Source: CNN - Altlanta, Georgia, USA

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/09/acd.01.html

Aired June 9, 2006 - 22:00 ET


Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

J.D.Roberts [Subsitute Host]: For (INAUDIBLE) of flying saucers, 
June is a very special time. It was 59 years ago this month that 
modern reports of UFOs and aliens among us began filtering in. A 
number of opinion polls suggest that as many as 48 percent of 
all Americans believe that aliens visit earth. That could mean 
that there's a ready market for Dan Aykroyd's latest film, but 
this is no cone head reunion. It's a documentary. Dan Aykroyd, 
unplugged, on UFOs. Anderson recently spoke with Aykroyd and 
producer David Sereda.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Anderson Cooper, CNN Anchor: So you really believe that UFOs 
exist. Why?

Dan Aykroyd, Unplugged On UFOs: Well, I think the preponderance 
of anecdotal evidence from pilots, from law enforcement people, 
from people who have had experiences and sightings, I think also 
my own experience. I've had a high altitude sighting with three 
other people. It definitely wasn't a helicopter, a jet. Now of 
course, you know, a professional would discount my sighting and 
say, well, you don't really know. I can't sit here and tell you 
100 percent that I saw a craft that was created by beings from 
another planet outside of our sphere of technology. I can't tell 
you 100 percent. I can just tell you what I saw and what I feel. 
They're here. They're looking at us in a Petri dish and I've got 
to say, the way mankind is behaving, they're probably very 
disappointed.

Cooper: David, why did you make this documentary?

David Sereda, Producer, Unplugged On UFOs: Well, actually, in 
1968, I was 7 years old, walking home from elementary school. 
And all of these people were pointing up in the sky at this 
metallic disc-shaped UFO with a little, you know, knob on the 
top. And it was clear. This thing was down low, you know 3500 
feet. If I had a video camera back then, it would have been some 
of the best footage we've ever seen to date.

And when you see one of these things, I mean, 20 clear minutes 
people were pounding on the neighbor's doors, get out here. Look 
at this thing. And when you look at it and you replay that in 
your memory, it's beyond all the videotapes and the photographs. 
It's so real to me. It was so real to me at such a young age 
that I just couldn't ignore it. So I was engaged at 7 years old 
into this phenomenon.

Cooper: In the film Dan, you talk about a personal experience 
that you had. I just want to play some of that from the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Aykroyd: I woke up in the middle of the night and I said to my 
wife, they're calling me, they're calling me. I want to go 
outside, they want me to come outside and see. Something outside 
wants me to come out and see. Oh, just go back to bed. I went 
back to bed but the next day in the media - in newspapers and 
radio - all over upstate New York and Ontario and Quebec and 
Vermont, people spoke about this urge they had to go out of 
their houses at 3:00 in the morning and look up into the sky.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

Cooper: Come on, is that for real?

Aykroyd: Yeah, you could research, that was in the mid-80s. In 
fact it was a pink spiral that appeared in the sky. People went 
out, telepathically urged like I was, I didn't go, shmuck. They 
went out, in the sky they saw this pink spiral in the sky, huge, 
miles, like two miles long. And the Air Force said it was a 
Chinese rocket.

Cooper: Isn't this sort of one of those things that's like the 
Kennedy assassination? I mean there are people, no matter what 
evidence is put forward, there is no evidence or that, you know 
the lights turn out to be, you know, a plane or a helicopter or 
something or just a natural phenomenon. Aykroyd: The moon, all 
the old excuses.

Cooper: There's nothing - this argument can never be settled.

Aykroyd: Half the world believes in the latest polls and half 
doesn't. And those who don't will never believe. We can show 
them everything and they're not going to - until they're taken 
up themselves or the guy walks up and shakes their hand or 
probes them or whatever they do.

Cooper: I mean look, do you believe there's people who - there's 
all these people who claim to have been abducted by aliens.

Aykroyd: I believe them.

Cooper: You do, really?

Aykroyd: I don't believe all of them, but I was in a room at the 
Fifth Avenue Medical Institute with John MacK and his staff and 
his assistant, his clinical assistant got up and gave a 15-
minute presentation that was absolutely riveting. Here is what 
people are telling us. John MacK was a Harvard psychiatrist, he 
discovered this through work in hypnosis and he saw people were 
regressed and telling these stories. It's all the same. Now is 
it a mass hallucination? Some people say its sleep terror.

Cooper: Right. There are people who said, well, you know, I woke 
up, I couldn't move, I was paralyzed. It was the aliens who did 
it and the doctors say well that's sleep terror. You wake up, 
you feel you can't move.

Aykroyd: It could be. But I have people that I believe are 
credible that claim they've been taken that have the scoop marks 
and that have been implanted.

Cooper: If they came by in the middle of the night -

Aykroyd: Yes, I'd go.

Cooper: You'd go really?

Aykroyd: Yeah, as long as I wasn't a probed. As long as they let 
me drive.

Cooper: And as long as you'd be back in the morning or else your 
wife would kill you.

Aykroyd: Well that's right. Or she can come, too.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

Roberts: I've just been doodling a little here. It's all easy to 
laugh about, of course, unless it happened to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Unknown: Touching me. Quit touching me. Ah!

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

Roberts: Under hypnosis, some people vividly recall what they 
claim are alien abductions. We're going to have their stories 
for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Roberts: Before the break, we cited poll numbers indicating that 
up to 48 percent of Americans think that UFOs are real. If that 
number surprises you, well, wait until we dig just a little bit 
deeper. A stunning number of people not only believe in UFOs, 
they're convinced that they've been taken along for a ride. 
Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Gary Tuchman, CNN Correspondent: Clayton and Donna Lee consider 
themselves a happy couple. How long have you guys been married?

Donna Lee: 18 1/2 years, it will be 19 years January 2nd.

Tuchman: But not an ordinary couple.

Clayton Lee: I want to go home. I want to go home!

Tuchman: Under hypnosis -

Relax completely and listen to the sound of my voice.

Tuchman: It's apparent the Lees are quite out of the ordinary.

Donna Lee: Oh, no. I just need to go. I just need to go.

Tuchman: What's going on here? Clayton and Donna Lee are trying 
to retrieve memories about being kidnapped by creatures from 
another world. Donna has drawn a picture of an alien who she 
says captured her. Clayton says one of his capturers looked 
similar. How many times have you been abducted by aliens?

Clayton Lee: More than 10. Yeah. More than 20 probably.

We have come to visit you in peace.

Tuchman: For most people, visions of alien abductions are 
limited to the movies and TV. But in a CNN/Time magazine poll in 
1997, 2 percent of respondents said they had been abducted by 
aliens or knew someone who was. Based on the sample that 
correlated to more than 5 million Americans. Clayton Lee says he 
was a child in this Houston park the first time he was abducted. 
Saying he was lifted in the air.

Clayton Lee: And I remember just floating up, higher and higher, 
until all that was around me were stars and blackness. And then 
I blacked out.

Tuchman: The hypnotist tries to retrieve further memories of 
that day.

Clayton Lee: Quit touching me. Quit touching me. Ah!

What is that, Clayton?

Oh!

What's the reason for all this?

They gave me something.

What was it they gave you?

They gave me something.

Tuchman: The hypnotist, who's a private investigator, also 
claims to have been an abductee. You can understand how a lot of 
people would think, this is really far out.

Unidentified Male: Well I think it's far out. I think it's 
bizarre. And I wish it had never happened to me. My life would 
be a lot better.

Tuchman: Susan Clancy is a Harvard psychiatrist who decided to 
do research on people's abduction claims.

Susan Clancy, Harvard Psychiatrist: When I ran the first add 
looking for people who thought they had been abducted by aliens, 
I thought we'd get very few calls, but we were inundated with 
calls for a month after we ran one ad.

Tuchman: The ads were for subjects who wanted to be included in 
her new book about people who believed they were kidnapped by 
aliens. But Clancy is determined she is not a believer.

Clancy: So people have symptoms like psychological distress, 
anxiety, sexual problems, nightmares. And for better or for 
worse, today being abducted by aliens is a culturally available 
explanation for why you might have some of these symptoms.

Tuchman: With all the reported alien abductions, you might think 
there would be one high-quality photograph or videotape that 
would indisputably show aliens in action. Until that happens, 
most people will have their doubts. But not all people.

Clayton remains convinced this scar is a remnant of an 
experimental operation to collect his DNA. Donna believes a 
fetus was taken from her body. Is it possible - possible that 
you just have a vivid imagination? And that this really didn't 
happen? Donna Lee: No. I mean, I have a vivid imagination, but I 
know it happened.

Tuchman: And they both say they expect to be abducted again. At 
any time. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Houston.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)