Southern Africa Unexplained

Case No 83 · UFO Afrinews No 9, February 1994

Isabel's Story

1972 · Harare, Zimbabwe

What was reported

A 34-year-old Harare woman, prompted by Budd Hopkins' books, wrote down for Hind a run of experiences beginning at thirteen. Her bedroom in the family's first house seemed haunted: heavy breathing moved around the room, an old-fashioned oil lamp appeared that stayed visible with her eyes shut, and a spiritualist medium was brought in, during which Isabel froze and a male voice reportedly spoke through her. She was woken by sounds in the lounge and by a sheet being shaken over her; one night she felt she had dropped a long way back into bed and saw grey, high-cheekboned faces with huge black eyes. Chronic fear, sleeping tablets and stress illnesses led a doctor to advise moving house, done when she was fifteen. That year a deep voice called her name inside her head; in the new house a moonlight-like glow frightened her; nightmares persisted. Her separate sightings are entered on their own.

What Hind made of it

Hind suggested Isabel write down her memories since hypnosis is banned in Zimbabwe; she presents the account without verdict.

Explanation offered
Isabel herself put the events down to haunting and 'little devils in the astral'; a spiritualist medium treated the room

In their words

  • I saw faces looking at me: grey, high cheek-boned, with huge black eyes.

    Isabel, spread 08

  • I froze, but was conscious that I was immobilized.

    Isabel, spread 08

  • I do not like losing consciousness or sleeping. Sleeping to me is simply a necessity.

    Isabel, spread 09

Cross references

  • Budd Hopkins, Missing Time and Intruders
  • Editorial on hypnosis ban
  • 09-09-1 dusk craft
  • 09-09-2 nightly star
  • 09-09-3 light over house
  • 09-09-4 kitchen curtain flash
  • 09-09-5 dam wall stranger

Connected

  • Bruce of HarareCase fileSame behaviour

    Two Harare bedroom cases: paralysis, dense darkness or falling sensation, non-human figures or big-eyed faces, recurring from childhood. Not independent in provenance: both witnesses came to Hind after exposure to Budd Hopkins (Bruce via a lent book, Isabel via Missing Time and Intruders), and both were kept from hypnosis by the Zimbabwe ban.

  • Isabel's see-through craft at duskCase fileSame witness

    Isabel's written account; the dusk craft of 1973 outside the family's first house, occupants waving back, followed the car.

  • Bright star descending nightly over Isabel's new houseCase fileSame witness

    Isabel's account, second-hand from the domestic helper: a 'star' approaching the second house nightly for a month, rising and speeding off horizontally.

  • Light shoots over Isabel's houseCase fileSame witness

    Isabel and her brother: a bright light shooting across the sky over the second house, judged too slow and constant for a meteor.

  • Flash of light from the kitchen curtainCase fileHind follow-up

    The kitchen-curtain flash of 1993 came two days after Isabel's chat with Hind and while she was reading Intruders, which also brought three nightmares; the investigation itself precedes this entry.

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 9 (February 1994), spread 08-09

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