Close Encounters For Australia Part 4

File: UFO345

CLOSE ENCOUNTER NUMBER THREE.

Until now, Maria, 34, has been reluctant to talk publicly about her close encounters with UFOs because she does not want to be ridiculed. But she now believes the subject deserves to be treated more seriously, so has decided - with reservations - to break her silence.

Maria still does not want her full name revealed. Her experiences are fascinating because, unlike Linda and Alan, Maria has never been subjected to hypnosis. It was November 1990, when Maria, an agricultural research assistant, experienced a UFO sighting that was to trigger apparent past memories of the alien kind.

"My husband was away when I was abducted from my bedroom," she says. "I was left with physical injuries - a patch of hair missing from the back of my head, a circular patch of seven pinpricks on my little finger. Twice I had pregnancies confirmed by my doctor, then in the third month I was mysteriously not pregnant."

Maria describes the encounter: "I was fast asleep when suddenly I felt as though unseen hands were shaking me. I sat up and looked at the clock. It was 3:40am. I felt compelled to look out the window, so I got out of bed. At first I remember thinking, with a smile on my face, 'Oh, look, it's Father Christmas'.

"There were lights shimmering, then this wheel of light just came cartwheeling down into the garden. I panicked and ran into the hall where I saw a light. I was then told - not by a voice but by thought transference - to look at this light and that it wouldn't hurt me. As much as I tried not to look, I couldn't stop myself.

"Next thing it was 90 minutes later and I was sitting in bed. My feet were dirty. There was blood on my pillow. I couldn't recall what had happened. "Over the past few years I have had flashbacks to that night. I have not been hypnotized, but I have spontaneously remembered things.

"I recalled being walked down this long corridor by three small beings. They were a bronze color and smelt terrible - like rotten mushrooms. I was then laid on a metallic table. I can remember certain things being done to me. My head and hair being held and a tremendously sharp pain at the back of my head - that must have been when my hair disappeared. The most frightening thing, though, was having a glass tube put up my nose. At that point, I thought they were going to kill me. I can remember thinking, 'I don't want to die like this'. The pain was considerable.

"A few days later, I went to my doctor who referred me to a hospital consultant who could find no reason for my injuries. In fact, tests came back saying there was unusual cellular damage as well as a soft tissue injury to my cervix. They could not account for this. I have the signed medical records from my doctor and hospital consultant to prove it. "It's easy for people to say aliens don't exist, but physical symptoms don't just appear," says Maria.

She says she doesn't like "ET theory", which goes against everything she believes in - "but something's going on. They are very real, but where they come from, I don't know. It's as though some external thing is saying to me, 'Right, today you will remember this'. I've no doubt at all that it's a specific course - a programmed course - and all of us are given just parts of the puzzle.

"I feel aliens are around me a great deal. There have been a lot of UFO sightings in the area where I live - most recently only a few weeks ago. "I don't want to be hypnotized, because consciously I know my mind couldn't cope with the experience. But on the other hand - perhaps I really don't want to know." XX Story: John Moore.