THE UFO FILES
NIGEL WATSON speaks to the Bradford abductee whose story appeared in the British tabloid press
After the Daily Star Sunday splashed Paula E Green’s story on their front page on 9 May with the headline “I’ve been abducted by aliens 52 times… says Paula from Yorkshire... You’ve had some bad luck, missus!” she was amazed at how one newspaper report has defined her. She was understandably annoyed that the headline was wrong, as she has knowingly ex-eprienced only a few abductions while fully aware. In the past she would have got very angry about it, but now she is slightly more relaxed about what people think.
For years Paula has been silent about her encounters, but she changed her mind “because I know there are others out there going through what I am going through. The more who speak up, it will help those who cannot come forward. Why should we hide in the shadows for fear of ridicule? It is happening and it is real.”
Not surprisingly, her story caused a storm of interest. Some say she is a fake or just plain loopy; others believe she really has had alien encounters. Regarding her social media critics, she says: “Well… I’ve been called some right shit this past few days. That goes straight over my head... Zero fucks given. But at least I’ve got more balls than most to speak out.”
As a child, Paula did not have any concepts or words for these experiences, and was not even that aware of the subject of alien abductions. “I don’t like the word ‘alien’ as it equals ET. I can’t answer or speculate about what causes these experiences. It could be otherworldly... Is it random or intelligent? Why do they come here? I’ve never been happy about it.
“The experiences do pass through my family – my grandmother had them, but I never really listened to her when she spoke about them. My mother saw a spirit or two, but she kept such things to herself. I didn’t tell a soul until 2012. I never read much about aliens, just seeing a picture of one made me physically sick.”
Once she woke to see a 5ft (1.5m) tall Grey at the end of her bed and two similar figures at her bedside. She snapped out of sleep suddenly, as if they had turned a switch. I asked her if this was probably due to sleep paralysis.
“Sleep paralysis is not the same. They don’t shut your brain down. You are subdued and you cannot move. It takes all your energy to open your eyes, but you are fully aware. I’ve had sleep paralysis and its nothing like this.”
THE BIRD AND THE PIG
Paula’s first brush with the unknown came in 1974 when she was just four years old. It came in the form of a small black bird with an orange beak. Over a period of weeks, stretching into 1975, the bird came to her and spoke to her through some form of telepathic communication. It asked her questions like “Do you like school?” and “Do you like your family?” She remembers that it would sit beside her when she was outside her home, and that when her mother appeared it would fly to the rooftop of the house on the opposite side of the street. Finally, it came to her and told her that “I won’t be coming back. But I will return later in your life.” At this, she burst out crying.
For Paula, unlike most children who have imaginary friends or pets, these types of experiences have haunted her for the rest of her life. She told me: “This was the start of it all. I thought it was imagination, but only a few years ago my late Mum said ‘Remember that bird? You called it ‘Inca’.’ I had forgotten all about that. In my teens I never related it to my other alien-type experiences – it was a separate issue. Now I think it was an introduction.”
At six years old, one dark evening in October 1977, Paula was playing in her front room with the family’s Golden Labrador dog, Candy. Paula, for no particular reason, was teasing the dog and kept telling her “There is a pig at the window!” Candy suddenly ran away, and looking out the window Paula came face-toface with two large almond eyes. She said: “I screamed and jumped backwards. I looked back again – it was clearly a small person, about my height. Was it a kid? It had a big bald, bulbous grey head. It had long arms and spindly fingers. It wore a black or dark blue skin-tight outfit that finished at the knees and wrists; it was like the Lycra outfits people wear today, but not then. I was so terrified… I had a flood of emotions.”
Its body turned and bent forwards to run up the street but its head stayed straight upwards staring at her. All its proportions looked wrong. It almost glided in slow motion up the street and quickly went out of view. “Then everything came back to normal.”
MISSING TIME
Paula’s first UFO encounter occurred in October 1983, when she was 12 years old, as she was walking through Judy Woods, Bradford, with a 14-year-old friend. It was about 6.45pm when everything went silent.
She remembers: “I heard the lapping of water. We were on the edge of a lake or reservoir, about a foot away from it. Then
suddenly I saw about five to 10 feet [1.5 to 3m] in front what I can only describe as a boomerang with an extra arm. This is more accurate than saying it looked like a giant propeller, as the ends of the arms were more rounded. It was about 30ft [9m] high and wide, in an upright position, moving slowly clockwise at about one to five mph. The arms were nearly touching the water. As it was in front of me it looked huge and never-ending. There was a light at the end of each arm, one was blue, one green and the other I’m not sure about.
“At the centre of the object was an extremely black circle or hollow. From underneath, a fan of white light appeared. It seemed to be coming from something stationary behind the moving arms. Water underneath the light began to simmer and gave off a vapour or steam. Me and my friend were bathed in a pale blue light. Everything went slow motion – it was like a horror movie. I remember turning to my friend and saying, ‘F****** run!’ I knew we had to run. Blackness seemed to close in and it seemed like running in quicksand. Next minute, I was at the bottom of my street.”
What really shocked her was that it was now 11.55pm, and there was a period of at least four hours that she could not account for.
“I don’t remember going home. I can’t get my head round it. Where the hell did I go? There was missing time but I really don’t want to go through regression. I don’t want to go back there and find out anything more terrible.”
ABDUCTIONS
Since then she has had numerous encounters and paranormal experiences, mainly at or near her home in Great Horton, to the west of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire. Regarding abductions she says: “On some occasions I’m not really abducted, which implies being taken without consent. I don’t like the word ‘abducted’. I black out and find myself somewhere else. How can I say if I’ve been abducted if at times I’m not aware? Maybe I’ve gone somewhere. Where I go, I do not know, because I’ve not been fully conscious going from home to craft.
“About 10 years ago I found herself in a moulded, round room. Was I inside a UFO or a front room with props? Could it have been set-up by the military? A UFO craft is an easier thing to understand. I was sat in a chair, eyes focused on a screen. People were sitting near me. The totally glass screen was a bit bigger than an iPad. It showed scenery with a 3-D effect. It showed landscapes with rivers, birds and flowers in glowing vivid colours. It was a flow of pictures, but no people were in them. They made me feel very happy and elated. Then there was devastation, everything went to a normal colour and the river was now murky and the sky black and red. Now I was crying at the hideous and evil devastation rather than crying with joy at the previous images.
“Just beyond the screen was a black colour thing that had no shape, it was not a person or alien. It did not fit in, and I got the feeling I was not allowed to look at it. Then I woke up. It was not a dream – definitely reality.”
Such experiences do not seem to follow any pattern. She explained that she has seen Greys, tall blondes and reptilians: “One of my contacts with a reptilian was in early 2021; I’m not sure about the date. I don’t like putting a label on it. I went to bed at about 11.30, switching the downstairs lights off. All I remember, I’m stood in my bedroom with a coffee in my hand; then it is like a switch – I’m downstairs in the front room. It is dark and I’m in my pyjamas. I am normally scared of the dark and would normally switch the lights on. There was just the orange glow of the streetlight outside and it gave just about enough illumination. I don’t know where my cup of coffee went! I had the urge to get the key and open the front door. Outside, at the top of the road, was a group of lads in their teens or twenties. Four were in a group and one
near them was leaning against a wall. I kept gazing around from the doorway, then one of the lads shouted “lights gone out” or “lights going out.” The lights are still on but the lad is adamant, just as I’m thinking “No, they haven’t,” the power goes and the streetlights go out.
“I then see a figure between my doorway and the tree next door. It is very tall, 7ft [2m] I would say and broad, about 3ft [0.9m] wide. I could not see much detail, and considering it was so close I was not phased by it. It just did not register with me. I wonder why I had no urge to go? I’m still baffled.
“Thinking back on it, the ‘lads’ were probably not human either. The shout seemed to be directed at me. I felt nothing, yet I’m normally scared of the dark. As the door was still gaping open I went to lock it when something forcefully grabbed me by the top of my left arm and led me four paces onto the living room rug. I was facing the wall and seeing a circular, pale blue light coming down from above. It was big enough for three people to fit in the beam. Every emotion was numb. I look up at the wall. I see in the light a crocodile face, with yellowing teeth; beyond its mouth, it is too dark to see anything else. Then, as it leans down, there are two little black eyes that are hard to look at.
“Its nose came within inches of my nose. Its skin was leathery and lumpy, giving the impression of scales. The skin had an iridescent purple hue, then a browny colour or grey; it changed when I moved my head just a few millimetres. Then I woke in my bed in the morning. That was it. I describe it as a crocodile-like thing with teeth and fangs, but others think it was what is called a reptilian.”
A LIFETIME OF EXPERIENCES
“Would anyone want a gift like this? We have it. PTSD caused by aliens – it is a burden. It drains me. It is not something you’d want to keep. Love to give it away. It is not a gift.
“It affects millions of people throughout the world. It depends on the psychological make-up of people. Just in the UK there could be thousands. Many cannot speak up because of religion, work and fear of ridicule. They want to cry out but they can’t.”
I found Paula to be utterly convincing in her detailed recollections of these experiences, and am certain that she is neither a liar nor a hoaxer.
The question of what is causing the experiences is an altogether trickier issue: we are literally in a grey area (pun intended) where our concepts of reality and perception are severely challenged.
NOTE The original reports gave Paula the pseudonym ‘Paula Smith’.