Travis Walton Abduction, 1975
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Though UFO experiencers are often visited alone, Travis Walton was apparently taken by a UFO for five days after it was seen up-close by six of his friends and co-workers. Despite the efforts of police, debunkers, and journalists to discredit their account of events, neither Walton nor any of his co-workers have ever admitted to a hoax, and all seven tell the same story today. The men’s testimony is considered some of the best evidence for extraterrestrial visitation to date, and Walton's fantastical experiences during his abduction - since dramatized in film and television - are now deeply embedded in the public imagination.
The UFO
In 1975, 22-year-old Travis Walton of Snowflake, Arizona, was working as a logger on a seven-man crew under the supervision of his long-time friend, Mike Rogers, a contractor with the U.S. Forest Service. Walton and Rogers, as well as Allen Dalis, John Goulette, Dwayne Smith, Kenneth Peterson, and Steve Pierce, were contracted to thin the trees around Turkey Springs in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, northeast of Phoenix.(1) On Wednesday, November 5th, the sun set around 6 pm, and shortly after, the men shut down and piled into Rogers' truck for the drive back home.(2) Along the way, they saw a bright light peeking through the trees to their right, and worried it was a fire, or a plane crash.
As Rogers drove closer and stopped the truck, the men were able to see the source of the light through a thinner patch of trees. Hovering just under 30 meters away was what the loggers called a classic "flying saucer," like “two gigantic pie-pans placed lip to lip” with a dome on top. They guessed it to be between 15 to 20 feet in diameter, and about 8 to 10 feet tall. The object glowed with a golden light that poured out from uniform panels around the body, divided by strips of dull silver. It was perfectly still, and made no sound at all.(3)
By his own admission, Walton had long been drawn to risky situations, and says that he was “seized with the urgency” to get a closer look at the UFO before it flew away, so he ran up behind a pile of logging debris. As his co-workers shouted at him to get back in the truck, Walton approached within two meters, or six feet of the UFO, before it emitted a cacophony of mechanical sounds, and began to wobble erratically on its axis. Before Walton could escape, a bright blue-green beam of light shot from the underside of the object with a “sharp cracking, or popping, sound.” The beam hit Walton in the head and chest, and he immediately felt the effects of “high voltage electrocution,” including full-body paralysis, before being knocked unconscious and sent flying backwards. His coworkers saw Walton soar through the air and land about 10 feet from where he’d been standing.(4)
His coworkers flew into a panic, and immediately drove away. But when they realized that the saucer was not following them, Rogers stopped the truck. Through the trees, he thought he saw the outline of a “golden disc” streak away into the sky, and made the decision to return for Travis. When the men arrived at the site, however, they found no trace of either Walton or the UFO, so they drove to the nearest phone booth and contacted police.(5)
The Search
Deputy Ellison of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Department was the first to respond to the call and speak with Rogers and the men. Soon after, Sheriff Marlin Gillespie and Undersheriff Ken Coplan arrived, and drove three of the loggers out to search the area. Though they found nothing, Sheriff Gillespie felt that the men were being sincere, and he too had seen a large, glowing UFO in the county a few years earlier. Gillespie began a search of the forest at sunrise with a team of more than 50 people from the Forest Service, the county’s Search and Rescue Team, and local volunteers. All of the loggers joined in the effort but Steve, who was still in a mild state of shock.
Rogers said that during the search, he saw an evasive man in a Forest Service uniform scanning the area with a Geiger counter. He only ever detected background radiation until he tested the men’s hard hats, and the needle jumped to four times the level of background radiation. The man just stared at the loggers before walking off, ignoring their request to test the truck.(6)
After two days, the search grew to include air support, and word got out to the media. Soon after, William Spaulding, an investigator from the Phoenix-based group Ground Saucer Watch, visited the site and reported unusual electromagnetic readings, as well as residual traces of ozone.(7) The search widened again on November 9th - the fourth day of Walton’s absence - and police, members of the public, and even members of Walton own’s family increasingly suspected that the men had simply fabricated the story in order to conceal a homicide, or fatal accident.(8) All six loggers were questioned extensively, and on November 10th, they underwent polygraph testing by Cy Gilson, the polygraph examiner from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Some of the men didn’t trust Gilson, and Allen Dalis was so agitated by his questioning that it rendered his charts unreadable. Despite this, however, Gilson wrote in his report that he felt that all the men were being truthful. Gilson was so confident in his analysis, which afforded him a rare opportunity to test 6 different accounts of the same event, that he claimed that he had "proved" that the men had seen what they believed to be a UFO.(9)
Around midnight that night, roughly five days and six hours after his disappearance, Walton regained consciousness lying face down on the side of a road outside of Heber, Arizona. He looked up to see a white light switch off on the bottom of a highly reflective, silvery, saucer-shaped UFO hovering just above the road in front of him. Walton had only a few seconds to guess that the object was roughly 40 feet in diameter, and 14 feet tall. Then, in an instant, it shot directly up into the sky without any sound at all, and disappeared from sight.(10)
Walton stumbled to a pay phone and called his brother-in-law, who, along with his brother, Duane, drove out to pick him up. Believing that he had only been gone a few hours, Walton was shocked to be told that five days had passed since he was knocked unconscious. He was able to recall little more than an hour of what had happened in this time, though the memories were still too traumatic to recall completely. Though he didn’t appear to be injured, his eyes were red, and stayed that way for a while. After failing to sleep, he met with his mother and sister, before being taken to Duane’s home in Phoenix to see a doctor. The next two days, Walton underwent medical examinations and confirmed that he’d lost over 10 pounds since his disappearance. Travis also spoke with Sheriff Gillespie the day after his return.(11)
Walton’s Memories
Walton claimed that his first memory after his encounter with the UFO was slowly regaining consciousness and feeling an intense pain, as though he’d been burned all over his body. After opening his eyes, he saw a bright, rectangular light above him. He then noticed that he was on a raised table in a triangular-shaped metallic room, which he thought was in a hospital. Walton tried to move and speak, but couldn’t. He noticed an unusual object 4 to 5 inches thick, seemingly made of a dark gray metal, or shiny plastic, curved along the length of his abdomen. As he slowly regained his vision and mobility, he realized that he was surrounded by three figures that he took to be doctors until he looked into two “huge, luminous brown eyes.” Disturbed by the eerie gaze, Walton leapt off the table and threatened the three beings with a glass-like cylinder that he found nearby. The beings were just under 1.5 meters, or 5 feet tall, with pale, white skin; large, bald heads; and large, brown eyes. All were wearing seamless orange jumpsuits. The object on Walton’s abdomen fell to the floor, emitting a green light. Despite a barrage of questions from Walton, the beings never responded, or interacted with one another. Eventually, they backed away and left the room.(12)
Walton then exited the room from the opposite side. He walked down a curved hallway, passed an open door, then entered a second one, which led him into a spherical room, empty but for a high-backed metallic chair in the centre and what appeared to be the outline of three closed doors along the walls. As he approached the chair, the room darkened and a pattern of stars appeared around the room, as in a planetarium. The effect diminished as he stepped back, and returned again when he got closer. After examining the screen and many buttons on the arms of the chair, he tried pushing some, to little effect. He then sat in the chair, which was a little too small for him. He pushed a lever and the stars began rotating around the room. Not knowing what he was doing, and feeling dizzied by the rotating effect, Walton stood up to look for an exit.(13)
Shortly after, Walton heard a noise come from the doorway, and turned to see a muscular, human-looking male in a blue jumpsuit and helmet. Walton stated that the man's only peculiar features were his eyes, which were a golden hazel colour. Though Walton asked him many questions, the man only smiled slightly, but never spoke. He took Walton by the arm and led him through a hallway and into a bare, small room where they waited for two minutes before another door slid open. This led them to a ramp leading down into an enormous, hangar-like room, with a rounded roof that curved down to the floor. Walton noted that the structure that he exited was distinctly larger than the UFO he’d seen in the forest, though it was similar in shape. He also noticed a few other saucer-shaped objects on the floor of the large room.(14)
The man led Travis across the large room and down a hallway, past another set of automatic sliding doors, and into a room with three more human-looking beings: two men similar in build and appearance to Walton’s escort, and a woman with straight hair past her shoulders. All had blemish-free skin and the same strange golden-hazel eyes. They wore the same blue uniform but without the helmet. Though Walton resisted, the beings took him by the arm and laid him down on a table, and placed a type of breathing mask over his mouth. This was Walton’s last memory before passing out, and waking up on the highway.(15)
Debate
For years Walton was hounded by the press and public to speak on his experiences, and forced to defend himself from accusations of fraud, or mental instability. However, medical tests showed no signs of trauma to Walton’s head, and no trace of drugs in his blood or urine.(16) Regardless, Walton became the target of repeated and malicious smears, recklessly disseminated by the media. In Walton’s words, enduring the public’s reaction was "a hell which nearly overshadows the experience itself.”(17)
To clear his name, Walton requested a polygraph, but said he wanted to avoid crowds and reporters. Gillespie and Walton agreed to arrange a confidential polygraph with Gilson, but when Walton received a call from a reporter asking about the test, Travis skipped the appointment.(18) The National Enquirer then sponsored a confidential test from a private firm, which Walton agreed to. However, his distress in recounting the events, as well as the examiner’s discredited practices, rendered the results inconclusive.(19) Soon after, Professor James Harder, Director of Research for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, or APRO, performed Regressive hypnosis on Walton. The session marked the first time that Walton was able to verbalize his experiences without being overwhelmed by emotion, but he did not remember any new details.(20) A couple of months later, Walton and his brother Duane each passed another polygraph. Nevertheless, the initial test was leaked to the press, and hurt Walton’s credibility with the public.(21)
Debunkers have levied a number of explanations for the loggers' stories, but most assume that there was fraud at hand. Philip Klass was the most persistent in trying to discredit the men, positing that they’d staged the event to get a 10% payout from their logging contract. This despite the fact that the payout would have only amounted to under $400 per conspirator, and the fact that Rogers defaulted on the contract, which ended up costing him more overall.(22) Despite offering to pay for any polygraph tests that the men could pass, Klass delayed indefinitely when they accepted his offer.(23)
In 1993, Rogers and Walton revisited the scene of the encounter, and noticed that the nearby trees appeared to have grown exceptionally fast in the previous 18 years. Walton returned to visit the site with director Jennifer Stein in the summer 2014 as part of a feature-length documentary on the case. Walton and Stein, as well as scientists from Frontier Analysis Limited, examined the growth rings of cut trees in the area and discovered that in the 15 years after 1975, the rings were four to five times thicker than in any previous year. These trees produced wood fiber at over 36 times the rate of the recent average. A complete core sampling showed that this effect was only on the side of the trees facing the UFO, and diminished with distance. It’s been shown that radiation can cause excessive plant and tree growth, as seen at Chernobyl, for example.(24)
In 2017, scientists Phyllis and Bruce Budinger of Frontier Analysis Limited completed testing of soil samples taken from the site. Their analysis found elevated amounts of iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium compared to the off-site control soils.(25)
Walton took two more polygraph tests in 1993 with Cy Gilson, and two more in 2008, all of which he passed.(26) In 2009, he appeared on the TV show The Moment of Truth, which employed an outdated and unvalidated methodology. Although Walton passed many relevant questions, he was ultimately judged to be lying.(27) Over all the years since their experience, Walton and the other loggers passed 16 different polygraphs of increasingly rigorous methodologies. The only two that Walton didn’t pass conclusively used discredited methods.(28)
Significance
To establish the facts of the case, Walton wrote a book on his encounter titled, The Walton Experience, published in 1978, and later republished as Fire in the Sky.(29) Since then, the event has been a favourite on UFO and paranormal shows. The case was profiled in a 1991 documentary, Visitors from the Unknown, and in a 1993 episode of Sightings.(30) Around the same time, Walton accepted an offer from writer and producer Tracy Tormé to turn his story into a movie, after being assured that it would remain true to the facts.(31) However, in the final version - released as Fire in the Sky in 1993 - Walton’s experiences aboard the craft were almost nothing like he claimed.(32)
Five of the loggers were reunited to retell their stories - some of them for the first time on camera - for a 2012 episode of Syfy's Paranormal Witness. All of them remain deeply affected by the incident.(33) Cy Gilson and Sheriff Gillespie were also interviewed. Stein’s documentary was released in 2015, and featured interviews with many of the same figures, as well as Deputy Ellison.(34)
Walton has become somewhat of a reluctant hero in the UFO community, making occasional appearances at conferences and other functions. Nevertheless, he insists that the event remains a negative one in his life, and that he wishes he had never left the truck the night of his abduction.(35) Walton also expressed that he now feels that the ray that struck him was accidental and likely fatal, and that he was taken so that the crew of the UFO could revive him and “correct the damage.”(36)
From the silver saucers to the short, bald beings, there are many details in Walton’s story that would seem to indicate the involvement of extraterrestrial entities. The brown-eyed beings are similar, though not identical to the “greys” of UFO lore, and waking up on a medical table is a common element of alien abduction narratives. But the abduction phenomenon has much older historical roots, that reach back long before it was ever thought to be due to aliens. In 1759, for example, a swedish farmer’s son named Jacob Jacobsson - another young 20-something man on the return journey of a work trip, strayed upon a strange red mansion in a place it hadn’t been before, and wandered inside. Jacobsson met a number of short, mostly silent beings inside, as well as an attractive human-looking woman, before somehow being transported back outside. When Jacobsson returned home, he was notified that he’d been gone for four days, though, like Walton, he remembered less than an hour of that time.(37) It may be that both men were “taken” by the same kinds of entities, whether fairies, aliens, or something else entirely.
Summary
The Travis Walton incident is now a classic of UFO lore. Though it’s rooted in the testimony of the loggers, it is also supported by the physical effects on Walton, and on the trees around the UFO. Many, including Walton himself, believe that he was taken aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft, and healed by alien beings.(38) Whether they saved his life or not, they certainly left their mark.
Notes:
1) Travis Walton, Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience (Snowflake, AZ, USA: Skyfire Productions, (1978) 2010), 8, 27, 29 - 30, 33.
2) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 125, 136 - 37, Walton acknowledged that, despite originally writing that it was a "typical workday," Walton had actually been ill, and took a sick day the day before. On the morning of the encounter, he spent under two hours resting in the truck. Other than that it was a normal work day.
3) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 27 - 39.
4) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 39 - 41, Walton’s risk-taking behaviour on, 12 - 13.
5) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 41 - 49; Jeniffer Stein dir., Travis: The True Story of Travis Walton (USA: Onwinges Productions, Bloomgarden Films, Ivolve Media Group, Terrio Productions, Two of Us Productions, 2015), at 0:48 - 57, 16:25 - 45, John Goulette saying he and the guys in the truck argued and kept changing their minds over going back for Walton or continuing driving out for help, Rogers’ decision to go back.
6) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 49 - 66.
7) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 67 - 69, 140; Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, “The Travis Walton Case,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 5 (November 1975), sources a Phoenix Gazette article, November 10, 1975, which confirms the Spaulding finding: “tests he conducted at the site of the incident showed a ‘high degree of residual magnetism,’” http://ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=344.
8) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 59, early suspicion from family begins.
9) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 59 - 77; 125 - 26; Stein, Travis, at 4:15 - 6:05, 29:30 - 35:50, Steve Pierce also expresses he was concerned about flunking the test, even having it rigged against him, and ending up in jail.
10) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 78 - 79; Stein, Travis, at 24:14; “Travis Walton's first interview,” Face the State, November 11, 1975, at 15:55.
11) Stein, Travis, at 24:30; Walton, Fire in the Sky, 79 - 92, noticeable physical changes also mentioned on 173 - 74, red eyes on 271.
12) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 92 - 98; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward; Stein, Travis, at 21:15 - 24:15; Walton notes that "Despite my barrage of questions, they made no vocalizations, nor was I aware of any telepathic communication during my entire experience,” on “The Official Travis Walton Website,” https://travis-walton.com/faq.html.
13) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 99 - 104; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward, to clarify, Walton left the room from the same doorway the entities used but went down the hallway the opposite direction as them.
14) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 104 - 106; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward.
15) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 106 - 108; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward.
16) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 122; Dr. Howard Kandell in Stephen Kemp dir., “The Abduction,” Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 9 (USA: Syfy, October 3, 2012), https://imdb.com/title/tt2418336, at 58:15.
17) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 5.
18) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 87 - 89.
19) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 88 - 90, 329 - 351, the McCarthy polygraph, conducted November 15, 1975, employed methods that were already 20 years outdated, also several polygraph examiners reviewed it and ruled it invalid.
20) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 90 - 92; Walton listed the witnesses as Dr. Howard Kandell, Dr. Joseph Saults, Dr. Jean Rosenbaum, Dr. Beryl Rosenbaum, Dr. Robert Ganelin; Stein, Travis, 20:30, 25:30, according to Walton, the session conducted by Dr. James Harder was observed by three psychiatrists, reporters, and others researchers; Walton, https://travis-walton.com/faq.html.
21) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 351 - 62, On February 7, 1976, APRO arranged a polygraph for Travis and his brother Duane, performed by George Pfiefer, Travis was determined to be “truthful,” Duane also passed, see 329 - 351, for his discussion of the fallout of the first polygraph, primarily led by Philip Klass.
22) Philip Klass’s “Forest Service Contract Motive Theory,” in UFOs: The Public Deceived (Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1983), 192 - 201; and Klass, UFO-Abductions: A Dangerous Game (Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1988), 32 - 35; Walton, Fire in the Sky, 319 - 329.
23) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 263 - 64, 293, 301 - 393, Klass’s allegations and the efforts by Walton and others to address them; Klass wrote about the case in UFOs: The Public Deceived, 161 - 221; UFO-Abductions, 24 - 54, and papers including “Walton Claims He Is Afraid To Recall What Occurred Aboard UFO,” Skeptics UFO Newsletter 50 (March 1998), https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN50.pdf.
24) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 187 - 88; Walton at the incident location discussing tree rings: “Travis Walton Demonstrates Evidence of his UFO Abduction in 1975 - FindingUFO,” https://youtu.be/7JY2qO7mcFw; Lee Speigel, “UFO-Alien Abduction Still Haunts Travis Walton,” https://huffingtonpost.ca/entry/travis-walton-still-haunted-by-ufo_n_7119910; Stein, Travis, 35:55 - 37:52, Ben Hansen was present at the 2014 visit and cites corroborating research by Mirela Tulik, "Cambial history of Scots pine trees (Pinus Sylvestris) prior and after the Chernobyl accident as encoded in the xylem," Environmental and Experimental Botany 46 (2001): 1-10; Phyllis A. Budinger and Bruce O. Budinger, “TECHNICAL SERVICE RESPONSE NO.: UT095,” Frontier Analysis Limited (April 4, 2017): 1-20, https://mysteriousuniverse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/waltonsoilsamplereport.pdf, https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/Budinger/UT095.pdf.
25) MJ Banias, “Walton Abduction Soil Analysis Suggests Anomalous Event,” Mysterious Universe, April 15, 2017, https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/04/walton-abduction-soil-analysis-suggests-anomalous-event; Budinger and Budinger, “TECHNICAL SERVICE RESPONSE NO.: UT095,”
26) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 151 - 167, 336, 393 - 96; Walton states the two polygraphs were “recent,” referring to the 2008 tests, in this 2012 video: “Travis Walton shares new theory on Fire in the Sky alien abduction,” OpenMindsTV, YouTube video, 5:51, July 2, 2012, https://youtu.be/Nwy-A0OtQIA, 3:40; Parry, Emma, “I WAS TAKEN World’s most famous ‘alien abductee’ Travis Walton slams sceptics – claiming 16 lie detector tests prove his story is TRUE,” The Sun, September 20, 2017, https://thesun.co.uk/news/4487397/worlds-most-famous-alien-abductee-travis-walton-slams-sceptics-claiming-16-lie-detector-tests-prove-his-story-is-true.
27) Note that it’s uncertain exactly which year the episode premiered, but according to the show’s Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moment_of_Truth_(American_game_show)) the show ran 2008 and 2009, making 2009 very likely for this second season episode; Directed by Ron de Moraes, The Moment of Truth, Season 2, Episode 10 (Lighthearted Entertainment), https://imdb.com/title/tt1248670; Watch the episode here: “Travis Walton no Polígrafo Legendado em Português UFO ( The moment of truth),” Documentários Ultra Secreto, YouTube video, 28:26, October 16, 2017, https://youtu.be/ob3YLAriQDw; Walton, Fire in the Sky, 362 - 63, Mr. Michael Martin, a court-recognized polygraph expert, stated The Moment of Truth “uses a technique that was discarded years ago… a non validated technique...”
28) Parry, “I WAS TAKEN,” members of Walton’s family, like his brother Duane, also took polygraphs and are included in that total number of 16 tests.
29) Walton reveals he wrote the book in 1977 and published in 1978, in Fire in the Sky, 4, 201; Travis Walton’s Interview on April 23, 1980 by Page Bryant and Jack Kennicutt, 11:20 states he wrote the book to “set the record straight;” Originally titled The Walton Experience, retitled Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience for later editions.
30) Walton has 34 credits appearing as himself on his IMDb page: https://imdb.com/name/nm0910591; Sightings, https://imdb.com/title/tt6269064; Director Penelope Spheeris, Visitors from the Unknown (1991), https://imdb.com/title/tt5069196, can be viewed here: “Visitors from the Unknown – UFO Abductions,” https://youtu.be/UgPMRJnB7ds.
31) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 222 - 23.
32) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 228 - 237, 268 - 76; The film was directed by Robert Lieberman, Fire in the Sky (USA: Paramount Pictures, 1993).
33) Kemp dir., “The Abduction;” “Steve Pierce: Witness to the Travis Walton alien abduction incident,” OpenMindsTV, YouTube video, 5:40, May 10, 2012, https://youtu.be/P4fSCzT0yzI, at 0:05 states “...until recently, Walton himself has been the only one on the public stage telling the story from that night.”
34) Stein, Travis.
35) Walton in Kemp, “The Abduction,” at 1:02:55.
36) Stein, Travis, 1:05:15 - 1:08:00, Walton feels “most likely” the ray was “probably fatal;” the earliest mention of the likely fatality of the ray and subsequent healing appears to be on an OpenMindsTV interview in 2012: “Travis Walton shares new theory on Fire in the Sky alien abduction,” https://youtu.be/Nwy-A0OtQIA.
37) Jacques Vallée and Chris Aubeck, Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Anomalies from Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2009), 259 - 61.
38) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 92, 184, Walton describes his recollections in chapter 8 titled “The Aliens,” but later clarifies that he isn’t certain they were extraterrestrial and is open to other explanations.
Sources:
Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. “The Travis Walton Case.” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 5 (November 1975). http://ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=344.
Face the State. “Travis Walton's First Interview.” November 11, 1975. Available at https://alien-ufo-research.com/travis-walton-abduction.
Kemp, Stephen, dir. “The Abduction.” Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 9, USA: Syfy, October 3, 2012.
https://syfy.com/paranormal-witness/episodes/season/2/episode/9/the-abduction.
Klass, Philip J. UFOs: The Public Deceived. Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1983. https://archive.org/details/ufospublicdeceiv0000klas.
Klass, Philip J. UFO-Abductions: A Dangerous Game. Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1988. https://archive.org/details/ufoabductionsdan0000klas.
Klass, Philip J. “Walton Claims He Is Afraid To Recall What Occurred Aboard UFO.” Skeptics UFO Newsletter 50. March, 1998.
https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN50.pdf.
Lieberman, Robert, dir. Fire in the Sky. Hollywood, CA, USA: Paramount Pictures, 1993. http://worldcat.org/oclc/28884115.
OpenMindsTV. “Steve Pierce: Witness to the Travis Walton alien abduction incident.” YouTube video, 5:40. May 10, 2012. https://youtu.be/P4fSCzT0yzI.
OpenMindsTV. “Travis Walton shares new theory on Fire in the Sky alien abduction.” YouTube video, 5:51. July 2, 2012. https://youtu.be/Nwy-A0OtQIA.
Parry, Emma. “I WAS TAKEN World’s most famous ‘alien abductee’ Travis Walton slams sceptics – claiming 16 lie detector tests prove his story is TRUE.” The Sun. September 20, 2017. https://thesun.co.uk/news/4487397/worlds-most-famous-alien-abductee-travis-walton-slams-sceptics-claiming-16-lie-detector-tests-prove-his-story-is-true.
Stein, Jennifer, dir. Travis - The True Story of Travis Walton. USA: Onwinges Productions, Bloomgarden Films, Ivolve Media Group, Terrio Productions, Two of Us Productions, 2015.
Website: https://traviswaltonthemovie.com.
Watch for free: https://tubitv.com/movies/550812/travis_the_true_story_of_travis_walton.
Vallée, Jacques, and Chris Aubeck. Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Anomalies from Antiquity to Modern Times. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Penguin, 2009.
https://archive.org/details/JacquesValleeChrisAubeckWondersInTheSkyUnexplainedAerialObjectsFromAntiquityToModernTimes/mode/2up.
Walton, Travis. Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience. Snowflake, AZ, USA: Skyfire Productions, (1978) 2010.
Condensed samples: https://travis-walton.com/book.html.
New editions: http://worldcat.org/oclc/877001121.
1978 edition: http://worldcat.org/oclc/3956802.
Walton, Travis. “The Official Travis Walton Website.” https://travis-walton.com.
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Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Research by Clark Murphy. Illustrations by V. R. Laurence. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
Though UFO experiencers are often visited alone, Travis Walton was apparently taken by a UFO for five days after it was seen up-close by six of his friends and co-workers. Despite the efforts of police, debunkers, and journalists to discredit their account of events, neither Walton nor any of his co-workers have ever admitted to a hoax, and all seven tell the same story today. The men’s testimony is considered some of the best evidence for extraterrestrial visitation to date, and Walton's fantastical experiences during his abduction - since dramatized in film and television - are now deeply embedded in the public imagination.
The UFO
In 1975, 22-year-old Travis Walton of Snowflake, Arizona, was working as a logger on a seven-man crew under the supervision of his long-time friend, Mike Rogers, a contractor with the U.S. Forest Service. Walton and Rogers, as well as Allen Dalis, John Goulette, Dwayne Smith, Kenneth Peterson, and Steve Pierce, were contracted to thin the trees around Turkey Springs in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, northeast of Phoenix.(1) On Wednesday, November 5th, the sun set around 6 pm, and shortly after, the men shut down and piled into Rogers' truck for the drive back home.(2) Along the way, they saw a bright light peeking through the trees to their right, and worried it was a fire, or a plane crash.
As Rogers drove closer and stopped the truck, the men were able to see the source of the light through a thinner patch of trees. Hovering just under 30 meters away was what the loggers called a classic "flying saucer," like “two gigantic pie-pans placed lip to lip” with a dome on top. They guessed it to be between 15 to 20 feet in diameter, and about 8 to 10 feet tall. The object glowed with a golden light that poured out from uniform panels around the body, divided by strips of dull silver. It was perfectly still, and made no sound at all.(3)
By his own admission, Walton had long been drawn to risky situations, and says that he was “seized with the urgency” to get a closer look at the UFO before it flew away, so he ran up behind a pile of logging debris. As his co-workers shouted at him to get back in the truck, Walton approached within two meters, or six feet of the UFO, before it emitted a cacophony of mechanical sounds, and began to wobble erratically on its axis. Before Walton could escape, a bright blue-green beam of light shot from the underside of the object with a “sharp cracking, or popping, sound.” The beam hit Walton in the head and chest, and he immediately felt the effects of “high voltage electrocution,” including full-body paralysis, before being knocked unconscious and sent flying backwards. His coworkers saw Walton soar through the air and land about 10 feet from where he’d been standing.(4)
His coworkers flew into a panic, and immediately drove away. But when they realized that the saucer was not following them, Rogers stopped the truck. Through the trees, he thought he saw the outline of a “golden disc” streak away into the sky, and made the decision to return for Travis. When the men arrived at the site, however, they found no trace of either Walton or the UFO, so they drove to the nearest phone booth and contacted police.(5)
The Search
Deputy Ellison of the Navajo County Sheriff’s Department was the first to respond to the call and speak with Rogers and the men. Soon after, Sheriff Marlin Gillespie and Undersheriff Ken Coplan arrived, and drove three of the loggers out to search the area. Though they found nothing, Sheriff Gillespie felt that the men were being sincere, and he too had seen a large, glowing UFO in the county a few years earlier. Gillespie began a search of the forest at sunrise with a team of more than 50 people from the Forest Service, the county’s Search and Rescue Team, and local volunteers. All of the loggers joined in the effort but Steve, who was still in a mild state of shock.
Rogers said that during the search, he saw an evasive man in a Forest Service uniform scanning the area with a Geiger counter. He only ever detected background radiation until he tested the men’s hard hats, and the needle jumped to four times the level of background radiation. The man just stared at the loggers before walking off, ignoring their request to test the truck.(6)
After two days, the search grew to include air support, and word got out to the media. Soon after, William Spaulding, an investigator from the Phoenix-based group Ground Saucer Watch, visited the site and reported unusual electromagnetic readings, as well as residual traces of ozone.(7) The search widened again on November 9th - the fourth day of Walton’s absence - and police, members of the public, and even members of Walton own’s family increasingly suspected that the men had simply fabricated the story in order to conceal a homicide, or fatal accident.(8) All six loggers were questioned extensively, and on November 10th, they underwent polygraph testing by Cy Gilson, the polygraph examiner from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Some of the men didn’t trust Gilson, and Allen Dalis was so agitated by his questioning that it rendered his charts unreadable. Despite this, however, Gilson wrote in his report that he felt that all the men were being truthful. Gilson was so confident in his analysis, which afforded him a rare opportunity to test 6 different accounts of the same event, that he claimed that he had "proved" that the men had seen what they believed to be a UFO.(9)
Around midnight that night, roughly five days and six hours after his disappearance, Walton regained consciousness lying face down on the side of a road outside of Heber, Arizona. He looked up to see a white light switch off on the bottom of a highly reflective, silvery, saucer-shaped UFO hovering just above the road in front of him. Walton had only a few seconds to guess that the object was roughly 40 feet in diameter, and 14 feet tall. Then, in an instant, it shot directly up into the sky without any sound at all, and disappeared from sight.(10)
Walton stumbled to a pay phone and called his brother-in-law, who, along with his brother, Duane, drove out to pick him up. Believing that he had only been gone a few hours, Walton was shocked to be told that five days had passed since he was knocked unconscious. He was able to recall little more than an hour of what had happened in this time, though the memories were still too traumatic to recall completely. Though he didn’t appear to be injured, his eyes were red, and stayed that way for a while. After failing to sleep, he met with his mother and sister, before being taken to Duane’s home in Phoenix to see a doctor. The next two days, Walton underwent medical examinations and confirmed that he’d lost over 10 pounds since his disappearance. Travis also spoke with Sheriff Gillespie the day after his return.(11)
Walton’s Memories
Walton claimed that his first memory after his encounter with the UFO was slowly regaining consciousness and feeling an intense pain, as though he’d been burned all over his body. After opening his eyes, he saw a bright, rectangular light above him. He then noticed that he was on a raised table in a triangular-shaped metallic room, which he thought was in a hospital. Walton tried to move and speak, but couldn’t. He noticed an unusual object 4 to 5 inches thick, seemingly made of a dark gray metal, or shiny plastic, curved along the length of his abdomen. As he slowly regained his vision and mobility, he realized that he was surrounded by three figures that he took to be doctors until he looked into two “huge, luminous brown eyes.” Disturbed by the eerie gaze, Walton leapt off the table and threatened the three beings with a glass-like cylinder that he found nearby. The beings were just under 1.5 meters, or 5 feet tall, with pale, white skin; large, bald heads; and large, brown eyes. All were wearing seamless orange jumpsuits. The object on Walton’s abdomen fell to the floor, emitting a green light. Despite a barrage of questions from Walton, the beings never responded, or interacted with one another. Eventually, they backed away and left the room.(12)
Walton then exited the room from the opposite side. He walked down a curved hallway, passed an open door, then entered a second one, which led him into a spherical room, empty but for a high-backed metallic chair in the centre and what appeared to be the outline of three closed doors along the walls. As he approached the chair, the room darkened and a pattern of stars appeared around the room, as in a planetarium. The effect diminished as he stepped back, and returned again when he got closer. After examining the screen and many buttons on the arms of the chair, he tried pushing some, to little effect. He then sat in the chair, which was a little too small for him. He pushed a lever and the stars began rotating around the room. Not knowing what he was doing, and feeling dizzied by the rotating effect, Walton stood up to look for an exit.(13)
Shortly after, Walton heard a noise come from the doorway, and turned to see a muscular, human-looking male in a blue jumpsuit and helmet. Walton stated that the man's only peculiar features were his eyes, which were a golden hazel colour. Though Walton asked him many questions, the man only smiled slightly, but never spoke. He took Walton by the arm and led him through a hallway and into a bare, small room where they waited for two minutes before another door slid open. This led them to a ramp leading down into an enormous, hangar-like room, with a rounded roof that curved down to the floor. Walton noted that the structure that he exited was distinctly larger than the UFO he’d seen in the forest, though it was similar in shape. He also noticed a few other saucer-shaped objects on the floor of the large room.(14)
The man led Travis across the large room and down a hallway, past another set of automatic sliding doors, and into a room with three more human-looking beings: two men similar in build and appearance to Walton’s escort, and a woman with straight hair past her shoulders. All had blemish-free skin and the same strange golden-hazel eyes. They wore the same blue uniform but without the helmet. Though Walton resisted, the beings took him by the arm and laid him down on a table, and placed a type of breathing mask over his mouth. This was Walton’s last memory before passing out, and waking up on the highway.(15)
Debate
For years Walton was hounded by the press and public to speak on his experiences, and forced to defend himself from accusations of fraud, or mental instability. However, medical tests showed no signs of trauma to Walton’s head, and no trace of drugs in his blood or urine.(16) Regardless, Walton became the target of repeated and malicious smears, recklessly disseminated by the media. In Walton’s words, enduring the public’s reaction was "a hell which nearly overshadows the experience itself.”(17)
To clear his name, Walton requested a polygraph, but said he wanted to avoid crowds and reporters. Gillespie and Walton agreed to arrange a confidential polygraph with Gilson, but when Walton received a call from a reporter asking about the test, Travis skipped the appointment.(18) The National Enquirer then sponsored a confidential test from a private firm, which Walton agreed to. However, his distress in recounting the events, as well as the examiner’s discredited practices, rendered the results inconclusive.(19) Soon after, Professor James Harder, Director of Research for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, or APRO, performed Regressive hypnosis on Walton. The session marked the first time that Walton was able to verbalize his experiences without being overwhelmed by emotion, but he did not remember any new details.(20) A couple of months later, Walton and his brother Duane each passed another polygraph. Nevertheless, the initial test was leaked to the press, and hurt Walton’s credibility with the public.(21)
Debunkers have levied a number of explanations for the loggers' stories, but most assume that there was fraud at hand. Philip Klass was the most persistent in trying to discredit the men, positing that they’d staged the event to get a 10% payout from their logging contract. This despite the fact that the payout would have only amounted to under $400 per conspirator, and the fact that Rogers defaulted on the contract, which ended up costing him more overall.(22) Despite offering to pay for any polygraph tests that the men could pass, Klass delayed indefinitely when they accepted his offer.(23)
In 1993, Rogers and Walton revisited the scene of the encounter, and noticed that the nearby trees appeared to have grown exceptionally fast in the previous 18 years. Walton returned to visit the site with director Jennifer Stein in the summer 2014 as part of a feature-length documentary on the case. Walton and Stein, as well as scientists from Frontier Analysis Limited, examined the growth rings of cut trees in the area and discovered that in the 15 years after 1975, the rings were four to five times thicker than in any previous year. These trees produced wood fiber at over 36 times the rate of the recent average. A complete core sampling showed that this effect was only on the side of the trees facing the UFO, and diminished with distance. It’s been shown that radiation can cause excessive plant and tree growth, as seen at Chernobyl, for example.(24)
In 2017, scientists Phyllis and Bruce Budinger of Frontier Analysis Limited completed testing of soil samples taken from the site. Their analysis found elevated amounts of iron, calcium, magnesium, and potassium compared to the off-site control soils.(25)
Walton took two more polygraph tests in 1993 with Cy Gilson, and two more in 2008, all of which he passed.(26) In 2009, he appeared on the TV show The Moment of Truth, which employed an outdated and unvalidated methodology. Although Walton passed many relevant questions, he was ultimately judged to be lying.(27) Over all the years since their experience, Walton and the other loggers passed 16 different polygraphs of increasingly rigorous methodologies. The only two that Walton didn’t pass conclusively used discredited methods.(28)
Significance
To establish the facts of the case, Walton wrote a book on his encounter titled, The Walton Experience, published in 1978, and later republished as Fire in the Sky.(29) Since then, the event has been a favourite on UFO and paranormal shows. The case was profiled in a 1991 documentary, Visitors from the Unknown, and in a 1993 episode of Sightings.(30) Around the same time, Walton accepted an offer from writer and producer Tracy Tormé to turn his story into a movie, after being assured that it would remain true to the facts.(31) However, in the final version - released as Fire in the Sky in 1993 - Walton’s experiences aboard the craft were almost nothing like he claimed.(32)
Five of the loggers were reunited to retell their stories - some of them for the first time on camera - for a 2012 episode of Syfy's Paranormal Witness. All of them remain deeply affected by the incident.(33) Cy Gilson and Sheriff Gillespie were also interviewed. Stein’s documentary was released in 2015, and featured interviews with many of the same figures, as well as Deputy Ellison.(34)
Walton has become somewhat of a reluctant hero in the UFO community, making occasional appearances at conferences and other functions. Nevertheless, he insists that the event remains a negative one in his life, and that he wishes he had never left the truck the night of his abduction.(35) Walton also expressed that he now feels that the ray that struck him was accidental and likely fatal, and that he was taken so that the crew of the UFO could revive him and “correct the damage.”(36)
From the silver saucers to the short, bald beings, there are many details in Walton’s story that would seem to indicate the involvement of extraterrestrial entities. The brown-eyed beings are similar, though not identical to the “greys” of UFO lore, and waking up on a medical table is a common element of alien abduction narratives. But the abduction phenomenon has much older historical roots, that reach back long before it was ever thought to be due to aliens. In 1759, for example, a swedish farmer’s son named Jacob Jacobsson - another young 20-something man on the return journey of a work trip, strayed upon a strange red mansion in a place it hadn’t been before, and wandered inside. Jacobsson met a number of short, mostly silent beings inside, as well as an attractive human-looking woman, before somehow being transported back outside. When Jacobsson returned home, he was notified that he’d been gone for four days, though, like Walton, he remembered less than an hour of that time.(37) It may be that both men were “taken” by the same kinds of entities, whether fairies, aliens, or something else entirely.
Summary
The Travis Walton incident is now a classic of UFO lore. Though it’s rooted in the testimony of the loggers, it is also supported by the physical effects on Walton, and on the trees around the UFO. Many, including Walton himself, believe that he was taken aboard an extraterrestrial spacecraft, and healed by alien beings.(38) Whether they saved his life or not, they certainly left their mark.
Notes:
1) Travis Walton, Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience (Snowflake, AZ, USA: Skyfire Productions, (1978) 2010), 8, 27, 29 - 30, 33.
2) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 125, 136 - 37, Walton acknowledged that, despite originally writing that it was a "typical workday," Walton had actually been ill, and took a sick day the day before. On the morning of the encounter, he spent under two hours resting in the truck. Other than that it was a normal work day.
3) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 27 - 39.
4) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 39 - 41, Walton’s risk-taking behaviour on, 12 - 13.
5) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 41 - 49; Jeniffer Stein dir., Travis: The True Story of Travis Walton (USA: Onwinges Productions, Bloomgarden Films, Ivolve Media Group, Terrio Productions, Two of Us Productions, 2015), at 0:48 - 57, 16:25 - 45, John Goulette saying he and the guys in the truck argued and kept changing their minds over going back for Walton or continuing driving out for help, Rogers’ decision to go back.
6) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 49 - 66.
7) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 67 - 69, 140; Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, “The Travis Walton Case,” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 5 (November 1975), sources a Phoenix Gazette article, November 10, 1975, which confirms the Spaulding finding: “tests he conducted at the site of the incident showed a ‘high degree of residual magnetism,’” http://ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=344.
8) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 59, early suspicion from family begins.
9) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 59 - 77; 125 - 26; Stein, Travis, at 4:15 - 6:05, 29:30 - 35:50, Steve Pierce also expresses he was concerned about flunking the test, even having it rigged against him, and ending up in jail.
10) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 78 - 79; Stein, Travis, at 24:14; “Travis Walton's first interview,” Face the State, November 11, 1975, at 15:55.
11) Stein, Travis, at 24:30; Walton, Fire in the Sky, 79 - 92, noticeable physical changes also mentioned on 173 - 74, red eyes on 271.
12) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 92 - 98; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward; Stein, Travis, at 21:15 - 24:15; Walton notes that "Despite my barrage of questions, they made no vocalizations, nor was I aware of any telepathic communication during my entire experience,” on “The Official Travis Walton Website,” https://travis-walton.com/faq.html.
13) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 99 - 104; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward, to clarify, Walton left the room from the same doorway the entities used but went down the hallway the opposite direction as them.
14) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 104 - 106; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward.
15) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 106 - 108; Face the State, “Travis Walton's first interview,” at 3:45 onward.
16) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 122; Dr. Howard Kandell in Stephen Kemp dir., “The Abduction,” Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 9 (USA: Syfy, October 3, 2012), https://imdb.com/title/tt2418336, at 58:15.
17) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 5.
18) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 87 - 89.
19) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 88 - 90, 329 - 351, the McCarthy polygraph, conducted November 15, 1975, employed methods that were already 20 years outdated, also several polygraph examiners reviewed it and ruled it invalid.
20) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 90 - 92; Walton listed the witnesses as Dr. Howard Kandell, Dr. Joseph Saults, Dr. Jean Rosenbaum, Dr. Beryl Rosenbaum, Dr. Robert Ganelin; Stein, Travis, 20:30, 25:30, according to Walton, the session conducted by Dr. James Harder was observed by three psychiatrists, reporters, and others researchers; Walton, https://travis-walton.com/faq.html.
21) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 351 - 62, On February 7, 1976, APRO arranged a polygraph for Travis and his brother Duane, performed by George Pfiefer, Travis was determined to be “truthful,” Duane also passed, see 329 - 351, for his discussion of the fallout of the first polygraph, primarily led by Philip Klass.
22) Philip Klass’s “Forest Service Contract Motive Theory,” in UFOs: The Public Deceived (Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1983), 192 - 201; and Klass, UFO-Abductions: A Dangerous Game (Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1988), 32 - 35; Walton, Fire in the Sky, 319 - 329.
23) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 263 - 64, 293, 301 - 393, Klass’s allegations and the efforts by Walton and others to address them; Klass wrote about the case in UFOs: The Public Deceived, 161 - 221; UFO-Abductions, 24 - 54, and papers including “Walton Claims He Is Afraid To Recall What Occurred Aboard UFO,” Skeptics UFO Newsletter 50 (March 1998), https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN50.pdf.
24) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 187 - 88; Walton at the incident location discussing tree rings: “Travis Walton Demonstrates Evidence of his UFO Abduction in 1975 - FindingUFO,” https://youtu.be/7JY2qO7mcFw; Lee Speigel, “UFO-Alien Abduction Still Haunts Travis Walton,” https://huffingtonpost.ca/entry/travis-walton-still-haunted-by-ufo_n_7119910; Stein, Travis, 35:55 - 37:52, Ben Hansen was present at the 2014 visit and cites corroborating research by Mirela Tulik, "Cambial history of Scots pine trees (Pinus Sylvestris) prior and after the Chernobyl accident as encoded in the xylem," Environmental and Experimental Botany 46 (2001): 1-10; Phyllis A. Budinger and Bruce O. Budinger, “TECHNICAL SERVICE RESPONSE NO.: UT095,” Frontier Analysis Limited (April 4, 2017): 1-20, https://mysteriousuniverse.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/waltonsoilsamplereport.pdf, https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/Budinger/UT095.pdf.
25) MJ Banias, “Walton Abduction Soil Analysis Suggests Anomalous Event,” Mysterious Universe, April 15, 2017, https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/04/walton-abduction-soil-analysis-suggests-anomalous-event; Budinger and Budinger, “TECHNICAL SERVICE RESPONSE NO.: UT095,”
26) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 151 - 167, 336, 393 - 96; Walton states the two polygraphs were “recent,” referring to the 2008 tests, in this 2012 video: “Travis Walton shares new theory on Fire in the Sky alien abduction,” OpenMindsTV, YouTube video, 5:51, July 2, 2012, https://youtu.be/Nwy-A0OtQIA, 3:40; Parry, Emma, “I WAS TAKEN World’s most famous ‘alien abductee’ Travis Walton slams sceptics – claiming 16 lie detector tests prove his story is TRUE,” The Sun, September 20, 2017, https://thesun.co.uk/news/4487397/worlds-most-famous-alien-abductee-travis-walton-slams-sceptics-claiming-16-lie-detector-tests-prove-his-story-is-true.
27) Note that it’s uncertain exactly which year the episode premiered, but according to the show’s Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moment_of_Truth_(American_game_show)) the show ran 2008 and 2009, making 2009 very likely for this second season episode; Directed by Ron de Moraes, The Moment of Truth, Season 2, Episode 10 (Lighthearted Entertainment), https://imdb.com/title/tt1248670; Watch the episode here: “Travis Walton no Polígrafo Legendado em Português UFO ( The moment of truth),” Documentários Ultra Secreto, YouTube video, 28:26, October 16, 2017, https://youtu.be/ob3YLAriQDw; Walton, Fire in the Sky, 362 - 63, Mr. Michael Martin, a court-recognized polygraph expert, stated The Moment of Truth “uses a technique that was discarded years ago… a non validated technique...”
28) Parry, “I WAS TAKEN,” members of Walton’s family, like his brother Duane, also took polygraphs and are included in that total number of 16 tests.
29) Walton reveals he wrote the book in 1977 and published in 1978, in Fire in the Sky, 4, 201; Travis Walton’s Interview on April 23, 1980 by Page Bryant and Jack Kennicutt, 11:20 states he wrote the book to “set the record straight;” Originally titled The Walton Experience, retitled Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience for later editions.
30) Walton has 34 credits appearing as himself on his IMDb page: https://imdb.com/name/nm0910591; Sightings, https://imdb.com/title/tt6269064; Director Penelope Spheeris, Visitors from the Unknown (1991), https://imdb.com/title/tt5069196, can be viewed here: “Visitors from the Unknown – UFO Abductions,” https://youtu.be/UgPMRJnB7ds.
31) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 222 - 23.
32) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 228 - 237, 268 - 76; The film was directed by Robert Lieberman, Fire in the Sky (USA: Paramount Pictures, 1993).
33) Kemp dir., “The Abduction;” “Steve Pierce: Witness to the Travis Walton alien abduction incident,” OpenMindsTV, YouTube video, 5:40, May 10, 2012, https://youtu.be/P4fSCzT0yzI, at 0:05 states “...until recently, Walton himself has been the only one on the public stage telling the story from that night.”
34) Stein, Travis.
35) Walton in Kemp, “The Abduction,” at 1:02:55.
36) Stein, Travis, 1:05:15 - 1:08:00, Walton feels “most likely” the ray was “probably fatal;” the earliest mention of the likely fatality of the ray and subsequent healing appears to be on an OpenMindsTV interview in 2012: “Travis Walton shares new theory on Fire in the Sky alien abduction,” https://youtu.be/Nwy-A0OtQIA.
37) Jacques Vallée and Chris Aubeck, Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Anomalies from Antiquity to Modern Times (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2009), 259 - 61.
38) Walton, Fire in the Sky, 92, 184, Walton describes his recollections in chapter 8 titled “The Aliens,” but later clarifies that he isn’t certain they were extraterrestrial and is open to other explanations.
Sources:
Aerial Phenomena Research Organization. “The Travis Walton Case.” APRO Bulletin 24, no. 5 (November 1975). http://ufoevidence.org/Cases/CaseSubarticle.asp?ID=344.
Face the State. “Travis Walton's First Interview.” November 11, 1975. Available at https://alien-ufo-research.com/travis-walton-abduction.
Kemp, Stephen, dir. “The Abduction.” Paranormal Witness, season 2, episode 9, USA: Syfy, October 3, 2012.
https://syfy.com/paranormal-witness/episodes/season/2/episode/9/the-abduction.
Klass, Philip J. UFOs: The Public Deceived. Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1983. https://archive.org/details/ufospublicdeceiv0000klas.
Klass, Philip J. UFO-Abductions: A Dangerous Game. Buffalo, NY, USA: Prometheus Books, 1988. https://archive.org/details/ufoabductionsdan0000klas.
Klass, Philip J. “Walton Claims He Is Afraid To Recall What Occurred Aboard UFO.” Skeptics UFO Newsletter 50. March, 1998.
https://centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/docs/SUN/SUN50.pdf.
Lieberman, Robert, dir. Fire in the Sky. Hollywood, CA, USA: Paramount Pictures, 1993. http://worldcat.org/oclc/28884115.
OpenMindsTV. “Steve Pierce: Witness to the Travis Walton alien abduction incident.” YouTube video, 5:40. May 10, 2012. https://youtu.be/P4fSCzT0yzI.
OpenMindsTV. “Travis Walton shares new theory on Fire in the Sky alien abduction.” YouTube video, 5:51. July 2, 2012. https://youtu.be/Nwy-A0OtQIA.
Parry, Emma. “I WAS TAKEN World’s most famous ‘alien abductee’ Travis Walton slams sceptics – claiming 16 lie detector tests prove his story is TRUE.” The Sun. September 20, 2017. https://thesun.co.uk/news/4487397/worlds-most-famous-alien-abductee-travis-walton-slams-sceptics-claiming-16-lie-detector-tests-prove-his-story-is-true.
Stein, Jennifer, dir. Travis - The True Story of Travis Walton. USA: Onwinges Productions, Bloomgarden Films, Ivolve Media Group, Terrio Productions, Two of Us Productions, 2015.
Website: https://traviswaltonthemovie.com.
Watch for free: https://tubitv.com/movies/550812/travis_the_true_story_of_travis_walton.
Vallée, Jacques, and Chris Aubeck. Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Anomalies from Antiquity to Modern Times. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Penguin, 2009.
https://archive.org/details/JacquesValleeChrisAubeckWondersInTheSkyUnexplainedAerialObjectsFromAntiquityToModernTimes/mode/2up.
Walton, Travis. Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience. Snowflake, AZ, USA: Skyfire Productions, (1978) 2010.
Condensed samples: https://travis-walton.com/book.html.
New editions: http://worldcat.org/oclc/877001121.
1978 edition: http://worldcat.org/oclc/3956802.
Walton, Travis. “The Official Travis Walton Website.” https://travis-walton.com.
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Think Anomalous is created by Jason Charbonneau. Research by Clark Murphy. Illustrations by V. R. Laurence. Music by Josh Chamberland. Animation by Brendan Barr. Sound design by Will Mountain and Josh Chamberland.
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