1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,500 The following program deals with controversial subjects. 2 00:00:03,500 --> 00:00:07,000 The theories expressed are not the only possible interpretation. 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:11,000 The viewer is invited to make a judgment based on all available information. 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Tonight on Sightings. 5 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,000 As a group we were abducted about 60 times. 6 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Frightening first-hand stories of mass abductions by extraterrestrials. 7 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:21,000 What are their sinister motives? 8 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,000 They do need our genes to propagate their own species. 9 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Then, dogs that possess amazing psychic abilities are predicting epileptic seizures. 10 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,000 They're life-saving secrets tonight. 11 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Welcome to Sightings. I'm Tim White. 12 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000 The number of people who report being abducted by aliens is growing at an alarming rate. 13 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:16,000 According to a recent Roper poll, one in every 50 Americans claims a UFO abduction experience. 14 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:22,000 Well, now those individuals are being joined by groups of people who claim they've been abducted together. 15 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:29,000 These mass abductions are challenging skeptics who believe the abduction phenomenon is all a hoax. 16 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:34,000 And across the four years, as a group we were abducted about 60 times or so. 17 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:40,000 In my experience I believe that mass abductions are occurring far more than people realize. 18 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:47,000 A whole room full of people were simultaneously taken and simultaneously in the craft put together with one another. 19 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,000 James LaFonti and a group of his close friends claim to be victims of a mass abduction. 20 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Their abduction histories all began in childhood. 21 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:04,000 Ever since I was a child I used to wake up and I used to see white light and shadowy figures moving around my bed and I would get scared. 22 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:13,000 When I was younger, I remember like an alien looking through the windows, feeling of being watched all the time. 23 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:23,000 When I was a little kid, I guess I can call them as like the shadow people because they used to come out of their shadows and like the shadows would kind of come alive and then be these little small guys. 24 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:33,000 In his mid-20s, LaFonti felt strangely compelled to seek out certain people and befriend them as these home videos show the group often went camping in upstate New York. 25 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:38,000 We would go up each weekend to upstate in Saugardies and we were just going after fun. 26 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:43,000 But as it turns out week by week, we were all being abducted as a group. 27 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:54,000 And looking back at it now, I realized that I had knew all these people from childhood abductions and that I was supposed to get everybody together and go up to the trailer to be abducted. 28 00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:01,000 Noted ufologist Bud Hopkins met with LaFonti and used hypnosis to help him recall abduction memories. 29 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:10,000 It's like I'm on a table. I take out their eyes and the skin looks emolded. I gotta get out of here. 30 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:20,000 James LaFonti contacted me in 1990 because of certain fragmented memories. He had been with a group of friends and they knew something had happened. 31 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:25,000 It was a time lapse and subsequently they began to have partial recollections of this experience. 32 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:37,000 And part of those recollections involved having been in a craft, unable to move, being controlled and being placed some of them with others in some kind of sexual situation. 33 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:48,000 I first met James in 87 and a few friends of us, we all went upstate to the trailer. Just had a nice weekend and enjoy ourselves and have fun. 34 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:54,000 We had a typical hanging out with everybody, getting close together, talking, doing a little music together. 35 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:00,000 And then the next morning everybody recalled something happened. 36 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:07,000 Going up weekly almost became an addiction. It was for enjoyment but it was almost like we were being called back. 37 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:15,000 More members of the group agreed to participate in regression therapy. Under hypnosis they recalled being part of a mass abduction. 38 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:23,000 One time in the trailer it was around 12 o'clock or 1 o'clock and I remember seeing these bright lights almost in every window and there's domes on top of the trailer. 39 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:29,000 And everything was blowing and we just become basically paralyzed. 40 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,000 During the abduction we would walk down this dark dark road in a trance state. 41 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:47,000 Mostly everybody was like semi-conscious. I would see us like all of us walking down the road in our night garments and sometimes the aliens would walk us there and sometimes we would be walking on our own. 42 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:52,000 And we'd be walking to the craft which was always in the same spot in this pit area. 43 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:59,000 We would just walk into the ship, we would see the ship in the pit. James would be the last one to go inside the ship. 44 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:06,000 When the nightmarish memories persisted, LaFontaine and others in his group sought help from clinical psychologist Dr. John Bowman. 45 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:16,000 Generally when I work with people using their imagination there is a personalized stamp that people put into their imagery because it's being generated from a part of themselves. 46 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:23,000 These abductees and their reports do not have this kind of personalized stamp and I think it makes it even more credible. 47 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:31,000 Once this group is on the ship they do remember being abducted together. They do see each other physically being examined by their abductors. 48 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:39,000 James and Kirk saw me on the ship with them and a few other people that were upstate that weakened with us. 49 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:46,000 They would take us into the room and start doing some of the medical experiments and sometimes there would be two or three of us in the same room. 50 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:56,000 If something was being worked on, I would see James across the room and the same thing being done to him. I do know if a sperm was removed. 51 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:05,000 I've experienced certain things like that with an alien. That wasn't totally at will. It's hard to explain. 52 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:12,000 First it looks like a person and then it becomes an alien while the process is going on. 53 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:20,000 Rose and Rose are naked people, aliens standing, motioning them here and there, directing them through some kind of processing. 54 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:28,000 When I was on the ship I remember seeing James and Petra and then I remember being with the other people from the group. 55 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:39,000 There's a very great interest on the part of the UFO occupants in human reproduction, sperm, OVA, the DNA, but it has also included an interest in human sexuality itself. 56 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000 I do know that they do need our genes to propagate their own species. 57 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:56,000 It's not uncommon here in male subduction cases that individuals, members of the group, are forced to have sex amongst themselves or with the aliens. 58 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:05,000 Sometimes we would be abducted and it would be sexual situations. They would pair off some of us within our group and some of us with other groups of people. 59 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,000 It was just like a random thing. Each week maybe it would be a different person. 60 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:19,000 It could be other people's wives or people's husbands, different friends that we were with and just experiencing different sexual situations with them. 61 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:26,000 It's a recurring thing that we hear from a lot of abductees, especially in mass abduction situations. 62 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:35,000 They're studying us, they're studying our sexuality, our emotions and they're using us for some design goal as the center of this experiment. 63 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:49,000 This is across all cultural, socioeconomic levels. This is extraordinarily widespread. It is global in nature and it is probably the most central hidden mental health issue in the country today. 64 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:59,000 In working with abductees, James's group as well as other abductees, my experience is that these people have been traumatized by a very real and present experience in their lives. 65 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:11,000 Their psychological profiles indicate that this was a real traumatic experience. It wasn't made up, it wasn't imagined and that something actually did occur to traumatize these people. 66 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:26,000 I lost plenty of jobs, I lost friends, I lost family, I lost a number of things and it got to the point where I would, you know, I was contemplating suicide in a sense because there was no escape. 67 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:38,000 I believe the abductions are exploitive, a mankind and are not beneficial to these individuals. If the abductions were beneficial, they wouldn't be suffering as they are. 68 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:48,000 It's not something that we come out and tell you because we want to be on television. A lot of people think that, you know, that we get more ridiculed from it, it's a joke. 69 00:08:48,000 --> 00:09:00,000 There is undoubtedly an extraordinary phenomenon at work here. It is irresponsible to dismiss it. An extraordinary phenomenon such as this demands an extraordinary investigation. 70 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:17,000 We are a good group, our friendship is strong. I just hope that we'll understand what's going on at some time and that we will understand why it's being done to us and that in the long run that it's all for good cause. 71 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:23,000 Joining us now is one of the foremost authorities on the alien abduction phenomenon. 72 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:33,000 Temple University professor David Jacobs, Dr. Jacobs is the author of Secret Life, first-hand accounts of UFO abductions and it's been a UFO researcher for 25 years. 73 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:40,000 Dr. Jacobs, for years and years you have studied the abduction phenomenon. The idea of multiple abductions, is there something new? 74 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:48,000 No, multiple abductions have been around since the very beginning. In fact, the very first abduction that came to public attention, the Barney and Betty Hill case, was a multiple abduction. 75 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,000 What we see every once in a while is large-scale abductions of 6, 7, 8 people, even more sometimes. 76 00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:03,000 Is it true that people only recall their abduction experience, multiple or otherwise, under hypnosis and therefore they might be influenced by their therapist? 77 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:11,000 Most of the accounts are recalled under hypnosis, however a significant number of them are remembered just straight out without any aid of hypnosis at all. 78 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:21,000 However, we found that handled carefully and with proper knowledge of the phenomenon, hypnosis is an important tool that we use to sort of release the memories that are there. 79 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:28,000 You are a respected university professor and for most people this is just beyond the pale. Why are you involved in this? 80 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:47,000 Well, you are right Tim, this is absolutely as far out as one can get in this society. Yet I feel that this is, even though this is on the edges of credibility, that we must study this, that this is potentially extremely important and potentially impactful on all people and therefore we can't ignore it. 81 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:53,000 Does it seem that some individuals are targeted for abduction and others are not? And is there any way to know if you are? 82 00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:01,000 Well, people who have had abduction experiences generally have them from childhood on all the way through old age and we don't know how it stops. 83 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:14,000 Most people who are abductees know that there's been a series of unusual experiences that have happened to them in their lifetime. They don't know what's happened to them necessarily, but they know something has been going on that other people don't have. 84 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:21,000 And most of those kinds of people we feel have had abduction experiences, or at least many of those people have had abduction experiences. 85 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,000 Have you been abducted? 86 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:28,000 I have not been abducted from what I know about the abduction phenomenon. I have no desire to be abducted. 87 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,000 Dr. Jacobs, thank you very much. 88 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:31,000 Thank you Tim. 89 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,000 And we will be back with more sightings in just a moment. 90 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:44,000 When we return, dogs that possess amazing psychic abilities are predicting epileptic seizures. What is the secret of their life-saving powers? Their story coming up next. 91 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:56,000 One of the last great frontiers left to explore is the human mind. With all of the advances in modern medicine, we still know surprisingly little about the potential of the brain. 92 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:06,000 One way scientists are trying to learn more is by studying our pets. Animals appear to have certain psychic powers that no one can fully explain. 93 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:15,000 Pets could be helping here, helping people with epilepsy. It's a condition characterized by frightening uncontrollable seizures. 94 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:24,000 In the Dark Ages, epilepsy was thought to be the work of the devil. Today we've abandoned those outdated ideas that people with epilepsy are under satanic influence. 95 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:35,000 But there are genuine mysteries associated with epilepsy, and medical experts are turning to dogs for some amazing new ways of understanding this misunderstood neurological condition. 96 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:49,000 Angie Barnum knows the incredible supernatural power of a seizure alert dog firsthand. For the last 10 years, Angie's dog, Sheba, has been warning her of potentially life-threatening seizures before they happen. 97 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:59,000 She paces and whines and jumps on me if I'm not paying attention. She's constant. She always knows. 98 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:08,000 Angie's seizures were so unpredictable she was confined to a wheelchair. In 1983, she sought out a program that was matching dogs with disabled owners. 99 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:14,000 At first, Angie was attracted to a Labrador, but Sheba proved she could do more than just fetch. 100 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:22,000 Angie went into a seizure. In the yellow lab, she just ignored her. When Sheba keyed into it, she completely ignored me. 101 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:29,000 She went straight to Angie and we stood around in fascination watching this dog fixated on this girl. 102 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:37,000 Angie adopted Sheba, and the two became inseparable. Angie discovered that Sheba's special gift wasn't just an isolated event. 103 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:47,000 I was out playing with my friends, and she started pacing and whining, and I thought she was just acting up, and I went home. 104 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,000 And a few minutes later, I had a seizure. 105 00:13:51,000 --> 00:14:03,000 Come here. Sheba was so accurate in predicting seizures in advance that Angie gained enough confidence to leave her wheelchair behind and compete in gymnastics with Sheba at her side. 106 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:13,000 She lets me know before I have a seizure so I can get down off the equipment. With her, I can know I'm going to have one, and I can get down before I hurt myself. 107 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:20,000 In 1987, Angie won a gold medal in the Special Olympics, and she gives a lot of the credit to Sheba's extraordinary ability. 108 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:25,000 But Sheba is not unique, according to Reina Berner of the Epilepsy Institute. 109 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:33,000 We had people calling up all the time saying, I know you're going to think I'm nuts because they didn't know who they were talking to, but this is what my dog does. 110 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:43,000 One of those reluctant callers was veterinarian Liz Rudy, who has had seizures for 10 years. Liz noticed that before her seizures, her dog Ribbon would stare and lick her hands. 111 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:51,000 I didn't really tell anybody or talk about it because it seemed too strange to be believable. 112 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:59,000 But Ribbon alerted consistently for nine years. Before Ribbon died, Liz got a new puppy named Raisin. 113 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:08,000 I got to see whether she could pick up this behavior from Ribbon. I didn't think it was something that was real likely, but I thought it would be interesting to see if one dog could do it. 114 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:21,000 Raisin turned out to have the same uncanny ability. Early on, she saved Liz from a potentially fatal situation, alerting her to an oncoming seizure while Liz was in the shower. 115 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:29,000 While we were recording this story, sightings crew members noticed Raisin was paying particular attention to Liz. 116 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:42,000 Then it started. First, the intense stare. Then Ribbon tried to get Liz's attention. And finally, the barking started. 117 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:55,000 Liz's seizures aren't violent. Instead, she seems to slip away from the world around her. Ribbon instinctively stays by her side, protecting her for the duration of the episode. 118 00:15:55,000 --> 00:16:02,000 Does Ribbon have a unique ability to detect seizures, or is Liz somehow giving off subtle clues about her condition? 119 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:13,000 When you have a phenomenon like this, and you want to do a scientific investigation, the first thing to try to determine is whether, in fact, the phenomenon is onified or not. 120 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:22,000 Neurologist Dr. Douglas LeBar assists the Epilepsy Institute in their study of dogs like Ribbon. Liz is a participant in this research. 121 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:27,000 Here, she's hooked up to a brainwave monitor that can detect the onset of a seizure. 122 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:33,000 The institute has also compiled statistics based on a survey set out to pet owners who do have seizures. 123 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:43,000 A substantial portion are reporting some type of alerting behavior. Some experts speculate that the dogs are detecting seizures through their acute sense of smell, 124 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:52,000 or by their acute awareness of certain body movements in their owners. But then, why is it that only certain dogs seem to have the ability to detect seizures? 125 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:56,000 Animal behaviorist Peter Borschel is studying the phenomenon. 126 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:10,000 If we can learn what the dogs are capable of doing, how they can pick up the pre-seizure signals, then we can have a way of screening dogs, trying to find out if there's a breed difference, picking dogs that are good at it versus those that aren't. 127 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:22,000 10-year-old Jessica Lindgren has up to five seizures each week. Her mother Leslie is working with their dog Trina, training her to help Jessica during her seizures. 128 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:34,000 I think it's wonderfully important that the researchers and the neurologists can open their minds to something beyond just the medication, just the office visits, just the tests. I think it's great. 129 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,000 Jessica doesn't need science to explain why her dog is special. 130 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:56,000 I go like this, and then Trina licks my face like this. And then that's her way of saying, it's okay, Jessica. 131 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:07,000 Is there a paranormal connection between some dogs and their owners with epilepsy? Medical doctors would say no, but there's still a little loss to explain why. 132 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:20,000 It is a mystery that science can't explain, but researchers continue to study the phenomenon, working toward a more complete understanding of the strange and wonderful connection between people and animals. 133 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:36,000 One of the tragedies experienced by people with epilepsy is isolation from a general public that fears the onset of a seizure. One of the greatest benefits of seizure alert dogs like Sheba and Raisin is their ability to bring their owners out into the community. 134 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,000 They can hold jobs and enjoy life with a new confidence. 135 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:51,000 When we return, the terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center was predicted by a sightings astrologer. Will there be other attacks on U.S. cities? A special report next. 136 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:59,000 At the beginning of 1993, we asked a panel of experts in astrology and psychic phenomena to make their predictions for the coming year. 137 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:09,000 One of our experts, astrologer Richard Nolley, has been remarkably accurate so far. He predicted the terrorist bombing at the World Trade Center in New York. 138 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:20,000 Prediction became reality on February 26, 1993. In an interview taped in November 1992, Richard Nolley predicted a terrorist attack in February. 139 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:28,000 It's going to be more a terrorist kind of situation, but it's going to go beyond the terrorism that we've seen in the past. 140 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:44,000 I think people who live in major cities in the United States, in Japan and in Europe, are going to be targets for this kind of activity, especially around approximately February 2 and also in August and early October of 1993. 141 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:53,000 The February prediction, although off by a few weeks, did have an eerie ring of truth. We went to Nolley's home in Phoenix to get his reaction. 142 00:19:53,000 --> 00:20:06,000 The alignment of the planet's Uranus and Neptune was the big cosmic clue to me. Also given the current tensions in the Middle East, I'd expected that this would manifest as a terrorist attack directed against the United States. 143 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:11,000 There are currently two suspects in custody, but Nolley believes they are just the tip of the iceberg. 144 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:24,000 There's no doubt in my mind that Baghdad was behind it, specifically Saddam Hussein. The planet Mars, which was rising in the East when the bomb went off at the Trade Center, was directly overhead Baghdad at that very instant. 145 00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:37,000 I'm sure we're in danger of more terrorist attacks. The same alignment that was in effect in February will be exact again in August and in October, so we haven't seen the last of it by any means. 146 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:48,000 The target areas as I see it, pretty much in descending order, New York was number one on my list from the start. It's already been hit, it may be hit again. 147 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:55,000 Washington, D.C. would be second, Los Angeles would be third, Atlanta would be fourth, and Chicago would be the fifth. 148 00:20:55,000 --> 00:21:00,000 1993 is going to be the year of terrorism in the United States, and after that it's going to fade away. 149 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:08,000 The prospect of further terrorist attacks is a frightening possibility predicted by Nolley. What other disasters lie ahead? 150 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:13,000 Sightings viewers have requested more information about what to expect later in the year. 151 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:21,000 We are currently in the midst of a new investigation on modern-day profits, like Gordon Michael Scalgiam, who have disturbing visions of the future. 152 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:27,000 I can tell you that the Earth is going to open up in California, and I can tell you exactly where it will open up. 153 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:33,000 What is the basis for these dire predictions? We'll bring you the disturbing answers in an upcoming report. 154 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:42,000 If you've experienced what you believe to be a ghost, or if you've had any type of paranormal encounter, our sightings investigative team wants to know about it. 155 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:52,000 If you've had a paranormal experience or captured something unexplainable on film or videotape, call our sightings hotline at 1900 740 site. 156 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:58,000 Each call 75 cents a minute. Average call less 2 minutes, and you must be 18 years or older. 157 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:08,000 Join us next time for new investigations into the unexplained. For Sightings, I'm Tim White. 158 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:18,000 Stay tuned for another episode of Sightings. Tomorrow, an armed suspect leads cops into a darkened crack house. 159 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:26,000 What they find there will shock you. Experience a full hour of cops, followed by an all-new Code 3 tomorrow.