THINK ABOUTIT ABDUCTION REPORT

1963 San Diego, California: 

— A Childhood Orb Encounter and Recovered Memory

A witness, then eight years old, reports a basketball-sized orb of swirling red and orange energy appearing above his chest in his San Diego bedroom on the night of March 15, 1963, returning the following night before never reappearing. The memory of the encounter, he says, remained buried for 45 years until an unrelated conversation about the physical sensation of cupped hands resistant to pressure brought it back “as if it were yesterday.” He separately recalls two further episodes, initially experienced as dreams, involving Grey entities and landed saucer-shaped craft at his family’s rural property. Decades later, he identified what he interprets as “scoop marks” and persistent skin irritation on his own body, which he links to these childhood experiences. This entry preserves the witness’s account as submitted directly to this archive.

Date: March 15, 1963 (initial bedroom encounter, with a recurrence the following night); two further episodes, undated, recalled from the witness’s junior-high years

Sighting Time: Approximately 9:00 p.m.

Day/Night: Night

Location: San Diego, California (initial bedroom encounter); a rural family property with a horse corral (subsequent craft encounters)

Urban or Rural: Urban (bedroom encounter); Rural (craft encounters)

No. of Entity(s): 3 across the recalled episodes: one tall Grey (described as having the witness’s sister’s face and voice), one small Grey, and a second tall Grey observed silently from across the craft

Entity Type: Tall and small Grey-type entities

Entity Description: A seven-foot-tall, spindly Grey entity, reported by the witness as bearing the face and voice of his sister; a smaller Grey encountered aboard the craft; a second tall Grey observed standing silently across the craft’s interior

Hynek Classification: CE-IV — Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind. Abduction of the witness or other direct contact, per the witness’s account of physical interaction with the orb and recalled memories of boarding a craft.

Duration: Approximately 10 minutes for the initial orb encounter (recurring the following night); duration of the recalled craft episodes undocumented

No. of Object(s): 3 across the recalled episodes: 1 energy orb and 2 saucer-shaped craft (encountered on separate occasions)

Description of the Object(s): A basketball-sized orb of pure energy showing two distinct, separately swirling colors, red and orange, that mixed without blending; described by the witness as having physical resistance similar to squeezing an inflated ball when pressed. Separately, saucer-shaped craft approximately 30 feet across and 8 feet tall, with a control panel and a wraparound window visible from the interior.

Shape of Object(s): Spherical (orb); disc-shaped (craft)

Size of Object(s): Orb approximately basketball-sized; craft approximately 30 feet across and 8 feet tall

Color of Object(s): Swirling red and orange (orb); metallic gray (craft)

Distance to Object(s): The orb hovered approximately 2 feet above the witness’s chest; the craft were described as landed on the ground

Height & Speed: Not Applicable (orb stationary above witness; craft described as landed, not observed in flight)

Number of Witnesses: 1

Special Features/Characteristics: Witness reports no fear during the orb encounter, describing instead a profound sense of calm; orb returned a second consecutive night before never reappearing despite the witness’s attempts to recreate the experience; memory of all events reportedly suppressed for 45 years before returning spontaneously; witness later self-identified physical marks, including a deep “scoop mark” on the calf and recurring patches of dry, scabbing skin, which he attributes to the recalled encounters; these marks have not been independently medically examined or documented as part of this entry; witness reports being unable to be successfully placed under regression hypnosis

Case Status: Insufficient Data — a single uncorroborated witness account, with memory of the core events reportedly recovered after a 45-year gap and physical evidence that has not been independently examined

Source: Reported directly to Think AboutIt by the witness, identified only as “S”

Summary/Description: The witness, then eight years old, describes a basketball-sized energy orb with swirling red and orange colors appearing in his San Diego bedroom on the night of March 15, 1963, hovering above his chest and allowing physical interaction before returning the following night and then never again. He recalls the memory of this event, along with two further episodes involving Grey entities and landed saucer-shaped craft at his family’s rural property, resurfacing after 45 years of being suppressed. He has since identified physical marks on his body that he interprets as evidence of these encounters, though these have not been independently examined.

Related Cases: None documented

Full Report

The Witness’s Account, As Submitted

My experience happened when I was approximately 8 years old while living in my parents’ home in San Diego. I had just gone to bed and was lying there thinking when an orb the size of a basketball appeared out of nowhere, hovering about two feet directly above my chest.

The most striking feature was the motion within the orb: it had two swirling colors of red and orange mixing one into the other, yet staying distinct and separate. For reasons I cannot explain, I felt no fear whatsoever, only a profound sense of calm and peace. I reached up and placed my hands on both sides of the orb. When I pressed or squeezed it, the sensation was exactly like squeezing an inflated ball; as I pushed in, it pushed back out. It was pure energy.

This continued for about 10 minutes, and then I have no recollection of falling asleep or the object leaving. Remarkably, this orb returned the very next night. Again, it allowed me to hold and interact with it. For the next week, I lay in bed trying to recreate the experience, hoping it would return, but it never did.

The Memory Returns

I forgot about this experience for 45 years. My memory returned as if it were yesterday while I was explaining to my girlfriend how you can feel energy by cupping your hands together and pressing inward. That specific sensation of resistance was identical to what I felt with the orb in 1963.

During the decades that the memory was suppressed, I had an insatiable appetite for UFO literature and documentaries. It was through this research that I learned about “scoop marks.” Upon checking my own body, I discovered two: one very large mark on my calf and another that was still scabbing over, accompanied by patches of brown, dry skin the size of a pencil eraser. Nineteen years later, the deep scoop mark and these patches of scabbing still exist.

The Craft Encounters

On two separate occasions, I had what initially felt like dreams but which I now believe were memories of boarding saucer-shaped craft.

In the first instance, I was at our family horse corral in a rural setting when I was met at the gate by a seven-foot-tall, spindly Grey. Curiously, the entity had the face and voice of my sister and told me everything would be fine. I followed it to a saucer-shaped craft where a small Grey met me at the entrance. Inside, I observed a control panel with a window above it that wrapped around most of the ship. The small Grey told me we were going to go “straight up and straight back down,” while a second tall Grey stood across the ship, watching silently.

The second account involved walking up a trail toward a landed craft where a tall Grey stood waiting at the door. I remember the feeling of confusion while walking back down that same trail afterward, wondering why I was there.

Conclusion

I believe I was abducted on these occasions, both from my bedroom and from the isolated country ranch where I lived during junior high. I have the physical evidence, the scoop marks and persistent skin irritation, to support this. While I was unable to be successfully put under regression hypnosis, these experiences have left me with the knowledge that there are friendly life forms out there and a lifelong passion for astronomy and the study of alien entities.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

The San Diego Account — 1963 and the Evidentiary Weight of a Long-Delayed Memory

• Single-witness, self-submitted account. This entry rests entirely on one person’s own written recollection, submitted directly to this archive under a single initial. No family member, sibling, or other party has corroborated any element of the account, and no independent record of the events exists beyond the witness’s own testimony.
• A 45-year memory gap is a meaningful evidentiary factor, not an incidental detail. The witness describes the core 1963 memory as fully suppressed and then returning intact decades later, triggered by an unrelated physical sensation. The general reliability of long-delayed, spontaneously recovered memories, particularly childhood memories recovered many decades after the fact, is a genuinely contested area within psychological research, with substantial documented evidence that memory can be reconstructed or influenced by material encountered in the interim, including the witness’s own described “insatiable appetite for UFO literature and documentaries” during the years the memory was suppressed. This is noted here as relevant context for evaluating the account, not as a judgment about the witness’s honesty or sincerity.
• The physical evidence has not been independently examined. The “scoop marks” and skin irritation described are self-identified by the witness after researching the concept in UFO literature, rather than documented by a medical professional at the time or independently examined for this entry. Skin marks and scarring can arise from a wide range of mundane causes; without independent medical documentation, this detail cannot be weighed as corroborating physical evidence, however genuinely the witness may experience it as such.
• Attempted regression hypnosis was unsuccessful. The witness notes he was unable to be successfully placed under regression hypnosis. This archive notes, as a matter of established caution in both psychology and ufology, that hypnotic regression itself carries a documented risk of producing confabulated or suggested memories rather than reliably recovering accurate ones, and its absence here neither strengthens nor weakens the account either way.
• Why this stays Insufficient Data rather than Unexplained or Explained. There is no evidence here pointing toward a specific mundane misidentification, so this is not filed as Explained. But a single, uncorroborated witness, a multi-decade memory gap, and self-identified rather than independently examined physical evidence fall well short of the threshold this archive applies to Unexplained cases elsewhere in its 1960s California case set. Insufficient Data reflects that gap honestly.

This account is preserved here as the witness submitted it: a childhood memory of an energy orb, decades of silence, a sudden and vivid recall, and two further episodes recalled as memories rather than dreams. Whatever its ultimate origin, it is documented honestly, alongside the evidentiary limits any single, long-delayed, uncorroborated account carries.

“For reasons I cannot explain, I felt no fear whatsoever—only a profound sense of calm and peace.”

— witness account of the March 15, 1963 San Diego encounter