In 1980, a British constable claimed aliens zapped him into a room with a bearded guy, a dog, and some robots. What a day. This clip from a BBC interview tells his story.
A quick recap
On November 28, 1980, police constable Alan Godfrey found himself out in the rain searching for a herd of missing cattle in West Yorkshire. Sounds like it was a weird morning already, but while driving down the road at about 5 am, he claimed he saw a diamond-shaped metallic object in the sky. It hovered five feet in the air and rapidly spun counter-clockwise.
Godfrey tried to use his radio, but it wouldn’t work. He then reached for his notebook so he could jot down a sketch (check that out over at The Mirror). That’s when the object gave off a brilliant flash, and Godfrey found himself displaced, still in his car but farther down the road. The object had vanished.
He went back to the station and filed a report about the incident. But later, as discussed in the interview up there, he also underwent hypnosis to reveal more about his strange encounter. Godfrey said the bright flash he saw that night had stopped his car’s engine and caused him to lose consciousness. When he woke up, he found himself in a room with a tall, bearded man and his black dog.
The man, who at least appeared human, wore a white gown and a “skull cap.” He didn’t speak, but rather communicated through telepathy, informing Godfrey that his name was Yosef (or maybe Josef). Godfrey was placed on a table, and they talked for a while as Yosef performed physical examinations. Great.
There was also a group of small robots or creatures, eight in total, with oddly-shaped heads. As Godfrey was being examined, they removed his shoes. Not everything was revealed during his hypnosis, though. Apparently, there was no true “end.” He just woke up, and it was over.
So what was that all about?
Godfrey wasn’t entirely convinced about his hypnosis-induced memories. He thinks, perhaps, his hypnotic regression was something out of a dream, and not an actual recollection of the events of November 28, 1980. He is, however, convinced that he did indeed witness a physical craft that night.
Overall, 1980 was an interesting time for UFO sightings in Britain, with an apparent wave occurring near the end of the year. Godfrey’s account is considered the first documented alien abduction within the United Kingdom. And just one month after Godfrey’s experience, servicemen at RAF Woodbridge would encounter an unidentified object within Rendlesham Forest.
Let’s wrap this up with a quote from the 6th Doctor himself, Colin Baker, who also featured in the BBC interview:
“I mean, sitting here listening to this story I cannot do anything but totally believe it. And fueled by any objective standard, I think that it’s perhaps naive of us to think we are the only things that exist in this huge universe.”
