On August 26, 1976, four men had an experience that would change their lives forever. Charlie Foltz, Chuck Rak, and twin brothers Jim and Jack Weiner, were all friends who met at the Massachusetts College of Art. They all decided to go on a camping and fishing trip up in the Allagash Wilderness in northern Maine, where Chuck had canoed the waterway on a previous trip in the summer of 1975. It's interesting that this event happened between the White Mountians of New Hamphire, where Betty and Barney Hill were abducted in September of 1961- and Loring AFB in Maine, where strange lights were reported over the weapons storage area in October of 1975. In November of 1975, Travis Walton is supposedly abducted in Arizona.
The evening started out with the men building a large bonfire on the shore. They expected to be out fishing for several hours and built the fire to last so they could easily find their campsite in the dark. The four then loaded a single canoe with their fishing equipment, and headed out on the lake. They were out about a quarter-mile and had been fishing for 15 to 20 minutes, unsuccessfully. Then suddenly, Chuck draws the others attention to something very strange coming up over the trees. The men had seen a UFO on a previous night and you can imagine their excitement when they all turned to see a bright pulsating light about 150 to 200 yards away. Jim Weiner has described the object as a bright, round, yellow/white light, that hovered silently above the treetops. Charlie got the idea to try to signal the object with a flashlight they had brought. He flashed three short, three long, and again three short flashes, and immediately, the object seemed to take notice, and come towards them. They became frightened and frantically began to row towards shore. A second later, the object was nearly on top of them and a beam or light was shining down onto the water and coming straight towards their canoe. The next thing they knew, they were standing on the beach somewhat bewildered. The UFO was now gone from sight. The really strange thing was that the bonfire that had been blazing before, had now almost completely burned out. Shocked from the experience, the men went to bed with little conversation that night.
They remained baffled about the experience for almost 12 years, when the Weiner brothers began having nightmares about being in a unfamiliar place or room and having these strange creatures around them. Jim went to a psychiatrist for help, and was then referred to Ray Fowler (Raymond E. Fowler, Alien Adbuction researcher, author of The Allagash Abductions). Anthony Constantino used hypnosis to try and uncover what might have occured during the apparent missing time on that evening back in 1976, and you can read more about it here. Each of the men underwent recorded hypnosis sessions, seperately. But each told essentially the same story about being in a strange place, naked and paralyzed, while bug-like beings that didn't blink and had no eyelids, performed test that seemed, at least in part, to focus on the human reproductive system. When asked to take polygraph tests, they each agreed. Earnest Reid, a licensed polygraph examiner of Massechusetts, conducted the tests and he determined that the men were being honest. It appeared to him at least, that each of them truly believed that they were confronted by an alien presence and underwent a traumatic experience. One person might fool a polygraph test but could all four? It does seem unlikely. Chuck and Charlie have since moved on and tried to put the event behind them. Jim and Jack Weiner believe that they have developed strange new abilities in art and mathematics since their experience and Jack has said that it is his impression that the beings were scientists, here doing a job.
