struck immediately by his immaculate attire. His suit had not a wrinkle and fitted him like a clothing store dummy. It didn't fill out his legs and arms. The crease in his pants was perfect and razor sharp. The suit looked as if he had just put it on. Everything about him seemed to be super-perfect. He asked if he might sit down and I said "Yes." As he sat down, the crease in his trousers even at the knees did not flatten but stood out.

He removed his hat and I saw that he was completely hairless and had no eyebrows or eyelashes. He had a smooth face with no hair follicles. He had a small nose set low, and small ears, set low. His head and face were of a dead-white colour and his lips were a vivid red in stark contrast to his white face. His eyes were not remarkable - couldn't tell the colour, I must have been 12 feet away from him. I remained calm and unafraid as I appraised him. I wonder why?

As he asked me about the Stephens case, I noted that he spoke in an expressionless, monotone, scanning speech. His voice (he spoke English) was flawless, with no accent, but no sentences, no phrases, just a series of words. His voice was completely neutral and passive.

After I told him about the Stephens case, he said, "That's just what I thought." As I was telling him about the case, he idly put the backs of the fingers of one hand against his lips (he wore gray suede gloves), I noticed that the bright red of his lips had become smeared and the backs of his gloved fingers were stained red! This character was wearing lipstick!

I thought, "This is some kind of a queer." His mouth was a perfectly straight slit, which he hardly opened. I didn't see any teeth. His head seemed to blend into his collar. He had a receding chin, and he did not move his head at any time; he didn't turn his head, nod, or anything. His head was perfectly stationary with the upper part of his body. As a matter of fact, I'd say with his entire body, except his legs.

He then told me that I had two coins in my left pocket, which was true: a dime and a penny. He told me to take one of the coins and hold it out in the palm of my open hand. I took the penny because it was the larger of the two coins.

I placed the shiny new penny on the palm of my extended hand and looked towards the strange man. He said, "Don't look at me, look at the coin." I did, and the shiny new penny was now a bright silver colour. He told me to keep looking at the coin; as I did so the coin slowly became light blue in colour, and then it began to become blurred to my vision.

My hand was in sharp focus, but try as I might I could not seem to focus on the silver-blue penny. It became more blurred, became round like a little blue fuzzy ball, and then became vaporous and gradually faded away. All the time this was going on I felt and heard nothing.

I looked at him and said, "That was a neat trick." I felt eerie at this and asked him to make the coin return. He said, "Neither you nor anyone else on this plane (not planet) will ever see that coin again."

He then asked me if I knew why Barney Hill died, and I told him that I assumed it was the result of a long illness. He told me that this was not the case, that Barney Hill died because he knew too much. He then asked me if I knew how Barney Hill had died, and I told him I understood that he died of a heart attack (wrong information, I was to find out later). He then told me that this was not correct, that he had died because he had no heart, just as I no longer have a coin. This frightened me.

He then told me that I had tape recordings of the Stephens case and also correspondence relating to this case. I said that this was true. He then ordered me to destroy the tapes and any other correspondence and literature I might have pertaining to UFOs in any way, or I would suffer the same fate as Barney Hill. He said he would know when I had done this, but did not say that he would come back.

As he spoke his last words, I noticed that his speech was slowing down. Slowly, and a bit unsteadily, he got to his feet and said, very slowly, "My energy is running low - must go now - g o o d-b y e." He walked in four steps to the door and I opened it for him. He clung tightly to the railing as he went down the steps, one foot at a time - one foot down, then the other next to it, before taking the next step--not one foot after another. I watched him as he very unsteadily and slowly walked to the corner of the building and the driveway. He was so unsteady I thought he might fall.

I saw a very bright light shining up the driveway and thought that it must be coming from his car - but there was no light there when he arrived. The light was definitely brighter than automobile headlights and was bluish-white in colour. I immediately rushed to the nearby kitchen window and looked out to watch him, but I didn't see or hear anything and the light was gone. I rushed out to the front porch but saw no car leaving.

He walked in a different direction from the driveway - 80 degrees opposed to the direction that he came in. I can't remember seeing his shadow. And walking out that way there is no way he could get out because the house is on one side of the driveway and the hedge on the other. The hedge is dense and he'd have a hard time getting through it, especially in his weakened condition.

When he didn't appear there, I went out the front door on to the front porch and stood there looking for some time, watching the driveway, waiting for him to come out, but he didn't appear, and no car left the driveway. Two or three cars passed by on the street in the meantime, and I didn't think to look up.

I was much shaken and left all the lights on. The interview took only a matter of minutes. Oh, I don't know - twenty minutes. At no time was there any odour. When the man came to my house, the dog (half shepherd and half collie) barked, then put his tail between his legs, and hid in the closet (unusual behavior). A mother cat and four newborn kittens and a Persian cat were apparently not affected.

When my two sons and wife returned from the drive-in movie, about one and one-half hours later, I told them of this experience. My oldest boy suggested we examine the driveway for marks and he got a flashlight.

We went out and found in the very middle of the driveway a series of marks that looked like a small caterpillar tractor tread. The marks were about four inches wide and continued for only about a foot and a half. There was nothing except this single set of marks. No automobile could have possibly made them because the driveway is too narrow for a car to get over far enough so that its wheels would be in the middle of the driveway. Also, they were too deep and distinct to have been made by a motorcycle, and, also, they did not continue for any length greater than that mentioned above. The marks were gone the next day (no one had used the driveway in the meantime).

We went back inside and my family urged me to do as the man said. I erased the four tapes and then physically destroyed them in the fireplace. I burned some articles on UFOs and believe I had cleaned out everything. I called Shirley Fickett and asked her to contact the National Enquirer and tell them not to publish anything (on the Stephens case). Oh, how I hated to destroy those tapes. They weren't hurting anyone, but I wanted to be safe and I was really terrified at this point.

I slept well that night, but a week later I had recurring nightmares in which I would see this creature's face getting bigger and closer. The nightmares stopped after a week and have not returned. We have had a lot of trouble since with the telephone being cut off, clicks followed by background sounds indicating that there was an open line to another telephone somewhere, but never any voices. Also, people kept breaking in on phone calls. At the present time, however, the phone has not been disturbed any more. I hope this is the end!

Sources

Berthold Schwarz: UFO Dynamics: Psychiatric and Psychic Dimensions of the UFO Syndrome.