THINK ABOUTIT ABDUCTION REPORT

1975: Oxford, Maine: Abducted by Aliens — David Stephens

On the night of October 27, 1975, twenty-two-year-old Navy veteran David Stephens and his companion Glen Gray lost control of their car on a back road near Oxford, Maine, and found themselves face-to-face with an object “as big as a football field” that pursued them at treetop level before engulfing them in a blinding light beam. The car skidded fifteen feet sideways. Both men blacked out. When they came to, hours had vanished. Under hypnosis conducted by Dr. Berthold Schwarz — a psychiatrist with extensive credentials in anomalous experience research — Stephens described being taken aboard the craft, examined by five mushroom-headed entities approximately four and a half feet tall with webbed, three-fingered hands, and subjected to a medical procedure before being returned. A separate psychiatrist independently evaluated Stephens and eight of his family members over eight and a half hours and concluded the witness was credible.

Date: October 27, 1975

Sighting Time: Approximately 2:30 AM

Day/Night: Night (early morning hours)

Location: Oxford, Maine (and West Poland Road area), Oxford County

Urban or Rural: Rural

No. of Entity(‘s): 5

Entity Type: Humanoid — small grey-white type

Entity Description: Approximately 4.5 feet tall. Mushroom-shaped heads. Skin very pale white. No hair or eyebrows. Large, slanted eyes. Nose reduced to two dot-like openings. No visible mouth or ears described in conscious recall, though some form of telepathic communication was reported. Wore black floor-length robes or sheet-like garments. Three fingers and a thumb on each hand, webbed.

Hynek Classification: CE-IV (Close Encounter IV) — reported abduction with entity contact and physical examination

Duration: Multiple hours of missing time; conscious encounter felt brief but hypnotic recall revealed extended experience

No. of Object(s): 3 (1 mothership described as football-field sized; 2 smaller craft)

Description of the Object(s): Primary craft described as enormous — “as big as a football field.” Rose from a field, pursued witnesses’ vehicle at treetop level, and emitted a blinding beam of light. Two smaller craft also reported.

Shape of Object(s): Not precisely described; visible primarily as colored lights and blinding white light

Size of Object(s): Primary object football-field sized (estimated ~300 feet)

Color of Object(s): Colored lights initially; blinding white light during encounter

Distance to Object(s): Directly overhead during pursuit; close enough to engulf vehicle in light beam

Height & Speed: Treetop level during pursuit; rapid departure

Number of Witnesses: 2 (David Stephens and Glen Gray)

Special Features/Characteristics: Loss of vehicle control — car appeared to navigate itself along back roads. Car seemed “elevated somewhat off the road” and felt no bumps. Blinding light beam caused both witnesses to black out. Car skidded sideways fifteen feet. Multiple hours of missing time. Under hypnosis, Stephens described being aboard the craft, observing the car and Gray from a window, being examined on a table, and having blood drawn via two needles. Entities communicated telepathically. Stephens physically struck one entity during the examination — the entity simply backed away. A local policeman independently reported seeing a UFO in the same area earlier that night. Both witnesses remained agitated and frightened for days afterward. Gray left the state weeks later and refused to discuss the incident.

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Al Erickson, Shirley Fickett, Brent Raynes, Dr. Berthold Schwarz

Summary/Description: Navy veteran David Stephens and companion Glen Gray experienced a multi-hour abduction event near Oxford, Maine on October 27, 1975, involving loss of vehicle control, pursuit by an enormous craft, a blinding light beam, and missing time. Hypnotic regression by Dr. Berthold Schwarz revealed memories of being aboard the craft, examination by five mushroom-headed humanoid entities, blood extraction, and telepathic communication. An independent psychiatric evaluation found Stephens credible. A local police officer reported a UFO in the same area that night.

Detailed Report

David Stephens, twenty-two years old, a high school graduate and former U.S. Navy machinist’s mate who had served four years aboard an aircraft carrier, was sharing a trailer home in Norway, Maine — seven miles northwest of Oxford — with his friend Glen Gray. Both worked night shifts. On the night of October 26, 1975, a Sunday, neither man worked, but they stayed up to maintain their nocturnal schedule.

At approximately 2:30 AM on October 27, Stephens and Gray decided to go for a drive. They intended to head south on Route 26 past Stephens’ parents’ home and on to Lake Thompson. Instead, shortly after departing, the car appeared to take on autonomous navigation — turning down a back road to Oxford without the driver’s input. The road was bumpy and twisting, but the occupants felt no bumps, and the car seemed elevated somewhat off the road surface. After what felt like only two or three minutes, they found themselves passing through Oxford and onto the West Poland Road, approximately eight miles from their starting point — a distance inconsistent with the perceived elapsed time.

A few miles out of Oxford, rounding a curve, the men saw colored lights in a field to their left. The lights were visible for only a few seconds before extinguishing, and two big bright lights then struck the men in the eyes. Initially mistaking the source for a truck, they next thought it was a helicopter when the object rose above the trees — but rolling down their windows, they heard no sound. The object was enormous, described by Stephens as nearly as large as the field itself. Frightened, the men rolled up the windows, locked the doors, and drove toward the village of Poland — one of the only moments during the trip when they felt they had genuine control of the vehicle.

The object followed, positioning itself just above and ahead of their car. After traveling half a mile to a mile, the two forward lights went out and a single extremely bright light struck them. Both men blacked out. The car skidded sideways fifteen feet. When they regained consciousness and made their way home, they discovered that several hours had passed that they could not account for.

Under hypnosis conducted by Dr. Berthold Schwarz — a board-certified psychiatrist and neurologist with a long track record of researching anomalous experiences — Stephens described finding himself aboard the craft immediately after the bright light hit. He was standing in a metal room, looking out a window at his own car, still skidding sideways, with Gray still in the driver’s seat. An entity entered the room and communicated telepathically, instructing Stephens not to be afraid. He was taken to an examination room where four additional entities waited. They drew blood via two needles, then asked him to undress and lie on a table. Stephens initially resisted and physically struck one of the entities, which simply backed away and repeated that they would not hurt him. He eventually complied. A machine with an articulated arm was brought over and positioned over his body.

Investigators included Al Erickson, Shirley Fickett, Brent Raynes, and Dr. Schwarz. A separate, independent psychiatrist conducted an eight-and-a-half-hour evaluation of Stephens and eight members of his family and concluded that Stephens was telling the truth as he understood it. A local policeman had independently reported seeing a UFO in the Oxford area earlier that same night, providing partial temporal corroboration. Gray left the state within weeks of the incident and declined all attempts to discuss the event.

Researcher’s Notes

The Mushroom-Head Five — Oxford 1975 and the Anatomy of a Well-Investigated CE-IV

Investigative Team and Witness Credibility: The Stephens case benefits from a notably strong investigative foundation. Dr. Berthold Schwarz was not a casual UFO enthusiast but a board-certified psychiatrist and neurologist with published research in anomalous phenomena. The independent psychiatric evaluation — eight and a half hours of structured questioning covering the witness and eight family members — represents a level of clinical scrutiny rarely applied to abduction cases. Stephens’ military background (four years Navy, machinist’s mate on a carrier) provides a baseline of documented reliability screening. The multiple-investigator team (Erickson, Fickett, Raynes, Schwarz) provides redundancy in the source chain. These are not guarantees of accuracy, but they represent a significantly higher investigative standard than the typical single-researcher abduction inquiry.
The Gray Problem — Missing Second Witness: The case’s most significant weakness is the absence of Glen Gray from the investigative record. Gray was present for the entire conscious portion of the encounter and would have experienced the same missing time, but he left the state within weeks and refused to participate in any investigation or discussion. Without Gray’s independent account — whether corroborating, contradicting, or adding details — the abduction narrative rests entirely on Stephens’ hypnotically recovered memories. Gray’s flight from the area is interpretable in multiple directions: genuine trauma, desire to avoid publicity, disagreement with Stephens’ interpretation, or unrelated personal reasons. His silence is a data void that cannot be filled retrospectively.
Hypnotic Regression — Standard Caveats Apply: The abduction details in this case were recovered through hypnosis, which carries well-documented risks of confabulation, leading, and narrative construction. Dr. Schwarz’s psychiatric credentials reduce but do not eliminate these risks. The conscious memories — the UFO observation, the pursuit, the light beam, the blackout, and the missing time — are supported by the second witness’s presence and the police UFO report, and constitute reasonably solid CE-I/CE-II level evidence. The CE-IV content (entity descriptions, examination, telepathic communication) is derived exclusively from hypnosis and must be evaluated with that provenance in mind. The distinction between what was consciously remembered and what emerged under hypnosis is critical to any honest assessment of the case.
Temporal and Geographic Context: October 1975 was a period of intense UFO and anomalous activity across northern New England, coinciding with a major wave of sightings that included events at Loring Air Force Base in northern Maine (October 27-28, 1975) and other military installations. The police officer’s independent UFO report in the Oxford area on the same night provides temporal corroboration for anomalous aerial activity in the region. Maine would produce another major abduction case the following year with the Allagash Waterway incident of August 1976, establishing the state as a notable hotspot during this mid-1970s period.

The Stephens case occupies a particular niche in the abduction literature: it has better-than-average investigative credentials, a named witness with verifiable background, partial law enforcement corroboration, and professional psychiatric evaluation — but its core CE-IV content derives from hypnosis and its second witness is permanently silent. The conscious encounter is well-supported; the abduction details carry the inherent uncertainties of hypnotic recall.